French far-right party elects new leader to replace Le Pen

By JADE LE DELEY

PARIS (AP) — An ambitious 27-year-old is vying against a longtime heavyweight in France’s main far-right party to replace Marine Le Pen as leader of the resurgent National Rally in a contest culminating Saturday at a party congress.

The congress comes as the anti-immigration party is seeking to capitalize on a breakthrough showing in legislative elections this year. It’s also facing broad public anger over a racist comment this week by a National Rally member in parliament that cast doubt on years of efforts to soften the party’s image.

Jordan Bardella, the younger candidate and an outspoken member of the European Parliament, is widely tipped to win and become the first person to lead the party who doesn’t have the Le Pen name since its creation a half-century ago.

Marine Le Pen has said she wants to focus on leading the party’s 89 lawmakers in the National Assembly and is still expected to wield significant power in party leadership.

Bardella has been the interim president of the National Rally since Le Pen entered the presidential race last year. His opponent Louis Aliot, 53, is the mayor of Perpignan and has been a senior official of the National Rally for two decades. He has been a fervent supporter of Le Pen’s rise and is a former romantic partner of hers.

Le Pen lost to Emmanuel Macron on her third bid for the presidency this year, but won 44% of the vote, her highest score yet. Two months later, her party won its most seats to date in the lower house of parliament. It has welcomed rising support for far-right parties elsewhere in Europe, and notably in neighboring Italy.

Le Pen has gone to great lengths to remove the stigma of racism and antisemitism that clung to the far-right party, to soften its image and to broaden her audience. She has notably distanced herself from her now ostracized father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who co-founded the party then called the National Front.

“Bardella is part of a generation of young, very young, people who engaged themselves behind Marine Le Pen in the 2010s and who probably wouldn’t have joined the National Rally during Jean-Marie Le Pen’s era,” political scientist Jean-Yves Camus told The Associated Press.

Bardella supports the anti-immigration and protectionist line of the party.

“Progress today is called localism. It’s called defending borders. It’s called protectionism,” he told the AP in 2019, ahead of European elections, rejecting what he called “massive immigration.”

On the other hand, Aliot, the current vice president of the party, argued that the National Rally needs to reshape itself to make it more palatable to the mainstream right.

According to Camus, the party vote won’t question Le Pen’s leadership.

“The first impact of this election is that Le Pen won’t have to deal with the party and can focus on the most important thing, leading the party’s lawmakers in the National Assembly,” he explained.

For the past few months, 40.000 members of the party have been voting online to elect the new head of the party. The results will be announced Saturday during the congress.

___

Elaine Ganley contributed to this report.

Astronomers discover spectacular aftermath after large star's explosion 11,000 years ago

CHILE, 5th November, 2022 (WAM) -- The aftermath of a large star's explosive death is seen in an image released on Monday by the European Southern Observatory, showing immense filaments of brightly shining gas that was blasted into space during the supernova, Reuters reported.

Before exploding at the end of its life cycle, the star is believed to have had a mass at least eight times greater than our sun. It was located in our Milky Way galaxy about 800 light years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Vela. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, 9.5 trillion km.

The eerie image shows clouds of gas that look like pink and orange tendrils in the filters used by the astronomers, covering an expanse roughly 600 times larger than our solar system.

"The filamentary structure is the gas that was ejected from the supernova explosion, which created this nebula. We see the inside material of a star as it expands into space. When there are denser parts, some of the supernova material shocks with the surrounding gas and creates some of the filamentary structure," said Bruno Leibundgut, an astronomer affiliated with the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

The image shows the supernova remnants about 11,000 years after the explosion, Leibundgut said.

"Most of the material that shines is due to hydrogen atoms that are excited. The beauty of such images is that we can directly see what material was inside a star," Leibundgut added. "The material that has been built up over many millions of years is now exposed and will cool down over millions of years until it eventually will form new stars. These supernovae produce many elements - calcium or iron - which we carry in our own bodies. This is a spectacular part of the path in the evolution of stars."

The star itself has been reduced in the aftermath of the supernova to an incredibly dense spinning object called a pulsar. A pulsar is a type of neutron star - one of the most compact celestial objects known to exist. This one rotates 10 times per second.

The image represented a mosaic of observations taken with a wide-field camera called OmegaCAM at the VLT Survey Telescope, hosted at the ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile. The data for the image was collected from 2013 to 2016, the ESO said.

