ECOCIDE

Return to sender: waste stranded at sea stirs toxic dispute

AFP
September 27, 2024

Aerial view of the port in Duress, Albania, the departure point for 102 containers allegedly carrying toxic waste bound for Thailand -

 Copyright POOL/AFP/File Franck ROBICHON

Briseida Mema with Camille Bouissou in Belgrade

Amid the scorching heat at the Albanian port of Durres, 102 containers set sail for Thailand in early July, sparking a high-seas drama that highlighted the perils of the global waste trade.

According to official papers reviewed by AFP, the containers were filled with waste material that was set to be processed and destroyed far from Europe’s shores.

But weeks later, the containers are still adrift in the Mediterranean, following a months-long back-and-forth over what exactly was being shipped and whether it was legal.

Enormous amounts of waste are regularly sent to developing countries — part of a global industry that sees Western nations outsourcing its treatment to Asia and Africa.

The practise has long been denounced by environmental organisations.

Despite the criticism, the waste management trade continues to be a multibillion-dollar enterprise. The handling of illicit material alone generates between nine billion and 11 billion euros each year, according to the Financial Action Task Force, a leading watchdog tracking illegal trade.

The World Bank estimates that approximately two billion tonnes of waste are produced annually across the globe — expected to reach 3.4 billion tonnes by 2050.

Within those mountains of waste, regulators have deemed a certain portion hazardous.

These include substances that can be harmful to human health or the environment due to their chemical reactivity or toxicity levels.

To better regulate the industry, the Basel Convention — signed in 1989 by 53 countries — prohibits members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) from sending waste to non-member states.

But Albania, which is not a member of the Paris-based economic forum, is free to ship waste abroad.

– Industrial odyssey –

The material stowed away in the 102 containers originated from the Turkish-owned Kurum International steel plant in central Albania’s Elbasan, according to Albanian media reports.

The waste was first purchased by the Albanian company Sokolaj, which then sold the material to its subsidiary in Croatia, GS Minerals, with the cargo set to be offloaded in Thailand for processing.

According to documents seen by AFP, Sokolaj labelled the waste as “iron oxide” — a substance that is not prohibited for shipment or considered hazardous.

An analysis of the substance on the containers was conducted by a Croatian laboratory based in Zagreb, according to Sokolaj.

When contacted by AFP, the laboratory refused to comment, saying the “information can only be given to clients”.

Sokolaj itself has not responded to questions on what is in the containers. The company and its Croatian subsidiary both refused AFP’s requests for comment.

The containers then departed for the Italian port of Trieste, where they were loaded onto two cargo ships operated by global shipping giant Maersk — the Campton and the Candor.

As the ships cruised along the African coastline, an organisation specialising in tracking toxic waste, the Basel Action Network (BAN), contacted Maersk.

A whistleblower had called the network’s hotline to report that the containers were carrying not just iron oxide, but also toxic waste.

BAN asked Maersk to stop the ships when they were near the South African coast, according to its president, Jim Puckett.

The ships did not respond and turned off their transponders as they set sail for Singapore, according to BAN.

BAN then tipped off the Thai authorities, who refused to allow the containers entry.

“The government refused to import more than 800 tonnes of electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) from Albania,” said the Thai Department of Industrial Works in a statement.

EAFD is a hazardous byproduct produced during the making of steel.

Penchome Saetang, an environmental activist working with the Thai government, said the tip led to the country’s refusal.

“After receiving information from NGOs, the government suspected it could be EAFD,” Saetang told AFP.

Following the notice from the Thai government, Maersk told AFP it handed off the containers to the shipping company MSC in Singapore to return the containers to Albania.

“Maersk Campton and Maersk Candor were carrying those suspected containers on behalf of another shipping line. None of these containers have been declared to contain hazardous waste,” Maersk told AFP.

“Had they been declared to contain hazardous waste, Maersk would have declined to carry them.”

MSC declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

– Back to Europe –

In late August, the 102 containers onboard two ships set sail back to Europe.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has defended the shipments and lashed out at critics — yet refused to allow the containers to return to the country’s ports.

“Nothing proves that this waste is toxic,” he told a recent parliamentary session.

“Even if they were hazardous products, their transport is neither prohibited in Albania nor worldwide,” added Rama, saying the accusations were based on “malicious suspicions”.

BAN fired back in an open letter to the Albanian government, saying containers carrying hazardous materials cannot be shipped without the written consent of the exporter, transit countries and authorities at the final destination.

“None of these countries have given their consent and, therefore, if it turns out that the containers contain hazardous waste, the shipments constitute ‘illegal trafficking’ under Article 9 of the Basel Convention,” BAN said.

In Albania, prosecutors have opened an investigation into the incident in cooperation with the European Anti-Fraud Office and international partners, according to an official statement.

As of Thursday morning, the 102 containers are still at sea, with the cargo on one ship off the coast of Italy and another near Egypt.

“There is a chance we could be wrong,” Puckett from BAN said about the material in question.

