Tree count in Africa drylands could improve conservation: study


Jenny VAUGHAN
Wed, March 1, 2023 


A first count of trees in Africa's drylands has enabled scientists to calculate how much carbon they store and could help devise better conservation strategies for the region and beyond, a study said Wednesday.

The number of trees in the vast region -- the count came to nearly 10 billion -- has not been known up to now, and the new data could prove crucial for slowing or preventing desertification, the authors said.

"(It) tells us about the carbon cycle and how much carbon we have in trees is mitigating climate change and our abuse of fossil fuels," Compton Tucker, co-lead author of the study published in the journal Nature, told AFP.

Dryland trees capture carbon for much longer than grasses and other non-woody species in the region, even if individually they do not store huge amounts.

The data show there are 9.9 billion trees within Africa's drylands: semi-arid Sub-Saharan Africa north of the Equator, which includes the Sahel and covers nearly 10 million square kilometres (four million square miles) of land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.

That's the size of continental United States, plus Alaska, said Tucker, a senior Earth scientist at NASA.

By comparison, there are an estimated 400 billion trees in the Amazon.

Without accurate data on the number of trees in the Sahel, previous estimates largely overestimated the region's carbon-storage capacity, the study said.

The data could also help inform policies such as the Great Green Wall Initiative, which aims to restore savanna, grasslands and farmlands across the Sahel.

Policymakers, experts and donors can better track tree coverage -- and deforestation -- in the region, and understand how trees are being used by local communities.

"There is a lot of money in green finance dedicated to avoiding deforestation that has not been used due to a lack of reliable verification systems," said contributing author Philippe Ciais.

"High-resolution spatial data is crucial to improving the quality of carbon credits."

- Interactive map -

The researchers used machine learning to scan more than 300,000 high-resolution satellite images to map the crown area of individual trees in the drylands, defined as an arid region with low rainfall.

The authors hope to improve on the tool in the future by being able to map the trunk of the tree to determine its age and height, allowing for more accurate data on carbon storage capacity.

"When you want to estimate wood mass, it would be much better if -- in addition to the crown cover -- we had the height," co-lead author Pierre Hiernaux told AFP.

"It's almost possible but not yet."

Tucker said the same methodology could be used in other drylands including in Australia, the western United States or Central Asia.

An interactive map showing the location of individual trees and details the amount of carbon they store is available online.

Tucker hopes the data won't be used for harmful intentions.

"Any time you do something like this, you can certainly be used for bad purposes. We hope it's used for good."

The interactive map is available at: https://trees.pgc.umn.edu/app

jv/mh/jj

Maternal deaths in Africa: UN points huge regional disparities

03:34

A report from the UN has laid bare huge regional disparities in maternal death rates. The problem touches every region in the world but poorer countries and those affected by conflict are particularly vulnerable. In 2020, Subsaharan Africa’s Maternal mortality rate was 136 times that of Australia and New Zealand where MMR was lowest. South Sudan has the highest numbers followed by Chad and Nigeria. FRANCE 24 is joined by Argentina Matavel Piccin, regional director for the UN Population Fund.

Long lost Madagascar songbird seen again in wild

Issued on: 01/03/2023 

Paris (AFP) – Conservationists were celebrating Wednesday the first sightings in 24 years of the dusky tetraka, a yellow-throated songbird native to Madagascar for which ornithologists had feared the worst.

A expedition to remote regions of the island nation confirmed two recent sightings of the bird.

Scientists also learned something about the petite bird's behaviour that could help explain how it escaped notice for so long, even if it remains extremely rare.

The last documented sighting of dusky tetraka, in 1999, was in the rainforests of northeastern Madagascar, one of the world's most diverse biodiversity hotspots with hundreds of unique vertebrate species.

In December, an international team of researchers led by the US-based Peregrine Fund drove for 40 hours and hiked for half-a-day to the last spot the warbler-like bird had been seen.

Much of the forest, they discovered, had been destroyed and converted to farms for vanilla production, even though the area is officially protected.

After eight days, team member John Mittermeier, director of the lost birds program at American Bird Conservancy, finally spotted one hopping through dense undergrowth on the ground near a rocky river and snapped a photo.

"If dusky tetraka always prefer areas close to rivers, this might help to explain why the species has been overlooked for so long," he said.

'Data insufficient'

"Birding in tropical forests is all about listening for bird calls, and so you naturally tend to avoid spending time next to rushing rivers where you can't hear anything."

Another dusky tetraka located by a second team also spent most of its time in dense vegetation close to a river, presumably looking for insects and other prey in the damp undergrowth.

"Now that we've found the dusky tetraka and better understand the habitat it lives in, we can look for it in other parts of Madagascar," said Lily-Arison Rene de Roland, Madagascar Program director for The Peregrine Fund.

More than half of Madagascar's birds -- some 115 species -- are endemic, meaning they are found nowhere else. © John C. Mittermeier / American Bird Conservancy/AFP

The bird is on the Top Ten Most Wanted Lost Birds list, a collaboration between Re:wild, American Bird Conservancy and BirdLife International, all partners on the expedition.

More than half of Madagascar's birds -- some 115 species -- are endemic, meaning they are found nowhere else.

More than 40 of the island's bird species are classified as threatened with extinction on the Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The dusty tetraka -- aka Crossleyia tenebrosa -- is not classified for lack of data.

The main drivers of biodiversity loss on Madagascar are forest destruction to make way for agriculture, habitat degradation, invasive species, climate change and hunting.

