Op-Ed: The Great Rental and Mortgage Gouge 101 — Where economics, numbers, and money don’t mix well.

By Paul Wallis
Published December 15, 2023

Even New Yorkers lucky enough to live in rent-stabilized apartments -- approximately one million units and two million tenants, according to city data -- are not immune to the growing housing crisis in their city. — © AFP

Welcome to 2008 again. Interest rates are the easy excuse for gouging the world’s property markets. This disaster is getting plenty of negative headlines, but no positive actions are visible, and mortgagees and renters are just trying to survive.

The lessons here are simple:

Governments do not govern.

Markets are not regulated.

Suicidal economics is fun!

It’s not so much a market as a cartel, the classic anti-trust scenario. Everybody put their prices up to unaffordable levels at the same time and there’s no comeback for consumers. Result, “chaos as usual”, at the public’s expense, as usual.

In America, the scenario is an unrelieved catastrophe. The rest of the world isn’t doing much better. It’s anyone’s guess how much money has been ripped out of the global economy in this one sector.

For the purpose of narrative, I’ll use the Australian market as an example, because that’s the one I know best historically.

The Great Australian Rental and Mortgage Gouge started in 2022 with the interest rate rises. Interest rates do play a role in the property market, usually on margins. The rapid rate rises caused adjustments, as you’d expect.

However – That’s also where things stop making any dollar sense at all.

Property markets all have one thing in common – Incessant euphoria about their prices. Nobody cares about affordability. It’s all about “great numbers”. Nobody was complaining about profitability well before the rate rises.

The property market was doing quite well, with post-pandemic and pre-interest rate rises. There were no real issues. The market was blasé at best. Everyone’s a zillionaire and a shrewd investor, according to the markets. Then the market decided everyone could afford massive hikes.

Suffice to say that’s not exactly the case.

The Australian property market has never been accused of being a charity. Rentals were however usually affordable. Now they’re usually unaffordable, and the rent vs income numbers are truly bizarre.

Mortgages are stretcher cases in many ways, over a huge demographic. Pre-pandemic, the mortgages were in a rather iffy state. 30% of mortgages were interest-only, an expensive form of rent with no equity gains.

The main reason for this was high property prices and a market infatuated with home ownership. That figure also meant that 70% of the market was more or less OK with the situation. Things have changed. Australia is now under more mortgage stress than any other nation, according to The Guardian.

The Australian economy is basically three sectors with about 30% of the economy in the high, middle, and low brackets. The financial economics would be laughable if they weren’t so destructive. The economic realities are unambiguous. According to news.com.au, the minimum income for renting a house in Perth will be circa $108,000 and $95,000 for a unit.

The problem with that is that median income in Australia is actually about $69,000 across the spectrum. If you want a fan-hitting exercise, try getting the same numbers out of all the different sources. That number is probably reliable and in keeping with historical trends.

Also note the inexcusable tendency to use numbers without demographic specifics. “John and Tom make $1,000,000 per year between them. Therefore, the median income is $500,000”, whereas John makes $40, 000 and Tom makes the rest of the million. This is obfuscation, not demographics.

This is also where the economics seem to deliberately miss the realities. It’s all about looking good, not reality in any known form. The Reserve Bank of Australia, the equivalent of the Federal Reserve, published a nice snapshot of the economy as it affects renters.

The rental market is “growing”, the number of owners is dropping significantly, and “median net wealth” for renters is appalling. None of this information addresses fixing the rental chaos in any form whatsoever.

Also, note how much property underpins “wealth” in this woeful tale. The “wealth” of housing has been backed up by soaring property prices for decades. Australian media sells real estate as much as it sells news.

Meanwhile – Population growth is now slowing. Demand for properties will ease over time. Everyone knows that.

Australia’s elegant solution has been to increase migration and foreign student intake and then blame migrants and students and bystanders for housing prices. It hasn’t worked. It hasn’t even begun to solve the problems.

What about rent controls, you may well ask. The quick answer is that rent control theory apparently has no constructive ideas. On the one hand, rent control “disincentivizes” property owners. On the other hand, the market has somehow decided rent control reduces the supply of houses.

