It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Russian MPs back adoption ban on countries allowing gender reassignment
Lawmakers in the Duma said they wanted to ensure that adopted children would not go through gender-reassignment - Copyright AFP DENIS LOVROVIC
Russia’s parliament Wednesday voted to back a bill banning the adoption of Russian children in countries that allow gender reassignment, the latest in a series of ultra-conservative social measures.
Moscow has long portrayed itself as a bulwark against liberal values, but that trend has hugely accelerated since the Kremlin launched its Ukraine offensive, further rupturing ties with the West.
The bill would ban citizens of countries that authorise “the change of sex by medical intervention, including with the use of medicine”, or allow individuals to change their gender on official identity documents.
Lawmakers said they wanted to ensure that adopted children would not go through gender-reassignment.
Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin welcomed the advance of the bill.
“With this law we are protecting the child, we are doing everything for the child not to end up in a country where same-sex marriage and sex change is allowed,” he said.
Volodin earlier this month gave an interview to Russian media in which he said Europe and the US are “sick” for allowing gender-reassignment, attacking people “who were men yesterday and who today call themselves women.”
Lawmakers voted almost unanimously to back the proposed law in a first reading, with 397 in favour and one against.
The bill still needs to be passed in two more readings and approved by the upper chamber before it can be signed into law by Putin.
– Adoption virtually stopped –
The foreign adoption of Russian children has fallen drastically since 2012, when Moscow banned Americans from adopting. It has virtually stopped completely since the Ukraine offensive in 2022.
In 2023, only six Russian children were adopted by foreign citizens, according to official figures.
According to government figures cited in Russian media, 358,000 children were in care homes at the start of the year.
Children waiting to be adopted have been caught in the fallout of the conflict in Ukraine, with Moscow having considered a ban on adopting into “unfriendly countries” since 2022.
There are also now the logistical complications of physically getting to Russia.
These latest proposals are a new version of a bill put forward in 2022 that aimed to ban the adoption of Russian children by parents from “unfriendly countries” — a term Moscow uses to refer to countries that have sanctioned Russia for its Ukraine offensive.
An explainer on the State Duma website said the bill aimed to ban the adoption of Russian children by “NATO countries”.
MP Nina Ostatina, one of the bill’s authors, said: “The hybrid war unleashed against us touches our children… Russia has become an outpost on preserving traditional values.”
Russia has created an inhospitable environment for LBGTQ people for years. In July 2023, it banned the “international LGBT movement” as extremist and made gender reassignment illegal.
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly mocked people who have undergone gender reassignment and LGBTQ people.
Putin proposes broader criteria for using nuclear arms
Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R), pictured in July with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) at a nuclear exhibition, has proposed changes to the country's nuclear doctrine - Copyright AFP Patrick T. FALLON
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced plans to broaden Russia’s rules on the use of its nuclear weaponry, allowing it to unleash a nuclear response in the event of a “massive” air attack.
Under the proposed rules, Russia would also consider any attack by a non-nuclear country supported by a nuclear power as a joint attack by both.
Putin said it was necessary to adapt to emerging threats, and while he did not directly refer to Ukraine, the proposed measures appeared linked to Moscow’s offensive launched in February 2022.
The changes, which Putin himself has the power to approve, come as Ukraine is seeking permission from Western allies to use long-range precision weaponry to strike targets deep inside Russia — so far to no avail.
In a televised meeting with high-level officials, Putin detailed the proposed changes to the country’s nuclear doctrine: the “utmost measure of protection of the country’s sovereignty”.
“We see the modern military and political situation is dynamically changing and we must take this into consideration,” Putin said, citing “the emergence of new sources of military threats and risks for Russia and our allies”.
Among the new measures, “it is proposed to consider aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear state” when this is carried out “with the participation or support of a nuclear power” as “their joint attack on Russia”, Putin said.
This would seemingly apply to Ukraine, a non-nuclear state that receives military support from the United States and other nuclear-armed countries.
Putin said that proposed changes “clearly set the conditions for Russia to transition to using nuclear weapons”.
“We will consider such a possibility once we receive reliable information about a massive launch of air and space attack weapons and their crossing our state border,” the president added.
“I mean aeroplanes of strategic and tactical aviation, cruise missiles, drones, hypersonic and other aircraft,” Putin said.
The president said the proposed changes also meant “we reserve the right to use nuclear weapons in case of aggression against Russia and Belarus”, Moscow’s close ally.
