UN-backed panel says Italy can do more to fight racism, discrimination in sports and society

ASKING THIS OF A FASCIST GOVT


Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku walks on the pitch in front of a ‘no to racism’ banner during the training session prior the Europa League round of 16 soccer match between Inter Milan and Getafe at the Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020. U.N.-backed human rights experts focusing on racial discrimination called on Italy’s government to do more to eliminate acts of violence, hate speech, stigmatization and harassment against Africans and people of African descent, and expressed concern that no legal cases have been brought to punish fans and others racist acts at sports events. (Lars Baron/Pool via AP, File)

BY JAMEY KEATEN

August 31, 2023

GENEVA (AP) — U.N.-backed human rights experts focusing on racial discrimination urged Italy’s government to do more to eliminate violence, hate speech, stigmatization and harassment against Africans and people of African descent, and expressed concern that no legal cases have been brought to punish fans and others for racist acts at sports events.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, a panel of independent experts that works with the U.N.'s human rights office, also said it regrets that Italy’s government hasn’t provided it with an updated number of complaints and cases of racial discrimination that have been investigated and prosecuted, among other concerns.

The findings released Thursday were part of the committee’s periodic look at efforts by governments of U.N. member states to crack down on racial hatred and discrimination. Other countries under the panel’s scrutiny in this round were Croatia, Namibia, Senegal, Turkmenistan and Uruguay.

Italian soccer has a longstanding issue with Black players being racially abused by fans, and incidents in which players including Kevin-Prince Boateng in 2013 and Romelu Lukaku this year felt they were not adequately supported by match officials and soccer bodies.

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The committee noted Italy had adopted laws and other measures to fight racial discrimination, including hate speech in sports. But it said it was “concerned that cases of racist acts during sport events, including physical and verbal attacks against athletes of African descent, continue” in Italy and “legal proceedings to punish those responsible are not initiated.”

Italy also has been a major thoroughfare and destination for Africans and other migrants who make dangerous crossings of the Mediterranean to reach Europe, where peace and economic opportunity may be greater than in their home countries.

The panel urged Italian authorities to do more to protect the human rights of migrants and asylum-seekers, as well as ethnic minorities. It expressed concern about “persistent and increasing use and normalization of racist hate speech” against ethnic groups in the media and on the internet.

Italy’s diplomatic mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment about the report.
___

AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar in Monaco contributed to this report.

1984

Belarus journalist jailed for ‘facilitating extremism’ after collecting data for human rights group

BY YURAS KARMANAU
August 31, 2023

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A court in Belarus has sentenced a high-profile journalist to 3 1/2 years for “facilitating extremist activities” and “discrediting Belarus” after she provided data for a renowned human rights group, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) said Thursday.

Larysa Shchyrakova — sentenced during a closed trial in the city of Gomel — will serve her sentence in a high-security penal colony and must pay a fine of 3,500 Belarusian rubles (about $1,100).

Belarusian authorities detained Shchyrakova in December 2022. Officials initially placed her son in a state orphanage before transferring custody to her ex-husband.

Shchyrakova, 50, is the latest in a string of journalists jailed in Belarus after covering the large-scale political repression that has rocked the country since its last presidential elections three years ago.

Journalist for top Polish paper allegedly denied medication in Belarusian prison

Large-scale protests erupted in Belarus in August 2020, when President Alexander Lukashenko was re-elected in a vote that both the opposition and the West have condemned as rigged. Authorities responded to the demonstrations with a violent crackdown that resulted in more than 35,000 arrests, with thousands of protestors beaten.

During proceedings, the state accused Shchyrakova of “collecting, creating, processing, storing and transmitting information” for Belarus’ leading human rights center, Viasna, as well as for television channel Belsat — which broadcasts in Belarusian from Poland.

Both Viasna and Belsat are considered “extremist” organizations by the Belarusian government.

“The verdict against Larysa Shchyrakova is another reprisal aimed at taking revenge upon journalists,” the Belarusian Association of Journalists said in a statement. “Shchyrakova is a professional reporter with years of experience, a human rights activist, and a cultural figure. Across the globe, these kinds of figures are usually given awards. In Belarus, they are persecuted — but journalism is not a crime.” Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya also condemned the court’s decision.

“Today, my thoughts are with Larysa Shchyrakova, a journalist and mother,” she said. “She’s been sentenced to 3 1/2 years simply for doing her job, torn away from her son. This brilliant woman is held as a political prisoner alongside 32 other journalists in Belarus. This shameful injustice must end.”

Some 33 Belarusian media workers are currently behind bars, either awaiting trial or serving prison sentences, according to the Association of Journalists.

Viasna has recorded 1,496 political prisoners in Belarus today, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski.

STALINISM 2023

Russia declares Nobel-winning editor Dmitry Muratov to be a foreign agent


 Nobel Peace Prize awarded journalist Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of the influential Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta speak to journalists stands at a courtroom prior to a session in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, June 8, 2023. Russian authorities on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, declared newspaper editor Dmitry Muratov, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, to be a foreign agent, continuing the country’s moves to suppress critics and independent reporting. 

AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

 September 1, 2023

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities on Friday declared newspaper editor Dmitry Muratov, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, to be a foreign agent, continuing the country’s moves to suppress critics and independent reporting.

Russian law allows for individuals and organizations receiving funding from abroad to be declared foreign agents, a pejorative term that potentially undermines their credibility with the Russian public. The status also requires designees to mark any publications with a disclaimer stating they are foreign agents.

