Nepal estimates millions in damages from September protests


By AFP
December 11, 2025


Nepal suffered losses of about $586 million in deadly anti-corruption protests in September, a report says - Copyright AFP/File PRABIN RANABHAT

Nepal on Thursday estimated that the country suffered losses of about $586 million in September’s deadly anti-corruption protests that ousted the government.

The youth-led demonstrations, initially triggered by anger over a brief government ban on social media, were fuelled by deeper frustration over economic hardship and corruption.

After a police crackdown killed young protestors, the riots spread and on the second day more than 2,500 structures were torched, looted or damaged.

The committee formed to assess the damage caused during the protest submitted its report to Prime Minister Sushila Karki on Thursday, the prime minister’s secretariat said in a statement.

The report said that a total of 77 people died during the movement, 20 people on 8 September, 37 on the following day and another 20 later.

“In terms of total physical damage, the committee estimates the loss to be equivalent to 84 arab 45 crore 77 lakh rupees ($586 million),” the statement said.

The report said that damage to government and public buildings accounted for half of the amount.

The unrest spread nationwide on its the second day as parliament and government offices were set ablaze, resulting in the government’s collapse.

Within days, 73-year-old former chief justice Sushila Karki was appointed interim prime minister to lead the Himalayan nation to elections on March 5, 2026.

Karki’s cabinet formed the committee to assess the damage soon after.

The committee also submitted a reconstruction plan, estimating a need of $252 million.

Three months on from the September 8–9 protests, and with three months to go before elections, Nepal faces daunting challenges including rising unemployment and collapsing foreign investment.

Some of Nepal’s largest companies — major contributors to state revenue — suffered heavy losses, including Bhat-Bhateni supermarkets, the Chaudhary Group conglomerate and the telecom provider Ncell.

In Pokhara, one of Nepal’s key tourist hubs, Hotel Sarowar was set ablaze.

“The loss is immense,” chairman Bharat Raj Pahari told AFP in an interview earlier this month. “It has directly affected 750 family members.”

The World Bank in November revised its growth projections for Nepal, warning that due to the recent unrest and “heightened political and economic uncertainty, real GDP growth is projected to slow to 2.1 percent” in 2025, from an earlier forecast of 5.1 percent.

It also raised its poverty estimate to 6.6 percent of the population this financial year, up from 6.2 percent.

Kushner returns to team Trump, as ethical questions swirl


By AFP
December 11, 2025


Jared Kushner, seen with Ivanka Trump, played a key role in the Gaza ceasefire deal - Copyright POOL/AFP SAUL LOEB

Danny KEMP

His only official job title at the White House is son-in-law. But Jared Kushner has staged a remarkable — and sometimes controversial — comeback to President Donald Trump’s inner circle.

Four years after Kushner left the White House, Trump has handed the husband of his daughter Ivanka a key role in the Gaza and Ukraine peace talks.

This week, the 44-year-old also emerged as an investor in a bid by Paramount to buy Hollywood giant Warner Bros., which if successful could mean the Trump family partially owning CNN, the president’s most-hated news channel.

Kushner and Ivanka served as special advisors in Trump’s first term. But after his 2020 election loss they decamped to Florida and Kushner vanished into the private sector, insisting he would not return for a second administration.

Since then, Kushner has founded an investment company largely funded by the same Middle Eastern countries that he dealt with in the first Trump term — and has become a billionaire, according to Forbes.

That has raised ethical questions about possible conflicts of interest, which Kushner has denied and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has branded “frankly despicable.”

But it has not stopped Trump, who has long mixed business and politics with family, from bringing him back in from the cold.

“We called in Jared,” Trump told the Israeli parliament in October after the Gaza ceasefire deal. “We need that brain on occasion. We gotta get Jared in here.”



– ‘Trusted family member’ –



The White House said that Kushner was giving “valuable expertise” while stressing that he working as an “informal, unpaid advisor.”

“President Trump has a trusted family member and talented advisor in Jared Kushner,” Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to AFP, citing Kushner’s “record of success” in the Middle East.

Trump and his roving global envoy, businessman Steve Witkoff, “often seek Mr. Kushner’s input given his experience with complex negotiations, and Mr. Kushner has been generous in lending his valuable expertise when asked.”

The slim, softly-spoken scion of a property empire — whose father was jailed for tax evasion and later pardoned by Trump — Kushner faced accusations of inexperience when he joined Trump’s first team.

But he ended up playing a key role in Trump’s signature diplomatic achievement, the Abraham Accords that saw several Muslim nations recognize Israel.

