‘We need clarity more than ever’: Georgia’s murky elections and the West’s dilemma

Analysis

In the aftermath of last weekend's disputed parliamentary election results in Georgia, some observers say the West needs to be more robust in condemning electoral fraud and sanctioning the parties involved. Others say the full picture needs to be established. The stakes are high for the West as a vital foothold in the Caucasus pivots to Russia.

Issued on: 01/11/2024 - 
By: Sonya CIESNIK

FRANCE24/AFP

Georgian opposition supporters rally to protest results of the parliamentary elections that showed a win for the ruling Georgian Dream party outside the parliament building in central Tbilisi on October 28, 2024. © Vano Shlamov, AFP

In the late hours of Saturday, October 26, the initial optimism among Georgia's opposition and pro-democracy activists rapidly began to deflate. The buoyant atmosphere turned into one of frustration and disappointment when the Central Election Commission (CEC) pronounced the results of the country’s parliamentary election.

Earlier independent polling had predicted the four pro-European opposition groups would overcome the increasingly authoritarian ruling Georgian Dream party. Yet the official outcome showed Georgian Dream had won 54 percent of the vote, the best score in its 12-year rule.

The four opposition parties, which collectively won 37 percent of the vote, refused to recognise the results, alleging “falsification”.

Georgia's pro-Western President Salome Zurabishvili went even further, saying the election was a “total robbery of votes”. Her call for an opposition rally led tens of thousands of people to pour into the streets two days after the vote.


European authorities have demanded a full investigation into what happened leading up to the election and the day of the vote. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined the growing chorus in a recent statement.

Activist and diplomatic sources from Georgia and the rest of Europe have said these declarations are not enough, and that Georgian Dream should be sanctioned. Others said Brussels and Washington should wait until a full picture of rigged elections emerges before making a move.

The stakes are high, with the southern Caucasus state gravitating toward Russia and the West potentially losing a vital trade route and energy corridor.

Drifting toward Moscow

“Georgian Dream has always won through ambiguity and lack of clarity;” said Marika Makiashvili, a Georgian researcher and political activist. Governing a largely pro-Western population, the party led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili ostensibly maintained Georgians’ hopes of integrating the EU while gradually taking over state institutions and restoring relations with the Kremlin.

Read moreBidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s billionaire puppet master of the pro-Russia vote

In the run-up to the elections, Georgian Dream ominously presented the vote as a choice between being dragged into a war with Russia under governance of the opposition parties or peace, under its rule. The tactic appears to have been successful with, “some overlap between those who typically vote for EU integration and those who voted for Georgian Dream”, Makiashvili said.

“We need clarity more than ever before ... In Georgian society, Western legitimacy matters. Sanctions and travel bans on family members [of Ivanishvili’s inner circle and Georgian Dream senior officials] will speed up the process of autocratic dissolution,” she said.

Yet the West appears to lack the conviction and cohesion for a showdown with the Ivanishvili regime. It was “unfortunate”, noted a recent Financial Times editorial, that the first European leader to visit Tbilisi following the elections was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The visit, though unilateral, carried symbolic weight since Hungary currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Other authoritarians presented their congratulations to Georgian Dream soon after the vote. “Russia was celebrating with Georgian Dream, not because they care about the party – they don’t – but because they consider this to be Russia’s win and the West’s loss,” said Natalie Sabandze, a former Georgian ambassador to the EU now at the Chatham House think tank.
Too little, too late?

“Zurabishvili strongly feels that these elections do not represent the will of the people and that there were too many incidents. So, she is stepping up and saying, ‘we need to sort this out’,” said Sabandze.

Zurabishvili said on FRANCE 24 that last Monday’s protests were a sign that the population is rejecting the election result.

The alleged electoral fraud came after Georgian Dream triggered mass protests by ramming a “foreign agent” law through parliament last May. The law requires any organisation receiving at least 20 percent of its financing from abroad to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power”. The law was widely seen as mimicking one that had been passed in Russia.

With Georgian Dream insisting it won the elections and the opposition parties preparing to hold a new protest next week, “the EU should be a fair arbitrator”, said Sabandze.

Yet when a vote is rigged, a major problem is that “most of the job is done months before the election”, said the former ambassador. “It happens when you decide how the Central Election Commission is formed, when steps are taken to ensure the playing field is being tilted in favour of the incumbency and with other factors such as informal pressure.”

“Maybe there are people today who want to come out and say they were pressured, to create a picture of a rigged election,” said Sabandze, who advocates emphasis on the long-term electoral process in Georgia.

A larger geopolitical battle

The South Caucasus has increasingly become an important region for global trade routes and the flow of energy resources, especially amid Western sanctions related to Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Many see the fight over Georgia’s course as part of a wider geopolitical struggle. “By losing Georgia [to Russia] you might lose Armenia, which is going in a similar direction, you might lose the Caucasus region, you might lose central Asia, and you open huge roads of sanctioned goods to Russia,” said Žygimantas Pavilionis, a Lithuanian diplomat.

Makiashvili agreed, saying, “if Ukraine is defending Europe through arms, what happens in Georgia decides a lot for civil society in the EU. If the Georgian people fail now, other autocrats will feel emboldened to adopt similar laws [like the foreign agent bill].”

Zurabishvili called on FRANCE 24 for Western partners to react and to launch an international investigation.

In the meantime, the West’s reaction should be to “do everything it can to bring discomfort to the regime enablers who are there for comfort and luxury”, Makiashvili said.

This would come in the form of sanctions and travel bans. “Bidzina has French citizenship and money in French banks,” said Pavilionis. “It is time for the EU to introduce sanctions on those who steal the vote.”