The market is doing a great job of reducing supply all by itself. These mortgage and rental price rises have put the market at risk. Nobody can really maintain rents or mortgages which are so far beyond their means.

Every boom in a market causes a bust. The next one will be entirely self-inflicted

Leaks show McKinsey pushed fossil fuel agenda at Africa climate summit

By AFP
Published December 15, 2023

'Undue influence': McKinsey & Company helped set the agenda for the UN Africa Climate Summit

 - Copyright AFP Thomas COEX

Roland LLOYD PARRY, Marlowe HOOD

Consulting giant McKinsey & Company sought to place controversial carbon market schemes favoured by its fossil fuel clients at the heart of the Africa Climate Summit, according to internal documents and sources who talked to AFP.

The documents reveal that the firm worked behind the scenes to shape the agenda of September’s Nairobi gathering, a key event in the run-up to the UN’s COP28 talks in Dubai.

McKinsey’s clients include some of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies, from ExxonMobil to Saudi Arabia’s state-run Aramco.

A nine-page confidential “position paper” seen by AFP also touted the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI), which McKinsey has publicly said it helped develop, and called for the building of a $6 billion market for carbon offsets on the continent.

Carbon offsets are billed as a way for big polluters like oil companies to make up for their CO2 emissions by supporting green projects like those that claim to safeguard forests. But experts dispute their worth and have warned of greenwashing.

More than 500 civil society groups signed a protest letter to Kenyan President William Ruto in the run up to the meeting saying McKinsey “unduly influenced” the summit through key documents it drafted on behalf of the host country.

“When McKinsey got involved in the planning of the summit, they sought to benefit from commercial deals that would emerge,” said Mohamed Adow, head of research group Power Shift Africa.

Adow was among three dozen African and global advisors from research groups, foundations and international organisations asked by the organisers to review the “position paper” to set the agenda for the talks.

He said McKinsey played a leading role in drafting the document, which was sharply criticised by several advisors as overplaying the role of carbon markets, according to comments they shared seen by AFP.

– Carbon markets hype –

McKinsey denied any wrongdoing, with Kenya’s environment minister Soipan Tuya insisting it is “extremely far from the truth” to say that the firm held too much sway at the summit.

McKinsey told AFP it was a “technical partner” to the summit, one of many that contributed to preparations, and that all documents were “approved by the Africa Climate Summit and the Government of Kenya.”

Archived web pages indicate that a mention of the company as a partner was removed from the event’s website. McKinsey said it had been included in error.

Two members of the advisory group formed at the request of Ruto, who asked not to be named, said they were unaware of McKinsey’s role.

“Given their client list, McKinsey had an undeniable conflict of interest,” Adow told AFP.

In one confidential document promoting its expertise in carbon markets, the firm listed companies it had advised, including Chevron, BP and Tata Steel.

It also flagged McKinsey’s work on solar, wind and gas power and electrification, as well as “performance transformation” work for firms operating coal- and oil-fired power plants.

Critics of carbon markets say they do not live up to their hype and allow polluters to offset the damaging greenhouse gas they produce too cheaply.

A study earlier this year found only a tiny fraction seemed to deliver, and last year a major UN report concluded that “too many non-state actors are engaging in a voluntary market” marked by “low prices and a lack of clear guidelines”.

– McKinsey drafted climate summit plans –

The two experts in Ruto’s advisory group said the paper diverged from long-standing positions of the 54-nation African Group and disregarded top African priorities such as money to help the continent’s economies cope with climate impacts.

McKinsey said the documents “were for use by the president of Kenya and they reflect his ambitions, not McKinsey’s.”

In the end, the summit drew hundreds of millions of dollars in pledges for carbon projects, including $450 million from COP28’s oil-rich hosts the UAE, which is seeking to secure vast tracts of land in Africa — reportedly the size of Britain — to develop carbon-offsetting projects.

With their worth increasingly questioned, the price of carbon credits for nature conservation projects nosedived from $16 per tonne in January 2022 to about $1 last month.

In October, South Pole, the biggest seller of carbon offsets, pulled out of a huge scandal-hit forest protection programme in Zimbabwe. McKinsey was among companies that had purchased credits from the scheme.