“But I doubt it.”

bme-tak-cbo-ljv/ds/jhb

US returns to Iran latest batch of ancient clay tablets

GOP WILL LOSE THEIR TINY MINDS


AFP
September 27, 2024

Achaemenid-era clay tablets returned from the United States and on display at Iran's National Museum in Tehran on October 2, 2019 - Copyright AFP ADEK BERRY

The United States has returned to Iran more than 1,000 clay tablets dating from the Achaemenid-era, official media said, reporting the sixth such handover of its kind.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency said Thursday evening that the tablets, 1,100 in all, were returned with President Masoud Pezeshkian who had attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Found at the ruins of Persepolis, the capital of the Persian Achaemenid Empire which ruled from the 6th to 4th centuries BC in southern Iran, the repatriated tablets reflect how the ancient society was organised and its economy managed.

The tablets constitute records of “the rituals and the way of life of our ancestors”, said Ali Darabi, vice-minister of cultural heritage, cited by IRNA.

The tablets were returned to Iran by the University of Chicago’s Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa, formerly known as the Oriental Institute.

A large portion of the tablets were returned in three batches between 1948 and 2004 before the rest were blocked by legal action until 2018.

More than 3,500 tablets were repatriated in September, 2023.

“The American side undertook to return the rest,” Darabi said, cited by Iran’s ISNA news agency.

At least 3,661 killed this year in Haiti violence: UN

 AFP
September 27, 2024

Haiti has plunged into virtual anarchy

 - Copyright AFP ADEK BERRY
Robin MILLARD

More than 3,600 people have been killed this year in the “senseless” gang violence ravaging Haiti, the United Nations said on Friday.

The Western Hemisphere’s poorest country has plunged into virtual anarchy, with gangs taking over the capital, Port-au-Prince, and the security and health systems collapsing.

About 600,000 people were displaced in the first six months of 2024 and 1,280 were injured in gang violence, including 295 women and 63 children, the UN rights office (OHCHR) said in a report.

In that period, at least 893 individuals, including 25 children, were kidnapped and held for ransom by criminal groups, who are vying for power in a vacuum left by a political crisis and weak state authority.

“Latest figures documented by the UN Human Rights Office indicate that at least 3,661 people have been killed since January this year, maintaining the high levels of violence seen in 2023,” the rights office said.

“No more lives should be lost to this senseless criminality,” said Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The OHCHR urged the Haitian authorities and the international community to do more to protect people on the Caribbean island.

It said the gangs had changed their modus operandi this year.

While some victims were struck by random gunfire, others were executed in broad daylight for allegedly informing the authorities or opposing gang activities.

– Fear and subjugation –

“Some of those victims had their bodies mutilated with machetes and then burned.

“Gangs filmed the scenes and shared them widely on social media to instil fear and control the population,” the report said.

The report said gangs had continued to use sexual violence “to punish, spread fear and subjugate populations”.

It said that at least 860 people were killed and 393 injured during police operations and patrols across Port-au-Prince, including at least 36 children, in what could constitute use of unnecessary and disproportionate force.

The gangs have also recruited large numbers of children into their ranks, it added.

An estimated 1.6 million people in Haiti face emergency-level food insecurity.

In October 2023, the UN Security Council gave the green light to send a multinational stabilisation force, led by Kenya, to assist the Haitian police.

Kenyan President William Ruto told the UN General Assembly on Thursday his country would complete the deployment of the 2,500-strong Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) by January.

– ‘Wreaking havoc’ –

An advance contingent of approximately 430 MSS personnel has been deployed so far in Haiti.

Besides Kenyans, it includes around 20 soldiers from Jamaica and Belize.

Ruto said Kenya and other African and Caribbean countries were ready to deploy but were being hindered by insufficient equipment, logistics and funding.

Turk said the stabilisation force needed more equipment and personnel.

“I welcome recent positive steps, such as the establishment of a Transitional Presidential Council, the new transitional government and the deployment of the first contingents of the MSS,” he said.

“It is clear, however, that the mission needs adequate and sufficient equipment and personnel to counter the criminal gangs effectively and sustainably, and stop them spreading further and wreaking havoc on people’s lives.”

Turk urged the Haitian authorities to reform the police and other state institutions crippled by endemic corruption, including the judiciary.

He said the international community should comprehensively implement the arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze imposed by the UN Security Council, to stem gang violence.

Review: The science of how bugs shape human culture

By Dr. Tim Sandle
September 27, 2024

DIGITAL JOURNAL

Butterfly on a leaf. — © Image by Tim Sandle

Insects are essential for the health of the planet and humans are more reliant upon the activities of insects than might appear. This is not only in relation to pollinators.

Insects are also embedded in cultural practices, manifest in art and form part of our societal relations. How deep does this go? The answer is very, as a fascinating new book points out.