About 40 percent of the island's original forest cover was lost between the 1950s and 2000, according to earlier research.

© 2023 AFP

Earth’s ‘green lung’ rainforests take centre stage at talks in Gabon

A forest elephant is pictured Langoue Bai in the Ivindo national park in Gabon on April 26, 2019. 

© Amaury Hauchard, AFP

Text by: Cyrielle CABOT

Issued on: 01/03/2023 

The sixth annual One Planet Summit begins on Wednesday, with the fate of forests at the top of the agenda. Politicians, scientists and NGOs will meet in Libreville, Gabon, to discuss the future of rainforests in the Congo basin, Southeast Asia and the Amazon basin – and whether countries in the Global North should finance the preservation of the Earth’s “green lungs”.

French President Emmanuel Macron will preside over the two-day conference from Libreville, in the heart of Africa’s “green lung”: more than 200 million hectares of forest spread over six countries, filled with biodiverse species found nowhere else in the world.

The One Planet Summit, launched by Macron, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and then World Bank president Jim Kim in 2017, will gather heads of state, NGOs and scientists in Gabon’s capital to discuss the best way to protect the vast tropical forest in the Congo basin as well as those in the Amazon basin and Southeast Asia.

This year’s gathering has been dubbed the One Forest Summit to reflect this focus.

One Planet Summit

“The decision to hold this summit in the Congo basin is significant because Central Africa’s tropical forest is one of the main carbon sinks on the planet,” says Alain Karsenty, forest economist and researcher at the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development and a Central Africa specialist.

The tropical rainforest, which spans Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville (Republic of the Congo), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon, currently stores stocks of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent to 10 years’ worth of global emissions. “Forests in Southeast Asia now emit more CO2 than they absorb due to deforestation,” Karsenty says. “In the Amazon, studies show that we are reaching a tipping point. The only place where forests are definitely still absorbing more CO2 than they emit is in Central Africa.”

In the Amazon, thousands of trees have been razed to make space for soy farms and pasture for livestock, and in Indonesia palm oil production has led to millions of hectares of deforestation. But Central Africa’s rainforests have been largely – if not entirely – spared. “Deforestation began in 2010, spurred by the pressure of a growing population. It was linked to slash-and-burn agriculture, which many farmers depend on, and the use of charcoal,” Karsenty says.

Levels of such “poverty deforestation” vary from country to country in the Congo basin. DRC was home to 40% of global deforestation in 2021, second only to Brazil. But Gabon, which has a significantly smaller population than its neighbour, is a low deforestation country.

Gabon: A model student

Since the goal of limiting global temperature increases to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels was agreed at COP21, countries in Central Africa have taken steps to protect their forests. “And Gabon has gradually emerged as the model student in the region,” Karsenty says.

For decades the country – dubbed “Africa’s Last Eden” due to more than 85% of its territory being covered by rainforest – profited from the underground petrol resources fueling its economy. But in 2010 it began a transition towards diversification through timber production and palm oil plantations. The objective was to balance the country’s economic needs and its response to the climate emergency.

The initiative was led by the Gabonese-British minister of water, forests, seas and the environment, Lee White CBE, who offered foreign furniture companies and plywood manufacturers financial breaks on the condition that they set up factories in Gabon while simultaneously banning the export of logs and unprocessed wood.

Strict laws against using the forest for industry were also implemented, meaning manufacturers could only cut down a maximum of two trees per hectare, every 25 years. To deter illegal felling, logs were marked with barcodes so that they could be tracked, “which created jobs, helped the economy to flourish and limited deforestation”, Karsenty says.

Why tropical forests must urgently be preserved?

As a final measure, Gabon inaugurated 13 national parks covering 11% of its land mass and installed a satellite-based surveillance system to monitor deforestation.

Twelve years later, these environmental protection measures appear to have worked. Gabon’s forest area is increasing and illegal wood felling has decreased slightly. The number of elephants in Gabon’s forests has gone up from 60,000 in 1990 to 95,000 in 2021.

There have also been economic gains. Gabon has become one of Africa’s – and the world’s – biggest producers of plywood. In total, the timber industry provides some 30,000 jobs and 7% of the country’s labour force.

>> Biodiversity hotspot Gabon offers safe haven to endangered species

Regional competition

“Thanks to these political decisions, Gabon today is a regional leader on environmental issues,” says Karsenty. ”Several other countries in the Congo basin have said they want to implement measures inspired by Gabon. For example, Republic of the Congo and DRC also want to ban log exports and create free-trade zones to attract investors.”

“It is certainly no coincidence that Emmanuel Macron has decided to hold the One Forest Summit there,” he adds.

However, Gabon’s neighbour DRC is also trying to build up its international image as a major player in the fight against climate deregulation.

“Since 2010, DRC has also introduced several measures aiming to save the forest, notably policies to settle nomadic populations,” Karsenty says. The country’s indigenous peoples live in nomadic and semi-nomadic groups, and are reliant on the forest for resources, yet efforts to settle them have had limited success in a country subject to political corruption, instability and armed conflict.

At COP26 in 2021, the DRC named itself a “solution country” and committed to protecting its rainforest in exchange for financial support of $500 million from the international community.

Months later, the country hosted a “pre-COP” meeting ahead of COP27 that it used as an opportunity to showcase its fight against deforestation. Scientists were shown the Yangambi Biosphere Reserve on the Congo River, which has since 2020 been home to a “flux tower” that measures the amount of CO2 absorbed and emitted by the forest – a first in the region.

