Wednesday, October 26, 2022

MINING IS UNSUSTAINABLE
Greening global economy brings dependence on critical minerals

Isabel MALSANG
Mon, October 24, 2022 


After nearly a century of geopolitical tension over access to oil, experts worry that the global transition to clean energy is creating new dependencies on the critical minerals needed for solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicle batteries.

Control over most of these essential elements is concentrated in a handful of countries, none more than China, they note.

- Which metals are key for the energy transition? -

Cobalt, nickel, manganese and lithium are critical to making electric vehicle batteries. Rare earths such as neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium are used in computer memory and magnets in wind turbines.

Copper and aluminium are used in electricity networks, and platinum is a catalyst for hydrogen.

These materials "will be at the centre of decarbonisation efforts and electrification of the economy, as we move from fossil fuels to wind and solar power generation, battery- and fuel-cell-based electric vehicles (EVs) and hydrogen production", consulting firm McKinsey reported earlier this year.

- How much demand is there? -


Global demand for these critical metals may quadruple by 2040 if the world is to meet its pledges under the Paris climate pact, according to estimates by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

French researcher Olivier Vidal has calculated that more of the metals will need to be manufactured by 2050 than humanity has produced throughout history.



While many predict shortages, some believe technology improvements and recycling will keep up with increased production needs.

But some regions are more vulnerable than others.


According to a study by Belgium's Louvain university, Europe faces critical shortages of metals for the next 15 years, particularly lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper and rare earths.

The European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA) says Europe will only be able to cover between five and 55 percent of its key metals needs by 2030.

While Europe does have untapped resources of cobalt, gallium, germanium and lithium, it will need to issue mining permits to get to them, noted senior ERMA official Bernd Schaefer.

On Monday, industrial minerals manufacturer Imerys announced plans for a major lithium mine in central France.

The United States is opening its first cobalt mine in decades, in Idaho.

Automakers such as Tesla have announced their intention to enter directly into the capital of mining firms.

- Which countries produce these metals? -


Cobalt mining is dominated by the Democratic Republic of Congo, which accounts for 70 percent of the world total. But in terms of processing, China is the leader, at 50 percent.

South Africa accounts for 37 percent of global manganese output.

China and Guinea account for more than half of the global production of bauxite, which is used to make aluminium.

Argentina, Australia and Chile are major lithium producers, while Bolivia has considerable untapped resources.

- What are the geopolitical risks? -


"The oil and gas triangle -- Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States -- has governed the world for 40 years," said Philippe Varin, who has led French steel and car firms and recently wrote a report on the supply of raw materials to French companies.

He said that is now "little by little transforming into a bipolarisation of the world between the United States and China, the major users of metals in the energy transition".

Varin said Chinese companies had taken control of 40 percent of the value chain for the metals needed for battery production.

Emmanuel Hache, a forecaster at the French Institute of Petroleum, said that raw materials "could be the cause of a confrontation between China and the United States in the years to come".

"Behind all conflicts you find raw materials as a top cause," said CyclOpe, an annual French publication on raw materials, making a link between the military coup in Guinea in 2021 and bauxite.

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France to develop major lithium mine as Europe moves to electric vehicles
Issued on: 25/10/2022
 
01:02
Industrial metals firm Imerys plans to open one of Europe's largest lithium mines near a town in central France by 2027 to help support the continent's move towards electric vehicles, which use the metal in their batteries. Locals have welcomed the job opportunities the mine should create, but some have also raised concerns about its environmental impact.



Russia Rejects US Basketballer's Appeal Of 'Traumatic' Sentence

10/25/22
Jailed US basketball player Brittney Griner is seen on a screen via a video link during a court hearing near Moscow on October 25, 2022 
AFP / Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV


ARussian court on Tuesday rejected an appeal from US basketball star Brittney Griner of her nine-year prison term on drug charges, dismissing her plea for the "traumatic" sentence to be reduced.

