#KASHMIR   IS #INDIA'S  #GAZA

EXPLAINER: Resistance leader’s death deepens Kashmir strife

By SHEIKH SAALIQ and KRUTIA PATHI

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 In this Friday, Aug. 23, 2019, file photo, Kashmiris shout freedom slogans during a protest against New Delhi's tightened grip on the disputed region, after Friday prayers on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. The death of top separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani on Sept. 1, 2021, in disputed Kashmir and the ensuing crackdown on public movement and communications by Indian authorities have highlighted the turmoil seething just below the surface in the region. Soon after the 91-year-old's death late Wednesday, authorities quickly clamped down, blocking internet and mobile phone services and restricting public movement out of fear of anti-India protests. (AP Photo/ Dar Yasin, File)


NEW DELHI (AP) — The death of a top separatist leader in disputed Kashmir and the ensuing crackdown on public movement and communications by Indian authorities have highlighted the turmoil seething just below the surface in the region.

Here’s a closer look at what Syed Ali Geelani meant to Kashmir and why problems still roil the region two years after India revoked its semi-autonomy and declared it a federal territory.

 In this Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010, file photo, Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani waves to the media before his arrest in Srinagar, India. Geelani, an icon of disputed Kashmir’s resistance against Indian rule and a top separatist leader who became the emblem of the region’s defiance against New Delhi, died late Wednesday, Sept, 1, 2021. He was 91. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)

WHY HAS THIS DEATH STRUCK A RAW NERVE?

For many in the region, Geelani was the face of Kashmiri resistance against India. To his detractors, he was a hard-liner responsible for stoking tensions in the region, a charge he had denied.

Geelani was part of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, a conglomerate of various Kashmiri political and religious groups that was formed in 1993 to spearhead a movement for the region’s right to self-determination.

He never wavered from his position as a devoted proponent of the merger of Kashmir with Pakistan. This stance put him at odds with other moderate separatists who wanted to engage with New Delhi and local politicians who favored Indian rule in the region with internal autonomy.

Soon after the 91-year-old’s death late Wednesday, authorities quickly clamped down, blocking internet and mobile phone services and restricting public movement out of fear of anti-India protests. Geelani’s family said his body was snatched away by authorities and discreetly buried without their consent.

Geelani’s death is expected to be a potential setback to the larger separatist movement in Kashmir, as his supporters may find it hard to find a successor with such towering popularity.

WHAT IS THE STATUS OF KASHMIR?

A flashpoint between India and neighboring Pakistan, both of which claim the region in full but rule only parts, Kashmir has been wracked with tensions for years.

In 1989, Kashmiri activists launched an armed revolt against Indian rule. Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebel goal that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

New Delhi accuses Pakistan of sponsoring Kashmiri militants, a charge Pakistan denies. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.

In 2019, hostilities peaked when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped the region of its semi-autonomy and took direct control of the region amid a harsh security clampdown and communications blackout.

Anticipating a massive backlash and protests, authorities flooded the region — already among the world’s most militarized — with soldiers, and arrested thousands of young people, activists and pro-freedom Kashmiri leaders. Even pro-India politicians who favored Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status within the framework of the Indian constitution were also detained for opposing the decision, but were later released.

By scrapping its statehood and separate constitution, India also removed inherited protections on land and jobs and opened up the region to Indians from outside to permanently settle, buy land and hold government jobs there.

The government said such a move would spur investment and bring more development to Kashmir. But critics and many Kashmiris fear this could dilute the region’s demographics.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN THE LAST TWO YEARS?

The situation on the ground remains tense.

India’s August 2019 move deepened anti-India sentiment in the region. Armed militancy has continued to grow and gunfights between Indian forces and rebels have become more frequent. Even though many of those arrested two years ago have since been released, some remain in detention.

The move also dealt a blow to Kashmir’s economy, which was then hit once again by lockdowns to curb the spread of the pandemic.

The region has since remained without an elected government and under the direct control of New Delhi.

Last year, India held local elections, calling it a vital grassroots exercise to boost development and uproot corruption. An alliance of pro-India politicians who favor self-governance in Kashmir but oppose New Delhi’s recent policies won the election. They have since reiterated their demand that the 2019 decision be reversed.

Later in June, in an effort to counter criticism, Modi held a meeting with pro-India politicians from the region. The government dubbed it as an opening “to strengthen the democratic process” in the region, but the alliance leaders said they did not get any concrete assurances from Modi.

The region’s separatist movement has also been impacted in the last two years.

Among those detained in 2019 were numerous top separatist leaders. With many of them still behind bars, the movement’s presence on the ground has taken a hit.

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This story has been updated to correct that Syed Ali Geelani was 91 when he died, not 92.

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Associated Press writer Ashok Sharma contributed to this report from New Delhi.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

First flames, then fees: Tahoe evacuees report price-gouging

By SAM METZ and SCOTT SONNER

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FILE - In this Aug. 30, 2021, file photo, vehicles idle in bumper-to-bumper traffic after a wildfire evacuation order in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. The threat the Caldor Fire poses to Lake Tahoe residents is exposing differences between laws against price-gouging in Nevada and California. Evacuees are reporting rideshare companies quoting trips from area ski resorts to the Reno-Tahoe International Airport at eight times the normal rate and hotels on the Nevada side of the resort town hiked room rates to $449 per night on Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Sam Metz, File)


STATELINE, Nev. (AP) — As fearful Lake Tahoe residents packed up belongings and fled a raging wildfire burning toward the California-Nevada border, some encountered an unexpected obstacle: price gouging.