Imagine this scene: you are sitting in an intricately carved chair, rocking back and forth to the rhythm of music from a bygone era. Your clothes are comfortable and colourful, your hair is perfectly in place, and there are oil paintings and textiles on the walls. Wood furniture, trim, and floors glimmer with a waxen sheen. Everything around you is composed of or inspired by bugs.

In a new popular science text, renowned entomologist Barrett Klein, PhD examines this phenomenon of how humans and insects relate on a cultural level in The Insect Epiphany: How Our Six-Legged Allies Shape Human Culture (Timber Press | Hachette; Oct 15, 2024).

The central theme is that our world would look very different if we did not have insects. This is not only because they are pollinators but because they inspire so many aspects of our culture.Bee on a flower. Image by Tim Sandle.

Across the pages Klein investigates mysteries of sleep in societies of insects, creates entomo-art, and is ever on the search for curious connections that bind our lives with our six-legged allies.

Klein is well-placed to write the book. He studied entomology at Cornell University and the University of Arizona, fabricated natural history exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History, worked with honeybees for his PhD at the University of Texas at Austin, and spearheaded the Pupating Lab at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse.

For many years, Klein has celebrated biodiversity and the intersection of science and art and believes fully that embracing the beauty of insects can transform our lives and our world.

“The spellbinding diversity of insects is complemented by a diversity of humans and cultures,” Klein says, resulting in boundless inspiration and innovation.

The Insect Epiphany explores the ways we use insects’ bodies (for silk, pigments, food, medicine), how we try to recreate them (for flight technology, architecture, social structures), and how we mimic them (for fighting, yoga, music, fashion).

Throughout the book, the enormous impact insects have had on our civilization is highlighted by over 100 images: from ancient etchings to avant-garde art, from bug-based meals to haute couture fashion, and other interesting topics.

Butterly on a plant. Image by Tim Sandle.

“We can revel in knowing we are deeply connected to our multifarious and multifaceted neighbors. We can choose to celebrate insects, knowing that without them we would sacrifice significant aspects of our heritage, our humanity, and much of life as we know it.,” Klein says.

Celebrating the myriad ways insects have inspired many aspects of what makes us human, the book is a deeply insightful, utterly captivating, and surprisingly delightful love letter to bugs.

CLIMATE CRISIS

Why South America is burning


By AFP
September 27, 2024

A helicopter sprays water over a bushfire on a hill in Quito on September 25, 2024 - Copyright AFP Galo Paguay
Juan Sebastian Serrano with AFP offices in South America

A record wave of wildfires, fueled by severe drought linked to climate change and deforestation, is causing havoc across South America.

The blazes have killed at least 30 people, left cities shrouded in toxic smoke and caused millions of dollars in economic losses.

This fire season is “completely different” from the one that ravaged forests in Brazil, Peru and Bolivia in 2019, according to Brazilian environmentalist Erika Berenguer, a researcher at Oxford University.

At the time, rain helped douse the fires, which in Brazil were chiefly started by farmers taking advantage of lax legislation under then far-right president Jair Bolsonaro to clear land for crops and ranching.

This year, the continent is in the throes of a severe drought. The Amazon basin, usually one of the wettest places on Earth, is experiencing the worst fires in nearly two decades, according to the EU’s Copernicus observatory.

Berenguer blamed climate change for making the Amazon “highly flammable.”

– How bad are the fires? –

Between January 1 and September 26, more than 400,000 fires were recorded across South America, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE).

“In nine months we have already surpassed the number of outbreaks recorded in all of 2023,” Berenguer noted.

In Brazil, the flames have consumed 40.2 million hectares (99 million acres) of vegetation this year, far above the average of 31 million hectares in each of the last 10 years, according to Copernicus.

A dozen firefighters have died on duty, according to local media.

In Ecuador, the mayor of the capital Quito declared this week the Andean city was “under attack” from 27 fires which forced the evacuation of over 100 families before being brought under control.

Ecuador had declared an emergency in several provinces, as has Peru, where 21 people have been killed by fires since July. Most were small-scale farmers.

Several fires are also blazing in Argentina and in Colombia, at opposite ends of the continent.

– What’s causing the fires? –

Experts and national authorities point to a combination of combustible factors, chiefly droughts aggravated by climate change and slash-and-burn agriculture.

“It’s a clear example of climate change. If anyone thought it didn’t exist, well look, here it is,” said Ecuadoran Environment Minister Ines Manzano.

In Peru and Bolivia, some of the fires are believed to have been started by farmers burning land to make it more fertile for planting, a traditional practice in the Andean countries that is tolerated by the authorities.

In the Brazilian Amazon, fires lit by both subsistence farmers and the agribusiness industry to clear forest for cattle or crops were fanned by the worst drought in the country’s recent history.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has pledged to put a stop to illegal Amazon deforestation by 2030, considers most of the fires to be “criminal” in origin.

In some places, the fires are started by arsonists.

One person has been arrested in Quito and dozens in Argentina and Brazil on suspicion of maliciously starting fires.

– How are people affected? –

The fires have dramatically reduced air quality in several cities.

