Colombia, Venezuela launch COP27 call to save Amazon

Author: AFP

09.11.2022

From L to R: The presidents of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, Colombia's Gustavo Petro and Suriname's Chan Santokhi attend a Latin American event on the sidlelines of the COP27 climate conference / © AFP


The presidents of Colombia and Venezuela, Gustavo Petro and Nicolas Maduro, launched a call Tuesday at the COP27 climate summit for a wide-ranging alliance to protect the Amazon, the planet's biggest tropical forest.

"We are determined to revitalise the Amazon rainforest... (in order) to offer humanity a significant victory in the battle against climate change," Petro said at the UN summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

"If we, in the South Americas, carry a responsibility, it is to stop the destruction of the Amazon and put in place a coordinated process of recovery," Maduro said, speaking alongside Petro and the president of Suriname, Chan Santokhi.

Key to any such revival plan will be the newly elected Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, widely known as Lula, who will take up his post on January 1 and is expected to attend COP27 next week.

The participation of Brazil in such a planned alliance will be "absolutely strategic", Petro said.

Leftist Lula faces an immense challenge in putting a brake on Amazon deforestation, a phenomenon that rapidly proliferated under his right-wing predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

Petro, architect of the proposed new alliance, has called for the US to collaborate, noting that it is "the country that pollutes the most" on the American continent, while the south of the landmass is "the sponge that absorbs the most carbon dioxide on the continent".

He advocated "the opening of a fund" fed by "the contribution of private companies and world nations".

Petro had announced the previous day that his country intends to set aside $200 million per year over the next two decades to protect the Amazon.

The participation of Brazil in such a planned alliance will be 'absolutely strategic', Petro said / © AFP

He urged solidarity from international organisations, at a time when the COP has put the issue of compensation for damage caused by global warming on its agenda, despite resistance from developed nations.

"One of the subjects which could bring consensus between us, Africa and part of Asia is (a mechanism for) forgiveness of (national) debt as a means of financing action" against climate change, Petro said.

The International Monetary Fund would have "a role to play" in working with developing countries on this issue, he added.

- 'Buried reserves' -

The "political message (is) very important", but the question "is to know how these intentions will materialise," said Harol Rincon Ipuchima, a representative of Indigenous people in Colombia.

According to Amazon Conservation, which tracks deforestation in the region, around 13 percent of the original biomass of the Amazon rainforest has already disappeared 

/ © MICHAEL DANTAS/AFP

Ipuchima, who is also the co-chair of the Indigenous caucus at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, took President Petro to task for not having spoken more with his community, whom he described as "the masters of the territory".

According to Amazon Conservation, which tracks deforestation in the region, around 13 percent of the original biomass of the Amazon rainforest has already disappeared.

The Amazon basin, which stretches over 7.4 million square kilometres, covers nearly 40 percent of South America and takes in nine countries, with around 34 million -- mostly Indigenous people -- living across this area.

Petro, the first leftist president of Colombia, took office on August 7, with an ambitious environmental plan that targets converting his nation to clean energy and halting exploration for new oil deposits, among other measures.

He has however recognised that the presence of sub-soil hydrocarbon reserves in the Amazon region, beginning with Venezuela, could thwart this plan, but emphasised he is determined to eventually abandon fossil fuels.

Colombia's Environment Minister Susana Muhamad Gonzalez has advocated a "diversification" of economies of countries that possess such resources, urging them to "leave the reserves in the soil".

Ipuchima recalled that "entire territories of the Indigenous people of the Amazon have been destroyed."

"Not only Venezuela, but Colombia too has many oil companies in these territories. Likewise Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador," he added.

President Petro hopes to organise a meeting with the other regional countries in early 2023 to discuss his proposed alliance.

UN demands Egypt release hunger-striking dissident

UN rights chief Volker Turk on Tuesday called on Egypt to immediately release Alaa Abdel Fattah, a jailed dissident on hunger strike, saying his life was at "acute risk".


Alaa Abdel Fattah, 40, was a major figure in the 2011 revolt that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak© Khaled DESOUKI

British-Egyptian Abdel Fattah, 40, was a major figure in the 2011 revolt that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak.

After a seven-month hunger strike during which he consumed only "100 calories a day", he has for the past week refused food altogether, and on Sunday he stopped drinking water to coincide with the opening of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

"I urge the Egyptian government to immediately release Abdel Fattah from prison and provide him with the necessary medical treatment," Turk said, warning that the activist "is in great danger."

"His dry hunger strike puts his life at acute risk."

"We're very concerned for his health," UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva, deploring "a lack of transparency as well around his current condition."

She said Turk had raised Abdel Fattah's case with Egyptian authorities on Friday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had also done so on the COP27 sidelines, UN spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci told reporters.

Abdel Fattah's case has sparked an outcry at COP27.


- 'Unacceptable insult' -

Abdel Fattah has since late last year been serving a five-year sentence for "broadcasting false news", having already spent much of the past decade behind bars.