A rideshare company quoted a fee of more than $1,500 to be transported from the smoke-choked ski resort at Heavenly Valley to the safety of Reno-Tahoe International Airport, about eight times the going rate. A Nevada hotel-casino outside the evacuation order zone advertised a two-night stay for $1,090.72, almost four times the midweek rate offered a day earlier.

Reports of price-gouging routinely emerge during natural disasters and won newfound attention early in the pandemic, when some businesses tried to capitalize on panic amid demand for toilet paper and hand sanitizer.

While there is no federal law that bans it during emergencies, at least a dozen statehouses have addressed price-gouging since last year, including Nevada and California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill banning the practice last September.

Unlike California though, a Nevada price-gouging prohibition signed by Gov. Steve Sisolak in June doesn’t take effect until October. Its start date limits officials from policing the issue and taking action beyond promising to monitor it.

“We hope that good merchants are not going to partake in price gouging,” Sisolak said Tuesday in Carson City, where ash particles from the Caldor Fire rained from the sky. “They’re going to partake in trying to make their goods available to the widest group of people they possibly can.”

Officials in both states publicly warned businesses in the shadow of the massive blaze against price-gouging, with California Attorney General Rob Bonta, his Nevada counterpart Aaron Ford and U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei asking consumers to report incidents to their offices.

Ford’s office said Wednesday it hadn’t received any specific complaints. Bonta’s said the information was confidential.

The Caldor Fire spanned more than 328 square miles (850 square kilometers) and was 25% contained Thursday. On Monday, flames raced so quickly toward the California resort city of South Lake Tahoe that officials ordered a mass evacuation of all 22,000 residents. People across the state line in Douglas County were ordered to leave a day later.

The Montbleu Resort, Casino and Spa — a towering 438-room Nevada hotel just blocks from the California line — began offering discounts for evacuees, $60 rates for firefighters and first responders, and free lodging for its employees.

For everyone else, it hiked room prices Tuesday from $120 to $450 per night before taxes and fees.

Tim Tretton, the resort’s vice president-general manager, said in a statement Wednesday it did so to deter tourists from traveling near the wildfire and to keep rooms available for evacuees. The company planned to pay back the difference to those who booked at the higher cost, he said.

“We did not and do not plan to collect on these rates, and have provided reimbursements or reductions as appropriate,” Tretton said.

Leaving South Lake Tahoe also got pricier for some travelers.

A 60-mile (96-kilometer) Lyft XL ride from the resort town to Reno normally costs roughly $200. On Tuesday, it rose nearly eightfold as people rushed to beat the flames.

A furious resident shared a screenshot of the rates on Twitter, showing $1,535 for a minivan or SUV for a minimum of five passengers. SFGate reported the costs had dropped back to $230 midday.

Lyft and Uber said in statements Wednesday that price jumps triggered automatic caps as demand soared around South Lake Tahoe amid emergency evacuations. Lyft said it was “reviewing and adjusting fares for certain riders who were impacted in the region.”

“When ride requests outpace the number of drivers on the road, prime-time pricing — elevated fares designed to get more drivers to high-demand areas — is automatically enabled,” the company said. “When we realized how the evacuation order was affecting Lyft prices, we immediately implemented a cap and ultimately suspended prime-time pricing.”

Uber said fares in some places were capped Monday after it identified a public state of emergency. It enacted a second cap Tuesday.

Gas stations around evacuation zones did not appear to have raised prices significantly this week.

Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., and 39 states have regulations limiting price gouging during emergencies, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Mississippi, parts of which have been battered by Hurricane Ida, strengthened penalties in its price gouging law in 2006, months after Hurricane Katrina left a wide swath of destruction and supply shortages caused long lines for gasoline during the first weeks after the storm.

North Carolina’s attorney general filed a price-gouging lawsuit last week against a gas station that hiked prices for mid-grade and premium gas to $9.99 per gallon after a ransomware attack forced the Colonial Pipeline — the United States’ largest fuel delivery system — to shut down.

Nevada’s anti-price gouging law passed in May on a party-line vote, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed. The law will ban price-gouging in areas where the governor has declared a state of emergency.

California law generally prohibits businesses from raising prices by more than 10% following a state or local emergency declaration.

“If you see price gouging — or if you’ve been a victim of it — I encourage you to immediately file a complaint with my office online at oag.cag.gov/report, or contact your local police department or sheriff’s office,” Bonta said.

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Sonner reported from Reno. Associated Press writers Olga Rodriguez and Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco, Michelle L. Price in Las Vegas, and Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi contributed to this report. Metz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Lake Tahoe resort city OK for now, wildfire fight not over

By SAM METZ and JANIE HAR

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A firefighter lights a backfire to stop the Caldor Fire from spreading near South Lake Tahoe, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — Better weather on Thursday helped the battle against a huge California wildfire threatening communities around Lake Tahoe, but fire commanders warned firefighters to be prepared for ongoing dangers.

Strong winds and dry conditions that drove the Caldor Fire east through high elevations of the Sierra Nevada for days faded, sparing for now the largest city of a recreational gem that straddles the California-Nevada state line. Thousands were forced to flee South Lake Tahoe earlier this week.

“I feel like we are truly the luckiest community in the entire world right now. I’m so incredibly happy,” said Mayor Tamara Wallace, who evacuated to Truckee, California.

But wind gusts were likely in some areas, and the forest was still extremely dry, officials warned. The fire is pushing on several fronts, threatening multiple communities.

