US IMPERIALISM'S WAR ON VENEZUELA 

US, Colombia vow to support effort to oust Venezuela's Maduro

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said Washington plans to do more to support Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido. Guaido, who was defying a travel plan to speak in Colombia, plans to travel on to Europe.


The United States and Colombia have vowed to do more to support Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido and his efforts to remove President Nicolas Maduro.

"I would fully expect there will be further action that the United States would take to continue to support President Guaido and the Venezuelan people," said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at an anti-terrorism conference in Bogota on Monday. "We do not talk about particular sanctions but everyone can fully expect that the United States is not done."

Pompeo described Venezuela as a "failed state." Under Maduro's leadership, the South American country has suffered an economic collapse and hyperinflation since the start of 2016.

More than 4 million Venezuelans have fled the country, many to Colombia, a choice which Pompeo blamed on the policies of Maduro's "terror regime." He added that Maduro was now "working alongside terror organizations inside of his own country."

Read more: Opinion: Latin America's upheaval tips toward chaos

Guaido on tour

Pompeo appeared at a regional conference along with Guaido, who had arrived in Colombia on Sunday to meet with President Ivan Duque despite a court-imposed travel ban. He has only traveled outside Venezuela one other time in the last year, sneaking across the border into Colombia to oversee a failed bid to bring in humanitarian aid in February 2019.

"We are honored by your presence,'' Duque told Guaido. "You will always have a friend in Colombia."

Guaido has been recognized by around 50 nations as Venezuela's interim president. On Monday, Guaido said Maduro's "brutal" dictatorship put opponents "at the risk of being jailed or killed."

Read more: Venezuela's love-hate relationship with the US dollar

Maduro was reelected in 2018 in a vote boycotted by many opposition parties, citing perceived irregularities in what commentators described as a "show election."



VENEZUELANS FIND REFUGE, SOLIDARITY IN COLOMBIA
Waiting in line
Venezuelan migrants wait in line to have their registration number and details checked before receiving their lunch. The UN's World Food Program serves food three times a day.
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ed/cmk (AFP, Reuters, dpa)


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Date 20.01.2020
Related Subjects Venezuela
Keywords Colombia, Venezuela, Mike Pompeo, Juan Guaido, Nicolas Maduro
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Spreading the climate-gospel: The rise of 'green churches'

From sermons about climate justice to carbon-neutral church halls and eco-friendly initiatives like recycling candles, a growing number of churches are going green.

Tulips and roses grown in Kenya no longer grace the altar at Bellahøj Kirke in northern Copenhagen.

Today the 160-seat church prefers local, seasonal flowers — which, along with the bread and wine used in its Holy Communion services, are organic. Bellahøj Kirke also recycles everything from paper and cardboard to clothing and candles. It's all part of a drive to make the church more eco-friendly, explains parishioner Hanna Smidt.

"The [climate] crisis is here, so what are we going to do about it?" she says.

Read more: Are your Valentine's roses harming the planet?

In Bellahøj Kirke's case, the answer was to sign up to Denmark's burgeoning Grøn Kirke (Green Church) scheme. Operated by the Danish National Council of Churches, the scheme encourages churches in the Scandinavian country to take concrete steps to reduce their carbon footprint.

To participate, a church must meet at least 25 of the scheme's 48 criteria — which include reducing energy consumption, composting organic waste, holding meetings via Skype to minimize travel, and holding sermons about the climate crisis.

Smidt, who teaches yoga at Bellahøj Kirke and has led the church's drive to become more eco-friendly, says the scheme has also helped to save money and has gotten more congregants thinking about the issue of climate change.

For the church, founded in 1961 and situated in a 14,000 strong parish in the suburbs, "it's a win-win thing," says Smidt.

Yoga teacher Hanna Smidt is the driving force behind the environmental turn at her local church Bellahoej Kirke

A climate epiphany

The Grøn Kirke scheme was launched in 2008 by Lutheran pastor Keld Balmer Hansen, whose own epiphany came a year earlier in Romania, when he heard a British climate expert address the Third European Ecumenical Assembly, a gathering of Christians from Europe's main Churches.