The court in Krasnogorsk near Moscow ruled to leave Griner's August verdict "without change" in the case that came amid fierce tensions between Moscow and Washington over Russia's military offensive in Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden's administration dismissed the ruling as "another sham judicial proceeding" that will keep Griner "wrongfully detained under intolerable circumstances" and vowed to continue pressing for her release.

"The President has demonstrated that he is willing to go to extraordinary lengths and make tough decisions to bring Americans home," US National Security advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement.

Griner, a star in the Women's National Basketball Association in the US, had pleaded by video link from her detention centre just outside the Russian capital for the sentence to be cut.

"I really hope that the court will adjust this sentence because it has been very, very stressful and very traumatic," Griner said.

The 32-year-old was handed nine years in prison in August for possessing vape cartridges with a small quantity of cannabis oil, after she was arrested at a Moscow airport in February.

Speaking slowly so her words could be translated into Russian, Griner asked the court for leniency given that the amount of cannabis found was "barely over the significant amount".

"I don't understand the first court's decision to give one year less than the max when I've been here almost eight months and people with more severe crimes have gotten less than what I was given," she said.

"So I just beg that the court... reassess my sentence."

Griner's lawyers said they were disappointed by Tuesday's decision as it goes against standard legal practice.

"Other defendants in similar criminal cases receive punishment in the form of a suspended sentence or a jail term not exceeding six years," Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov said in a statement.

"Thus, Brittney Griner remains one of the most severely punished defendants in Russia."

The lawyers said Griner is doing fine physically and that she spoke to her family last week on her birthday, but Tuesday's decision was hard for Griner to take.

"She had some hopes and these hopes vanished today," Blagovolina told reports outside the court house.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the ruling "was not unexpected and Brittney Griner remains wrongly detained."

"It is time to bring this case to an end and bring BG home."

Griner's lawyers hope to speak to her later this week about whether she wants to continue appealing the verdict in higher courts.

When she was arrested, the two-time Olympic basketball gold medallist and Women's NBA champion had been in Russia to play for the professional Yekaterinburg team, during her off-season from the Phoenix Mercury Women's National Basketball Association side.

She pleaded guilty to the charges, but said she did not intend to break the law or use the banned substance in Russia.

Griner had testified that she had permission from a US doctor to use medicinal cannabis to relieve pain from her many injuries, and had never failed a drug test.

The use of medical marijuana is not allowed in Russia.

In August, Moscow said it was ready to discuss a prisoner swap for Griner, but there has been no apparent progress.

Giorgia Meloni says she's committed to Europe

Issued on: 25/10/2022 
 
02:42
Video by: Seema GUPTA

In her first parliamentary speech, Giorgia Meloni, Italy's new Prime Minister, unveiled her policy priorities. She expressed support to the European Union, NATO and Ukraine, and also vowed to take action on illegal immigration and human trafficking. She also said she rejects her nation's facist history. Our Rome correspondent, Seema Gupta, has more.



Peace talks under way in South Africa to end Ethiopia’s brutal conflict with Tigray

NEWS WIRES - Yesterday 

Peace talks to end Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict have begun in South Africa, a South African government spokesman said Tuesday. It is the highest-level effort yet to end two years of fighting that has killed perhaps hundreds of thousands of people.


Peace talks under way in South Africa to end Ethiopia’s brutal conflict with Tigray© Ben Curtis, AP

The spokesman for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Vincent Magwenya, said the African Union-led talks that started Tuesday are expected to continue until Sunday. Delegations from the Ethiopian government and Tigray authorities arrived in South Africa this week.

“Such talks are in line with South Africa’s foreign policy objectives of a secure and conflict-free continent,” Magwenya said. Former Nigerian president and AU envoy Olesegun Obasanjo, former South African deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta are facilitating the talks with the encouragement of the United States.

Related video: Ethiopia Tigray conflict: warring sides head to South Africa for peace negotiations
Duration 11:53

The conflict has sharply changed the fortunes of Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who went to war with his country’s northern Tigray region less than a year after receiving the award for making peace with neighboring Eritrea.