With its strategic location, Georgia is the EU’s anchor in central Asia. “If you are engaged in a competition, you should try to win it,” said Sabandze.

Georgian Dream has claimed victory for now, but more protests are expected in November.

Germany's Volkswagen crisis: an ode to nostalgia

Astrid Prange de Oliveira

DW

NOV. 10, 2024

Germany's car manufacturer and long-time economic powerhouse Volkswagen has shaped the lives and memories of generations of Germans. It's current crisis gives pause to reflect on its importance in Germany's history.

The VW Beetle was Volkswagen's first great success. But will VW manage to maintain its popularity in the age of electric vehicles?

mage: Herold/dpa/picture-alliance

Is Volkswagen (VW) truly just a normal German automobile manufacturer? And are VWs really just ordinary cars? Generations of German would agree, the answer is a resounding "no."

For generations, the brand Volkswagen has been a part of Germans' collective DNA. From Beetles and Busses to Caddys and Passats, most people born in Germany before the 1990s still associate a lot of memories and emotions with VW cars.
Oma's VW Golf

It seems like practically everybody has driven a VW before, no matter if they were hippies or grandmothers, speedsters or traffic police, firefighters or families.

How lovely it was to take your Beetle across the Alps, before they built the Gotthard motorway tunnel! Or to pile into your Bus with your friends and drive off for a vacation on Corsica! How easy it was to spontaneously move a small home with your Caddy that could easily pack in a bed, table or even a wardrobe.
Made in Germany

This nostalgic glimpse into our collective German past will likely remain unchanged, especially given the current crisis. It's a part of Germany's collective memory.

The success story of VW's most popular cars was not only the success story of the Volkswagen Group as a whole — it also highlighted Germany's economic resurgence after World War II. It became emblematic for Germany's post-war reconstruction.

"Volkswagen is more than just a car brand. It is the underlying feeling of German security," Jan Grossarth wrote for the German daily newspaper Die Welt. "VW stands for innate trust in Germany's business model."

Volkswagen in crisis: Why is the German carmaker struggling  02:02

Volkwagen: the 'people's car'

VW's success story began with the Beetle, which Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler personally commissioned in 1935. It wasn't until the end of World War II that the car branded for "Kraft durch Freude" (strength through joy) was officially renamed as Volkswagen — literally, the people's car. It quickly became a bestseller, and despite its Nazi origins swiftly rose to enjoy global cult status.

The first postwar model rolled off the assembly line in December 1945. Ten years later, VW had already sold over a million Beetles. But at the time, they weren't commonly referred to as such. The term didn't establish itself colloquially until the 1960s, when Volkswagen started offering other car models.

Regardless of whether users called it Käfer, Beetle, or Fusca, the venerable vehicle with an air-cooled boxer engine in the rear and a rounded trunk hood in the front took the global market by storm, especially in the US, Brazil, Mexico and China.

Worldwide, nearly 22 million Beetles were produced and sold. The last one rolled out of the factory on July 30, 2003, in Mexico.

In the late 1990s, Volkswagen tried to reproduce the original Beetle's success when it issued the New Beetle. In 2010, this was replaced by another follow-up model before the line was soon thereafter discontinued due to flagging sales.

The Golf was another big hit on the global market: In Brazil, South Africa, China and the US, the Golf model was manufactured and adapted to country-specific needs. Jan Linnenkamp, head of the Original Golf 1 interest group said the Golf is a "classless car."

"The chief physician drives his Golf to the clinic, the letter carrier uses it to deliver the mail, and a secretary in the industrial sector drives a Golf to work," he explained.

And now, has Volkswagen, of all brands, so intricately interwoven with Germany's post-World War II "economic miracle" really fallen upon hard times? Has the company fallen victim to its success? And will Germany stand by the car manufacturer? After all, the state of Lowery Saxony has a 20% voting stake.

It remains to be seen if and how the company might make it out of this current crisis. But whatever happens, it's clear that VW's future will not only be a matter of nostalgia, but also a political issue charged with emotions.

This article was originally published in German.

Astrid Prange de Oliveira DW editor with expertise in Brazil, globalization and religion

Côte d’Azur: Behind a luxury villa, Azerbaijani interests

investigation

As part of “The Baku connection” project, the investigative journalism network Forbidden Stories and FRANCE 24 investigated the Santa Monica Villa in Villefranche-sur-Mer and the strange financial schemes that allowed Azerbaijanis, including a powerful businessman, to buy themselves one of the most beautiful views on the Côte d’Azur in the south of France.


Issued on: 08/11/2024 - 
By: Sébastian SEIBT  FRANCE24/AFP

As part of an investigation with the investigative journalism consortium Forbidden Stories, FRANCE 24 looked into the link between a property on the Côte d'Azur and a wealthy Azerbaijani businessman. 

© France Médias Monde graphics studio

Move along, there’s nothing to see? Today, number 2 Boulevard de Suède looks more like wasteland than the site of what was one of the grandest villas overlooking the Côte d’Azur in Villefranche-sur-Mer, close to Nice.

A stone’s throw from the famous Villa la Léopolda – one of the most expensive residences in the world which belonged to the King of Belgium and in which Alfred Hitchcock filmed part of “To Catch a Thief” – the real estate no-man’s-land on 2 Boulevard de Suède is out-of-place and intriguing.

It hasn’t always been this way. Uncovering the mystery hidden at this address, which has ripple effects as far away as Baku, Azerbaijan, means plunging into the story of a home – the Santa Monica villa – which was worth nearly six million euros.

