Not a game show: Ex-TV star at center of Lebanon-Saudi row


FILE - Lebanon's Information Minister George Kordahi speaks to journalists after a cabinet meeting at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Sept. 13, 2021. As an entertainer, Kordahi connected with generations of viewers in the Middle East as the host of the popular game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," bringing politics and culture into homes with humor and charm. Now serving as Lebanon's information minister, Kordahi is caught in his country's worst-ever diplomatic brawl with Saudi Arabia, set off by his seemingly casual criticism of Riyadh's role in the Yemen war. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)


BEIRUT (AP) — George Kordahi was popular among TV viewers in the Middle East for his dapper charm. He schmoozed with beautiful women, dropped jokes and recited lines of Arabic poetry — all the while weighing in with his political opinions about the region’s events.

Now the former host of the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” is Lebanon’s information minister, and those opinions have landed Kordahi at the center of his country’s worst-ever crisis with Saudi Arabia.

Kordahi said he won’t resign or apologize to the Saudis, for comments he made before he was minister even though Lebanon desperately needs Riyadh’s financial backing. Instead, the former entertainer known for his smooth style is relying on the backing of Saudi Arabia’s nemesis, Lebanon’s powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.

Kordahi became a politician only late in life, joining the Lebanese Cabinet in September at the age of 71. But he had plenty to say about politics in his years as an entertainer.

Appearing on a Lebanese talk show called Talk of the Town in 2017, he handed a red rose to each of the four women sharing the stage with him. The female host gushed that viewers can see for themselves how gallant he is.

Seated between the three daughters of Lebanon’s president, Kordahi said it was his luck and privilege to be among such “glorious women.”

Yet alongside the compliments, he expressed hardline views on limiting free expression. Commenting on domestic affairs, he said an information minister should regulate social media, rein in what he said were smear campaigns and act as a censor instead of the security agencies.

The current diplomatic crisis goes back to comments he made Aug. 5, a month before he became information minister. In the remarks, which were recorded and aired later, he defended Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels. This angered Saudi Arabia, which has been leading a military coalition fighting the Houthis in a brutal and deadlocked war in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have withdrawn their ambassadors from Lebanon in protest over the comments. The diplomatic spat is putting hundreds of millions of dollars in trade and assistance from the oil-rich nations at risk at a time of dire need for Lebanon.

The tensions have exposed the depth of Lebanon’s problem with its former ally Saudi Arabia. Hezbollah increasingly dominates national politics, moving Lebanon further into Iran’s orbit, Riyadh’s arch rival.

Kordahi’s predicament also underscores the price of political aspirations in the Middle East’s polarized atmosphere, particularly since the divisive 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.

As host of the “millionaire” show launched in 2000, Kordahi appealed to audiences from Morocco to Oman with his guttural voice and use of the Arabic language in a way that transcended local dialects.

He peppered his show with references to poetry, literature and the Quran — a sure way to the hearts of many young Muslims, especially coming from Kordahi, who is Christian.

At the time, the second Palestinian uprising dominated the news. Kordahi’s show took on the Palestinian cause, an issue that united Arabs. In one episode, the contestants were the mothers of three Palestinians killed in the violence. They ended up winning $100,000.

In 2011, the anti-government protests of the Arab Spring spread across the region.

Kordahi chose to side with Syria’s Bashar Assad and its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, losing many fans and financial supporters in the process.

During a lecture in Damascus in 2011, Kordahi said the protests against Assad were “a foreign conspiracy” and praised the long-time ruler as a real reformer. At the time, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations were backing Assad’s armed opposition.

The Saudi-owned MBC channel dismissed Kordahi as he was preparing a new show, posting on its website that it was out of respect for the Syrian people. Kordahi left the network for posts in Lebanese media, including a stint in one allied with Hezbollah.

Kordahi, who also has a perfume and clothing line in his name, began toying with a career in politics. In 2013, he was named for parliament on a list allied with Michel Aoun, the current Lebanese president and at the time the head of the largest Christian party. The elections never took place.