That and other damaging reports have thrown the entire sector into turmoil.

“Carbon offsets rarely achieve the climate benefits they claim,” researchers led by Danny Cullenward of the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy in Washington reported last month.

Countries risk ‘paying polluters’ billions to regulate for climate: UN expert

By AFP
Published December 15, 2023

Countries are under growing pressure to regulate to protect the environment - Copyright AFP JUSTIN TALLIS

Kelly MACNAMARA

An “explosion” of multibillion-dollar claims by fossil fuel and extractive firms through shadowy investment tribunals is blocking action on climate and nature, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights and Environment has warned, with developing nations increasingly targeted.

After countries agreed this week at UN climate talks on a “transitioning away from fossil fuels”, governments are likely to come under heightened pressure to boost regulation and reject further expansion of oil, gas and coal projects.

But that could leave them open to litigation under a secretive arbitration process called investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS), according to UN rights expert David Boyd, who has called it a “major obstacle” to environmental action.

“When governments bring in these stronger laws and policies, they’re ending up paying millions — and sometimes billions — of dollars in compensation,” Boyd told AFP.

Denmark, France and New Zealand have all backed off from stronger regulation on fossil fuel exploration because of ISDS fears, he said.

In a report called “Paying Polluters”, presented to the UN General Assembly earlier this year, Boyd warned that the number of claims — and the size of the payouts — were soaring.

“The explosion of ISDS claims in recent years, and the threat of such claims, is led by fossil fuel, mining and other extractive industry corporations,” Boyd said in his report.

ISDS cases targeting actions to protect the environment rose from 12 initiated before 2000, to 37 from 2000 to 2010, and 126 between 2011 and 2021, it said, adding fossil fuel and mining industries have won over $100 billion in awards.

That could rise substantially, as “sunset clauses” mean even if a state pulls out of a treaty it could still face litigation for some two decades.

– ‘Hypocrisy’-

ISDS mechanisms built into thousands of international treaties have roots in the global reconfiguration after World War Two, as investors based often in former colonial powers sought to protect assets in newly-independent countries.

Lukas Schaugg, an international law analyst with the International Institute for Sustainable Development, said the tribunals had historically operated with a “lack of public scrutiny”.

“People are increasingly talking about the duty of states to regulate with regard to climate,” said Schaugg, who used to work at the International Chamber of Commerce’s arbitration court.

Now, “the clash with the investment treaty regime is increasingly visible”, he said.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development says ISDS poses a particular challenge for the energy transition.

In an August report, UNCTAD said of 1,257 publicly-known ISDS claims made by early 2023, 15 percent were initiated by fossil fuel investors.

Even renewable companies have filed substantial claims, as countries change investment incentives.

The Energy Charter Treaty is the most frequently-invoked international investment agreement in these claims.

It “can amplify existing burdens on countries that are trying to shift from traditional fossil fuel projects to renewable energies”, UNCTAD said.

Several wealthy nations have moved to pull out of the ECT, including Germany, France and the Netherlands, while the European Parliament has called for withdrawal of the entire EU.

Boyd said even as richer nations reduce their exposure, investors continue to use their territory to target poorer nations.

“It’s absolutely gross hypocrisy, it’s unjust and it’s definitely unequal,” he said, adding that “jurisdiction shopping” also allows foreign companies to open offices in treaty countries to launch claims.

According to UNCTAD, 65 percent of cases in 2022 were brought by investors in richer nations — and 65 percent of cases were against developing countries.

– ‘Dustbin of history’ –

Examples of claims include two Australian mining corporations seeking nearly $37 billion from the Republic of Congo — more than twice its 2022 gross domestic product.

“It’s obvious that there’s no way on earth the Republic of Congo could pay that kind of compensation, if they were unsuccessful in these claims,” Boyd told AFP.

Often, he said, “governments just capitulate”.

Last year, Pakistan agreed an out-of-court settlement with a foreign firm, which waived penalties that had ballooned to $11 billion in exchange for the reopening of an open-pit copper mine.