The peace talks begin as Ethiopian and allied forces from Eritrea have taken over some urban areas in Tigray in the past few days.

The Tigray region of more than 5 million people is again cut off from the world by renewed fighting that began in late August following months of a lull in the conflict.

All combatants have committed abuses, according to United Nations human rights investigators who recently singled out the Ethiopian government as using “starvation of civilians” as a weapon of war. Babies in Tigray are dying in their first month of life at four times the rate before the war cut off access to most medical care, according to a yet-unpublished study shared by its authors with The Associated Press this month.

The war since exploding in November 2020 has spilled over into Ethiopia’s neighboring Amhara and Afar regions, putting hundreds of thousands of people there in peril.

Academics and health workers have estimated that hundreds of thousands of people have been killed by conflict and deprivation, and the U.S. has begun warning of a half-million casualties.

(AP)
Saudi blasts release of oil reserves 'to manipulate markets'

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman did not single out the US in his comments about emergency stocks -
Fayez Nureldine

by Robbie COREY-BOULET
October 25, 2022 — Riyadh (AFP)


Saudi Arabia's energy minister on Tuesday blasted the release of emergency oil stocks as an attempt to "manipulate markets", the latest apparent salvo in a spat with Washington over oil production.

"People are depleting their emergency stocks, had depleted it, used it as a mechanism to manipulate markets while its profound purpose was to mitigate shortage of supply," Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told an investor conference in the Saudi capital.

"However, it is my profound duty to make it clear to the world that losing emergency stock may become painful in the months to come."

Prince Abdulaziz did not single out the United States in his comments about emergency stocks, but last week US President Joe Biden announced he was putting the final 15 million barrels on the market from a record release of US strategic reserves.

That tranche was to complete a 180-million-barrel release authorised in the spring, in response to price hikes linked to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

It also came on the heels of a decision by the OPEC+ oil cartel, which Riyadh co-leads with Moscow, to cut oil production by two million barrels a day from November.

The cartel's decision, weeks ahead of US congressional elections, has drawn intense criticism from the White House, which has said it amounted to "aligning with Russia" in the Ukraine war.

Prince Abdulaziz pushed back against that assessment on Tuesday.

"I keep listening, are you with us or against us? Is there any room for, 'We are for Saudi Arabia and for the people of Saudi Arabia'?" he said to applause.

Asked about getting the decades-old partnership between Riyadh and Washington back on track, he said: "I think we as Saudi Arabia decided to be the maturer guys and let the dice fall."

In Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price said he would not respond directly to the prince, but that the release from the strategic reserve was part of Biden's effort to meet demand.

"We're going to do everything we can to see to it that supply is adequate for demand," Price told reporters.

Also speaking at the Riyadh conference, Saudi investment minister Khalid al-Falih described the dust-up with the United States as "unwarranted" and temporary.

"If you look at the relationship with the people side, the corporate side, the education system, you look at our institutions working together, we are very close, and we will get over this recent spat that I think was unwarranted," he said.

JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon also said he was optimistic that bilateral ties would eventually improve.

"Saudi Arabia and the US have been allies for the last 75 years... They'll work it through," he said.

"These countries will remain allies going forward."

- Davos in the Desert -


Hundreds of CEOs and finance moguls are in Riyadh for the three-day Future Investment Initiative (FII), a Davos-style investment conference that analysts say will highlight Saudi Arabia's geopolitical muscle despite strained ties with Washington.

The FII, often referred to as "Davos in the Desert", was launched in 2017 as an economic coming-out party for the world's largest crude exporter, which is trying to diversify away from oil under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The 37-year-old who is first in line to the throne "takes a very hands-on approach" to projects associated with his Vision 2030 reform agenda, said Kristin Diwan of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

"Ultimately those attending will know that they will need his approval or those of his confidants to work in the kingdom," she said.

Up to 400 American CEOs are expected to participate in the conference, though unlike in previous years there is no representation from the US government.

