Famine-stricken Madagascar calls for 'climate empathy' at COP26



Famine-stricken Madagascar calls for 'climate empathy' at COP26The UN has said people in Madagascar have resorted to eating cactus, wild leaves and locusts (AFP/RIJASOLO)

Kelly MACNAMARA
Tue, November 9, 2021, 

As the world's first climate change-driven famine ravages her tropical island homeland, Madagascar's environment minister is in Scotland to warn that other countries could find themselves suffering a similar fate.

A multi-year drought has desiccated farmland across the southern part of the Indian Ocean island known for its rich biodiversity, with no end to the crisis in sight.

More than 1.3 million people are severely hungry and tens of thousands are facing famine conditions that the United Nations says are driven by global heating.

In desperation, many are eating locusts, wild leaves and cactus that normally serve as food for cattle, according to the World Food Programme.

"The situation is critical," said Environment Minister Baomiavotse Vahinala Raharinirina.

But in a year where disasters magnified by climate change have touched every continent on the planet, she wants the nations gathered for UN climate talks to realise that this is just the beginning.

"We appeal for climate solidarity," she told AFP, calling on nations to act to halt the march of calamities across the world.

"What we are living through now, others could experience," she told AFP.

"Desertification, islands under water -- a large part of the lands in the south will disappear but so will cities here in the northern hemisphere.

"We must take decisions and act to prevent this type of situation from happening in other countries."

- 'Question of behaviour' -

Already people are faced with desertification and temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius "throughout the year", said Raharinirina.

"The lack of water, the women who now travel 20 kilometres to fetch a container of water, these are the realities," she said.

Madagascar has always suffered prolonged dry spells, but now they are intensifying and if global heating is not halted, she said these punishing droughts could scorch three-quarters of the country by 2080, affecting some 20 million people.

To have a hope of avoiding this fate, energy intensive lifestyles in the rich world -- from taking cheap flights for holidays to using gas heaters on outside terraces -- will have to change.

"This rise in temperature will only be stopped if there is also a change in consumption and production patterns in the so-called polluting countries," she said, adding people and governments all need to play a part.

But she is worried that there is a "psychological distance" that prevents those who have not experienced a situation like Madagascar's from understanding the realities of these climate change-driven calamities.

"It's called empathy, climate empathy, maybe it's a new term but that's what it takes -- empathy from north to south, and between citizens," she said.

"It means telling yourself that your own act of purchase, of consumption, can impact others."

- Children wasting away -

Across Madagascar's vast southern tip, the worst drought in decades has transformed fields into desolate dust bowls. Some villages have been abandoned.

Last week the UN said nearly 30,000 people were now officially affected by famine in the country, and more than 1.3 million others were considered to be in a food security crisis or emergency.

Half a million children are acutely malnourished, including 110,000 suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

Officials described "heartbreaking" scenes of children wasting away.

And things could get worse.

The "lean season" has only just begun and people face another six months before the next harvest. If it comes in.

There is scant hope in the weather forecast. Only 450 millimetres of rain is expected for the whole year, according to Raharinirina, the equivalent of a month's worth.

- Empathy, not pity -

The biting drought is also worsening threats for Madagascar's unique biodiversity, including lemurs and the baobab tree she said, as people leave their homes and move into other regions.

"We are perhaps the only generation able to save this unique part of the world, which we must bequeath to future generations," she said.

She is hoping that the international community will show "climate solidarity to help Madagascar preserve what remains, to reforest, to restore what is damaged".

The COP26 meeting in Glasgow has been rocked by tensions over delays in promises of funding from rich countries historically responsible for the greenhouse gasses driving climate change, to developing nations with low emissions.

But Raharinirina said the conference was able to give voices from a nation like Madagascar a platform they might not otherwise have.

"We still believe in the ability of the world to come together and make intelligent decisions collectively," she said.

And she is adamant that climate "empathy does not mean pity".

"It is how I can access levers to change things so that others can project themselves for the future."