That year, Hezbollah sent troops to Syria to back Assad’s embattled forces in the border province of Homs. In an interview on Syrian TV, Kordahi praised Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, saying “I take pride in him.”

When he finally entered Lebanese politics, Marada, a Christian party allied with Syria and Hezbollah, named him to the post of information minister.

In his first comment as minister, he appealed to the Lebanese media to refrain from hosting analysts who warn of doomsday scenarios in Lebanon. Many perceived it as a call for censorship.

Attempts to reach Kordahi were unsuccessful.

When the crisis with Saudi Arabia erupted, he first tweeted that his comments intended no offense. Then he held a press conference. “Lebanon should not remain subject to extortion from anyone, any country or any ambassadors,” he said.

To his backers, Kordahi is a symbol of national dignity, freedom of expression and resistance to Gulf interference in Lebanese affairs.

Posters of Kordahi have appeared in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, with the words: “Yes George, the war in Yemen is absurd.”

Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah lawmaker, said Kordahi did nothing wrong. “Some people with no dignity and no national honor are exaggerating, saying this will ruin the country.”

To his critics, his comments and refusal to resign are reckless. “The public is paying the price of people who named themselves officials and show no responsibility,” tweeted Lebanese singer Elissa.

Public figures from the Gulf called Kordahi ungrateful and even called for firing his daughter, who works at MBC.

Saudi officials said the problem is bigger than Kordahi’s comments — rooted in a system that has allied itself with Iran. Mediators suggested his resignation is a first step toward reconciliation.

Salem Zahran, a political analyst, said Kordahi inadvertently stumbled into a fight not of his making. He suggested the Saudis were lashing out because they are frustrated over the stalled war in Yemen, particularly as Houthi rebels advance in the strategic province of Marib.

“It is not his fault. Destiny put him in this reality,” Zahran said. “Every Lebanese is born a politician until proven otherwise.”

MANDATES WORK
Mandates drive up vaccinations at colleges, despite leniency

FILE - A historical marker stands near the gate at the Ohio University campus in Athens, Ohio on June 12, 2006. Universities that adopted COVID-19 vaccine mandates this fall of 2021, have seen widespread compliance. That's true even though many schools made it easy to get out of the shots by granting exemptions to nearly any student who requested one. (AP Photo/Joe Maiorana, File)

Universities that adopted COVID-19 vaccine mandates this fall have seen widespread compliance even though many schools made it easy to get out of the shots by granting exemptions to nearly any student who requested one.

Facing pockets of resistance and scattered lawsuits, colleges have tread carefully because forcing students to get the vaccine when they have a religious or medical objection could put schools into tricky legal territory. For some, there are added concerns that taking a hard line could lead to a drop in enrollment.

Still, universities with mandates report much higher vaccination rates than communities around them, even in places with high vaccine hesitancy. Some universities have seen nearly complete compliance, including at state flagship schools in Maryland, Illinois and Washington, helping them avoid large outbreaks like those that disrupted classes a year ago.

Since announcing its mandate two months ago, Ohio University students and employees who reported being vaccinated at its Athens campus shot up from 69% to almost 85%.

“Educating and encouraging was only getting us so far,” said Gillian Ice, a professor of social medicine who is overseeing the school’s pandemic response. “We had a lot who were on the fence. They weren’t necessarily anti-vaccine. They didn’t think they were high risk.”

School administrators are watching closely to see how the mandate affects enrollment, she said. Some students are likely to transfer, but there’s also a less vocal group who support the requirement and would not have come to campus without it, Ice said.

At least 1,100 colleges and universities now require proof of COVID-19 vaccines, according to tracking by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Some schools told students last spring they would need to be vaccinated before returning to campus this fall. Others held off on making the shots a requirement until the Food and Drug Administration gave full approval to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in August.

Many other universities don’t have vaccine requirements for anyone on campus. In some cases, political leaders have blocked universities from issuing mandates.

Just about every university with a vaccine requirement allows students and employees to ask for a medical or religious exemption. A smaller number of schools allow students to refuse the shots over philosophical reasons.