It's a story that brings together banks and opaque financial arrangements in Luxembourg, a PO box near the Louis II stadium in the heart of Monaco, and figures from the highest echelons of economic and political power in Azerbaijan.

Map of France showing the location of Villefrance-sur-Mer in the south of France. © FRANCE 24

A mysterious company in Monaco

It was an Azerbaijani journalist, working for independent media outlet Abzas, who first started investigating the Santa Monica villa. He was seeking to understand how a former local government official for the Azerbaijani administration, Panah Jahangirov, and his spouse Reyhan Huseynova, could have become the owners of a residence worth €5.8 million in 2008. He also wanted to know what was hidden behind Boulevard Side, the public-limited company based in Monaco which, in 2019, bought the villa in one of the Côte d’Azur’s most popular holiday destinations – and then destroyed it.

Continuing his work, investigative journalism network Forbidden Stories collaborated with FRANCE 24, Abzas Media, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Luxembourgish weekly newspaper D’Lëtzbuerger for this investigation.

They discovered that the real owner of the Santa Monica villa is currently Shahin Movsumov, a powerful Azerbaijani businessman who is head of the AS Group conglomerate and also the brother of Shahmar Movsumov, one of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s closest economic advisors.

Contacted directly and via his business, Movsumov did not respond to a request by Forbidden Stories to answer questions.

Shahin Movsumov is also behind Boulevard Side. The Monegascan law company, created in 2019, allowed him to buy the villa without his name appearing on the property deeds.

Monaco is well known for its business laws, which guarantee a high degree of confidentiality, but Movsumov is listed as the owner of 2 Boulevard de Suède on a building permit to construct a new villa on the site submitted in 2020, that was shown to FRANCE 24. His ownership was also confirmed by Philippe Mialon, an architect from Nice, who the Azerbaijani businessman commissioned to design plans for his future residence on the site.

Little surprise that the address appealed to Movsumov. “It’s an exceptional site that has one of the most beautiful views of the bay in Villefranche-sur-Mer and the Côte d’Azur,” said Mialon.

A 3,547 m² vacant lot in the heart of the royal quarter

The Santa Monica villa and its outbuildings, which at their most expansive covered 3,547 m², are steeped in history. The Boulevard de Suède – Boulevard of Sweden in English – got its name, in part, because of the residence at number 2.

Carl Florman, co-founder of Scandinavian Airlines, was one of its former owners. “We were told that he hosted the King of Sweden in his house on multiple occasions and there was talk of naming the street in his honour, reflecting other roads in the neighbourhood named after monarchs [including Léopold II et Édouard VII]. But he didn’t want to show off and preferred that the road be named Boulevard de Suède,” said Manfred Ramin, a German orchestral conductor who lived in the house with his wife, an opera singer, from 1984-2008.

The musical couple sold the property to local government official Jahangirov and his spouse Huseynova – but not directly. “It was our neighbour, Eldar Garibov, another Azerbaijani expat, who put us in contact,” said Ramin. Contacted at his business address and via close associates, Garibov did not respond to a request by Forbidden Stories to comment on his role in this transaction.

Images showing the grounds of the Santa Monica villa with the former residence in 2004 and as an empty lot in 2024. 

© Manfred Ramin, Sebastian Seibt, FRANCE 24

Garibov is not unknown in Baku: he is the director of Unibank, one of Azerbaijan’s major banks.

A source who preferred to remain anonymous told FRANCE 24 that the banker was the “boss” of a small circle of Azerbaijani nationals living close together in Villefranche.

As well as Garibov, who owned the Floriana villa on Boulevard Léopold II, there was also another Azerbaijani businessman, linked to a villa on Boulevard de Suède, the same street as the Santa Monica villa, which was bought by Huseynova et Jahangirov, thanks to Garibov.

Officially, the Santa Monica villa was not bought in 2008 by the couple, but by Santa Monica Investment, a limited liability company based in Nice. Ramin remembers meeting the two Azerbaijanis before the sale – Huseynova was a “big music lover”, he said – but there is no trace of their names on the property deeds.

The company's shares were not transferred to Jahangirov and his wife until 2011, three years after the initial transaction, marking the first in a series of bizarre legal and financial arrangements that followed the acquisition of 2 boulevard de Suède by the Azerbaijani couple.

From Azerbaijan to Villefranche, via Luxembourg

Why, for instance, did the Azerbaijanis use a limited liability company originally set up by a company in Luxembourg, which was itself registered by three other entities located in the Duchy in order to buy a house in the south of France?

Most of the bankers and notaries linked to this convoluted arrangement are also involved in other opaque financial operations which pass through Luxembourg. To cite one example, our investigation identified Jean Bodoni, former director of a subsidiary of Dexia-BIL bank (Dexia in Luxembourg), whose name featured prominently in the Panama Papers scandal.

When asked by Forbidden Stories, Bodoni said he did not remember the Azerbaijani couple. Unsurprisingly, he did remember the three entities, all linked to Dexia bank, used to found Santa Monica Investment. Koffour S.A., Valon S.A. and Lannage S.A. created hundreds of other anonymous companies in Luxembourg used by wealthy customers to carry out opaque transactions. “On the face of it, if an Azerbaijani resident wants to buy a property in France, there is no reason to establish a company in Luxembourg. Unless they want to hide something such as their identity, or in the context of planning their inheritance,” Bodoni said.

People may take this step for straightforward confidentiality reasons, such as not wanting the extent of their wealth to be public knowledge. But “using multiple companies and fronts to hide the identity of the beneficial owner of a transaction [such as the purchase of real estate] is a potential indicator of corruption", said Margot Mollat, Senior Policy Manager at Transparency International. Our investigation could not establish the reasons that the Azerbaijani couple chose to base their financial arrangements in Luxembourg.

