Chinese doctors implant pig liver in human for first time


By AFP
March 26, 2025


After decades of experimentation, pigs have emerged as the best organ donors for humans - Copyright AFP Juliette PAVY

Daniel Lawler

Chinese doctors said Wednesday that they had transplanted a liver from a genetically modified pig into a brain-dead human for the first time, raising hopes of a live-saving donor option for patients in the future.

Pigs have emerged as the best animal organ donors, with several living patients in the United States having received pig kidneys or hearts in the last few years.

Livers have proved trickier — and had not previously been tested out inside a human body.

But with a huge and growing demand for liver donations across the world, researchers hope that gene-edited pigs can offer at least temporary relief to seriously ill patients on long waiting lists.

Doctors at the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi’an, China, announced the field’s latest breakthrough in a study in the journal Nature.

A liver from a miniature pig, which had six edited genes to make it a better donor, was transplanted into a brain-dead adult at the hospital on March 10, 2024, according to the study.

The trial was terminated after 10 days at the request of the family, the doctors said, adding that they had followed strict ethical guidelines.



– ‘Bridge organ’ –



The patient, whose name, gender and other details were not revealed, still had their original liver, receiving what is called an auxiliary transplant.

The hope is that this kind of transplant can serve as a “bridge organ” to support the existing liver of sick people waiting on a human donor.

Over the 10 days, the doctors monitored the liver’s blood flow, bile production, immune response and other key functions.

The pig liver “functioned really well” and “smoothly secreted bile” as well as producing the key protein albumin, study co-author Lin Wang of the Xi’an hospital told a press conference.

“It’s a great achievement” that could help people with liver problems in the future, he added.

Other researchers also hailed the breakthrough but emphasised that this early step could not confirm whether the pig organ would work as a replacement for human livers.

Transplants of livers have proved difficult because they carry out several different functions — unlike hearts, for example, which simply pump blood, Lin said.

Livers filter the body’s blood, breaking down things like drugs and alcohol, as well as producing bile that carries away waste and breaks down fats.

The pig liver produced far smaller amounts of bile and albumin than a human liver could achieve, Lin said.

More research is needed — including studying the pig liver for more than 10 days, he added.

Next, the doctors plan to trial the gene-edited pig liver in a living human.



– ‘Impressive’ –



Oxford University transplantation professor Peter Friend, who was not involved in the study, said the results were “valuable and impressive”.

However, “this is not a replacement for liver transplantation from human donors (at least in the near-term),” he told AFP in an email.

“This is a useful test of the compatibility of genetically modified livers with humans and points to a future in which such livers can provide support for patients in liver failure.”

Lin emphasised that collaboration with US researchers was crucial.

“To be frank, we have learned quite a lot from all the research performed and investigated by the United States doctors,” he said.

Last year, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania attached a pig liver to a brain-dead patient — but instead of being transplanted, the organ remained outside the body.

Both US recipients of pig heart transplants died.

But Towana Looney, 53, is back home in Alabama after receiving a pig kidney on November 25, 2024.

‘We are not in crisis’: chair of IPCC climate body to AFP

IF YOU NEED TO SAY THAT THEN YOU ARE


By AFP
March 26, 2025


IPCC chair Jim Skea says the UN's climate expert advisory panel and its landmark reports remain 'manifestly relevant' - Copyright POOL/AFP Yoan VALAT

Julien MIVIELLE

Jim Skea insists the IPCC, the UN climate panel he chairs, is not in crisis and remains relevant despite criticism it is too slow in publishing its landmark scientific reports on climate change.

In an interview with AFP in Paris, the British sustainable energy professor addressed divisions within the IPCC, the US retreat on climate cooperation, and record-breaking global temperatures.



Q: At a recent meeting in Hangzhou, China, the IPCC failed to agree on a publication timeline for its next critical reports. Is the institution in crisis?



A: “No, I don’t think the IPCC is in crisis. We will resolve this issue about the timeline. I mean, we had a lot of big successes in Hangzhou… So IPCC is moving forward.