According to rights groups, Abdel Fattah is among more than 60,000 prisoners of conscience in Egypt since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi came to power after deposing Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The UN rights chief noted that the resumption in April 2022 of Egypt's Presidential Pardon Committee "had resulted in numerous individuals being released".

But he called "on the Egyptian authorities to fulfil their human rights obligations and immediately release all those arbitrarily detained, including those in pre-trial detention, as well as those unfairly convicted."

"No one should be detained for exercising their basic human rights or defending those of others."

In a statement received by the UN correspondents' association, Egypt's mission in Geneva slammed Turk's intervention.

"The content of the statement deliberately undermines the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law as an indispensable cornerstone for the protection and promotion of human rights. The characterisation of a judicial decision as 'unfair' is an unacceptable insult," the mission said.

Turk's statement "violates the principles of impartiality and objectivity" and "further erodes both his credibility and that of the institution that he represents", it said.

Egypt urged Turk to "show professionalism" and instead of commenting on cases, he should "focus on the promotion and protection of human rights through cooperation and dialogue".

AFP

Colonists nibble at Gran Chaco, South America's other big forest

by Nina NEGRON

Aerial view of a deforested area of the Gran Chaco forest in northern Argentina near Juan 

Jose Castelli.

Dwarfed by its more prestigious sibling, the Amazon, South America's second largest forest is a little-known victim of 25 years of gradual invasion by agriculture.

The Gran Chaco indigenous forest that spans one million square kilometers (386,000 square miles) across Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia is at the mercy of ravenous soybean and sunflower crops, as well as pasture land.

Comprising a mix of dry thorn shrubland, woodlands and palm savannas, the dense tropical dry forest contains massive scars—vast areas of deforestation gouged out with alarming regularity.

The harm to local fauna and flora is immeasurable.

In some places, as far as the eye can see, carob trees uprooted by heavy machinery lie waiting to be taken away and used as charcoal, tannin, furniture and railway sleepers, for which this dense hardwood is particularly prized.

Here, in Argentina's northeast, some 1,100-kilometers (685 miles) from Buenos Aires, is the country's agriculture frontier.

It is where the agro export industry, so crucial for a country short on foreign currency, advances at the expense various species of fauna and flora, as well as people.

"Practically all of Chaco province used to be covered by forests," agricultural engineer Ines Aguirre from the Chaco Argentina Agroforestry Network told AFP.

"But when the technological package of genetically modified soyabean appeared in the 1990s, the Chaco zone began to be colonized."

Aerial view of a wood factory in Resistencia, in the province of Chaco, northeast Argentina.

'Strong agro pressure'

Two of Argentina's main exports, soybean (30 percent) and genetically-modified corn are, like sunflowers, resistent to dry climates, allowing them to thrive in the semiarid Chaco region.

Deforestation in the region has averaged around 40,000 hectares (154 square miles) a year, peaking at 60,000 on occasions, said Aguirre.

"This shouldn't happen because all forms of deforestation have been suspended in the province," said Noemi Cruz, the forests campaign co-ordinator at Greenpeace, while picking up a handful of dusty earth from a patch of ground cleared of trees.

Without the protection of those trees "water slides on the surface but won't penetrate the ground during the rainy season."

Chaco includes a 128,000 hectare national park called The Impenetrable that is designated a "red zone" and strictly protected by a forestry law. But there are also "yellow" zones where tourism and "soft" agriculture are allowed, and "green" zones that are a free-for-all.

A wasp flies around a sunflower near Juan Jose Castelli in Chaco province, northeast

 Argentina.

But this law has not proved sufficient to protect the forests.

"There is strong pressure from companies and agricultural producers that want to open up more farmland and there is a permanent international demand for primary materials, especially soyabean and beef," said biologist and researcher Matias Mastrangelo, from the CONICET national scientific and technical research institute.

In the case of illegal logging, a lightly punitive fine "does not discourage clearing and the companies incorporate it as another production cost."

What this means is that deforestation around The Impenetrable park affects the rich fauna living within it, such as anteaters, peccaries, coral snakes, tapir and the continent's largest feline, the jaguar, which is endangered in the region and the subject of an ambitious reintroduction program.

"A forest that becomes a soybean field can no longer provide shelter for the jaguar, nor any of its prey. The destruction is absolute," said biologist Gerardo Ceron, coordinator of the Rewilding Argentina team managing the predator's reintroduction.

Vast swathes of the Gran Chaco forest have been cut down to make way for soybean and 

corn crops, as well as livestock.

Large mammals at risk

"In the dry Chaco, we are probably facing a very serious effect of losing fauna. We are seeing especially the extinction of large mammals," said Micaela Camino, a biologist at CONICET, citing the giant armadillo and white-lipped peccary as examples.

"When a species is lost, you lose what is unique about the species. But also the nutritional security of local families and all the functions that this species performed in the ecosystem.