The Dexia-BIL bank loaned Huseynova and Jahangirov almost the entire sale price for the property – some €5.5 million for a villa costing €5.8 million. Seemingly, quite a risk on the bank’s part. “It must have estimated that they had sufficient guarantees,” Badoni said.

Family ties, business interests

Jahangirov does not appear to be a major player in Baku's political and economic scene. His highest-profile role was in the public department for Inter-Ethnic Relations, Religious Affairs and Multiculturalism from at least 2015 to 2019. Our investigation was unable to determine where he has worked since then.

Jahangirov did not respond to a request by Forbidden Stories to answer questions.

His wife has a more prestigious resume. People who met her described her to FRANCE 24 and Forbidden Stories as “very cultured", “a Francophile” and said she possesses “a certain influence”. She comes from a well-known family in Azerbaijan, where family status is of high importance. Her father, the politician Kamran Huseynov, had a documentary made about him in 2013 to celebrate his 100th birthday. Her sister, Hijran Huseynova, followed in her father’s footsteps by entering politics and was elected an MP for the presidential party in 2020. She was also awarded France’s Legion of Honour in 2010.

The youngest daughter, Reyhan Huseynova, has also been decorated by French officials. In 2016 she was awarded the Legion of Honour, followed by the Order of Academic Palms distinguished Officer’s award in 2021.

Would this be enough to reassure the Dexia-BIL bank? Perhaps bankers also saw value in Jahangirov. At the time of the villa’s purchase he was the administrator for Consolidated Equipments, a company in Luxembourg specialising in the cotton trade, a post he held until 2010.

Was this a profitable business for Jahangirov? Perhaps. Especially as Jahangirov sat at the head of this company with Khagani Bashirov, a Franco-Azerbaijani businessman who is now at the heart of several legal investigations, notably in Azerbaijan and Luxembourg. Bashirov, who handled large sums of money, was imprisoned from 2010-2011 for embezzling funds from the International Bank of Azerbaijan.

Bashirov told FRANCE 24 and Forbidden Stories that he remembered Jahangirov as a “businessman” who dedicated a large portion of his career to the cotton trade.

Jahangirov, the cotton “specialist”, left Consolidated Equipments in 2010 – at the same time scandals broke out tarnishing Bashirov’s reputation – but not necessarily to start a new life on the Côte d’Azur.

The architects’ waltz

It is difficult to know if the Azerbaijani couple often visited the Santa Monica villa after they bought it. Huseynova posted photos on Facebook that match up with views from the property’s grounds in 2013 and 2017 and a source who interacted with them confirmed to FRANCE 24 that they had seen them multiple times at the site.

Other sources, who preferred to remain anonymous, said their visits were much more sporadic. The couple’s acquisition of the villa may have been the equivalent of a “foreign bank account”, said a source linked to the villa, who wished to remain anonymous.

Buying a property can “provide a safe haven for part of one's wealth and for oneself in the event of a change of leadership in one of these unstable regimes”, explains Mollat.

In any case the couple seemed to have hopes of renovating or reconstructing the villa and its outhouses. When the musicians Ramin and his wife lived in the villa, the large main house was covered in flowers and the inside was styled with flashy, outdated interior design. A path through the gardens led to a smaller guesthouse below, with a view of a 130 m² swimming pool.

Images showing the main house, garden and bathroom at the Santa Monica villa in 2004. © Manfred Ramin, FRANCE 24

But the property “was a bit of a hodgepodge, and if you wanted a house that was more contemporary it would be hard to achieve with what was already there”, said an anonymous source.

Over the years, several architects have worked on plans for 2 Boulevard de Suède. At least three different companies have been used, FRANCE 24 found.

There was talk of a multi-storey house, constructing a large car park and an underground passage linked to the main house by a system of elevators. Such projects would have cost millions of euros, according to estimations by architects contacted by FRANCE 24.
Shahin Movsumov, the man behind Santa Monica villa?

Huseynova and her husband would probably not have had access to such vast sums of money, leading to the final twist in the tale of the Santa Monica villa: Shahin Movsumov, the powerful boss of AS Group was the real owner of the property in Villefranche-sur-Mer. He entered the scene well before the property was bought by Boulevard Side in 2019. His name appears on a construction permit, shown to FRANCE 24, submitted to architecture firm Mialon in 2016.

Images showing the swimming pool at the Santa Monica villa in 2004 and the architect's plans for renovations on the property in 2016. © Manfred Ramin, FRANCE 24

It was Movsumov who, in 2014, contacted an architect and invited them to Baku to discuss his vision for the Santa Monica villa.

Movzumov’s purchase of the villa connects the property directly to the highest echelons of economic and political power in Azerbaijan. Movzumov is the brother of one of President Ilham Aliyev’s closest advisors and his conglomerate AS Group has managed major national construction projects.

One of AS Group's companies constructed the building which houses Azerbaijan’s state oil fund – a strategic construction for a country that depends largely on hydrocarbon exports.

Movzumov’s name also appeared in the Panama Papers, which listed him as the beneficiary of a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands in 2012.

Shahin Movsumov approved plans for the future Santa Monica villa back in 2016, but did not start construction work. After the four-year validity period for the first permit expired, he filed the same permit a second time in 2020, and let it expire again. But this time, the existing property was razed to the ground. The last stones were removed in June 2024, according to a FRANCE 24 journalist who visited the site. All that remains, for now, is the beautiful view of the Côte d’Azur.