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Facebook will no longer allow advertisers to target political beliefs, religion, sexual orientation
Amanda Silberling@asilbwrites / •November 9, 2021


Facebook announced today that it will no longer allow advertisers to target users based on potentially “sensitive” topics like health, sexual orientation, or religious and political beliefs. “Lung cancer awareness,” “LGBT culture” and “Jewish holidays” are just some of the interest categories that will no longer be targeted starting early next year.

“The decision to remove these Detailed Targeting options was not easy and we know this change may negatively impact some businesses and organizations,” the company wrote in a blog post, saying input from civil rights experts, policymakers and other stakeholders contributed to its decision. Advertising revenue is Facebook’s leading source of income, so any major change to ad policy can have significant ramifications.

Facebook can target users based on information provided in their profile, like their age, location or gender. But the platform never made it possible to target people based on the sexual orientation listed in their profile, a representative from the company told TechCrunch. Rather, the advertising that will be removed refers to ads that are served based on your profile’s interest categories.


Facebook assigns these interest categories to your profile based on your activity. Based on how you engage with Facebook content, you might be assigned categories that Facebook would call “sensitive,” like “American Jewish culture,” “LGBT rights” or “Barack Obama.” Starting January 19, advertisers will no longer be able to target their ads based interests like these. Other interest groups like “rock climbing” and “knitting,” not being sensitive, will still be targetable — there are tens of thousands of these categories, sensitive or not.

Users can see their profile’s interest groups by navigating on desktop to Settings and Privacy > Settings > Ads > Ad Settings > Categories used to reach you > Interest Categories. If you don’t want to receive ads based on a certain interest, you can opt out.

This change in ad policy comes as Meta — the newly renamed parent company to the Facebook platform — faces increased scrutiny after a series of senate hearings related to documents leaked by whistleblower Frances Haugen. As more documents are leaked to the press, Meta has gone on the defensive, claiming that some journalists’ reporting has misrepresented its actions.

But Facebook’s ad policy has been a topic of concern for years. Leading up to the US Presidential election in 2020, Facebook placed limitations on the kinds of political ads that could be created. In 2018, Facebook conducted a similar removal of over 5,000 targeting options for ads after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) filed a complaint against Facebook that accused it of helping landlords and home sellers violate the Fair Housing Act. Before that, in 2016, Facebook disabled “ethnic affinity” targeting for housing, employment and credit-related ads after a ProPublica report suggested that these capabilities could be used for discriminatory advertising. When it comes to housing and employment, it’s illegal to target ads based on certain demographics. Another report from ProPublica spurred Facebook to remove ad targeting based on anti-Semitic interest categories.

BP REMAINS A MEMBER OF THE BIG OIL LOBBY IN THE US

London (CNN Business)French oil giant Total made waves early this year when it broke with the American Petroleum Institute, the largest and most powerful oil lobby in the United States, because of its stance on climate issues.

BP's (BP) pledge to slash oil production by 40% this decade has put it ahead of many industry peers in the transition to greener energy. But it doesn't plan to follow Total's lead and quit the API.

"There are areas of difference [with the API]," BP CEO Bernard Looney told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in an interview Monday. Still, it's "better [to] be inside and influencing than outside," he added.

BP and the API diverge on certain issues, Looney said, emphasizing that the company enthusiastically backs the shift to electric cars, for example.

InfluenceMap, a London-based think tank focused on energy and climate change, has said the API "appears to be broadly hostile to progressive climate policy." The lobby came under fire at a Congressional hearing last month for opposing a federal fee on methane, a major contributor to global warming.

Yet Looney pushed back on the notion that BP and the group should cut ties.
"Some of the things that they do [are] actually not about lobbying," Looney said. "They actually develop safety standards for the entire industry. I think it's important that we would be partaking in that."

Oil and gas companies are under huge pressure to slash production of fossil fuels for the world to have a shot at limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoid the worst effects of climate change.

BP said last year that it would pursue net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 in what Looney described as the "biggest restructuring in our history." The company also set shorter-term targets as it tries to pivot its business away from oil and gas, promising a 10-fold increase in annual low carbon investments by 2030.

In the meantime, however, BP is benefiting from higher oil and gas prices, with crude trading above $80 per barrel and natural gas hitting record highs in Europe.

