WHILE WALL ST. BOOMS

In US swing state Pennsylvania, inflation means ‘rent or eating’

By AFP
October 31, 2024

Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File SPENCER PLATT
Thomas URBAIN

In Pennsylvania, the biggest swing state prize in the US presidential election, renters — whether still working or retired — are struggling. But whether they choose Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, immediate relief is not a given.

In Dauphin county, home to the state capital Harrisburg, skyrocketing inflation, soaring rents and spiralling real estate prices have made it difficult to balance the budget every month.

Retiree Sonia Perez says her 35-year-old son Xavier, who works full-time as an elevator operator, faces a tough choice most of the time.

“This is what you’re looking at, rent or eating,” said the 72-year-old Perez, who was a teacher and herself receives a low-income housing voucher.

“Last time I was at his place, I opened the fridge, and there was only water.”

According to the latest data from the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania, some 16 percent of renters in Dauphin county are facing the threat of eviction. That is one of the highest rates in the state.

Perez herself doesn’t have a huge financial cushion.

Three years ago, she lost her house due to a fire from a short-circuit, a disaster that forced her to live temporarily in emergency housing provided by local charity Christian Churches United.

Unable to afford significant repairs, because she was not insured for the damages, she ended up selling her property for only $30,000. That money is now long gone.

“I’m struggling to pay rent,” Perez said of the monthly $275 she owes after her voucher, for a two-bedroom apartment in Harrisburg.

Xzavia, a supervisor in a mental institution who lives in Harrisburg, was recently threatened with eviction after she had to switch to part-time work when the youngest of her three sons was diagnosed with autism.

“I’m a single mom, everything comes from my pockets, so by the time you pay the rent and the bills, there’s really not much left,” she told AFP, declining to give her last name.

Xzavia, 33, faced issues getting aid, as her salary was considered too high for certain programs.

Thanks to the Beahive Affordable Housing Outreach group, which provided her with $500, she avoided the eviction.

The program is “what we call needs-based and not income-based,” Beahive founder Samara Scott said.

Xzavia had sought to break her lease, which ends in April, but her landlord threatened to sue her for the remaining rent that would have been owed, she told AFP.



– ‘Hidden valley’ discovered –



Finding a new place will also probably be difficult.

Perez says she had to submit about 50 applications before finding her current spot.

“There are just not enough homes,” said Scott. “I have people calling me every day asking me, ‘Do you know of a house?'”

Ryan Colquhoun, a broker at Harrisburg Property Management Group, said houses in the Harrisburg area used to sell for $100,000 or $125,000, while rents were once just a few hundred dollars a month.

“It sort of was like this hidden valley of affordability,” said Colquhoun, whose company manages about 2,000 rental properties. “It’s like the secret of the affordability of central Pennsylvania got out.”

Rents have shot up as much as 50 percent in the last three years, Colquhoun said.

“Some landlords that used to be a little more forgiving because the demand wasn’t there are now taking a hard line on going to eviction court,” said Michelle Miduri of the nonprofit Love In The Name of Christ of Greater Hershey.

Love INC provides money to financially stressed renters but also owns some emergency housing that can be used for up to a year.

Scott is working with Beahive to refurbish a house that can be rented to an especially needy family. She hopes to one day be able to create a “hive” — buy land and install container homes that could be rented and eventually owned.

Scott supports Harris, who has proposed a number of steps to boost the housing supply and make home purchases more affordable.

Trump has not proposed a comparable policy but says housing will become more available through deregulation and by curbing an influx of migrants.

Not everyone in Pennsylvania is sold — on either candidate.

“My husband is like, ‘Yeah, I’m just not going to vote. I don’t like either one of them,'” Scott recounted. “And I’m like, that’s not really an option.”

Lawn sign wars: US election drains neighborhood spirit


By AFP
October 31, 2024

Political tensions are disturbing neighborly relations ahead of the US election - Copyright AFP -

Ben Turner

It was a threatening message to his wife that made Adam Besthoff remove all but one of his Donald Trump lawn signs ahead of an election that has fueled divisions among Americans.

“They said they know where she lives and where she works,” the 49-year-old told AFP from his home in Fairfax, Virginia, where a single sign now remains with a picture of Trump raising his fist after surviving a July assassination attempt.

Besthoff, a plumber, had tried to deter the vandals — including by slathering oil from sardine tins onto the signs — but still, he says, more than a dozen were stolen in the run-up to the November 5 vote.

Democratic supporters have also been targeted in neighborhoods across the country split over the election.

In Missouri, a woman followed an Apple AirTag she had placed in her Kamala Harris sign to a car in a nearby town. When confronted, the owner opened their vehicle to reveal scores of Harris signs.

“I expected to find the AirTag, but not 59 signs. It was kind of like finding a dead body,” the woman, Laura McCaskill, told local media.

The White House race between Trump and Harris has polarized voters on hot-button issues from abortion rights to immigration laws.