During that time Kushner, who is Jewish, built enduring relationships with Gulf states like Saudi Arabia.

As Trump sought a Gaza ceasefire in his second term, he turned again to his son-in-law.

Kushner began to be seen around the White House again, and Trump dispatched him and Witkoff to negotiate with Israel, Hamas and Middle Eastern powers.

After the Gaza deal, Kushner said his role was only temporary — and joked that he was worried Ivanka would change the locks of their Florida mansion and not let him back in if he stayed on.

Yet the following month, Kushner turned up at the Kremlin with Witkoff to meet President Vladimir Putin. Top Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Kushner “turned out to be very useful.”



– Paramount bid role –



Kushner’s business interests hit the headlines again this week when it emerged that his private equity firm, Affinity Partners, was among the investors backing Paramount’s battle with Netflix to buy Warner Bros.

It added a political twist to the story, as not only has his father-in-law said he would get “involved” in approving any deal, but Trump also appears determined to clamp down on CNN, which is part of Warner.

Kushner founded Florida-based Affinity in 2021, with much of its funding coming from foreign sources, particularly the Middle Eastern governments he’d done business with.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) gave $2 billion in 2022, the New York Times reported. The Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi-based Lunate Capital together gave around $1.5 billion in 2024, Kushner said in a podcast last year.

Kushner’s firm now manages $5.4 billion, according to a press release in September.

A US Senate finance committee launched an inquiry last year into whether Affinity was effectively being used as a foreign influence-buying operation with the Trump family ahead of the 2024 election, saying it had won millions in fees from foreign clients without returning any profits.

Affinity Partners did not reply when contacted by AFP.

Kushner hasn’t commented on the Paramount deal, but he has previously rejected any suggestions of ethical breaches, particularly regarding his Gulf ties.

“What people call conflicts of interest, Steve and I call experience and trusted relationships,” he told the CBS program “60 Minutes” when it interviewed him and Witkoff in October on the Gaza deal.

Mexico approves measure raising tariffs on Chinese imports


By AFP
December 11, 2025


China will be among parties bidding to build two new ports on the Panama Canal - Copyright AFP/File MARTIN BERNETTI

President Claudia Sheinbaum defended a tariff increase on goods from China and other countries with which Mexico has no trade agreements, saying the measure was intended to strengthen the national economy.

Beijing had reacted angrily to Mexico’s Congress on Wednesday approving a tariff rise on imports of automobiles, textiles, clothing, plastics, appliances and other products — primarily affecting Chinese goods.

The move would “substantially harm the interests of relevant trading partners, including China”, Beijing said Thursday.

“China… hopes Mexico will promptly rectify this erroneous practice of unilateralism and protectionism,” a Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson said in a statement.

The ministry also noted an ongoing trade barrier investigation China launched against Mexico in September, suggesting a possibility of retaliation.

The changing tariffs, spearheaded by Sheinbaum, will also affect South Korea, India, Indonesia, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, Taiwan and Brazil.

Sheinbaum must ratify the new tariffs — up to 50 percent on some goods, 20 or 35 percent for most — expected to take effect January 1, 2026.

She insisted Thursday the measure sought only to strengthen the Mexican economy, highly dependent on the United States.

US President Donald Trump has accused Chinese producers of bypassing tariffs by sending goods northward over the Mexican border, and many have interpreted Sheinbaum’s tariff hike as a capitulation to her powerful northern counterpart.

“Our interest is not to generate conflict with any country in the world; we have great respect for China and very good relations with them,” Sheinbaum told reporters Thursday.

“The reason for these legal adjustments is to strengthen the national economy,” she said.

Beijing has previously said it opposes any “coercion” to impose restrictions on its exports, and Thursday’s statement urged Mexico to “act with prudence”.

Mexico’s Congress passed the measure in a late-night session with 76 votes in favor and five against.

Thirty-five senators abstained from voting, arguing the bill was hastily drafted under pressure from Trump at a time Mexico and Canada are preparing to renegotiate their USMCA free-trade agreement with the United States.

burs-mlr/md

Mexico’s Sheinbaum holds huge rally following major protests


By AFP
December 6, 2025

 - Copyright AFP Alfredo ESTRELLA

Arturo ILIZALITURRI

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered Saturday in Mexico’s capital to support President Claudia Sheinbaum, as the leftist leader sought to demonstrate her continued popularity following a month of political pushback and major protests.