"You're losing the ability of this ecosystem to survive, regenerate and be resilient, which is very dangerous in a context of climate change."

It is not just fauna and flora being pushed out but also local indigenous communities, such as the Wichi and Criollo who live in the forest.

"What generally happens is that before the logging, the rights of these families are violated. They are swindled (out of their land) and forced to leave their homes," added Camino.

A Greenpeace protester chained to a bridge in northeast Argentina highlights the 

deforestation of the Gran Chaco.

Aguirre says there are solutions to regenerate the lost Chaco forest, starting with the replanting of the carob tree.

"The carob tree, which is a legume, produces a reaction between bacteria and the tree's roots that recomposes the nitrogen in the soil. It's amazing, the growth is incredible," she said.

But such programs are for later, for now the priority is "stopping deforestation."

© 2022 AFP

Deforestation cuts through community as well as biodiversity

Essequibo – the Guyanese region claimed by Venezuela

AFP
November 8, 2022

Kimtse Kimo Castello cleans his equipment at his small barber shop in Port Kaituma, Guyana - 

Copyright GETTY IMAGES/AFP GEORGE FREY

Patrick FORT

Hairdresser Kimtse Kimo Castello is adamant that the small town where he lives, near a tropical forest, lies in Guyana and not Venezuela, which claims it.

“It’s not about giving it back. I doubt they (Venezuela) ever owned it, so there’s no question about giving it back, it’s ours!”

Castello is talking about Essequibo, a disputed area of 160,000 square kilometers that is administered by Guyana but which Venezuala has long argued is its territory.

The region is home to 125,000 of Guyana’s 800,000 residents. Like the rest of Guyana, they speak English.

The former British colony sees its current borders, established by a court of arbitration in Paris in 1899, as accurate.

But Venezuela insists that the Essequibo river to the east of the region is the more natural border between the two countries, as was the case in 1777.

In 2018, Guyana asked the International Court of Justice in The Hague to resolve the dispute and ratify the current borders.

– ‘Kind, welcoming people’ –

“Essequibo is 100 percent Guyanese. We are very clear about where our borders are,” Guyana President Irfaan Ali told AFP.

However, Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro often punctuates speeches with the claim that “the Venezuelan sun rises over Essequibo.”

Although not quite at the level of Argentina’s obsession with the Falkland Islands, the Venezuelan claim to Essequibo is regularly repeated in schools and barracks.

In September, Maduro published a photo of the Kaieteur Falls, the world’s largest single-drop waterfall and Guyana’s main tourist attraction, on social media with a map including Essequibo in Venezuela.

Many Guyanese demanded that Facebook and Twitter remove the “illegal and offensive publications.”

“It’s over, it’s Guyanese. We’ve been speaking English ever since,” said mechanic Andrew Bailey, 33.

“I actually (only) learned Venezuela was claiming it when I finished school,” he added, pointing to the region’s oil reserves as Venezuela’s motivation.

“They will always claim it,” said the hairdresser Castello as he cleaned his electric shavers in his small shop in Port Kaituma.

“I always felt Guyanese, and we are kind people, people that welcome anybody into the area,” he said, adding that explained the large numbers of Venezuelans in the area.

Around 25,000 Venezuelans who fled their country’s economic collapse live in Guyana, according to local authorities. Several thousand of them live in Essequibo.

– ‘Life better than in Venezuela’ –

Ironically, in the past, it was Guyanese, fleeing one of the poorest countries on the planet, who migrated to Venezuela where Caracas automatically bestowed citizenship on those born in Essequibo.

In Port Kaituma, dozens of Venezuelan migrants squat in a three-story building abandoned by a Chinese company.

Anneris Valenzuela, 23, and her husband Tucupita, came from the Amacuro Delta, one of Venezuela’s poorest regions.

“We had nothing. We had nothing to feed our children,” she said.

Tucupita works as a day laborer.

“Life is better than in Venezuela, although it’s pretty tough. There’s no electricity, we use lanterns.”

Running water is intermittent, and when it rains, the building’s inhabitants bring out buckets, saucepans, and other receptacles to collect water.

“It’s a tough situation,” added Alexis Zapata, 47, who lives with seven family members in two rooms in the building, sleeping in hammocks attached to the walls.

“Here, at least we can find something to eat,” adds Zapata, who also left the Amacuro Delta, in August 2021.

He chose Guyana because of ease of access: there were no people smugglers to pay or police to avoid, and he could come on foot.

Zapata unloads boats that arrive at Port Kaituma and insists he is paid “less than the Guyanese” whom he says take advantage of the migrants’ precarious situation.

He insists Essequibo is Venezuelan.

“That’s what I learned and what’s written in the (Venezuelan) books.”

However, the children of most of the Venezuelans living in Essequibo learn the opposite in Guyana schools.

Paul Small, 52, has dual Guyanese-Venezuelan nationality and went to school in both countries.

Born in Guyana, he moved to Venezuela at the age of around six or seven.

He spent most of his life there before returning to Guyana with his wife and children.