Still, the mood was one of optimism, given the speed with which the fire grew earlier in the week. Flames raced so quickly toward the resort city that officials ordered a mass evacuation of all 22,000 residents on Monday before ordering those across the state line in Douglas County, Nevada, to leave a day later.

“It’s finally a chance to take a breath,” said Clive Savacool, chief of South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue. “It’s a breath full of smoke. Nonetheless, I think we’re all breathing a little bit easier and we feel like we’re making some progress.”

Russ Crupi, who two days ago was arranging sprinklers around his mobile home park in South Lake Tahoe just miles from the fire line, had turned off the water for now, feeling confident his neighborhood was no longer under threat. The nearby mountains, cloaked in smoke for most of the week, had become visible.

“I’m just happy they stopped it. It looked close,” he said.

The Caldor Fire spanned more than 328 square miles (850 square kilometers) and was 25% contained Thursday. Its northeast tip was about 3 miles (5 kilometers) south of South Lake Tahoe and nearing the California-Nevada state line, where visitors like to hit the casinos in Stateline.

About 15 million people visit Lake Tahoe every year for hiking, snowboarding, water sports and gambling. The possibility that wildfire might rip through the international destination alarmed those who have vivid memories of vacationing at Tahoe.

California has experienced increasingly larger and deadlier wildfires in recent years as climate change has made the West much warmer and drier over the past 30 years. Scientists have said weather will continue to be more extreme and wildfires more frequent, destructive and unpredictable. No deaths have been reported so far this fire season.

Fire crews from around the country joined in the fight against the fire, which broke out Aug. 14 southwest of the Lake Tahoe area, chasing residents from more remote areas of El Dorado County. Officials said that at least 622 homes, 12 commercial properties and 177 minor structures have been destroyed, though the tally is incomplete because many areas are not safe to be surveyed.

The Caldor Fire still threatened at least 33,000 more homes and structures. On Wednesday, firefighters were ferried by boat to protect cabins at nearby Echo Lake, while three of the region’s largest ski resorts, Heavenly, Kirkwood and Sierra at Tahoe, brought out snow-making devices to hose down buildings.

Jonathan Pierce, a spokesman with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said crews are chasing spot fires and trying to keep flames away from populated areas.

There was no timeline for when residents might return.

South Lake Tahoe can easily accommodate 100,000 people on a busy weekend, but on Thursday, just before the Labor Day weekend, it was eerily empty. Thick smoke made it difficult to see across the street, said Savacool, the fire chief.

“I’s really just a dead, dead town and it’s got an apocalyptic feel with garbage strewn about from the bears,” he said.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday issued a federal emergency declaration and ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local resources for firefighting efforts and relief for residents in four counties affected by the fire.

“I’ve seen these firefighters up close. Their courage is astounding, and they’re some of the bravest people I’ve ever known — and I’ve known a lot of them,” he said from the White House on Thursday, addressing is administration’s response to Hurricane Ida.

More than 15,000 firefighters were battling dozens of California blazes, including another monstrous blaze, the Dixie Fire about 65 miles (105 kilometers) north. It is the second-largest wildfire in state history at about 1,340 square miles (3,480 square kilometers).

The weeks-old fire was 55% contained. As of Thursday, officials said it had destroyed 688 homes, eight multi-unit residences, 139 commercial properties and hundreds of minor structures.

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Har reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco and John Antczak in Los Angeles contributed to this report. Metz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

UAE's new human rights institute: Real change or 'image washing'?

State media has trumpeted the creation of a new human rights body set to work in line with global principles. But the UAE's critics say the move is audacious and a joke.


THe UAE has been heavily criticized for the way it treats international laborers

The United Arab Emirates announced earlier this week that it would set up an independent national human rights organization. The new institution will open an office in Abu Dhabi and, according to the UAE's state media, "aims to promote and protect human rights and freedoms" in accordance with the local and international laws and guidelines.

'Whitewashing campaign'

"This is just another tactic, part of the UAE's decadelong whitewashing campaign to make themselves look like a tolerant, respectful and open country," said Hiba Zayadin, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, who focuses on abuses in the Gulf states.

"But the situation on the ground is very different," she told DW. "In fact, there is absolutely no room for dissent in the UAE. There have been no independent civil society groups there since 2012 and so many people have been jailed. There is a lot of fear of retaliation for speaking out and a high level of censorship, even amongst UAE-based international journalists and academics."

Other human rights organizations and media watchdogs have come to similar conclusions.

In its 2020 report, Freedom House, which assesses how democratic and open countries are, rated the UAE as "not free." The country has "one of the most restrictive press laws in the Arab world," researchers wrote. Additionally, "local human rights activists are at serious risk of detention, prosecution, and mistreatment in custody," the report said.
Rights groups cite lack of freedoms

Reporters Without Borders has highlighted the lack of independent media and the UAE's draconian cybercrime law from 2012. It ranks the country 131st in the world for press freedom out of 180.

UAE activist Ahmed Mansoor (left) was arrested in 2017

Amnesty International maintains a long list of "prisoners of conscience" in the UAE, "including well-known human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor," who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for posts on social media about human rights violations in the UAE.

In June, the UN's special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders called on the UAE to release a number of people who had been imprisoned since 2013 for speaking out against the government.

"They should have never been detained in the first place for legitimately exercising the freedoms that all people are entitled to," said Mary Lawlor.