It was seen as the only solution for the debt-stricken country after a World Bank arbitration tribunal imposed a $5.8 billion penalty in 2019.

The Tethyan Copper company told the tribunal it had spent over $240 million on the mine.

Boyd said the case illustrates inconsistencies in tribunal awards.

Payouts are sometimes based on investors’ actual spending on a project, but at other times use a method estimating future earnings.

Boyd called for the investment treaty system to be reimagined to align with rights and environmental priorities — and for ISDS to be “relegated to the dustbin of history”.

“We’ve known there’s been a climate crisis for 30 years (but) we have companies operating coal fired power plants, saying: ‘We had a legitimate expectation we’d be able to continue burning coal forever’,” he said.

“Those arguments are being accepted by these arbitration tribunals.”

More shipping giants suspend passage via Red Sea after attacks

By AFP
Published  December 16, 2023

The US guided-missile destroyer USS Carney shot down more than a dozen drones in the Red Sea launched from Huthi-controlled areas of Yemen, defense officials say - Copyright AFP Brendan SMIALOWSKI

Yann SCHREIBER, Myriam LEMETAYER

Two more major shipping firms, Mediterranean Shipping Company and CMA CGM, said Saturday they were suspending passage through a Red Sea strait vital for global trade after Yemeni rebel attacks in the area.

The announcement by Italian-Swiss giant MSC and France’s CMA CGM follows a similar decision Friday by two of the world’s largest shipping companies, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd.

The announcements were in response to a warning by the Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who control much of Yemen but are not recognised internationally.

The Huthis said they were targeting vessels near the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait to pressure Israel over its devastating war with Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

Thousands of ships every year transit through the strait, which runs between Yemen, on the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, and the African continent.

The tensions have added to fears that the Gaza conflict could spread.

Ships belonging to Israel or heading to its ports “will remain vulnerable to targeting until the aggression stops, the siege on Gaza is lifted, and humanitarian aid continues to flow” to Gaza, Huthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdul Salam said on X, formerly Twitter.

Oman was sponsoring discussions “with a number of international parties” regarding operations in the Red and Arabian Seas, he added.

An American destroyer on Saturday shot down more than a dozen drones in the Red Sea launched from Huthi-controlled areas of Yemen, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said.

The UK government said one of its destroyers had also brought down a suspected attack drone in the area.

– ‘Situation continues to deteriorate’ –

MSC, one of the world’s largest freight shipping lines, said one of its container vessels had been targeted in the Red Sea on Friday and it was halting traffic through the strait until it was safe.

No one on the MSC Palatium III was wounded but the ship suffered fire damage, the company said.

CMA CGM said it had ordered all its vessels to leave the area and stay there until further notice.

“The situation continues to deteriorate and there are increasing concerns about security,” it said.

On Friday, the International Chamber of Shipping condemned the Huthi attacks which “threaten the lives of innocent seafarers and the safety of merchant shipping”.

The incidents breached international law and states in the region should work to de-escalate the situation, it said.

Diverting Asia-bound shipping from the Red Sea to South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope would increase costs and delays, the body noted.

Consultancy S&P Global estimated that the detour would increase the distance between Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Singapore by 40 percent.

Russia’s isolation takes toll on Arctic climate science


By AFP
Published December 17, 2023

A monument to Lenin in Barentsburg in Norway's Svalbard Archipelago, where Russians have been mining coal for decades

 - Copyright AFP PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA

Viken KANTARCI with Pierre-Henry Deshayes in Oslo

Glaciologist Andrew Hodson used to collaborate with his Russian colleagues in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic, but snowmobile excursions to see them have come to a halt since the war in Ukraine.

“We used to work with Russian permafrost scientists and hydrologists in the Barentsburg region. This doesn’t happen now,” the British scientist told AFP.

“We’re sad that we can’t use this basis for collaboration, but we’re not at all happy with the actions of the Russian government, obviously,” he said at his office at Longyearbyen University in the archipelago’s capital.

Although a part of Norway, the islands have long had a strong Russian presence. But the frequently-cited diplomatic mantra of cohabitation there — “High North, low tensions” — no longer applies.