"That was a wake-up call for me," Hansen says, adding that his justification for taking action was theological. "I thought, if this [Earth] is a gift from God, we in the church must speak up about it."

The scheme flourished in the wake of the COP15 United Nations climate conference, which took place in the Danish capital in 2009, but later tailed off, Hansen says.

Read more: Why religious narratives are crucial to tackling climate change

The Lutheran church in Denmark has traditionally avoided "political" issues, he explains, and a decade ago many church leaders dismissed climate action as being part of a "left-wing agenda."

Not any more. Climate change is no longer politically divisive — at least not in Denmark. In December 2019, the country passed a law committing it to reduce carbon emissions 70% by 2030, with support from parties across the political spectrum.

Faith communities are increasingly acknowledging the climate crisis. In June 2019, for example, Pope Francis declared a "global climate emergency." For Hansen, it follows that "interest in green churches is booming."

Read more: Pope Francis calls on oil executives to address climate change

Indeed, Denmark now has 232 "green churches," 32 of which signed up in 2019 alone — an increase of 16% on the previous year. They include Bellahøj Kirke, which declared itself "green" in August.

So far it's fulfilled 39 of the 48 green church criteria, thanks to Smidt and her "green team" introducing a range of initiatives, including recycling food waste and "re-wilding" a patch of land on the church's property.

A green Gospel

Keld Balmer Hansen is a Lutheran Pastor who incorporates climate and environmental themes in his sermons. He also launched Denmark's 'green church' movement

Smidt says it may surprise some people that churches would help combat climate change, given their traditional leaning. But "we can't sit with our hands in our pockets and wait," she adds.

"We need all good forces to join in on this agenda," agrees Hansen, adding that similar movements exist in countries such as Germany, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Read more: God and the earth: Evangelical take on climate change

In recent years thousands of churches across the UK have switched to 100% renewable energy. At least 2,000 churches have registered for the Eco Church scheme, which rewards churches in England and Wales that want to show that "the gospel is good news for God's Earth."

Participants must meet various criteria, such as demonstrating how they look after their buildings and land, engaging with the local community, and changing the lifestyles of their congregation.

The Eco Church scheme was launched in January 2016 by A Rocha, a Christian conservation charity, and participants include Salisbury Cathedral, an Anglican Franciscan friary, and two synagogues.

Among nine churches to have received the highest accolade — a Gold Award — is St James's Piccadilly in central London. Its eco-friendly initiatives have included switching to renewable energy — the listed church installed 40 solar panels on its roof in 2005 — creating wildlife-friendly habitats on its land, lobbying to get Piccadilly Circus' iconic neon lights switched off during Earth Hour, and holding services that focus on the environment.

"Faith communities have to take a stand," says churchwarden Deborah Colvin, who has spearheaded initiatives to reduce St James's Piccadilly's carbon footprint.

St James's Church succeeded in getting Piccadilly Circus' famous neon lights switched off during Earth Hour

Read more: Solar panels make Morocco’s mosques a model for green energy

She believes there's a strong theological case for churches to help fight climate change.

"In order to 'love thy neighbor' in this day and age, you have to love the systems that support your neighbor," Colvin explains. "The atmosphere is common to all of us, the water is common to all of us, so acting locally and thinking globally has a totally new resonance."

At St James's that has meant making wildflower seed bombs, installing an ice block in the church during the Paris climate conference as a symbol of global warming, and including eco-friendly tips in the parish newsletter.

A token gesture?

Cynics may dismiss such measures as token gestures, but Hansen says the willingness of churches to accept the gravity of the climate crisis sends a "strong signal" to the rest of society.

"You shouldn't underestimate the effect of the green church movement," he says. "This is a moment of ordinary people."

Read more: Group therapy tackles climate change anxiety

'US exceptionalism is self-destructive', Jeffrey Sachs

 In an interview with FRANCE 24, renowned economist and policy analyst Jeffrey Sachs calls for a new American foreign policy that no longer strives to dominate the Middle East. "We’ve been at failed war after war, spending trillions of dollars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya. It's been disaster after disaster... This foreign policy is not working," Sachs tells Armen Georgian. He shares his thoughts on current US-Iran tensions, as well as the Trump administration's withdrawal from multilateral efforts on sustainable development and climate change. 