'Joke of the season'

Social media users in the Middle East were also critical about the announcement of the human rights organization. "The UAE and human rights don't really go together," one Twitter user wrote.

"This is the joke of the season," UK-based researcher Fahad al-Ghofaili, quipped on the same website.

The UAE has said the new body will be set up in line with the so-called Paris Principles.

Those standards, officially adopted by the United Nations in 1993, essentially outline how a national human rights institution's leadership should be selected, how it will be funded and staffed and how it can cooperate with both civil society organizations and the government, but also remain independent.
Regional comparisons

Alexis Thiry, a legal adviser at Geneva-based legal advocacy organization MENA Rights Group, told DW it was too early to know if the new UAE organization would be sticking to the Paris Principles, as promised. This was because the rights group had not yet been able to read a publicly available version of the law, UAE Federal Law number 12 of 2021, that enabled the creation of the institution, said Thiry.

"It is difficult to have an opinion about the forthcoming independence of the [institution] and its compliance with the Paris Principles," he explained. "At this stage, it is also too early to comment on the performance of the institution since its members have yet to be appointed, to our knowledge."

Despite its modern outward appearance, the UAE is regularly criticized about its human rights record

When a new institution like this is formed, it often applies for accreditation with the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions to see if it is adhering to the Paris Principles. The MENA Rights Group often provides assessments to the Global Alliance, which has 118 member organizations from around the world.

From the information the legal advisory group did have, it seemed that the UAE's new law would be similar to those in neighboring countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain. All of these countries already have national human rights institutions.

But according to the Geneva-based lawyers, none of the national human rights institutions in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar or Saudi Arabia fully comply with the Paris Principles.

However, if the UAE's attempts at creating this institution are really genuine, then organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty would welcome that, activists said. In promotional materials, UAE media said the institution "would seek to cooperate and deal with the UN and concerned international bodies."

"It will be interesting to see if the UAE are now willing to engage with external organizations," Human Rights Watch researcher Zayadin noted.

Despite multiple attempts asking UAE authorities to respond to allegations of abuse inside the country, and to get access to prisoners there, Zayadin said her organization has never received any response from the government.

"A very first step towards a genuine commitment to improving human rights in the country would be to allow international, independent monitors access to the country," said Zayadin. "An even more important step would be to release from prison all those who have been unjustly detained simply for exercising their right to free expression and association."


*This story was amended on September 3 to reflect the fact that the UAE human rights institution does not as yet have a hotline where abuses can be reported. This was mistakenly reported by a UAE based publication..

Pakistan: Environmentalists slam '10 billion trees' project

The Pakistani government's plan to plant 10 billion trees has garnered national and international praise. But critics believe that it is an unsustainable and expensive waste of resources.


According to government statistics, around 13% of Pakistan is now covered in forest

The Pakistani government claims to have already planted over a billion trees as part of its ambitious plan, as well as having created around 85,000 jobs. Launched in 2019, the project — with support from the United Nations Environment Programme — is aiming to plant 10 billion trees by 2023.

The fifth most populous country in the world with over 24% of its people living in poverty, Pakistan is one of the states most vulnerable to the changing climate. Its growing population needs resources that are depleting fast but given that the country is facing increasingly variable monsoons, receding Himalayan glaciers and extreme events including floods and droughts, meeting those challenges will prove extremely difficult.

Pakistan is aiming to reforest enough land to reach the global average of 31% forest coverage

Bureaucratic missteps

The government has said that it launched the plan to reverse environmental degradation but critics believe that is not the case.

Hassan Abbas, an expert in environmental affairs, says that the plan to plant ten billion trees is being executed without any proper planning. Forests cannot be planted in isolation, he told DW, they need to have a canopy and understory where medicinal and herbal plants may flourish.

Watch video26:01 Forests as a resource

He explained that saplings have also been planted in places already suffering from water scarcity. This adds to the logistical costs which are coming out of the public coffers.

"It is not experts who are in charge of this project but bureaucrats who know less about forestation and causes of deforestation. They do not even know these terminologies, let alone understand the real causes that are destroying our environment," Abbas said.

Pakistan's former Inspector General of Forests Syed Mahmood Nasir agrees. He told DW that authorities first need to carry out an empirical study into the availability of water. Currently, groundwater has to be extracted for the plants, putting strains on already depleted reserves.
Budget lacking transparency

The government said that the project would cost a little over 125 billion rupees ($750 million, €633 million) but critics claim that other costs are being ignored.

Abbas says that in a particular desert area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, one sapling needs a one-off provision of 15 rupees worth of water. "Imagine billions of trees and calculate the total cost, which could have been diverted for clearing the river banks, ensuring the flow of water from rivers that would have led to natural growth of trees without spending any money," he said.


Deforestation brings many associated negative impacts with it

Mahmood Nasir believes any plant that is grown outside its natural biome is expensive and environmentally disastrous. "Did anybody plant trees for the Amazon Jungle? Did the government plant tens of thousands of trees in northern areas of the country? Nature has its own mechanism for planting trees and you do not need to plant and look after them," the former forestry official said.

There are also further associated costs, a senior government official familiar with this project told DW on the condition of anonymity. "Administrative and other costs are not part of the allocated amount. For instance, recently in [the Gujranwala administrative region] 12,000 students were brought to plant over 50,000 saplings," he said.

He questioned the transparency of the publicly funded budget that does not include transport and other costs.
Not without negative impacts

Experts believe planting trees can be good for nature but doing so without due consideration can have negative effects.