An odd-job man, he lives better than most migrants in a small house close to the center of Port Kaituma.

“Life is better here. There is freedom, work, healthcare in hospital, security,” he said.

And for him, “Essequibo belongs to Guyana because it’s been that way since I was born.”

Essequibo - Wikipedia

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

Myanmar rebels risk life and limb in DIY weapons factories

• AFP
•  November 8, 2022

Members of the People Revolution Army (PRA) prepare 

homemade weapons in Pale township

Pale – Under an awning in a bamboo thicket in northern Myanmar, an anti-coup fighter following instructions from YouTube welds scavenged steel into crude mortar rounds and shells to be fired at junta troops.

Almost two years after seizing power, the military has been unable to crush local militias that have sprung up to fight the putsch with hit-and-run tactics.

In turn, these People’s Defence Forces (PDF) remain massively outgunned by the military’s artillery strikes, Chinese and Russian-made jets and Israeli-patterned rifles.

Captured weapons and expensive purchases on the black market have provided patchy boosts to PDF firepower, analysts say, but many militias have turned to risky trial-and-error operations to churn out their own rockets, mines and mortars.

“We just learn how to build weapons from the internet or YouTube,” said Nay Min, an anti-coup fighter from the northern Sagaing region.

“We search how to cook saltpetre (potassium nitrate), how to combine it to get gunpowder, how to build rifles. We haven’t received any training,” he told AFP.

Those with engineering or mechanical backgrounds, like his comrade Nay Myo Win, experiment and come up with prototypes or copies of captured weapons, he said.

Blowtorches in hand, they sweat for hours in makeshift workshops powered by generators that are frequent targets of junta raids.

Nay Myo Win mixes saltpetre to make the gunpowder needed to fire mortar shells filled with lead and scrap metal that he claims have a range of just over two kilometres (1.2 miles).

– Crude armaments –

Laid out on a tarpaulin ahead of a mission in October, the mortars are unimpressive — little more than construction pipes welded to bipods.

The shells require two charges to detonate — one to fire the shell and the other to explode on impact — a method first used at the beginning of the 20th century.

But the damage is substantial, Nay Min said — “around 15 feet from the target it will hit people and they will die or be wounded”.

One batch of shells was made from a telecoms tower owned by a firm close to the military, which was sabotaged by PDF fighters some months ago.  

“We just wanted to destroy their business,” Nay Min added.

“But, after we had started making homemade weapons … we needed more stainless steel and we thought of the tower.”

Nay Min’s group is one of dozens of PDF militias in Sagaing making their own weapons in a bid to turn the tide in the fighting.

Many upload footage of successful tests of mortars, rockets or mines to social media, with joyous shouts accompanying each loud bang.

But the work can be deadly.

“It’s more than dangerous,” said Bo Shaung, an anti-coup fighter and rocket maker from another group operating in Sagaing.

“When we cook gunpowder, if we add too much saltpetre, it’s dangerous. If we add too little, it’s also dangerous.”

One video obtained by AFP shows a new mortar being tested. The shell explodes in the barrel, killing the fighter who had just loaded it.

Thu Ya, another anti-coup fighter, said he lost his sight six months ago when the explosive he was handling went off too soon.

“I got injuries on my hands and feet which have recovered now but I… still have blurry vision,” he said.

In the absence of machines like lathes and voltage regulators, each shell is made by hand.

And for all the risk that comes with producing them, the homemade munitions are often more bark than bite.

– ‘Drain on morale’ –

Once a target has been selected, preparing ammunition for an attack can take up to 10 days, Nay Min said.

His group relies on information from locals to gauge troop positions.

To guide their fire they have little more than Google Maps to measure the distance from the target.

“We normally attack them in our own areas and we all know the locations and distance,” he said, insisting that most attacks were accurate. 

Assessing the effectiveness of these weapons is “extremely difficult” in the absence of impartial reporting from the field, said Bangkok-based security analyst Anthony Davis.

Both sides regularly inflate or play down their casualty figures, analysts say.

But Davis said the spread of locally made mortars and rockets “indicates that these systems are far from simply window-dressing”. 

“They inflict real casualties but perhaps as importantly are a constant drain on the morale of often isolated army units on the receiving end.”

The junta has labelled all PDF groups as “terrorists”. It blames anti-coup fighters for the deaths of more than 4,000 civilians.

Nay Min sees his group’s fight as justified. 

“We are satisfied with what we have done,” he said.

But “we need everything. Especially we need weapon."

Myanmar: The DIY weapons factories

arming anti-junta  fighters

Militias fighting the military junta in Myanmar have turned to making their own DIY weapons, including rockets and mortars, as they take on a much more heavily armed adversary. But constructing the weapons is dangerous work, with accidents, particularly during testing, claiming the lives of militia members.

Anti-Junta Forces in Myanmar Rely on 

Homemade Weapons

This photo by the Tiger People's Defense Force shows some of the 

homemade weapons the group is using.