 Sat 05-11-2022 

Amjad Saleh

BETRAYL

Sweden to distance itself from Kurdish groups in bid to join NATO

File photo of a general view during the Nato leaders summit in 

Watford, Britain, December 4, 2019. — Reuters pic

Saturday, 05 Nov 2022

STOCKHOLM, Nov 5 — Sweden’s new government will distance itself from the Kurdish YPG militia as it tries to win Turkey’s approval to join NATO, Sweden’s foreign minister told Swedish Radio on Saturday.

The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and its political branch PYD are considered by Turkey extensions of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which launched an insurgency against Turkey in 1980 and is regarded as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Sweden, along with the United States and several other NATO countries, has supported the YPG in the fight against Islamic State.

However, Turkey has vowed to block Sweden’s application to join NATO if it doesn’t stop supporting the militia group.

“There is too close a connection between these organizations and the PKK ... for it to be good for the relationship between us and Turkey,” Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told public service broadcaster Swedish Radio.

“The primary objective is Sweden’s membership in NATO,” he said.

The move comes just days before Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is due to travel to Ankara to try to convince Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan to let Sweden join the military alliance.

Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO earlier this year as a direct consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The application has been approved by 28 of NATO’s 30 countries. The Nordic countries said this week they were optimistic Hungary would also drop its objections. — Reuters

Protecting Wetlands for Our Future and Scaling up Wetlands Action Across the World


2022-11-05 

Address by H.E. Xi Jinping
President of the People’s Republic of China
At the Opening Ceremony of the 14th Meeting of the Conference

of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

5 November 2022

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,

On behalf of the government and people of China and also in my own name, I wish to extend hearty congratulations on the opening of this meeting.

Since ancient times, human beings have always preferred to live close to water bodies, and civilizations have taken shape near water bodies. There has been a close link between wetlands and how humans live and work. This meeting, themed “Wetlands Action for People and Nature”, will explore ways to further preserve and develop wetlands. It is a meeting of great significance. It gives us an opportunity to raise awareness, strengthen cooperation, and scale up wetlands action across the world.

— It is important that we build global consensus on prizing wetlands, show our respect for nature, minimize disruption and damage caused by human activities, and protect the ecological security of wetlands, in order to leave the beautiful wetlands to our future generations.

— It is important that we advance the global process on wetlands conservation, redouble efforts to preserve authenticity and integrity, include more important wetlands in nature reserves, improve cooperation mechanisms and platforms, and increase the coverage of wetlands of international importance.

— It is important that we enhance people’s well-being globally by leveraging the role of wetlands in promoting sustainable development, tackling climate change, protecting biodiversity, and delivering more benefits to people around the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,

Historic achievements have been made in wetlands conservation in China. We have increased the area of wetlands to 56.35 million hectares, put in place a protection system, and enacted a Wetlands Conservation Law. Wetlands have become an integral part of many Chinese cities like Wuhan, making the cities notably more livable. China will pursue a modernization of harmony between humanity and nature, and promote high-quality development in the wetlands conservation cause.

China has recently drawn up a layout plan of national parks. Under the plan, China will designate a number of national parks, accounting for about 10 percent of the country’s land area. About 11 million hectares of wetlands will be incorporated in the national park system, with a focus on developing wetland national parks including the Three-River-Source National Park, the Qinghai Lake National Park, the Ruoergai National Park, the Yellow River Estuary National Park, the Liao River Estuary National Park and the Songnen Plain Crane Homeland National Park. A national wetlands conservation plan and major conservation projects will be implemented. China will promote international exchanges and cooperation to protect the four bird migration routes passing China and to build an international mangrove center in Shenzhen. China supports the convening of a conference of the World Coastal Forum.

As a Chinese saying goes, “The journey ahead may be long and arduous, but with sustained actions, we will eventually reach our destination and embrace a brighter future.” Let us join hands to write a new chapter in global wetlands conservation.

Thank you.

The Mighty Apple, Google, Tesla, Dell and Microsoft in “the dock” – A Look At the Child Labour Lawsuit


13.01.20 | 

Apple, Google (through its parent company Alphabet, Inc), Dell, Microsoft and Tesla have been named as defendants in what could be a landmark case pertaining to the use of child labour in the mining of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The case, which is a class complaint for injunctive relief and damages has been brought by the US based International Rights Advocates (IRA) on behalf of children injured in the mines and families whose children have died in mines. They accuse the companies of “knowingly benefiting from and aiding and abetting the cruel and brutal use of young children in Democratic Republic of Congo (“DRC”) to mine cobalt.”