Criticism has also been leveled at the project for impeding on land used for pasture. Those grazing animals can help prevent wildfires, Mahmood Nasir explained. "One of the factors leading to fire in various parts of the world is the elimination of grazing areas, which helps prevent such catastrophes," he said.

Grazing animals can be part of the forest's natural ecology

The project has banned those animals from those areas meaning that more wildfires can be expected in the future.

The project is also going to destroy natural water springs, he said, adding this could create an acute shortage of water as well as affecting the fertility of the land.
Alternative solutions

The government claims that the survival rate of the planted trees is over 60%, but some critics dispute this. "Many saplings planted in Gujranwala burnt within no time due to intense heat,'' said the senior government official. "They have not appointed sufficient staff to look after these trees and who will look after them in hilly areas and desert regions anyway?"

Watch video 01:51 Pakistan launches "Throw and Grow" tree planting project

Instead of this costly project, the government should have targeted deforestation with strict administrative measures, the senior government official said.

In some areas, households burn over 10kg of wood every day. "Provision of solar geysers and cooking stoves, and a restriction on tree felling in northern and northwestern areas could help a lot," he said.

Some 40,000 hectares of forest are being destroyed every year, the senior official said. This could easily be prevented by tough action, he added.
Job creation claims under question

One international organization has claimed, citing the government's own data, that Pakistan's forest coverage has grown from 5% to 13% in just a few years. Government supporters have said that this will reach 31%, the global average.

Some international bodies have also claimed that the project has created around 85,000 jobs. But another anonymous government official questioned the validity of this claim, asking where the record is of these 85,000 workers.

The official criticized the lack of accountability and said that a number of people close to the chambers of power have set up nurseries from which the government buys the trees for planting. Government supporters are benefitting from the project, the official claimed.

A step in the right direction

There are, however, environmentalists who support the project and dismiss the criticisms leveled against it. They say that it will take decades for the already-existing environmental degradation to be reversed. For them, the government has taken positive action in the right direction.

Watch video 01:33 Pakistanis planting trees to tackle climate change

Environmentalist Sitara Parveen from the mountainous Hunza region of northern Pakistan is happy about the move. A graduate of the German University of Heidelberg, Parveen insists that this is the first Pakistani government to take environmental issues very seriously.

"In my area people are being encouraged to plant trees which would help prevent natural disasters as well as providing a healthy environment," she told DW.

"I have seen the planting of thousands of trees in my own area," she said. She also claimed that if the project succeeds, it could change local rainfall patterns. Few people realize that such a change would transform Pakistan's climate, not only protecting the country from disasters but also saving millions of lives, she added.

 

Deutsche Bahn loses second appeal against rail strike

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail company has failed a second time to put an end to ongoing industrial action that has crippled train services. Three-quarters of long-distance trains are out of action.

    

Train drivers are carrying out their third bout of industrial action in a matter of weeks

A Frankfurt court on Friday rejected Deutsche Bahn's (DB) second attempt to try and bring in an injunction against an ongoing train drivers' strike after its first legal challenge failed on Thursday.

The strike called by the GDL train drivers union  entered its third day on Friday after a Frankfurt labor court upheld the legality of its labor action.

"We were aware that the hurdles in summary proceedings are very high and that the right to strike in Germany is legally safeguarded with good reason," a Deutsche Bahn spokesperson told the German dpa news agency before the court gave its ruling.

 "Nevertheless, we see it as our responsibility to leave no stone unturned in ending the strike in the interest of our customers," the spokesperson added.

Only a quarter of trains running

The strike, which is set to last until Tuesday morning, has left 75% of long-distance trains out of operation as well as 60% of regional and metropolitan trains.

Deutsche Bahn had accused the GDL of pursuing political aims rather than an improvement of working conditions. The court on Thursday rejected the attempted injunction on the grounds that the aims of the strike could not be proved.

"We will continue with the industrial action until Deutsche Bahn makes a materially sensible offer," GDL leader Claus Weselsky said on Thursday. The union has said it is open to compromise but has rejected previous offers made by Deutsche Bahn bosses as insufficient.

The GDL, which held two strikes in August, is demanding a 3.2% increase in pay for drivers, in addition to a coronavirus bonus of €600 ($710).

Train drivers are calling for better pay and improved working conditions

Debate over collective bargaining

Labor lawyer Matthias Jacobs told German public radio broadcaster Deutschlandfunk that the cause for the current strike is the Unified Collective Bargaining Act that stipulates that there can only be one collective bargaining agreement within a company.

This means that a union needs to mobilize over half of a company's employees in order to push through any change. This in turn means unions have to fight for more members "and that's exactly what GDL is doing now," Jacobs explained, adding that the act should be abolished.

The premier of the state of Thuringen, and member of the Left party, Bodo Ramelow said the strike was foreseeable and that he considered the Unified Collective Bargaining Act a mistake, Deutschlandfunk reported.

ab/sms (dpa, Reuters)

Mutual aid groups give personalized help after Hurricane Ida

By HALELUYA HADERO and GLENN GAMBOA

Animal rescue drive a boat down a flooded street in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021, in Lafitte, La. Following Hurricane Ida, mutual aid networks sprang into action to supplement the more established relief services from federal and local governments, and charities. (AP Photo/John Locher)


The day after Hurricane Ida struck Louisiana, Delaney Nolan spent hours biking around New Orleans, handing out money to people who needed to pay for supplies or for the hotel rooms where they’d taken shelter.