Sachs also calls on Europe to develop a "stand-alone foreign policy" in order to provide leadership. On Iran, "Europe should find its voice and say to Trump: 'stop the bullying'", he adds.

Jeffrey Sachs is professor of sustainable development at Columbia University and special advisor to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 global objectives adopted in 2015.

Half a billion unemployed or underemployed worldwide: UN report

A new United Nations report shows more than 470 million people are unemployed or underemployed globally. The report said a lack of access to decent jobs is contributing to social unrest — and warns that worse is to come.

More than 470 million people worldwide are currently unemployed or underemployed, the United Nations has revealed in a new report compiled by the International Labor Organization (ILO).

The global unemployment rate remained relatively stable during the 2010s, according to the report. But the global unemployment rate is expected to rise by 2.5 million in 2020, from 188 million to 190.5 million people.

"For millions of working people, it is becoming increasingly difficult I think to build better lives through work," ILO chief Guy Ryder told reporters in Geneva.

1930'S UNEMPLOYMENT STICKER IWW.ORG

The annual World Employment and Social Outlook report stressed not only the unemployed but also the underemployed. Some 285 million people worldwide are considered underemployed, meaning they either work less than they want to, have given up searching for work or otherwise lack access to the labor market.

The figure of 470 million represents around 13% of the global labor force, the report said.

Is social unrest linked to unemployment rates?

The link between social unrest and unemployment and underemployment is a key part of the new report.

"Labor market conditions are contributing to this erosion of social cohesion in many of our societies," said Ryder, referring to mass demonstrations in places like Lebanon and Chile.

According to the ILO's "social unrest index," measuring the frequency of things like demonstrations and strikes, there was an increase both at the global level and in seven out of 11 regions between 2009 and 2019.

Read more: Another brick in the wall? The downside of Britain's jobs boom

The figure of 267 million young people between the ages of 15 and 24 not in employment, education or training may be a key factor in this. Many young people in employment endure substandard working conditions.

The report also reiterated the vast inequality between the world's highest and lowest earners. Female participation in the workforce remained at 47%, 27 percentage points below the male figure.

"We are not going where we want to go," Ryder said. "The situation is worse than we previously thought."


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Van Gogh painting made during psychosis confirmed as genuine after years of doubt

Work was confirmed to have been completed by the Dutch master as he recovered at the Saint-Remy mental asylum after suffering a breakdown


A journalist takes a closer look at the previously contested painting by Dutch master Vincent van Gogh, a 1889 self-portrait, of which the authenticity was recently confirmed ( AP )


A work by Vincent van Gogh has been confirmed as genuine and was “made during psychosis”, experts have said.

The painting, titled Self-Portrait (1889) was bought as a genuine Van Gogh in 1910 by Norway’s National Museum, but doubts had surrounded its authenticity since 1970.


Those doubts have now been dispelled after researchers found that it was indeed painted by the Dutch master as he recovered at the Saint-Remy mental asylum following a nervous breakdown.




Louis van Tilborgh of the Van Gogh Museum said the oil-on-canvas painting of the anguished-looking painter was completed in the late summer of 1889, while Van Gogh was at the asylum in southern France.


The work is the only known painting Van Gogh made while he had psychosis. The image is dominated by a dreary greenish-brown tone, and shows the artist with a lifeless expression.

20 best Van Gogh paintings





It can be linked to a letter that the artist wrote to his brother Theo in September, about a self-portrait “attempt from when I was ill”.

“It feels really reassuring to know that it’s genuine,” said Mai Britt Guleng of the Norwegian museum.

“When we delivered the painting in 2014 they warned us and said ‘you might not like the results’ and it might be that we will never find out. So we were very happy when we got the news.”

“The Oslo self-portrait depicts someone who is mentally ill,” the museum said. “His timid, sideways glance is easily recognisable and is often found in patients suffering from depression and psychosis.”