A record-high 80 percent of US adults believe Americans are greatly divided on the most important values, according to a Gallup poll in September.

The humble lawn sign is part of American life, often used to promote a sports team or child’s school. But with political tensions playing out in local neighborhoods, the traditional election signs have proved too much for some.



– ‘It’s just crazy’ –



Besthoff — a Republican Party member living in a county that voted 70 percent Democrat in 2020 — anticipated some backlash to his pro-Trump lawn signs that boasted “Trump Secure Border, Kamala Open Border.”

But he was still shocked by the frequency and audacity of the vandalism — all of which were caught by his home’s security cameras and shared with AFP.

One video captures a hooded man ripping a sign from Besthoff’s front yard before tossing it down the street and driving away. Another shows a woman stuffing signs into a black garbage bag.

The final straw was online messages sent to his wife’s beauty salon, identifying where she lived and, according to Besthoff, threatening to tarnish her business with bad reviews if the signs were not removed.

“It’s just crazy,” Besthoff said. “My wife feels that if I put the signs up I’m instigating a ‘wild dog’ as she calls them.

“She is allowing me to put up one sign reluctantly, but she is also requesting that I remove the sign. Every day it’s a back and forth thing now between us.”

Matthew Hurtt, a Republican Party official in Virginia, told AFP he had received reports of at least 100 stolen signs since early October.

Lawn sign theft is a criminal offense in most US states but it is seldom prosecuted due to the low value of signs and difficulties in identifying thieves.

Yet for many, the greatest cost of these incidents is freedom of expression and a loss of neighborhood tolerance.

“It’s respecting your neighbors, respecting their First Amendment rights,” Harris supporter McCaskill said.

Hurtt agreed: “It has a chilling effect on political speech.”

Boeing again raises offer to end strike, union to vote Monday


By AFP
October 31, 2024

Boeing has made a better offer to workers in the Seattle area to try to put an end to a costly strike - Copyright POOL/AFP/File Jennifer Buchanan

US aviation giant Boeing has once again improved the conditions in its contract offer to thousands of striking workers, hoping to put an end to a painful strike that has paralyzed its two main factories for seven weeks.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751, the union which represents more than 33,000 workers who went on strike on September 13 in the Seattle area, on Thursday endorsed the new offer and set a vote for Monday.

The offer includes a 38 percent wage increase over the four years of the contract and a $12,000 ratification bonus, up from $7,000 in the previous proposal, Boeing said in a separate statement.

“Your union is endorsing and recommending the latest IAM/Boeing contract proposal. It is time for our members to lock in these gains and confidently declare victory,” the IAM chapter said.

This was the fourth offer made by Boeing since early September, but the third on which members have been asked to vote.

Members overwhelmingly rejected an offer of a 25 percent raise over four years on September 12. A second offer, which promised a 35 percent pay rise, was rejected by nearly two-thirds of members last week.

The union has consistently asked for a 40 percent salary increase.

“We believe asking members to stay on strike longer wouldn’t be right as we have achieved so much success,” the union said.

“We encourage all of our employees to learn more about the improved offer and vote on Monday, November 4,” Boeing said, noting that the average machinist will make $119,309 by the end of the contract if the offer is accepted, up from $75,608.

The other conditions in the contract remain unchanged, such as an annual bonus, and the company’s commitment to build its next plane — expected in 2025 — in the Seattle area, where Boeing was founded in July 1916.

Union requests to restore a pension plan discarded in 2014 were not honored.

– Crucial vote –

It remains to be seen if union members will heed the endorsement of the contract by their leaders and head back to work. A simple majority is required for ratification.

An end to the strike is needed by Boeing, which has faced separate financial difficulties in addition to the work stoppage that paralyzed the two factories that assemble the 737 MAX, the 777 and other planes.

Only the factory responsible for the 787 Dreamliner in South Carolina has been operational, but it is only producing four planes a month.

– Increased oversight –

Boeing has made a series of moves since mid-September to help ease its cash crunch.

In mid-October, it announced a 10 percent reduction in its global workforce, amounting to around 17,000 positions cut. This week, it launched a stock offering expected to raise about $21 billion.

Even before the strike, Boeing had slowed production in its commercial plane division to ensure greater attention to safety protocols after a 737 MAX flown by Alaska Airlines was forced to make an emergency landing in January when a fuselage panel blew out mid-flight.

The near-catastrophe — coming after two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that claimed 346 lives — put Boeing under intense regulatory oversight once again.

Boeing reported a whopping $6.2 billion quarterly loss last week.

Botswana leader concedes defeat after party drubbed in election

Botswana's ruling party had ruled the country since independence from Britain in 1966 -

By AFP
November 1, 2024

 Copyright AFP Tobias SCHWARZ

Botswana’s president conceded defeat on Friday after his ruling party, which had ruled the diamond-rich African country for nearly six decades, suffered a resounding defeat in general elections.