The event's organiser told AFP last week that American officials had not been invited.

"Saudi Arabia needs to attract American investment, technology, and popular interest to succeed," Diwan said.

"It still remains to be seen if this broader engagement can be maintained if the political mood in the United States turns hostile toward Saudi Arabia."
A 'catastrophe' is coming for the economy, but it's not recession or inflation, says Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh


Eric Rosenbaum - Yesterday 

U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said in an interview at the CNBC Work Summit that he does not expect mass layoffs and job growth should continue into next year.

But Walsh said that immigration reform, supported by every business owner he talks to, will be critical to the national workforce and without it, a 'bigger catastrophe' than a recession or inflation is coming.

Walsh also offered views on a federal minimum wage increase, federal childcare support and gig worker rules reform seen as targeting Uber and Lyft.


Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh speaks during a news conference at the White House in Washington, April 2, 2021.© Provided by CNBC

There has been a lot of talk about looming layoffs, and by some recent surveying, as many as half of large employers are thinking about labor cost cuts as the economy slows. But U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Marty Walsh doesn't see the recent job gains reversing, according to an interview at CNBC's Work Summit on Tuesday.

"I still think that we're going to have job gains as we move into the end of this year, early next year. A lot of people are still looking at different jobs," he told CNBC's Kayla Tausche at the virtual event. "We saw a lot of moving around over this last course of the year. People leaving jobs, getting better jobs, and I'm not convinced yet that we're headed towards that."

For the Federal Reserve, some level of higher unemployment is necessary to cool an economy that has been bedeviled by persistent inflation. Unemployment, at 3.5% now, went down in the last monthly nonfarm payrolls report. The Fed is targeting unemployment of 4.4% as a result of its policy and higher interest rates.

"We definitely have to bring down inflationary pressures," Walsh said at the CNBC Work Summit, but he added that the way to do it isn't layoffs.

A House inquiry released on Tuesday found that the 12 largest employers in the nation including Walmart and Disney laid off more than 100,000 workers in the most recent recession during the pandemic.

Walsh said in a slower economy, the federal government's infrastructure act will support job growth in sectors including transportation. "Those monies are there. ... if we did have a downturn in the economy, those jobs will keep people working through a difficult time."

In the battle against inflation, Walsh said moving people up the income ladder is a better way of helping Americans make ends meet than laying them off.

"I think there's a way to do that by creating good opportunities for people so they have opportunities to get into the middle class, and not enough people in America are working in those jobs, quite honestly. ... I think there's a lot of Americans out there right now that have gone through the last two years, a lot of concern in the pandemic, they were working in a job maybe making minimum wage, maybe they had two or three jobs. Really I think the best way to describe what is a middle class job is a job you can work, one job, get good pay, so you don't have to work two and three jobs to support your family."

From a policy perspective, Walsh expressed disbelief that a higher federal minimum wage remains a contentious issue on Capitol Hill.

"It shocks me that there are members in the building behind me, if you can't see the building behind me it's the Capitol, that think that families can raise their family on $7-plus, on the minimum wage in this country," he said.

But Walsh conceded that legislation to increase the minimum wage, which was held up in the Senate, has an uncertain future ahead of the midterm elections.


Here are a few of the other major policy issues the Labor Secretary weighed in on at the CNBC Work Summit.

Lack of immigration reform is a 'catastrophe' in the making

Amid one of the tightest labor markets in history, Walsh said the political parties' approach to immigration — "getting immigration all tied up" — is among the most consequential mistakes the nation can make in labor policy.

"One party is showing pictures of the border and meanwhile if you talk to businesses that support those congressional folks, they're saying we need immigration reform," Walsh said. "Every place I've gone in the country and talked to every major business, every small business, every single one of them is saying we need immigration reform. We need comprehensive immigration reform. They want to create a pathway for citizenship into our country, and they want to create better pathways for visas in our country."