Muratov was chief editor of Novaya Gazeta, which was widely respected abroad for its investigative reporting and was frequently critical of the Kremlin. Muratov was a co-laureate of the 2021 Nobel prize; he later put up his Nobel medal for auction, receiving $103.5 million which he said would be used to aid refugee children from Ukraine.

After Russia enacted harsh laws to punish statements that criticized its military actions in Ukraine or were found to discredit Russian soldiers, Novaya Gazeta announced it would suspend publication until the conflict ended.

Many of its journalists started a new publication called Novaya Gazeta Europe that is based in Latvia.

Russia in recent years has methodically targeted people and organizations critical of the Kremlin, branding many as “foreign agents.” It has has branded some as “undesirable” under a 2015 law that makes membership in such organizations a criminal offense.

It also has imprisoned prominent opposition figures including anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, who is President Vladimir Putin’s most persistent domestic foe, and dissidents Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin.

African leaders to push for finance at climate summit

Nairobi (AFP) – African leaders and global policymakers gather on Tuesday in Kenya for a climate summit aimed at showcasing the continent as a destination for investment in efforts to combat global warming.

05/09/2023 

The three-day event began Monday and is billed as bringing together African leaders to define a shared vision for green development

 © Suleiman Mbatiah / AFP

Heads of state, and government and industry leaders, are among thousands of attendees at the summit where Africa is promoting its potential as a clean energy powerhouse and asset in addressing the climate emergency.

The Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi comes ahead of the COP28 summit later this year in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, which is expected to feature competing agendas for the world's energy future.

The three-day event in Nairobi, which began Monday, is billed as bringing together African leaders to define a shared vision for green development on the diverse continent of 1.4 billion.

Kenyan President William Ruto is hosting counterparts from countries including Mozambique, Tanzania and Ghana, and United Nations head Antonio Guterres, US climate envoy John Kerry, and COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber are in attendance.

Wind and solar electricity generation by region 

© Sophie STUBER, Paz PIZARRO / AFP

On Tuesday, the summit will offer proposals to reform global financial structures that have resulted in only a tiny fraction of investments in climate solutions being directed toward Africa.

Countries in Africa are hamstrung by mounting debt costs and a dearth of finance, and despite an abundance of natural resources just three percent of energy investments worldwide are made in the continent.
Competing visions

On the opening day of the summit on Monday, Ruto said trillions of dollars in "green investment opportunities" would be needed as the climate crisis accelerates.

"Africa holds the key to accelerating decarbonization of the global economy. We are not just a continent rich in resources. We are a powerhouse of untapped potential, eager to engage and fairly compete in the global markets," Ruto said on Monday.

A clean energy transition across the world's developing nations will be crucial in order to keep alive the Paris Agreement goal of capping global warming "well below" two degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times, and 1.5C if possible.

To make that happen, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says investment will need to surge to $2 trillion a year within a decade -- an eight-fold increase.

Kenyan President William Ruto said trillions of dollars in 'green investment opportunities' would be needed © Luis Tato / AFP

International investment must be "massively scaled up to enable commitments to be turned into actions across the continent", said Ruto, Al Jaber, and African Union Commission head Moussa Faki Mahamat in a joint statement on Monday.

The summit's focus on climate finance has drawn opposition from some environmental quarters, with hundreds of demonstrators protesting near the conference venue in Nairobi on its opening day.

A coalition of civil society groups has been urging Ruto to steer global climate priorities away from what it perceives as a Western-led agenda that champions carbon markets and other financial tools to redress the climate crisis.

© 2023 AFP

Kenya bets on carbon credits as it hosts African climate summit

Deep within Kasigau, a sweeping wilderness of craggy hills and savannah roamed by elephants, a team armed with clipboards and measuring tapes is busy studying an unremarkable tree.

Issued on: 05/09/2023 

Head of states and delegates pose for a group photo, during the official opening of the Africa Climate Summit at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. 

© Khalil Senosi,AP

By: NEWS WIRES|
Video by: FRANCE 24

Gnarled and leafless, it nonetheless has great value: it stores carbon, and the team wants to know exactly how much is locked away across this semi-arid, half-a-million-acre (200,000-hectare) woodland in southern Kenya.

"We want to make absolutely sure we account for every single tree," said Geoffrey Mwangi, lead scientist at US-based company Wildlife Works, as the "carbon samplers" took the dimensions of another thorny specimen.

The data translates into carbon credits, and millions of dollars have been made selling these to corporate giants such as Netflix and Shell looking to offset their greenhouse gas emissions and burnish their green credentials.

As climate change accelerates and pressure mounts on companies and countries to lift their game, demand for carbon credits has exploded -- even as their reputation has taken a battering.

Cash-strapped African nations want a much bigger share of a $2-billion market that is forecast to grow five-fold by 2030.

Africa only produces 11 percent of the world's offsets yet boasts the planet's second-largest rainforest and tracts of carbon-absorbing ecosystems like mangroves and peatlands.

Kenyan President William Ruto, who is hosting a climate summit in Nairobi this week, said Africa's carbon sinks were an "unparalleled economic goldmine".

"They have the potential to absorb millions of tons of CO2 annually, which should translate into billions of dollars," he said on Monday.
'Massive interest'

A single credit represents one tonne of carbon dioxide removed or reduced from the atmosphere. Companies buy credits generated through activities like renewable energy, planting trees or protecting forests.