Sao Paulo, the largest city in Latin America, was ranked the most polluted city in the world in early September, according to Swiss company IQAir.

A large part of Brazil remains shrouded in acrid smoke that wafted as far south as Montevideo and Buenos Aires earlier this month, causing a phenomenon known as “black rain.”

Inhabitants of many of Brazilian cities are experiencing respiratory problems and other symptoms such as stinging eyes.

In Bolivia, health authorities have recommended people wear face masks because of the poor air quality.

The region’s economies are also feeling the burn. Losses in the Brazilian agricultural sector amounted to $2.7 billion between June and August, principally sugarcane harvests.

In Ecuador, nearly 45,000 farm animals have died after more than two months without rain.

– What are governments doing? –


Thousands of firefighters and soldiers have been deployed across the continent to tackle the blazes.

“Everyone wants to hire thousands of firefighters, buy aircraft, etc, etc. That’s fine but it’s too little, too late,” Berenguer said.

“We need to prevent fires, because once they become big they are very difficult to fight,” she said, advocating for tougher measures against deforestation and planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

burs-jss/cb/mlr/acb

Oxford Vaccine Group: 30 years battling ‘deadly six’ diseases with major art installation


By Dr. Tim Sandle
September 27, 2024

DIGITAL JOURNAL


The installation consists of six, three-dimensional sculptures woven in English willow. By Angela Palmer (with permission)

To promote scientific education, a major art installation featuring dramatically upscaled bacteria, viruses and a parasite will be unveiled on 26 September at Oxford University’s Museum of Natural History.

The aim is to celebrate 30 years of vaccine development at the Oxford Vaccine Group (OVG) tackling some of the world’s most deadly diseases.

The event is called The Deadly Six: Oxford’s Battle with the Microbial World and it has been designed by acclaimed Scottish artist Angela Palmer. The event will be opened by leading scientists like Prof. Sir Andrew Pollard and Prof. Teresa Lambe OBE together with the creative artist, Angela Palmer.

Read more: Promoting clean energy through art

The Oxford Vaccine Group which was established in 1994, and set out to provide scientific research into the development and implementation of vaccines, in particular diseases for which there were at the time no effective vaccines.

The installation consists of six, three-dimensional sculptures woven in English willow, representing different diseases for which OVG has developed a vaccine: pneumonia, meningitis, typhoid, COVID, malaria and Ebola. Five of these will be suspended in the central room of the Museum, within the How Evolution Works gallery, with the sixth – a 2.4m long representation of Ebola weighing 75kg – lying at floor level.

“For 30 years, OVG has been working at the forefront of vaccine research in the fight against these diseases and many others, saving millions of lives, and helping people of all ages live longer, happier and healthier lives,” Professor Pollard explains “and it is really exciting to see Angela bring this to life in her artwork.”

Palmer, whose sculptures are in museums worldwide, previously created a glass sculpture of the original Wuhan coronavirus particle sphere at 8 million times its size, which was unveiled at the Museum of Natural History and is now on display in London’s Science Museum.

“I had originally planned to use the same technique” explains Palmer, “However apart from the coronavirus, none of these have been modelled in 3D.”

“I was battling to find an alternative concept” she continues, “and came across a collection of strange, three-dimensional shapes woven in straw while on holiday. One particularly reminded me of the meningitis bacteria form, and it struck that I could explore creating the entire installation in willow.”

“Willow was immediately appealing to me” Palmer adds “It is a native British tree and is imbued with medical associations dating back some 3,500 years.”

Palmer then tracked down two of the foremost weavers in the UK, Jenny Crisp and Issy Wilkes to collaborate on the project. Supported by a further renowned willow weaver in Mel Bastier, the sculptures were then created, formed from the artist’s drawings and files of scientific illustrations, testing the potential capabilities of willow to its limits.

Sound will also feature within the installation, with a speaker inserted into the sculpture representing the malaria parasite. This plays the sinister but familiar high-pitched ‘whine’ of one of the most lethal mosquitoes in the world (the sound of Anopheles Funestus will be played on a loop, pausing 10 seconds every minute to symbolise the fact that today a child under the age of 5 dies of malaria every 60 seconds).

The installation has been partly funded by the University of Oxford’s Gardens, Libraries and Museums (GLAM) division and will be open to members of the public from 26 September 2024 to 5 January 2025.

Abortion rights worldwide: a snapshot


By AFP
September 28, 2024

A rally for abortion rights outside the US Supreme Court in June 2024

 - Copyright AFP Simon Wohlfahrt

Olivier THIBAULT

Despite being liberalised in scores of countries over recent decades, women’s access to abortion remains a precarious right globally with numerous countries restricting the procedure or outlawing it altogether.

Traditional Catholic bastions such as Ireland and Mexico have lifted bans in recent years, but the United States has abolished nationwide access and some states maintain total bans.

According to the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) advocacy group, only 34 percent of women of reproductive age live in countries where abortion is available on demand. It says backstreet abortions lead to 39,000 deaths per year.