The demographic data on the U.S. working age population is concerning, with baby boomer retirements expected to accelerate in the years ahead, compounded by a peak being reached in high school graduates by 2025, limiting both the total size of the next generation labor pool and the transfer of knowledge between the generations of workers.

"We need a bipartisan fix here," Walsh said. "I'll tell you right now if we don't solve immigration ... we're talking about worrying about recessions, we're talking about inflation. I think we're going to have a bigger catastrophe if we don't get more workers into our society and we do that by immigration."

Won't say whether Uber and Lyft are in crosshairs of new gig economy rulemaking


A proposed DoL rule on independent contractors hit the shares of gig economy companies including Uber and Lyft a few weeks ago. The rulemaking is still in review and seeking public comments, and some Wall Street pundits don't expect it to have a significant impact on the rideshare companies.

Walsh wouldn't even say if they are a target of the rulemaking.

"We haven't necessarily said what companies are affected by it, and what businesses are affected by it. What we're looking at is people that are employees that are working for companies that are being taken advantage of as independent contractors. We want to end that," Walsh said.

FEELS LIKE THE START OF WHAT COULD BE REALLY A PANDORA'S BOX.
Duration 2:23
New gig economy rules look like 'gut punch' for Uber and Lyft, says Dan Ives

He did mention a few of the jobs that would likely be covered, and one of those does overlap with the Uber, Lyft and DoorDash business models. "We have plenty of businesses in this country, like dishwashers and delivery drivers in areas like that, where people are working for a business that other employees in that business are employees, and they're labeling them as independent contractors. So we're going to look at this. We're in the rulemaking process now. We're taking in the comments now, and we'll see when the comments come in what the final rule looks like."

Walsh added that the idea an independent contractor want to retain their flexibility doesn't wash with him. "Flexibility is not an excuse ... pay somebody as an employee. You can't use that as an excuse."

Unionization will finally gain in 2023, 2024

Walsh, a union-book carrier, said that the public support for unions should be matched by actual gains in union ranks in the next two years. The most recent survey available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that labor jobs decreased by more than 240,000 in 2021, even as U.S. public support for unionization has surged and major brands including Apple, Amazon, and Starbucks face a rising tide of unionization at stores and in operations like warehouses, albeit still on the margins as far as total numbers of workers they employ.

"I don't have the number of 2022, but 2021 was a unique year," Walsh said. "The numbers went down in a lot of ways because companies' unions weren't organizing, number one, and number two, we had a pandemic and a lot of people retired, left their business or they retired. Those jobs weren't backfilled by companies. ... It's like 65%, 70% of Americans still looking favorably upon unions ... the highest in 50 years. I don't think you'll see the benefit of that organizing until probably 2023, 2024."

Other recent polling has found that public support for unions is higher than union member support for their own labor organizations.

Biden's broken promise on child care


President Biden promised on the campaign trail to do more on child care; promised to include it in the infrastructure act; promised to include it in a second act after dropping it from the core infrastructure package; and then it was dropped from that back-up plan.

Walsh said the government has to make good on that promise for families and workers in the child-care sector.

"Childcare is a basic necessity to get millions of women back into the workforce on a full-time basis," he said.

The recent Women in the Workplace study from McKinsey and LeanIn.org finds that women are still opting out of the workforce in large numbers, a reversal of labor market gains that began during the pandemic.

"Child care has not been addressed by this country or by most states in this country for the last 50 years. The cost is too high for the average family and we can't retain the workers in those industries. We lost a lot of workers in the childcare industry because they're paying them minimum wage or a little bit above minimum wage," Walsh said, referring to estimates that 100,000 workers left the sector during the pandemic.

"We have to respect them and pay them better wages. Anyone watching today that has kids in child care, you know, you're paying 30%, 40%, 50%, 60% of your salary for child care," he said. "A lot of families have made the decision [that], 'We don't want to have two people working, one person will maybe stay home, work part time and make up those costs,' so that issue has to be resolved. It's not just an economic issue. It's a human rights issue in our country to get good child care," he added.
Key Issues at COP 27



[co-author: Kerry Mackenzie]

October 21, 2022

From November 6 to November 18 of this year, climate leaders will convene in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) 27th Conference of the Parties (COP 27).

