Climate talks must wrench attention from competing crises

By Kate Abnett - Monday-  Reuters

 Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Patricia Espinosa speaks during an interview with Reuters at a United Nations Information Center offices in Washington

/ELIZABETH FRANTZ

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - This year's U.N. climate conference must wrench global leaders' attention back to global warming as multiple crises, including a looming global recession and war in Europe, vie for attention, former U.N. climate chief Patricia Espinosa told Reuters.

More than 100 world leaders gathered on Monday in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, for the start of the two-week climate talks against a backdrop of war in Ukraine, economic downturn, rampant inflation and a European energy crisis.

"The attention of many leaders has been going to other issues," said Espinosa, who led the U.N. climate change body - called the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC - from 2016 until July this year.

"This is a very important conference in order to really get again the issue of addressing climate change very, very high up on the agenda," she told Reuters.

Of the nearly 200 countries that agreed at last year's climate summit to ratchet up the ambition on their emissions-cutting goals, only about 30, including Australia, Indonesia and South Korea, have done so.

Espinosa called that result "really unfortunate," but said that no countries so far had weakened or abandoned pledges made previously.

Countries' national climate pledges put the world on track to warm by 2.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, overshooting the 1.5C threshhold beyond which scientists say climate change impacts will significantly worsen.

Espinosa said the success of the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP) would hinge partly on how it addresses the urgent need for climate finance not just to help poorer nations transition to clean energy and adapt to a warmer world, but also to cover costs and damages already incurred from climate-fuelled disasters.

Her successor, UNFCCC executive secretary Simon Stiell, a former climate resilience minister for Grenada, is also expected to champion calls at the summit for more financial support for climate-vulnerable countries.

Negotiators cleared their first hurdle on Sunday, agreeing for the first time to hold talks on "loss and damage" - financial compensation for countries ravaged by climate impacts such as floods, drought and rising seas.

Dozens of developing countries have said COP27 must establish a new funding facility for these payments.

"I hope so, but I would not be that optimistic about it," Espinosa said, of whether countries will reach the unanimous agreement needed to establish the fund.

Calls for compensation have gained momentum following disasters this year, including floods in Pakistan that left the country with a $30 billion damage bill.

But rich polluters including the United States and the European Union have for years resisted efforts that could lead to compensation, fearing spiralling liabilities.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Katy Daigle and Barbara Lewis)

At COP27, climate change framed as battle for survival
By William James, Valerie Volcovici and Simon Jessop - Monday

ALL MEN

COP27 climate summit in Egypt© Reuters/MOHAMMED SALEM

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) -World leaders and diplomats framed the fight against global warming as a battle for human survival during opening speeches at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt on Monday, with the head of the United Nations declaring a lack of progress so far had the world speeding down a “highway to hell”.

The stark messages, echoed by the heads of African, European and Middle Eastern nations alike, set an urgent tone as governments began two weeks of talks in the seaside resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh to figure out how to avert the worst of climate change.



COP27 climate summit in Egypt© Reuters/MOHAMMED SALEM

"Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish,” U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres told delegates, urging them to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels and speed funding to poorer countries struggling under climate impacts that have already occurred.



COP27 climate summit in Egypt© Reuters/MOHAMMED SALEM

Despite decades of climate talks so far, countries have failed to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, and their pledges to do so in the future are insufficient to keep the climate from warming to a level scientists say will be catastrophic.

Land war in Europe, deteriorating diplomatic ties between top emitters the United States and China, rampant inflation, and tight energy supplies threaten to distract countries further away from combating climate change, Guterres said, threatening to derail the transition to clean energy.



COP27 climate summit in Egypt© Reuters/MOHAMMED SALEM

"Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing. Global temperatures keep rising. And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible," he said. "We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator."



COP27 climate summit in Egypt© Reuters/MOHAMMED SALEM

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, also speaking at the event, said global leaders have a credibility problem when it comes to climate change and criticized developed nations' ongoing pursuit of gas resources in Africa, which he described as "fossil fuel colonialism."

"We have a credibility problem all of us: We're talking and we're starting to act, but we're not doing enough," Gore said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that, while the world was distracted by a confluence of global crises, it was important not to sacrifice national commitments to fight climate change.

"We will not sacrifice our commitments to the climate due to the Russian threat in terms of energy," Macron said, "so all countries must continue to uphold all their commitments."

Related video: WION Climate Tracker | United Nations warns nations, again!: Oil, gas emissions three times higher   Duration 1:52   View on Watch

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the war was a reason to accelerate efforts to wean the world off fossil fuels.