"We're a cash machine at these types of prices," Looney said on a call with analysts when the company reported bumper quarterly profits.

Looney told Amanpour on Monday that it remains important for a company like BP to have "a seat at the table" during the energy transition given its commitment to that transition. Few firms are in a position to meet society's need for a complex system of clean, reliable and affordable energy.

"We are predominantly an oil and gas company today," Looney said. "Equally, we have an ambition to become an integrated energy company. Unless we transition, the world's not going to transition."

— Wesley Oliver and Emmet Lyons contributed reporting.

Oklahoma Supreme Court reverses court decision to have Johnson & Johnson pay $465M to state for its role in opioid crisis


by Sonia Moghe, CNN
Tue November 9, 2021


(CNN Business)Oklahoma Supreme Court justices have reversed a district court decision that ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $465 million to the state for its role in the opioid crisis.

In the justices' decision filed Tuesday, they wrote that the district court "erred" by holding Johnson & Johnson liable under the state's public nuisance statute for its opioid prescription marketing campaign.

"We hold that the district court's expansion of public nuisance law went too far. Oklahoma public nuisance law does not extend to the manufacturing, marketing, and selling of prescription opioids," Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice James Winchester wrote in his opinion.

The opinion states that the manufacture and distribution of products "rarely causes a violation of a public right" and that a manufacturer generally does not have control over a product once its sold, and that if the public nuisance law were allowed to be used to hold a company liable for its products "a manufacturer could be held perpetually liable."

"In reaching this decision, we do not minimize the severity of the harm that thousands of Oklahoma citizens have suffered because of opioids," the opinion states. "However grave the problem of opioid addiction is in Oklahoma, public nuisance law does not provide a remedy for this harm."

In a statement to CNN, Johnson & Johnson called its actions relating to the marketing and promotion of the prescription pain medications "appropriate and responsible."

"We recognize the opioid crisis is a tremendously complex public health issue, and we have deep sympathy for everyone affected," the statement said. "Today the Oklahoma State Supreme Court appropriately and categorically rejected the misguided and unprecedented expansion of the public nuisance law as a means to regulate the manufacture, marketing, and sale of products, including the Company's prescription opioid medications."

Oklahoma Attorney General John O'Connor said he was "disappointed" by the state supreme court's decision.

"The Judgment holding Johnson & Johnson accountable for their deceptive actions was a huge victory for Oklahoma citizens and their families who have been ravaged by opioids," O'Connor said in a statement to CNN. "Our staff will be exploring options. We are still pursuing our other pending claims against opioid distributors who have flooded our communities with these highly addictive drugs for decades. Oklahomans deserve nothing less."

One state supreme court judge wrote in a dissenting opinion that the district court's decision should be reversed and the matter sent back to the court for a "correct" determination of damages.

13 Trump Officials Violated Hatch Act
By Ben Scheffer on November 10 2021 


A report published by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel found that 13 Trump administration officials violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits government employees from engaging in campaign activity.

"Taken together, the report concludes that the violations demonstrate both a willingness by some in the Trump administration to leverage the power of the executive branch to promote President Trump's reelection and the limits of OSC's enforcement power," the OSC said in a release.

“The president’s refusal to require compliance with the law laid the foundation for the violations. In each of these instances, senior administration officials used their official authority or influence to campaign for President Trump. Based upon the Trump administration’s reaction to the violations, OSC concludes that the most logical inference is that the administration approved of these taxpayer-funded campaign activities,” the report says.

The 60-page report found that numerous members of the Trump administration illegally participated in the 2020 Republican National Convention. The report found that then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and then-Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf violated the law by pre-recording speeches that aired during the convention.

The report found that Pompeo and Wolf repeatedly ignored warnings from ethics officials saying that their actions would violate the law.

Other Trump administration officials who were in violation of the 1939 campaigning law were former Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette; former White House communications director Alyssa Farah; former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany; then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; former Trump senior advisers Stephen Miller and Jared Kushner; Marc Short, the former chief of staff to then-Vice President Mike Pence; national security adviser Robert O'Brien; and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.