COP 27 takes place against a backdrop of global geopolitical and climate crises, underscoring the need for nations to achieve progress at this year’s conference. Although the climate priorities of various international leaders vary—especially between developing and developed countries—experts reserve hope that countries will take key steps towards addressing some of the most pressing climate issues while in Egypt. Here are three key topics to keep an eye on at COP 27:

Topic One: Financing Climate Change Loss and Damage. At COP 26, the Group of 77 (G77) and China proposed a climate loss and damage project, which the United States and the European Union (EU) ultimately sidelined. Now, after a year rife with natural disasters, the former coalition plans to re-propose the creation of a facility for loss and damage at COP 27. While some developed countries have already made significant loss and damage contributions—most recently Denmark—the United States and the EU remain holdouts on a formal program. Countries must agree in the early hours of the conference whether to discuss the topic, or cooperation during the rest of the summit could be severely impaired.

Topic Two: Bolstering Adaptation Projects. Developing countries also have their eye on funding for adaptation projects. At COP 26, developed countries agreed to double their financial commitments towards helping vulnerable communities adjust to climate change—a pledge with a total price tag of around $40 billion per year. At COP 27, the focus will shift to procuring funding and determining how this funding can be allocated to communities that need it the most.

Topic Three: Promoting Accountability Amidst Geopolitical Strain. COP 26 ended with a call for international leaders to review their 2030 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and ensure they align with the UN’s goal of cutting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. At COP 27, countries will be under pressure to show evidence of progress toward their climate commitments and funding targets. Ahead of COP 27, only 23 nations have proposed updated plans reflecting the UN’s global temperature goal. Worse, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has destabilized the energy market, causing many major players to increase their reliance on fossil fuels. A key criticism of the Paris Agreement remains: the majority of its commitments are voluntary.

COP 27 comes during a crucial time, especially considering that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) recently found that the impacts of climate change are worsening. In November, climate leaders will need to cooperate to address these three key topics outlined above in order to make vital progress on addressing climate change.

We will continue to provide updates regarding COP 27 as we learn more. For more information, visit the UNFCCC’s COP 27 landing page.

 The COP 27 pre-session agenda is accessible here, while the COP 27 week agenda can be found here.

For COP 27, Egypt cleans up tourist destinations around the Red Sea

Issued on: 25/10/2022

 
01:32
Video by:Catherine VIETTE

The UN's COP 27 conference will start on November 7th in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Ahead of the arrival of delegates to the resort town, authorities have begun cleaning up plastic waste around the Red Sea. The country is intensifying its efforts to go greener before the climate conference in two weeks.



U.S. Groups Urge Kerry To Back Climate Compensation Fund

By Valerie Volcovici
10/24/22 

Over 100 U.S. environmental groups on Monday urged top U.S. climate diplomat John Kerry to support the creation of a fund that would compensate countries that have experienced economic and physical loss from climate change, a key demand of vulnerable countries at the upcoming COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

The letter, signed by groups that include the Sierra Club and Greenpeace USA, says the world's second biggest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions is responsible for nearly a quarter of global cumulative greenhouse gas emissions since the Industrial Revolution and has a responsibility to address loss and damage.

The United States and European Union, the world's third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, are facing pressure from lower-income nations to soften their long-standing resistance to compensation for the "loss and damage" wrought by floods, rising seas and other climate change-fueled impacts.

"The U.S.'s negotiating posture on loss and damage has been recalcitrant, creating a major obstacle to meeting the urgent needs of climate vulnerable countries and causing great harm to our nation's reputation on the world stage," the groups wrote in the letter.

A senior Biden administration official told reporters last week that the United States does not necessarily oppose the creation of a new "loss and damage" funding facility but believes that there are existing sources of funding that could potentially be tapped to cover climate losses.