This article has been translated from the original in French.

Azerbaijan intensifies repression ahead of COP29 host role

Tim Schauenberg 

DW

November 8, 2024

Much is at stake at the UN climate conference in Baku. But host Azerbaijan, pushing to boost its oil and gas sector, has locked up dozens of critics in the past months.

Azerbaijan is highly dependent on fossil fuels

Image: Bulkin Sergey/Russian Look/IMAGO


When the Azerbaijani government launched a crackdown on reporters in August 2014, investigative journalist and human rights activist Emin Huseynov feared for his freedom and his life.

"When they started first [the] repression against all of us, most of my colleagues [were] jailed," said the now 44-year-old.

A prominent critic of Azerbaijan's authoritarian ruler, Ilham Aliyev, Huseynov had previously been badly beaten by police. When the repression started in 2014, he sought protection in the Swiss Embassy in Baku, the capital of the former Soviet republic bounded by the Caspian Sea and Caucasus Mountains.

Now Huseynov lives in exile. He cannot go back to his homeland for fear of ending up in prison like the dozens of other government critics and environmental activists currently behind bars in Azerbaijan.

NGO Human Rights Watch has said repression has worsened in the tiny petro-state over the past two years. The group has urged the European Union to spotlight the "deteriorating human rights situation" when world leaders descend upon Baku for the COP29 conference to discuss climate action and fair financing for global climate protection.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (right), who has close ties with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has described the oil and gas in his country as a divine gift

Grigory Sysoyev/Sputnik/Kremlin/AP Photo/picture alliance

As host and lead negotiator, Azerbaijan has said it wants to promote the goals of the historic Paris Agreement. It will focus on compliance with the 1.5-degree Celsius (2.7-Fahrenheit) temperature limit, more climate protection, financial support for developing countries and climate justice, according to official documents sent to the nearly 200 participating states.

Oil, gas are 'a gift from God'

Traditionally, the climate conference host acts as a kind of mediator in negotiations and can set the tone of the talks. Azerbaijan's Aliyev has already made clear where his priorities might lie at the negotiating table.

"I have always said that having oil and gas deposits is not our fault. It's a gift from God," Aliyev told German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin this past April.

At the meeting, Aliyev said he would defend the right of countries to invest in and promote fossil fuels as a way to help drive his country's prosperity and fight poverty.

The COP host's electricity mix is made up of 93% fossil fuels. Climate Action Tracker, an independent scientific project, has given Azerbaijan the worst possible rating for climate protection, on par with other oil countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran.

"Huge investments are being made in fossil fuels, and climate protection measures are minimal," said Niklas Höhne from the New Climate Institute, an NGO based in Cologne, Germany. The country also does not have a zero-emissions target.
COP host 'doesn't care' about climate

COP hosting duties normally rotate among states in the five United Nations regional groups: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Western European and other countries.

"The climate negotiations will only succeed if we have a strong and very credible presidency," said Höhne. Azerbaijan has advertised itself as better than it is when it comes to climate protection and "that is not a good start," added the climate policy expert.

Despite its fossil fuel reliance, Azerbaijan's potential for solar and wind energy and to produce green hydrogen for export is huge, according to Climate Action Tracker. While there has been some investment in renewables, that potential is barely being exploited. The organization estimates the country's emissions will increase by as much as 20% in the coming years.

Azerbaijan is a major exporter of both oil and gas

Image: Bulkin Sergey/Russian Look/IMAGO

"He doesn't care about the climate," said exiled reporter Huseynov of Aliyev, adding that the president is more concerned with using the international conference to legitimize his rule. He is "trying to use this important climate change event for whitewashing [his] toxic political image," said the human rights activist.

In February, Aliyev secured a landslide victory following a snap election, which OSCE observers described as restrictive and undemocratic. Huseynov said the country's population is "still in poverty even [if] oil and gas exports give billions to the country."

Former oil executive will chair COP29

Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan's environment minister and former sustainability officer at the state oil company SOCAR, will chair this year's climate negotiations.

Powerful figures from the oil and gas industry presiding over climate conferences is nothing new. Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, an executive at United Arab Emirates' state oil and gas company ADNOC, chaired the 2023 conference in Dubai. French energy group TotalEnergies and ADNOC recently bought a 30% equity stake in an Azerbaijani gas field in the Caspian. Oil and gas account for 90% of the country's exports.

Most of those exports go to the EU, with Russia's war in Ukraine bolstering energy ties between the bloc and Azerbaijan. When Azerbaijan seized full control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region following a military assault and expelled over 100,000 Armenians last year, the EU criticized the move. But it continues to rely on Azerbaijan's gas, even if the petro-state is a minor oil and gas player compared to Saudi Arabia, China and the United States.

Environmental activists, journalists in danger

Away from the negotiations at the UN climate summit in Baku, the situation for government critics and environmentalists on the ground is bad. Human Rights Watch has said climate protests are violently suppressed, and activists are arrested on fictitious grounds.

Protesting during the climate conference could be highly dangerous for activists and critics

Image: Sergei Grits/AP Photo/picture alliance

In April, for example, police arrested human rights and climate activist Anar Mammadli outside a kindergarten for alleged smuggling of counterfeit cash. Just before his arrest, Mammadli co-founded an initiative to campaign for civil rights and climate justice in Azerbaijan, said HRW. He's still in prison.

Reprisals against critics have been intensifying ahead of the climate conference, said HRW — as has brutality against journalists. "Some of the colleagues are not only tortured in the prisons, they are murdered," said Huseynov, adding that President Aliyev does not want independent voices to speak to the international media.