“There’s a real regional rivalry to appear internationally as a leader in forest protection,” Karsenty says. “And the main reason behind this race for leadership is seeking out financing from countries in the Global North.”
Finance from the North

Both Gabon and DRC agree on a central point: Industrialised countries whose historical use of fossil fuels bears much of the responsibility for climate change have an obligation to aid developing countries, such as those in the Congo basin, in their transition to ecological practices.

“Through its climate diplomacy, Gabon wants to make countries in the Global North finance its efforts to fight deforestation,” Karsenty says.

It has had some success. In 2019, Norway agreed to transfer $150 million to Gabon over a 10-year period to support its environmental policies. Although Norway has acted as a “benefactor” for tropical forests for some years, this marked the first time it had offered financial aid to a country located outside the Amazon basin or Indonesia.

Lee White on One Forrest Summit

A year and a half later, Gabon received the first payment – $17 million in exchange for tonnes of CO2 stored, thanks to measures to halt deforestation.

During COP26, DRC was also promised a landmark $500 million from the international community to protect its forests. “Internationally, the DRC has been asking for years that the country be automatically remunerated for resources the forest would have provided based on some sort of ‘annuity’ rationale,” Karsenty says. “The argument is that by preserving their forests, countries are deprived of income, notably from underground [resources], and that should be compensated.”

However, the funds have yet to materialise and the country seems to be trying a new approach.

In July 2022, DRC President Félix Tshisekedi announced his intention to auction off land for oil drilling, some of which is located in the heart of the rainforest, home to the world’s largest tropical peat bogs. With capacity to produce up to 1 million barrels of oil per day, the country could generate revenue of $32 million per year, DRC’s minister of hydrocarbons has said.

Peat bogs are highly effective natural carbon sinks and damaging them would release enormous amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.

DRC’s lead representative for climate issues, Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, told the New York Times that the call for tender was not a threat designed to scare industrialised countries into offering more financial assistance.

The issue will be up for discussion at the One Forest Summit. In the long-term, Karsenty says, “We need to go beyond these arguments and beyond rivalries, to put in place a communal agenda from countries in the Congo basin, achieve regional cooperation and preserve this tropical forest.”

This article was adapted from the original in French.

Israeli forces kill Palestinian in West Bank: Palestinian ministry

Issued on: 01/03/2023 - 

Jerusalem (AFP) – Israeli forces killed Wednesday a Palestinian man during a raid in the occupied West Bank following the fatal shooting of an Israeli-American motorist earlier this week, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The Israeli army said soldiers fired at two people who tried to flee after they entered the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp near Jericho to arrest suspects in the Monday shooting attack in the same area.

Mahmoud Jamal Hassan Hamdan, 22, died from "serious wounds inflicted by bullets of the occupation (Israel)" during the raid, a statement from the Palestinian health ministry said.

Hamdan died before arriving at Jerusalem's Hadassa hospital, a spokesperson there said.

Israeli forces in Aqabat Jabr "arrested four suspects including the terrorist responsible for the attack" that killed Israeli-American Elan Ganeles, 27, the army said.

Ganeles was buried on Wednesday at the central Israeli city of Raanana.

Jihad Abu al-Assad, governor of Jericho, told AFP Hamdan had sustained serious injuries.

The latest deaths came amid a surge in violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and specifically in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967.

Late Sunday, the Palestinian town of Huwara came under attack by Israeli settlers, hours after two Israeli settlers -- brothers Yagel Yaniv, 20, and Hallel Yaniv, 22 -- were shot dead as they drove through the northern West Bank town.

Dozens of Israeli settlers set homes and cars ablaze and hurled stones in Huwara overnight.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant deplored an "intolerable" situation, saying: "We cannot allow a situation in which citizens take the law into their (own) hands."

Police have arrested seven suspects in connection with the attack.

Since the start on the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 64 Palestinian adults and children, including militants and civilians.

Thirteen Israeli adults and children, including members of the security forces and civilians, and one Ukrainian civilian have been killed over the same period, according to an AFP tally based on official sources from both sides.

On Sunday, Israeli and Palestinian officials pledged in a joint statement to "prevent further violence" and "commit to de-escalation" following talks in Jordan.

© 2023 AFP

Israeli police use stun grenades, water cannon in crackdown on protests against judicial reform



03:37 Israeli police deploy horses and stun grenades to disperse Israelis blocking a main road during a protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new government to overhaul the judicial system, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Wednesday, March 1, 2023. © Oded Balilty, AP

Text by: NEWS WIRES|
Video by: Sami SOCKOL
Issued on: 01/03/2023

Weeks of anti-government protests in Israel turned violent on Wednesday for the first time as police fired stun grenades and a water cannon at demonstrators who blocked a Tel Aviv highway. The crackdown came shortly after Israel’s hard-line national security minister urged a tough response to what he said were “anarchists.”

The violence came as thousands across the country launched a “national disruption day” against the government’s plan to overhaul Israel’s judicial system.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s allies say the program is meant to reduce the influence of unelected judges. But critics, including influential business leaders and former military figures, say Netanyahu is pushing the country toward authoritarian rule and has a clear conflict of interest in targeting judges as he stands trial on corruption charges.

Since Netanyahu’s government took office two months ago, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest the changes, which they say endangers Israel’s fragile system of checks and balances. Wednesday, however, marked the first time police used force against the crowds.