Carbon markets are largely unregulated and accusations that some offsets -- particularly forest-based ones -- do little for the environment or exploit communities have sent prices crashing this year.

Kenya already generates the most offsets in Africa and despite market uncertainty, sees the potential for a much bigger domestic industry capable of creating much-needed jobs and economic growth.

"There is massive interest. We have 25 percent of the African market (for carbon credits) in Kenya, and it's our ambition to expand this," Ali Mohamed, the president's special envoy for climate change, told AFP.

In Kasigau, about 330 kilometres (205 miles) southeast of Nairobi, landowners and communities are paid to keep the forest intact under a flagship carbon credit project run by Wildlife Works, a for-profit business and largest offset developer in Africa.

Joseph Mwakima from Wildlife Works said project revenue had employed around 400 people and funded water, education and health infrastructure in a long-underserved part of Kenya.

"These are things that were never really there," he told AFP.

Wildlife Works founder Mike Korchinsky said at least half of revenue went to communities.

The forests protected under the scheme were once cleared for firewood and charcoal, degrading a carbon sink and critical wildlife habitat.

Avoiding deforestation serves climate goals by keeping carbon in the soil and trees instead of allowing them to be released into the atmosphere. The Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project was the world's first to generate certified credits this way.

Wildlife Works says the project has been independently verified nine times since 2011, and has avoided roughly 22 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Kenya emits about 70 million tonnes of CO2 per year, according to Climate Watch, a platform managed by the World Resources Institute that tracks national greenhouse gas emissions.
'False solutions'

The UN-endorsed African Carbon Market Initiative, launched at COP27 in November, believes 300 million credits could be generated annually on the continent by 2030 -- a 19-fold increase on current volumes.

For Kenya, this would mean more than 600,000 jobs and $600 million in annual revenue.

But these projections assume a carbon price far above current trades, and a massive increase in finance at a time of great volatility in a market struggling to build trust and integrity.

Ahead of the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, more than 500 civil society organisations wrote to Ruto urging him to steer the conference away from carbon markets and other "false solutions... led by Western interests".

"In truth, though, these approaches will embolden wealthy nations and large corporations to continue polluting the world, much to Africa's detriment," it read.


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Ruto's appointee to lead the summit, Joseph Nganga, said carbon markets acted "not as an excuse for emissions but as a means to ensure accountability" as rich polluting nations bore the cost.

Countries are moving to regulate the sector. Earlier this year, Zimbabwe announced it would appropriate half of all the revenue generated from carbon credits on its land, sending jitters through markets.

Kenya is finalising its own legislation. Mohamed said the government did not want to "chase away investors" but ensure transparency and a fair share for communities.

Korchinsky expressed confidence the Kasigau project "will hold up to whatever scrutiny is applied".

(AFP)

    

Kenya bets on carbon credits as it hosts climate summit

Kasigau (Kenya) (AFP) – Deep within Kasigau, a sweeping wilderness of craggy hills and savannah roamed by elephants, a team armed with clipboards and measuring tapes is busy studying an unremarkable tree.


Issued on: 05/09/2023 
Cash-strapped African nations want a much bigger share of a $2-billion carbon credits market that is forecast to grow five-fold by 2030 © Tony KARUMBA / AFP
ADVERTISING


Gnarled and leafless, it nonetheless has great value: it stores carbon, and the team wants to know exactly how much is locked away across this semi-arid, half-a-million-acre (200,000-hectare) woodland in southern Kenya.

"We want to make absolutely sure we account for every single tree," said Geoffrey Mwangi, lead scientist at US-based company Wildlife Works, as the "carbon samplers" took the dimensions of another thorny specimen.

The data translates into carbon credits, and millions of dollars have been made selling these to corporate giants such as Netflix and Shell looking to offset their greenhouse gas emissions and burnish their green credentials.

As climate change accelerates and pressure mounts on companies and countries to lift their game, demand for carbon credits has exploded -- even as their reputation has taken a battering.

Cash-strapped African nations want a much bigger share of a $2-billion market that is forecast to grow five-fold by 2030.

Environment wardens out on patrol in the Kasigau wilderness in southern Kenya

 © Tony KARUMBA / AFP

Africa only produces 11 percent of the world's offsets yet boasts the planet's second-largest rainforest and tracts of carbon-absorbing ecosystems like mangroves and peatlands.

Kenyan President William Ruto, who is hosting a climate summit in Nairobi this week, said Africa's carbon sinks were an "unparalleled economic goldmine".

"They have the potential to absorb millions of tons of CO2 annually, which should translate into billions of dollars," he said on Monday.
'Massive interest'

A single credit represents one tonne of carbon dioxide removed or reduced from the atmosphere. Companies buy credits generated through activities like renewable energy, planting trees or protecting forests.

Carbon markets are largely unregulated and accusations that some offsets -- particularly forest-based ones -- do little for the environment or exploit communities have sent prices crashing this year.

The Kasigau wilderness stretches across half a million acres

 © Tony KARUMBA / AFP

Kenya already generates the most offsets in Africa and despite market uncertainty, sees the potential for a much bigger domestic industry capable of creating much-needed jobs and economic growth.

"There is massive interest. We have 25 percent of the African market (for carbon credits) in Kenya, and it's our ambition to expand this," Ali Mohamed, the president's special envoy for climate change, told AFP.