“On the timeline issue overall, there were two options that are basically on the floor there. One for a timeline that is aligned with the second global stocktake under the Paris Agreement (due in 2028) and another one which is slower.

“And for the countries that are proposing the slower timeline, there are another set of considerations. It’s about the time that’s available for countries to review the draft reports of IPCC and it’s about the time that’s available for people from developing countries to produce literature.

“So we need to get to the issue at the next meeting of IPCC, which should take place in the last quarter of this year. And I’m optimistic we will get a solution there and move forward.”



Q: The United States was absent from the meeting in China. Are you concerned?



A: “We don’t normally comment on who’s at a particular meeting until the reports come out. But, you know, it’s been widely reported that the US didn’t register for, or participate in, the meeting in Hangzhou, and that is indeed the case.

“At every meeting we have 60 or 70 countries or members of IPCC that don’t turn up for the meeting, don’t register. The US was one of these at this meeting, and it was a business as usual meeting. We got the job done. We got the outlines of the reports agreed.”



Q: IPCC reports take five to seven years, which some say is far too long. Is the IPCC still relevant?



A: “It’s manifestly relevant. The 1.5 (degrees Celsius) report in the last cycle just had an absolutely huge impact, globally, in terms of negotiations. And if you go along to every Conference of the Parties, you will find every delegation standing up and saying, we have to rely on the science and refer back to IPCC reports.

“So the absolute evidence there is that IPCC continues to be relevant. What we are not is a 24/7 news organisation because of these five to seven year cycles. We have a very elaborate process of review. It takes time to go through them.

“But when we produce our reports, they have the stamp of authority of the scientists and consensus among governments, and that makes them very powerful. And I think if we compromise our procedures, we would lose that authority.”



Q: Global temperature records have been broken in recent years, surprising even some scientists. Is global warming greater than predicted in climate models?



A: “There’s a lot of intense scientific work going on at the moment to try and understand, precisely, what’s happened over the last two to three years, and what explains things.

“The understanding I have, from talking to scientists — and just to say, I am not a physical climate scientist myself — my understanding is that we are at the boundary of exceptional circumstances for the global indicators. But for particular regions and for example, for ecosystems, we are also well beyond the boundaries of the expected range.

“So there’s a lot of work going on to try and understand that at the moment… We hope there will be enough literature to provide a better explanation when IPCC next reports, probably 2028 for the Working Group (1) Physical Science report.”

Rising seas test defenses of South American ports


By AFP
March 25, 2025


Chile's biggest port, San Antonio, was forced to close for 30 days in 2024 due to storm surges linked to climate change

- Copyright AFP RODRIGO ARANGU

Axl HERNANDEZ

When waves come crashing over the sea wall in Chile’s biggest port of San Antonio, dockers run for cover.

The state-run port, which handles 1.7 million containers annually, is frequently lashed by swells several meters high as rising ocean levels linked to climate change cause more frequent storm surges.

Some of the waves dwarf the wall that protects the port from where Chile ships wine and fruit to the world, ripping away 20-ton blocks of concrete defenses.

Since 2020, approximately 270 vessels each year have been either unable to dock at the port or set sail from San Antonio because of the raging seas.

San Antonio’s location, in a wide bay with no natural defenses, leaves it particularly vulnerable to storm surges, said Andres Orrego, director of Chile’s Portal Portuario shipping news site.

But all along South America’s Pacific coast, shipping is being buffeted by rising sea levels.

With the southern hemisphere’s approaching winter, when the biggest swells occur, the race is on to keep the tide at bay.

The new Chinese-built megaport at Chancay in Peru, which was inaugurated by President Xi Jinping in November, comes with a massive breakwater almost three kilometers (two miles) long.

On a recent day of calm seas at San Antonio, cranes were busy moving blocks to reinforce the sea wall and top it with curved concave blocks that break the waves’ momentum as part of an $11-million climate mitigation upgrade.

Half of the wall has already been reinforced, helping reduce the number of days the port is out of action, from 47 in 2023 to 30 last year.