“Let no one be mistaken,” Sheinbaum told the huge crowd, many of whom had arrived by bus from across the country. “The vast majority of young people support the transformation” of public life in Mexico, she stressed.

Authorities said around 600,000 people gathered in Mexico City’s Zocalo, the main square home to the National Palace where Sheinbaum lives and works. They chanted “You are not alone!” and “Claudia, listen, the people are in the fight!”

The killing of mayor Carlos Manzo in restive Michoacan state had sparked two days of demonstrations in November, with protesters setting fire to public buildings.

Weeks later thousands marched through the streets of Mexico City to protest drug violence and the government’s security policies.

That was followed by the abrupt departure of the country’s attorney general, Alejandro Gertz, in late November over reported disagreements with Sheinbaum’s administration on crime policy.

At the rally Saturday, 24-year-old Jose Perez, a craftsman of Otomi descent, said he came out to support Sheinbaum because he feels Indigenous people “are more visible” under her government.

Sheinbaum took office in 2024 following the six-year tenure of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, with both leaders representing the left-wing Morena party.

Though Sheinbaum has earned high approval ratings in her first year, they dipped slightly in recent months — from 74 percent in October to 71 percent in early December, according to the Polls MX survey summary.



– ‘Reshape the narrative’ –



Analysts told AFP the president faces scrutiny not only from her political opponents and members of the public, but from within her own party.

The rally is an “attempt at internal support, to reshape the narrative, to call for unity,” said political analyst Pablo Majluf.

Political columnist Hernan Gomez Bruera told AFP that Sheinbaum is “an incredibly efficient president” who likes to be in control and demands a lot from her team. But she is also “very thin-skinned” and “has difficulty dealing with dissent,” he added.

Sheinbaum’s party has advocated for social justice through policies to aid the underprivileged, but prominent party members have been involved in overspending scandals.

Despite the recent slip in poll numbers, Mexico’s first woman president is still benefiting from a decline in poverty levels that began under her predecessor.

Sheinbaum has also won praise among her supporters for keeping at bay US President Donald Trump’s threats of high trade tariffs and military action on Mexican soil against drug cartels.

“She has been very prudent” in her relationship with Trump, said Ana Laura Jacome, a 42-year-old housewife who attended Saturday’s rally, using a cane to walk with fellow supporters.

Sheinbaum met with Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Washington on Friday to discuss trade on the sidelines of the draw for the 2026 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by all three countries.

She said on X following the meeting that the three nations maintain a “very good relationship.”

EU agrees recycled plastic targets for cars

By AFP
December 12, 2025


Vehicle manufacturing accounts for 10 percent of the EU's overall consumption of plastics - Copyright AFP ISAAC LAWRENCE

Car manufacturers in Europe will have to include more recycled plastics in new vehicles under new EU rules agreed on by the bloc’s countries and lawmakers on Friday.

European Union governments and parliament representatives reached an early morning deal to mandate that at least 25 percent of plastics used in cars, trucks and motorcycles has been recycled.

Carmakers will have to meet the mandatory target in 10 years, with an intermediate 15 percent goal in six years, according to the European Council representing member states.

At least 20 percent of the recycled materials will have to be sourced from old, scrap vehicles.

“This provisional agreement marks a significant step towards a circular economy for the European automotive sector,” said Magnus Heunicke, environment minister for Denmark, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

Vehicle manufacturing accounts for 10 percent of the EU’s overall consumption of plastics, and is responsible for 19 percent of demand for the bloc’s steel industry, according to Brussels.

The deal is provisional and needs to be officially endorsed by the European Council representing member states and the parliament before it is formally adopted.

It also instructs the European Commission to set future targets for recycled steel, aluminium, magnesium and critical raw materials and bans the export of old vehicles that are no longer roadworthy.

Around 3.5 million vehicles “disappear without trace from EU roads” every year and are exported, dismantled or disposed of illegally, according to the council.

The commission had initially proposed a much speedier implementation of the targets — pushing for 25-percent recycled plastic within six years — but member states and parliament won a delay during negotiations.

Concerns about sluggish European growth have taken precedence over green ambitions in Brussels over the past year, leading to a business-friendly drive to slash EU red tape and pare back a slew of laws.

“This deal is a textbook case of political backsliding under industry pressure,” said Fynn Hauschke, of environmental group EEB.

The agreement comes just days before the commission is set to review a landmark 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales.

On Thursday, Manfred Weber, a German EU lawmaker and the head of parliament’s largest group, the EPP, said the ban would be discarded in favour of a 90 percent emission reduction target.