"Climate security goes hand in hand with energy security, Putin's abhorrent war in Ukraine, and rising energy prices across the world are not a reason to go slow on climate change. They are a reason to act faster," he said.

UAE TO CARRY ON PUMPING OIL, GAS

While leaders tended to agree on the risks of global warming, their speeches revealed huge rifts, including over whether fossil fuels could play a role in a climate-friendly future, and who should pay for climate damage that has already occurred.

Immediately after Guterres' speech urging an end to the fossil fuel era, United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan took the stage and said his country, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, would continue to produce them for as long as there is a need.

"The UAE is considered a responsible supplier of energy, and it will continue playing this role as long as the world is in need of oil and gas," he said.

The UAE will host next year's U.N. conference, which will attempt to finalise agreements made last year in Britain and at this year's Egyptian talks.

Many countries with rich resources of oil, gas and coal have criticized the push for a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, arguing it is economically reckless and unfair to poorer and less developed nations keen for economic growth.

"We are for a green transition that is equitable and just, instead of decisions that jeopardise our development,” said Macky Sall, president of Senegal and chair of the African Union.

Poorer countries that bear little responsibility for historic carbon emissions have also been arguing they should be compensated by rich nations for losses from climate-fueled disasters including floods, storms and wildfires.

Signatories to the 2015 Paris Agreement had pledged to achieve a long-term goal of keeping global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, the threshold beyond which scientists say climate change risks spinning out of control.

Guterres said that goal was possible only if the world can achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. He asked countries to agree to phase out the use of coal, one of the most carbon-intense fuels, by 2040 globally, with members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development hitting that mark by 2030.

The head of the International Monetary Fund told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference that climate targets depend on achieving a global carbon price of at least $75 a ton by the end of the decade, and that the pace of change in the real economy was still "way too slow".

The World Trade Organization, meanwhile, said in a reportpublished on Monday that it should tackle trade barriers for low carbon industries to address the role of global trade in driving climate chang


(Reporting by William James, Valerie Volcovici and Simon Jessop; Editing by Richard Valdmanis, Katy Daigle, Barbara Lewis, Frank Jack Daniel, Deepa Babington and Lisa Shumaker)

French firm says to be charged over Qatar building sites

AFP - Monday

French construction firm Vinci said on Monday it expected to be charged this week by a magistrate investigating allegedly abusive work practices on its building sites in Qatar.


Workers of Vinci's Qatar subsidiary QDVC preparing cement in Doha in 2015© KARIM JAAAFAR

The group said its subsidiary Vinci Constructions Grands Projets had been summoned on Wednesday by a French magistrate investigating its infrastructure projects in Qatar "with a view to it being charged".

Under French law, being charged implies the magistrate believes there is compelling evidence against the company, but the decision can be appealed and does not automatically mean the case will go to trial.

The Paris-based group said it regretted the development and denies the charges of using forced labour and taking part in human trafficking.

Two French NGOs -- Sherpa and the Committee Against Modern Slavery -- and seven former employees from India and Nepal who worked on Vinci building sites have filed a series of legal complaints against the company dating back to 2015.

They allege that employees working on sites linked to the football World Cup laboured for 66 to 77 hours a week, had their passports confiscated and were forced to live in indecent accommodation.

In its statement on Monday, Vinci denied that the public transport sites in question were linked to the World Cup, saying they were awarded to the company before the football tournament was attributed to Qatar in 2010.

"We tried in vain to convince the magistrate that after seven and half years of investigation it was not a particularly good time to imagine laying charges a fortnight before the start of the World Cup," Vinci lawyer Jean-Pierre Versini-Campinchi told AFP, adding that he feared a "media storm".

Sherpa welcomed the possible deepening of the French investigation.

"If Vinci were to be charged, it would confirm that multinationals face increasing difficulties in hiding behind their supply chains, the idea that it's 'too complicated' to act," Sherpa said.

- Train lines -

Investigators from the anti-corruption NGO first visited Qatar in 2014 where they say they met labourers on Vinci projects whose passports had been confiscated and who were required to work in temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).

The group alleged that some of the abuses took place among sub-contractors employed by third-party companies working for Vinci's Qatar subsidiary, Qatari Diar Vinci Construction.

Qatari Diar Vinci Construction employed 11,000 people at its height and was responsible for building the 37-station Lusail Light Rail Transit system around Doha, as well as the Red Line of the Qatari capital's underground metro system.

It also built the luxury Sheraton hotel in Doha.

The company unsuccessfully sued Sherpa for defamation after its first legal complaint in 2015.