On International Safe Abortion Day, here is a summary of rules on the procedure in various countries:



– Easing access –



Over the past 30 years, more than 60 countries have changed their laws to facilitate access to abortion.

In March 2024, France became the first country to enshrine the right in its constitution.

In September 2023, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled to decriminalise abortion, bringing it in line with Argentina, which legalised it in 2020, plus Colombia, Cuba and Uruguay.

Ireland, a longtime bastion of Catholicism, legalised abortion in 2018 following a resounding yes vote in a referendum that overturned a constitutional ban.

Northern Ireland decriminalised it in 2019 — the last part of the United Kingdom to do so — as did South Korea.

New Zealand, Thailand and the west African state of Benin have since followed suit. The leadership of Sierra Leone has also approved its decriminalisation.

– Clamping down –

Abortion remains banned in around 20 countries, mostly in Africa and Latin America, according to the CRR.

El Salvador adopted a total ban in 1998 — even applying to cases where the woman’s or foetus’s life is in danger — with prison sentences of up to eight years.

Honduras hardened its total ban in 2021 by writing it into its constitution.

In Argentina, President Javier Milei, while running for office in 2023, promised to hold a referendum on banning abortion.

In Europe, only Andorra and the Vatican have total bans. Malta allows abortion only in cases where the mother’s life is in danger or the foetus has no chance of survival.

Poland’s constitutional court sparked protests in 2020 after ruling against abortion in cases where the foetus is malformed.

Abortion in the staunchly Catholic country is only permitted in cases of rape, incest or if the mother’s life is in danger. Recent efforts to liberalise the law there have failed.

Hungary tightened its abortion law in 2022, obliging women contemplating the procedure to observe the foetus’s “vital functions” such as the heartbeat.

In Brazil and Chile, abortion is only allowed in case of rape, risk to the mother and serious malformation of the foetus.

Proposals have been made in Brazil to apply jail terms of up to 20 years for aborting after 22 weeks of pregnancy, even in cases of rape.

– US U-turn –

In 2022, the conservative-dominated Supreme Court of the United States overturned the landmark 1973 “Roe v Wade” decision that had enshrined a woman’s right to a termination for half a century.

The court ruled that individual states can permit or restrict the procedure themselves.

Some 20 states, mainly in the south and centre, have since decreed bans or heavy restrictions on abortion.

States on the eastern and west coast have, by contrast, expanded access to terminations.

Mexico’s Sheinbaum to take reins of nation facing huge challenges


By AFP
September 28, 2024

Mexican president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum celebrates after her election victory - Copyright AFP Gerardo Luna
Daniel Rook

Claudia Sheinbaum will be sworn in on Tuesday as Mexico’s first woman president, taking charge of the violence-plagued Latin American nation at a time of mounting security, economic and diplomatic challenges.

The 62-year-old former Mexico City mayor and ruling party heavyweight will face immediate tests from cartel violence, frictions with key international allies and a backlash against controversial judicial reforms.

A scientist by training, Sheinbaum won a landslide election victory in June with a pledge to continue the left-wing reform agenda of outgoing leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a close ally.

Sheinbaum’s relations with the United States, Mexico’s main trading partner and a key ally in areas including security and migration, will depend to a large extent on who wins the US election on November 5.

Sheinbaum could probably develop “a quite good relationship with Kamala Harris because they’re very much alike,” said Pamela Starr, a professor of political science and international relations at the University of Southern California.

“They’re both women who will be the first female president of their countries. So they’re both interested in advancing women’s issues and women’s rights. They’re both very much on the same page when it comes to climate change. And they’re both very much progressives,” she said.

Relations with Donald Trump, if he wins, would “be much more difficult, in part because he doesn’t have as much respect for female leaders as he does for male leaders,” Starr said.

And because Sheinbaum is not a populist, “he won’t see a kindred soul in her like he saw in Lopez Obrador,” she added.

Trump’s vow to deport significant numbers of undocumented people would present a major challenge for Mexican-US relations, according to experts.

In that case, “passions on both sides of the border will become inflamed and the relationship could be put to a severe test,” said Michael Shifter, an expert at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington.

Even before taking office, Sheinbaum has found herself engulfed in a diplomatic row with Spain, another key economic partner, after she refused to invite King Felipe VI to her inauguration, accusing him of failing to acknowledge harm caused by colonization.

-‘ More pragmatic’ –

While Sheinbaum’s presidency is unlikely to usher in a radical change of direction for the world’s most populous Spanish-speaking country, home to 129 million people, she is expected to bring her own style of leadership, experts said.

“She’s more pragmatic and less ideological than Lopez Obrador,” Starr told AFP.

Lopez Obrador leaves office due to the country’s single-term limit, enjoying an approval rating of around 70 percent.

He hands Sheinbaum the reins of a nation where murders and kidnappings occur daily and ultra-violent cartels involved in drug trafficking, people smuggling and other crimes control vast swaths of territory.