Azerbaijan has also imposed entry bans on four German lawmakers for criticizing its human rights record. Huseynov has called on world leaders to exert pressure on the country's ruler by linking their attendance at the climate conference to the release of political prisoners.

The activist himself was only allowed to leave the Swiss Embassy and the country through foreign political pressure. Ahead of the 2015 European Games in Baku, the Swiss government successfully demanded Huseynov's release. In the meantime, many other government critics remain in prison in Azerbaijan.

Edited by: Jennifer Collins and Sarah Steffen

Translation: Jennifer Collins

Afghanistan's Taliban send delegation to COP29  climate summit

Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry says it is sending a delegation to the COP29 summit, on an invite from hosts Azerbaijan. The Taliban have tried and failed to attend several past COPs.

Droughts are commonplace in much of Afghanistan, with the country deemed among the most at risk from climate change. Flash floods are also frequent when rains finally do fall on parched ground.

Image: Ali Khara/REUTERS

Taliban officials from Afghanistan will attend the UN climate conference that starts next week in Baku in Azerbaijan, the country's Foreign Ministry told news agencies AFP and Reuters on Sunday.

It will be the first time Afghanistan attends the annual global climate summit since the Taliban reclaimed power in 2021 amid the rapid US withdrawal from the country, two decades after ousting the previous Taliban regime.

The Taliban government is not internationally recognized and the UN has not allowed the Taliban to take up Afghanistan's seat at the General Assembly.

COP29 organizers had also deferred a decision on considering Afghan participation since 2021, meaning the country was not able to attend other recent summits despite trying to.

Afghan NGOs had also complained that they struggled to attend such sessions since the Taliban's return.

After a period of drought, seasonal rains brought major flash flooding to northern Afghanistan in May of this year

Muhammad Yasin/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images

Environmental agency head says climate change a 'humanitarian' subject, not a political one

"A delegation of the Afghan government will be in Baku" for the summit, Afghan Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi told AFP

Both AFP and Reuters reported, citing off-the-record sources, that the Taliban delegation would only have observer status rather than being a full participant.

Reuters cited a diplomatic source as saying this meant the delegation, from the national environment agency, would be able to "potentially participate in periphery discussions and potentially hold bilateral meetings."

It was not possible to give the delegates standard credentials as full participants, the source said, given the Taliban not being recognized as Afghanistan's rightful government.

The Taliban are seeking more international recognition in general, and have made some inroads — such as attending UN-organized meetings in Doha, and Taliban ministers attending forums in China and Central Asia over the past two years.

But their fundamentalist governance, particularly their treatment of women and girls, and the violent nature of their return to power have still left the Taliban more or less isolated on the world stage.

On the topic of climate change, however, officials from the country's National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) argue that the political barriers to entry should be even lower given the nature of the issue.

"Climate change is a humanitarian subject," deputy NEPA head Zainulabedin Abid told AFP last month. "We have called on the international community not to relate climate change with politics."

Zainulabedin Abid, deputy head of the National Environmental Protection Agency, said last month that climate change should be deemed a humanitarian and not a political issue

Image: Charlotte Machado/AFP/Getty Images

At-risk country, where droughts and flash floods are already commonplace

Despite a comparatively small and sparse population, Afghanistan is considered one of the countries most affected by climate change worldwide.

Flash floods earlier this year killed hundreds, and the highly agriculture-dependent country has been suffering one of its worst droughts in decades in recent years.

Many Afghans live as subsistence farmers and face deepening food insecurity amid the fluctuating seasonal rains and the often arid landscape.

The 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference, better known as COP29, is scheduled to run from Monday, November 11, through November 22, the following Friday.

Latin America: When climate change ruins renewables

Tobias Käufer 

DW

November 8, 2024

Climate change has been disrupting Latin American efforts to make its energy more renewable. Countries are now searching for new solutions and everything from nuclear power to green hydrogen is being debated.

Climate change is making some renewable energy sources increasingly unfeasible, as evidenced by recent blackouts in EcuadorImage: Rodrigo BUENDIA/AFP

In Ecuador and Cuba, power cuts for hours at a time, sometimes even days. In Brazil, energy bottlenecks. Although Latin America is seen as a global forerunner in renewable energies, the impact of climate change is starting to cause problems. Droughts lasting weeks mean less water flowing through rivers and water reservoirs that power hydroelectric plants. And the less water, the less electricity.

Now countries in the region are beginning to squabble over distribution too.

Colombia has halted electricity exports to Ecuador, citing concerns for its own power supply. Colombia has also been suffering a severe drought

Even though the causes for the power problems are unique to each country, the consequences are the same: energy rationing and power blackouts. This is why many countries are now debating how best to stablize their energy supplies.

Nuclear energy up

El Salvador, for example, plans a return to nuclear energy. "We want to have the first research reactor by 2030," Daniel Alvarez, head of the country's General Directorate of Energy, Hydrocarbons and Mines, announced at a forum organized by the Latin American Energy Organization in October.

Other countries are also showing renewed interest in nuclear energy, with a new generation of small modular reactors seen as particularly promising. The general opinion is that nuclear energy is free of emissions and can therefore be classified as green.

Lithium hype

Lithium also belongs to the energy debate in Latin America. Lithium is an indispensable part of electric vehicle (EV) batteries and it is hoped that carbon-neutral EVs will one day replace fossil-fuel powered engines on the street. At least, that's the plan. But resistance is growing in many Latin American countries.