"Would we...rule out talking about proposals for new things? No, of course not," the official said. "We also think you need to examine the existing institutions and see what the what the gaps are."

The official said that the United States rejected a proposal made by climate vulnerable nations in Glasgow last year at the COP26 climate summit because it did not specify whether some countries would be legally liable for climate damages

A draft of the EU's negotiating position for COP27 leaked last week showed the 27-nation bloc would support talks on the topic at the COP27 gathering in Egypt but did not specify whether it supports a funding mechanism.

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Egypt, host of the United Nations' climate negotiations, has appointed the environment ministers of Chile and Germany to come up with a plan for including the controversial loss and damage topic on the formal summit agenda.
Two Revolutionary Guards members shot dead in Iran amid unrest

Deaths occur in southeastern city of Zahedan; local religious leader says security forces shot at civilians, one fired back amid tensions over alleged rape of teen by cop

By AFP
25 October 2022

Screen capture from video purportedly showing anti-regime protests in the southeastern city of Zahedan, Iran, October 2022. (Twitter; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

TEHRAN, Iran — Two members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed by unidentified gunmen in the southeastern city of Zahedan on Tuesday, the Tasnim news agency said.

“Colonel Mehdi Molashahi and Javad Kikha, Guards members in Sistan-Baluchistan province, were shot dead by unknown assailants in the city of Zahedan,” the agency said.

The Iranian authorities were investigating those behind the attack, Tasnim added without elaborating.

The attack comes less than a month after clashes left dozens of people dead in Zahedan, the capital of the Sistan-Baluchistan province, which borders Pakistan.

State media characterized the unrest that started on September 30 after Friday prayers as attacks by “extremists” on police stations in the provincial capital.
But a local religious leader — who had warned the community was “inflamed” over the alleged rape of a teenage girl by a police officer — said the force had shot at “civilians” and that one man who had a weapon had fired back.

On Friday, hundreds of people took to the streets of Zahedan and shouted slogans against the authorities, according to videos posted on social media.

The police reported the arrest of 57 “rioters” after this demonstration, according to state news agency IRNA.

Zahedan is one of the few Sunni-majority cities in predominantly Shiite Iran.

Poverty-stricken Sistan-Baluchestan, which also borders Afghanistan, is a flashpoint for clashes with drug smuggling gangs, as well as rebels from the Baluchi minority and Sunni Muslim extremist groups.
Turkey ramps up pressure on Kurdish journalists with further mass detentions

The detentions are part of a campaign against journalists working for outlets that report on rights abuses, particularly in the Kurdish majority southeast.


Peoples' Democratic Party's Zuleyha Gulum holds a banner "Truths cannot be obscured" as she stands with a covered mouth at the Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara on Oct. 13, 2022, in protest over a new media law that could lead up to three years of jail for spreading "fake news" by reporters and social networks users. - 
ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images

Amberin Zaman
@amberinzaman
October 25, 2022

Turkish police on Tuesday detained 12 journalists working for various Kurdish news outlets in pre-dawn raids in Ankara, Istanbul and Manisa and the predominantly Kurdish cities of Mardin, Diyarbakir, Urfa and Van.

The detentions are part of an escalating campaign against journalists working for outlets that report on rights abuses particularly in the Kurdish majority southeast, including the Mezopotamya News Agency and the all-female JINNEWS. Diren Yurtsever, editor-in-chief of Mezopotamya, was among seven women who were remanded in custody today. All were brought to Ankara where they are being held at the Ankara Security Directorate’s counterterrorism branch.

Journalists present during the raids described violent scenes. Police with long-range rifles “forced me to lay face down on the floor and sat on top of me as they handcuffed me,” said Dilan Babat, a reporter for JINNEWS, who shared a flat with fellow female reporters in Ankara. Babat told ArtiGercek, an independent online news outlet, that police had seized all their equipment, including their laptops and mobile phones. “There was a lot of cursing and insults,” she said.