In Kasigau, about 330 kilometres (205 miles) southeast of Nairobi, landowners and communities are paid to keep the forest intact under a flagship carbon credit project run by Wildlife Works, a for-profit business and largest offset developer in Africa.

Joseph Mwakima from Wildlife Works said project revenue had employed around 400 people and funded water, education and health infrastructure in a long-underserved part of Kenya.

Dominic Mwakai, 43, sells water collected from natural springs flowing from Mount Kasigau 

© Tony KARUMBA / AFP

"These are things that were never really there," he told AFP.

Wildlife Works founder Mike Korchinsky said at least half of revenue went to communities.

The forests protected under the scheme were once cleared for firewood and charcoal, degrading a carbon sink and critical wildlife habitat.

Avoiding deforestation serves climate goals by keeping carbon in the soil and trees instead of allowing them to be released into the atmosphere. The Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project was the world's first to generate certified credits this way.

Wildlife Works says the project has been independently verified nine times since 2011, and has avoided roughly 22 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Kenya emits about 70 million tonnes of CO2 per year, according to Climate Watch, a platform managed by the World Resources Institute that tracks national greenhouse gas emissions.

'False solutions'

The UN-endorsed African Carbon Market Initiative, launched at COP27 in November, believes 300 million credits could be generated annually on the continent by 2030 –- a 19-fold increase on current volumes.

For Kenya, this would mean more than 600,000 jobs and $600 million in annual revenue.

Wildlife Works says the project has avoided roughly 22 million tonnes of CO2 emissions 

© Tony KARUMBA / AFP

But these projections assume a carbon price far above current trades, and a massive increase in finance at a time of great volatility in a market struggling to build trust and integrity.

Ahead of the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, more than 500 civil society organisations wrote to Ruto urging him to steer the conference away from carbon markets and other "false solutions... led by Western interests".

"In truth, though, these approaches will embolden wealthy nations and large corporations to continue polluting the world, much to Africa's detriment," it read.

Ruto's appointee to lead the summit, Joseph Nganga, said carbon markets acted "not as an excuse for emissions but as a means to ensure accountability" as rich polluting nations bore the cost.

The project supports a number of alternative industries involving surrounding communities, including sustainable charcoal production 

© Tony KARUMBA / AFP

Countries are moving to regulate the sector. Earlier this year, Zimbabwe announced it would appropriate half of all the revenue generated from carbon credits on its land, sending jitters through markets.

Kenya is finalising its own legislation. Mohamed said the government did not want to "chase away investors" but ensure transparency and a fair share for communities.

Korchinsky expressed confidence the Kasigau project "will hold up to whatever scrutiny is applied".

© 2023 AFP

Africa climate summit to urge investment in continent

By AFP
September 4, 2023

Water supply in Iraq, which the UN ranks as one of the five countries most impacted by some effects of climate change, is in a dire state 

- Copyright AFP Ahmad AL-RUBAYE

Nick Perry, Kelly MACNAMARA

Kenya’s president said Africa had a chance to “guide the globe” on climate action as he prepared to open a landmark climate summit in Nairobi on Monday aimed at reframing the continent as a budding renewable energy powerhouse.

The first Africa Climate Summit comes ahead of a flurry of diplomatic meetings leading to the November COP28 climate summit in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, which will likely be dominated by clashing visions for the world’s energy future.

The Nairobi meeting is billed as bringing together leaders from the 54-nation continent to define a shared vision of Africa’s green development — an ambitious aim in a politically and economically diverse region whose communities are among the most vulnerable to climate change.

Kenyan President William Ruto said on Monday that an African position on climate action would be to “save lives and the planet from calamity”.

“We aspire to chart a new growth agenda that will deliver shared prosperity and sustainable development,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.

“Africa is committed to taking advantage of this unique opportunity to guide the globe towards inclusive climate action.”

The Africa Climate Summit is the first of its kind 

– Copyright TURKISH PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE/AFP Mustafa Kamaci

To meet those aspirations, Ruto has said that the international community must help unblock financing for the continent and ease the mounting debt burden on African countries.

Joseph Nganga, Ruto’s appointee to head the summit, said the conference would demonstrate that “Africa is not just a victim but a dynamic continent with solutions for the world”.

Security has been tightened and roads closed around the summit venue in central Nairobi, where the government says 30,000 people have registered to attend the three-day event.

Civil society groups are expected to protest near the summit at its opening against what they call its “deeply compromised agenda” and focus on rich-nation interests.

– Daunting challenges –

A draft version of the final declaration seen by AFP puts the spotlight on Africa’s vast renewable energy potential, young workforce, and natural assets.

Those include 40 percent of global reserves of cobalt, manganese, and platinum crucial for batteries and hydrogen fuel-cells.

But there are daunting challenges for a continent where hundreds of millions of people currently lack access to electricity.

Reminders of political instability in the region came last week, with a military takeover in Gabon little more than a month after a coup in Niger.

Countries in Africa are also hamstrung by mounting debt costs and a dearth of finance.

Despite hosting 60 percent of the world’s best solar energy resources, Africa has roughly the same amount of installed capacity as Belgium, according to a commentary published last month by Ruto and the International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol.

Currently, only about three percent of energy investments worldwide are made in Africa.

Charra Tesfaye Terfassa from the think tank E3G said the summit should balance optimism with a tough assessment of the challenges to “chart a new path for Africa to be a key part of the global conversation and benefit from the opportunities of the transition”.