Israel protests

The government is barreling ahead with the legal changes and a parliamentary committee is moving forward on a bill that would weaken the Supreme Court.

The crisis has sent shock waves through Israel and presented Netanyahu with a serious challenge. A wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence in the occupied West Bank has compounded his troubles.

The rival sides are digging in, deepening one of Israel’s worst domestic crises. Netanyahu and his government, made up of ultranationalists, have branded the protesters anarchists, while stopping short of condemning a West Bank settler mob that torched a Palestinian town earlier this week.

The legal overhaul has sparked an unprecedented uproar, with weeks of mass protests, criticism from legal experts and rare demonstrations by army reservists who have pledged to disobey orders under what they say will be a dictatorship after the overhaul passes. Business leaders, the country’s booming tech sector and leading economists have warned of economic turmoil under the judicial changes. Israel’s international allies have expressed concern.

In the first scenes of unrest since the protests began two months ago, police arrived on horseback in the center of the seaside metropolis of Tel Aviv, hurled stun grenades and used a water cannon against thousands of protesters who chanted “democracy” and “police state.” A video posted on social media showed a police officer pinning down a protester with his knee on the man’s neck and another showed a man who reportedly had his ear ripped off by a stun grenade.

Facing the police, protesters also chanted “where were you,” a reference to the absence of security forces during the settler attack on the Palestinian town of Hawara, which took hours to quell and which the military said it was not prepared for.


Click to play footage of Wednesday's protests

Police said protesters threw rocks and water bottles at the officers. Police said they arrested 39 protesters in Tel Aviv for disturbing the peace while 11 people were hospitalized with various injuries, according to Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. Earlier Wednesday, protesters blocked Tel Aviv’s main freeway and the highway connecting the city to Jerusalem, halting rush hour traffic for about an hour. At busy train stations in Tel Aviv, protesters prevented trains from departing by blocking their doors.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist accused of politicizing the police, has vowed to take a tough line. He called on police to prevent the road blockages, labeling the demonstrators “anarchists.”

Netanyahu said Ben-Gvir had his full support. “We will not tolerate violence against police, blocking roads and blatant breaches of the country’s laws. The right to protest is not the right to anarchy, » he said.

Netanyahu also blamed opposition leader Yair Lapid for fomenting anarchy. Lapid called on police to show restraint and said Netanyahu’s government had lost control.

“The protesters are patriots,” Lapid tweeted. “They are fighting for the values of freedom, justice and democracy. The role of the police is to allow them to express their opinions and fight for the country they love.”

Thousands of protesters came out in locations across the country waving Israeli flags. Parents marched with their children, tech workers walked out of work to demonstrate and doctors in scrubs protested outside hospitals. The main rallies were expected later Wednesday outside the Knesset, or parliament, and near Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem.

“Every person here is trying to keep Israel a democracy and if the current government will get its way, then we are afraid we will no longer be a democracy or a free country,” said Arianna Shapira, a protester in Tel Aviv. “As a woman, as a mother, I’m very scared for my family and for my friends.”

Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the overhaul’s main architect, said Tuesday that the coalition aims to ram through some of the judicial overhaul bills into law in the coming month, before the parliament goes on recess for the Passover holiday on April 2.

The Knesset also is set to cast a preliminary vote Wednesday on a separate proposal to protect Netanyahu from being removed from his post, a move that comes following calls to the country’s attorney general to declare him “unfit for office.”

Netanyahu has been the center of a years-long political crisis in Israel, with former allies turning on him and refusing to sit with him in government because of his corruption charges. That political turmoil, with five elections in four years, culminated in Netanyahu returning to power late last year, with ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties as partners in the current far-right government.

Wielding immense political power, those allies secured top portfolios in Netanyahu’s government, among them Ben-Gvir, who before entering politics was arrested dozens of times and was once convicted of incitement to violence and support for a terror group. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a firebrand West Bank settler leader, has been given authority over parts of the territory.

They have promised to take a tough stance against Palestinians, which has ratcheted up tensions in recent weeks. Smotrich publicly called for a harsh response to the killing of two Israelis in the West Bank by a Palestinian gunman, saying Israel should “go crazy,” shortly before Sunday’s mob violence. While he later urged restraint, he also said Wednesday that Hawara, the Palestinian town that was attacked, should be “erased.”

In addition to the protests, Netanyahu’s government, Israel’s most right-wing ever, is beginning to show early cracks, just two months into its tenure.

The government says the legal changes are meant to correct an imbalance that has given the courts too much power and allowed them to meddle in the legislative process. They say the overhaul will streamline governance and say elections last year, which returned Netanyahu to power with a slim majority in parliament, gave them a mandate to make the changes.

Critics say the overhaul will upend Israel’s system of checks and balances, granting the prime minister and the government unrestrained power and push the country toward authoritarianism.

(AP)

Israel police crack down on legal reform protest

Issued on: 01/03/2023 - 

Tel Aviv (AFP) – Israeli police clashed Wednesday with protesters rallying against the government's judicial reform programme which critics say threatens democracy, as lawmakers held a preliminary vote on the latest controversial bill.

Demonstrators in Tel Aviv blocked some streets, and police employed stun grenades, water cannon and officers on horseback in a rare use of force in the coastal city, AFP journalists said.

Some 39 people were arrested for "allegedly rioting and not obeying instructions by police officials", police said in a statement.