Has the EU already lost the lithium battery war?  12:58

As droughts become more frequent, they are increasingly wary of an extraction process that requires large volumes of water. In Peru, a mining project high in the Andes is drawing criticism. There, the Macusani Yellowcake mining company, a subsidiary of the Canada-based American Lithium Corp., is looking to mine 9.5 million tons of lithium on the Quelccaya glacier in the Carabaya region.

Environmental activist Vito Calderon has criticized the way the project affects the water supply for local communities. "The freshwater from the region flows into the Inambari, Urubamba and Azangaro basins, which feed Lake Titicaca," he told Radio France Internationale. Calderon fears the freshwater could be contaminated or removed from the natural cycle.

What about green hydrogen?

The initial excitement over what is known as green hydrogen has also become more muted. "Worldwide doubts about the strategic industry for Chile's future" Chilean online news outlet Emol wrote a few days ago, summing the general mood up. The high cost of investing in green hydrogen is also causing hesitation.

The long road to green hydrogen  04:23

Instead, Alex Godoy-Faundez, director of the sustainability research center at Chile's University of Desarrollo has called for more realism and for taking small, manageable steps.

"Timelines should outline short-term goals that ensure that investment projects are profitable and eco-friendly,” Godoy-Faundez said.

Investment in Brazil

However in Latin America's largest country, Brazil, enthusiasm over green hydrogen has continued unabated. There's almost nowhere in the world like Brazil's undeveloped northeast, where electricity and therefore green hydrogen can be produced from renewable sources so cheaply, the country's media enthuse. Brazil could become a new global energy hub, they suggest. Foreign investors have already done deals with Brazilian states like Ceara and Pernambuco.

"Unfortunately, German investors are not among them," Ansgar Pinkowski, founder of the Brazil-based agency Neue Wege ("new paths" in English), told DW. His business specializes in providing information on the green energy transition and contacts between Europe and Brazil.

"With the recently passed laws for sustainable hydrogen, the risks for investors have also become much lower and more calculable," he said. As a result he predicts that, "we will see very strong economic growth in the region in the next few years, from which all sections of the population will hopefully benefit."

This article was originally published in German.

Study: US Women might incur 'catastrophic' bills for out-of-state abortions

By HealthDay News

One piece left out of the abortion debate is the high transportation and medical bills facing women forced to leave their state to obtain the procedure. Photo by Adobe Stock/HealthDay News

One piece left out of the abortion debate is the high transportation and medical bills facing women forced to leave their state to obtain the procedure.

A new study is the first to give hard numbers on those concerns.

It finds that, even before the fall of Roe v. Wade, 65% of women who traveled to another state to undergo abortion incurred "catastrophic" bills causing them to cut back on other necessities of life.

Especially for women from poorer households, these expenses "can be devastating and long-lasting ... triggering high levels of debt, financial insecurity, worsened health outcomes and increased impoverishment," noted a team led by Ortal Wasser. She's a researcher in the school of social work at New York University in New York City.

As Wasser's team explained, prior research has found that women seeking abortion are disproportionately uninsured and from low-income households.

The new study looked at data from before the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade.

Even before that 2022 ruling, restrictive laws in various states had forced women to travel to obtain an abortion.

Wasser's group focused on 2019 data, gleaned from questionnaires 675 women filled out while waiting for an abortion at clinics in California, Illinois and New Mexico. More than two-thirds were seeking an abortion before or at 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Prior research has found that women who travel to seek out an abortion typically spend a third of a month's income doing so.

"Studies have also documented that, to pay for abortion care, individuals had to take out loans, sell personal belongings and forego essential household expenditures such as food, bills and rent," the researchers noted.

Their new study backs up those tales of hardship.

Overall, 42% of women who got an abortion, either in-state or out-of-state, incurred expenses "hindering one's ability to meet basic needs," the researchers said.

That number rose much higher -- to 65% -- when they focused on those women who also had to travel out of state for the procedure.

Having to scramble to pay bills or take out loans adds even more stress to an already stressful situation for women. As the data showed, incurring catastrophic expenses raised women's levels of anxiety and depression significantly.

"These financial and psychological burdens encountered by patients who seek abortion care are likely even worse in the post-Dobbs context when more people must travel longer distances and out of their state of residence to access care," the team wrote.

One solution, given current laws around abortion: Expand access to abortion care coverage via Medicaid or private insurance, the researchers said.

"The findings suggest a need to expand insurance coverage to ensure equitable access to abortion care, irrespective of people's state of residence," they wrote.

The study was published Friday in JAMA Network Open.

More information

Find out more about surgical abortion at Planned Parenthood.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

 

AUSTRALIA

Suspected tar balls on Sydney beaches actually poop-filled 'fatbergs'

Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Mysterious black balls that washed up on Sydney, Australia, beaches were initially suspected to be tar balls but turned out to be miniature "fatbergs" containing human feces.

The black balls were first spotted on Bondi Beach on Oct. 16, and similar balls were found on other city beaches in the ensuing days.

New South Wales environmental officials said they were initially suspected to be tar balls resulting from an unknown oil spill, but testing has now confirmed they contain cooking oil, soap scum, industrial chemicals, drug residue, hair and human feces.

Researchers said the balls are miniature "fatbergs," sewer-blocking accumulations of fat, grease and sewage.

"They smell absolutely disgusting, they smell worse than anything you've ever smelt," University of New South Wales Associate Professor Jon Beves, who led the investigation, told 9News.

He said the contents of the balls "pointed us to sewage and other sources of urban effluent" as their source.

Sydney Water said officials are not aware of any issues with the city's wastewater.

The New South Wales Environmental Protection Authority is continuing to investigate.