The Nairobi meeting is expected to draw several African heads of state, UN head Antonio Guterres, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and other leaders.

As Africa opens a climate summit, poor weather forecasting keeps the continent underprepared


Displaced families arrive after being rescued by boat from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. Much of the world takes daily weather forecasts for granted. But most of Africa’s 1.3 billion people live with little advance knowledge of what’s to come. That can be deadly, with damage running in the billions of dollars. The first Africa Climate Summit opens this week in Kenya to highlight the continent that will suffer the most from climate change while contributing to it the least. At the heart of every issue on the agenda, from energy to agriculture, is the lack of data collection that drives decisions as basic as when to plant and when to flee. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi, File)

BY CARA ANNA
 September 3, 2023

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Much of the world takes daily weather forecasts for granted. But most of Africa’s 1.3 billion people live with little advance knowledge of what’s to come. That can be both deadly and expensive, with damage running in the billions of dollars.

The first Africa Climate Summit opens Monday in Kenya to highlight the continent that will suffer the most from climate change while contributing to it the least. Significant investment in Africa’s adaptation to climate change, including better forecasting, will be an urgent goal. At the heart of every issue on the agenda, from energy to agriculture, is the lack of data collection that drives decisions as crucial as when to plant — and when to flee.

The African continent is larger than China, India and the United States combined. And yet Africa has just 37 radar facilities for tracking weather, an essential tool along with satellite data and surface monitoring, according to a World Meteorological Organization database.

Europe has 345 radar facilities. North America, 291.

“The continent, at large, is in a climate risk blind spot,” said Asaf Tzachor, a researcher at the Center for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge. In August, he and colleagues warned in a commentary for the journal Nature that climate change will cost Africa more than $50 billion every year by 2050. By then, Africa’s population is expected to double.

The widespread inability to track and forecast the weather affects key development choices, their commentary said: “There is no point investing in smallholder farms, for example, if floods are simply going to wash them away.”

Kenya, the host of the climate summit, is one of the few countries in Africa seen as having a relatively well-developed weather service, along with South Africa and Morocco. Kenya has allocated about $12 million this year for its meteorological service, according to the national treasury. In contrast, the U.S. National Weather Service budget request for fiscal year 2023 was $1.3 billion.

The vast expanse of the 54-nation African continent is relatively unserved and unwarned.

“Despite covering a fifth of the world’s total land area, Africa has the least developed land-based observation network of all continents, and one that is in a deteriorating state,” the WMO said in 2019.

And because of a lack of funding, the number of observations by atmospheric devices usually used with weather balloons decreased by as much as 50% over Africa between 2015 and 2020, a “particularly serious issue,” the WMO said in a report last year.

Fewer than 20% of sub-Saharan African countries provide reliable weather services, the report said. “Weather stations are so far apart that their data cannot be extrapolated to the local level due to the varying terrain and altitude.”

Now, 13 of the most data-sparse African countries, including Ethiopia, Madagascar and Congo, are getting money to improve weather data collection and sharing from a United Nations-created trust fund, the Systematic Observations Financing Facility. An older funding mechanism with many of the same partners, Climate Risk & Early Warning Systems, has supported modernizing meteorological systems in a half-dozen West and Central African countries.

And it’s not just forecasting. As climate shocks such as Somalia’s worst drought in decades become more common, better recording of weather data is a critical need for decision-making.

“For many people in the West, accurate weather forecasts often make lives more convenient: ‘Shall I take an umbrella along?’ In Africa, where many people depend on rain-fed agriculture, that is all a bit sharper,” said Nick van de Giesen, a professor of water resources management at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. “With a changing climate, traditional methods to determine, say, the onset of the rainy season are becoming less reliable. So farmers regularly sow after a few rains, after which rains may fail and seeds will not germinate.”

That can be devastating during the current global food security crisis.

Van de Giesen is the co-director of the Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory, a project that has helped to set up about 650 low-cost local weather monitoring stations in collaboration with schools and other entities across 20 African countries. Not all of those surface monitoring stations are operational because of issues including threats by extremist groups that limit access for maintenance in areas such as Lake Chad.

“To be clear, TAHMO can never be a replacement of efficient and effective national weather services,” van de Giesen said, adding that many African governments still don’t have the needed resources or funding.

In countries like Somalia and Mozambique, with some of the continent’s longest and most vulnerable coastlines, the lack of effective weather monitoring and early warning systems have contributed to thousands of deaths in disasters such as tropical storms and flooding.

After Cyclone Idai ripped into central Mozambique in 2019, residents told The Associated Press they had received little or no warning from authorities. More than 1,000 people were killed, some swept away by floodwaters as loved ones clung to trees.

Cyclone Idai was the costliest disaster in Africa, at $1.9 billion, in the period from 1970 to 2019, according to a WMO report on weather extremes and their economic and personal tolls.

The lack of weather data in much of Africa also complicates efforts to link certain natural disasters to climate change.

Earlier this year, a collection of climate researchers known as World Weather Attribution said in a report that limited data made it impossible to “confidently evaluate” the role of climate change in flooding that killed hundreds of people in Congo and Rwanda around Lake Kivu in May.

“We urgently need robust climate data and research in this highly vulnerable region,” their report said.

Last year, the researchers expressed similar frustration in a study of erratic rainfall and hunger in West Africa’s Sahel region, citing “large uncertainties” in data.

They urged investments as simple as a network of rain gauges, saying that even small shifts in rainfall can affect millions of people.