Qatar has faced a barrage of criticism over migrant worker deaths and its labour law since being named World Cup host.

It has introduced significant changes since the start of the French legal investigation, including ending its so-called "Kafala" labour system.

This meant that a worker could not change jobs or leave the country without permission from their employer.

An audit of conditions for Vinci workers in Qatar was carried out by French trade union organisations in 2019 which concluded that the rights of labourers were being respected.

‘$15 an hour is not enough’: US domestic workers rally on eve of midterms

Michael Sainato - Monday-  The Guardian

As America heads to the polls, representatives of the more than 2 million workers in domestic jobs – from caring for the sick, elderly and disabled to cleaning homes – are making a last-minute midterms push to make sure their voices are heard.


Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

Diondre Clark, a certified nursing assistant in Charlotte, North Carolina, has been canvassing in nearby Winston-Salem to boost voter turnout in the critical swing state.

She said: “This election cycle, there’s just so much … it’s like a big bombshell, with wages, the economy, inflation, and healthcare. We really have to do something, we have to do better.

“We need to make more money because the cost of living is going up. $15 an hour, that’s still not enough – and there are still places that have not even got to $15 an hour.

“We’re struggling. It’s very hard, and I want voters to think about it and make the choice to go to the polls and cast their vote.”

She criticized Republican proposals to raise the social security age to 70, given how long she has worked. She also urged voters to elect candidates who can identify with everyday workers just trying to make a living and the issues impacting them, such as needing better healthcare and sick pay.

Nearly all – 91.5% – of domestic workers are women, and over 52% are Black, Hispanic, or Asian American/Pacific Islander. Clark is one of hundreds of domestic workers who are getting involved with organizing through Care in Action, a non-profit founded in 2017.

The group is leading campaigns involved in door-to-door canvassing and other voter turnout efforts such as phone banking in Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina, supporting candidates who favor policies such as paid sick leave, paid childcare, better wages, healthcare expansion, and immigration rights, with a focus on enabling workers to directly speak with voters and boost turnout in these key election battles. The group is also engaged in efforts in Arizona, South Carolina, Virginia, and Michigan.

“These workers, they’re the best messengers. So we decided to fly our domestic workers out to Nevada, North Carolina, and Georgia, to have conversations with thousands of voters,” said Hillary Holley, the executive director of Care In Action.

The group has endorsed numerous candidates in seven battleground states, including Stacey Abrams for governor of Georgia, Raphael Warnock for US Senate in Georgia and Catherine Cortez Masto for US Senate in Nevada. Holley said the group is focusing on Nevada, North Carolina, and Georgia because she expects these high-profile races will come down to a slim margin.

“Our voters want our elected officials to have a plan on how to help restore and improve our economy, which they know is being fueled by corporate greed with record profits,” added Holley

“Our workers are going to be able to look voters in the eyes and say, we know it’s hard, but we have to vote for the people who actually have a plan. Because when you listen to a lot of the Republican candidates, they don’t have a plan, they like to talk about inflation, but they don’t like to present a plan on how to address it promptly.”

Patricia Sauls of Atlanta, Georgia works in family care and childcare and has done various care work from babysitting as a teenager to working in group homes, is canvassing this election in Columbus, Georgia with Care in Action and has volunteered to be a poll worker for the first time.

“Ever since January 6 event, it’s been amplified how fragile our democracy really is,” said Sauls. “Georgia is really important to our national effort this year, more important than ever before because we have so many people on the ballot, election deniers, running for positions of authority over elections that they claim they have no confidence in.”

Sauls explained though she is nearly 70, she has been on waiting lists for years for disability assistance through Medicaid, and is pushing for Medicaid expansion. She is also concerned about abortion restrictions in the wake of the Roe v Wade reversal; economic issues, and threats to democracy since the Capitol insurrection.

“It’s important for my future, for the future of those coming behind, to do everything I can to make sure that our democratic system stays in place,” she said.

Orthodox Church of Ukraine to allow Christmas on December 25 as rift with Moscow deepens

Jack Guy - Monday - CNN

A branch of Ukraine’s Orthodox church has announced that it will allow its churches to celebrate Christmas on December 25, rather than January 7, as is traditional in Orthodox congregations.

Putin's war on Ukraine divides Russian Orthodox Church

View on Watch   Duration 5:50

The announcement by the Kyiv-headquartered Orthodox Church of Ukraine widens the rift between the Russian Orthodox Church and other Orthodox believers that has deepened due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The decision came after “taking into account the numerous requests and taking into account the discussion that has been going on for many years in the Church and in society; predicting, in particular due to the circumstances of the war, the escalation of calendar disputes in the public space,” the Orthodox Church of Ukraine said in a statement published October 18.