July 31, 2022 
VOA News

YANGON, MYANMAR —

Opposition People’s Defense Forces in Myanmar are battling the ruling junta’s military with locally produced weapons, members of the PDF told VOA in recent weeks.

The PDF members, mostly students and farmers with no previous weapons manufacturing experience, said they figured out how to make the weapons from YouTube and from each other.

Most opposition troops are said to rely on these improvised weapons.

Some opposition armed groups in central Myanmar and in Kayah state, along the country’s eastern border with Thailand, have been producing and using handmade weapons, including rocket launchers, inflicting heavy casualties on junta forces.

The Tiger People’s Defense Force in Sagaing region’s Pale township has produced 15 rockets with a range of around three miles. Initially the group produced rudimentary rifles, bombs and mines, then moved to producing rocket launchers and ammunition within six months.

“We made 100 single-shot rifles and shared them with other groups in Sagaing region and produced 300 rounds for rocket launchers. All of those weapons are being used in battle,” said Bo Than Chaung, head of the Tiger People’s Defense Force information and weapons production team.

Another resistance unit, the Karenni Generation Z, active in Kayah and southern Shan state, has been producing 130 mm, 70 mm and 55 mm mortars since March. Kalay Bo, the unit’s spokesperson said it costs between $50 and $80 to make a mortar.

Karenni Generation Z can produce 20 rounds for 130 mm mortars per day. However, it must change locations whenever the junta finds out where it is operating, and it faces raw material and, most importantly, financial issues.

Kayah state, Myanmar

“At first, we were able to produce homemade hunting rifles to fight the military. However, we could not resist with these guns when the junta forces used automatic weapons, long-range artillery, jets and helicopters. That’s why we developed more advanced weapons to fight the military,” Kalay Bo said.

Armed resistance movements erupted across Myanmar shortly after the military cracked down on peaceful protests of last year’s military coup. Since then, the armed People’s Defense Forces have emerged. However, not all the groups are working together under a single command. The opposition National Unity Government has said 257 battalions have been established under the command of the NUG defense ministry and more than 500 PDFs are affiliated with the ministry.

Some PDFs are based in areas in Kachin, Kayah and Karen states in the east and Chin state in the west that are under the control of armed ethnic organizations that have been fighting for autonomy for years. Those units are receiving arms support from the Karen National Union, Kachin Independence Organization, and the Arakan Army – themselves ethnic organizations – as well as the NUG.

However, obtaining weapons for fighters in central Myanmar is difficult because of transportation difficulties and lack of funding. According to the resistance chapters, it costs at least $3,000 for an automatic machine gun on the black market. Because of the lack of weapons and insufficient funds, opposition groups have turned to producing weapons themselves.

One group, the Anti-Dictatorship People’s Revolutionary Army, or DPRA, with nearly 1,000 fighters, which operates mainly in Sagaing but also has launched guerilla attacks in the cities of Yangon and Mandalay, learned the technique for producing rockets from its ally, the Kani Guerrilla Force in Sagaing. Depending on the availability of raw materials, the DPRA said it manufactures 20 rocket launchers, 30 60 mm mortars, 20 roadside bombs and 30 8 mm rifles a month.

“We receive 10 million kyats [$5,000] a month from public donations and most of it is used for weapons production,” Linn Nway, a senior member of the organization, told VOA.

The DPRA estimates production costs at $175 for a roadside bomb, $35 for each 60 mm mortar and 8 mm rifle round, $75 for a rocket with a range of between three and five miles. “It takes three months to produce a rocket,” Linn Nway said.

Some small opposition groups made up of around 50 members are incapable of combat with the junta forces because of a shortage of weapons and manpower. The groups depend heavily on their production of mines for guerrilla warfare against military convoys, bases, banks and buildings.

“Although we cannot fight with the junta forces, they are afraid of entering into the villages. They were ambushed by our group, which inflicted heavy causalities because of landmines we planted,” said Bi Lone, a leader of the Black Wolf Defense Force in Sagaing’s Monywa township.

This photo provided by the Tiger People's Defense Force shows some of the homemade weapons the group is using.

Most of the PDF-produced weapons are rudimentary and insufficient to defeat the well-armed junta forces.

Many groups can only produce single-shot guns that can only be loaded with one bullet.

“Each time we shoot, we have to insert another bullet to shoot again,” Bo Than Chaung said.

Opposition groups say the lack of military-grade raw materials and of arms-making experience has cost lives and caused injuries and loss of materials when manufacturing weapons. In October, some members of Black Wolf Defense Force were seriously injured and a large quantity of raw materials, plus fighters’ property, including uniforms were destroyed in an explosion while making explosive devices, Bi Lone said.

Another issue facing the opposition groups is obtaining raw materials, such as iron pipes, lead, and gunpowder, as the military regime has restricted the transportation of metal, including iron and steel, into Sagaing. Goods coming into Sagaing are subject to strict inspections.