The DRC has faced and continues to face calamity including war, deadly outbreaks of Ebola, debilitating corruption and instability to name but a few of the challenges. The nation is also blessed and cursed (depending on how one looks at it) with vast mineral wealth including cobalt.

Cobalt is required to manufacture the rechargeable lithium-ion battery used in all of the smart phones, laptops, tablets and other electronic devices many of us have come to rely on, and approximately two-thirds of the global supply of cobalt is mined in the so called “copper belt” region of Haut-Katanga and Lualaba Provinces in the DRC.

According to IRA, the defendants use cobalt from the DRC that is sourced from mines that use child labour. The IRA explain that the connection is as follows: the companies Glencore/Umicore and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Company Ltd (Huayou Cobalt) are two of the biggest companies in the cobalt supply industry. Glencore mines the cobalt, allegedly with the use of child labour and Umicore processes cobalt mined by Glencore. The processed cobalt from Glencore is then sent to the defendants. In the case of Dell and Tesla, LG Chem is supplied by Glencore then it in turn supplies Dell and Tesla, according to IRA’s research. Huayou Cobalt allegedly supplies cobalt to Apple, Dell and Microsoft.

IRA indicate that during the refining process, Umicore deliberately mixes cobalt allegedly mined by children with other cobalt and “takes other steps to impair the traceability of the DRC cobalt to give Defendants Apple, Alphabet, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla plausible deniability as to the source of the cobalt they purchase from Umicore.”

How do the defendants know where the cobalt comes from ?

IRA argue that the defendants had “specific knowledge from public reports that the DRC cobalt that they were buying within their ventures with Glencore/Umicore and/or Huayou Cobalt, as well as other sources, was mined in significant part by young children performing hazardous work for 2-3 U.S. dollars per day and, remarkably, in many cases even less than that.”

The 79-page submission details the horrific and painful stories of children who have had no choice but to work in artisanal mines, or creuseurs as they are known in the DRC. According to an Amnesty International Report, the children mine using very primitive tools, and their bare hands to search for rocks containing cobalt. They are also tasked with cleaning the ore before it is sold. Not only are they being exploited but they also face great risks in unsafe tunnels. Many have been maimed and killed.

The IRA submission includes chilling photos of the injuries sustained by plaintiffs. Their faces have been obscured to protect their identities but the horrors of their injuries are clearly visible. One only has to go as far as the third page of the submission to find a photo of John Doe 5 whose leg was crushed whilst working in a mine for Congo Dongfang Mining which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Huayou Cobalt, one of the aforementioned companies that sells its cobalt to the mighty Apple and Microsoft.

A few pages later there is a photo of 17-year-old John Doe 3 who, according to the submissions, was working for a Huayou Cobalt owned mine. In July 2019 he was transporting 210 kgs of cobalt on a motorbike and was hit by a large cobalt transport truck. His injuries were severe, including having his leg amputated because it was so badly destroyed.

According to the submission, John Doe 3 is the sole breadwinner for his mother and six siblings and he is reportedly in constant pain. In addition to being unable to work, he received no financial assistance from his “employer” and according to IRA, he still owes the hospital large amounts of money. This is one of many accounts in the submission exposing the exploitation of children and reckless endangerment of their lives.

According to IRA, who are conducting additional research expecting to add more defendants to the case, the “defendants know and have known for a significant period of time the reality that DRC’s cobalt mining sector is dependent upon children…”

IRA also point out that cobalt sourced from the DRC is listed on the U.S. Department of Labor’s International Labor Affairs Bureau’s List of Goods Produced with Forced and Child Labor.

So what are the plaintiffs seeking?

The plaintiffs “assert claims for forced child labour in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (“TVPRA”), 18 U.S.C. § 1595 et. seq” furthermore they “seek relief based on common law claims of unjust enrichment, negligent supervision, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.’’

They have also requested that the Court order the defendants to, “create a fund, in an amount to be determined at trial, to fund appropriate medical care for plaintiffs and members of the class who were injured while mining cobalt for defendants, conduct medical monitoring for negative health impacts for plaintiffs and members of the class who were exposed to cobalt and other toxic chemicals while mining cobalt for defendants, and clean up the environmental impacts caused by defendants’ use of suppliers for cobalt that failed to take any steps to protect the environment where they were mining for cobalt…”

The relief they are requesting is quite far reaching and very comprehensive. It could go a long way towards helping them rebuild their lives and communities.

Why litigate in the US?