Most of the nation’s largest public universities aren’t seeing large numbers of student exemption requests, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. At the same time, those colleges have approved the vast majority — in some cases all — of the requests.

At many colleges, the requests are evaluated by committees that include medical experts, faculty members and student life administrators. Some schools ask students for notes signed by doctors or detailed statements explaining the principles of their religious beliefs.

At Virginia Tech University, where 95% of students are now vaccinated, the school granted all of the 1,600 exemption requests from students as long as they agreed to weekly testing.

“It’s a balance. How hard you want to come down on people? Do you say you can’t be on campus if you’re not vaccinated?” Virginia Tech President Tim Sands said. “We didn’t want to go that far.”

School leaders decided not to second-guess doctors or question someone’s religious beliefs, he said.

“That’s just not a conversation we want to get into,” Sands said about the religious exemptions. “Everybody has their own approach to their faith.”

Virginia Tech, which posted a record enrollment of more than 37,000 this fall, also sent away 134 students who failed to show they had been vaccinated or received an exemption.

Jake Yetzke, a junior at Oakland University in Michigan, thought about transferring, but he didn’t want to give up his full scholarship after the school announced a vaccine mandate for the fall.

He received a religious exemption for reasons he didn’t want to share. Getting the shot should be a personal choice, he said.

But even with the exemption, he feels ostracized because he’s no longer allowed to be a part of the university choir or its vocal jazz ensemble, he said. During voice classes, he has to sing behind a plexiglass wall while wearing a mask and he’s treated differently by teachers now, he said.

“It’s a lot of that kind of stuff,” said Yetzke, a music technology major. “I’m barred from doing a lot. That’s really frustrating because I came here to sing.”

Amanda Born, who attends Grand Valley State in western Michigan, also received a religious exemption. She said she knows at least 10 students who didn’t want the vaccine but went ahead with it anyway.

“It was a scare tactic, and it worked,” she said. “They want to continue living their life, going to the school they chose and continuing with their career path.”

The nine-campus University of Louisiana System told students immediately after the FDA approval that they would need to be vaccinated or receive a medical, religious or philosophical exemption before signing up for classes next semester. State law there provides for broad exemptions to vaccine mandates.

The results have been mixed: A third of the students at McNeese State University have applied for an exemption, while at the University of New Orleans just 6% have asked to skip the shot. Overall, inoculation rates have increased.

Jim Henderson, who’s president of the system, said there likely would have been twice as many exemption requests if they had required the vaccine before FDA approval.

“Every step chips away at hesitancy,” he said. “If we approach this in an instructional and educational way, students are going to be receptive to that for the most part.”

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Associated Press Writer Kathleen Foody in Chicago contributed to this report.

Now silent under Taliban, a Kabul cinema awaits its fate

By LEE KEATH and BRAM JANSSEN

November 11, 2021 GMT

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The cool 1960s-style lines of the Ariana Cinema’s marquee stand out over a traffic-clogged roundabout in downtown Kabul. For decades, the historic cinema has entertained Afghans and borne witness to Afghanistan’s wars, hopes and cultural shifts.

Now the marquee is stripped of the posters of Bollywood movies and American action flicks that used to adorn it. The gates are closed.

After recapturing power three months ago, the Taliban ordered the Ariana and other cinemas to stop operating. The Islamic militant guerrillas-turned-rulers say they have yet to decide whether they will allow movies in Afghanistan.

Like the rest of the country, the Ariana is in a strange limbo, waiting to see how the Taliban will rule.

The cinema’s nearly 20 employees, all men, still show up at work, logging in their attendance in hopes they will eventually get paid. The landmark Ariana, one of only four cinemas in the capital, is owned by the Kabul municipality, so its employees are government workers and remain on the payroll.

The men while away the hours. They hang out in the abandoned ticket booth or stroll the Ariana’s curving corridors. Rows of plush red seats sit in silent darkness.