Read moreVan Gogh’s Sunflowers: The misunderstood masterpiece

Van Tilborgh, a senior researcher at the museum and professor of art history at the University of Amsterdam, told The Guardian that Van Gogh was frightened to admit he was in a similar state to other residents at the asylum.

“He probably painted this portrait to reconcile himself with what he saw in the mirror: a person he did not wish to be, yet was,” he said.

“This is part of what makes the painting so remarkable and even therapeutic. It is the only work that Van Gogh is known for certain to have created while suffering from psychosis.”

He said that, while the work is not one of Van Gogh’s best, he had grown rather fond of it.

Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait (1889) (AP)

“[Van Gogh] says later on somewhere that his paintings were sometimes a cry of anguish. Well, this is a cry of anguish. It belongs to a small group of pictures that show something of his mental health problem and how he dealt with it, or tried to deal with it,” he said.

The painting is on display at the Van Gogh Museum and will be part of a temporary exhibition, titled In the Picture, from 21 February.

It will then return to Oslo to be displayed as part of the Nasjonalmuseet’s permanent collection in spring 2021.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

A gloomy self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh was declared genuine after decades of uncertainty.

Questions were first raised about whether the painting was genuine as far back as 1970.

Full story: http://u.afp.com/3Z2D

Hambach Forest: Germany's sluggish coal phaseout sparks anger

Germany plans to phase out coal power by 2038. The embattled Hambach Forest is now protected, but some villages will still have to make way for the last open-pit mines. Activists and local residents are appalled.

    

It's a sunny, mild day in January, and the birds are singing as if spring has already arrived. Wild boars are roaming through Hambach Forest — the ancient woodland that has now been protected from the ravages of coal mining by the German government. The decision was good news for environmental activists and nearby villagers.

"You get a lot of strength from this powerful climate protection movement. We managed to save 'Hambi' [Hambach Forest — Editor's note], and that's a major achievement for the people who occupied the forest," said Kathrin Henneberger, a spokesperson for the Ende Gelände protest group. "This will give us new strength, which we will need for the ongoing struggle against the climate crisis."

Read more: The Germans fighting wind farms close to their homes

A symbol for the climate movement

Hambach Forest, on the edge of one of Europe's largest open-pit coal mines, has become an important symbol for Europe's climate protection movement. The power plants linked to these massive mines, near the western city of Cologne, release more CO2 into the atmosphere than anywhere else in the European Union.

In 2012, climate activists began building treehouses in Hambach Forest to protest its imminent destruction to make way for the expansion of the nearby mines. Over the years, protests against coal plant operator RWE and the federal and state energy policies became increasingly vocal — and mainstream. The protests reached a high point in the fall of 2018, when tens of thousands of people occupied the forest to demonstrate against coal-powered electricity and called for Germany's compliance with the Paris climate goals.

The village of Manheim has already been emptied out to make way for more mining

Anger, disappointment in nearby villages

Britta Kox is a resident of the village of Berverath, just a few kilometers away from the edge of the Garzweiler open-pit mine. Many nearby villages have been forced to make way for the coal excavators over the last few years. The German government has decided that another six villages must still be razed before coal mining comes to an end in the area. Kox's family will have to move and leave her grandmother's house behind. The news has left her shaken, and disappointed with policymakers.

 

Listen to audio07:38

Living Planet: When will Germany break up with coal?

"I'm stunned, and angry. It's a catastrophic for us villagers. The German government is ruining our climate, and [North Rhine-Westphalia] State Premier [Armin] Laschet wants to destroy our villages. But we live here, and we want to stay," Kox told DW.

"The legislation was negotiated with energy firms at the national level. We, the people who will be affected, were once again completely ignored."

An assessment by the German Institute for Economic Research, said Kox, "shows that the villages can remain, the local forest as well, and that there is already enough coal here in the open-pit mines to last for years, well after 2038." She's relying on the support of the Hambach Forest activists for the preservation of her village, and others nearby. "We will stay, and we will not be driven from our homes, not for love or money," said Kox.