The IRA submits that there is no appropriate legal forum in the DRC as currently there is no law in DRC that would allow the plaintiffs to seek civil damages against the end users of cobalt who operate outside of the DRC. They also state that the corruption in the DRC judicial system, and the danger the lawyers and the plaintiffs could face given the “civil unrest in DRC and the demonstrable hostility in the DRC” against anyone who is critical of the government or anyone who is perceived to be “attacking the mining industry” are prohibitive factors. Using the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) the plaintiffs submit that the US is the appropriate forum as there is a legal basis for extraterritorial jurisdiction.

The IRA bolster their jurisdictional argument by stating that, “the policymaking that facilitated the harms Plaintiffs suffered was the product of decisions made in the United States by Defendants…This case is brought under the TVPRA, 18 U.S.C. § 1596, for violations of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1581, 1584, 1589, and 1590, and the offenders are nationals of the United States or present in the United States, irrespective of nationality, providing this Court with federal question jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331. 18 U.S.C. § 1596 explicitly grants United States courts extraterritorial jurisdiction for Plaintiffs’ TVPRA claims, all of which accrued after December 23, 2008, the effective date of § 1596.

This Court also has jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332 (a)(2) based on diversity of citizenship. All Plaintiffs are foreign nationals and citizens and residents of DRC and each of their claims for damages exceeds $75,000. All Defendants are U.S. corporations headquartered in the United States.

Under §§ 1589 and 1595 of the TVPRA, Defendants Apple, Alphabet, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla are liable if they (1) participated in a venture; (2) knowingly “receiv[ed] anything of value” from the venture; and (3) knew or should have known that the venture had engaged in forced labour as defined by § 1589…”

The submission goes on to explain that even if the defendants did “not have specific knowledge of forced child labour in their cobalt supply chain ventures, then this is an extreme form of willful ignorance and they certainly ‘should have known’ that their supply chain ventures are dependent upon the cheap labour of forced child labor.”

What do the defendants have to say about the allegations?

The Guardian Newspaper approached the defendants for comment and a representative from Glencore said that Glencore “notes” the allegations levelled against them and that they respect human rights in accordance with the universal declaration of human rights. They also pointed out that they do not tolerate any form of child “forced or compulsory labour” and that the, “production of cobalt in the DRC is a by-product of our industrial copper production. Glencore’s operations in the DRC do not purchase or process any artisanally mined ore.”

Apple’s response was, “Apple is deeply committed to the responsible sourcing of materials that go into our products. We’ve led the industry by establishing the strictest standards for our suppliers and are constantly working to raise the bar for ourselves, and the industry.”

According to the Guardian, Dell said: “Dell Technologies is committed to the responsible sourcing of minerals, which includes upholding the human rights of workers at any tier of our supply chain and treating them with dignity and respect…We’re currently investigating these allegations, and have informed the Responsible Minerals Initiative as part of their grievance mechanism.”

Umicore said: “Umicore has been addressing ethical supply for 15 years, ensuring no issues related to human rights, child labour, safety conditions and environmental impact related to cobalt extraction. We contest any allegations to the contrary.”

The Guardian said that they approached Microsoft, Huayou, Google and Tesla but by the time of publication no response had been received.

Microsoft told The Telegraph that they are “committed to responsible and ethical sourcing…If there is questionable behaviour or possible violation by one of our suppliers, we investigate and take action. We recognise that global raw material supply chains are vast and complex systems involving millions of entities that we cannot impact alone. It’s why we continue to work with suppliers, NGOs and the larger industry to improve things on the ground and address these important issues.”

If the IRA’s case is successful and they receive a judgement in their favour, it could set an important precedent that will significantly change the face of Business and Human Rights. When giant companies like these defendants are sanctioned for complicity in human rights violations, and when they take steps to genuinely ensure that at all levels of the supply chain there is the strictest compliance with laws designed to protect and uphold human rights, only then will there be sustainable change.

https://opiniojuris.org/

The Foundation of Climate Security: Repair of Loss and Damage


05.11.22 |

Karen C. Sokol is a professor of law at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law and Fellow in Law, Ethics, & Public Policy at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. She serves as a Member Scholar at the Center for Progressive Reform.