Over 1,300 kilometers to the north, the port of Antofagasta, which handles most of Chile’s copper exports — Chile is the world’s biggest producer of the metal — also plans to boost its storm defenses to reduce downtime.



– Major investment required –



The biggest port in the South Pacific, Callao port in Peru, is protected by a breakwater nearly 13 meters (43 feet) high.

The two nearby islands of San Lorenzo and El Fronton also act as natural coastal barriers.

And yet the port was forced to close for 10 days at the end of 2024, during storms that brought waves of up to four meters and raised concerns for worker safety.

Storm surges have also caused a slowdown in activity at Manta in Ecuador, a major tuna export hub which was forced to close for several days last year, according to the port’s management.

The water swept away two barriers installed on stilts, leading the port operator to declare that “coastal protection works… and adaptation strategies… are now required.”

Chilean climatologist Raul Cordero blames the “more intense and frequent storm surges” along the Pacific coast on the increase in ocean temperatures and levels.

“A lot of money will have to be invested in protection against (extreme) waves,” he warned.

The port operators that spoke to AFP declined to give estimates for the revenue lost to rising seas.

But shipping companies have to pay between $80,000 and $150,000 for each extra day they remain moored in San Antonio, the port’s deputy operations manager told AFP.

Jose Aldunate, who is in charge of boosting San Antonio’s storm defenses, said he expects the port’s new defenses to be breached by some extreme swells.

But he expressed confidence that, once the upgrade is finished in 2026, the flooding would be “within acceptable levels, so that the port can continue operating without problems.”

Bangladesh monastery a beacon of harmony after unrest


By AFP
March 25, 2025


The Dharmarajika Buddhist Monastery in Dhaka opens its doors to the needy during Ramadan - Copyright AFP Munir UZ ZAMAN

Sheikh Sabiha ALAM

A Buddhist monastery in Bangladesh has found renown for opening its doors to the needy during Ramadan — a beacon of interfaith harmony in a time of religious tension.

For more than a decade, the Dharmarajika Buddhist Monastery in Dhaka has provided free meals for hundreds of the capital’s poorest residents to break their fast each evening during the Muslim holy month.

Its work has assumed a new resonance this year after political upheaval that last summer ousted autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina, leaving many religious minorities in the Muslim-majority nation fearful of persecution.

“I live nearby and earn very little from my job. This meal is a relief,” said Moushumi Begum, who joined around 200 others at the fast-breaking meal known as iftar.

“I am grateful for their kindness and pray to God for their wellbeing.”

The monastery’s abbot, Buddha Priya Mahathero, said the annual tradition began in 2013 with the simple principle that no one fasting should be turned away hungry.

“We have fostered a culture of harmony,” he told AFP.

“We saw people struggling for food during Ramadan. That’s when we decided to step in,” he added.

“What began as a small effort has continued, and we hope to keep doing our part.”

The monastery was founded in 1960, more than a decade before Bangladesh became an independent nation, and has long been known as a paragon of interfaith philosophy.

One of its biggest early initiatives was the establishment of an interfaith orphanage for children whose parents were killed during the country’s 1971 liberation war.

Buddhists make up around three percent of Bangladesh’s population of 170 million, the second-largest religious minority after its substantial Hindu community.



– ‘Pledged to protect us’ –



Hasina’s ouster in last year’s student-led revolution saw several reprisal attacks against Hindu households.

The interim administration that took office after her toppling came down strongly on such attacks, arresting dozens of people in the months that followed.

It has also insisted that some of those attacks were motivated by political vengeance rather than religious animosity, and blamed organised disinformation from neighbouring India for exaggerating the magnitude of the problem.

Non-Muslim Bangladeshis have nonetheless voiced unease at developments since the fall of Hasina’s government, which despite a litany of rights abuses was seen as a steadfast protector of minority religious communities.

Numerous shrines to Sufi saints were vandalised after Hasina’s overthrow, with suspicion falling on Islamist hardliners who consider that branch of the Muslim faith heretical.