In the Arctic, as in the rest of the world, Western and Russian researchers have cut almost all ties since the start of the war in Ukraine.

Moscow’s February 2022 invasion was the final nail in the coffin of their cooperation, already in decline in recent decades amid President Vladimir Putin’s more aggressive policies.

The deep freeze has significantly affected scientific research in a region warming around four times faster than the planet as a whole, and which is therefore crucial to climate studies — and where Russia plays a major role due to its vast size.

– Missing data –

“It’s damaging because Russia is more than half of the Arctic,” said Rolf Rodven, executive secretary of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP). ]

The exchange of data from Russia has now completely dried up.

“We do not know what’s happening on the ground there and of course, what’s happening there will also affect the European, US and Canadian part of the Arctic,” he said.

This deprives scientists of crucial information about permafrost — present predominantly in Russia and a ticking time bomb for the climate of the entire planet — and recent wildfires, which are believed to have been as devastating as those in North America.

Some data can be obtained through international databases such as the World Meteorological Organization or through satellite observations, but those are incomplete.

“We know that there will be more uncertainty in our estimates and as a consequence also more uncertainties in projections for the future,” Rodven said.

Studies written by AMAP — one of the Arctic Council’s six working groups — are all the more important since they are used in reports by the UN’s IPCC climate panel.

The Arctic Council is a regional forum long held up as a model of cooperation, but now stands divided between the West (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the United States) and Russia.

A number of projects have been suspended and some studies have been delayed.

Not only have relations with Russian research institutes — almost all state-run bodies — been halted, but even the few independent researchers are reluctant to cooperate for fear of being accused of treason or espionage.

Already in 2019, Russian scientists expressed concern about restrictions imposed on their contacts with foreign colleagues, raising fears of a return to conditions that existed during the Soviet era.

– Brain drain –

Russia’s research community has been plagued by a “brain drain” — which began even before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine — and funding that has been slashed in order to pay for the war effort.

“It’s a double whammy,” said Salve Dahle, a marine biologist at Norway’s independent Akvaplan-niva institute.

“Not only do we no longer benefit from the exchange of data, but the collection of data in Russia itself is also cut back.”

Dahle, who used to frequently work on projects in Russia, said his primary concern was for Siberia’s main rivers, the Arctic Ocean’s biggest source of freshwater.

Without being present in the field, it’s impossible to measure the effects on the rivers of oil and gas drilling, industrial activities and mining.

“Everything that can be dissolved in water or be captured in ice is transported into the transpolar drift stream (an ocean current that flows from east to west) and flows out between Greenland and Svalbard,” he said.

In Longyearbyen, British glaciologist Andrew Hodson is trying to be pragmatic.

“There’s much to be gained from working with the expertise there,” he said of his Russian research colleagues.

“But I won’t pretend that it was ever easy… So no, I’m not that sorry.”

Native oysters return to Belfast after a century’s absence

By AFP
Published December 17, 2023

The Belfast Lough was once home to large oyster reefs but overfishing, disease and pollution decimated the population 

- Copyright AFP HAZEM BADER

Peter MURPHY

Long gone from Belfast’s famed harbour where the Titanic was built, oysters are making a comeback thanks to a nursery installation project aimed at boosting marine life and water quality.

Until the early 1900s, the narrow Belfast Lough channel was home to large oyster reefs but overfishing, disease and pollution gradually decimated the population, according to the Ulster Wildlife group.

“We’re bringing back a lost habitat,” the group’s marine conservation manager David Smyth told AFP on a harbour quay in the shadow of a noisy downtown highway and towering commercial buildings.

Extensive native oyster beds were abundant in European seas, and humans have been harvesting them since the Stone Age.

But the group estimates that oyster populations have declined by 95 percent since the 19th  century, with native oyster reefs now one of the most threatened habitats in Europe.

– ‘Coral reef’ –

Last month a nursery comprising some 700 of the molluscs — brought from Scotland by van, and measured and screened for disease — were lowered into Belfast Lough in over a dozen cages fitted with shelves.

It should eventually create a local “equivalent of a coral reef”, said Smyth during a check of the oysters’ health with a team of researchers tracking their progress.

