NAKBA II 

Palestinians fear further isolation as Israeli minister announces vast West Bank (ILLEGAL) settlement plans


Issued on: 29/03/2024

Palestinian land planner Safa Odeh points in the direction of a road in the West Bank that she says only Israeli settlers can use.

 © France 24 screengrab

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has announced a plan to seize 800 hectares of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, the largest land seizure since the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israeli and Palestinian authorities according to NGO Peace Now. FRANCE 24's Catherine Norris Trent and Claire Duhamel explored the roads around Jerusalem, some of which are included in the planned seizure, and spoke with a Palestinian land planning engineer who said Smotrich's plan is aimed at "increasing control" in the territory.

02:35  Video by: Claire Duhamel|Catherine NORRIS TRENT

Chinese tech giant Huawei says profits more than doubled in 2023

Beijing (AFP) – Chinese tech giant Huawei said on Friday its profits more than doubled in 2023, as it ramps up efforts to bounce back in a year that saw the company apparently defy US sanctions with the release of a high-end smartphone.


Issued on: 29/03/2024 - 

The Shenzhen-based company has been at the centre of an intense standoff between China and the United States -- Washington has warned that its equipment could be used for espionage by the Chinese government, an allegation Huawei denies.

Sanctions since 2019 have cut the firm's access to US-made components and technologies, forcing it to diversify its growth strategy.

Huawei said it generated a profit of 87 billion yuan ($12 billion) last year, more than double 2022's 35.6 billion yuan but short of its record 113.7 billion yuan profit in 2021.

Revenues also surged by 9.6 percent to 704.2 billion yuan.

"We've been through a lot over the past few years," Rotating Chairman Ken Hu said Friday.

"But through one challenge after another, we've managed to grow."

Highlighting Huawei's efforts to diversify as it finds itself cut off by Western sanctions, the firm said revenues from its smart car business had more than doubled, bringing in 4.7 billion last year.

More than half its revenue came from its ICT infrastructure business, followed by consumer products and cloud computing.

"A new journey awaits us in 2024," Hu said.

Huawei's surge in profits follows a year in which the firm raised eyebrows in Washington with the release of its Mate 60 Pro smartphone.

Powered by an advanced domestically produced chip, it sparked debate about whether US attempts to curb China's access to semiconductor technologies had been effective.

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Bloomberg in December the development was "deeply concerning".

The Mate 60 Pro has shown the ability to bite into key competitor Apple's profits in China, analysts cited by Bloomberg have said.
In the crosshairs

Huawei remains the world's leading equipment manufacturer for 5G, the fifth generation of mobile internet, and has been involved in infrastructure projects in many countries.

The United States has sought to convince its allies to ban Huawei from their 5G networks, arguing that Beijing could use the group's products to monitor communications and data traffic.

The European Commission ruled in June last year that Chinese telecom equipment suppliers -- including Huawei -- posed a security risk to the EU.

Huawei's French offices were raided last month on suspicion of "improper behaviour", though no other details were immediately available.

In response to the US curbs, Beijing has repeatedly slammed what it characterises as Washington's "abuse of the concept of national security to hobble Chinese companies" and "discriminatory and unfair practices".

© 2024 AFP

Oscar-winner 'Oppenheimer' opens in Japan after months of nuclear theme concerns

Oscar best picture winner "Oppenheimer" was finally released on Friday in Japan, where its subject -- the man who masterminded the creation of the atomic bomb -- is a highly sensitive and emotional topic.

Issued on: 29/03/2024 - 

'Oppenheimer' is about the man who masterminded the creation of the atomic bomb.

 © Yuichi Yamazaki, AFP

The US blockbuster hit screened in the United States and many other countries in July at the same time as "Barbie", inspiring a viral phenomenon dubbed "Barbenheimer" by moviegoers.

But while "Barbie" was released in Japan in August, "Oppenheimer" was conspicuously absent from cinemas for months.

No official explanation was offered at the time, fuelling speculation the film was too controversial to be shown in Japan -- the only country to have ever suffered a wartime nuclear attack.

Around 140,000 people died in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki when the United States dropped atomic bombs on the cities in August 1945, days before the end of World War II.

Japan is the only country to have suffered a wartime nuclear attack. 