Eleven wounded protesters arrived at Tel Aviv's Ichilov hospital, a spokesman for the facility told AFP.

"I am here for democracy, for human rights, for justice," demonstrator Johann Kanal, 39, told AFP in Tel Aviv.

Another protester, 51-year-old lawyer Dana Niron, said: "We are blocking all the intersections, we're stopping the entire traffic in the entire country in hope that the current government will understand that we are dead serious and that we will do everything in our power to change the current path that they are taking."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit back in a televised statement.

"The right to demonstrate is not the right to block the country," he said, accusing demonstrators of crossing "a red line".

"A sovereign country cannot tolerate anarchy," added Netanyahu, who returned to power late last year at the head of a coalition with ultra-Orthodox Jewish and extreme-right allies.

Security forces used stun grenades to disperse protesters in Tel Aviv © Jack GUEZ / AFP

The premier earlier stressed his support for the police, who "are acting against lawbreakers who are disrupting Israeli citizens' daily lives".

The rally in Tel Aviv came as lawmakers in Jerusalem passed in preliminary reading a bill limiting the chances of a prime minister being impeached.

Opponents say the measure is aimed at protecting Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges he denies.

MPs voted 62 to 20 in favour of the legislation, which proposes a three-quarter parliamentary majority to impeach a premier due to physical or mental incapacity.

Following the initial vote, the bill will pass to a parliamentary committee to consider whether it should be scrapped or returned to the chamber to continue the legislative process.

Police employed stun grenades, water cannon and officers on horseback in a rare use of force in Tel Aviv © JACK GUEZ / AFP

The broader judicial reform, announced in January, includes measures that critics argue are intended to hand politicians more power at the expense of the judiciary.

Netanyahu and his justice minister, Yariv Levin, argue the change is necessary to reset the balance between elected officials and the Supreme Court which they view as politicised.

Lawmakers also passed in preliminary reading a bill to impose the death penalty on "terrorists", with 55 MPs in favour and nine against.

Extreme-right politicians have repeatedly attempted to pass such legislation in the 120-seat chamber, but have failed to garner enough support.

Israel abolished the use of capital punishment for murder in civil courts in 1954, though it can still in theory be applied for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, treason and crimes against the Jewish people.

© 2023 AFP

‘Brink of internal disintegration’: Twin crises split Israeli society

ByGwen Ackerman and Ethan Bronner
March 2, 2023 — 7.13am

Israel was rocked by further protests against the government’s planned judicial overhaul in the wake of increased violence in the West Bank, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed determined to hold his ground.

Demonstrators against the state’s bid to restrict the authority of the Supreme Court blocked main roadways on Wednesday (Tel Aviv time), including the key Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. Thirty-nine were arrested in the latest skirmish in a controversy that’s caused a deep social rift and sparked shekel volatility and unnerved markets and investors.

Israeli police deploy horses and stun grenades to disperse Israelis blocking a main road to protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government to overhaul the judicial system, in Tel Aviv.

CREDIT:AP

Unrest in Palestinian villages has led to fights between soldiers and Jewish settlers in recent days, intensifying the worst hostilities in years. Eight Israelis were arrested on suspicion of their involvement in the violence and an assault in the village of Huwara.

Police said they expected to detain more.

The twin battles have increased concerns about an escalating crisis in Israel since Netanyahu returned to power as head of a far-right coalition in December.

Critics say plans for the judiciary will hand too much power to authorities, and a committee debate about the reforms in the Knesset on Wednesday turned raucous.

Israeli police deploy a water cannon to disperse Israelis blocking a main road to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to overhaul the nation’s judicial system.CREDIT:AP

The government and its supporters say they are reining in an activist high court and returning power to the voters. The rift over this issue is genuine but also a proxy for the socio-economic divide between traditional, more religious Jews and secular professionals.

“Israel is on the brink of internal disintegration and severe social rift,” Yuval Diskin, former head of Israel’s domestic security agency, the Shin Bet, said at a demonstration. “It came much faster than I expected. We are liable to be on the brink of civil war, and this is because of our miserable government.”

Protesters and opposition lawmakers criticised the use of stun grenades, water cannons and horses to push back demonstrators. Eleven were wounded. Netanyahu said police should use whatever means necessary to stop demonstrators from blocking highways and what he said were attacks against officers.

In an unplanned televised address on Wednesday evening, Netanyahu compared some of the demonstrations to what had happened in the West Bank.

A Palestinian carries stones during clashes with Israeli forces near the West Bank city of Jericho.CREDIT:AP

“We won’t accept law breaking and violence, not in Huwara, not in Tel Aviv, not anywhere,” he said, grim-faced from the podium. “I once again call for calm, I call for an end to the violence and I believe and hope that we will soon find a way toward dialogue and agreements.”

In the Knesset, the plenum approved in a preliminary vote a bill that will protect Netanyahu, on trial for bribery and breach of trust, from a forced leave of absence, preventing the High Court from recusing him.

A second bill calling for the death sentence for Palestinians carrying out attacks against Israel also passed a preliminary vote. Both must be approved three more times before coming law.

RELATED ARTICLE

Israeli-Palestinian conflict
‘Without mercy’: Israeli settlers rampage after Palestinian gunman kills two

Violence worsening

The rage in the streets is led by secular liberals who fear the government is pulling the nation toward religious nationalist policies.