After hoisting the metal oyster homes from the water, the team carefully removed each animal and placed them on the pier for measurement and weighing.

Pairs of oysters already conjoined are the early stages of forming a reef, said Smyth holding two aloft.

“Imagine 100,000 of these all stuck together, this is what we are after, from them millions of larvae will settle around the shore and on the seabed,” he told AFP with a satisfied smile.

Among the ecological benefits of a restored habitat are boosted marine biodiversity and better water quality, according to Ulster Wildlife.

“Just as with a coral reef, once these animals start forming their beds then small fish and crustaceans like mussels, barnacles, worms, snails, and algae will come to live and feed there,” said Smyth.

Oysters are also “supreme water filters” he noted, with just one animal able to filter over 200 litres of seawater a day.

– Encouraging signs –

With cargo ships and passenger ferries manoeuvering in and out of docks not far away, pollutants in the waterway make habitat rehabilitation a challenge.

Shipbuilding was one of Belfast’s largest industries for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, with the yellow gantry cranes of the shipyard that built the Titanic still defining Belfast’s skyline beside a new museum celebrating the doomed liner.

A coalyard and tannin works also contributed to long decades of environmental degradation.

“It’s very difficult for oysters’ larvae to settle and become adults if they are exposed to the sort of pollutants present in an industrial shipping lane,” said Smyth.

But the resilient nursery animals have “performed impressively” so far with just two mortalities from the 700 oysters installed, with many more planned to be installed in the coming years, he added.

Similar projects have got under way recently around Europe but the Belfast nursery aims at replicating a successful effort in New York, begun a decade ago with the goal of restoring millions of oysters to replicate conditions there in the 1800s.

“New York’s the shining example of how well these animals can do in an industrial area,” said Smyth.

“There were dolphins swimming around the Statue of Liberty for the first time in years recently, we don’t know if we will ever have dolphins swimming in Belfast but you never know,” he laughed, before letting a cage drop back below the water.

Ozone hole over Antarctica just keeps getting bigger and bigger


By Dr. Tim Sandle
Published December 17, 2023

Mt Herschel (3335m asl) from Cape Hallet with Seabee Hook penguin colony in Foreground. Antarctica. 

Credit - Andrew Mandemaker. (CC BY-SA 2.5)

A new concern over the ozone layer. Research finds the Antarctic ozone hole has been massive and long-lived over the past four years. This leads researchers from the University of Otago to believe chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are not the only factors to blame.

Specifically, the researchers have found there is much less ozone in the centre of the ozone hole compared to 19 years ago. This means the hole is getting both larger and deeper.

The fact that the hole is getting bigger means that other factors must be at play other than CFCs, given the global restrictions put in place in relation to these classes of chemicals (as per the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer of 1987).

According to lead researcher Hannah Kessenich: “Most major communications about the ozone layer over the last few years have given the public the impression that the ‘ozone issue’ has been solved.”

She adds: “While the Montreal Protocol has vastly improved our situation with CFCs destroying ozone, the hole has been amongst the largest on record over the past three years, and in two of the five years prior to that.

In terms of the extent of the challenge, Kessenich reveals: “Our analysis ended with data from 2022, but as of today the 2023 ozone hole has already surpassed the size of the three years prior — late last month it was over 26 million kilometres squared, nearly twice the area of Antarctica.”

Another reason for being concerned about the trend and for studying it in more detail is, Kessenich indicates, is because understanding ozone variability connects ozone depletion patterns to the Southern Hemisphere’s climate, such as the wildfires and cyclones in Australia and New Zealand.

Notably, since ozone usually absorbs UV light, then a hole in the ozone layer causes extreme UV levels on the surface of Antarctica; moreover, it also drastically impacts where heat is stored in the atmosphere, altering the Southern Hemisphere’s wind patterns and surface climate.

The research appears in the journal Nature Communications, titled “Potential drivers of the recent large Antarctic ozone holes.”

In related news, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano changed the chemistry and dynamics of the stratosphere in the year following the eruption, leading to unprecedented losses in the ozone layer of up to 7 percent over large areas of the Southern Hemisphere.