Several attacks on Hindu temples were also reported in the chaotic hours after Hasina went into exile in India.

The Dharmarajika Buddhist Monastery has not suffered a similar fate, and its custodians say that leaders from several political parties had paid visits to offer their respect and support.

“All of them pledged to protect us,” Swarupananda Bhikkhu, a monk at the monastery, told AFP.

“Our gates have always been open, regardless of religious identity.”

Filipinos see pathway from poverty with virtual assistant jobs

JUST LIKE CALL CENTERS DID

By AFP
March 25, 2025

Nathalie Mago is one of a growing number of Filipinos working as a virtual assistant - Copyright AFP Jam Sta Rosa

Faith BROWN, Pam CASTRO

Nathalie Mago’s work day begins after she’s tucked her three daughters into bed and flicked off the lights in their house north of the Philippine capital Manila.

As her young family sleeps, she fires up her laptop and begins discussing the day’s agenda with her boss — an American half a world away.

A “virtual assistant”, Mago is one of a growing number of Filipinos flocking to the booming but unregulated sector in the face of a tight job market, low wages and frequently hellish commutes.

“It literally saved me,” Mago told AFP. “I was able to support myself and my family at the same time.”

A former office worker, the 32-year-old said she’s now earning five times as much serving as the “right hand” of employers for whom she writes copy, manages social media and even buys family birthday gifts.

Government figures for the sector are unavailable as the role falls into no recognised job category, meaning legal protections are also effectively non-existent.

But Derek Gallimore, of advisory firm Outsource Accelerator, estimates the number of Filipino virtual assistants at around a million — a number he expects to grow.

“It’s the assumption that they can call their own shots, have more freedom and earn more money,” Gallimore said of the job’s allure, adding the reality may not always meet expectations.

Job-seeking platform Upwork lists the Philippines among the top five countries churning out virtual assistants, alongside India, Nigeria, Pakistan and the United States.

“We expect the growth of virtual assistant work in the Philippines to continue,” said Teng Liu, an economist at Upwork Research Institute.

Filipinos’ English proficiency made them a “strong fit” for global clients, he added, with Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States among the biggest markets.



– Risks and rewards –



A recent TikTok video with tens of thousands of likes featured a virtual assistant slowly unveiling a screenshot of her pay for five days’ work — P29,400 ($512), more than double the monthly minimum wage in Manila.

Several Facebook groups for virtual assistants — whose tasks can include everything from marketing to making travel arrangements — boast hundreds of thousands of followers who view the job as a path to a better life.

But there are risks associated with the sector.

“I know a lot of people who got scammed. The last one got scammed for 50,000 pesos,” said Mago, describing a scheme in which a virtual assistant was tricked into paying for access to jobs that never materialised.

Others complete work for clients who then simply disappear, she said.

Law lecturer Arnold de Vera, from the University of the Philippines, told AFP the industry lacks protections under Philippine law because it falls into no existing government category.

“They’re invisible in the sense that they are generally treated not as Philippine employees,” de Vera told AFP, noting most virtual assistants classify themselves as “self-employed”.

No law forces employers outside the country to uphold agreements made with Philippines-based workers, he said.

“It’s risky because there is no remedy involved but people are willing to take that risk because of the rewards they can reap.”



– A path home? –



Lyann Lubrico is among those who think the reward is worth the risk.

The 33-year-old, who became a virtual assistant after losing her job as an office manager in the United Arab Emirates, believes remote work can be a path home for overseas Filipino workers, or OFWs.

Now the owner of her own agency, Lubrico calls it her “mission” to give OFWs, whose remittances account for nearly 10 percent of national GDP, a way to make that money at home instead.

“I know some cleaners who grew old being cleaners abroad… I thought to myself, Filipinos shouldn’t settle for this all their lives,” she said, noting the abuse and discrimination faced by many.

Through a Facebook group called “Balikbayan (Returning Home) For Good”, Lubrico has so far offered informal training to about 200 OFWs hoping to become virtual assistants.