 Passengers from stranded vehicles stand next to the debris from floodwaters, on the road from Kapenguria, in West Pokot county, in western Kenya Saturday, Nov. 23, 2019. Much of the world takes daily weather forecasts for granted. But most of Africa’s 1.3 billion people live with little advance knowledge of what’s to come. That can be deadly, with damage running in the billions of dollars. The first Africa Climate Summit opens this week in Kenya to highlight the continent that will suffer the most from climate change while contributing to it the least. At the heart of every issue on the agenda, from energy to agriculture, is the lack of data collection that drives decisions as basic as when to plant and when to flee. (AP Photo, File)

 Displaced families arrive after being rescued by boat from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. Much of the world takes daily weather forecasts for granted. But most of Africa’s 1.3 billion people live with little advance knowledge of what’s to come. That can be deadly, with damage running in the billions of dollars. The first Africa Climate Summit opens this week in Kenya to highlight the continent that will suffer the most from climate change while contributing to it the least. At the heart of every issue on the agenda, from energy to agriculture, is the lack of data collection that drives decisions as basic as when to plant and when to flee. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi, File)

 People walk on a road swept by flooding waters in Chikwawa, Malawi, Tuesday Jan. 25, 2022. Mozambique, Madagascar and Malawi are counting the deaths and damage by tropical storm Ana and more than a week of heavy rains across southern Africa. uch of the world takes daily weather forecasts for granted. But most of Africa’s 1.3 billion people live with little advance knowledge of what’s to come. That can be deadly, with damage running in the billions of dollars. The first Africa Climate Summit opens this week in Kenya to highlight the continent that will suffer the most from climate change while contributing to it the least. At the heart of every issue on the agenda, from energy to agriculture, is the lack of data collection that drives decisions as basic as when to plant and when to flee. (AP Photo, File)

Houses are submerged in flood waters in Blantyre, Malawi, Tuesday, March 14, 2023. Much of the world takes daily weather forecasts for granted. But most of Africa’s 1.3 billion people live with little advance knowledge of what’s to come. That can be deadly, with damage running in the billions of dollars. The first Africa Climate Summit opens this week in Kenya to highlight the continent that will suffer the most from climate change while contributing to it the least. At the heart of every issue on the agenda, from energy to agriculture, is the lack of data collection that drives decisions as basic as when to plant and when to flee (AP Photo/Thoko Chikondi, File)

Saito Ene Ruka, right, who said he has lost 100 cows due to drought, and his neighbor Kesoi Ole Tingoe, left, who said she lost 40 cows, walk past animal carcasses at Ilangeruani village, near Lake Magadi, in Kenya, on Nov. 9, 2022. Much of the world takes daily weather forecasts for granted. But most of Africa’s 1.3 billion people live with little advance knowledge of what’s to come. That can be deadly, with damage running in the billions of dollars. The first Africa Climate Summit opens this week in Kenya to highlight the continent that will suffer the most from climate change while contributing to it the least. At the heart of every issue on the agenda, from energy to agriculture, is the lack of data collection that drives decisions as basic as when to plant and when to flee . 

(AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)

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1st Africa Climate Summit opens as hard-hit continent of 1.3 billion demands more say and financing


 People walk on a road swept by flooding waters in Chikwawa, Malawi, Tuesday Jan. 25, 2022. Mozambique, Madagascar and Malawi are counting the deaths and damage by tropical storm Ana and more than a week of heavy rains across southern Africa. uch of the world takes daily weather forecasts for granted. But most of Africa’s 1.3 billion people live with little advance knowledge of what’s to come. That can be deadly, with damage running in the billions of dollars. The first Africa Climate Summit opens this week in Kenya to highlight the continent that will suffer the most from climate change while contributing to it the least. At the heart of every issue on the agenda, from energy to agriculture, is the lack of data collection that drives decisions as basic as when to plant and when to flee.

BY CARA ANNA AND EVELYNE MUSAMBI
 September 4, 2023

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The first African Climate Summit is opening as heads of state and others assert a stronger voice on a global issue that affects the continent of 1.3 billion people the most, even as they contribute to it the least.

Kenyan President William Ruto’s government is launching the ministerial session on Monday while more than a dozen heads of state begin to arrive, determined to wield more global influence and bring in far more financing and support. The first speakers included youth, who demanded a bigger voice in the process.

There is some frustration on the continent about being asked to develop in cleaner ways than the world’s richest countries, which have long produced most of the emissions that endanger climate, and to do it while much of the support that has been pledged hasn’t appeared.

“This is our time,” Mithika Mwenda with the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance told the gathering, asserting that the annual flow of climate assistance to the continent is about $16 billion, a tenth or less of what is needed and a “fraction” of the budget of some polluting companies.

Outside attendees to the summit include United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and the U.S. government’s climate envoy, John Kerry.

Ruto’s video welcome released before the summit was heavy on tree-planting but didn’t mention his administration’s decision this year to lift a yearslong ban on commercial logging, which alarmed environmental watchdogs. The decision has been challenged in court, while the government says only mature trees in state-run plantations would be harvested.

Kenya derives much of its power from renewables and has banned single-use plastic bags, but it struggles with some other climate-friendly adaptations. Trees were chopped down to make way for the expressway that some summit attendees travelled from the airport, and bags of informally made charcoal are found on some Nairobi street corners.