The Orthodox Church of Ukraine was endorsed in 2018.

 - Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images

Each church will have the option to celebrate on December 25, which marks the birth of Jesus according to the Gregorian calendar, rather than January 7, which marks the birth of Jesus according to the Julian calendar, still used by the Russian Orthodox Church.

In recent years a large part of the Orthodox community in Ukraine has moved away from Moscow, a movement accelerated by the conflict Russia stoked in eastern Ukraine beginning in 2014.

That schism became more open in 2018, after Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople – a Greek cleric who is considered the spiritual leader of Orthodox believers worldwide – endorsed the establishment of an independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine and revoked a centuries-old agreement that granted the Patriarch in Moscow authority over churches in the country.

The Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has become closely entwined with the Russian state under Russian President Vladimir Putin, responded by cutting ties with Bartholomew.

Then in May the leaders of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), another branch which had been formally subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, broke ties with the Moscow church, which is led by Patriarch Kirill, who has given his support to the invasion of Ukraine and has put his church firmly behind Putin.



Ukrainian Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7, 2016. 

- Vasyl Shevchenko/Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty Images

In a statement, the UOC said it had opted for the “full independence and autonomy” of the Ukrainian church.

The emergence of a church independent of Moscow has infuriated Putin, who has made restoration of the so-called “Russian world” a centerpiece of his foreign policy and has dismissed Ukrainian national identity as illegitimate.

And Kirill remains outspoken in his support of the invasion, announcing in September that Russian soldiers who die in the war against Ukraine will be cleansed of all their sins.

“He is sacrificing himself for others,” he said. “I am sure that such a sacrifice washes away all sins that a person has committed.”

Brazil’s police to analyze computers amid fears that Bolsonaro’s supporters are installing spyware

The future leadership of the Brazilian police force appointed by President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva could analyze the computers of the security authorities in the face of fears that officials close to the current president, Jair Bolsonaro, may install spyware.


File - Brazilian Federal Police during an operation in Rio de Janeiro. -

 JOSE LUCENA / ZUMA PRESS / CONTACTOPHOTO

This has been acknowledged to the newspaper 'O Globo' by an interlocutor of Lula, who justifies the fear of the next president's team in the affinity shown between Bolsonaro himself and the most conservative sector of the Federal Police over the last four years.

Likewise, Bolsonaro never denied his intention to place people in line with his ideology and postulates in some of the most prominent positions in the security and justice authorities. In fact, the Supreme Court even rejected the appointment of Alexandre Ramagem as head of the General Police Directorate because of his excessive proximity to the president's family.

Therefore, Lula's team may even consider a thorough inspection of the computers to check if the outgoing president ever used the police institution as a sort of "private intelligence service".

Although the president-elect has not yet made any pronouncement on who will be the general director of the Police, Brazilian media suggest that the main candidate could be Andrei Passos, who was head of security for Lula's political party, the Workers' Party, during the electoral campaign.

33 new cases of spying on politicians, businessmen and journalists with Predator software reported in Greece


The leader of the main Greek opposition party, the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), Alexis Tsipras, on Monday called on the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, to give explanations on the allegations about the possible 33 cases of espionage with Predator software attributed to the Intelligence Agency (EYP).


El primer minister griego, Kyriakos Mitsotakis - Soeren Stache/dpa

"Were the 33 targets of the Predator malware included in a list of the EYP?", Tsipras has raised in a parliamentary appearance.

The Israeli spying program would have been installed on the phones of 33 politicians -- and family members --, businessmen and journalists, the newspaper 'Documento' has revealed.

The list includes Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, former conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, former socialist, conservative and SYRIZA ministers and the executive director of the newspaper 'Kathimerini', Alexis Papachelas. 'Document' directly links Mitsotakis to this espionage and even refers to the "Mitsotakis system" of espionage.

The government has advocated "thoroughly" investigating these allegations, although it has warned that "there is a lot of narrative, but evidence is lacking," in the words of government spokesman Dimitris Oikonomu.

The vast majority of those listed have stated that they were not aware of any kind of extraordinary situation concerning their cell phones.

Just this Monday the director of 'Document', Kostas Vaxevanis, presented the documentation supporting the news to the Greek Supreme Court at the request of the court's prosecutor, Isidoros Dogiakos.

This is the second wave of an eavesdropping scandal that broke out in July, when the leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Party (PASOK), Nikos Androulakis, complained to the Supreme Court of being spied on his cell phone with Predator software discovered by the security service of the European Parliament.