“I wish to congratulate the opposition on their victory and concede the election,” President Mokgweetsi Masisi told reporters at a press conference.

Preliminary results from Wednesday’s election, with counting still underway, showed three opposition parties had together won at least 31 of 61 seats in the national legislature, according to tallies by AFP and other media.

This meant Masisi’s Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), which has been in power since independence from Britain in 1966, could not get enough seats to govern.

The result was a major blow for the BDP and Masisi, 63, who took office in 2018 and had been confident of securing a second term.

The results are expected to be confirmed by the Independent Electoral Commission later Friday.

More than one million people were registered to vote on Wednesday, from a population of 2.6 million, with concerns about unemployment and mismanagement in Masisi’s first term a leading complaint in the arid nation.

“Opposition parties have garnered more than half of the parliamentary seats,” the independent Mmegi newspaper wrote on Facebook. “This means ruling Botswana Democratic Party has now officially lost state power.”

The left-leaning opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) had already secured more than 24 seats, party official Mike Keakopa told AFP, and was aiming to reach 31 seats to become the outright winner and hand the presidency to its leader, Harvard-educated human rights lawyer Duma Boko.

The two other opposition parties, the Botswana Congress Party and Botswana Patriotic Front, had taken around a dozen seats together.

– ‘New dawn’ –

“Botswana’s new dawn as Boko, UDC rise,” Mmegi said in a version of its front page posted on Facebook. “BDP faces crushing parliamentary, council defeat,” it wrote.

The UDC swept a separate ballot at Wednesday’s polls for the local councils in what was seen as an indication of the trend for the national vote.

Boko, 54, created the UDC in 2012 to unite parties against the bulwark of the BDP. It is the third time that he has run for the presidency.

“CHANGE IS HERE,” he wrote on Facebook as his party’s strong showing became clear.

A key concern of voters was unemployment which has risen to 27 percent this year and a slump in the economy due in part to weakened diamond sales, Botswana’s single biggest revenue earner, with growth projected to slow to one percent in 2024.

There have also been allegations of corruption, nepotism and mismanagement by Masisi’s government, while the gap between the rich and poor is one of the largest in the world, according to the World Bank.

“The people in the country are clamouring for change, they are yearning for something refreshingly different,” Boko said in an interview with South African channel ENCA in July.

“We are expecting more from this new Botswana,” said cleaner, Pelontle Ditshotlo, 41. The BDP had not delivered on its promises and the cost of living was too high, she said.

“When you are in parliament, we need to know that you listen to us, you are with us.”

The new government will need to focus on weaning the country off its diamond dependency, stabilise the economy and create new jobs, especially for young people,independent political commentator Olopeng Rabasimane said.

“For us it’s a big change. It’s a relief,” said Sandy Mlotshwa, 22, a waiter. “I want to see if the new system that comes in will make a change for us. If not, then we’re going to change it again.”

Botswana’s new president aims to clinch De Beers diamond sales pact soon

Diamonds Brought Prosperity to Botswana. Women Workers Are Paying A Heavy Price.

COP29

‘Waiting in vain’: year on from pledge, world clings to fossil fuels


By AFP
October 31, 2024

Despite a historic pledge made at the COP28 climate summit, countries are still planning to expand fossil fuel production - Copyright AFP Michal Cizek
Nick Perry

One year after world leaders issued the landmark call for a global move away from fossil fuels, nations are failing to turn that promise into action, say climate diplomats, campaigners and policy experts.

Countries are being urged not to lose sight of that historic agreement ahead of November’s COP29 climate negotiations, where fossil fuels are not top priority.

Despite last year’s climate deal calling for the first time on countries to “transition away from fossil fuels”, major economies are still planning oil and gas expansions in the decades ahead.

Renewable technology like solar and wind is being rolled-out at breakneck speed but not fast enough to stop burning more oil, coal and gas, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in October.

Global emissions — caused mainly by fossil fuels — are at record highs, pushing concentrations of planet-warming greenhouse gases to unprecedented levels, two UN agencies reported.

Since inking the watershed COP28 pact in Dubai “leaders have been grappling with how to turn those commitments into reality”, said Katrine Petersen from E3G, a policy think tank.

“There has been a bit of a vacuum of political leadership on some of this… and a potentially worrying trend that this landmark energy package has been slipping off leaders’ political agendas.”

Countries threatened by climate disaster were “waiting in vain to see the sharp decline in fossil fuel production that was heralded”, said Pa’olelei Luteru, a Samoan diplomat.

“Alas, saying something is one thing and actually meaning it is quite another,” said Luteru, who chairs the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).



– ‘Weakening support’ –



Papua New Guinea, an impoverished Pacific nation vulnerable to climate shocks, says it is “sick of the rhetoric” and is boycotting this year’s UN-led talks in Azerbaijan altogether.

AOSIS lead coordinator Toiata Uili said they were concerned about “weakening political support” for tough fossil fuel commitments, but would not let bigger countries off the hook.