Throughout the summer and early fall, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres repeatedly urged wealthy, high-emitting nations to provide Pakistan — which is responsible for less than 1 percent of carbon emissions — with the funds necessary to respond to and repair the “climate carnage” wrought by months of record and monsoon rains layered on top of accelerated glacial melt that submerged one-third of the country. Deaths exceeded 1,700, 2.1 million people lost their homes, and infectious diseases spread “at alarming speed,” unleashing what the World Health Organization deemed a “second disaster.” Moreover, Pakistanis were assaulted by the apocalyptic deluge while they were still reeling from a deadly spring heatwave in which temperatures rose as high as 50°C (122°F).

As Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s climate change minister, told The Guardian in September: “Global warming is the existential crisis facing the world and Pakistan is ground zero. There is so much loss and damage, with so little reparations to countries that contributed so little to the world’s carbon footprint, that obviously the bargain made between the global north and global south is not working.” Rehman is right, and, as with climate breakdown itself, the United States bears primary responsibility for the breach.

The “Loss and Damage” Bargain — and the Ongoing, Devastating Breach

Global South countries, on the frontlines of climate disruption, began advocating for the codification of obligations to pay climate “loss and damage” and the establishment of a legal mechanism for implementing them even before the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted.

Vanuatu, a state comprising 82 islands that, like Pakistan, is one of the most climate-precarious countries in the world, submitted a proposal for such a mechanism in negotiations on the UNFCCC in 1991. The proposal was rejected by the United States and other high-emitting wealthy nations, whom the proposal holds responsible for paying into the fund amounts based on their gross national product and carbon emissions. As the proposal pointed out, such a design is important to the efficacy of international climate law: “The scheme would . . . offer incentives to the industrialized developed countries to limit their CO2 emissions so as to mitigate the rate and extent of global warming and consequent sea level rise.”

In other words, the proposal would have implemented “the polluter pays” principle — a long-standing norm of international law that enforces “the general obligation of States to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction and control respect the environment of other States or areas beyond their national control.” Over the course of decades of negotiations under the UNFCCC, Global South countries continued to advance the rule of law, as well as justice, by pressing wealthy nations to recognize their obligations to pay climate “loss and damage” and to establish an international funding mechanism within the UNFCCC to implement them.

Finally, after significant concessions, Global South nations, led by the Alliance of Small Island States, secured in 2015 what they believed was a guarantee that wealthy nations would meet their obligations. That year, states adopted the Paris Agreement, which includes an express recognition of loss and damage in Article 8: “Parties recognize the importance of averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including extreme weather events and slow onset events, and the role of sustainable development in reducing the risk of loss and damage.”

This language was the result of a compromise. An alliance of the United States and some other Global North countries insisted on keeping the nature of the obligation obscure by opposing any reference to “liability or compensation,” language that Global South countries had advanced and that is consistent with the “polluter pays” principle embodied in Vanuatu’s initial proposal. Further, the United States insisted that Article 8’s recognition of “loss and damage” be qualified with the following text, which is included in the parties’ decision adopting the Paris Agreement: “Article 8 of the Agreement does not involve or provide a basis for any liability or compensation.”

Global South nations accepted the compromise on the assumption that the United States and other wealthy nations were negotiating in good faith. That assumption has since proved wrong. Instead of moving forward to get much-needed “loss and damage” funding flowing to climate-battered countries, the United States has consistently undermined the establishment of a funding mechanism in negotiations on the ground that it will not accept imposition of “liability” or “compensation.” It maintained this stance at the 2021 Paris negotiations in Glasgow — even though President Joe Biden had promised to reengage with the international community on climate upon rejoining the Paris Agreement after former President Donald Trump’s withdrawal.

Aligning U.S. Foreign and National Security Policy with Climate Security

Rejoining the Paris Agreement was among the first initiatives the Biden administration took to implement the directive in one of his first executive orders to “place the climate crisis at the forefront of this Nation’s foreign policy and national security planning.” But perceiving the specter of “liability” as a threat to be averted is both a foreign policy and an intelligence failure in light of the facts of climate science coupled with the gross mismatch between the concentration of responsibility in the Global North and of climate devastation in the Global South.

In an article on Lawfare, Professor Mark Nevitt rightly called attention to the need to prioritize loss and damage in international climate law and policy. It is, he said, one of the “three legs of the climate stool” — along with mitigation and adaptation. A more apt analogy, I suggest, is that repair of loss and damage is the foundation of global solidarity necessary for building solid mitigation and adaptation structures. The climate catastrophe that continues to unfold in Pakistan brings that into painfully sharp relief.

While the flooding was ongoing at the end of September, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif addressed the U.N. General Assembly as the current chair of the G-77, the largest intergovernmental organization of developing countries that represents over 80 percent of the world’s population.