– ‘Critical threat’ –
He added that this included a situation in which another state “using conventional weapons, creates a critical threat to our sovereignty”.
The president said that Russia’s nuclear weapons were “the most important guarantee of security of our state and its citizens”.
“It’s important to predict how the situation will develop and accordingly adapt the clauses of the document on strategic planning to current realities,” Putin said.
The proposed new doctrine has been prepared as a draft, while Putin needs to approve the text for it to enter force, TASS state news agency reported.
It was the first time that Putin had held such a meeting in public, TASS reported.
Only the president’s opening remarks to officials seated around a long table were aired on television.
Putin said in his speech that such meetings on nuclear deterrence were scheduled twice a year.
The participants included former president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy head of Putin’s security council, as well as the defence and finance ministers and the heads of the FSB security service and SVR foreign intelligence service.
EU states back plan to downgrade wolf protection status
THE RESULT OF LANDOWNERS TRACTOR REVOLT THIS SPRING
Grey wolves were virtually exterminated in Europe a century ago but, thanks to conservation efforts, numbers have rebounded - Copyright AFP DENIS LOVROVIC
EU member states on Wednesday voted in favour of lowering the protection status of wolves, in a move decried by conservationists that paves the way for a relaxation of strict hunting rules.
Representatives for the bloc’s 27 countries backed a proposal to push for changes to an international wildlife convention that would see the species downgraded from “strictly protected” to “protected”.
The European Commission, which initially put forward the plan, welcomed its approval by a qualified majority of member states during a meeting in Brussels.
Grey wolves were virtually exterminated in Europe a century ago but, thanks to conservation efforts, numbers have rebounded, triggering howls of protest from farmers angered at livestock losses.
“Adapting the protection status will be an important step to address the challenges posed by increasing wolf population while keeping the overall objective to achieve and maintain a favourable conservation status for the species,” commission spokesman Adalbert Jahnz told reporters.
In 2023, there were breeding packs of grey wolves in 23 European Union countries, with a total population estimated at around 20,300 animals, bringing the elusive creatures into more frequent contact with humans.
In announcing plans to revise the species’ status last year, Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the “concentration of wolf packs in some European regions has become a real danger especially for livestock”.
Last year, von der Leyen herself lost her beloved pony Dolly to a wolf that crept into its enclosure on her family’s rural property in northern Germany — leading some to suggest the matter had become personal.
The wolf became a “strictly protected” species under the 1979 Bern Convention, which the EU is a party to.
The text allows for the animal to be killed or captured only when it poses a threat to livestock, health or safety.
The commission’s proposal would loosen such rules by demoting wolves to “protected” species.
Despite protests from animal rights activists, this would allow hunting to resume under strict regulation.
– ‘Politically motivated’ –
More than 300 environmental and animal protection groups opposed the move arguing it was premature since while population numbers have grown, their recovery is still ongoing.
“We see this as a proposal that is politically motivated and not at all based on science,” Sabien Leemans, senior policy officer at environmental group WWF, told AFP.
This year has seen rolling protests by farmers in Brussels and around Europe against the bloc’s tightening environmental requirements. Wednesday’s vote, once formally adopted by the bloc’s environment ministers, will give the EU a mandate to push for a change in the Bern Convention at its next standing committee meeting scheduled for December.
A two-thirds majority is required to alter the text, which was signed by 50 countries, including the 27 EU members.
If the convention is changed, the commission will then be allowed to move to amend related EU rules.
French champagne makers bid to protect seasonal workers from abuse
Since the start of the harvest in Champagne in early September, members of France's CGT trade union have been travelling across local communities to distribute flyers to grape-pickers informing them of their rights
- Copyright AFP FRANCOIS NASCIMBENI
Zoe LEROY
French champagne producers are looking to restore their damaged reputations after four workers died last year amid hot weather, as authorities closed squalid housing and launched probes into suspected human trafficking.
This harvest, the vineyards are taking steps to better protect workers from abuse, in a bid to uphold the reputation of the renowned sparkling wines.
“We have called for the entire sector to mobilise,” said Maxime Toubart, who heads the Champagne growers’ association.
Since the grape harvest kicked off in early September, members of the CGT trade union have been handing out flyers to grape-pickers, many of whom are Eastern Europeans.
The leaflets come in eight languages including Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Italian and French, and inform labourers of their rights, including the minimum hourly wage, the limit on working hours and mandatory breaks.
“Hello, we have come to inform you of your rights,” CGT trade unionists told a gaggle of workers picking Pinot Noir grapes in the small village of Igny-Comblizy on a recent morning.