© Kazuhiro Nogi / AFP

At a large cinema in central Tokyo where "Oppenheimer" was showing on Friday, there was none of the prominent promotional material that might be expected for a global megahit.

Instead only one small poster advertised the film, which was shot on a $100 million budget and collected nearly $1 billion at box offices worldwide.

"It is a long, three-hour movie, but I watched it attentively, because it was so powerful," audience member Masayuki Hayashi, 51, told AFP after the film.

Japanese distributors may have chosen to avoid a summer release close to the bombings' anniversary, said 65-year-old Tatsuhisa Yue.

But "it would have been unthinkable if a movie which describes how the weapon was developed didn't show here", he said.

"The movie arrived late, but I think it was good that it finally opened in Japan."

'America-centric'

The film tells the story of US physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who oversaw the bomb's invention.

It drew rave reviews and was the most decorated title at this month's Oscars, scooping seven awards including best director for Christopher Nolan and best actor for star Cillian Murphy.

But in Hiroshima, the city devastated by the first nuclear bomb, the biopic's Academy Awards success met a mixed reaction.

'Oppenheimer' stars Irish actor Cillian Murphy. 

© Robyn Beck / AFP

Kyoko Heya, president of the city's international film festival, told AFP after the awards ceremony that she had found Nolan's movie "very America-centric".

"Is this really a movie that people in Hiroshima can bear to watch?" she asked.

Today the city is a thriving metropolis of 1.2 million people, but the ruins of a domed building still stand as a stark reminder of the horrors of the attack, along with a museum and other sombre memorials.

Heya said that after much reflection, "I now want many people to watch the movie."

"I'd be happy to see Hiroshima, Nagasaki and atomic weapons become the subject of discussions thanks to this movie," she said.

Last year, viral "Barbenheimer" memes sparked anger online in Japan, where media reports have highlighted critics who say the film does not show the harm caused by the bombs.

MASS MURDER OF CIVILIANS

Around 140,000 people died in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki when the United States dropped atomic bombs on the cities in 1945. 

© Kazuhiro Nogi / AFP

"There could have been much more description and depiction of the horror of atomic weapons," bomb survivor and former Hiroshima mayor Takashi Hiraoka, 96, said at a special screening in the city earlier this month.

"Oppenheimer" was also shown at a preview event in Nagasaki, where survivor Masao Tomonaga, 80, said he had been impressed by the movie.

"I had thought the film's lack of... images of atomic bomb survivors was a weakness," said Tomonaga, who was two when the second bomb was dropped and later became a professor studying leukaemia caused by the attacks.

"But in fact, Oppenheimer's lines in dozens of scenes showed his shock at the reality of the atomic bombing. That was enough for me."

(AFP)

‘Oppenheimer’ is a disappointment − and a lost opportunity

A visitor to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum views a photo of the aftermath of the 1945 bombing. (Carl Court/Getty Images)

The Conversation

March 09, 2024


With 13 Oscar nominations, all signs point to “Oppenheimer” as the star of the 96th Academy Awards.

Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster about the making of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has already garnered all kinds of accolades – five Golden Globes and seven BAFTA awards, not to mention a sterling 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

But as a historian whose research has revolved around the survivors of the bombings, I cannot help but be disappointed that, yet again, the dominant narrative of the bombs chugs along.

This narrative has long informed how Hollywood and the U.S. media have addressed nuclear weapons. It paints the bombs’ creation as a morally fraught but necessary project – an extraordinary invention by exceptional minds, a national project that was a matter of life or death for a country mired in a global conflict. To use the bombs was a difficult decision at a challenging time. Yet it’s important to remember that, above all, the bombs saved democracy.

There is something that strikes me as so inward-looking to this narrative – it is so focused on the stress over losing an arms race, on fears of making a mistake, on anxiety over what would happen if bombs were to one day be dropped on the U.S. – that it drowns out what actually did happen after the bombs were detonated.

A barren cultural landscape

When Nolan was pressed over why he chose not to show any images of Hiroshima, Nagasaki or the victims, he said, “less can be more” – that the subtext of what’s not shown is even more powerful, since it forces audiences to use their imaginations.

But what images from popular culture do audiences even have to pull from?

From the 1950s to the 1980s, many Hollywood films explored the fear of a nuclear apocalypse. Only a few depicted mass deaths on the ground – “The Day After” comes to mind – but virtually none showed survivors who looked or sounded like real survivors.