Azerbaijan’s lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev has acknowledged that many countries want “clear next steps” at COP29 to show progress on the Dubai pledges.

Behind the scenes, this has faced strong pushback from oil-rich nations, said one western diplomat.

Some of these countries felt they were led into over-committing at Dubai and were very reluctant to agree anything more on fossil fuels, the diplomat added.

Azerbaijan is accused of being reluctant to prioritise fossil fuels during the climate talks to protect its own oil and gas interests.

The COP29 host denies this, but says its focus during the November 11-22 conference is finalising a contentious deal to boost climate finance.

“Yes, this is the finance COP… but it is also essential that the progress that leaders made last year on the energy front isn’t lost,” said Petersen.



– ‘Empty words’ –



Despite political obstacles, there are signs the transition is beginning.

In October, the IEA said clean technology was attracting twice the investment of fossil fuels and by 2030, half the world’s electricity would come from low-carbon sources.

“But with higher energy use even fast renewables growth doesn’t translate to fast falls in CO2 emissions,” said Dave Jones from think tank Ember.

In October, G20 leaders — whose economies account for three-quarters of global emissions — reaffirmed they would shift away from fossil fuels.

But the gap between what countries say and what they do is significant, said Anne Olhoff, co-author of a damning UN scorecard published in October.

In the past year, just one country — Madagascar — had announced tougher climate policies, it said.

“If we look at action and ambition, nothing much has happened at the global level since last year’s report,” Olhoff said.

Countries face pressure to articulate what concrete steps they are taking to wean off fossil fuels in their next national climate plans, due early 2025.

Many are promising bold policies that align with agreed warming limits, but are approving new oil and gas fields — an impossible contradiction, says the UN’s expert climate panel.

The “worst culprits” were rich Western nations, said Oil Change International and other activist groups in October. But the United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan and Brazil — the COP28, COP29 and COP30 hosts, respectively — were also ramping up fossil fuel production, they said.

Meanwhile, global temperatures continue to rise, unleashing devastating impacts on people and ecosystems.

“When we talk about climate pledges we are talking about more than just arbitrary, empty words,” said Andreas Sieber from activist group 350.org.

CATHOLIC ANIMISM

Filipinos brave crowds, flooding for All Saints’ Day cemetery visits

ByAFP


PublishedOctober 31, 2024


People jump on tombs as they visit a submerged cemetery in the the Philippines' Pampanga province - Copyright AFP Michal Cizek
Jamillah STA. ROSA, Faith BROWN

Devout Filipinos clutching candles and flowers poured into cemeteries across the heavily Catholic Philippines on Friday to pay tribute to loved ones on All Saints’ Day.

Hundreds of thousands flocked to sprawling graveyards in the capital Manila while others waded through floodwaters left by a deadly tropical storm to quietly pray and celebrate the lives of departed relatives.

At Manila North Cemetery, 64-year-old Virginia Flores lit candles in front of her grandmother’s “apartment”, the local term for tombs packed tightly together and stacked metres high.

“This is my way of remembering her life and our shared memories when she was alive, so I visit her every year,” Flores told AFP.

Erlinda Sese, 52, was joined by her sister and grandchildren to offer prayers for their deceased loved ones.

“Even if they are gone, today is a reminder that our love for them will never fade,” Sese said as she gently laid a bouquet of white flowers on a tombstone.

Police Brigadier General Arnold Ibay, tasked with handling crowd control in the capital, said he expected almost a million visitors at Manila North Cemetery alone, where people had begun lining up before dawn to enter.

In Pampanga, a low-lying province 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of the capital, AFP reporters on Thursday saw people trudge through murky floodwaters to visit the submerged Masantol municipal cemetery.

The visitors were making the pilgrimage barely a week after Tropical Storm Trami unleashed landslides and flooding that killed at least 150 people and left more than a dozen missing.

“Visiting dead loved ones is very important to Filipinos. This has been our tradition and culture,” 34-year-old Mark Yamat told AFP.

“Even though the cemetery is submerged here, we will continue to visit.”

In the devout Southeast Asian country, the day is a public holiday to allow for travel to far-flung gravesites across the archipelago.

Maria Cayanan, 52, was supposed to light candles in front of her parents’ tombstone in Pampanga, but the floodwaters prevented her from reaching their burial plots.

“We will just light the candles at home,” Cayanan told AFP.

“We have to visit their graves, so they know they are not forgotten.”

Taiwan races to remove oil from grounded Chinese ship


By AFP
November 1, 2024

The Chinese-flagged Yu Zhou Qi Hang was transporting three cranes from Keelung, in northeast Taiwan, to China on Tuesday when it stalled in wild weather, Taiwanese authorities said - Copyright AFP I-Hwa CHENG

Taiwan on Friday raced to remove 284 tonnes of oil from a Chinese carrier that ran aground off the island after losing power in rough seas as Typhoon Kong-rey neared.