As they spoke, representatives of the Veuve Clicquot Champagne house kept a close eye on their subcontractor providing temporary labour.
This year, 22 labour inspectors and 84 police have been deployed to oversee the harvest on a daily basis, according to the Marne prefecture in northeastern France.
– ‘Camps in the woods’ –
Every year around 120,000 seasonal workers are brought in to handpick grapes that are grown across 34,000 hectares (84,000 acres) in eastern France and used to make its iconic bubbly.
The reputation of the famed winemakers took a hit last year when reports emerged of migrant workers living in appalling conditions and other labour violations.
Three temporary housing facilities were shut down for being “dirty” and “unfit for habitation”.
Authorities also launched an investigation into the deaths of four grape harvesters in the Champagne region, believed to have suffered sunstroke in scorching heat.
The industry group Union of Champagne Houses has sought to distance itself from the violations, with its co-head David Chatillon blaming contractors hiring seasonal workers.
“Rogue actors have threatened the image of Champagne,” said Chatillon, fuming.
Last October, the industry group launched an action plan vowing to improve existing practices.
Prosecutors in November 2023 opened two probes into suspected human trafficking after around 200 Ukrainian and other foreign workers were found living in poor conditions during routine checks.
One contractor will be taken to court in March 2025 as a result of the first probe. The second investigation is still underway.
Jose Blanco, general secretary of the CGT-Champagne trade union, said that despite improvements, a lack of proper housing was “the big problem of Champagne”.
“We are still finding camps in the woods,” he said.
Blanco said the new generation of winegrowers has “failed in their mission”, adding that many lamented strict housing standards for migrant workers.
Champagne houses “ought to keep an eye on their subcontractors, but many bury their heads in the sand”, added Blanco.
– ‘Wake-up call’ –
Maxime Mainguet, vice-president of the freshly created federation of subcontractors in Champagne, said problems had piled on for some time before they came to a head last year.
“I think it was a real wake-up call,” Mainguet said, adding that growers were now more careful when signing contracts. “The subject has been taken very seriously.”
A winery that does not pinch pennies, Moet & Chandon Champagne houses 1,900 of its 3,500 seasonal workers.
In the town of Pierry, around 100 employees stay in a modern residence in the middle of the vineyards — a small two-storey building complete with dormitories, bathrooms, a laundry room and a canteen.
Workers are offered physical therapy sessions and stretching classes.
“We need to make people want to come and keep coming to harvest,” said Frederic Gallois, vineyard and supply director at Moet & Chandon.
On average, workers there earn between 1,200 and 2,000 euros ($1,340-$2,230) for a 10-day stint.
While the CGT trade union has criticised the massive use of migrant workers, which it says drives down wages, Toubart insisted that both French nationals and foreigners receive equal pay and pointed to recruitment difficulties.
“The Champagne name has no interest whatsoever in poor welcome and poor pay,” Toubart said.
“It’s also a question of image, and we don’t want to play games with that.”
Leftist Sri Lanka leader stuck with painful IMF deal: analysts
Sri Lanka’s new leftist leader has little room to renegotiate an IMF bailout that threw a lifeline to his bankrupt country but imposed punishing and unpopular austerity measures, analysts say.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake, 55, was a vocal critic of global lenders from the fringes of the island nation’s politics, including in the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s unprecedented economic meltdown two years ago.
He won Saturday’s presidential vote in a landslide promising to reverse steep tax hikes, raise public servant salaries and renegotiate the International Monetary Fund rescue package secured by his predecessor.
But after his inauguration two days later he appealed for international support to revive Sri Lanka’s economy, admitting he had no magic solution to its woes.
“There are certain red lines that the IMF will not agree to negotiate,” Murtaza Jafferjee of the Colombo-based economic think tank Advocata told AFP.
He said the Washington-based lender of last resort would be very unlikely to budge on core components of its $2.9 billion bailout, including a ban on printing money and revenue and spending targets agreed by the last administration.
Dissanayake’s party, the People’s Liberation Front (JVP), sports the hammer and sickle motif of the international communist movement on its logo.
The JVP was confined to the political wilderness for decades after leading rebellions in the 1970s and 1980s that left more than 80,000 people dead, before the party renounced violence.
Months of food, fuel and medicine shortages that accompanied the 2022 financial crisis and foreign debt default rallied the public behind it.
Dissanayake’s call to upend the island’s “corrupt” politics resonated with a public infuriated by chronic economic mismanagement and graft scandals in government ranks.