The probe began during the final months of the Trump administration and no punishment is expected to take place because the president in office at the time is the only one who can reprimand his own administration officials.

Prince Harry Says He Warned Twitter Boss About 'Coup' On Eve Of US Capitol Attack

Duke of Sussex told a misinformation panel he was emailing CEO Jack Dorsey about how the social media platform was being used.

By Graeme Demianyk
09/11/2021

Britain's Prince Harry attends the 2021 Global Citizen Live concert at Central Park in New York, U.S., September 25, 2021. Picture taken September 25, 2021. 

REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs

Prince Harry has said he warned Twitter’s boss before the US Capitol attack that his social media platform was being used to stage a coup.

The Duke of Sussex was speaking during an appearance in the US on a panel discussing misinformation and said the problem pre-dated social media.

He said he warned Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey the social media giant was “allowing a coup to be staged” a day before the January 6 riots.

Asked if he has spoken to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg or Twitter CEO Dorsey, Harry said he warned the latter his website was facilitating a coup on the eve of the attack.

He said: “Jack and I were emailing each other prior to January 6 when I warned him his platform was allowing a coup to be staged. That email was sent the day before.

“And then it happened and I haven’t heard from him since.”

A group of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building in Washington DC over claims the presidential election was rigged and the role social media giants played in enabling the attack is being investigated.

Harry, who was listed as the co-founder of Archewell at the RE:WIRED summit, works at think tank the Aspen Institute and looks into misinformation and disinformation in the media.

The 37-year-old, who lives in Southern California with Meghan and the couple’s two children, said the internet is “being defined by hate, division and lies”.

“That can’t be right,” he told the panel. “Especially for anyone who has children, we’re allowing this future to be defined by the very here and now. By exactly that which is greed and profit and growth.

“I would hope as human beings, as individuals with the ability of choice and decision-making they would worry more about people now, the safety of people but also what this means for the internet, a free internet but also what it means for the next generation and the generation after that and that and that and that.”

In his latest broadside at the British press, Harry invoked the memory of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales and again said his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, was receiving similar treatment.

He said: “They don’t report the news, they create it and they’ve successfully turned fact-based news into opinion-based gossip with devastating consequences for the country.

“So I know the story all too well. I lost my mother to this self-manufactured rabidness and obviously I’m determined not to lose the mother to my children to the same thing.”

Harry nodded to comments he made in a mental health series he appeared in earlier this year and said “they won’t stop until she’s dead” – a reference to Meghan.

He added: “It was more of a warning, not a challenge.”

Harry said “the scale of misinformation now is terrifying” and warned families are being “destroyed” by the problem.

Asked if users should delete their social media accounts, Harry noted he and Meghan are not on any platforms and will not return until changes are made.

He said it “simply isn’t true” that the challenge of misinformation “is too big to fix, it’s too big to solve”.

The duke said from his own experience, he and his wife are targeted by a small group of accounts.

He said: “More than 70% of the hate speech about my wife on Twitter could be traced to fewer than 50 accounts.”

Megxit – a word used to described the couple’s departure from royal duties – is a “misogynistic term” that was created by an online troll before it entered mainstream usage, Harry said.

Robinhood says millions of customer names and email addresses taken in data breach

Zack Whittaker@zackwhittaker •November 9, 2021


Online stock trading platform Robinhood has confirmed it was hacked last week with more than five million customer email addresses and two million customer names taken, as well as a much smaller set of more specific customer data.

The company said in a blog post that a malicious hacker had socially engineered a customer service representative over the phone November 3 to get access to customer support systems. That allowed the hacker to obtain customer names and email addresses, but also the additional full names, dates of birth and ZIP codes of 310 customers.

Robinhood said that 10 customers had “more extensive account details revealed.” Robinhood did not say what information specifically, though no Social Security numbers, bank account numbers or debit card numbers were exposed and caused no immediate financial loss to customers.

But it’s precisely that kind of information that malicious hackers can use to facilitate further attacks against victims, like targeted phishing emails, since names and dates of birth can often be used to verify a person’s identity.