The Chinese-flagged Yu Zhou Qi Hang was transporting three cranes from Keelung, in northeast Taiwan, to China on Tuesday when it stalled in wild weather, Taiwanese authorities said.

A Taiwan coast guard vessel was deployed to rescue the 17 crew and the Chinese ship drifted to the shore of Yehliu Geopark, northeast of Taipei, where it ran aground.

The Yu Zhou Qi Hang was carrying 247 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and 37 tonnes of light diesel oil, the coast guard said.

An AFP photographer on Friday saw red cranes above the water, one leaning heavily and touching the rocky shore, while the Yu Zhou Qi Hang was submerged.

Tracking website vesselfinder.com said the ship was a 143-metre long heavy load carrier built in 2012.

Authorities hoped to start recovering the oil on Friday afternoon, an official in the Maritime and Port Bureau told AFP.

The Ocean Affairs Council estimated it would take two to three days to finish, with its minister, Kuan Bi-ling, saying no oil had been detected leaking from the ship.

“I saw early this morning that there was no oil pollution at the scene,” Kuan said in a Facebook post on Friday.

“Nature is merciful and the oil tank was not damaged,” Kuan said, adding that oil spill containment booms had been deployed.

Kong-rey made landfall in eastern Taiwan on Thursday as one of the biggest typhoons to hit the island in decades, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes.

At least two people were killed and 580 were injured as the storm pounded the island with fierce winds and torrential rain, before weakening Friday to a severe tropical storm as it crossed the Taiwan Strait.

With stones and slings, supporters of Bolivia’s Morales gird for battle


By AFP
November 1, 2024

An Indigenous woman supporter of former Bolivian president Evo Morales trains with a huaraca (a sling made of wool) in Parotani, 40 kilometers from Cochabamba, on October 31, 2024 

- Copyright AFP AIZAR RALDES

Gonzalo TORRICO

Under a bridge in central Bolivia, supporters of former president Evo Morales, armed with slingshots and stones, practice their aim as they prepare to do battle with security forces.

“Evistas,” as Morales’s supporters are known, have blocked nearly two dozen roads, mostly in his stronghold of Cochabamba, since October 14 to prevent his threatened arrest on rape charges.

The protests, which have caused widespread food and fuel shortages, have grown more radical with each passing day.

On Friday, a group of Morales supporters stormed a barracks in the central Chapare province and took a group of soldiers hostage.

In Parotani, which lies on the main road from Cochabamba to the capital La Paz, AFP saw a group of protesters being schooled in firing slingshots.

Carlos Flores, a 45-year-old agronomist, ordered them to spin their “huaracas” (slingshots, in the local Quechua language) over their heads.



– ‘We are ready to fight’ –



A black-clad youth with a face mask, who used the alias “Choque,” whirled his sling and then released the stone, which whipped 100 meters (300 feet) through the air.

“This is our secret weapon… we inherited it from our grandparents,” Flores told AFP proudly.

Since the protests began last month, 70 people have been injured in clashes between the demonstrators and police sent to clear the roads.

Most of the injured were police, some of whom sustained head injuries, according to the authorities.

In Parotani, a police officer nearly lost a foot. President Luis Arce said the officer was attacked with dynamite.

While the demonstrations initially focused on the rape charges against Morales, which he claims were fabricated to thwart his attempted political comeback, they have snowballed into a broader revolt against Arce’s economic policies.

On Wednesday, Arce ordered an “immediate” end to the blockades and warned the government would “exercise its constitutional powers” to restore order, seen as a veiled threat to deploy the military.

“If he sends in his soldiers, we are ready to fight,” said Flores.



– Plentiful stones –



In the rocky hills that surround Parotani, dozens of sentries scan the horizon for signs of the security forces.

The police want to clear the bridge to allow the passage of trucks supplying food and fuel to Cochabamba, where prices have risen due to shortages.

Shepherdess Nicolasa Sanchez, 59, makes new huaracas by threading sheep’s wool between her bare toes and braiding them.

She makes about three a day.

“We could have thousands of huaracas as we will never run out of stones,” says Juanita Ancieta, leader of a group of rural women from the outskirts of La Paz.

From time to time, loud explosions can be heard in the area.

“We ask the armed forces and the police not to attack their people… not to stain their hands with our blood,” said Mariluz Ventura, representative of a union of Indigenous farmers.



– Bolivia’s ‘heart’ –



The demonstrators said they were prepared for weeks, even months of “resistance.”

In a sign the protests are becoming further entrenched, small shops selling clothes, cell phone accessories and even vinegar — an antidote to tear gas — have popped up around the bridge-turned-training ground. Out-of-town protesters have set up camp nearby.

“Cochabamba is the heart of Bolivia. That’s why it is the site of the biggest blockade in the country,” said Constancio Vallejos, a 37-year-old farmer who traveled around four hours from the east with a delegation of young farmers to join the protest.