US falls billions short of climate mitigation funding ‘fair share’

Mattha Busby - Monday - The Guardian

Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images

Billions of dollars of promised to developing countries by the US, UK, Canada and Australia to aid carbon emission reduction plans and help make communities more resilient to more extreme weather have not yet been delivered.

The US only provided $7.6bn of a projected $40bn as part of the pledged $100bn, while some countries overdelivered on their promises but did so as part of loans rather than grants.

The assessment, reported a day after the Cop27 climate summit began in Egypt, will increase pressure on the states to make good on their commitment, with the global north overwhelming responsible for the enveloping ecological crisis.

“Basic justice demands that those most responsible for causing the climate crisis should financially support those who are suffering most on the frontline of climate change,” said the former president of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed. “Every year we see the storms get stronger and the waves get higher.”

Only Canada responded to requests for comment. A government spokesperson said it remained committed and would double its climate finance in order to overdeliver, despite appearing to so far have only covered a third.

“Hey, don’t ask us.” Billionaires should not be expected to make up for climate finance gaps caused by failures to uphold promises to less developed states, the head of the Bezos Earth Fund has said.

EU calls Colombia’s president’s ‘total peace’ law a «major milestone


The European Union has described as an "important milestone for the Colombian people" the signing of the so-called 'total peace' law that allows the Colombian government, headed by Gustavo Petro, to hold talks with armed groups.


Colombian President Gustavo Petro - 

CHEPA BELTRAN / ZUMA PRESS / CONTACTOPHOTO

"The European Union welcomes the signing of the 'total peace' law by President Gustavo Petro following the adoption in the Senate and House of Representatives with a large majority," EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said on his official Twitter profile. The EU "supports all efforts to consolidate peace in Colombia," he added.

This initiative will allow to build negotiations with those who are "outside the law" and will serve as a legal framework to negotiate or demobilize armed groups such as the National Liberation Army (ELN) or dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Petro proposed during his electoral campaign for the Presidency to implement a 'total peace' with the objective of promoting dialogue with armed and political organizations with the intention of ending "the bloodbath" to which the country had been subjected for more than 50 years.

However, the measure has not convinced several retired Army generals, such as Sergeant Major Luis Orlando Lenis, who serves as president of a military foundation, and maintains that "the 'total peace' is simply another means of impunity" since it would open the possibility that guerrillas such as Luciano Marín Arango, alias 'Iván Marquez', could be pardoned.

Retired soldier Carlos Julio Rodríguez, who has assured that he is part of the military group that is concerned that this new Law 418 - its original name - will serve to violate the rights of the victims "as happened," he said, with the peace agreements of 2016 with the FARC guerrillas.

Despite these claims, the Colombian government has clarified on several occasions that these eventual negotiations are aimed at armed groups of a political nature, such as the National Liberation Army (ELN), not the FARC dissidents of which the aforementioned 'Iván Marquez' is a member.

A New York City neighborhood has scored a legal victory in its decade-long fight to protect a community garden

Alaa Elassar - Monday - CNN

Emmanuelle Chiche remembers the first time she stumbled upon Elizabeth Street Garden, a charming green space hidden between rows of concrete buildings in lower Manhattan.

It wasn’t like any other garden in the city, she remembers thinking. It transported her back to France, her home country, with its dozens of beautifully aging neoclassical sculptures and columns.

“In this place, I learned that there is such a thing as falling in love with a garden,” Chiche, 55, said while standing on a stone balcony overlooking a blossoming pink rose bush. Below, a visitor stops to bring one of the flowers to her nose. Eyes shut, she inhales deeply and basks in its scent.

Since 2013, Chiche and others in the Little Italy neighborhood have been worried about city plans to replace the garden with yet another building. But on Tuesday, they celebrated a victory in the legal battle to protect it.


Emmanuelle Chiche and her daughter, Elsa, sit in Elizabeth Street Garden, where Chiche volunteers. - Courtesy Sally Blue

State Supreme Court Judge Debra James granted a 2019 petition by Elizabeth Street Garden Inc., the nonprofit organization that operates and maintains the garden, to block construction of an affordable housing complex in its place. James also ordered the City of New York, which owns the property, to conduct a full environmental impact statement before approval for the development can be granted.

“When I saw the notification I started shaking,” said Norman Siegel, the civil rights lawyer who represents the nonprofit. “The law in the case says they have to take a hard look at the environmental issues, and one of the biggest issues they have to look at is the loss of open space.”

Sitting on a bench in front of Central Park’s Upper West Side, Siegel offers a huge smile. “They won,” he said, adding it would be impossible for the city to defend the development plan without showing it would have a negative impact on the environment.