Every Saturday night for the last eight weeks, at least 100,000 have gathered in Tel Aviv. On Wednesday, an annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies, an establishment foreign-policy think tank, was blocked by protesters waving flags and shouting slogans over the judicial changes.

In a meeting in Aqaba on Monday, Israel and the Palestinian Authority agreed to work to stop the clashes, though this was undermined the same day when a young Israeli-American man was shot and killed in the West Bank.

RELATED ARTICLE

Israeli-Palestinian conflict
‘Patience is running out’: Palestinians killed, scores hurt in Israel West Bank raid

There are fears the violence could worsen, as the Islamic holiday of Ramadan and Jewish celebration of Passover loom in early April.

Sixty-two Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops since the beginning of the year, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, alongside 14 Israelis — both the highest number in years.

“The country is in a dark age,” opposition lawmaker Efrat Rayten Marom said at the law committee meeting.

UN head says high seas treaty must be 'ambitious'

Issued on: 01/03/2023

United Nations (United States) (AFP) – United Nations chief Antonio Guterres urged countries Wednesday to agree a "robust and ambitious" treaty to protect the high seas, as time starts to run out for negotiators.

After 15 years of formal and informal talks, delegates have been meeting in New York since February 20 to discuss a text that aims to protect nearly half the planet.

It is the third "final" negotiating round in less than a year and is due to end Friday.

"Our ocean has been under pressure for decades. We can no longer ignore the ocean emergency," Guterres said in a message read to negotiators.

"The impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution are being keenly felt around the globe, affecting our environment, our livelihoods and our lives," the secretary-general added.

"In adopting a robust and ambitious agreement at this meeting, you can take an important step forward in countering these destructive trends and advancing ocean health for generations to come."

The high seas begin at the border of countries' exclusive economic zones, which extend up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from coastlines. They thus fall under the jurisdiction of no country.

While the high seas comprise more than 60 percent of the world's oceans and nearly half the planet's surface, they have long drawn far less attention than coastal waters and a few iconic species.

An updated draft text released last weekend is still full of parenthetical clauses and multiple options on some major issues that will determine the robustness of the final agreement.

Observers who spoke with AFP however were optimistic Wednesday thanks to significant progress in talks over recent days.

"The first week felt like we were going around in circles, but we feel like the pace is very much picking up and the views are moving closer to one another," said Greenpeace's Laura Meller.

"A strong global ocean treaty is very, very reachable," she added.

Glen Wright, a researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations, said he wouldn't call the proposal "ambitious."

"But I think it's strong enough to be meaningful, to set up something that states can use in the future to build on," he added.

Still under dispute is how the marine protected areas, a core part of any future treaty's mandate, will be created.

Several observers told AFP that China is pushing for the future governing body of any eventual treaty, known as the conference of the parties (COP), to determine the sanctuaries by consensus rather than a majority vote.

They say China is trying to give itself a de facto veto, like the one Beijing has used for years to prevent the creation of other marine protected areas by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).

How to divide eventual profits from the collection -- by pharmaceutical, chemical or cosmetic manufacturers, for example -- of newly discovered marine substances is also causing division.

COMMODITY FETISH

Kandinsky masterpiece sells for record $45 million

Wed, 1 March 2023 


Wassily Kandinsky's masterpiece "Murnau Mit Kirche II", recently recovered by the descendants of its owner, a German Jew killed by the Nazis, sold for $45 million on Wednesday, a record for the artist according to auctioneers Sotheby's.

The 1910 painting, a colourful vision of the German village of Murnau with its church spire stretched like the peaks of the Bavarian Alps, heralded the Russian master's move towards abstraction.

The oil work once adorned the dining room of the Jewish couple Johanna Margarethe Stern and Siegbert Stern, founders of a textile company.

At the heart of Berlin's cultural life in the 1920s, counting Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka and Albert Einstein in their circle, they built up a collection of around 100 paintings and drawings.

Siegbert Stern died of natural causes in 1935. His wife fled to the Netherlands but died in Auschwitz in May 1944 after being captured by the Nazis.

"Murnau Mit Kirche II" was identified only a decade ago in a museum in the Dutch city of Eindhoven, where it had been since 1951.

It was returned last year to the heirs of the Sterns, whose 13 survivors will share the proceeds. They include one member of the family who was in hiding during the war.

"Nothing can undo the wrongs of the past," said a statement from the family.

But the painting's restitution was "immensely significant to us, because it is an acknowledgement and partially closes a wound that has remained open over the generations".

Also up for auction was Edward Munch's 1906 "Dance on the Beach", which was sheltered from the Nazis in a barn in a Norwegian forest and which has been the subject of a restitution agreement.

The painting fetched £16.9 million ($20 million, 19 million euros).

A Frantisek Kupka painting, "Complexe" (1912), which once belonged to the actor Sean Connery, sold for £4.6 million. Proceeds will go to the Connery Foundation, which operates in Scotland and the Bahamas.

The sale is part of a series of auctions in London devoted to modern and contemporary art.

Edvard Munch

Dance on the Beach (the Reinhardt Frieze)

1906-07
90 x 403 cm
Tempera on unprimed canvas
Signed lower right: Edv. Munch
Private collection

IT'S ALL IN YOUR IMAGINATION

'Very unlikely' foreign actor caused Havana Syndrome: US intelligence

Issued on: 01/03/2023

Washington (AFP) – Multiple American intelligence agencies conclude it is "very unlikely" the mysterious illness known as Havana Syndrome that afflicted US personnel was caused by a foreign actor, an assessment released Wednesday said.