The Ariana’s director, Asita Ferdous, the first woman in the post, is not even allowed to enter the cinema. The Taliban ordered female government employees to stay away from their workplaces so they don’t mix with men, until they determine whether they will be allowed to work.

The 26-year-old Ferdous is part of a post-2001 generation of young Afghans determined to carve out a greater space for women’s rights. The Taliban takeover has wrecked their hopes. Also a painter and sculptor, she now stays at home.

“I spend time doing sketches, drawing, just to keep practicing,” she said. “I can’t do exhibitions anymore.”

During their previous time in power from 1996-2001, the Taliban imposed a radical interpretation of Islamic law forbidding women from working or going to school — or even leaving home in many cases — and forcing men to grow beards and attend prayers. They banned music and other art, including movies and cinema.

Under international pressure, the Taliban now say they have changed. But they have been vague about what they will or won’t allow. That has put many Afghans’ lives — and livelihoods — on hold.

For the Ariana, it is another chapter in a tumultuous six-decade history.

The Ariana opened in 1963. Its sleek architecture mirrored the modernizing spirit that the then-ruling monarchy was trying to bring to the deeply traditional nation.

Kabul resident Ziba Niazai recalled going to the Ariana in the late 1980s, during the rule of Soviet-backed President Najibullah, when there were more than 30 cinemas around the country.

For her, it was an entry to a different world. She had just married, and her new husband brought her from their home village in the mountains to Kabul, where he had a job in the Finance Ministry. She was alone in the house all day while he was at the office.

But when he got off work, they often went together to the Ariana for a Bollywood movie.

After years of communist rule, it was a more secular era than recent decades, at least for a narrow urban elite.

“We had no hijab at that time,” said Niazai, now in her late 50s, referring to the headscarf. Many couples went to the cinema, and “there wasn’t even a separate section, you could sit wherever you wanted.”

At the time, war raged across the country as Najibullah’s government battled an American-backed coalition of warlords and Islamic militants. The mujahedeen toppled him in 1992. Then they turned on each other in a fight for power that demolished Kabul and killed thousands of people caught in the crossfire.

The Ariana was heavily damaged, along with most of the surrounding neighborhood, in the frequent bombardments and gunbattles.

It lay abandoned in ruins for years, as the Taliban drove out the mujahedeen and took over Kabul in 1996. Whatever cinemas survived around Kabul were shuttered.

The Ariana’s revival came after the Taliban’s ouster in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. The French government helped rebuild the cinema in 2004, part of the flood of billions of dollars of international aid that attempted to reshape Afghanistan over the next 20 years.

With the Taliban gone, cinema saw a new burst of popularity.

Indian movies were always the biggest draw at the Ariana, as were action movies, particularly those featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme, said Abdul Malik Wahidi, in charge of tickets. As Afghanistan’s domestic film industry revived, the Ariana played the handful of Afghan movies produced each year.

They had three showings a day, ending in the mid-afternoon, at 50 afghanis a ticket — about 50 cents. Audiences were overwhelmingly men. In Afghanistan’s conservative society, cinemas were seen as a male space, and few women attended.

Wahidi recalled how he and other staffers had to preview all foreign films to weed out those with scenes considered too racy — with couples kissing or women showing too much skin, for example.

Letting something slip through could bring the wrath of some movie-goers. Offended audiences were known to hurl objects at the screen, though it didn’t happen at the Ariana, Wahidi said. He remembered one patron at the Ariana, outraged by a scene, storming out and shouting at him, “How can you show pornography?”

Ferdous was appointed as the Ariana’s director just over a year ago. She previously led the Kabul municipality’s Gender Equality division, where she had worked to gain equal pay for women employees and install women as senior officers in the capital’s district police departments.

When she came to the Ariana, the male staff were surprised, “but they have been very cooperative and have worked well with me.”

She focused on making the cinema more welcoming to women. They dedicated one side of the auditorium for couples and families where women could sit. Those entering the cinema had to be patted down by guards as a security measure, and Ferdous brought in a female guard so women patrons would feel more comfortable.