Read more: What Germany can learn from the Netherlands

New opportunities for Hambach Forest

Other villages such as Manheim and Morschenich, both located on the fringes of the open-pit mine, have already been boarded up and in part demolished, although a handful of people still live there. With this week's decision on the future of coal, it's unlikely the area will ever see any coal mining — but RWE, which bought out the homeowners, has already made the area nearly uninhabitable, a "fatal" move, said Dirk Jansen of the environmental organization BUND. "It would be cynical to continue this work of destruction, only to end up building superfluous industrial areas here," he said.

But according to Jansen, there's still hope for Hambach Forest, even if only some 550 hectares (2.1 square miles) of the original 4,000 hectares has been spared. "Every square meter deserves to be preserved, because this is a type of forest which is under explicit protection from the EU," he said.

After 150 years of destruction linked to coal mining, Jansen believes Hambach Forest could now become the starting point for a green redevelopment of the Rhine coal mining region. "Groundwater was pumped out to enable coal extraction, and tree roots are dry," he said. However, the soil still has a high capacity to store water, and so the forest has the potential to "store rainwater."

In future, said Jansen, the region would have to be less focused on economic development and more concerned with the preservation of nature and ecological valorization. There was potential for the development of renewable energies, as well as sustainable, ecological agriculture.

Read more: Germany: From leader to loser on climate protection?

In order for Germany to reach its Paris climate protection goals, BUND has said the coal phaseout would have to be completed by 2030, at the latest. But the organization believes jobs in the coal industry could still be preserved for a number of years, in a socially responsible way.

RWE losing out?

The energy giant has been critical of the government's decision to speed up the exit from coal, with Chief Executive Rolf Martin Schmitz saying it would have severe consequences for both employees and the company itself.

"We had permission to extract more than 2.1 billion tons of coal reserves," he said. "More than 1.1 billion tons of those reserves will now remain buried."

"RWE's power plants were built in the 1960s. They're therefore outdated and written off economically by now," said Oliver Krischer, parliamentary leader of the environmentalist Green party. Today, RWE earns around three times as much with renewables as it does with gas and coal power generation, he added.

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Germany: More and more people work multiple jobs

Over 3 million people in Germany work more than one job, many because of financial difficulties. Opposition politicians are calling for a raise to the minimum wage.

   

The number of people in Germany working a second job rose nearly 4% in the space of a year, according to figures from the Federal Employment Agency. They were revealed in response to a Left party request and cited by the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung on Tuesday.

At the end of June last year, 3,538,000 people in Germany were working multiple jobs. That's 123,600 more than the same time the year before, a rise of 3.62%.

Read more: Millions of Germans want to work more

Nearly 3 million people worked a "mini-job" — meaning they earned €450 ($499) or less per month — on the side of a full-time job.

Another 345,400 people had two jobs liable for social security contributions.

Nearly 260,700 people worked a combination of two or more mini-jobs.'One job isn't enough'

According to a study from the trade union-affiliated Hans-Böckler Foundation, 53% of people working multiple jobs in Germany do so because of financial difficulties or a financial emergency.

Left party lawmaker Sabine Zimmermann called for a raise in the minimum wage to €12 per hour "in a first step" towards responding to the trend. Currently the minimum hourly wage is €9.35.

"For more and more workers, the income from one job isn't enough," she said.

She also called for abolishing systematic low-wage employment like temporary agency work and unreasonable fixed-term contracts.

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Thunberg tells Davos 'nothing has been done' to fight climate change

Issued on: 21/01/2020
 

Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg attends a session at the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020. REUTERS - DENIS BALIBOUSE

Text by:FRANCE 24

Climate activist Greta Thunberg told the world’s political and business leaders Tuesday that the global movement sparked by her school strike was only the very beginning in the fight against global warming and much more has to be done.

“It wasn’t only me, but all these young people pushing together ... to form these alliances,” the Swedish teenager said, speaking at a panel at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos with other young activists. “People are more aware now... climate and environment are a hot topic now.”

However, Thunberg said, the struggle against climate change will require more than just general awareness.

"We are all fighting for the environment and climate. If you see it from a bigger perspective, basically nothing has been done. It will require much more than this. This is just the very beginning,” she said, adding that everyone needs to listen more to the science regarding climate change and the heating of the planet.