The first cases of what became known as Havana Syndrome emerged in Cuba in 2016, involving complaints of nosebleeds, migraines and nausea after experiencing piercing sounds at night, with similar reports later emerging in China, Russia, Europe and even Washington.

The CIA said last year that it was "unlikely" a foreign actor had conducted a sustained campaign targeting US personnel, but that it could not rule out foreign attacks in about two dozen cases.

The latest assessment says most intelligence agencies "have concluded that it is 'very unlikely' a foreign adversary is responsible" for Havana Syndrome.

"Five agencies judge that available intelligence consistently points against the involvement of US adversaries," while one "judges it is only unlikely a foreign adversary played a role," and another abstained, it says.

Agencies looked into various indicators of "hostile activity," including identifying suspicious people near incident sites and searching for a pattern among those who were affected.

"These efforts could not identify an adversary as being responsible for any incident," the assessment says.

US intelligence had said in 2022 that intense directed energy from an external source could have caused some cases of Havana Syndrome, officially known as anomalous health incidents (AHIs).

But the latest assessment says intelligence agencies concluded that "there is no credible evidence that a foreign adversary has a weapon or collection device that is causing AHIs."
Unanswered questions

Medical analysis of the AHIs has also shifted since the first reports emerged in a way that does not indicate the involvement of a foreign adversary, the assessment says.

Initial studies found that Havana Syndrome "represented a novel medical syndrome or consistent pattern of injuries similar to traumatic brain injury," but a review of preliminary data from a 2021 National Institutes of Health study does not point to such a pattern.

The assessment says the initial medical opinions were a central part of the hypothesis that the injuries were not the result of natural causes.

Now, intelligence agencies assess that the Havana Syndrome symptoms were probably the result of preexisting conditions, conventional illnesses and environmental factors.

Attorney Mark Zaid, who says his firm represents more than two dozen people suffering from AHIs, criticized the intelligence assessment.

"The latest US intelligence assessment lacks transparency and we continue to question the accuracy of the alleged findings," Zaid said in a statement.

"It is inconceivable based on an overwhelming number of unanswered questions that today's report will be the last word," he added.

The US consulate in Havana -- which was closed after Havana Syndrome cases emerged during Donald Trump's presidency -- resumed full immigrant visa services for Cubans in January.

© 2023 AFP

US Senate votes to override Biden progressive investment policy

 02/03/2023 

Washington (AFP) – Joe Biden is expected to issue his first presidential veto after the US Senate voted Wednesday to overturn a Labor Department rule allowing pension funds to consider progressive principles in investment decisions.

The upper chamber of Congress is controlled by Biden's Democrats but his party had three absentees and two rebelling members, allowing the Republicans to pass the measure by 50 votes to 46.

House Republicans cleared their version on Tuesday with help from a single Democrat but Biden has vowed to veto the resolution, which would bar retirement fund asset managers from taking environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into account.

"This administration is willing to jeopardize the retirement of 152 million Americans, using their retirement savings to fund a political agenda," said Republican Senator Bill Cassidy.

"Asset managers should only be prioritizing the best return when investing their client's retirement savings. Congress' action today demands the White House keep their hands off of Americans' retirement savings."

Democrat Jon Tester, one of the rebels -- and who is up for reelection in 2024 -- said the rule endangered retirement savings for families facing higher living costs, when lawmakers should be ensuring they were on the "strongest footing possible."

The Labor Department reinstated the rule in November, undoing a push by former president Donald Trump to penalize fund managers considering climate change in their decision-making.

Democrats pointed out that the policy is neutral on how ESG factors are taken into consideration so long as the investment fund is meeting its obligations to its beneficiaries.

Major investment firms like BlackRock applauded the rule, which the Biden administration framed as a financial boost to investors concerned about climate risk.

But Republican-led states have been pressuring firms for supposedly boycotting oil and gas companies as part of "responsible" investment strategies -- an accusation that has been denied by many of the CEOs singled out.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, seen as a likely 2024 Republican presidential candidate, said last year that basing investments partly on ESG practices was a sign of an unacceptable "ideological agenda."

"This rule isn't about saying the left or the right take on a given environmental, social, or governance issue is 'correct,'" said Democratic Senator Patty Murray.

"It's about acknowledging these factors are reasonable for asset managers to consider."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Republicans of undermining the free market and injecting "hard right ideology into private-sector decision making."

"They say this is about wokeness, that this is a cult, that it's some grave intrusion into finance. It's the same predictable, uncreative, unproductive attacks they use for anything they don't like," he said.

Meanwhile environmental advocacy group the Sierra Club urged Biden to fulfill his promise to veto the "dangerous effort."

© 2023 AFP

What is ESG investing and why do some RIGHT WINGERS hate it so much?

Wed, March 1, 2023 



NEW YORK (AP) — After sweeping through battles in statehouses across the country, the war against ESG investing is heating up in Congress.

The Senate voted Wednesday to overturn a Labor Department rule allowing retirement plans to consider environmental, social and governance factors when making investment decisions, following a similar vote by House Republicans on Tuesday. It sets the stage for a potential first veto by President Joe Biden.

Critics say ESG investments allocate money based on political agendas, such as a drive against climate change, rather than on earning the best returns for savers. They say ESG is just the latest example of the world trying to get “woke.”