As the size of his victory became clear, his party moved quickly to assure markets and creditors that it would adhere to the broad strokes of the bailout deal.
“We will not tear up the IMF programme,” JVP politburo member Bimal Ratnayake said. “It is a binding document, but there is a provision to renegotiate.”
The ironic outcome of the pledge was that the same day as an avowed Marxist assumed the presidency, Colombo’s stock exchange rallied by 1.5 percent.
But by committing to maintain the rescue plan, Jafferjee said that any tweaks pushed by Dissanayake would necessarily be minor.
“On the fiscal side, there is not much adjustment that can be done,” he said.
– ‘Best interest of the country’ –
Dissanayake’s predecessor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, was voted out of office after doubling income taxes and imposing other reviled austerity measures.
His policies ended the shortages as well as runaway inflation and returned the country to growth but left millions struggling to make ends meet.
The IMF said Wickremesinghe’s administration had made a great deal of progress in repairing the nation’s ruined finances after a $46 billion foreign debt default two years ago.
But spokesperson Julie Kozack also warned ahead of the presidential poll that Sri Lanka was “not out of the woods yet”.
One of Dissanayake’s first acts of business will be to secure a parliamentary endorsement for a debt restructuring deal with international bondholders, negotiated by his predecessor at the eleventh hour and announced last week.
That will have to wait for the election of a new parliament, as Dissanayake sought to capitalise on his landslide win by calling snap polls on Tuesday, the day after he was sworn in.
Umesh Moramudali, an economics lecturer at the University of Colombo, warned that failing to secure the deal’s passage could open Sri Lanka to legal action from its creditors.
“It would be in the best interest of the country to avoid litigation with bondholders,” he told AFP.
– China-India rivalry –
Sri Lanka also owes billions to China and India, its two largest bilateral creditors who are both competing for influence in the island nation, which is strategically situated on global east-west sea routes.
Both nations have congratulated Dissanayake on his win and pledged to work with his administration.
Dissanayake’s ideological leanings, his campaign against an India-backed energy project and the JVP’s historical anti-India stance had led some experts to suspect his administration would lead Sri Lanka to a closer relationship with Beijing.
But he used his inauguration speech to reject “power divisions in the world” and pledged to work with all other countries for the benefit of his own.
“The new leader’s foreign policy stance will be important,” said Farwa Aamer of the Asia Society Policy Institute.
“It will be in his interest to work with India, as a regional partner, as he focuses on economic development.”
Major boost in carbon capture and storage essential to reach 2°C climate target
WE'VE MOVED BEYOND 1.5 C
Chalmers University of Technology
image:
Image description: 3D visualisation of CCS at Sleipner, where carbon dioxide has been successfully stored deep below the North Sea outside the coast of Norway since 1996
Credit: Chalmers University of Technology | Equinor
Large expansion of carbon capture and storage is necessary to fulfill the Paris Climate Agreement. Yet a new study led by Chalmers University of Technology, in Sweden and University of Bergen, in Norway, shows that without major efforts, the technology will not expand fast enough to meet the 2°C target and even with major efforts it is unlikely to expand fast enough for the 1.5°C target.
The idea behind carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is to capture carbon dioxide then store it deep underground. Some applications of CCS, such as bioenergy with CCS (BECCS) and direct air capture and storage (DACCS) actually lead to negative emissions, essentially “reversing” emissions from burning fossil fuels. CCS technologies play an important role in many climate mitigation strategies including net-zero targets. However, the current use is negligible.
“CCS is an important technology for achieving negative emissions and also essential for reducing carbon emissions from some of the most carbon-intensive industries. Yet our results show that major efforts are needed to bridge the gap between the demonstration projects in place today and the massive deployment we need to mitigate climate change,” says Jessica Jewell, Associate Professor at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden
A new study titled, ‘Feasible deployment of carbon capture and storage and the requirements of climate targets’, conducted a thorough analysis of past and future growth of CCS to forecast whether it can expand fast enough for the Paris Climate Agreement. The study found that over the 21st century, no more than 600 Gigatons (Gt) of carbon dioxide can be sequestered with CCS.
“Our analysis shows that we are unlikely to capture and store more than 600 Gt over the 21st century. This contrasts with many climate mitigation pathways from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which in some cases require upwards of 1000 Gt of CO2 captured and stored by the end of the century. While this looks at the overall amount, it’s also important to understand when the technology can start operating at a large scale because the later we start using CCS the lower the chances are of keeping temperature rise at 1.5°C or 2°C. This is why most of our research focused on how fast CCS can expand,” says Tsimafei Kazlou, PhD candidate at University of Bergen, Norway, and first author of the study.