“Why are my people paying the price of such high global warming through no fault of their own?”, Sharif asked. “It is . . . entirely reasonable to expect some approximation of justice for this loss and damage.”

Biden, as leader of the nation that has emitted the most greenhouse gases and thus bears the most responsibility for climate loss and damage, should swiftly heed this call and make climate security a true foreign and national security policy priority.

https://opiniojuris.org/

India's capital announces restrictions after 'alarming' air pollution levels

Besides several other measures, government in capital New Delhi orders closure of primary schools as of Saturday

AA SATURDAY 

 05 NOVEMBER 2022


Authorities in the national capital New Delhi on Friday announced more restrictions, including the closure of primary schools, as the air pollution situation in the capital reached "alarming levels."

According to the data from India's state-run System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), the overall Air quality level of Delhi on Friday evening was in the "severe category."

Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal said that outdoor activities for students above class five will now remain suspended and warned that measures like restricting vehicles on roads would also be considered.

As the city and adjoining areas remained engulfed by the thick layer of smog, authorities in the last few days have announced steps like halting construction work, but it has not helped much.

"It is not the problem of Delhi alone. It is the problem of the entire northern India," said Kejriwal, who heads the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

The chief minister said that in neighboring Punjab – also ruled by AAP – the government has taken a number of steps to control stubble burning by farmers.

Stubble burning has been considered a major contributing factor to air pollution.

Farmers in north India set fire to their fields at the onset of winter in order to clear crop stubble from harvested rice paddies.

"More steps will be taken so that incidence of stubble burning is reduced by next year," he said.

Delhi's Environment Minister Gopal Rai also said on Friday that the government offices in the capital will run at 50% capacity. In the neighboring Noida city, the administration on Thursday had ordered schools to conduct classes online for students up to the eighth grade.

Rai listed measures being taken to reduce pollution, including the use of new eco-friendly buses and setting up 33 teams to monitor industrial pollution.

Air pollution has become a persistent problem in New Delhi over recent years and the city is often ranked as the most polluted capital in the world.

The issue is particularly aggravated in the winter season from November to January when farmers in nearby areas burn crop stubble and add to the emissions of coal-fired plants and industrial units around the city.

According to Greenpeace, a global environmental group, the 2021 World Air Quality Report for the fourth consecutive year found New Delhi as the most polluted capital city in the World.

- 'Situation is alarming'

Prof. Ravindra Khaiwal, an environmentalist, told Anadolu Agency that the emission from stubble burning along with other sources in northern India and weather conditions are major contributing factors to the present air pollution levels.

"The situation currently is alarming. The pollution levels have reached the severe category in Delhi and adjoining areas as well," he said. "The need of the hour is that states take proactive steps so that pollution levels go down."

He said that the focus should also be on reducing emissions from all sources such as "vehicular exhaust and non-exhaust, municipal waste burning, construction activities, fugitive and industrial emission along with stubble burning."

Locals say the situation is taking a toll on their health.

"I suffered from COVID-19 last year, and I can feel with the rising pollution, there is a difficulty in breathing," Harshit Kumar, a Delhi resident told Anadolu Agency.

"There is a burning sensation in the eyes and the government should take drastic measures to help the people to end this problem."

A political war has erupted over the pollution problem.

Indian Federal Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav this week accused AAP of turning Delhi into a "gas chamber."

He said the Punjab state saw over a 19% rise in farm fires over 2021.

Kejriwal, however, called for an end to "blame games and finger-pointing."

"Let's stop the blame game. Let’s find solutions as a country," he tweeted on Friday.

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/11/indias-capital-to-shut-schools-as-toxic.html

SE ASIA

Blame bad weather, rising labour and fuel costs for higher fish prices

Prices of fish and seafood from Malaysia have increased by some 20 per cent. 

ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

Wallace Woon

SINGAPORE – When Madam Mabel Chia, 40, buys threadfin at the Bukit Timah Market, she used to get one big enough to feed her family of six.

These days, she has had to cast around for something more affordable but smaller. Pointing to another fish which was bigger on Saturday, she said: “I used to be able to get something around this size, but it’s too expensive so I have to choose the smaller one.

“My father prefers to eat less meat, and wants to eat more fish because it’s healthier and softer for him to chew, so I don’t really have much choice. I’ll probably cook another vegetable dish to make up for the smaller portion.”

The early arrival of this year’s monsoon season, coupled with rising fuel and labour costs, has pushed up the price of fish and seafood from Malaysia by some 20 per cent.