“For new registrations from 2035 onwards, a 90 percent reduction in CO2 emissions will now be mandatory for car manufacturers’ fleet targets, instead of 100 percent,” he told German tabloid Bild, after a meeting with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.

“This means that the technology ban on combustion engines is off the table. All engines currently built in Germany can therefore continue to be produced and sold.”

Commission officials stressed however that no final decision had been made.

Will EU give ground on 2035 combustion-engine ban?


By AFP
December 6, 2025


European automakers say the EU's push for electric vehicles is too rigid 

- Copyright AFP Ina FASSBENDER

Jana HEMMERSMEIER and Frederic POUCHOT

Europe’s embattled auto industry and its backers are ramping up pressure on the EU to relax its planned 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales — hoping for a decision by year end.

The European Commission is due to review the target on December 10 as part of a broader rescue plan for the sector but competing demands from member states and industry risk forcing it to push back the date.

The goal of switching all new cars to electric by 2035 was set in 2023 as a flagship measure of the EU’s environmental Green Deal and a key step towards the bloc achieving climate neutrality by 2050.

But two years on, calls are mounting to revise the target in the name of “pragmatism”.

“Our sector has received the most stringent target as it was perceived to be one of the easiest to decarbonise,” the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) said in a policy paper.

“But the reality has proven much more complicated.”

Meanwhile, Chinese carmakers are flooding the European market with cheaper electric models, sparking fears of an unprecedented crisis among the bloc’s manufacturers, with mass layoffs and factory closures looming.

“The ground is slipping beneath our feet,” the head of France’s Plateforme automotive industry group Luc Chatel warned last month, saying the sector was the victim of “political and dogmatic choices, not technological ones”.



– Germany, Italy push for exemptions –



German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has emerged as a leading voice in support of carmakers, urging Brussels to allow sales of plug-in hybrids, range-extender vehicles and highly efficient combustion engines beyond 2035.

Italy wants new cars running on biofuels to remain legal after the deadline.

In the opposing camp, France wants to stick as closely as possible to the all-electric trajectory to safeguard massive investments already made by its carmakers.

“If we abandon the 2035 target, forget about European battery plants,” President Emmanuel Macron warned after an EU summit in October.

France is calling for EU support for battery production and proposing mandatory electrification of corporate fleets using European-made vehicles to avoid favouring Chinese brands. Germany opposes such fleet rules.

BMW chief Oliver Zipse argued in Brussels this week that making corporate fleets go fully electric would amount to bringing the combustion-engine ban “through the back door”.

Lucien Mathieu, of the Transport & Environment advocacy group, warned meanwhile that exemptions for biofuels “would be a terrible mistake”, citing their poor carbon record and unintended impacts such as deforestation.

Vaccines do not cause autism: WHO

By AFP
December 12, 2025


More than half of the world's completely unvaccinated children live in just eight countries, research finds - Copyright AFP John WESSELS

A new analysis by the World Health Organization reaffirmed there is no link between vaccines and autism — contrary to theories being propagated in the United States.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last month revised its website with language that undermines its previous, scientifically-grounded position that immunisations do not cause the developmental disorder autism.

Years of research demonstrate that there is no causal link between vaccinations and autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders.

But Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the nation’s health chief, has long voiced anti-vaccine rhetoric and inaccurate claims connecting the two.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference in Geneva that autism was not a side-effect of vaccines.

“Today, WHO is publishing a new analysis by the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety that has found, based on available evidence, no causal link between vaccines and autism,” the UN health agency chief said.

The committee looked at 31 studies in multiple countries over 15 years relating to vaccines containing thiomersal — a preservative that prevents bacterial and fungal contamination in multidose vials — and aluminium adjuvants.

“The committee concluded that the evidence shows no link between vaccines and autism, including vaccines containing aluminium or thiomersal,” said Tedros.

“This is the fourth such review of the evidence, following similar reviews in 2002, 2004 and 2012. All reached the same conclusion: vaccines do not cause autism.

“Like all medical products, vaccines can cause side effects, which WHO monitors. But autism is not a side effect of vaccines.”



– Flawed 1998 study –



A purported connection between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism stems from a flawed study published in 1998, which was retracted for including falsified data. Its results have not been replicated and are refuted by voluminous subsequent research.

“The study was later shown to be fraudulent and retracted, but the damage had been done, and the idea has never gone away,” said Tedros.

Kennedy has a long history of promoting dubious claims, many of which have become articles of faith among adherents to his “Make America Healthy Again” movement, a vital part of President Donald Trump’s fractious Make America Great Again coalition.