‘Oppenheimer’ director Christopher Nolan.
Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images

Instead, films such as “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” simply showed mushroom clouds and bird’s-eye views of the bombs from above. When cameras did zoom in on the ground in films such as “Panic in Year Zero!” and “Testament,” they revealed Americans bracing for or panicking about the bomb being dropped on them.

Watching these films, it’s easy to believe that if a nuclear attack had ever occurred, it must have been in a U.S. city.

This genealogy of films also includes collective biopics of a sort, in which a nuclear drama unfolds among scientists, military officials and politicians.

In the 2024 book “Resisting the Nuclear: Art and Activism across the Pacific,” one chapter describes how Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein reenacted the Trinity test in “Atomic Power,” a 1946 film that celebrates the role of science in U.S. military might. They note that in the film’s outtakes, Einstein seemed unfocused while Oppenheimer appeared stilted.

Clearly, the two scientists were uncomfortable with their newly assigned role as promoters of a mesmerizing, dangerous technology. If “Oppenheimer” expands on this personal discomfort, the film keeps firmly in place the disconnect between the bombs’ creators and the destruction they wrought.
The bombs didn’t discriminate

In the end, films like “Oppenheimer” offer few, if any, new insights about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and their repercussions.

More than 200,000 people perished, and the lives lost included not only Japanese civilians but also Koreans who had been in Japan as forced laborers or military conscripts.

In fact, 1 in every 10 people who survived the bomb were Koreans, but the U.S. government has never recognized them as survivors of U.S. military attacks. To this day they struggle to get access to medical treatment for their long-term radiation illness.


Relatives of conscripted Koreans killed in the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki protest at the Japanese embassy in Seoul in 2005.
Seung-il Ryu/NurPhoto via Getty Image

Moreover, about 3,000 to 4,000 of those affected by the bombs were Americans of Japanese ancestry, as I have shown in my book about Asian American survivors of the bombings. Most of them were children who were staying with their families, or students who had enrolled in schools in Japan prior to the war because U.S. schools had become increasingly discriminatory to Asian American students.

These non-Japanese survivors – including many U.S.-born citizens – have been known to scholars and activists since at least the 1990s. So it feels surreal to watch a film that depicts the bombs’ effects purely in the context of the U.S. at war against its enemy, Japan. As my work shows, the bombs didn’t discriminate between friend and foe.

It is not that Christopher Nolan ignores the bombs’ power to destroy.

He gestures toward it when he depicts J. Robert Oppenheimer, the nuclear physicist played by Cillian Murphy, imagining a nuclear holocaust when giving a celebratory speech to his colleagues after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

But what Oppenheimer sees in this hallucination is the face of a young white woman peeling off – played by Nolan’s daughter, Flora – not those of the Japanese, Korean and Asian American people who actually experienced the bombs. Later in the film, Oppenheimer looks away from the images of Hiroshima’s ground zero when they’re shown to him and his Manhattan Project colleagues.

I wondered, as I watched this scene, whether this decision encourages the audience to look away, too.

Global reverberations

Even if this film is seen purely through the lens of entertainment, Nolan could have chosen to recognize why the bombs are such a galvanizing subject to begin with: They have done much, much more than make white, middle-class Americans feel anxious or guilty.

Their blasts reverberated across the globe, tearing apart not only America’s wartime enemies but also colonized peoples and racial minorities.

Cold War nuclear production disproportionately hurt Native and Indigenous Americans who worked at uranium mines and the residents of the Pacific Islands chosen as the sites of several dozens of U.S. nuclear tests.

For those on the receiving end, the effects of the nuclear explosions are not a thing of the past. They are a daily reality.

And the effects of radiation continue to plague not just humans but the environment. Scientists still don’t know what to do with highly radioactive nuclear waste, whether it’s from nuclear power plants or former nuclear test sites that remain off-limits because they are too contaminated to inhabit.

As global conflicts increase the possibility of nuclear war, it’s certainly important to talk about the ongoing legacies of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

But to create a more balanced understanding of nuclear weapons, it would be helpful if talented filmmakers like Nolan made more of an effort to look beyond the narrow immediacy of a mushroom cloud.