“My mission is to enable overseas Filipinos to come home — one at a time,” said Lubrico.

But while a true believer in the sector, she agrees legal protections remain a crucial step.

Renato Paraiso, spokesman for the Philippines’ Department of Information and Communications Technology, told AFP one key challenge is the fact that virtual assistant work “is borderless”.

“That is something we should address,” he said, adding that forging labour partnerships with other countries could be a path forward in protecting the rights of Filipinos.

“If we have more protections I think more people will be encouraged to become virtual assistants,” said Mago, working remotely for the American.

“I strongly believe if every household in the Philippines has (someone employed as) a virtual assistant, no one will be hungry.”

UK set to cut public spending by billions of pounds

LABOUR AUSTERITY IS STILL AUSTERITY


By AFP
March 26, 2025


Britain's annual inflation rate unexpectedly slowed in February 

- Copyright AFP STR

Alexandra BACON

Britain’s finance minister Rachel Reeves is set to detail billions of pounds of spending cuts in her Spring Statement on Wednesday to address the country’s ailing public finances.

The spending update comes as the Labour government, elected in July after a landslide election win, faces sluggish economic growth and rising borrowing costs.

In a glimmer of good news, Britain’s annual inflation rate eased to 2.8 percent in February, down from 3.0 percent in January, according to the Office for National Statistics.

But despite the slowdown, inflation remains elevated above the Bank of England’s two percent target. The central bank kept interest rates unchanged last week after a series of cuts, warning of “economic uncertainty”.

Reeves has warned that since her inaugural budget in October, “the world has changed.”

Heightened global uncertainty over US tariffs and the war in Ukraine have added to the UK’s economic woes, chipping away at the Labour government’s £9.9 billion ($12.8 billion) fiscal cushion.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has recently pledged to hike spending on defence, with the government announcing late Tuesday a £2.2 billion boost next year.

“This moment demands an active government stepping up to secure Britain’s future,” Reeves said in a press statement ahead of the fiscal update.

An advocate of iron discipline over public finances, Reeves is set to detail cuts to welfare payments and government departmental budgets in Wednesday’s highly-anticipated update.



– Gloomy outlook –



An accompanying forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility, the country’s spending watchdog, is expected to paint a gloomy picture of the outlook for the UK economy.

“The Chancellor (Rachel Reeves) is unlikely to announce much today that will help quell the fears around the UK economy,” commented Lindsay James, investment strategist at wealth management firm Quilter.

“Economic growth is miniscule and risks going backwards,” she added.

Reeves’s attempts to shore up the public purse are constrained by her own fiscal rules and her pledge not to increase taxes, raising the prospect of spending cuts.

The rules prevent her from borrowing to fund day-to-day spending and call for debt to fall as a share of the gross domestic product by 2029-2030.

The centre-left government has already announced it will slash the costs of running the government by 15 percent over the next five years, targeting annual savings of over £2 billion across Britain’s civil service.

It also announced contested cuts to disability welfare payments, in the hopes of saving more than £5 billion annually by the end of the decade.

While Labour has highlighted increased funding for housing, the struggling National Health Service, and reforms to workers’ rights, it is spending cuts that have remained in the spotlight.

The cuts add to criticism piled on Labour after it scrapped a winter-fuel benefit scheme for millions of pensioners last year.

The update also comes ahead of a business tax hike, announced in Labour’s inaugural budget, coming into effect in April.

Businesses heavily criticised the tax increase, warning about the adverse effects on hiring and wages.

Over a billion pounds of Coke plastic waste to enter waterways: study

By AFP
March 26, 2025


An estimate by environmental conservation nonprofit Oceana found that Coca-Cola's plastic use is projected to exceed 4.13 million metric tons (9.12 billion pounds) annually by 2030 - Copyright AFP Jim WATSON

Issam AHMED

By 2030, Coca-Cola products will account for an estimated 1.33 billion pounds (602,000 metric tons) of plastic waste entering the world’s oceans and waterways each year, according to a stark new analysis published Wednesday by the nonprofit Oceana.