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) called the judge’s decision “disappointing” and said in a statement to CNN it will appeal – indicating plans for a protracted fight.

A ‘false choice’ between affordable housing and green spaces

Haven Green, the project planned for the site, is a 123-unit affordable rental complex for senior citizens, according to the development’s website. It will also include a green space, retail stores and the new headquarters for Habitat for Humanity New York City.

HPD says Haven Green is necessary to address New York City’s growing problem with affordable housing, and was designed with the environment in mind.

“With 100,000 seniors currently waiting for access to affordable homes, we cannot allow a small number of anti-housing voices to continue standing in the way of projects our city so desperately needs,” HPD said in a statement to CNN.

Open New York, a grassroots group advocating for affordable housing, echoed HPD’s position. “Housing delayed is housing denied, and we simply can’t afford to let a small number of anti-housing voices block 100 percent affordable housing in a well-resourced neighborhood,” said executive director Annemarie Gray.

But Joseph Reiver, executive director of Elizabeth Street Garden Inc., says it’s not that simple.

His father, Allan Reiver, was the artist who decades ago transformed an empty, trash-filled lot into Elizabeth Street Garden. The elder Reiver, who ran an art gallery and filled the garden with his collection of sculptures and artifacts, died in 2021, leaving the garden in the hands of his son and thousands of volunteers who have been fighting for nearly a decade to protect it.

“It was my father’s legacy, but it’s not my garden,” Reiver said, sitting on a bench inside one of its many quiet nooks. “It belongs to this community, the community values it, and they would be devastated if they lost it.”

Norman Siegel, the lawyer for Elizabeth Street Garden Inc., cheers during a press conference announcing their legal victory. - Courtesy Nana Kumi

Reiver rejects claims by HPD and Open New York that Elizabeth Street Garden Inc. as a fringe group opposed to affordable housing.

“It’s a false choice, a divide and conquer tactic, to say, well, would you rather senior affordable housing or a lush community garden? You missed the issue. We are in dire need of both,” Reiver said. “We should heavily question any agency or leadership that says we can only have one or the other.”

Habitat for Humanity New York City CEO Karen Haycox contends Haven Green would provide both, as it has plans for 16,000 square feet of publicly accessible green space.

Siegel argues the green space the project promises “is not comparable to Elizabeth Street Garden” and will sacrifice necessary amenities the garden currently provides, including sufficient access to sunlight and space for large community activities.

District 1 Councilmember Christopher Marte, who represents the neighborhood where the garden grows, says the community has offered the city multiple proposals “to build senior affordable housing at other sites where we can get up to four times more units than at the Elizabeth Street Garden site.”

The city rejected those proposals, he said.

Razing the garden will have ‘monumental effects’

Supporters of Elizabeth Street Garden are confident an environmental impact statement will reveal construction of Haven Green would adversely impact the environment and quality of life in the neighborhood.

Christopher Kennedy, associate director at the Urban Systems Lab at The New School, says it’s a plausible conclusion.

“The more green space the better,” Kennedy, who authored a study about the positive impact of green spaces in cities, told CNN. “Green spaces offer endless climate related benefits, especially in relation to urban flooding issues. With extreme heat, which will become much more common in 50 years, the amount of vegetation coverage like trees and shrubs can cool the area substantially several degrees within an afternoon, which can be a life or death difference.

“When you take green spaces away, you increase the vulnerability of New Yorkers,” he added.

Razing the garden can also have “monumental” effects on the mental health of local residents, Kennedy said. Many rely on garden events and programs – including morning yoga, summer movie nights, poetry readings, and partnerships with local schools – for a sense of community.

“The garden is so unique because even though there are a lot of public parks and bigger parks, they can’t provide the same services the garden provides,” he said. “It isn’t just about getting outside for fresh air, it’s about the opportunity to connect with your neighbor and community and that translates to positive mental health impacts.”

New Yorkers gathered in Elizabeth Street Garden for afternoon music in the main green space, where public events are often held. - Courtesy Joseph Reiver

It could also affect local wildlife, supporters say. Elizabeth Street Garden, certified by the National Wildlife Foundation, is a registered way station for endangered monarch butterflies, providing them with nectar, milkweed and shelter.

The city has pointed to other parks that provide similar services, but it’s not the same said Councilmember Marte.

The neighborhood is “definitely underserved,” he said. “Our neighborhood shows that Elizabeth Street Garden is one of the only places to bring green to Little Italy, Chinatown, SoHo, and NoHo. Even though we love Washington Square Park, it’s not our neighborhood. It’s a completely different area, and most seniors can’t do that 20-minute walk to that park.”