IRONY

Green party's Stein blames Democrats for 'disastrous' Trump win


Jill Stein speaking at the Green Party Presidential Candidate Town Hall hosted by the Green Party of Arizona at the Mesa Public Library in Mesa, Ariz., in 2016. Photo courtesy Gage Skidmore

Nov. 10 (UPI) -- This year's Green Party presidential candidate, Jill Stein, has blamed Democrats for their election loss, and has said the two party political system in the U.S. is broken.

She said Democrats have no one but themselves to blame for another "disastrous" Trump victory.

"Once again the two-party system has delivered a disastrous result for the American people," Stein wrote in a social media post. "Now we must continue the uprising for people-powered politics and demand the world we deserve - which will never be delivered by the two parts of war and Wall Street."

Stein and other third party advocates have continually called to reject the two-party system in the U.S. As of July, 157 Greens were holding elected office across the U.S. 1529 U.S. Greens have been elected all time, according to GP.org, the Green Party website.

This year, Stein garnered 18% of the vote in Dearborn, Mich., a strongly Arab-American community. She received her biggest portion of votes in New Jersey. Overall, Stein won .8% of the vote in the state with 44,671 of the ballots cast.

Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris by about 83,000 votes, 49.7% to 48.3%, to win Michigan, so her candidacy is not seen as having affected the outcome there, but did raise issues important to third-party candidates, such as Israel's war with Hamas, concern over climate change, social justice and campaign fince reform.

In an unusual move, Stein held a victory party in Dearborn on election night citing her success in the city, and said that it wasn't numbers that mattered but the sentiment that some voters had expressed against the traditional two party system in favor of her Green Party candidacy.

Nationally, Stein and her running mate, Rudolph "Butch" T. Ware III, were on the ballot in 39 states but failed to score even one half of one percent of the total vote nationally, collecting 628,129 votes, or 0.4%.

UPDATE


Strong earthquakes strike Cuba, causing damage and landslides


A strong 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck southern Cuba at about 11:50 a.m. Sunday. Image courtesy of USGS/Website

Nov. 11 (UPI) -- A pair of strong earthquakes has struck off the southern coast of Cuba, inflicting damage and causing landslides.

The first 5.9-magnitude temblor struck at about 10:50 a.m. Sunday local time, followed an hour later by the larger 6.8-magnitude quake, according to data from the United States Geological Survey.

Both struck off the southern coast of Bartolome Maso, with the first one hitting about 22 miles from the city and ther second 25 miles, the U.S. monitor said, adding both struck at a depth of more than 8 1/2 miles.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel of Cuba said on X that homes and powerlines were damaged by the quakes, which have also caused landslides.

"We are beginning to assess the damage in order to begin recovery. The first and most important thing is to save lives," he said.

Enrique Diego Arango Arias, chief of the National Seismological Service of Cuba, known as CENAIS, said online that the municipality of Pilon, located in Granma Province, suffered "a lot of damage."

The earthquakes hit after Category 3 Hurricane Rafael tore through the island nation, leaving major destruction in its wake.

'Loopholes' let warring parties use incendiary weapons in Ukraine, Middle East: HRW



White phosphorous munitions are blown up by UN and Hamas sappers in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip in March 2010. File Photo by Mohammed Saber/EPA

Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Loopholes in international laws governing the use of incendiary weapons are allegedly allowing warring parties in Ukraine and the Middle East to exploit the use of such weapons without adequately protecting civilians.

Human Rights Watch released a new report Thursday tracking the use of controversial weapons in Ukraine and the Middle East, claiming that warring factions are abusing Protocol III to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Parties to conflicts that are allegedly using incendiary weapons include Israel, Russia and the Ukraine -- as well as the government of Bashar Al-Assad, the president of Syria, who is accused of using them against his own people in an ongoing and multi-fronted civil war.

"Protocol III ... governs these weapons, but it has failed to adequately protect civilians due to two loopholes. First, its definition excludes multipurpose munitions, notably white phosphorus, that are not 'primarily designed' to set fires and burn people," the report reads.

"Second, the protocol has weaker regulations for ground-launched than air-dropped incendiary weapons, perhaps reflecting concerns that existed during the negotiations of Protocol III 40 years ago but are not relevant to contemporary practice."

HRW has tracked the repeated use of white phosphorous by the Israeli military in Lebanon and in Gaza since the war began in October 2023. Israel is not a high-contracting party to the CCW.

In statements to the media, Israel has noted that its white phosphorus shells "are used by the IDF for creating smokescreens and not for targeting or causing fires and are not defined under law as incendiary weapons."

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, HRW has tracked at least 157 attacks in Ukraine using surface-fired incendiary weapons between February 2022 and August 2024.

HRW said it has not been possible to attribute responsibility for these attacks to either Ukraine or Russia but both countries possess the type of rockets that can fire such weapons. Both countries have allegedly developed and used armed drones "to deliver incendiary munitions on the battlefield."

In November 2023, high contracting parties of the CCW met as more countries began to express concern about the use of incendiary weapons and called for action.

"The reliance of CCW meetings on consensus-based decision-making, however, meant that the adoption of these states' proposals was blocked," HRW charged in its report.

But another meeting of high contracting parties of the CCW will be held this week, and HRW is urging member states to express their support for strengthening the law and closing the loopholes in it to "further stigmatize the use of incendiary weapons."

"Incendiary weapons are notorious for their horrific human cost. They contain different chemical compounds, such as napalm or thermite, that ignite and inflict short and long-term harm," the report reads.

"Those who survive the immediate harm face a lifetime of physical and psychological scars."