Naoko Wake, Professor of History, Michigan State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

PETRO PLUNDER

Fragile South Sudan risks turmoil over oil disruption: experts

Juba (AFP) – Oil-dependent South Sudan is at risk of economic and political turmoil over the shutdown of a key pipeline in its war-torn neighbour, Sudan, experts have warned.


Issued on: 29/03/2024 

South Sudan became independent in 2011 

AFTER A LONG CIVIL WAR

© Sophie RAMIS / AFP/File


Analysts voiced deep concern at the loss of crucial oil revenue in one of the poorest countries on the planet, and the possibility it may force South Sudan's first ever elections to be delayed once again.

In a letter dated March 16, Sudan's energy minister declared force majeure over a "major rupture" on the pipeline that ships crude from South Sudan to the Red Sea city of Port Sudan for export.

It said the rupture occurred in February in a "military operations area" in Sudan, where conflict has been raging since April last year.

Boutros Magaya, head of a South Sudanese parliamentary sub-committee on petroleum, warned of the "grave implications" of the shutdown on people's livelihoods and security and that the country faced an "imminent economic crisis".

"With the loss of the majority of our national income, we face the grim prospect of a humanitarian disaster, political instability and security unrest (in) our already fragile state," he said in a statement on Tuesday.
'Significant losses'

Despite its oil riches, the world's youngest nation has struggled to find its footing since independence from Sudan in 2011, battling ethnic violence, chronic instability, poverty and natural disasters.

About nine million of its 12.4 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, according to UN figures.

Petroleum exports accounted for about 90 percent of South Sudan's national income and Magaya warned that it could lose at least $100 million a month without the oil sales.

"This will result in significant losses of income, increase in market prices, fuel shortages, prolonged power outages, disruptions in transportation, and other essential services that are vital for the well-being of our citizens."

South Sudan's ruling elite are accused by the UN of massive plundering of public coffers and resources, with the country ranked 177th out of 180 on Transparency International's corruption index.

When South Sudan became independent, it took over about three-quarters of the oil reserves of the old Sudan, while Khartoum retained control of all pipeline and export facilities.

According to the bp Statistical Review of World Energy, South Sudan produced 153,000 barrels per day in 2021, while Sudan's output was 64,000 bpd.
Salaries unpaid

Sudan has been at war since April 2023 when fighting erupted between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The conflict has killed thousands of people, forced millions to flee -- including about 500,000 to South Sudan -- and pushed the country to the brink of famine.

The government in Juba, which has been involved in efforts to end the Sudan conflict, has not commented publicly on the force majeure declaration.

Boboya James Edimond, executive director of Juba-based think tank the Institute for Social Policy and Research, said oil sales have been financing 95 percent of government operations.

Even when the oil was flowing, he said the government has not been able to pay civil servant salaries for months.

"And if the oil is not going to be flowing, there will be a collapse of the government which might force citizens to go for protest and the military is likely to join," he warned.

Akol Maduok, head of the economics department at the University of Juba, said bluntly that the situation was "not good" for the average South Sudanese.

"The situation will worsen in the next two or three months because the central bank might run short of foreign reserves and it will not be able to supply hard currency into the market."

Andrew Smith, senior Africa analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft, said the hit to government finances caused by the damaged pipeline meant it was "highly likely" the election scheduled for December will be delayed.

"Juba appealed for more financing for the polls from the international community in early February, before the pipeline was damaged," he said in a note to AFP.

"Any funds it receives to plug oil revenue shortfalls will now likely be directed towards placating the political elite, not election preparations which were already under resourced."

© 2024 AFP

UPDATE

Impact of Baltimore port closure on global supply chains

Paris (AFP) – The bridge collapse that closed the Port of Baltimore has raised concerns about the disaster's potential impact on the global supply chain.


Issued on: 29/03/2024 -

Cranes have been deployed to unblock the port of Baltimore 

© CHIP SOMODEVILLA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

Authorities have warned that extensive work is needed before the major port can reopen following Tuesday's catastrophic cargo ship collision, which has blocked the harbour's entrance.

Here is a look at what it could mean for global trade:

A major car terminal

Baltimore is among the top 20 ports in the United States by tonnage and number of containers handled, according to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Last year, it handled a record 1.1 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) of containers -- a measure of volume for shipping containers.

Container imports via Baltimore amounted to 2.1 percent of the total for all US ports, according to Allianz Trade.

Its location deep within the Chesapeake Bay make it a "second-tier American port," said Paul Tourret, director of French maritime industry institute ISEMAR.