Killed Israeli hostage’s brother says army ‘murdered’ him


By AFP
Published December 17, 2023

The funeral of Alon Shamriz, one of three Israeli hostages mistakenly killed by soldiers in the Gaza Strip - Copyright AFP Oren ZIV

An Israeli hostage mistakenly killed by soldiers in the Gaza Strip was buried on Sunday, with his brother accusing the army of having “abandoned” and “murdered” him.

Alon Shamriz, 26, was one of the three Israeli hostages shot dead Friday by soldiers during combat in the Gaza City district of Shejaiya, even as they carried a white flag and cried for help in Hebrew.

Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samer El-Talalqa were killed when troops mistook them for a threat and opened fire, the army said.

“Those who abandoned you also murdered you after all that you did right,” Ido, Shamriz’s brother, said at the funeral attended by dozens of relatives and family members north of Tel Aviv.

“You survived 70 days in hell,” Shamriz’s mother, Dikla, said in her eulogy. “Another moment and you would have been in my arms.”

Israeli media reported that Talalqa was buried on Saturday, while the funeral for Haim was scheduled on Monday.

The deaths of the three men, all in their twenties, have sparked protests in Tel Aviv, where demonstrators demanded that the authorities offer a new plan for bringing home the remaining 129 hostages still held in the Gaza Strip.

On Sunday military spokesman Richard Hecht said the deaths were being investigated and what the soldiers did was “violation of the rules of engagement”.

Late on Sunday, in a brief statement, the army said a search at a building adjacent to where the incident happened found signs calling for help.

The signs were made using “leftover food”.

“Based on a field investigation, it appears that the three hostages were in the building where the signs were located for some period of time,” the army said.

Photographs of initial findings from the building released along with the statement showed signs of “SOS” and “Help, three hostages”.

Around 250 people were taken captive when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,139 people, mostly civilians, according to updated Israeli figures.

Vowing to destroy Hamas and bring back the hostages, Israel launched a massive military offensive against the Palestinian Islamist movement which has left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins. The territory’s Hamas government says the war has killed at least 18,800 people, mostly women and children.

Activists block Belgian Alibaba hub, private jets

By AFP
Published December 16, 2023

Police officers detain an environmental activist of the Code Red coalition during a demonstration against the aviation industry in Antwerp

 - Copyright POOL/AFP Kim LUDBROOK

Hundreds of climate protesters on Saturday blocked a distribution hub for Chinese online giant Alibaba and an airport for private jets in Belgium, activists said.

The anti-fossil fuel Code Red coalition said hundreds of demonstrators were detained by police during the action aimed at disrupting the aviation industry.

“In Liege, activists are blocking Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Planes filled with consumer goods from China cannot be unloaded and trucks cannot leave the site,” Code Red said in a statement.

“In Antwerp, with 40 activists still on location, the air traffic of private jets is paralysed despite over 700 other activists being arrested.”

An AFP journalist at the airport near the city of Antwerp said that police had fired tear gas and forcefully detained protesters dressed in white overalls as they tried to storm into the facility.

The protest is the latest in a string of civil disobedience actions by the Europe-wide Code Red coalition in Belgium.

Chinese giant Alibaba opened its 30,000-square-metre European distribution hub in Liege in 2021.

“Liege airport is the fastest growing airport in Europe,” said Code Red activist Louis Droussin in a statement.

“Millions of euros of public money support this expansion, which is to the detriment of hundreds of hectares of agricultural land.”

Canada court gives green light to trial on climate inaction


By AFP
Published December 14, 2023

Oil sands, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. 

eryn.rickard (CC BY 2.0)

Canada will stand trial for climate inaction after an appeals court reopened the door for a group of 15 young environmental activists who sued the federal government four years ago on the issue.

The Federal Court of Appeal ruled that a trial must be held to determine whether the actions of Justin Trudeau’s government violate the rights of the young plaintiffs under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, according to a decision made public on Thursday.

“Climate change is having a dramatic, rapidly unfolding effect on all Canadians,” said the ruling, seen by AFP.

“It is also beyond doubt that the burden of addressing the consequences will disproportionately affect Canadian youth.”