Ruto made his way to Monday’s events in a small electric car, a contrast to the usual government convoys, on streets cleared of the sometimes poorly maintained buses and vans belching smoke.

Challenges for the African continent include simply being able to forecast and monitor the weather in order to avert thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in damages.

India’s moon rover completes its walk. Scientists analyzing data looking for signs of frozen water


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This image provided by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) shows Vikram lander as seen by the navigation camera on Pragyan Rover on Aug. 30, 2023. India’s moon rover has confirmed the presence of sulfur and detected several other elements on the surface near the lunar south pole a week after the country’s historic moon landing. ISRO says the rover’s laser-induced spectroscope instrument also has detected aluminum, iron, calcium, chromium, titanium, manganese, oxygen and silicon. (Indian Space Research Organisation via AP)

This image provided by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) taken by Pragyan rover of Vikram lander on Aug. 30, 2023. India’s moon rover has confirmed the presence of sulfur and detected several other elements on the surface near the lunar south pole a week after the country’s historic moon landing. ISRO says the rover’s laser-induced spectroscope instrument also has detected aluminum, iron, calcium, chromium, titanium, manganese, oxygen and silicon. (Indian Space Research Organisation via AP)


This image provided by the Indian Space Research Organisation shows a crater encountered by Chandrayaan- 3 as seen by the navigation camera on Aug. 27, 2023. India’s moon rover confirmed the presence of sulfur and detected several other elements near the lunar south pole as it searches for signs of frozen water nearly a week after its historic moon landing, India’s space agency said Tuesday. The lunar rover had come down a ramp from the lander of India’s spacecraft after last Wednesday’s touchdown near the moon’s south pole. (Indian Space Research Organisation via AP)


This image from video provided by the Indian Space Research Organisation shows the surface of the moon as the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft prepares for landing on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. India became the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole, which scientists believe could hold vital reserves of frozen water. (ISRO via AP)

BY ASHOK SHARMA
September 3, 2023Share

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s moon rover has completed its walk on the lunar surface and been put into sleep mode less than two weeks after its historic landing near the lunar south pole, India’s space mission said.

“The rover completes its assignments. It is now safely parked and set into sleep mode,” with daylight on that part of the moon coming to an end, the Indian Space Research Organization said in a statement late Saturday.

The rover’s payloads are turned off and the data it collected has been transmitted to the Earth via the lander, the statement said.

The Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover were expected to operate only for one lunar day, which is equal to 14 days on Earth.

OTHER NEWS

As Africa opens a climate summit, poor weather forecasting keeps the continent underprepared


“Currently, the battery is fully charged. The solar panel is oriented to receive the light at the next sunrise expected on September 22, 2023. The receiver is kept on. Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments!” the statement said.

There was no word on the outcome of the rover searches for signs of frozen water on the lunar surface that could help future astronaut missions, as a potential source of drinking water or to make rocket fuel.

Last week, the space agency said the moon rover confirmed the presence of sulfur and detected several other elements. The rover’s laser-induced spectroscope instrument also detected aluminum, iron, calcium, chromium, titanium, manganese, oxygen and silicon on the surface, it said.

The Indian Express newspaper said the electronics on board the Indian moon mission weren’t designed to withstand very low temperatures, less than -120 C (-184 F) during the nighttime on the moon. The lunar night also extends for as long as 14 days on Earth.

Pallava Bagla, a science writer and co-author of books on India’s space exploration, said the rover has limited battery power.

The data is back on Earth and will be analyzed by Indian scientists as a first look and then by the global community, he said

By sunrise on the moon, the rover may or may not wake up because the electronics die at such cold temperatures, Bagla said.

“Making electronic circuits and components that can survive the deep cold temperature of the moon, that technology doesn’t exist in India,” he said.

After a failed attempt to land on the moon in 2019, India last week joined the United States, the Soviet Union and China as only the fourth country to achieve this milestone.

The successful mission showcases India’s rising standing as a technology and space powerhouse and dovetails with Prime Minister Narendra Modi desire to project an image of an ascendant country asserting its place among the global elite.

The mission began more than a month ago at an estimated cost of $75 million.

India’s success came just days after Russia’s Luna-25, which was aiming for the same lunar region, spun into an uncontrolled orbit and crashed. It had been intended to be the first successful Russian lunar landing after a gap of 47 years.

Russia’s head of the state-controlled space corporation Roscosmos attributed the failure to the lack of expertise because of the long break in lunar research that followed the last Soviet mission to the moon in 1976.

Active since the 1960s, India has launched satellites for itself and other countries, and successfully put one in orbit around Mars in 2014. India is planning its first mission to the International Space Station next year, in collaboration with the United States.

This red dye was so valuable it built cities. One family in Mexico is still making it the old way


One family in central Mexico is struggling to preserve the production of cochineal dye, an intense, natural red pigment so prized that, after gold and silver, it was probably the most valuable thing the Spaniards found in Mexico after the 1521 conquest. 

(September 2) (AP Video: Fernanda Pesce)

BY FERNANDA PESCE
September 2, 2023

SAN FRANCISCO TEPEYACAC, Mexico (AP) — One family in central Mexico is struggling to preserve the production of cochineal dye, an intense, natural red pigment so prized that, after gold and silver, it was probably the most valuable thing the Spaniards found in Mexico after the 1521 conquest.

For centuries, red clothing — along with purple — had been a sign of power and wealth because it was rare and expensive. An indigenous Mexican process deriving the pigment from insects gave the Spanish empire a new source of red dye.