Renée Green, a local senior and chairman of Elizabeth Street Garden Inc., says the garden has been vital to her health and wellness.

“From the time I moved here 15 years ago, I was riddled with arthritis,” said Green, 91. “The garden is everything to our community, and for people like myself, who are only growing older, losing it will mean losing our only access to nature, to a community, and that would be devastating.”

Nicholas O’Connell, 51, lives across the street from the garden. He says removing it would irrecoverably alter the community’s landscape.

“You walk around this neighborhood and there really isn’t trees, there’s no nature, and to destroy the garden and the ecosystem it has created would really be unacceptable,” he said. “We don’t want whatever they’re trying to bring, it will never match what we have here.”

‘We won’t give up ever’

Along with the distinctive sculptures from Allan Reiver’s collection, Elizabeth Street Garden boasts a gravel path bordered by stone ornamental railings designed by French landscape architect Jacques-Henri-Auguste Gréber during the Gilded Age.

Every corner of the sanctuary reveals another alcove, with benches hidden under canopies of colorful trees from which birds sing, providing respite from the noise of the bustling city. Those seeking sunshine have endless options to lie in between pear trees, beds of roses, dahlias, asters, dianthus, and geraniums.

“It’s like walking into the magical garden from a story book, it really is surreal,” said Geena DiGuilio, a garden volunteer.

On a balcony across from her a couple sits on a bench, hands intertwined, one reading a book aloud to the other. Later that afternoon, a newlywed bride and groom will laugh as they run down the path toward the garden’s entrance.

“My favorite thing is bringing my friends and watching their faces when they first walk in, that shocked ‘what is this place?’ And seeing them soak in the magic,” DiGuilio said.

A woman reads on the balcony, which overlooks a rose bush, hydrangea tree and various flower beds in Elizabeth Street Garden. - Courtesy Joseph Reiver

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development remains adamant Haven Green won’t harm the community, and says it’s committed to the project. “We stand by our environmental reviews, we are determined to bring Haven Green to this site, and we will pursue every avenue available to ensure that happens,” it said in its statement.

To counter those efforts, Reiver says the nonprofit will try to preserve Elizabeth Street Garden as a conservation land trust, so it can continue operating the garden and its community programs free of encroachment by the city.

In the meantime, Reiver is urging Mayor Eric Adams and other officials to visit the garden and see its impact for themselves. “Come see what’s at stake,” he said.

After last week’s legal victory, he and supporters believe anything is possible.

“So many people saw us as that little garden who will never win. But we won, at least for now, and we won’t give up ever,” Chiche said.

In Halloween crush, South Koreans see young people being failed again

Soo Youn - Monday

SEOUL, South Korea — Ushered by guides donning black ribbons, Ahn Soon Yi, 86, and her husband walked the semicircular path around Seoul Plaza. Then they placed white chrysanthemums on a memorial altar for the 156 mostly young victims of the Halloween crowd crush, and wrote condolences for scores of people who had departed this life decades too soon.

Afterward, Ahn sobbed into a handkerchief and fell to the ground: Her own granddaughter was the same age as many who had died.

“How can this keep happening in this country?” she said on Friday, referring to a 1999 fire at a Hwasong youth camp in which 23 children died. Older generations, she said, failed them like they failed the costumed partygoers on Oct. 29. “Why couldn’t the police have gotten there sooner?”

South Koreans across the country are asking the same questions. This year’s Halloween celebration in Seoul’s nightlife district of Itaewon drew a crowd of 100,000 revelers yet only 137 police officers, resulting in one of the worst peacetime disasters in the country’s history.


People pray for victims of a deadly accident during Halloween festivities in Seoul, South Korea, on Nov. 2, 2022. (Ahn Young-joon / AP)

Soon after the disaster, President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a one-week period of national mourning as authorities scrambled to explain what happened. Throughout South Korea, thousands of people paid their respects at designated memorial sites in 17 cities.

Many expressed similar reasons for attending. Millennials and Generation Zers cited the sense that “it could have been me or my friends.” Those a generation older empathized with the victims’ parents. Across ages, people shared disappointment that adults could not protect the children.

South Korea has been wrestling with shock, grief and, as the days progress, anger. The release of transcripts of calls to police asking for help and warning of peril hours before the crush, and the Yoon government’s use of the word “accident” instead of “disaster” and “decedent” instead of “victim” added to frustrations with the government.