“We can manage to get iron, mostly we face shortage of gunpowder imported from India and the Thai border. We cannot make homemade bombs without it,” said Lin Nway. Under these circumstances, the price of raw materials has tripled, and it costs more than $150 for 35 grams of gunpowder.

Opposition groups say only 10% of their troops can be armed with commercially produced weapons, and the rest rely heavily on locally produced weapons. The groups are heavily dependent on public donations and selling their belongings to raise funds for weapons production, however, production can fulfill less than 50% of requirements. Under these circumstances, the opposition forces all say a lack of financial support is the biggest problem.

“We need at least 10 million kyats [$5,000] per month, however, the donation we normally receive is around 5 million kyats [$2,500],” said Bo Than Chaung. The group is working under the NUG but has not received any support so far.

“I hope, one day we will get weapons from NUG,” he added.

On July 9, the NUG’s defense ministry publicly shared its spending for military affairs. As of May, of the $44 million in military spending, about 63% went for weapons, ammunition and military operations and 22% went for weapons production. The NUG has said it needs at least $10 million a month to support the fighting forces.

RIGHT WING HAIR ON FIRE

Justin Trudeau to appear -- but not compete -- on Drag Race Canada reality TV

Agence France-Presse
Posted at Nov 09 2022 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau answers questions at a press briefing at the International Media Center at the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held in Manila, November 14, 2017 Jonathan Cellona, 

ABS-CBN News

OTTAWA, Canada - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will make a guest appearance on reality TV show "Drag Race," it was announced Tuesday, though some viewers may be disappointed he will not compete as one of the cross-dressing contestants.

The Canadian show is among a dozen international versions of the original American series "RuPaul's Drag Race" that has inspired spin-offs including "Canada's Drag Race: Canada vs. the World."

"The prime minister's visit marks the first time a world leader has made an appearance on a Drag Race franchise," local broadcaster Bell Media said in a statement.

Publicist Ama Sechere told AFP that on the show Trudeau "talks to the queens about Canada's inclusivity and offers his support to Canadian competitors going up against international queens," whom he welcomes to Canada.

Contestants are given different challenges each week to test their drag performance skills, which are judged by a panel, and share with the audience their personal struggles and successes.

In a series trailer, Trudeau is shown being introduced as a surprise guest by host and judge Brooke Lynn Hytes, who is clad in a sparkling black gown.

The room explodes in audience screams as Trudeau comes out on stage with a broad smile, wearing a buttoned-down shirt with sleeves rolled up and a tie.

The show premieres on November 18 in Canada on Bell's streaming service Crave. Dates for screenings abroad have yet to be announced.

amc/md/bgs

Crypto Kid Sam Bankman-Fried Falls Prey To Binance

By Daniel HOFFMAN
11/08/22 

Sam Bankman-Fried has stunned the cryptocurrency world with

 the rapid turnaround in fortunes of FTX

Sam Bankman-Fried has undergone a rapid transformation from top of the heap in the world of cryptocurrencies as chief of the FTX digital exchange to embattled executive forced to seek help from rival Binance.

The rapid about-face was a shock: Only Monday, Bankman-Fried insisted FTX was financially stable.

But in a tweet Tuesday, Changpeng Zhao, head of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency platform, said the group had signed a non-binding letter of intent "to fully acquire FTX.com," in response to the company's request for help amid "a significant liquidity crunch".

It was a stunning setback for the 30-year-old billionaire, known on social media as SBF, who was hailed by many for his meteoric rise. Fortune magazine went so far as to wonder in August if he was the new Warren Buffett.

After founding cryptocurrency investment fund Alameda Research in 2017, Bankman-Fried moved to Hong Kong and co-founded FTX.

The company was valued early this year at $32 billion, a capitalization which put it close to giants Coinbase and Binance.

Bankman-Fried, a vegan who sleeps four hours a night, had become a public face of crypto money, with a personal fortune estimated at nearly $25 billion, which according to Forbes magazine has since shrunk to $16.6 billion.

The success of FTX allowed the platform to forge prestigious partnerships, notably with American football legend Tom Brady and former supermodel Gisele Bundchen, and it featured comedian Larry David in a Super Bowl television advertisement.

Almost always appearing with a hoodie and a dark T-shirt, Bankman-Fried has pledged to donate almost all of his fortune to his favored causes, like animal welfare and the fight against global warming.

The son of Stanford Law School professors and a graduate of the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he worked as a broker on Wall Street before turning to cryptocurrencies in 2017.

Bankman-Fried moved the company to the Bahamas, where taxes are almost nonexistent, saying the Caribbean nation is "one of the few countries that has a comprehensive licensing regime for cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency exchanges."

He has been a vocal advocate for smoother access to the crypto market for the general public, particularly in the United States.

"It would be healthy for everyone involved if there was a regulatory pathway to getting licensed and bringing federal oversight," he told AFP during a February interview.