In the northwestern state of Sinaloa, cartel infighting has left dozens of people dead in recent weeks.

Gender-based violence is another major issue with around 10 women or girls murdered every day across the country.

“Sheinbaum’s chief challenge will be tackling Mexico’s deteriorating security situation,” said Shifter.

“Lopez Obrador mainly relied on rhetoric to address spreading cartel activity, but Sheinbaum will likely be data-driven and technocratic in her approach to this vexing problem and will try to improve the effectiveness of the police,” he added.

Lopez Obrador prioritized addressing the root causes of crime such as poverty and inequality — a policy that he calls “hugs, not bullets.”

In his final weeks in office, the self-proclaimed anti-corruption fighter pushed through controversial reforms including the election of all judges by popular vote.

Critics warned the changes would make it easier for politicians and organized crime to influence the courts.

The reforms upset foreign investors as well as key trade partners the United States and Canada.

Once in office, Sheinbaum is likely to seek ways to allay the concerns, Shifter said.

“By all accounts she is pragmatic and understands that Mexico cannot afford to antagonize both governments and alienate investors,” he added.


World
In Acapulco and across Mexico, violence poses huge test for new president


ByAFP


PublishedSeptember 28, 2024


A member of the National Guard at the police headquarters in Acapulco 

- Copyright AFP ANWAR AMRO

Samir TOUNSI

Gunfire, murders and threats — insecurity is part of everyday life across much of Mexico and one of the main challenges awaiting Claudia Sheinbaum when she becomes president on Tuesday.

A shooting this month in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco left two people wounded in a seafront bar. In late August, a human head was thrown in front of the establishment.

When contacted about the incident, a bar manager cut the questioner short.

Locals speculated that he had refused to pay “rent” to one of two local gangs.

Farther back from the seafront, the El Progreso neighborhood is one of those most affected by violence in Acapulco.

A man was killed in a cobbler’s shop a few days ago, a resident said. “It’s a daily occurrence,” he added with a sigh.

“Six murders in Acapulco” was the headline in the newspaper El Sur on September 10.

“That’s a total of 26 crimes this month, presumably linked to organized crime,” the local newspaper said, without naming the two rival gangs involved in extortion and drugs.

Acapulco, once a playground for the rich and famous, has lost its luster over the last decade as foreign tourists have been spooked by bloodshed that has made it one of the world’s most violent cities.

The insecurity is hardly unique to the city in the southern state of Guerrero.

Spiraling criminal violence, much of it linked to drug trafficking and gangs, has seen more than 450,000 people murdered in the Latin American nation since 2006.

But in the heart of El Progreso, the mood on a recent day was one of celebration at the municipal police headquarters.

Under a blazing sun, Mayor Abelina Lopez Rodriguez handed out new uniforms to officers.

Giving a speech, she made no mention of violence, preferring to talk about year-end bonuses instead.

“Acapulco is a paradise,” she told AFP.

“We must continue working to create better opportunities for our police officers and for society,” added Lopez Rodriguez, a lawyer by profession.

“Peace is built in hearts,” she added.

Corruption comes from another level of government, her entourage explained off-camera.

“Of course” municipal police can be infiltrated by gangs, the new head of public security, Eduardo Bailleres Mendoza, told AFP.

He wants officers to undergo random drug testing “to prevent staff from also being victims of the use of toxic substances” — and thus susceptible to the influence of organized crime.

A municipal police officer earns just 14,000 pesos ($710) per month, he said.

– Drones and bombs –



On the eve of the Independence Day holiday weekend in mid-September, hoteliers were optimistic.

Tourists will come, they said.

But when the area has been in the headlines recently, it has not been for good news.

In nearby Coyuca de Benitez, at the foot of the Sierra Madre mountain range, a candidate was murdered on the eve of June 2 municipal elections.

Some 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Acapulco, the inhabitants of Santa Rosa de Lima said they are living under pressure from local cartel La Familia Michoacana.

The gang has been using drones against communities that resist extortion.

“On April 21, they lobbed bombs, more than 20. Several hectares of forest were burned,” said Azucena Rosas Garcia, leader of the mountain community of San Antonio Texas.

She showed images that she said were recovered from the memory card of a downed drone. An investigation was opened months later.

Suddenly, as she spoke, armed men drove by in a red pickup truck.

They were self-defense militias, explained Victor Espino, a local community leader who said that he himself was arrested by the police in possession of a weapon.

“When it suits them, the law exists. When it doesn’t suit them, they don’t apply it,” the avocado farmer said.

“They don’t defend us, nor let us defend ourselves,” he added.

Nearly 200,000 people have been murdered in six years under outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who prioritized tackling the root causes of crime — a strategy he calls “hugs, not bullets.”

President-elect Sheinbaum, who comes from the same left-wing party, has pledged to continue that approach while improving coordination between security forces and state prosecutors.

In the northwestern state of Sinaloa, cartel infighting has left dozens of people dead in recent weeks, underscoring the magnitude of the task facing Sheinbaum.