The CDC website edits were met with anger and fear by career scientists and other public health figures, including from within the agency, who have spent years fighting against false information.

Tedros said that over the past 25 years, under-five mortality has plunged by more than half, from 11 million deaths a year to 4.8 million, with vaccination being a major reason behind the drop.

“Vaccines are among the most powerful, transformative inventions in the history of humankind,” he said.

“Vaccines save lives from about 30 different diseases, including measles, cervical cancer, malaria and more.”

WHO chief upbeat on missing piece of pandemic treaty


By AFP
December 5, 2025


The PABS system will determine how vaccines are shared during future pandemics - Copyright AFP Patrick T. Fallon

The World Health Organization chief said Friday that countries were in a strong position to finalise the vital missing piece of the pandemic treaty, which will determine how vaccines are shared.

In April, WHO member states concluded a landmark Pandemic Agreement on tackling future health crises, after more than three years of negotiations sparked by the shock of Covid-19.

The accord aims to prevent the disjointed responses and international disarray that surrounded the Covid-19 pandemic by improving global coordination and surveillance, and access to vaccines, in any future pandemics.

But the heartbeat of the treaty, the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) system, was left aside in order to get the deal over the line.

Countries were given another year to thrash out the details of how it will work.

The PABS mechanism deals with sharing access to pathogens with pandemic potential, then sharing the benefits derived from them: vaccines, tests and treatments.

Countries are tasked with getting the PABS system finalised by the next World Health Assembly in mid-May. The annual gathering of member states is the WHO’s decision-making body.

“This is both a generational opportunity and a generational responsibility,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, after countries wrapped up a week of talks.

“As we get ready to close out this year, we are in a strong position to forge consensus, finalise the draft, and prepare for adoption at next year’s World Health Assembly.

“Together, we are moving toward a world that is better prepared for future pandemics.”

Countries will resume their fourth round of talks on January 20-22.

Once the PABS system is finalised, the entire agreement can then be ratified by members, with 60 ratifications required for the treaty to enter into force.

“As we cross the half-way mark in negotiations on the PABS system, I am encouraged by the progress we’ve made towards enabling a faster and more equitable global response to future pandemics,” said Matthew Harpur, co-chair of the talks.

Co-chair Ambassador Tovar da Silva Nunes of Brazil added: “We are confident we can build a strong and balanced PABS system that will benefit all people.”

In India’s mining belt, women spark hope with solar lamps


By AFP
December 4, 2025


Santosh Devi completed a solar engineering course in rural India, now earning a small income by installing panels - Copyright AFP HIMANSHU SHARMA

Julie Fraysse

Santosh Devi is proud to have brought light — and hope — to her hamlet in western India, taking up solar engineering through a programme for women like her whose husbands suffer chronic disease from mining work.

Her husband is bedridden with silicosis, a respiratory illness caused by inhaling fine silica dust which is common across some 33,000 mines in Rajasthan state, where the couple and their four children live.

Santosh, 36, has joined seven other women for a three-month course at Barefoot College in Tilonia, a two-hour drive from her village in the desert state’s Beawar district.

There, the group learned the basics of solar engineering — installing panels, wiring them, and assembling and repairing lamps — to help light up homes and provide electricity for anything from charging phones to powering fans.

With their sick husbands out of work, the training has allowed these women to make a living and support their families.

Barefoot College has trained more than 3,000 women from 96 countries since it was set up in 1972, according to Kamlesh Bisht, the technical manager of the institute.

The college offers rural women new skills with the aim of making them independent in an environment where jobs are scarce and healthcare generally inaccessible.

Santosh, who is illiterate, said she wants to “offer a good education and a better future” to her children, aged five to 20.

She now earns a small income by installing solar panels, and hopes to eventually make the equivalent of $170 a month.

The time away from her family was tough, but Santosh said it was worth it.

“At first, I was very scared,” she recalled. “But this training gave me confidence and courage.”

She showed with enthusiasm the three houses where she had installed a photovoltaic panel powering lamps, fans and chargers.



– Slow killer –



Her husband used to cut sandstone for pavers exported around the world.

But now he can barely walk, needs costly medication and relies on a meagre state allowance of $16 a month.

Wiping away tears with the edge of her bright red scarf, Santosh said she has had to borrow money from relatives, sell her jewellery and mortgage her precious mangalsutra, the traditional Hindu wedding necklace, to make ends meet.