In early July, as the virtual currency market took a nosedive, FTX came to the rescue of cryptocurrency lending company BlockFi, which was in the midst of its own liquidity crisis. FTX put up an option to buy it out for $240 million.

A few days later, Voyager Digital, another specialist in cryptocurrency loans, revealed a debt totaling $75 million with Bankman-Fried's investment fund.

Described by his admirers as the white knight of a sector plunged into turmoil, SBF suddenly saw its star fade when Changpeng Zhao expressed doubts about the solvency of Bankman-Fried's Alameda Research and decided to withdraw its capital.

Just over 24 hours after denying rumors of trouble, Bankman-Fried announced on Twitter that he had reached a "strategic transaction" with Binance.

The decision that left many of its subscribers stunned.

"Can someone explain to me what this means as if I were a 5-year-old child?" asked Sahil Bloom of the SRB investment fund.

Hackers leak Australian health records on dark web

Agence France-Presse
Posted at Nov 09 2022 

SYDNEY — Hackers on Wednesday began leaking sensitive medical records stolen from a major Australian health insurer that had earlier refused to pay the group's ransom demand.

Medibank told investors and customers that a "sample" of data from some 9.7 million clients had been posted on a "dark web forum".

Names, birth dates, addresses, passport numbers and information on medical claims were among the sensitive personal data posted anonymously early Wednesday.

Medibank said more leaks were likely.

"The files appear to be a sample of the data that we earlier determined was accessed by the criminal," the company said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

"We expect the criminal to continue to release files on the dark web."

Medibank previously refused to pay ransom to stop the hackers from leaking the data, saying it could fuel further crime and would not guarantee the information was safe.

"Based on the extensive advice we have received from cybercrime experts, we believe there is only a limited chance paying a ransom would ensure the return of our customers' data and prevent it from being published," Medibank boss David Koczkar said.

The leaked data was posted on a dark web forum that cannot be found using conventional web browsers.

"We'll continue posting data partially," the purported hackers said on the forum.

"Looking back that data is not very understandable format, we'll take some time to sort it out."

AFP Assistant Commissioner Cyber Command Justine Gough said the "criminal or criminal groups" responsible for the hack could be operating outside of Australia.

Australia's assistant treasurer Stephen Jones said they were "scumbags" and "crooks".

"We shouldn't be giving in to these fraudsters," he told Sky News Australia.

"The moment we fold it sends a green light to scumbags like them throughout the world that Australia is a soft target."

The security breach has already wiped hundreds of millions of US dollars off Medibank's market value, with the company's share price down over 20 percent since October.

Court orders striking Kenya Airways pilots to resume work

Reuters - 1
By Duncan Miriri and Jeff Kahinju


Striking Kenya Airways pilots summoned in court in Nairobi© Thomson Reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) -A labour court on Tuesday ordered pilots at Kenya Airways to resume work by Nov.9, seeking to end a strike that has left thousands of passengers stranded at one of Africa's most important aviation hubs.

Members of the Kenya Airline Pilots Association (KALPA) — a union that represents about 400 pilots at the carrier - went on strike on Saturday after failing to resolve a dispute over their pensions contributions and settlement of deferred pay.

On Tuesday, a labour and employment court judge ordered the pilots to resume their duties "unconditionally" at 6 a.m. local time (0300 GMT), on Wednesday.

The court also stopped the airline's management from taking disciplinary actions against pilots who took part in the industrial action.

The court had restrained the union from embarking on the strike and the airline sought to cite the union's officials for contempt of court after the strike started. The court will continue hearing the dispute, Judge Anne Mwaure said.

Kenya Airways welcomed the court's directions, and said it would comply. Officials at the pilots' union were not immediately available for comment.

The pilots' walkout has so far cost the airline an estimated more than $2 million daily, affected more than 10,000 passengers and led to the cancellation of dozens of flights.

Kenya Airways, which is nearly 50% owned by the government, had earlier said it planned to cancel its bargaining and recognition agreements with the pilots union, saying their current strike was unlawful and amounted to economic sabotage.

The union is demanding the resumption of regular payments to its members' pension plan, which were stopped in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic started, and the payment of pension arrears.

It also wants the carrier to start paying salaries that were deferred during the health crisis.

The airline's management says it has been working hard to fully recover from the pandemic and accuses the pilots of jeopardising that push.

The financial turmoil at Kenya Airways preceded the pandemic.

The airline sank deep into the red after it borrowed heavily to buy new aircraft at a time when its passenger business slumped mainly due to frequent militant attacks in Kenya.

(Reporting by Duncan Miriri and Jeff Kahinju; Editing by George Obulutsa and Tomasz Janowski)

Court Orders Kenya Airways Pilots To End Strike, Resume Work Tomorrow

By Citizen Reporter Published on: November 08, 2022 

Members of the Kenya Airline Pilots Association (KALPA).


Lady Justice Anna Mwaure directed the KQ management to allow the pilots to do their duties without harassment or disciplinary action.
Justice Mwaure said the case will come up for mention on November 21, 2022.