Decrease in CCS failure rate required
The study highlights the need to expand the number of CCS projects that realise this technology and cut failure rates to ensure the technology “takes-off” in this decade. Today, the development of CCS is driven by policies like the EU Net-Zero Industry Act and the Inflation Reduction Act in the US. In fact, if all of today’s plans are realised, by 2030, CCS capacity would be eight times what it is today.
“Even though there are ambitious plans for CCS, there are big doubts about whether these are feasible. About 15 years ago, during another wave of interest in CCS, planned projects failed at a rate of almost 90 percent. If historic failure rates continue, capacity in 2030 will be at most twice what it is today which would be insufficient for climate targets,” says Tsimafei Kazlou.
A promising technology with barriers to overcome
Like most technologies, CCS grows non-linearly and there are examples of other technologies to learn from. Even if CCS “takes-off” by 2030, the challenges won’t stop. In the following decade it would need to grow as fast as wind power did in the early 2000’s to keep up with carbon dioxide reductions required for limiting the global temperature rise to 2°C by 2100. Then starting in the 2040s, CCS needs to match the peak growth that nuclear energy experienced in the 1970s and 1980s.
“The good news is that if CCS can grow as fast as other low-carbon technologies have, the 2°C target would be within reach (on tiptoes). The bad news, 1.5°C would likely still be out of reach,” says Jessica Jewell.
The authors say their analysis underlines the need for strong policy support for CCS combined with a rapid expansion of other decarbonisation technologies for climate targets.
“Rapid deployment of CCS needs strong support schemes to make CCS projects financially viable. At the same time, our results show that since we can only count on CCS to deliver 600 Gt of CO2 captured and stored over the 21st century, other low-carbon technologies like solar and wind power need to expand even faster”, says Aleh Cherp, Professor at Central European University in Austria.
Image description: 3D visualisation of CCS at Sleipner, where carbon dioxide has been successfully stored deep below the North Sea outside the coast of Norway since 1996
Climate mitigation pathways used throughout the study are from the IPCC open-source data.
The article is written by Tsimafei Kazlou of University of Bergen in Norway, Jessica Jewell at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and Aleh Cherp at Central European University in Austria.
The research was funded by the European Commission’s H2020 ERC Starting Grant MANIFEST and project ENGAGE in addition to the Mistra Electrification project.
More about the Paris Climate Agreement:
The Paris Climate Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France, on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016. Its overarching goal is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”
For more information, please contact:
Jessica Jewell, Associate Professor, Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, jewell@chalmers.se+46 31 772 61 06
Tsimafei Kazlou, Doctoral Student, Center for Climate and Energy Transformations, University of Bergen, Norway, Tsimafei.kazlou@uib.no
The contact persons speak English and are available for live and pre-recorded interviews. At Chalmers, we have podcast studios and broadcast filming equipment on site and would be able to assist a request for a television, radio or podcast interview.
Wildfires in Canada have generated record CO2 emissions
- Copyright Nova Scotia Government/AFP/File Handout
Pierre-Henry DESHAYES
Norway is set to inaugurate Thursday the gateway to a massive undersea vault for carbon dioxide, a crucial step before opening what its operator calls the first commercial service offering CO2 transport and storage.
The Northern Lights project plans to take CO2 emissions captured at factory smokestacks in Europe and inject them into geological reservoirs under the seabed.
The aim is to prevent the emissions from being released into the atmosphere, and thereby help halt climate change.
On the island of Oygarden, a key milestone will be marked on Thursday with the inauguration of a terminal built on the shores of the North Sea, its shiny storage tanks rising up against the sky.
It is here that the liquified CO2 will be transported by boat, then injected through a long pipeline into the seabed, at a depth of around 2.6 kilometres (1.6 miles), for permanent storage.
The facility, a joint venture grouping oil giants Equinor of Norway, the Anglo-Dutch Shell and TotalEnergies of France, is expected to bury its first CO2 deliveries in 2025.
It will have an initial capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year, before being ramped up to five million tonnes in a second phase if there is enough demand.
“Our first purpose is to demonstrate that the carbon capture and storage (CCS) chain is feasible,” Northern Lights managing director Tim Heijn told AFP.
“It can make a real impact on the CO2 balance and help achieve climate targets,” he said.