Some of Mexico’s most picturesque and imposing colonial cities, like Oaxaca, were essentially built on the wealth derived from cochineal dye, also called carmine, and known as “grana cochinilla” in Spanish. It was much prized by the Spanish nobility, and it would go on to dye, among other garments, the British empire’s ‘Redcoat’ military uniforms, before it began to be replaced by synthetic dyes in the 1800s.

Obtaining the dye the old fashioned way is slow, tedious and painstaking. It comes from the crushed bodies of tiny female insects that contain carminic acid and feed on the pads of nopal cactus plants.

Each insect, known as Dactylopius coccus, must be bred to a larvae stage and “planted” on a previously wounded cactus pad, and then left for months to feed and mature.

Then each must be harvested by hand, usually with a tiny brush, sifted, cleaned and left to dry in the sun.

The Mixtecs of Oaxaca first developed the method to obtain the precious pigment centuries before the Spaniards arrived. A symbol of status, carmine red was already employed by the nobility of Mexico’s Indigenous peoples to dye garments, and widely used in the arts, to write codices, decorate ceramics and paint murals.

Mayeli Garcia and her family run a greenhouse in the village of San Francisco Tepeyacac, east of Mexico City, which specializes in the slow, old production process.

At their greenhouse, rows of hundreds of cactus pads are held on racks suspended in the air and covered by a white powder. That is the sign of the insects working beneath, drawing nourishment from the juices of the nopal and protecting themselves with the waxy powder.

“You have to wait three or four months for them to complete their life cycle, and then we harvest,” Garcia said. “You have to keep monitoring and watching every cactus pad.”

That’s essentially the way the best red was produced for three centuries.

By the 1800s, synthetic chemical dyes, cheaper to produce and more plentiful, began to replace cochineal dyes.

But the story doesn’t end there. Artisans in Oaxaca maintained some production, because weavers of traditional clothing and rugs preferred it in handicrafts.

Some studies began suggesting that chemical dyes, and particularly some of the red ones, could have adverse health effects if consumed as food colorings or in cosmetics like lipstick. By 1990, U.S. authorities banned red dye No. 3 for use in cosmetics, though it is still allowed in food products.

Those concerns have began to spur the demand for natural colorings — and there was Mexico’s cochineal dye all along.

Companies that might want it on an industrial scale are out of luck. It simply isn’t available in such quantities.

“We have tried to automate a little bit to make it less manual work, with machinery we ourselves invented, to try some brushes” for brushing the insects off the cactus pads, Garcia said. The motor of their prototype burned out, she noted ruefully.

Garcia struggles to make a living off the 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of cochineal dye she produces each year, though she is trying to diversify into soaps, creams, cosmetics and other products derived from the nopal, such as jam.

Her family still grows fresh vegetables to make ends meet. Selling the dye for less isn’t an option.

“It is a lot of work, very labor intensive. It costs too much to produce in terms of labor, so the cost is difficult,” she said.

But she still has plenty of reasons for keeping on with the cochineal farm, a whole ecosystem designed to keep the tiny bugs happy, well fed and safe from predators.

“We are having problems with synthetics and chemicals,” she said. “So I think that there is a revolution going on, of returning to what once was, what was once produced, because it kept us much healthier.”

THE 1%

Aspiring Taiwan presidential candidate Terry Gou resigns from board of Apple supplier Foxconn

Chief Executive Officer of Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn) Terry Gou answers to audience members during a media event announcing his new book ‘’30 memos written by Father Guo to young people’’ in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023. Aspiring Taiwanese independent presidential candidate Terry Gou has resigned from the board of Foxconn, the Apple supplier he founded nearly a half-century ago.

 (AP Photo/ Chiang Ying-ying, )

 September 2, 2023

BEIJING (AP) — Aspiring Taiwanese independent presidential candidate Terry Gou has resigned from the board of Foxconn, the Apple supplier he founded nearly a half-century ago.

The company, officially registered as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., issued a news release late Saturday saying Gou, its former chair, had resigned for personal reasons.

It wasn’t clear what, if any, immediate effect Gou’s decision would have on the operations of Foxconn, ranked 20th in the 2023 Fortune Global 500 and considered one of the world’s largest technology companies.

It is headquartered in Taiwan, but does the vast majority of its manufacturing in China, where it employs hundreds of thousands making iPhones in vast factory-dormitory complexes that have sometimes seen frictions between workers and management over employment conditions.

Guo announced Aug. 28 he would run as an independent candidate in Taiwan’s presidential election, ending months of speculation.

At a news conference, Gou criticized the governing Democratic Progressive Party, saying its policies have “brought Taiwan into the risk of war” with China, which claims the self-ruled island democracy as part of its territory.

“I will definitely not allow Taiwan to become the next Ukraine,” he added. Gou is most closely aligned with the opposition China-friendly Nationalist Party, or KMT.

The Nationalists were driven out of China by Mao Zedong’s victorious Communists in 1949, but continue to hold that the island and the mainland are party of a single Chinese nation — as do the Communists, who threaten to use force to make that a reality.

Gou lost in the Nationalist primary in 2019 and tried again this year, but the party selected New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih as its candidate. Gou had pledged to support Hou, and his announcement was seen as a betrayal by the party leadership.

However, Gou’s is considered a long-shot candidacy, with independents lacking the local political networks intrinsic to Taiwanese politics and most citizens wary of closer ties with China.