 Nepal shuts schools as floods and landslides kill more than 120

The death toll from flooding and landslides caused by heavy rains in Nepal has reached at least 129, with dozens of people still missing, officials said Sunday, warning that the toll was expected to rise further as reports come in from villages across the mountainous country.


Issued on: 29/09/2024 - 

Bagmati River is seen flooded due to heavy rains in an aerial view of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, on September 28, 2024. 

© Gopen Rai, AP

Nepal has shut schools for three days after landslides and floods triggered by two days of heavy rain across the Himalayan nation killed 129 people, with 62 missing, officials said on Sunday.

The floods brought traffic and normal activity to a standstill in the Kathmandu valley, where 37 deaths were recorded in a region home to 4 million people and the capital.

Authorities said students and their parents faced difficulties as university and school buildings damaged by the rains needed repair.

"We have urged the concerned authorities to close schools in the affected areas for three days," Lakshmi Bhattarai, a spokesperson for the education ministry, told Reuters.

Some parts of the capital reported rain of up to 322.2 mm (12.7 inches), pushing the level of its main Bagmati river up 2.2 m (7 ft) past the danger mark, experts said.

But there were some signs of respite on Sunday morning, with the rains easing in many places, said Govinda Jha, a weather forecaster in the capital.

"There may be some isolated showers, but heavy rains are unlikely," he said.

Television images showed police rescuers in knee-high rubber boots using picks and shovels to clear away mud and retrieve 16 bodies of passengers from two buses swept away by a massive landslide at a site on the key route into Kathmandu.

Weather officials in the capital blamed the rainstorms on a low-pressure system in the Bay of Bengal extending over parts of neighbouring India close to Nepal.

Haphazard development amplifies climate change risks in Nepal, say climate scientists at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

"I’ve never before seen flooding on this scale in Kathmandu," said Arun Bhakta Shrestha, an environmental risk official at the centre.

In a statement, it urged the government and city planners to "urgently" step up investment in, and plans for, infrastructure, such as underground stormwater and sewage systems, both of the "grey", or engineered kind, and "green", or nature-based type.

The impact of the rains was aggravated by poor drainage due to unplanned settlement and urbanisation efforts, construction on floodplains, lack of areas for water retention, and encroachment on the Bagmati river, it added.

The level in the Koshi river in Nepal's southeast has started to fall, however, said Ram Chandra Tiwari, the region's top bureaucrat.

The river, which brings deadly floods to India's eastern state of Bihar nearly every year, had been running above the danger mark at a level nearly three times normal, he said.

(Reuters)

Nepal dam-building spree powers electric vehicle boom


By AFP
September 29, 2024


Kathmandu is ground zero of an incipient transport revolution set to see the clapped out cars that clog its traffic-snarled streets make way for emissions-free alternatives - Copyright AFP Prakash MATHEMA
Anup OJHA

Taxi driver Surendra Parajuli’s decision to buy an electric cab would have been unthinkable a decade ago, when chronic power cuts left Nepalis unable to light their homes at night.

But a dam-building spree has led to dirt-cheap energy prices in a landlocked Himalayan republic otherwise entirely dependent on fossil fuel imports, meaning the switch has put more money in his pocket.

“It has meant huge savings for me,” Parajuli, the proud new owner of a battery-powered and Chinese-made BYD Atto 3, told AFP in the capital Kathmandu.

“It gives 300 kilometres (186 miles) in a single charge and costs me a tenth of what petrol does. And it’s environmentally friendly.”

Kathmandu is ground zero of an incipient transport revolution set to see the clapped out cars that clog its traffic-snarled streets make way for emissions-free alternatives.

More than 40,000 electric vehicles are on the roads around the mountainous country, according to official estimates — a small fraction of the 6.2 million motor vehicles currently in service.

But demand is insatiable: more than a quarter of those vehicles were imported in the 12 months to July, a near-threefold increase from the previous year.

Neighbouring China, now the dominant player in electric vehicles globally, is supplying nearly 70 percent of the market.

“EVs are genuinely suitable for Nepalis,” Yajya Raj Bhatt, a prospective buyer at an electric vehicle motor show, told AFP.

“Before, we had to rely on petrol cars, but now we can drive independently.”



– ‘Great potential’ –



More than four in five Nepalis did not have access to electricity at the turn of the century, according to the International Energy Agency.

But rapid investment in dams, which generate 99 percent of Nepal’s baseload power, has transformed the energy grid since.

Hydropower output has increased fourfold in the past eight years, according to government figures, while 95 percent of the population now has access to electricity.

The country has already signed deals to export surplus power to coal-dependent India and has its sights set on future revenues by raising its current 3,200 megawatts of installed power generation capacity to 30,000 megawatts over the next decade.

Making electricity universal, and universally cheap, has the potential to jumpstart an economy that has historically depended on remittances from Nepalis working abroad.