Once the cash ran out — banks were closed, and ATMs were empty or no longer running without electricity — Nolan Venmo’d people the money they needed. As site coordinator for the mutual aid group Southern Solidarity in Louisiana, she and her team also handed out free meals from restaurants that were cooking up their food stockpiles before they spoiled.

Nolan is among the faces of philanthropy that are tending to the immediate personal losses inflicted by the hurricane. Mutual aid networks like hers spring into action to supplement the more established relief services from federal and local governments, as well as larger charities.

The networks, in which community members pool resources and distribute donations to care for one another, seek to avoid the traditional charity model of giver and receiver. They grew in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic as communities across the country faced dire needs. And now they are mobilizing in the wake of other disasters like Hurricane Ida.

“Mutual aid is the most effective help right now,” Nolan said. “It’s built on communications with a lot of neighbors and existing relationships, from personally knowing what people need.”

Established philanthropic groups are joining to support the mutual aid groups, too. Jasmine Araujo, the founder of Southern Solidarity, said that days after the hurricane hit, the organization GlobalGiving had called her and said there would be donations coming to her group quickly.

“Most of our funds, though, come from individual donors,” she said. “We don’t usually get a lot of grants from bigger groups right away.”

GlobalGiving launched its Hurricane Ida Relief Fund over the weekend to speed distribution of funds for those in need, said Donna Callejon, who leads the group’s disaster response effort.

“The funds come in, and we mobilize quickly,” said Callejon, adding that because GlobalGiving has worked in the area for years, it has a list of partners that have already been vetted to receive funds. “We have experience working in Louisiana with a lot of historically disenfranchised groups.”

Another Gulf is Possible, a collective of 11 organizers and artists based in Louisiana, Texas and Florida had stored up 30 kits of solar panels, batteries, lanterns, power banks, iPads and water filters in preparation for the storm. They are gearing up to distribute the items to community organizers in New Orleans and the predominantly Native American communities of Grand Bayou and Grand Bois. But reaching people in some areas has been difficult because of the power outages, said Bryan Parras, a member of the group.

“People need everything,” said Anne White Hat, a Louisiana resident who’s part of the group, which has been collecting masks, googles, and gloves to protect communities from mold or lead during clean-up efforts.

Mutual aid efforts “allow everyone, no matter their status, to contribute what they are able,” said Tanya Gulliver-Garcia, a director of the Washington-based Center for Disaster Philanthropy. “The pandemic showed us that even in a cash-dependent society, people and their ‘stuff’ are still a valuable resource.”

Most of the nation’s 800 formal mutual aid groups formed during the pandemic, according to the group Mutual Aid Hub. Community fridges, for example, have sprung up in many cities since last year, allowing anyone to donate and take food.

Members of Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, another group, have been circulating an online form where people sign up to help remove trees, share meals, host spaces for donation collections, provide counseling and perform other services for those impacted by Ida. About 90 new people have signed up to contribute in the past few days, a regional coordinator estimates.

Help has also come from grassroots rescue groups. In the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, Paul Maiddendorf, a volunteer disaster responder from Houston, traveled across hard-hit LaPlace, driving home to home in a high-water vehicle in an effort to rescue Louisianans from chest-deep floodwater.

Most of those rescued were in shock, Maiddendorf said, with some stationing themselves in their attics, fearful of rising waters and with nowhere to go. Many sought help from CrowdSource Rescue, a Houston-based disaster response group that connects people seeking help with trained volunteers. Along with Maiddendorf, it has aided dozens of other volunteers do rescues or wellness checks during the disaster response.

By the time Maiddendorf arrived at the homes, most of the floodwaters had receded. But some residents still feared leaving their attics. “A couple of the families, I literally coaxed down the attic as the waters receded,” Maiddendorf said.

CrowdSource Rescue, which launched in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in 2017, directs people seeking help to call 911 before contacting them. The group says it provides assistance when local officials are overwhelmed with requests. Matthew C. Marchetti, the group’s executive director, says its average donation size is $60. So far, Marchetti says he’s confirmed that the volunteers have rescued 364 people from floodwaters using boats and high-water vehicles.

Volunteers connected with CrowdSource had been fielding requests for help since Ida made landfall, but the fierce winds had initially made it impossible for them to respond. Maiddendorf, of Houston, rode out the storm at a parking lot in Baton Rouge, before heading 56 miles (90 km) southwest to LaPlace, where he found many trapped by floodwaters. Requests for help also came in for Lafitte, another town that suffered major flood damage.

Despite coordination efforts amongst different rescue groups, Marchetti says there were overlaps in responses. Similar concerned pleas for help had flooded into Cajun Navy Relief, a group of Louisiana volunteers who help with search and rescue after hurricanes and floods.

Owen Belknap, a student at Louisiana Tech University who leads one of the rescue teams, said his team managed to rescue one person in Laffitte. Belknap and his friends, also volunteers with Cajun Navy, began helping with disasters three years ago when a tornado swept through their hometown of Ruston, Louisiana. They joined the Cajun Navy last year as Hurricane Laura pummeled southwest Louisiana, killing 27 people.

Once a business major, Belkanp transitioned to studying nursing as he grew more passionate about rescue efforts. With a few more days before the school year begins, he has time, he said, to help cut knocked-down trees and distribute supplies to the affected communities.