The port hosts transatlantic traffic, including small ships from northern Europe and the Mediterranean as well as some shipping lines from the Indian Ocean, Tourret said.

But it is a key hub for the auto industry.

Its private and public terminals handled 847,158 autos and light trucks last year, more than any other US port for the 13th year in a row, according to Maryland state figures.

It also ranked first for farm and construction machinery, as well as imported sugar and gypsum, and second for coal exports.

Alternative routes

German auto giants Volkswagen and BMW said their operations were not affected as the locations of their facilities were still accessible to ships.

US rival Ford said it had found alternative routes.

But the terminal for Mercedes-Benz is no longer reachable by sea as it is located behind the collapsed bridge.

The company told German media it is looking into alternative routes.

"The blockade of the Port of Baltimore will have little impact on trade between the USA and Europe," Patrick Lepperhoff, principal at Inverto consultancy, wrote in a note.

"In the last quarter of 2023, around 260,000 standard containers were loaded and unloaded at the port.

This volume can be diverted to the neighbouring ports" such as New York and Norfolk, Virginia, he wrote said.

Coal and cobalt impact

The port closure is expected to primarily impact US exports of coal and imports of cobalt, according to ratings agency S&P Global.

Access to coal export terminals of CSX Curtis Bay and Consol Marine Terminal has been blocked, it said.

The accident is expected to disrupt coal exports from Baltimore for 10 to 15 days but market participants suggested it would have "limited pricing impacts amid well-stocked markets", S&P added.

Coal exports from Baltimore jumped to 28 million short tons in 2023, mainly due to growing demand from Asia, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

"Even before the port's closure, we were expecting much slower growth in total US coal exports in 2024, of just one percent," the EIA said.

"The interruption in operations in Baltimore may affect the volume of exports this year," it added.

Baltimore's cobalt stocks were already under pressure due to strong demand for the mineral, a key component for electric car batteries and high-tech devices.

Yemeni rebel attacks on ships in the Red Sea have also caused delays as shipping companies have had to divert vessels to the longer and costlier route around southern Africa.

While the bridge incident will have "little to no impact" on US refined oil products, shipping fuel supplies "could tighten" on the Atlantic Coast as vessels refuel outside Baltimore, S&P said.

© 2024 AFP

Situation in chaos-wracked Haiti is 'cataclysmic', says UN

Issued on: 29/03/2024

The situation in chaos-wracked Haiti is "cataclysmic", with more than 1,500 people killed by gang violence so far this year and more weapons pouring into the country, the UN said Thursday. In a fresh report, the United Nations rights office detailed how "corruption, impunity and poor governance, compounded by increasing levels of gang violence (had) eroded the rule of law and brought state institutions... close to collapse".

01:50 Video by:  Liza KAMINOV

French parliament condemns 1961 Paris massacre of Algerians


Issued on: 29/03/2024 - 

01:23  Video by: Emerald MAXWELL

The French parliament's lower house on Thursday approved a resolution condemning as "bloody and murderous repression" the killing by Paris police of dozens of Algerians in a crackdown on a 1961 protest to support Algerian independence. In recent years France has made a series of efforts to come to terms with its colonial past in Algeria.

En.wikipedia.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_massacre_of_1961

Paris massacre of 1961 - Wikipedia 

22 hours ago ... "Paris massacre" redirects here. For other incidents, including the Charlie Hebdo attack and the November 2015 attacks, see Paris attacks (disambiguation...

Bbc.com

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58927939

How a massacre of Algerians in Paris was covered up - BBC 

Oct 16, 2021 ... How a massacre of Algerians in Paris was covered up · Getty Images The words "Here we drown Algerians" are seen on the embankment of · Gett...

Webdoc.france24.com

https://webdoc.france24.com/october-17-1961-massacre-algerians-paris-france-police-history

October 17, 1961: A massacre of Algerians in the heart of Pa... 

Police, politicians and the media covered up this massacre. It was the “most violent” repression of a protest in Western Europe's postwar history, noted British ...

Marxists.org

https://www.marxists.org/history/algeria/1961/oct-17-1961.htm

The Massacre of October 17, 1961 by Mitch Abidor 

Maurice Papon who, as Prefect personally supervised the events of October 17, and who, in order to justify the massacre, insisted that Algerians fired on the ...