The ESG industry, meanwhile, says it helps highlight companies that may be riskier than traditional investing guidelines alone might suggest. That could lead to more stable, safer returns for savers. It also says using an ESG lens could help investors find better, more profitable opportunities.

ESG has become popular across a wide range of investors, from smaller-pocketed regular people to pension funds responsible for the retirements of millions of workers.

WHAT IS ESG?

It’s an acronym, with each of the letters describing an additional lens that some investors use to decide whether a particular stock or bond looks like a good buy.

Before risking their money, all investors including both traditional and ESG ones look at how much revenue a company is bringing in, how much profit it’s making and what the prospects are for the future.

ESG investors then layer on a few more specific considerations.

WHAT IS E?

Environment. It can pay to avoid companies with poor records on the environment, the thinking goes, because they may be at greater risk of big fines from regulators. Or their businesses could be at particular risk of getting upended by future government attempts to protect the environment.

Such risks may not be as appreciated by those using just traditional investment analysis, which could lead to too-high stock prices, ESG advocates say. That in turn would mean too-high risk.

On the flip side, measuring a company’s environmental awareness could also unearth companies that could be better positioned for the future. Companies that care about climate change may be better prepared for its repercussions, whether that means potential flooding damage at factory sites or the risks of increased wildfires.

WHAT IS S?

Social. This is a wide-ranging category that focuses on a company’s relationships with people, both within it and outside.

Investors measuring a company’s social impact often look at whether pay is fair and working conditions are good through the rank and file, for example, because that can lead to better retention of employees, lower turnover costs and ultimately better profits.

Others consider a company’s record on data protection and privacy, where lax protocols could lead to leaks that drive customers away.

Increasingly, companies are also getting called upon to take positions on big social issues, such as abortion or the Black Lives Matter movement. Some ESG investors encourage this, saying companies’ employees and customers want to hear it.

Not every ESG investor considers all these factors, but they all get lumped in together under the “S” umbrella.

WHAT IS G?

Governance, which essentially means the company is running itself well.

That includes tying executives’ pay to the company’s performance, whether that’s defined by the stock price, profits or something else, and having strong, independent directors on the board to act as a powerful check on CEOs.

HOW BIG OF A DEAL IS ESG?

Investors who use one or more ESG criteria or push companies on such issues as a group controlled $8.4 trillion in U.S.-domiciled assets in 2022. That's according to the most recent count by US SIF, a trade group representing the sustainable and responsible investing industry.

That's enough money to buy Tesla, one of the most valuable U.S. stocks, more than 11 times over. It also means ESG accounted for $1 of every $8 in all U.S. assets under professional management.

With stock and bond markets tumbling last year, the flow of dollars into ESG funds has slowed since setting a peak in early 2021. U.S. sustainable funds pulled in a net $3 billion over the course of 2022, according to Morningstar.

Not only have sharp drops for all kinds of investment prices raised worries, so has the increased political backlash. During the final three months of 2022, which was a particularly tough period for financial markets, investors pulled nearly $6.2 billion more out of sustainable funds than they put in, according to Morningstar.

Still, despite the slowdown, demand is still higher for sustainable funds than for their traditional peers.

IS IT JUST MILLENNIALS DOING IT?

No, the vast majority of money in ESG investments comes from huge investors like pension funds, insurance companies, endowments at universities and foundations and other big institutional investors.

WHAT IMPACT IS IT HAVING?

ESG investors are pushing for more engagement with companies, discussing their concerns about the environment, social issues and governance. They’re also casting their votes at annual shareholder meetings with ESG issues more in mind.

In 2021 a relatively small fund known as Engine No. 1 shocked corporate America after it convinced some of Wall Street’s biggest investment firms to approve its proposal to replace three directors on Exxon Mobil’s board, citing a decarbonizing world.

Investors are also pushing executives across corporate America to give more details about their carbon emissions, measurements about their impacts on human rights and audits for racial equity.

It’s all an evolution from the industry’s early days, when “socially responsible” investing was quite simplistic. Early funds would just promise not to own stocks of tobacco companies, gun makers, or other companies seen as distasteful.

AND THE BACKLASH?

Some politicians have denounced ESG as a politicization of investing.

Some in the business world also have been particularly critical of rating agencies that try to boil complex issues down to simple ESG scores.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk last year called ESG a scam that “has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors," for example. His criticism came shortly after Tesla got kicked out of the S&P 500 ESG index.

The index tries to hold only companies with better ESG scores within each industry, while holding similar amounts of energy stocks, tech stocks and other sectors as the broader S&P 500 index. That means Exxon Mobil could remain in the S&P 500 ESG index, even if it’s pulling fossil fuels from the ground to burn, because it rates better than peer energy companies.

ARE THOSE THE ONLY CONTROVERSIES?

No. Any boom brings in opportunists, and regulators have warned of some potentially misleading statements.

That could include firms claiming to be ESG-driven but owning shares in companies with low ESG scores. It’s reminiscent of how products along supermarket aisles get accused of “greenwashing,” or pitching their wares as “green” even if they’re not.

Part of that could be how big the ESG industry has become, with some players taking a lighter touch.

Some funds pledge not to own stocks of any companies seen as dangerous, for example. Others will try to own only companies that get the highest ratings from scorekeepers on ESG issues. Still others try to buy only companies that score the best within their specific industry, even if the score is very low overall.

Such nuance can make for confusion among investors trying to find the right ESG fund for them.

Stan Choe, The Associated Press