Humberto Alegre, 31, heads one of the organizations that brings food to the protesters.

He said that he alone distributed about 500 rations a day.

Parotani has been without electricity and running water for days, leaving the townspeople reliant on water collected from the river.

“We are going to resist. This is the struggle we have begun. We will see it through to the end,” said Flores.


Morales supporters storm Bolivia military barracks, take hostages


By AFP
November 1, 2024

Before the apparent hostage-taking by supporters of former Bolivian president Evo Morales, his backers blocked roads in the center of the country 

- Copyright AFP/File AIZAR RALDES

José Arturo Cárdenas

Supporters of Bolivia’s ex-president Evo Morales stormed a barracks in central Chapare province and took around 20 soldiers hostage, military sources said Friday, marking a dramatic escalation in their standoff with the state.

The hostage situation comes nearly three weeks after backers of Morales — the country’s first Indigenous leader — began blocking roads to prevent his arrest on what he calls trumped-up rape charges aimed at thwarting his political comeback.

Morales, 65, was in office from 2006 to 2019, when he resigned under a cloud after elections marked by fraud.

Bolivia’s armed forces said Friday in a statement that “irregular armed groups” had “kidnapped military personnel” and seized weapons and ammunition in Chapare.

A military source told AFP on condition of anonymity that “about 20” soldiers were taken hostage.

In a video broadcast by Bolivian media, 16 soldiers were seen surrounded by protesters holding pointed sticks aloft.

“The Cacique Maraza Regiment has been taken over by Tipnis activists. They have cut off our water, electricity and are keeping us hostage,” a uniformed man is heard saying in the video.

Tipnis is an Indigenous stronghold of Morales.



– ‘Persecution’ and price hikes –



Despite being barred from running again, Morales wants to challenge his former-ally-turned-rival President Luis Arce for the nomination of the left-wing MAS party in the country’s August 2025 elections.

Days after he led a march of thousands of mainly Indigenous Bolivians on the capital La Paz to protest Arce’s policies, prosecutors announced he was under investigation for rape, human trafficking and human smuggling over his alleged relationship with a 15-year-old girl in 2015.

Morales, who is accused of fathering a daughter with the girl, has called the accusations “a lie.”

On Wednesday, Arce demanded an “immediate” end to the roadblocks and said the government would “exercise its constitutional powers to safeguard the interests of the Bolivian people” if the protesters did not comply.

His warning was interpreted by some Bolivians as a threat to use the military to end the blockade, which has caused widespread food and fuel shortages and prompted prices of basic goods to skyrocket.

Chapare is where Morales claimed he was the victim of an assassination attempt last week that he blamed on state agents.

In a video he shared on social media, he is seen travelling in a pick-up truck riddled with bullet holes near the city of Cochabamba.

The government said police fired on the vehicle after coming under fire from Morales’s convoy at a checkpoint set up to combat drug trafficking in Chapare, one of the country’s main coca-growing regions.

Coca is the raw material for cocaine.

Morales, a former coca grower, was extremely popular until he tried to bypass the constitution and seek a fourth term.

His supporters initially demanded an end to what they called his “judicial persecution.” but the protest movement has snowballed into a wider anti-government revolt marked by calls for Arce to resign.

Morales’ supporters, who have vowed not to budge from the barricades, blame Arce for a sharp rise in food and fuel prices and shortages that pre-date the protests.

At least 61 police officers and nine civilians have been injured in clashes between the protesters and security forces in recent days.

Arce has estimated the economic cost of the blockades at more than $1.7 billion.

Bolivia’s breadbasket squeezed by pro-Morales blockades


By AFP
October 31, 2024

Copyright AFP AIZAR RALDES
Gonzalo TORRICO

At a wholesale market in the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba, farmer Damaris Masias watches through tears as 10 tonnes of tomatoes that she spent over a week trying to get through roadblocks are tossed into a bin.

On a normal day her hometown of Omereque, situated 168 miles (270 kilometers) from Cochabamba, is an eight-hour truck ride away.

But the blockades set up by supporters of ex-president Evo Morales to thwart his possible arrest on rape charges turned the journey into a nine-day odyssey during which the produce rotted.

“Only God knows how many tears these tomatoes caused,” the distraught 48-year-old told AFP.

Cochabamba, Morales’ political stronghold, is the crucible of the campaign of blockades which began on October 14 after he was accused of rape over his alleged relationship with a 15-year-old girl while president in 2015.

The former leader, who is attempting a comeback, denies the allegations, saying he is the victim of “judicial persecution” by his former-ally-turned rival, current President Luis Arce.

The political tensions have risen dramatically in the past week, with Morales — who was president from 2006-2019 — accusing the state of an assassination bid, which it denies.



– Rotting food –



Clashes between his supporters and security forces have left dozens injured in recent days.

On Wednesday, Arce ordered an “immediate” end to what he called the “anti-democratic and criminal blockade.”