African cocoa plants run out of beans as global chocolate crisis deepens

Issued on: 29/03/2024 - 

02:00

Long the world's undisputed cocoa powerhouses accounting for over 60% of global supply, Ghana and its West African neighbour Ivory Coast are both facing catastrophic harvests this season. Expectations of shortages of cocoa beans - the raw material for chocolate - have seen New York cocoa futures more than double this year alone. They have hit fresh record highs almost daily in an unprecedented trend that shows little sign of abating.

ICYMI

Russia veto ends UN monitoring of N.Korea sanctions after arms transfer probe

Russia on Thursday blocked the renewal of a panel of UN experts monitoring international sanctions on North Korea, weeks after the body said it was investigating reports of arms transfers between Moscow and Pyongyang.


Issued on: 29/03/2024 

Russia's Representative to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia addresses the Security Council on March 25, 2024. 

© Andrew Kelly, Reuters

The move was met with a flurry of criticism, including by South Korea's foreign ministry, which said Russia had made an "irresponsible decision" despite its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

The United States called the veto by Moscow a "self-interested effort to bury the panel's reporting on its own collusion" with North Korea.

"Russia's actions today have cynically undermined international peace and security, all to advance the corrupt bargain that Moscow has struck with the DPRK," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba took to social media to call the veto "a guilty plea," amid allegations that Pyongyang is aiding Moscow in its war against Kyiv.

Moscow's veto at the Security Council does not remove the sanctions on North Korea, but spells the end for the group monitoring their implementation -- and myriad alleged violations.

The panel's mandate expires at the end of April.

North Korea has been under mounting sanctions since 2006, put in place by the UN Security Council in response to its nuclear program.

Since 2019, Russia and China have tried to persuade the Security Council to ease the sanctions, which had no expiration date.

The council has long been divided on the issue, with China's deputy ambassador Geng Shuang arguing Thursday that the sanctions "have exacerbated tensions and confrontation with a serious negative impact on the humanitarian situation."

China abstained rather than joining Russia in the veto. All other members had voted in favor of renewing the expert panel.

Russia's UN envoy Vasily Nebenzia said that without an annual review guaranteed to assess and potentially modify the sanctions, the panel was unjustified.

"The panel has continued to focus on trivial matters that are not commensurate with the problems facing the peninsula," Nebenzia said.

"Russia has called for the council to adopt a decision to hold an open and honest review of the Council sanctions... on an annual basis."

Continued tests

Additional Security Council sanctions were leveled on Pyongyang in 2016 and 2017, but the North's sanctioned nuclear and weapons development have continued.

Last week, Pyongyang tested a solid-fuel engine for a "new-type intermediate-range hypersonic missile," state media reported.

Recent cruise missile launches have prompted speculation that North Korea is testing those weapons before shipping them to Moscow for use in Ukraine.

In its latest report, issued at the beginning of March, the sanctions panel reported that North Korea "continued to flout" sanctions, including by launching ballistic missiles and breaching oil import limits.

It added that it is investigating reports of arms shipments from Pyongyang to Russia for use in Ukraine.

In August, Russia used its veto to end the mandate of a group of UN experts on Mali who charged that Moscow-linked Wagner mercenaries were involved in widespread abuses.

"We have now seen Russia use its veto to end two panels of experts due to its expanding military relationships," the United States, France, Japan, South Korea and Britain said in a joint statement.

In a separate statement, 10 Security Council members, including Britain, France and the United States, defended the sanction monitors' work.

"In the face of these repeated attempts to undermine international peace and security, the panel's work is more important now than ever before," it said.

(AFP)

Russian veto ends monitoring of UN's North Korea sanctions

Issued on: 29/03/2024 - 

00:50 Video by : FRANCE 24

Russia on Thursday blocked the renewal of a panel of UN experts monitoring international sanctions on North Korea, weeks after the body said it was investigating reports of arms transfers between Moscow and Pyongyang.

Seoul slams 'irresponsible' Russian veto ending UN North Korea sanctions monitoring


Issued on: 29/03/2024 -

01:50  Video by:  Matthew-Mary Caruchet

South Korea slammed Russia's "irresponsible" veto blocking the renewal of a panel of UN experts monitoring international sanctions on North Korea, with the vote following accusations Pyongyang is aiding Moscow in its war in Ukraine.