In October 2019, 15 young people, aged 10 to 19, sued the federal government, which they claimed was contributing to global warming by failing to implement an ambitious plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

A year later, a federal judge rejected their request, but the Court of Appeal overturned that decision on Wednesday.

“It’s the least we can do to have the right to a trial to discuss what is an existential threat,” Albert Lalonde, one of the plaintiffs and an environmental activist now aged 21, told AFP.

The law student said he considers it “hopeless to have had to wait four years” to reach this stage in the proceedings.

Others found reason for optimism.

“I see this going beyond the federal government. This should put every province blocking climate action on notice that there can be legal consequences for inaction,” Tom Green, a climate advisor to the David Suzuki Foundation, an environmental organization that supports young people, said in a statement.

Elsewhere in the world, numerous lawsuits have been filed to force governments to act against the climate crisis, including Germany, the Netherlands and France.

Canada, which is warming faster than most countries due to its geographic position, has in recent years contended with extreme weather events of increasing intensity and frequency.

Kenya, EU ink 'historic' trade deal

Nairobi (AFP) – Kenya and the European Union on Monday signed a long-negotiated trade agreement to increase the flow of goods between the two markets, as Brussels pursues stronger economic ties with Africa.


Issued on: 18/12/2023 -

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and Kenyan President William Ruto witnessed the signing ceremony in Nairobi 

© LUIS TATO / AFP

The Economic Partnership Agreement will give Kenya duty-free and quota-free access to the EU, its biggest export market, while European goods will receive progressive tariff reductions.

The agreement is the first broad trade deal between the EU and an African nation since 2016 and follows a spending spree by China on lavish infrastructure projects across the continent.

"Although today represents a moment of monumental promise, it is also the beginning of a historic partnership for historic transformation," Kenyan President William Ruto said at a ceremony attended by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in Kenya's capital Nairobi.

"The core of this arrangement is to put real money into the pockets of ordinary people," said Ruto.

EU chief von der Leyen said the partnership was a "win-win situation on both sides" and called on other East African nations to join the pact, which came after years of negotiations that concluded in June.

"We are deepening trade ties and building up our economic resilience," she said.

"We are opening a new chapter in our very strong relationship and now our effort should be focused on implementation," von der Leyen added.

Both the Kenyan and the European parliaments must ratify the deal before it comes into force.

The European Union said that the deal was "the most ambitious economic partnership" it had with a developing country.

It includes commitments to sustainable development in areas such as labour rights and environmental protection, the EU said in a statement.

"A dedicated chapter has been included on economic and development cooperation, aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the Kenyan economy," the EU said.

EU's trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said the "historic agreement" would unlock new areas for cooperation and benefit.

The 27-nation bloc accounts for more than 20 percent of Kenya's overall exports, according to government data, mainly agricultural products, including vegetables, fruits and the country's famous tea and coffee.

Total two-way trade between the markets hit 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion) in 2022, up 27 percent since 2018, according to EU figures.
'Door wide open'

Africa has become a renewed diplomatic battleground since the Ukraine war began, with Kenya and other countries on the continent aggressively courted by Russia and China and the West.

An economic powerhouse of east Africa, Kenya is seen by the international community as a reliable and stable democracy in a turbulent region.

The EU has taken steps to counter China's Belt and Road programme, announcing in February it would increase investments in Kenya by hundreds of millions of dollars through its own Global Gateway initiative.

Kenya's biggest infrastructure project, a $5 billion railway line connecting Nairobi to the port city of Mombasa, which opened in 2017, was built by a Chinese company with Chinese financing.

Both the Kenyan and the European parliaments must ratify the deal before it comes into force

 © LUIS TATO / AFP

Kenya is also negotiating a trade deal with the United States.

The new trade deal with Europe is the culmination of trade talks between the EU and the regional East African Community (EAC) that started roughly a decade ago.

Kenya signed and ratified an initial trade agreement with the EU in 2016 alongside the EAC but it fell through after some countries failed to greenlight the pact, with Kenya eventually pursuing its own deal.

"This agreement leaves the door wide open for our EAC partners to join so that together as a region we can benefit," Ruto said.

© 2023 AFP