The company said once it secured its systems the hacker then “demanded an extortion payment.” Robinhood instead notified law enforcement and security firm Mandiant to investigate the breach.

It’s a similar breach to how Twitter was hacked in July 2020. A then-teenage hacker used social engineering techniques to trick some of Twitter’s employees into thinking the hacker was an employee, allowing the hacker access to an internal Twitter “admin” tool, which he used to hijack high-profile accounts and spread a cryptocurrency scam. The attack netted the hacker just over $100,000 in cryptocurrency. In its aftermath, Twitter rolled out security keys to its staff to toughen its defenses against attacks that prevent these kinds of attacks from working in the future.

Whatever lacking security controls that allowed a hacker to trick a Robinhood customer service representative into granting them access to an internal system is a likely focus for its investigation.

EVEN CAPITALI$TS GET IT NOW

Climate change: Nine reasons why COP26 needs to work

We need to bolster our efforts to tackle climate change

Why COP26 needs to work

Chris Iggo
09 November 2021•

Nine reasons why COP26 needs to work (investmentweek.co.uk)

Climate change is the greatest threat facing the world today and the urgency for action has increased dramatically. The sixth assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) delivered a stark message on the pace and extent of global warming and its effects. The analysis, which drew on the expertise of more than 200 authors, labelled humanity’s effect on climate change “unequivocal” and revealed that global warming is already greater than had been thought.

Its findings form the backdrop to this year’s COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, where leaders from all over the world are convening to discuss how they can make good on the Paris Agreement goal to limit global warming to +2°C but ideally +1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

According to the IPCC this goal is still achievable, albeit only just. We need to bolster and accelerate our efforts to tackle climate change. We need to drastically cut our greenhouse gas emissions and move the global energy sector away from fossil-based fuels, towards greener, renewable alternatives. If we don’t, we risk the global economy and a prosperous future.

Here are nine reasons why COP26 needs to be a game-changer in the battle against climate change.

The vast majority of companies in the world are not yet aligned with the Paris Agreement.

To stand a chance of restricting the rise in global temperatures, investors need to mobilise finance to support the transition to net zero.

Investing in new technologies, in the transition leaders and engaging more forcefully with companies to meet climate objectives are all central to net zero carbon investing. There is a path open to a more prosperous and sustainable future but investors, alongside governments, need to be bolder today to ensure we are on that path.

The climate crisis is escalating

1. Despite global lockdowns, the concentration of carbon dioxide in 2020 was 149% above the pre-industrial level, whereafter the planet began its mass reliance on fossil fuels, according to a report from the World Meteorological Organization – the United Nation’s weather agency. It found that all major greenhouse gases – methane and nitrous oxide, alongside carbon dioxide - increased at a quicker pace in 2020 than the average for the previous decade, a pattern which has spilled over into 2021.

2. Earth Overshoot Day marks the day each year when humanity’s demand for ecological resources exceeds what the planet can regenerate in that 12-month period. 

Aside from 2020, as the climate crisis escalates, the date has been moving earlier – this year, it fell on Thursday 29 July. From this point, for the remainder of the year, the earth is essentially operating in a deficit, consuming more natural resources than it generates.

We’re not doing enough

3. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has called for faster progress in the energy transition as it predicted warming would hit 2.1°C by 2100 under the current scenario. According to its latest World Energy Outlook, current pledges would achieve just 20% of the emissions cuts needed by 2030, to keep the goal of net zero by 2050 a possibility.

  

4. A new study from the Systems Change Lab - of the World Resources Institute - highlighted that across 40 different sectors including energy, heavy industry, agriculture, transportation, finance and technology, not a single industry is moving at a sufficient speed to avoid 1.5 ̊C in global heating beyond pre-industrial times.

Global GDP will be hit by climate change

5. The Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), a network of central banks and financial supervisors, estimates that if we achieve net zero, it will likely reduce global GDP by around 2% by 2050 through to 2100. However, it also expects that a ‘delayed transition’, which gets off to a later start, could be markedly higher - reducing GDP by around 5% by 2050, before losses are reduced to around 2.5% by 2100.