Amid the devastation, institutional funders have also opened their pocketbooks. Among them, the family foundation of Arthur M. Blank, the co-founder of The Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons, has pledged $500,000 each to a community foundation in New Orleans and The American Red Cross, whose volunteers are on the ground working on recovery efforts. Verizon’s company foundation has said it’s donating $100,000 to the Baton Rouge-based Foundation for Louisiana to aid those impacted by Ida.

“My inbox is really full right now with queries from the funder community asking where to really pitch in,” said Regine Webster, the vice president of Center for Disaster Philanthropy.

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The Associated Press receives support from the Lilly Endowment for coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

With no tourist handouts, hungry Bali monkeys raid homes

By FIRDIA LISNAWATI and NINIEK KARMINI

1 of 7

Made Mohon, the operation manager of Sangeh Monkey Forest, feeds macaques with donated peanuts during a feeding time at the popular tourist attraction site in Sangeh, Bali Island, Indonesia, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021. Deprived of their preferred food source - the bananas, peanuts and other goodies brought in by the tourists now kept away by the coronavirus - hungry monkeys on the resort island of Bali have taken to raiding villagers’ homes in the search for something tasty. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)


SANGEH, Indonesia (AP) — Deprived of their preferred food source — the bananas, peanuts and other goodies brought in by tourists now kept away by the coronavirus — hungry monkeys on the resort island of Bali have taken to raiding villagers’ homes in their search for something tasty.

Villagers in Sangeh say the gray long-tailed macaques have been venturing out from a sanctuary about 500 meters (yards) away to hang out on their roofs and await the right time to swoop down and snatch a snack.

Worried that the sporadic sorties will escalate into an all-out monkey assault on the village, residents have been taking fruit, peanuts and other food to the Sangeh Monkey Forest to try to placate the primates.

“We are afraid that the hungry monkeys will turn wild and vicious,” villager Saskara Gustu Alit said.

About 600 of the macaques live in the forest sanctuary, swinging from the tall nutmeg trees and leaping about the famous Pura Bukit Sari temple, and are considered sacred.

In normal times the protected jungle area in the southeast of the Indonesian island is popular among local residents for wedding photos, as well as among international visitors. The relatively tame monkeys can be easily coaxed to sit on a shoulder or lap for a peanut or two.

Ordinarily, tourism is the main source of income for Bali’s 4 million residents, who welcomed more than 5 million foreign visitors annually before the pandemic.

The Sangeh Monkey Forest typically had about 6,000 visitors a month, but as the pandemic spread last year and international travel dropped off dramatically, that number dropped to about 500.

Since July, when Indonesia banned all foreign travelers to the island and shut the sanctuary to local residents as well, there has been nobody.

Not only has that meant nobody bringing in extra food for the monkeys, the sanctuary has also lost out on its admission fees and is running low on money to purchase food for them, said operations manager Made Mohon.

A worker feeds macaques during a feeding time at Sangeh Monkey Forest in Sangeh, Bali Island, Indonesia, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021. Deprived of their preferred food source - the bananas, peanuts and other goodies brought in by the tourists now kept away by the coronavirus - hungry monkeys on the resort island of Bali have taken to raiding villagers’ homes in the search for something tasty. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

The donations from villagers have helped, but they are also feeling the economic pinch and are gradually giving less and less, he said.

“This prolonged pandemic is beyond our expectations,” Made Mohon said, “Food for monkeys has become a problem.”

Food costs run about 850,000 rupiah ($60) a day, Made Mohon said, for 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of cassava, the monkeys’ staple food, and 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of bananas.

The macaque is an omnivore and can eat a variety of animals and plants found in the jungle, but those in the Sangeh Monkey Forest have had enough contact with humans over the years that they seem to prefer other things.

And they’re not afraid to take matters into their own hands, Gustu Alit said.

Frequently, monkeys wander into the village and sit on roofs, occasionally removing tiles and dropping them to the ground. When villagers put out daily religious offerings of food on their terraces, the monkeys jump down and make off with them.

“A few days ago I attended a traditional ceremony at a temple near the Sangeh forest,” Gustu Alit said. “When I parked my car and took out two plastic bags containing food and flowers as offerings, two monkeys suddenly appeared and grabbed it all and ran into the forest very fast.”

Normally, the monkeys spend all day interacting with visitors — stealing sunglasses and water bottles, pulling at clothes, jumping on shoulders — and Gustu Alit theorizes that more than just being hungry, they’re bored.

“That’s why I have urged villagers here to come to the forest to play with the monkeys and offer them food,” he said. “I think they need to interact with humans as often as possible so that they do not go wild.”

___

Karmini reported from Jakarta. Associated Press writer David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this report.

 

Ivorian feminists hail sanctions on TV host over rape mockery

A television presenter in Ivory Coast was convicted on Wednesday of glorifying rape and given a one-year suspended prison sentence for asking a convicted rapist he invited onto his prime-time show to simulate a sexual assault using a mannequin.

Study links Texas winter freeze, power outages to polar vortex

Issued on: 03/09/2021 - 

File photo of high voltage transmission towers on February 21, 2021 in Houston when millions of Texans lost power during winter storm Uri. 

© Justin Sullivan, Getty Images via AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Warming of the Arctic caused by climate change has increased the number of polar vortex outbreaks, when frigid air from the far north bathes the central and eastern United States in killer cold, a study finds.

The study in the journal Science Thursday is the first to show the connections between changes in the polar region and February’s Valentine’s Week freeze that triggered widespread power outages in Texas, killing more than 170 people and causing at least $20 billion in damage.