Zemo Aggoz, a reporter for Mezopotamya, was allowed to nurse her six-week-old infant only following an outcry on social media.

In June, 16 other journalists working for those and various other dissident publications were detained and remain behind bars. They have yet to be indicted.

The journalists are accused of acting on behalf of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) — a catch-all charge that can be randomly leveled against anyone who highlights institutionalized impunity against Turkey’s large Kurdish minority. The Ankara Security Directorate said in a statement that the journalists were engaged in illegal “organizational activities” and produced news that “incited hatred and spite among the people” and that they functioned "under the Press Council of the PKK/KCK terrorist organization.” It published footage of the detentions on its official Twitter feed.

“Turkey regularly abuses anti-terror laws to target journalists, who are frequently subject to arbitrary charges and imprisonment. The detentions fit a pattern of serious attacks on press freedom on Turkey,” said the International Press Institute, a Vienna-based watchdog, in a statement today.

Turkey ranks among the world’s top jailer of journalists, and pressure on the media is intensifying in the run-up to parliamentary and presidential elections that are due to be held by June 18. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose Justice and Development Party (AKP) has ruled the country since 2002, has seen its popularity dip as the country grapples with runaway inflation and growing youth unemployment.

The Coalition for Women in Journalism, an advocacy group, said that Turkey ranked first among countries detaining women journalists with 28 detained since the start of this year, followed by Russia, which has detained 20 of them.

Last week, parliament approved a “censorship” bill that makes “disseminating false information” a criminal offense with prison sentences of between one to three years, just one of a swathe of other draconian amendments targeting free speech and online communication.

Zekeriya Gozupek, a reporter for Mezopotamya who is based in Diyarbakir, detects a link between today’s arrests and calls to investigate allegations by the PKK that the Turkish military is using chemical weapons against it in Iraqi Kurdistan. The allegations, which have yet to be substantiated, have been widely covered by Mezopotamya and other pro-Kurdish news outlets. “It’s clear that the government wants to put the lid on such reporting through its usual intimidation tactics, but we refuse to yield,” Gozupek told Al-Monitor.

Turkey categorically denies the use of any chemical agents. Turkey’s Ministry of National Defense said in an Oct. 20 statement that the claims were “baseless and untruthful” and vowed to pursue its fight against the PKK until the “last terrorist is immobilized.”

Sebnem Korur Financi, president of the Turkish Medical Association and who was among those calling for a probe, is under investigation herself for doing so. Erdogan said he was considering getting “Turkish” removed from the association’s name because he believed the Turkish people were disturbed at having “such an individual” heading an organization whose name began with “Turk.”

Hikmet Adal, a reporter for Bianet, one of Turkey’s oldest independent online news organizations, said the reasons for Kurdish reporters being targeted are multifold.

One is that they relay news from the Kurdish region that would otherwise not be reported, be it on corruption among administrators appointed by the government to replace democratically elected Kurdish mayors, booted out on specious terror charges, or on Turkish military abuses inside northern Syria. “It also reflects the age-old official mindset, one of viewing Kurdish journalists as conveying the views of the enemy, of propagating terrorism,” Adal told Al-Monitor. “The aim is to silence them.”

Reporting on Turkey’s festering Kurdish problem has always been risky business. At the height of the PKK insurgency in the 1990s, dozens of journalists and newspaper distributors in the southeast region were forcibly disappeared or killed. Reporters who traveled to the region would be tailed by police, arbitrarily detained and even prosecuted.

In the early days of AKP rule, pressure on journalists greatly eased as Erdogan embarked on a campaign of democratic reforms aimed at winning full European Union membership for his country. Those days are long gone, says Bianet’s Adal. On a recent trip to Diyarbakir to show solidarity with their detained colleagues, Adal and fellow journalists were followed around by undercover as well as uniformed police. When the group visited JINNEWS’ office, riot police in armored vans stood guard outside. “And when we read out our statement in support of our friends, there were more police than journalists to cover the event,” Adal recalled. “Just imagine what life is like for those of us who live there.”