He estimated the cost of the roadblocks at over $1.7 billion and said they were “having terrible effects on families” by causing food and fuel prices to escalate.

Masias lost not only her own tomatoes when she set out for Cochabamba, but those of an entire neighborhood of what she calls “poor people.”

“I tried my best to get here,” she said, standing next to pallets of decomposing peppers and green beans.



– Switch to air shipments –



From four roadblocks on October 14, the number set up around the country has risen to 24, mostly in the Cochambamba area, the authorities said.

Desperate to find an alternative route to market, food producers have begun shipping their goods by plane.

A queue of people some 980 feet (300 meters) long formed this week outside the Cochambamba parcel office of state airline Boliviana de Aviacion. Some began queueing before dawn.

“We are looking for air bridges so that our product is not ruined,” says Christian Vrsalovic, a dairy producer whose transport costs have risen five-fold since the protests began.

The Bolivian National Agricultural Confederation (Confeagro) estimates that the roadblocks have set the agricultural sector in Cochabamba alone back around $20 million.

“Cochabamba is the country’s main economic hub,” Confeagro’s vice-president Rolando Morales, who is no relation to Evo Morales, said.

“All the agrifood exports from Santa Cruz (Bolivia’s richest department) pass through here en route to the port of Arica in Chile to generate the foreign currency that the country so badly needs,” he said.



– ‘Customers scold us’ –



On a retail market in Cochabamba, Ana Luz Salazar lines up the yellow chickens that are left on her hands at the end of the day.

The birds have shot up in price from $2 to $3.4 per kilo since the blockades began, causing sales to plummet.

“Customers scold us. They say ‘it’s so expensive’. Some don’t buy anything,” the 55-year-old vendor said.

On the outskirts of the city of 660,000 inhabitants, on a poultry farm owned by 48-year-old businessman Ivan Carreon, the vast sheds usually teeming with battery hens lie nearly empty.

The chickens and hens of Cochabamba are fed with soybeans and corn from the regional capital Santa Cruz, but the roads to Cochabamba have been blocked by the protests.

“We had to sell 15,000 hens … in order to guarantee balanced feed for our other batches,” Carreon explained.

Beef producers are in even worse straits, according to Confeagro’s Morales, who warned that cattle feed was in extremely short supply.

“Cochabamba, which used to be called Bolivia’s breadbasket,’ remains so in name only,” he said.

Indonesia tribe’s homeland at risk after losing final appeal: NGOs


By AFP
November 1, 2024

Representatives of the Awyu and Moi Indigenous tribes protest in front of Indonesia's Supreme Court - Copyright AFP BAY ISMOYO

Indonesia’s top court on Friday rejected an appeal by an Indigenous tribe in its lawsuit against a palm oil firm, leaving it at risk of losing vast swathes of ancestral forest, rights groups said.

The Awyu tribe, whose roughly 20,000 members rely on the land for their subsistence, had sought to freeze the operations of PT Indo Asiana Lestari (PT IAL) in the eastern Indonesian province of West Papua.

But Indonesia’s Supreme Court rejected their final appeal, according to a document published on its website Friday, upholding the company’s 36,000-hectare (89,000-acre) government concession, more than half the size of the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

“I feel heartbroken because I am left with no other legal avenue to protect the land and the people of my ancestral homeland,” said Awyu tribe plaintiff Hendrikus Woro.

“I am shattered because throughout this struggle, there has been no support from the government, local or central. Who am I supposed to turn to, and where should I go now?” he said in a statement released by the Coalition to Save Papuan Customary Forests, made up of 10 environmental NGOs.

A supreme court spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by AFP about the ruling.

The Awyu tribe’s case drew attention in Indonesia earlier this year after a campaign called ‘All Eyes on Papua’ spread on social media.

“Both the government and the legal system have failed to stand with Indigenous peoples,” said Sekar Banjaran Aji of the Save Papuan Customary Forest advocacy team.

“The struggle to protect Papua’s customary forests has become all the more challenging.”

In November, a Papuan court had ruled that PT IAL’s permit was valid, rejecting the Awyu tribe’s argument that the concession had been granted based on a flawed environmental impact assessment.

The tribe and environmental NGOs also claim opponents of the palm oil firm’s plans have faced intimidation.

PT IAL did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

Palm oil is a billion-dollar industry in Indonesia, which is the world’s largest producer and exporter of the commodity used in everything from chocolate spreads to cosmetics.

Indonesia produces about 60 percent of the world’s palm oil, with one-third consumed by its domestic market.

Papua lost 2.5 percent of its tree cover between 2001 and 2023, according to Global Forest Watch.

War decimates harvest in famine-threatened Sudan


By AFP
November 1, 2024

Sudanese farmers plough a field in Gedaref -- the state's agriculture ministry says less than half the pre-war acreage was planted in 2024 - Copyright AFP/File -

Ahmed Othman’s farm has been spared from the deadly fighting that has spread across Sudan, but the war’s toll on the economy and labour market has still reached him.