– Prohibitive cost –
CCS technology is complex and costly but has been advocated by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), especially for reducing the CO2 footprint of industries like cement and steel, which are difficult to decarbonise.
The world’s overall capture capacity is currently just 50.5 million tonnes, according to the IEA, or barely 0.1 percent of the world’s annual total emissions.
In order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius since the pre-industrial era, CCS would have to prevent at least one billion tonnes of CO2 emissions per year by 2030, the IEA says.
The technology is still in the early stages, and has been slow to develop because of prohibitive costs — compared to the price companies have to pay for CO2 emission quotas, for example.
It therefore depends heavily on subsidies.
“Public support was and will be crucial to help such innovative projects to advance, especially as CCS costs are still higher than the costs of CO2 emissions in Europe,” said Daniela Peta, public affairs director at the Global CCS Institute.
The Norwegian government has financed 80 percent of the cost of Northern Lights, which has been kept confidential.
The Scandinavian country is Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer.
The North Sea, with its depleted oil and gas fields and its vast network of pipelines, is an ideal region to bury unwanted greenhouse gases.
– Greenwashing? –
Northern Lights is part of an ambitious 30-billion-kroner ($2.9 billion) scheme dubbed “Longship” — after the Viking ships — of which the state has provided 20 billion kroner.
The plan initially included the creation of two CO2 capture sites in Norway.
While the Heidelberg Materials cement factory in Brevik is expected to begin shipping its captured emissions to the site next year, snowballing costs have forced the waste-to-energy plant Hafslund Celsio in Oslo to review its plans.
In addition, Northern Lights has also secured cross-border deals with Norwegian fertiliser manufacturer Yara and energy group Orsted to bury CO2 from an ammonia plant in the Netherlands and two biomass power stations in Denmark.
Some environmentalists worry the technology could provide an excuse to prolong the use of fossil fuels and divert funds needed for renewable energies.
They have also raised concerns about the risk of leaks.
“Northern Lights is ‘greenwashing’,” said the head of Greenpeace Norway, Frode Pleym, noting that the project was run by oil companies.
“Their goal is to be able to continue pumping oil and gas. CCS, the electrification of platforms and all of these kinds of measures are used by the oil industry in a cynical way to avoid doing anything about their enormous emissions,” he said.
Bangladesh revolution sparks new hopes among Rohingya
Rohingya refugees have languished in camps in Bangladesh for years, but some hope their situation will improve under the new government - Copyright AFP Munir UZ ZAMAN
Mohammad MAZED and Tanbirul Miraj RIPON
Rohingya refugee Shonjida has endured years of boredom, misery and violence in Bangladesh — but last month’s overthrow of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina has given her fresh hope for the future.
Around a million members of the stateless and persecuted Muslim minority live in a sprawling patchwork of Bangladeshi relief camps after fleeing violence in their homeland next door in Myanmar.
Hasina was lauded by the international community in 2017 for opening the borders to around 750,000 Rohingya who fled a Myanmar military crackdown that is now the subject of a UN genocide investigation.
But the years since have seen rampant malnutrition and regular gun battles in the camps, whose inhabitants hope that Hasina’s ouster will bring renewed attention to their plight.
“We and our children live in fear at night because of the shootings,” 42-year-old Shonjida, who goes by one name, told AFP.
Shonjida teaches at one of a few informal learning centres established for school-aged children in her camp, giving her an unsettling insight into the manifold problems facing her community.
The centres are able to cater to only a fraction of the camp’s families, whose status as refugees shuts them out of Bangladeshi schools, universities and the local job market.
Many of her students are undernourished because declining international aid has forced successive ration cuts.
And they are terrified by the sound of rival militant groups battling for control of the camps, with more than 60 refugees killed in clashes so far this year, according to local media reports.
“We want peace and no more gunfire. We want our children to not be scared anymore,” Shonjida said.
“Now that the new government is in power, we hope it will give us peace, support, food and safety.”
– ‘Island jail in the sea’ –
Hasina was toppled last month in a student-led uprising that forced her to flee into exile in neighbouring India, moments before thousands of people stormed her palace in the capital Dhaka.
The revolution brought down the curtain on a 15-year rule marred by extrajudicial killings of her opponents, press restrictions and crackdowns on civil society.
Her decision to welcome Rohingya fleeing Myanmar won her some diplomatic reprieve from Washington and other Western capitals, who otherwise issued regular rebukes on abuses committed during her tenure.