6. In the case of uninterrupted climate change, the NGFS forecasts that losses would exceed 6% of global GDP by 2050 while the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development anticipates that by 2100, total losses would total 10% - 12% of GDP. 

The International Monetary Fund’s current worst-case scenario forecasts an output loss of some 25%.

The world needs to spend and invest more

7. Only 2% of the $16trn of global government spending, used as economic support during the pandemic, has been allocated to the clean energy transition. 

According to the IEA this falls “well short of what is needed to reach international climate goals”. The IEA predicts that carbon dioxide emissions will reach record levels in 2023 and will continue to rise in the following years, under governments’ current recovery spending plans. It recommends $1trn of spending globally on clean energy measures. 

It said to reach the net-zero goal, up to $4trn in annual investment was needed over the next 10 years to close the gap.

8. Princeton University estimates the US would need to invest $2.5trn (11% of GDP) by 2030 to deliver its net-zero-by-2050 goal. 

The European Commission forecast an even larger €3.5trn over the coming decade (25% of GDP) while Tsinghua University predicts that China’s plan would cost RMB138trn (circa $21.6trn) and 122% of GDP over the coming four decades.

9. Researchers have suggested the true cost of the climate crisis may be far greater than thought. 

The work by experts at Cambridge University, University College London and Imperial College London puts the cost at $3,000 for each tonne of carbon emitted, roughly equivalent to a return flight to New York from London. 

The authors said their research reflects “mounting evidence” that the economic impacts of fires, floods, droughts and other effects of the climate crisis are not as transitory as had been thought. Current carbon pricing regimes in the US and Europe put the cost at less than $100 per tonne.

UN says 16 local staff detained in Ethiopia amid push to end war

Issued on: 09/11/2021 

Traffic police are seen on duty in the Lafto neighbourhood in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on November 5, 2021. © Tiksa Negeri, Reuters

Text by:NEWS WIRES

Sixteen Ethiopian staff working for the United Nations were in detention Tuesday after government raids targeting ethnic Tigrayans, the United Nations said, as foreign envoys scramble to end the country’s year-long war.

The detentions in Addis Ababa followed the declaration of a six-month nationwide state of emergency last week after Tigrayan and Oromo rebels claimed major advances on the ground, raising fears of a march on the capital.

Some UN staff members were taken from their homes, humanitarian sources said, shortly after a senior UN envoy visited Tigray to plead for more aid to civilians.

Sixteen UN staffers, all Ethiopian nationals, remained in detention while another six were freed, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters at the world body’s headquarters.

“We are of course actively working with the government of Ethiopia to secure their immediate release,” Dujarric said.

“There has been, as far as I know, no explanation given to us on why these staff members are detained,” he said.

Lawyers say arbitrary detentions of ethnic Tigrayans—commonplace during the war—have spiked in the last week, ensnaring thousands, with the new measures allowing the authorities to hold anyone suspected of supporting “terrorist groups” without a warrant.

Tensions between the Ethiopian government and the UN have been high throughout the war, which has killed thousands of people and, according to the UN, pushed hundreds of thousands into famine-like conditions due to a de facto humanitarian blockade on Tigray.

In September, Ethiopia’s foreign ministry announced it was expelling seven senior UN officials for “meddling” in the country’s affairs.

Foreign envoys and the UN are now hoping that a fresh push led by the African Union will lead to a ceasefire.

UN emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths on Tuesday called for peace following a weekend visit to Tigray’s regional capital Mekele where he met leaders from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebel group.

“I implore all parties to heed the UN Secretary-General’s appeal to immediately end hostilities without preconditions, and reiterate the (UN’s) full support” for the AU’s efforts, he said.

Jeffrey Feltman, US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, held late-night talks on Monday with his AU counterpart, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, after meeting top Ethiopian officials last week, the State Department said.

“We believe there is a small window of opening to work with (Obasanjo),” spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington.

“We have engaged with the TPLF as well,” Price said.

‘Window of opportunity’

Briefing the AU’s 15-member security body on Monday, Obasanjo expressed optimism that progress was in the offing.