That’s enough plastic to fill the stomachs of 18 million whales.

The report arrives amid mounting concerns over the human health risks posed by the spread of microplastics, which scientists increasingly link to cancer, infertility, heart disease, and more.

“Coca-Cola is by far the largest manufacturer and seller of beverages in the world,” said Matt Littlejohn, who leads Oceana’s campaigns targeting corporate polluters.

“Because of that, they really matter when it comes to the impact of all this on the ocean.”

Coca-Cola ranks as the world’s top branded plastic polluter, followed by PepsiCo, Nestle, Danone, and Altria, according to a 2024 study published in Science Advances.

Oceana’s estimate is based on Coca-Cola’s publicly reported packaging data from 2018 to 2023, combined with sales growth forecasts to create a “business-as-usual” scenario.

The result: the company’s plastic use is projected to exceed 4.13 million metric tons (9.12 billion pounds) annually by 2030.

To estimate how much of that plastic will reach aquatic ecosystems, researchers applied a peer-reviewed method developed by an international team of scientists and published in the academic journal Science in 2020 to arrive at the 1.33 billion pounds estimate, which is equivalent to nearly 220 billion half-liter bottles.

For Oceana, the clearest solution to reduce this staggering figure lies in bringing back reusable packaging — whether in the form of returnable glass bottles, which can be reused 50 times, or thicker PET plastic containers, which are designed for 25 uses.



– Dropped reuse pledge –



Coca-Cola itself acknowledged in 2022 that reusable packaging was “among the most effective ways to reduce waste,” and committed to a goal of reaching 25 percent reusable packaging by 2030.

But that pledge was quietly dropped in its latest sustainability roadmap, released in December 2024.

The company’s updated goals instead focus on increasing recycled content in packaging and boosting collection rates — while stressing the significant challenges in recycling soda bottles and shifting consumer habits.

Environmental advocates have long warned against overreliance on recycling, arguing that it often serves to shift blame onto consumers rather than addressing the root of the crisis.

“Recycling is great, don’t get me wrong,” said Littlejohn. “But if you’re going to use recycled plastic to produce more single-use plastic, that’s a problem.”

Plastic production relies on oil, making corporate plastic use a direct driver of climate change.

Still, there is reason for hope: Coca-Cola already operates large-scale refillable systems in several countries, including Brazil, Germany, Nigeria, and even parts of the United States, such as southern Texas.

“They have the largest reusable infrastructure of any beverage company, and they have the ability to grow that and show the way for the rest of the industry,” said Littlejohn.

In a statement to AFP, a Coca-Cola spokesperson said that while the company’s efforts currently focus on using more recycled materials and improving collection systems, “we have been investing and remain committed to expand our refillable packaging options, and this work will continue as part of our consumer-centric strategy.”

S. Korea govt responsible for international adoption fraud: inquiry


By AFP
March 26, 2025


South Kora remains one of the biggest ever exporters of babies in the world, having sent more than 140,000 children overseas between 1955 and 1999

 - Copyright AFP/File Jung Yeon-je

A South Korean official enquiry said Wednesday the government was responsible for abuse in international adoptions of local children, including record fabrication and inadequate consent, and recommended an official state apology.

“It was determined that the state neglected its duty … resulting in the violation of the human rights of adoptees protected by the constitution and international agreements during the process of sending a lot of children abroad,” South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission said in a statement.

The country — now Asia’s fourth biggest economy and a global culture powerhouse — remains one of the biggest ever exporters of babies in the world, having sent more than 140,000 children overseas between 1955 and 1999.

International adoption began after the Korean War as a way to remove mixed-race children, born to local mothers and American GI fathers, from a country that emphasised ethnic homogeneity.

It became big business in the 1970s to 1980s, bringing international adoption agencies millions of dollars as the country overcame post-war poverty and faced rapid and aggressive economic development.

More recently, the main driver has been babies born to unmarried women, who still face ostracism in a patriarchal society, and according to academics, are often forced to give up their children.