But her government’s struggles to accommodate the refugees in the following years were also the subject of regular criticism by rights groups.
It relocated at least 36,000 Rohingya to the previously uninhabited and cyclone-prone island of Bhashan Char to ease overcrowding in the camps.
Many of those sent there said they were forced to go against their will, with one refugee describing their new home to Human Rights Watch as “an island jail in the middle of the sea”.
The desperate situation in the camps also prompted thousands to embark upon dangerous sea trips to find new refuge in Southeast Asian countries, with many drowning at sea.
– ‘How can we go back?’ –
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, who is leading an interim government ahead of fresh elections, began his tenure last month by promising to continue supporting the Rohingya.
Many refugees said they had been encouraged by the initial weeks of the 84-year-old’s administration.
“We saw on Facebook and YouTube that many of our community leaders had spoken with them and met with them,” community leader Hamid Hossain, 48, told AFP. “I am more hopeful now.”
But Yunus also said that Bangladesh needed “the sustained efforts of the international community” to look after the Rohingya.
This week he travelled to the United States and lobbied for more foreign aid for the group, with the State Department announcing nearly $200 million in additional funding after Yunus sat for a private meeting with President Joe Biden.
Yunus has also called for accelerated resettlement of Rohingya in third countries, with the prospect of refugees being safely returned to their original homes looking slimmer than ever.
The Rohingya endured decades of discrimination in Myanmar, where successive governments classified them as illegal immigrants despite their long history in the country.
Hasina’s government and Myanmar made several abortive plans to establish a repatriation scheme, opposed by refugees who did not want to return home without guarantees of their safety and civic rights.
The security situation has worsened dramatically since last year. Rohingya-majority communities in Myanmar have been the site of intense clashes between the military and a rebel army battling the country’s junta.
“There are killings there,” refugee Mohammad Johar, 42, told AFP. “How can we go back?”
Cuts, cash, credit: China’s latest bid to jumpstart flagging economy
By AFP September 25, 2024 Investors and analysts warn that more state support is needed for the world's second-largest economy - Copyright AFP WANG Zhao
Peter CATTERALL
China this week unveiled a bundle of new measures aimed at kickstarting its economy, which has been battered in recent years by unprecedented headwinds including a property sector crisis and sluggish spending.
The stimulus announced by the central bank come after warnings that more state support was needed to get the world’s second-largest economy back on track and hit growth targets for 2024.
Here are the steps announced by Beijing this week, and how experts are reacting:
– Rate cuts –
The People’s Bank of China on Wednesday cut its medium-term lending facility — the interest for one-year loans to financial institutions — from 2.3 percent to 2.0 percent. The rate was last lowered in July.
Most Asian markets rose following the announcement, which came two days after monetary policymakers said they would lower its 14-day lending rate.
The raft of measures, including the cuts, are considered the boldest in years as Beijing aims to revive economic activity.
But Ting Lu, chief China economist at Nomura, said the batch of monetary easing measures has left investors “wondering what Beijing will do next on the fiscal front”.
“Eventually fiscal stimulus matters much more when an economy is in a kind of liquidity trap,” he said in a note.
– Cash injection –
Bank chief Pan Gongsheng also unveiled a reduction in the reserve requirement ratio — which dictates how much cash banks must keep on hand — hoping to boost lending to companies and consumers.
Beijing said the cut would inject around a trillion yuan ($141.7 billion) in long-term liquidity into the financial market.
“The press conference exceeded market expectation,” Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said in a note.
The loosening of monetary policy “is somewhat overdue, but nonetheless helpful to lift market confidence”, said Zhang.
But he added: “What’s missing in the policy package is fiscal policy.”
– Mortgage help –
One of the major drags on the economy in recent years is the housing market, which has been mired in a slump — home sales volume have tracked a steady decline this year.
But Pan said Tuesday that interest rates on existing mortgage loans would be lowered, which he said would benefit 150 million people across China.
“Lower mortgage rates could allow the households to spare a bit more money to spend and should support consumption recovery,” said Chaoping Zhu, global market strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management.
– Lower down payments –
In a potential further boost to the housing market, Pan added that minimum down payments for first and second homes would be “unified”, with the latter dropping from 25 percent to 15 percent.
“The most effective way for stabilising growth is to end the housing crisis,” said Nomura in a note Wednesday, pointing out that measures unveiled by Beijing earlier this year have yet to have a major impact.
A quota for state purchases of unused homes announced in May “has barely been used”, Nomura said in a report this month.