Police chief says response to Seoul Halloween crush was inadequate

View on Watch   Duration 1:31

On Friday, a bereaved mother whose son died in Itaewon visited the altar at Seoul’s City Hall, tearing down the flowers sent by Yoon and yelling, “Why did you send flowers without protecting them?” as she was pulled away by police.

One week after the Itaewon disaster, as the official mourning period drew to a close, tens of thousands of Koreans gathered at an evening vigil at City Hall to memorialize the victims and protest the Yoon government, holding signs saying, “The citizens are dead. Is this me?” and “Yoon Suk Yeol step down.”

Earlier in the day, hundreds of young people had organized a protest in Itaewon, carrying signs saying, “At 6:34 the country was not there [for the victims],” referring to the time the first panicked call was made to the police before the fatalities occurred.

On Monday, Yoon apologized for the crowd crush, vowing to improve police and safety management systems and hold accountable anyone found responsible.

The anti-Yoon protests have been going on for weeks with a heavy police presence, including the night of the Halloween crush, which has also angered critics, as has Yoon’s move out of the official presidential residence into a luxury apartment building. The move has increased his Itaewon-based security detail to about 700 officers.

People take part in a candlelight vigil to commemorate the 156 people killed in the October 29 Halloween crowd crush in Seoul, South Korea, on Nov. 5, 2022. 

(Jung Yeon-je / AFP - Getty Images)

Yoon’s new home is the site of the former Sampoong Department Store, which collapsed in 1995, killing more than 500 people and injuring more than 900. There is no major public memorial at the site.

“The Korean government has a long history of censoring, erasing and misremembering any event that might be considered shameful,” said Areum Jeong, author of an upcoming book on the aftermath of the Sewol ferry disaster. “Creating a memorial would be admitting that there is something to document.”

More than 100 of those killed in the Halloween crush were in their 20s, a generation marked by the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014, which killed more than 300 high school students. The tragedy marked the beginning of the end for the last right-wing president, Park Geun-hye.

At the time, Busan resident Park Yun Eun, 20, was in sixth grade.

“I saw this horrible [Sewol] accident happen, and it was also under a conservative administration. To grow up watching that, and seeing this, it reaffirms my belief that no matter what we do, no matter how much we call the police … they’re not going to take care of us, they’re not going to save our lives,” she said.



People take part in a candlelight vigil to commemorate the 156 people killed in the October 29 Halloween crowd crush in Seoul on Nov. 5, 2022. 

(Jung Yeon-je / AFP - Getty Images)

Within the last century, Korea has emerged from Japanese colonialism, the Korean War, military dictatorships and a struggle for democracy, transforming itself into the world’s 10th-largest economy. As a result, the whiplash-inducing pace of change can wallpaper over generational trauma, experts say, which resurfaces when an event that seems preventable occurs.

“Koreans tend to force themselves to go on with their lives,” Jeong said. “People deal with such trauma by attending memorials or protests, posting condolences on social media and creating and viewing art that commemorates the victims.”

Some worried that the government seemed to have forced the country into mourning before the incident had been fully investigated.

Kang Hye-Won, a Seoul-based cultural critic, said that declaring a memorial week the day after the disaster, as the bodies were still being recovered and identified, seemed too soon.

“People are afraid the government will not properly figure out why it happened and what to improve after the disaster,” Kang said. “People are in deep sorrow, but at the same time they’re afraid that maybe things won’t change.”



A woman prays near a makeshift memorial for the 156 people killed in a Halloween crowd crush in Seoul's Itaewon district on Nov. 5, 2022.

(Kang Jin-kyu / AFP - Getty Images)

Jean Kim, a Korean American psychiatrist who has treated post-traumatic stress disorder, said that collective trauma can occur after long-term events, like a war or occupation, as well as after acute, short-term ones like the Itaewon tragedy, layering levels of grief.

In addition, the barrage of images and videos on social media can aggravate the PTSD symptom of abnormal memory processing in which an event gets replayed over and over and sets off panic, flashbacks and nightmares, Kim said.

“While it is important to look at what could be done differently for future safety, trauma also may set off unhealthy rumination, self-berating (such as survivor guilt) and anger,” she said.

Mental health services and counseling sessions are being offered at some universities, but many aren’t sure that Koreans would use them, since mental health treatments still carry some stigma.

Asked what would help her generation heal, Park said, “We grew up realizing that Sewol was dealt with in a terrible way. I don’t even know how to deal with that trauma, which was eight years ago. Now 156 deaths of people my age, I do not know how to deal with that. I don’t know how to be angry. I don’t know how to speak out against what’s happening. That’s the biggest problem with our generation right now, we don’t know how to think. It’s really sad.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com