In a landmark announcement, the country’s truth commission concluded after a two-year and seven-month investigation that human rights violations occurred in international adoptions of South Korean children, including “fraudulent orphan registrations, identity tampering, and inadequate vetting of adoptive parents”.

It also said “numerous cases were identified where proper legal consent procedures” for South Korean birth parents were “not followed”.

The commission also said the South Korean government failed to regulate adoption fees, allowing agencies to set them through “internal agreements”, effectively turning it into a profit-driven industry.

And despite regulations requiring verification of adoptive parents’ eligibility, an overwhelming majority — 99 percent — of intercountry adoption approvals in 1984 alone were granted on the same day or the following day, the commission said, citing its investigation.

“These violations should never have occurred,” the commission’s chairperson Park Sun-young told reporters.

“This is a shameful part of our history,” she added.



– ‘Eternal uncertainty’ –



For years, Korean adoptees have advocated for their rights, many reporting that their birth mothers were forced to give up their children, leading to the fabrication of records to make them legally adoptable.

Some South Korean birth parents and adoptees even claimed that their children were kidnapped — by agents who sought out unattended children in poor neighbourhoods — or that authorities directed lost children towards adoption without trying to reunite them with their families, in some cases intentionally changing the child’s identity.

Some adoptees — such as Adam Crapser — were deported to South Korea as adults because their American parents never secured their US citizenship.

The commission confirmed human rights violations in only 56 out of 367 complaints, saying there was an overwhelming amount of data to try to verify, and said it would “make efforts” to review the remaining cases before its investigation expires on May 26.

Some adoptees were dissatisfied with this outcome, urging the commission to fully recognise violations in all 367 cases.

“Without the truth, our lives rests upon guesses, estimations and creative narratives,” Boonyoung Han, a Danish Korean adoptee, said in a statement.

“We are victims to state violence but without a trace! Literally. Destruction and withholding of our documents must not leave us open to eternal uncertainty.”

Hanna Johansson, a Korean adoptee in Sweden, said she considers the commission’s announcement a “victory” for her adoptee community regardless.

“I also hope that more and more South Korean (birth) parents who lost their child without their consent will come forward and demand justice,” she told AFP.

OUTLAW DEEP SEA MINING

Protecting undersea cultural heritage in spotlight at mining code talks

By AFP
March 26, 2025


Fish swim around the Antilla Shipwreck off of Noord, Aruba on May 12, 2024

 - Copyright AFP/File Joseph Prezioso

Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS

The world’s oceans harbor a cultural heritage of sunken ships, remains of those lost in the transatlantic slave trade and Indigenous islanders’ spiritual ties to the sea that must be protected, NGOs and native peoples say.

They are pushing at a meeting in Jamaica of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) — an organization established under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea — for such protection to be enshrined in a mining code that is being negotiated to govern the exploitation of sea beds in international waters.

“Our ancestors traveled the oceans for thousands of years, passing on information from generation to generation,” said Hinano Murphy of the Tetiaroa Society, a Polynesian conservation group.

“We are the children of the people of the ocean,” Murphy told AFP, insisting this heritage must be treated as something sacred.

Scientists and defenders of the oceans have long insisted that future industrial-level mining will threaten marine ecosystems.

But “the underwater cultural heritage is a living memory of the generations that came before us. Its protection must be a priority equal to the protection of marine biodiversity,” Salim Lahsini, a representative of Morocco speaking on behalf of African countries, said during fierce debate over the mining code.

The draft of the code states that mining companies are supposed to notify the ISA if they come across human remains or archeological objects or sites.

Depending on how the talks conclude, such a find could trigger a suspension of the mining that led to the discovery, but there is no consensus on the details of how this will work.

“To define underwater cultural heritage as shipwrecks is very sad for me,” said April Nishimura, a representative of a clan of the Gitxsan Indigenous people in Canada, who explained that her people feel linked to the ocean by the salmon that swim upriver.