The family share a similar fate with many others in Rajasthan state’s mining belt, where tens of thousands of people suffer from silicosis.

According to pulmonologist Lokesh Kumar Gupta, there are between 5,000 and 6,000 cases in just a single district, Ajmer.

In Santosh’s village of 400 households, 70 people have been diagnosed with silicosis, a condition that kills slowly and, in many cases, has no cure.

An estimated 2.5 million people work in mines across Rajasthan, extracting sandstone, marble or granite for less than $6 a day.

Those using jackhammers earn double but face even higher exposure to toxic dust.

Vinod Ram, whose wife has also graduated from the Barefoot College course, has been suffering from silicosis for six years and struggles to breathe.

“The medication only calms my cough for a few minutes,” said Vinod, 34, who now weighs just 45 kilos (99 pounds).

He started mining at age 15, working for years without a mask or any other protective gear.



– No choice but to work –



His wife Champa Devi, 30, did not even know how to write her name when she arrived at Barefoot College in June.

Now back home, at a village not far from Santosh’s, she is proud of her newfound expertise.

But her life remains overshadowed by illness and poverty.

Champa, who has dark circles under her eyes, has installed solar panels in four nearby homes but has not yet been paid.

For now, she earns about 300 rupees ($3.35) a day working at construction sites — hardly enough to cover her husband’s medical bills, which come up to some $80 a month.

The couple live in a single dark room with thin blankets covering the floor, and the near-contact sound of detonations from nearby mines.

“There is no treatment for silicosis,” said pulmonologist Gupta.

Early treatment can help, but most patients come only after five to seven years, he said.

Under state aid schemes, patients receive $2,310 upon diagnosis, and their families get another $3,465 in the case of death.

Ill miners, who are physically capable, sometimes continue to cut sandstone for a pittance to support their families, despite the dire health risks.

Sohan Lal, a 55-year-old mine worker who suffers from shortness of breath and severe cough, sees no other option but to keep working.

“If I were diagnosed, what difference would it make?” he said.

Filipino typhoon survivors sue Shell over climate change

By AFP
December 11, 2025


Typhoon Rai struck the southern and central regions of the Philippines in December 2021 - Copyright AFP ROEL CATOTO, ROEL CATOTO

Alexandra Bacon with Pam Castro and Cecil Morella in Manila

Survivors of a deadly 2021 typhoon in the Philippines have filed a lawsuit against British oil giant Shell, seeking financial compensation for climate-related devastation, three NGOs supporting them said Thursday.

Typhoon Rai struck the southern and central regions of the Philippines in December 2021, toppling power lines and trees and unleashing deadly floods that killed over 400 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

The lawsuit on behalf of 103 survivors argues Shell’s carbon emissions contributed to climate change, impacting Philippine communities.

Trixy Elle, a plaintiff from a fishing community whose home and four boats were swept away in the typhoon, told AFP the lawsuit was about getting justice.

“Island residents like us contribute only a small percentage of pollution. But who gets the short stick? The poor like us,” said the 34-year-old, who is still paying off high-interest loans she needed to rebuild.

“I am not speaking only for my community but for all Filipinos who experience the effects of climate crises,” Elle said, adding that her now 13-year-old son still suffers from trauma caused by the storm.

In a joint statement, the NGOs backing the suit said it represents “a decisive step to hold oil giant Shell accountable for the deaths, injuries and destruction left by the climate-fuelled storm”.

While typhoons are a regular weather pattern in Southeast Asia, scientists have long warned that climate change is making storms more intense because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture and warmer seas can turbocharge the systems.

In Manila on Thursday, Greenpeace climate campaigner Virginia Benosa-Llorin called the lawsuit a “test case to hold the corporations accountable”.

The suit will be the “first time claimants in the Global South are bringing action related to significant personal injury and property damage… caused through the alleged acts of common measures in the Global North”, added UK-based lawyer Joe Snape via videolink.



– Lost ‘everything’ –



Plaintiff Rickcel Inting, a fisherman, told AFP his family had lost “everything in an instant” when Typhoon Rai slammed into Bohol province, surviving only because they lashed themselves to a thick column on their rooftop.

“Shell caused what we have suffered because of its actions, causing pollution and harming the environment… they owe poor individuals like us,” said the 46-year-old, adding he had never been able to afford to replace his lost fishing boats.

The lawsuit marks the latest step in a wider international movement to assign responsibility to major companies for climate damage.

A German court in May ruled that firms could, in principle, be held responsible for harm caused by their emissions, fuelling hopes that other countries would follow suit.