“I had to sell two vehicles” to afford to harvest this season’s crops, he told AFP from his large sesame farm in eastern Sudan’s Gedaref state.

A year and a half of war in Sudan between the army and paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and devastated harvests.

Last month, United Nations experts accused the warring sides of using “starvation tactics” against 25 million civilians, and three major aid organisations warned of a “historic” hunger crisis as families resort to eating leaves and insects.

Hundreds of farmers have been driven off their once-fertile lands and those who have managed to remain face tremendous hardships.

Gedaref state is key to Sudan’s corn production, a crucial crop for a population the World Food Programme warns is nearing famine — a condition already declared at a displacement camp in the country’s western region of Darfur.

“The first challenge we faced was securing funding as banks are experiencing a cash crunch due to the war,” said Othman.

Cash shortages have occurred even in army-controlled Gedaref since the RSF took over the capital Khartoum and banks were ransacked.

The farmer said that without selling two out of his three vehicles he could not have afforded fuel for farm machinery or to pay workers to prepare the fields and tend to the crops.

“The second problem is the scarcity of farm workers due to the war, which has limited their movement across states,” he added.

Most workers in Gedaref previously came from the adjacent states of Blue Nile and Sennar, as well as from Kordofan further away.



– Giving up –



However, the war has restricted inter-state movement, leaving farm owners like Othman with only a small workforce.

Another local farmer, Suleiman Mohamed, said “the shortage of workers has driven up wages, so we are relying on those already in the area, mainly Ethiopians” who have long resided in Sudan’s east as refugees.

War began in April 2023 between the army under the country’s de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF, led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

Disruptions to the harvest this season could exacerbate the hunger crisis, made worse by restrictions on aid entry.

European and North American nations issued a joint statement last month that accused the warring sides of “systematic obstruction” of aid efforts. They said both sides should urgently admit the assistance to millions of people in dire need.

In southern Gedaref, another farmer, Othman Abdelkarim, said many have already given up on this year’s season.

“Most of us have relied on ourselves for financing, and some simply opted out and didn’t plant,” he said, pointing to an unplanted field west of his farm.

“This crisis will delay the harvest and affect its quality,” he added.

The state’s agriculture ministry reported that nine million acres (3.6 million hectares) were cultivated in Gedaref this year — five million with corn and the rest with sesame, sunflowers, peanuts and cotton.

That is less than half of the roughly 20 million acres planted annually before the war.

Farmer Suleiman Mohamed fears there is no hope for this season’s crop.

“With fewer workers and delayed harvesting, we’ll face losses, and part of the crop will be lost,” he said from his farm in eastern Gedaref.

Spain flooding ‘catastrophe’ should serve as a warning, EU says at nature summit

By AFP
October 31, 2024

Officials say dozens remain missing after flooding that claimed at least 158 lives in Spain - Copyright AFP JOSE JORDAN

European officials pointed Thursday to devastating flooding in Spain as a reminder of the self-harming effects of humans’ destruction of nature, urging delegates at a deadlocked UN biodiversity conference in Colombia to “act.”

European Commission envoy Florika Fink-Hooijer said the “catastrophe” in Spain’s Valencia region earlier this week highlighted the link between biodiversity loss and human-caused climate change.

Worsening droughts and flooding cause the loss of plant species such as trees — which serve as a bulwark against some of the worst effects of global warming.

“If we act on biodiversity, we at least can buffer some of the climate impacts,” Fink-Hooijer said at a press conference in the city of Cali, host of the 16th Conference of Parties (COP16) to the UN’s Convention on Biodiversity.

“At this COP we really have a chance to act,” said the envoy, who is also the European Commission director-general for environment.



– Funding hurdle –



The summit, which started on October 21, is tasked with assessing, and ramping up, progress on nature protection plans and funding to achieve 23 UN targets agreed in 2022 to stop species destruction.

It is a followup to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreed in Canada two years ago, where it was decided that $200 billion per year be made available for biodiversity programs by 2030.

This must include $20 billion per year going from rich to poor nations trying to reach the targets, which include placing 30 percent of the Earth’s land and sea under protection by 2030.

Due to wrap up on Friday, the talks in Cali remain stuck mainly on the modalities of funding, even as new research points to more than a quarter of animal and plant species facing the risk of extinction.

Developing countries have called for more money.

They also want a brand-new fund under the umbrella of the UN’s biodiversity convention, where all parties — rich and poor — would have representation in decision-making.

Rich countries insist they are on track to meet their funding targets. Most are opposed to a new fund.

Another point of contention is on how best to share the profits of digitally sequenced genetic data taken from animals and plants with the communities they come from.

Such data, much of it collected in poor countries, is notably used in medicines and cosmetics that make their developers billions.

European Parliament member Cesar Luena, who is from Spain, on Thursday thanked delegates “for all the demonstrations of solidarity in this summit” as the flooding death toll soared beyond 150.