“All these leaders here in Addis Ababa and in the north agree individually that the differences opposing them are political and require political solution through dialogue,” he said in a copy of his statement seen by AFP.

“This, therefore, constitutes a window of opportunity that we can collectively tap.”

The TPLF and its allies, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), have claimed several victories in recent weeks, taking towns about 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the capital, and they have not ruled out marching on Addis Ababa.

The government says the rebels are greatly exaggerating their gains but has ordered the capital to prepare to defend itself.

Much of the conflict-affected zone is under a communications blackout and access for journalists is restricted, making battlefield claims difficult to verify.

Nevertheless, a number of countries have urged their citizens to leave Ethiopia while commercial flights are still available.

The US embassy has also ordered non-essential staff to leave and the UN has suspended non-essential missions to Addis Ababa.

Britain on Tuesday advised nationals to leave Ethiopia, citing a deteriorating security situation.

“The conflict has potential to escalate and spread quickly and with little warning,” the advisory said.

Among African nations, Zambia repatriated 31 workers from its embassy in Addis Ababa, following an order by President Hakainde Hichilema to evacuate citizens.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray in November 2020 to topple the TPLF, the former regional ruling party that dominated national politics before Abiy took over in 2018.

Winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, Abiy promised a swift victory, but by June the TPLF had retaken most of Tigray before expanding into the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar.

(AFP)

UAE foreign minister meets Assad, most senior Emirati visit to Syria since war began

BEIRUT (Reuters) -The United Arab Emirates foreign minister met President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Tuesday, the Syrian presidency said, a sign of improving ties between Assad and a U.S.-allied Arab state that once supported rebels trying to overthrow him

.

© Reuters/Syrian Presidency Syria's President Bashar al-Assad meets with United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, in Damascus

Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed is the most senior Emirati dignitary to visit Syria in the decade since the eruption of a civil war in which several Arab states backed mainly Sunni Muslim insurgents against Assad.

A presidency statement said Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed led a delegation of senior Emirati officials that discussed bilateral relations and cooperation in a meeting with Syrian counterparts.

The participants discussed exploring "new horizons for this cooperation, especially in vital sectors in order to strengthen investment partnerships in these sectors”, the statement said.

A correspondent for Lebanon's al-Manar TV, which is run by Lebanon's Hezbollah, an Assad ally, said heavy security had been observed on the road from Damascus airport to the city.

The UAE has been at the forefront of efforts by some Arab states to normalise ties with Damascus https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/arabs-ease-assads-isolation-us-looks-elsewhere-2021-10-10, and earlier this year called for Syria to be readmitted to the Arab League. It reopened its embassy in Damascus three years ago.

© Reuters/Syrian Presidency Syria's President Bashar al-Assad meets with United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, in Damascus

Jordan and Egypt, both U.S. allies, have also taken steps toward normalising relations since Assad, with Russian and Iranian help, defeated rebels across much of Syria, apart from some northern and eastern areas that remain outside his grasp.

The United States has said it does not support https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/blinken-says-us-does-not-intend-normalize-relations-with-syrias-assad-2021-10-13 efforts to normalise ties with Assad or rehabilitate him until progress is made towards a political solution to the conflict.

Washington has also said it will not lift sanctions, including measures that can freeze the assets of anyone dealing with Syria, regardless of nationality.

The UAE may have asked Damascus not to trumpet the visit due to sensitivities in its ties to the United States, said Joshua Landis, a Syria specialist at the University of Oklahoma. "No one wants to get their head too far over the parapet," he said.

Last month, King Abdullah of Jordan spoke to Assad for the first time in a decade, and the border between the countries was reopened for trade. The Egyptian foreign minister also met his Syrian counterpart in September, the highest level contact between the countries since the civil war began.

"Both the UAE and Egypt have long believed that the Damascus government serves as a break on the spread of Islamist groups in the region," Landis said. Investment is expected once Syria is readmitted to the Arab League, he added, though private firms would wait to see how the United States would respond first.

(Reporting by Yasmin Hussein, Kinda Makieh and Aziz El YaakoubiWriting by Maha El Dahan/Tom PerryEditing by Peter Graff and Mark Heinrich)