Shell dismissed the lawsuit as “a baseless claim”, with a spokesperson saying “it will not help tackle climate change or reduce emissions”.

“The suggestion that Shell had unique knowledge about climate change is simply not true,” the firm added.



– Oil profits –



The claimants are seeking financial compensation for “lives lost, injuries sustained and homes destroyed”, NGOs supporting the lawsuit said.

Shell, along with many rival energy giants, has scaled back various climate objectives to focus more on oil and gas in order to raise profits.

The United Nations in 2022 said destruction caused by Typhoon Rai was “badly underestimated” in initial assessments, tripling the number of people “seriously affected” to nine million.

The Philippines — ranked among the most vulnerable nations to the impact of climate change — is hit by an average of 20 storms every year.

The UK lawsuit follows an historic climate ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague in July, which declared states had an obligation under international law to address the threat of climate change.

ICJ advisory opinions are not legally enforceable but are seen as highly authoritative in steering national courts, legislation and corporate behaviour around the globe

Unchecked mining waste taints DR Congo communities


By AFP
December 4, 2025


Many locals, including Helene Mvubu, say they have suffered from contaminated water discharges by a Chinese company - Copyright AFP Glody MURHABAZI

Camille LAFFONT

Carrying her sore-pocked daughter across her decaying field, Helene Mvubu says she is one of thousands to have fallen victim to the toxic waste defiling the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mining capital.

Global powers, notably China and the United States, are in a race to extract strategic minerals in the DRC, which supplies more than 70 percent of the world’s cobalt, essential for making electric batteries and weaponry.

But human rights groups say the mining operations are resulting in severe environmental damage in the mineral-rich African nation.

Mvubu told AFP that she has for years suffered the consequences of flooding from contaminated water discharged by Congo Dongfang International Mining (CDM), a Chinese company that processes copper and cobalt ore in the outskirts of Lubumbashi, capital of the mineral-rich Katanga province in the southeastern DRC.

“The food we prepare becomes bitter, our water sources are polluted,” said the farmer as she walked across her plot, where the sugarcane has turned yellow with disease.

Mvubu’s field is located directly within the path of runoff water from the CDM site, surrounded by an imposing concrete wall guarded by officers, on a mountain overlooking residential neighbourhoods.

The extent of the pollution is unknown.

But when it rains, red water can be seen gushing out from four drainage points under the enclosure.

Residents and civil society groups interviewed by AFP accused CDM of taking advantage of rainy periods to discharge mining wastewater.

At the beginning of November, thousands of cubic metres of the reddish water poured out from the Chinese company site over two days, despite no rainfall.

Outrage over the flooding forced Congolese authorities to act by suspending the site’s activities and appointing an investigative commission — a rare move in a country where mining companies generally operate with impunity, often with the complicity of local administrations.



– ‘For show’ –



“Everyone was surprised to see the waters flooding us even though it hadn’t rained,” said resident Hortance Kiluba, as she busied herself washing her laundry.

Joseph Kongolo, a member of the investigative commission and provincial coordinator of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), said the Chinese company “was misled by the weather and opened the valves before the rains fell” that would have otherwise hidden the flow.

CDM, however, claimed that the November flood was caused by the accidental rupture of a retention basin.

Several members of the investigative commission charge that pollution from the site dates back several years.

But no study on the toxicity of the wastewater has yet been made public.

Residents told AFP they have experienced harmful effects firsthand.

Martiny, a vendor of fruits and vegetables at the local market, showed her “damaged” hands and feet that she blamed on the exposure to “acidic” water.

The November flood, which inundated the market, also soaked her supply of dried fish, leaving it inedible.

To calm the upset, CDM employees distributed masks and bottles of water to the community.

The firm has also led the repairs of a stretch of road damaged by the waters.

“It’s just for show,” said a local chief, under the condition of anonymity, claiming that the firm also bribed officials to convince the public that the release of wastewater was accidental and not planned.



– ‘Responsibilities are shared’ –



A CDM representative denied any negligence on the company’s part when contacted by AFP, asserting that “the materials are processed on site” and that “there could not have been any prior pollution” before November.

A subsidiary of Chinese multinational Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, CDM has long been in the crosshairs of human rights organisations.

Hubert Tshiswaka, director general of the DRC’s Institute for Human Rights Research (IRDH) and member of the investigating commission, has for years fought to get CDM to comply with social and financial obligations — such as the payment of mining royalties — required by law.