The Straits Times spoke to fishmongers in Tekka Market, Bukit Timah Market and Toa Payoh, who all said that in the last two months they had experienced suppliers’ price hikes of 10 to 20 per cent.

“When the weather is bad, the supply of fish falls because the fishermen don’t go out,” said Mr Alex Lee, 55, owner of seafood stall Lee Yit Huat Trading at Tekka Market “The price is determined by the supply of fish available to us. When the weather is bad, the supply goes down and the suppliers then charge more.”

A 32-year veteran of the trade, he added that the red grouper he sells would cost around $19 per kg but the price has since risen to $24 per kg. “I’ve maintained my price so that my customers can still afford to buy it but it means my profits are also down.”

Adding to his woes is the manpower crunch, which means that he has had to look elsewhere for workers.

“There are fewer workers who want to work in this industry, so they can demand higher pay. This all adds up to the cost of the fish when it reaches us,” said Mr Lee.

Madam Lina Wong, 50, who runs Song Yu Ji Seafood at the Bukit Timah Market with her husband, said: “I’ve seen the prices of some fish go up by as much as 50 per cent. In those cases, we won’t buy it when we go to the fishery port, because there’s no one who will buy it from us.”


She added that her stall has kept the price of the Emperor red snappers at $25 per kg even though the cost has gone up, in a bid to retain customers.

“It’s normal for the price to fluctuate, because the supply of wild caught fish is never stable,” said Madam Wong. “Prices normally rise towards the end of the year and before Chinese New Year and go down right after but I think it will be much more than normal this time because of how soon Chinese New Year is.”

Chinese New Year will be celebrated in January in 2023.

Madam Lina Wong, who runs Song Yu Ji Seafood at the Bukit Timah Market with her husband, said her stall has kept the price of the Emperor red snappers at $25 per kg even though the cost has gone up. 

ST PHOTO: WALLACE WOON

Fishmonger Lim Huat, 69, who runs a stall at the Toa Payoh Lorong 8 Market and Food Centre, said prices have been steadily creeping up since the start of the year, with red snapper costing him around $16 per kg now, compared to $9 per kg previously. The price of grey prawns has since risen by two dollars to $13 per kg.

“It’s hard to sell some of the fish to my customers, especially since most of them are elderly like myself. Sometimes, I’ll just give away whatever small amount I have left, or accept whatever they are able to pay,” he added.

Mr Jeffrey Tan, who runs fish merchant Dish The Fish, echoes the view that the increase in prices is not a recent phenomenon.

The 37-year-old said: “Prices have increased anywhere from 25 per cent to 30 per cent over the last few years due to the hike in oil prices which increases delivery costs.

“Farmed fish now costs slightly higher due to the cost of feed and logistics but the increase for wild-caught seafood is much higher as the supply is limited.”

Founder of local farm The Fish Farmer, Mr Malcolm Ong, said the supply-driven price hikes of wild-caught fish means that he is seeing an earlier than usual spike in the demand of his fish.

He added: “The monsoon affects the supply of fish because the fishermen won’t go out to sea on their boats, but this does not affect the fish in our farms. So because this supply (of wild caught fish) is affected, customers will have to pivot towards sourcing their fish from us or buy more regularly from the supermarkets which we supply to.”

He has kept prices the same despite the greater demand.

Mr Ong pointed out another often unforeseen factor which contributes to the increase in prices during the festive period.

He said: “The drivers, who deliver the seafood, often take this time off to return to their homes to celebrate the new year with their families. When that happens, the supply is affected and, consequently, your fish becomes more expensive.”

The ST also reached out to the Seafood Industries Association Singapore for comment but did not receive a reply.

Over 120 Leaders to Attend Climate Talks; Egypt Says Positive on Protest

November 05, 2022 
Associated Press

A view of a highway during sunset next to smoke and burning rubbish in the Maadi district south of Cairo, ahead of the COP27 summit to be held Nov. 6-18 in the resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, Nov. 2, 2022.

BERLIN —

More than 120 world leaders will attend this year's U.N. climate talks, and requests by environmental activists to stage a rally during the event would be responded to "positively," host Egypt said.

Veteran diplomat Wael Aboulmagd, who heads the Egyptian delegation, told reporters Friday that his country had been working for months to set the scene for "meaningful outcomes" at the two-week meeting in the Red Sea coastal resort of Sharm el-Sheikh starting Sunday.