“Few new homes have been bought by local governments, the issue of delayed home delivery has failed to be effectively addressed, and the property sector remains in a downturn,” it added.
– Swap programme –
Pan said a new “swap programme” allowing firms to acquire liquidity from the central bank would “significantly enhance” their ability to access funds to buy stocks.
However, Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, urged caution despite a market rally that followed.
“The (central bank’s) latest moves are promising, but it feels like we’re still waiting for the main event,” he said.
“Deflation, de-leveraging, and sluggish growth already have investors on edge, but when you toss in surprise measures like this, it starts feeling more like a scramble than a solution.
“It’s almost as if they’re trying to extinguish a fire with a flame thrower.”
Hong Kong cheongsam master in the mood to retire after 75 years
At 88, Yan Kar-man is one of Hong Kong's oldest master tailors of the cheongsam, an elegant, high-collared Chinese dress recognisable for its form-fitting silhouette - Copyright AFP Peter PARKS
Xinqi SU
Bent over a magenta chiffon fabric, an elderly Hong Kong tailor wearing thick glasses meticulously stitched on embroidered butterflies, working to transform the shimmering material into an elegant, high-collared Chinese dress known as a cheongsam.
At 88, Yan Kar-man is one of Hong Kong’s oldest master tailors of the cheongsam — literally “long clothes” in Cantonese — a dress recognisable for its form-fitting silhouette which was famously featured in Wong Kar-wai’s film “In the Mood for Love”.
Experts say the silver-haired tailor is among roughly 10 remaining cheongsam-makers in Hong Kong, which in the mid-1960s used to have about 1,000, according to records from the Shanghai Tailoring Workers General Union.
But after dressing generations of women ranging from housewives to movie stars like Michelle Yeoh and Shu Qi, Yan has decided he will hang up his measuring tape soon — by the end of September at the earliest.
“I can’t see clearly — my eyes are not working well, and neither am I. I have to retire,” he told AFP as he stooped closer to his sewing machine to tack on an embroidered border on the dress.
With about 10 more dresses to finish, Yan hesitated to give an exact closing day for his tiny workshop located in the bustling Hong Kong commercial district of Jordan.
Evolved from the long robes worn by Manchurian people in China’s Qing dynasty, cheongsams have dominated the wardrobes of ordinary Chinese women for much of the 20th century since it was popularised in Shanghai in the 1920s.
Its high-neck collars, knee-length slits and streamlined fits evoked a sense of city glamour, and by the 1960s the dress was everywhere in Hong Kong.
“Women would wear them to shop in wet markets,” recalled Yan, whose workshop walls are plastered with photos of beauty pageant queens wearing his dresses.
Some of his celebrity customers have even reached out for major life events — like Liza Wang, a Hong Kong diva nicknamed “Big Sister” in entertainment circles, who has been his client for three decades.
“I didn’t know it was for her wedding when I made her a dress with one of her scarves and turned the scraps into a tie for her groom,” Yan said.
-‘Critically endangered’-
Born in Jiangsu province, China, north of Shanghai, Yan was 13 when his uncle brought him to Hong Kong in 1949 to work as an apprentice in a workshop, where the school dropout was discovered to be a young talent.
At that time, the trade for cheongsam was so common and stable that Yan recalled a plain design would cost “just a few (Hong Kong) dollars”.
Western fashion became popular after World War II, and the rise of the garment manufacturing sector in Hong Kong squeezed the cheongsam out of the fashion limelight while pushing tailoring workshops out of business.
Today, the traditional technique to make the dress is “critically endangered”, said Brenda Li, an adviser to the Hong Kong Cheongsam Association.
“Hong Kong’s cheongsam-making has developed its own style and tradition in the past century, merging skills of dimensional cutting from the West,” Li told AFP.
“Few people still wear and care about it, but we want to preserve it no matter how niche it has become because it’s part of our culture.”
Though cheongsam-making technique has been recognised as part of Hong Kong and mainland China’s cultural heritage, Yan said the withered trade offers little chance to pass on his craft.
“You can’t make a living by making qipao because it’s no longer the trend,” Yan said, using the Mandarin word for the dress.
The master — who also teaches at a learning centre near his shop — said his students were “far from ready to make real clothes for clients”.
Nowadays, orders typically come from older women who need a statement dress to attend their children’s weddings, and each piece takes Yan weeks to finish and costs several thousand Hong Kong dollars (hundreds of US dollars).
“How many old clients are still out there, and how many pieces of such detailed work can you make every month?” Yan asked rhetorically.