The polar vortex normally keeps icy air trapped in the Arctic. But warmer air weakens the vortex, allowing it to stretch and wander south. The number of times it has weakened per year has more than doubled since the early 1980s, said study lead author Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for Atmospheric Environmental Research, a commercial firm outside of Boston.

“It is counterintuitive that a rapidly warming Arctic can lead to an increase in extreme cold in a place as far south as Texas, but the lesson from our analysis is to expect the unexpected with climate change,” Cohen said.

Climate scientists are still debating how and whether global warming is affecting cold snaps – they know it's reducing the overall number of cold days, but they are still trying to understand if it leads to deeper cold snaps.

Cohen's study is the first to use measurements of changes in the atmosphere to help explain a phenomenon that climate models had struggled to account for.

Cohen’s study “provides a potentially simpler interpretation of what’s going on,” said Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann, who wasn’t part of the study.

Cohen was able to show how there have been dramatic differences in warming inside the Arctic itself, which drives how the polar vortex can stretch and weaken.

When the area north of England and around Scandinavia warms more than the area around Siberia, it stretches the polar vortex eastward and the cold air moves from Siberia north over the polar region and then south into the central and eastern part of the United States.

“The Texas cold blast of February 2021 is a poster child" for the link between a changing Arctic and cold blasts in lower latitudes, said climate scientist Jennifer Francis of the Woodwell Climate Research Center on Cape Cod. She helped pioneer the Arctic link theory, but wasn't part of Cohen’s research. “The study takes this controversial hypothesized linkage and moves it solidly toward accepted science,” she said.

(AP)

Floating Dutch cow farm aims to curb climate impact

Issued on: 03/09/2021 - 

The three-storey glass and steel platform aims to show the "future of breeding"

 John THYS AFP

Rotterdam (Netherlands) (AFP)

Among the cranes and containers of the port of Rotterdam is a surreal sight: a herd of cows peacefully feeding on board what calls itself the world's first floating farm.

In the low-lying Netherlands where land is scarce and climate change is a daily threat, the three-storey glass and steel platform aims to show the "future of breeding".

The buoyant bovines live on the top floor, while their milk is turned into cheese, yoghurt and butter on the middle level, and the cheese is matured at the bottom.

"The world is under pressure," says Minke van Wingerden, 60, who runs the farm with her husband Peter.

"We want the farm to be as durable and self-sufficient as possible."

The cows are a sharp contrast to the huge ships and the smoke from the refineries of Europe's biggest seaport, which accounts for 13.5 percent of the country's emissions.

With their floating farm, which opened in 2019, Peter and Minke say they wanted to "bring the countryside into the town", boost consumer awareness and create agricultural space.

The cows are a sharp contrast to the huge ships and the smoke from the refineries of Europe's biggest seaport

 John THYS AFP

The Dutch are no strangers to advanced farming methods, using a network of huge greenhouses in particular to become the world's second biggest agricultural exporter after the United States.

But that has come at a cost.

- 'Moves with the tide' -

The Netherlands is one of Europe's largest per capita emitters of climate change gases and faces a major problem with agricultural emissions, particularly in the dairy sector which produces large amounts of methane from cows.

Those emissions in turn fuel the rising waters that threaten to swamp the country, a third of which lies below sea-level, and further reduce the land in one of the most densely populated nations on Earth.

The floating farm therefore aims to keep its cows' feet dry in both the long-term, by being sustainable, and the short-term, by, well, floating.

The farm is set to turn a profit for the first time at the end of 2021 

John THYS AFP

"We are on the water, so the farm moves with the tide -- we rise and fall up to two metres. So in case of flooding, we can continue to produce," says Minke van Wingerden.

In terms of sustainability, the farm's cows are fed on a mixture of food including grapes from a foodbank, grain from a local brewery, and grass from local golf courses and from Rotterdam's famed Feyenoord football club -- saving on waste as well as the emissions that would be required to create commercial feed for the animals.

Their manure is turned into garden pellets -- a process that helps further cut emissions by reducing methane -- and their urine is purified and recycled into drinking water for the cows, whose stable is lined with dozens of solar panels that produce enough electricity for the farm's needs.

- 'Cows don't get seasick' -

The farm is run by a salaried farmer but the red and white cows, from the Dutch-German Meuse-Rhin-Yssel breed, are milked by robots.

The cheeses, yoghurts and pellets are sold at a roadside shop alongside fare from local producers.

The products are also sold to restaurants in town by electric vehicles.

"I was immediately seduced by the concept," says Bram den Braber, 67, one of 40 volunteers at the farm, as he fills bottles of milk behind the counter of the store.

"It's not blood running through my veins, it's milk."

The idea of the farm is also to make farming "more agreeable, interesting and sexy", and not just to be environmentally friendly, says Minke van Wingerden.

The cows are fed on a mixture of food including grapes from a foodbank, grain from a local brewery, and grass from local golf courses and from Rotterdam's Feyenoord football club

John THYS AFP

When she and her husband first approached port authorities with the idea to build a floating farm, they said "are you nuts?", she recalls.

But the farm is set to turn a profit for the first time at the end of 2021, with consumers apparently ready to pay the 1.80 euro ($2.12) a litre for milk produced there, compared to around one euro at a supermarket.

They are also aiming to build a second floating farm to grow vegetables, and to export their idea, with a project already under way in the island nation of Singapore.

Most importantly, while farming goes greener, the animals don't.

"No, the cows don't get seasick," says van Wingerden. "The water moves only a little bit, it's like you were on a cruise ship."

© 2021 AFP