“Curiously, CDM obtained all the permits to set up on top of this hill,” where rains naturally flow down to the neighbourhoods below, he said.

Although the spill pointed to CDM’s “disregard for basic standards” with “serious repercussions on the environment”, mining minister Louis Watum Kabamba admitted following the investigation that “responsibilities are shared”.

“Our administration should have played its role,” he said.

NAKBA II

‘Land without laws’: Israeli settlers force Bedouins from West Bank community


By AFP
December 4, 2025


AFP visited Ahmed Kaabneh weeks before he was forced to flee his home in the al-Hathrura area - Copyright AFP Menahem Kahana

Alice CHANCELLOR

As relentless harassment from Israeli settlers drove his brothers from their Bedouin community in the central occupied West Bank, Ahmed Kaabneh remained determined to stay on the land his family had lived on for generations.

But when a handful of young settlers constructed a shack around 100 metres above his home and started intimidating his children, 45-year-old Kaabneh said he had no choice but to flee too.

As with scores of Bedouin communities across the West Bank, the small cluster of wood and metal houses where Kaabneh’s father and grandfather had lived now lies empty.

“It is very difficult… because you leave an area where you lived for 45 years. Not a day or two or three, but nearly a lifetime,” Kaabneh told AFP at his family’s new makeshift house in the rocky hills north of Jericho.

“But what can you do? They are the strong ones and we are the weak, and we have no power.”

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and violence there has soared since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023 following Hamas’s attack on Israel.

Some 3,200 Palestinians from dozens of Bedouin and herding communities have been forced from their homes by settler violence and movement restrictions since October 2023, the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA reported in October.

The United Nations said this October was the worst month for settler violence since it began recording incidents in 2006.

Almost none of the perpetrators have been held to account by the Israeli authorities.



– ‘Terrifying’ –



Kaabneh, four of his brothers and their families, now live together some 13 kilometres (eight miles) northeast of their original homes, which sat in the al-Hathrura area.

Outside his freshly constructed metal house, boys kicked a football while washing hung from the line. But Kaabneh said the area didn’t feel like home.

“We are in a place we have never lived in before, and life here is hard,” he said.

Alongside surging violence, the number of settler outposts has exploded in the West Bank.

While all Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, outposts are also prohibited under Israeli law. But many end up being legalised by the Israeli authorities.

AFP had visited Kaabneh in the al-Hathrura area weeks before he was forced to flee.

On the dirt road to his family’s compound, caravans and an Israeli flag atop a hill marked an outpost established earlier this year — one of several to have sprung up in the area.

On the other side of the track, in the valley, lay the wreckage of another Bedouin compound whose residents had recently fled.

While in Kaabneh’s cluster of homes, AFP witnessed two settlers driving to the top of a hill to surveil the Bedouins below.

“The situation is terrifying,” Kaabneh said at the time, with life becoming almost untenable because of daily harassment and shrinking grazing land.

Less than three weeks later, the homes were deserted.

Kaabneh said the settlers “would shout all night, throw stones, and walk through the middle of the houses.”

“They didn’t allow us to sleep at night, nor move freely during the day.”



– ‘Thrive on chaos’ –



These days, only activists and the odd cat wander the remnants of Kaabneh’s former life — where upturned children’s bikes and discarded shoes reveal the chaotic departure.

“We are here to keep an eye on the property… because a lot of places that are abandoned are usually looted by the settlements,” said Sahar Kan-Tor, 29, an Israeli activist with the Israeli-Palestinian grassroots group Standing Together.

Meanwhile, settlers with a quadbike and digger were busy dismantling their hilltop shack and replacing it with a sofa and table.

“They thrive on chaos,” Kan-Tor explained.

“It is, in a way, a land without laws. There (are) authorities roaming around, but nothing is enforced, or very rarely enforced.”

A report by Israeli settlement watchdogs last December said settlers had used shepherding outposts to seize 14 percent of the West Bank in recent years.

NGOs Peace Now and Kerem Navot said settlers were acting “with the backing of the Israeli government and military”.

Some members of Israel’s right-wing government are settlers themselves, and far-right ministers have called for the West Bank’s annexation.

Kan-Tor said he believed settlers were targeting this stretch of the West Bank because of its significance for a contiguous Palestinian state.

But Kaabneh said the threat of attacks loomed even in his new location in the east of the territory.

He said settlers had already driven along the track leading to his family’s homes and watched them from the hill above.

“Even this area, which should be considered safe, is not truly safe,” Kaabneh lamented.

“They pursue us everywhere.”