Kulman Ghising of the Nepal Electricity Authority told AFP that the benefits have already been felt by setting the favourable conditions for widespread electric vehicle adoption.

Nepal is entirely dependent on imports from India to meet its fossil fuel needs, imposing additional costs on motorists, but Ghising said curbs on demand had saved the country around $224 million.

“The EVs have great potential for us,” he added. “EVs in India and Bangladesh need to depend on coal, but in Nepal, it’s fully green energy,” he said.

Road transport accounts for just over five percent of greenhouse gas emissions and has fuelled a worsening air pollution crisis.

Kathmandu was this year listed as one of the world’s most polluted cities for several days in April.

Experts say that getting more petrol-powered vehicles off the road will be a major step towards alleviating that problem.

Electric vehicles are subject to much lower import duties, and the government expects them to help Nepal reach its ambitious aim of becoming a net-zero greenhouse gas emitter by 2045.

Its plan aims to have electric vehicles account for 90 percent of all private vehicle purchases by the end of the decade.

– ‘Immediate problems’ –

But not everyone is convinced that the advent of Nepal’s electric vehicle boom portends an environmentally friendly future.

Nepal’s ambitious hydropower plans are contentious, with campaigners warning that the construction of new dams risk damaging sensitive ecological areas.

The government this year approved a new policy allowing the construction of dams that could impact previously protected areas, including forests, nature reserves and tiger habitats

Hydropower projects also face the risk of damage from floods and landslides common in the country, both of which are increasing in frequency and severity because of climate change.

Campaigners also say the government, in its rush to embrace electric vehicles, has neglected to make proper plans for managing the sizeable electronic waste burden.

EV lithium-ion batteries contain materials that are hazardous to humans and the environment, and their disposal is costly.

“The government does not seem far-sighted on this issue, it is just concerned with solving only immediate problems,” Nabin Bikash Maharjan of recycling enterprise Blue Waste to Value told AFP.

“It is high time for the government to prioritise it. Otherwise it will create additional pollution.”

ICYMI

Study: Climate change made rains that led to deadly European floods more likely, heavier


The Elbe river in Dresden, Germany, pictured on 16 September at 19 feet above its normal level after four days of the heaviest rain ever recorded in central Europe that a report out Wednesday says was made much more likely by human-induced climate change. 

File photo by Filip Singer/EPA-EFE


Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Extreme rainfall that triggered deadly floods in Europe killing at least 24 people earlier this month was made both more likely and worse by orders of magnitude by man-made climate change, a new study published Wednesday said.

The heaviest rain over a four-day period Sept. 12 through Sept. 15 in Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Austria and the Czech Republic was made at least twice as likely and 7% more intense due to human-induced climate change, according to research by academics for World Weather Attribution.

"In today's climate, which is 1.3 degrees Celsius warmer than at the beginning of the industrial period, a rainfall event of this magnitude is a very rare event expected to occur about once every 100 to 300 years," the group said in a news release.

"As the event is by far the heaviest ever recorded, the exact return time is difficult to estimate based on only about 100 years of observed data."

However, using observational data to isolate trends the researchers found heavy four-day rainfall events had become about twice as likely and 20% more intense since the pre-industrial era.

They calculated the changes in frequency and intensity specifically linked to man-made climate change by using models simulating heavy rain in the affected areas combined with their observation-based evaluations.

"All models showed an increase in intensity and likelihood as well, as expected from physical processes in a warming climate. The combined change, attributable to human-induced climate change, is roughly a doubling in likelihood and a 7% increase in intensity.

"The models are, however, not explicitly modeling convection, and new convection-permitting studies have shown that increases in precipitation may have been underestimated in lower-resolution climate models. Therefore, these results are conservative," WWA said.

The scientists warned that in a future warming scenario where the global temperature rises to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, their models show even heavier 4-day rainfall events, with rainfall intensity rising a further 5% and the likelihood jumping half as much again, compared with today.

They cautioned that these calculations too were likely underestimates of the real picture because existing climate models underplay the frequency of very heavy rainfall.

The trend is clear. If humans keep filling the atmosphere with fossil fuel emissions, the situation will be more severe," said study co-author and Poznan University climatologist Bogdan Chojnicki.

Every 1 degree Celsius of heating of the atmosphere allows it to hold 7% more moisture providing water is readily available, physicists have calculated.

The record-breaking rains unleashed on central Europe were the result of cold air from the Arctic colliding with wet air from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea creating Storm Boris which remained static for turning rivers into torrents that tore through major urban centers along their banks.

The death toll from the recent floods was much lower than in previous events in 2021, 2002 and 1997 when hundreds of people were killed thanks only to upgraded emergency management systems across Europe largely working well despite the higher intensity and larger scale, WWA said.

But they stressed that any loss of life highlighted the need for additional measures to account for climate change including constructing flood defences at scale and improving risk communication and emergency response plans.

The WWA research was a so-called "attribution study" that uses recognized scientific practices but has not gone through the normal peer review process prior to publication.