The Employment and Labour Relations court has directed striking Kenya Airways (KQ) pilots to call off their industrial action and resume work on Wednesday at 6am.

Lady Justice Anna Ngibuini Mwaure, in a ruling delivered on Tuesday, also directed the KQ management to allow the pilots to do their duties without harassment or disciplinary action pending determination of the matter.

Justice Mwaure said the case will come up for mention on November 21, 2022, adding that both parties in the case, the Kenya Airline Pilots Association (KALPA) and KQ management, should refrain from prosecuting the matter in public.

Operations at all airports normal,’ KAA says as it challenges aviation workers' strike

The judge had early on ordered KQ and KALPA to hold talks and come up with a way forward on their stalemate.

She directed the parties to present consent in written form to the court by Tuesday, 2:30 PM as she turned down KALPA’s request to be granted seven days to solve the issue.

Justice Mwaure raised concern about the losses that the airline will make if the parties are granted the 7-day mediation period.

The Employment and Labour Relations court had summoned 11 KALPA officials after refusing to call off the pilots’ strike that entered its fourth day on Tuesday.

The pilots and KQ management have been trading accusations, with KALPA accusing the airline of failing to honour their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA.)

On the other hand, KQ termed the pilots’ strike as illegal, accusing them of holding passengers and the Kenyan economy at ransom through industrial action.

 

Smart farming tech offers sprout of hope in Greece

by Vassilis KYRIAKOULIS, Hélène COLLIOPOULOU

A new generation of Greek farmers see high technology as key to their ailing sector.

Eyes glued to his mobile phone, farmer Sotiris Mournos pores over the latest microclimate and humidity data about his fields on the plain of Imathia in northern Greece.

The high-tech farming techniques he uses are making slow progress in Greece's tradition-bound and struggling agricultural sector, but growers like him see them as key to their future.

Mournos, 25, employs a Greek smart-farming app to boost production of his family's cotton fields and fruit trees.

Using real-time data recorded by a weather station, he can analyze and correlate the impact of weather conditions on his 10-hectare (nearly 25-acre) cotton plantation.

"We've managed to reduce the use of fertilizer and irrigation... (and thereby to) increase the financial return" of the farm, said Mournos, who gave up studying computer science at university to devote himself to the family holding in the town of Platy.

Measuring the humidity or the nitrogen level in the soil helps to curb the excessive use of fertilizers and saves water, he notes.

As in many other southern European countries, Greece's agricultural sector is chronically short of water and smart farming could help deal with that problem.

Boosting yields

The sector has also lost a major share of its available labor in recent decades, as young people snub farm work for better-paid jobs in services such as tourism.

Agriculture now represents just five percent of Greece's GDP, half what it was 20 years ago.

The government has budgeted 230 million euros ($231 million) over the next three years to revive the country's farming industry.

Most of that derives from the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy innovation fund.

"Most young people in my village prefer other jobs and have given up working in the fields," Mournos told AFP.

But he is making a go at farming, aiming to work smart by using the farming app for several years now.

It means he uses 40 percent less fertilizer on his cotton field and can avoid using two pesticide sprays—altogether saving 9,000 euros (about $9,000)—without affecting production rates.

Technology is helping Greek farmers save money and increase their yield.

Analysts say the farming app is not widely used in Greece although interest is gradually picking up.

But persuading farmers who may be less technologically minded than Mournos to embrace it faces myriad challenges.

A key hurdle is the small size of Greek farms—less than 10 hectares on average—and the country's largely mountainous terrain.

Greek farms are often family businesses or involve rented fields, making investment in tools and practices less appealing.

Convincing farmers

Meanwhile, an "endemic" lack of cooperation among farmers prevents them sharing costs, says Aikaterini Kasimati, an agricultural engineer at the University of Agronomy in Athens.

As a result, Greece lags far behind other European states in the use of smart farming, says Vassilis Protonotarios, marketing manager of Neuropublic, a company specializing in digital agriculture.

He said farmers could benefit from new technology without having to invest in expensive equipment or have "specialized digital skills".

Then, there is the difficulty of convincing farmers to try something new.

Organic farmer Thodoris Arvanitis says his colleagues are not interested in new technologies because they don't know enough about them and prefer long-used conventional methods.

"Farmers won't go after technology when they don't have enough money for fuel," he added, at his farm in the small town of Kiourka, some 30 kilometers (nearly 20 miles) north of Athens.

Attitudes may change in time as climate change puts additional pressure on farm costs, says Machi Symeonidou, an agronomist and creator of the agricultural IT startup Agroapps.

The war in Ukraine and its impact on global food supplies also shows that it is increasingly necessary to produce food at a local level, said agricultural engineer Kasimati.

"We see a constant degradation of fields and a fall in yield," she said, adding that water was also becoming expensive.

"But as the technology becomes simpler and cheaper, these tools will see more use," she added.

© 2022 AFP

Weather extremes to change future farming