“Without treating it as a real crisis we cannot solve it.”

The "climate heroes" being celebrated by the WEF include Irish teen scientist Fionn Ferreira, who created a solution for preventing micro plastics from reaching oceans.

They also include South African climate activist Ayakha Melithafa, 17, and Canadian Autum Peltier, who has been advocating for water conservation since she was 8 years old.

"The science and voice of young people is not the centre of the conversation, but it needs to be," said Thunberg.

"It is about us and future generations and those who have been affected today," added Thunberg. "We need to bring the science into the conversation."

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP, REUTERS)

Opinion: WEF gathering at Davos is no longer so elitist

Davos is a picturesque holiday resort in Switzerland. And, once every year, it hosts the World Economic Forum. The summit is no longer the elitist gathering it once was, writes Manuela Kasper-Claridge.


It's easy to bash the World Economic Forum (WEF). About 3,000 attendees are expected to gather this week for the WEF in Davos, Switzerland — including no fewer than 116 billionaires, the CEOs of multinational corporations and the bankers behind BlackRock. Heads of state such as US President Donald Trump and his Brazilian counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro, will be there, as will heads of government, among them German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

Once again, it seems, the world's elites are meeting to discuss the global problems they don't really understand. Though it's common to portray the WEF as a summit of aloof leaders, that couldn't be further from the truth. Granted, Champagne is certainly enjoyed in Davos, and I can't rule out some attendees engaging in excessive behavior. But most of those who come to Davos work hard and tirelessly.

Read more: Tackling the gender gap in Davos

The WEF brings together people who would usually make efforts to avoid each other. And many participants tend to be so busy working for their companies or governments that they otherwise don't have time see what's happening elsewhere in the world.

Contrary to what some might expect, topics such as social inequality, climate change and how to make capitalism more just are addressed at the WEF, as are questions of how technology can be marshaled to tackle poverty or how to deal with depression and loneliness. At the WEF, refugees, the chairmen of various boards and representatives of governments share a stage — discussing pressing issues and listening to each other. Representatives of nongovernmental organizations come to Davos, as well, along with prominent climate activists and teenagers who discuss their projects with company bosses.



CLIMATE ACTIVISTS MARCH TO WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM IN DAVOS
Big flack: McDonald's a target of the activists' criticism
Some of the protesters dressed as Ronald McDonald, the character that represents the world renowned fast-food chain. McDonald's has borne the brunt of severe criticism due to being viewed as the epicenter of mass produced food and is one of the largest buyers of beef in the world, an industry that has been targeted by climate activists in the past.
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'Our house is on fire'

Klaus Schwab, who founded the WEF, should therefore be congratulated for creating this unique platform — even though it's predominantly about discussions rather than concrete action. This lack of action is the real problem. Many rightly wonder when the issues discussed and announcements made in Davos will finally be implemented.

Read more: Davos braces for Trump-Greta showdown as climate change tops agenda

"Our house is on fire," environmental activist Greta Thunberg said at last year's WEF. She will be in Davos this year, too, to continue pressing for change. Together with several scientists, Thunberg plans to stay in a tent at an altitude of 1,800 meters (5,900 feet) in the surrounding mountains to highlight the impact that climate change is having on the Arctic.

Thunberg, along with other activists, is using Davos to draw attention to global problems — and major corporations are increasingly under pressure to act. Today, simply releasing statements of intent no longer cuts it. And for corporations to pursue maximum profit at all cost is neither sustainable nor sensible. It's time to tackle the growing inequality.

Read more: 'The entire economy thrives on the destruction of nature'

The people attending Davos and the discussions they will hold reflect the global status quo. This is why dialogue and open talks between the participants is so essential — just like the pressure exerted by those who are not part of the so-called global elite

CLIMATE ACTIVISTS MARCH TO WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM IN DAVOS

'Strike for the climate'

A woman wears a hat with a badge reading "strike for the climate" as the crowds gathered at the beginning of the hike. The phrase has become synonymous with Greta Thunberg and her climate change movement that began 18 months ago.

Author: John Silk

Davos elite gathers amid climate change, populism

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