In Canada's Quebec, residents miffed over mining boom

Saint-Élie-de-Caxton (Canada) (AFP) – Canada's Quebec province is rich with minerals needed for everything from electric cars to cell phones, but residents living atop the potential windfall are worried their backyards will be dug up -- and they won't get a dime.

Issued on: 29/03/2024 -

Residents of the Canadian town of Saint-Elie-de-Caxton are upset with an explosion in mining claims, including under their own homes 

© Genevieve Normand / AFP
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In recent months, tens of thousands of mining exploration permits have been issued in the province amid a global rush for critical and strategic minerals such as graphite, lithium, zinc, nickel and cobalt.

But under provincial mining exploration rules, subsoil in Quebec does not belong to landowners.

In Saint-Elie-de-Caxton, a town of 2,000 people about halfway between Montreal and Quebec City, residents are fed up. Signs around town proclaim "Saint-Elie, incompatible with mining activity" or "Don't Dig in my Caxton."

"We are at war, says Gilbert Guerin, spokesman for the "Don't Dig in my Caxton" committee, pointing to a map delineating exploration claims that have effectively parceled off the town for future mines.

Map showing active mining claims in Quebec, according to data from the Canadian province's ministry of natural resources and forests 

© Corin FAIFE, Jean-Michel CORNU / AFP

In Quebec, it only takes a few clicks on a website and about Can$75 (US$55) to stake a mining claim covering up to 100 hectares (250 acres) -- an opportunity open to locals and foreigners alike.

"I bought here. I thought I would be sovereign in my own home, but I came to understand that what's underground did not belong to me," says Yvan Lafontaine, surveying his property in the neighboring village of Saint-Mathieu-du-Parc from atop an observation tower he had built.

When Lafontaine learned that a company had acquired the mining rights to the subsoil beneath his land, what the nature lover calls his little "paradise," he fought back by staking 12 claims surrounding the property.

Currently, more than 350,000 claims have been registered, covering 10 percent of Quebec. The southern areas of the province -- where most of the population lives -- is the most sought after.

Yvan Lafontaine, whose estate is located on territory claimed by miners, looks at nature and the forest from the top of an observation tower that was built on his land in St-Mathieu-du-Parc, Quebec, Canada © Genevieve Normand / AFP

According to an AFP analysis of government data, the number of claims issued significantly increased from September 2022 to the end of February 2024, with about 160,000 granted -- a 140 percent increase over the previous 18-month period.
'Wild West'

For Saint-Elie resident Julie Hamelin, the mining exploration regulations in Quebec are "outdated."

St-Elie-de-Caxton resident Julie Hamelin says Canada's mining regulations are 'outdated' © Genevieve Normand / AFP

"It's something out of the Wild West, this way of staking claims," she said, urging provincial authorities to protect inhabited lands from mining.

Guerin, a former civil servant, says he is worried about the "irreversible consequences" that a mining project would have, particularly on the region's groundwater.

To try to discourage mining companies from moving in, residents of Saint-Elie-de-Caxton spent thousands of dollars to buy up more than 220 exploration claims around the village.

Faced with growing public discontent, the Quebec government has announced it intends to modernize its mining law, and insisted in an email to AFP "that no exploration can be carried out without the consent of the owner of private land."

But mining companies definitely are eyeballing Quebec's potential for resources extraction.

"There is a lot of graphite in Quebec. It could be the most important reserve in the world," says Hugues Jacquemin, chief executive of Northern Graphite.

"We absolutely must develop this sector because it is essential for the manufacture of batteries and electric vehicles," he told AFP during a visit to a mine at Lac-des-Iles, 260 kilometers (160 miles) north of Montreal.

Aerial view of the Northern Graphite mine in Lac-des-Îles, Quebec, March 7, 2024 

© Sebastien ST-JEAN / AFP

Canada is seeking to develop a battery supply chain independent from China, which has until now dominated the market in these critical minerals.

The development of the electric vehicle sector is a priority for both Quebec and Canada, which boasts of being one of the only countries in the world to have all of the necessary minerals to produce batteries.

But in Saint-Elie-de-Caxton and its surrounding areas, not all citizens are on board with the official plans.

"I don't think we should go in this direction," says Hamelin. "The solution is downscaling by using what we already have."

© 2024 AFP