"We have, I think about 121 maybe, and the number is growing, heads of state and government here," he said during an online briefing. "We hope that it will be a watershed moment." Leaders such as U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed their attendance, but Aboulmagd said other major heads of state such as China's Xi Jinping and India's Narendra Modi would not be going.

Aboulmagd said recent scientific reports highlighted the urgency of tackling global warming.

"Everyone is now aware of the gravity of the situation, of the enormity of the challenge, and have come here hopefully to work together," he said.

Greenhouse gases, financial aid

Several thorny issues will be discussed at the November 6-18 talks, including further cutting greenhouse gas emissions and boosting financial aid for poor countries struggling with the impacts of climate change. It is the first such meeting held in Africa since 2016. Over 40,000 people have registered for the event.

Aboulmagd appealed to negotiators to engage constructively. "We cannot afford to waste any time," he said. "So everyone must rise to the occasion and must move away from the adversarial winner-takes-all approach that has plagued this process for too long."

Civil society groups have expressed concern that their presence at this year's talks will be restricted, citing Egypt's questionable human rights record.

COP27: Host Resort Town Gives Egypt Tight Grip Over Protests

But Aboulmagd said activists would get their space, with special arrangements already put in place "for those who want to organize demonstrations or protests or stand-ins."

Asked about the possibility of holding a large rally midway through the talks, as has traditionally happened in previous meetings, he said, "That will be taken care of."

Organizers would need to submit the names of contact persons, and city officials must approve the planned route.

"Once a request to that effect comes, it will be responded to positively," he said.

Egypt would press diplomats to live up to the lofty pledges their leaders had made, Aboulmagd said, warning that so far, these had not been translated into the negotiating rooms.

"This separation between the reality in the public sphere and what actually happens in negotiating rooms cannot continue," he said. "It is about real lives that are being lost and future lives that will be devastated" by unchecked climate change.

UK

Brutal cuts to London arts organisations as national funds are moved away from capital

“We’ve had to make invidious choices”, says Arts Council England’s chair, Nicholas Serota, as funding portfolio for 2023-26 announced

Lee Cheshire

4 November 2022

Photo: Jean-Paul Wright

Several major central London museums and arts organisations will see cuts in their Arts Council England (ACE) funding from 2023, after the organisation was “instructed” by the UK government to shift funding to other cities and towns, and the London suburbs.

Comparing the newly announced 2023-26 annual funding to the average for 2018-22, Camden Arts Centre will lose £319,673 a year, the Crafts Council £280,964, the ICA £184,131, and the Serpentine Galleries £485,725. Other organisations have seen their funding maintained or increased, including the Jewish Museum London and Autograph ABP.

The theatre sector has also been hit hard, with the English National Opera among those no longer receiving regular funding. Speaking at the press conference announcing the funding package, Nicholas Serota, the chair of ACE, said: “I think the position was made clear when the Secretary of State instructed us to take money out of London. And also encouraged us to take funding from central London to parts of the city that haven’t previously had funding.”

Serota added: “We’ve just simply had to make some invidious choices about where we fund the most.”

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said in a statement: "Many of our world-leading cultural organisations will be left devastated by this announcement of over £50m worth of government cuts to London’s arts funding. These cuts could not have come at a worse time as arts organisations already face a triple whammy of spiralling operating costs, soaring energy bills, and the impact of both the pandemic and the cost of living crisis on audience figures.

“London’s cultural organisations contribute billions and power our capital’s economic comeback as well as the wider UK economy every year, which is why they need continued investment. A strong London equals a strong UK that’s why I am urging the government to think again and reconsider the consequences of these detrimental cuts.”

The shift in funding was introduced by the previous culture secretary Nadine Dorries, who tweeted earlier this year: “Over the last few decades, an overwhelming amount of money has gone to organisations based in London, while other parts of the country haven’t received their fair share.”

She asked ACE to move £32m of their regular funding out of London, as well as providing an extra £43.5m annually for three years for 78 towns and cities that were considered by the UK government to be culturally underfunded. They include Blackburn with Darwen, North Devon, Mansfield, Gloucester, Stoke and Slough. According to ACE, this funding represents a 95% increase to their normal funding to these areas.

ACE distributes money to organisations across the UK. The total £446m a year package will provide funding for 990 organisations, including 82 museums (28 new) and 159 visual arts organisations (23 new). London is still the most funded region, receiving £152m a year, around a third of total funds.

The announcement was delayed from 26 October “following discussions with the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport”.