– ‘Intangible heritage’ –



In this spirit, a group of countries led by Micronesia has proposed that underwater heritage be defined to include tangible things such as human remains, shipwrecks and their cargo as well as intangibles such as knowledge of traditional navigation techniques and spiritual practices linked to the sea.

As things stand now, technologies for mining metal deposits in the Pacific are the only ones that seem ready for industrial-scale use.

But the Atlantic could lure profit-seekers next, as it features a different kind of valuable deposits under the sea.

The ocean is the final resting place of shipwrecks, planes shot down during World War II and physical reminders of centuries of trade in slaves from Africa to the Americas.

“Many ships carrying enslaved persons sank during the passage. Many enslaved persons who died during the crossing had their bodies dumped into the ocean,” said Lucas Lixinski, a professor of law at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

The slave trade, he said, “is an important story of underwater heritage and our ongoing connections to it.”

While halting a mining job if a shipwreck is found seems simple in principle, protecting intangible parts of the undersea heritage is more tricky.

The mining code could protect this kind of treasure by establishing a “checkpoint” before the mining is undertaken, he said.

Indigenous communities and anthropologist would be asked if mining in a given area disturbs these cultural connections “in a way that would be too invasive or destructive,” said Lixinski.

The working group led by Micronesia recommends the creation of a specialized committee, to include representatives of Indigenous peoples, to help the ISA decide on a given mining project.

There are already solutions for protecting tangible underwater heritage, said Charlotte Jarvis, a maritime archeologist who represents an NGO called The Ocean Foundation.

“We are trained to spot a shipwreck in seafloor data and we know the best way to collect that data. So getting good data ahead of time will be key,” she told AFP.
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US may miss out on green tech boom: Germany


By AFP
March 26, 2025


German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends the Petersberg Climate Dialogue

- Copyright AFP Geoff Robins

Europe must seize on the “huge economic opportunities” offered by the green technology boom, Germany said Wednesday — adding it was up to the United States if it decided to miss out.

Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump’s administration has withdrawn the United States from the landmark Paris Agreement for a second time and vowed to focus heavily on fossil fuel extraction.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at a climate conference in Berlin that he “deeply regretted” the United States leaving the Paris climate accord and stressed the “enormous” economic opportunities it is missing out on.

“The global market for climate-friendly key technologies continues to grow rapidly,” Scholz told the Petersberg Climate Dialogue.

He said investments in the global energy transition had exceeded the $2 trillion mark, which “corresponds to the volume of the entire global oil trade today”.

The meeting’s host, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, said economic data contradicted the “old prejudice” that investing in climate protection was “unaffordable”.

“We all know that there are spoilers in the world right now who want to prevent” greater climate investments, she told the first major meeting of the year related to the COP30 summit taking place in Brazil in November.

Baerbock added that “today climate protection and economic growth no longer contradict one another”.

“Climate protection opens up huge economic opportunities, and we as Europeans want to seize them”, she added.

Europe especially wants to work with “companies and countries in Latin America, Africa and other regions around the world,” Baerbock said.

“If others, such as the United States, decide to stay out of it, that is their decision.”



– ‘Renewing economies’ –



United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres echoed Baerbock’s message, telling the Berlin meeting in a virtual address that “renewables are renewing economies”.

“They are powering growth, creating jobs, lowering energy bills and cleaning our air. And every day, they become an even smarter investment.”

Baerbock also hailed as “historic” a recent agreement struck in Germany to channel an extra 100 billion euros ($107 billion) to climate measures.

Her Greens, who are set to leave government after faring poorly in February elections, wrung the concession from other political parties in exchange for agreeing to support plans for greater defence and infrastructure spending.

EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra meanwhile warned that the world was living in “tremendously difficult times”.

“We’re facing problems literally from every direction — and clearly also in the domain of climate action,” he told the meeting.

Beyond the United States withdrawing from climate cooperation, there have also been concerns that the issue is being pushed down the global agenda by national security and economic pressures.

“But there’s no alternative,” Hoekstra stressed. “Humanity doesn’t have an alternative and cannot wait.