Couples began coming regularly, she said. In March 2021, the cinema hosted a festival of Afghan films that proved very popular, attended by Afghan actors who held talks with the audiences.

Now it has all been brought to a halt, and the Ariana’s staff is left not knowing their fate. The male employees have received part of their salaries since the Taliban takeover. Ferdous said she has received no salary at all.

“It is women who suffer the most. Women are just asking for their right to work,” she said. “If they are not allowed, their economic situation will only get worse.”

Inanullah Amany, the general director of the Kabul Municipality’s cultural department, said that if the Taliban do ban movies, the Ariana’s employees could be transferred to other municipal jobs. Or they could be dismissed.

The staff said they couldn’t even guess what the Taliban will decide, but none held out much hope they would allow movies.

That would be a loss, said Rahmatullah Ezati, the Ariana’s chief projectionist.

“If a country doesn’t have cinema, then there’s no culture. Through cinema, we’ve seen other countries like Europe, U.S. and India.”

WALES
Frustration, defiance in village to be abandoned to the sea

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An aerial view of Fairbourne village in Gwynedd in Wales, Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. In north Wales, residents in the small coastal village of Fairbourne face being the U.K.'s first "climate refugees." Authorities say that by 2054, it would no longer be sustainable to keep up flood defenses there because of faster sea level rises and more frequent and extreme storms caused by climate change. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

FAIRBOURNE, Wales (AP) — Like many others who came to Fairbourne, Stuart Eves decided the coastal village in northern Wales would be home for life when he moved here 26 years ago. He fell in love with the peaceful, slow pace of small village life in this community of about 700 residents nestled between the rugged mountains and the Irish Sea.

“I wanted somewhere my children can have the same upbringing as I had, so they can run free,” said Eves, 72, who built a caravan park in the village that he still runs with his son. “You’ve got the sea, you’ve got the mountains. It’s just a stunning place to live.”

That changed suddenly in 2014, when authorities identified Fairbourne as the first coastal community in the U.K. to be at high risk of flooding due to climate change.

Predicting faster sea level rises and more frequent and extreme storms due to global warming, the government said it could only afford to keep defending the village for another 40 years. Officials said that by 2054, it would no longer by safe or sustainable to live in Fairbourne.

Authorities therefore have been working with villagers on the process of so-called “managed realignment” -- essentially, to move them away and abandon the village to the encroaching sea.

Overnight, house prices in Fairbourne nosedived. Residents were dubbed the U.K.’s first “climate refugees.” Many were left shocked and angry by national headlines declaring their whole village would be “decommissioned.” Seven years on, most of their questions about their future remain unanswered.

“They’ve doomed the village, and now they’ve got to try to rehome the people. That’s 450 houses,” said Eves, who serves as chair of the local community council. “If they want us out by 2054, then they’ve got to have the accommodation to put us in.”

No one here wants to leave. While many are retirees, there are also young families raising a next generation. Locals speak proudly of their tight-knit community. And although the village center only consists of a grocer’s, a fish and chip shop and a couple of restaurants, residents say the pebbly beach and a small steam train draw bustling crowds in the summer.

Natural Resources Wales, the government-sponsored organization responsible for the sea defenses in Fairbourne, said the village is particularly vulnerable because it faces multiple flooding risks. Built in the 1850s on a low-lying saltmarsh, Fairbourne already lies beneath sea level at high spring tide. During storms, the tidal level is more than 1.5 meters (5 feet) above the level of the village.

Scientists say U.K. sea levels have risen about 10 centimeters (4 inches) in the past century. Depending on greenhouse gas emissions and actions that governments take, the predicted rise is 70 centimeters to 1 meter by 2100.

Fairbourne is also at the mouth of an estuary, with additional risks of flash floods from the river running behind it. Officials have spent millions of pounds in strengthening a sea wall and almost 2 miles of tidal defenses.

While there are flood risks in many other villages along the Welsh coast, decisions on which areas to protect ultimately boil down to cost. Officials say that in the case of Fairbourne, the cost of maintaining flood defenses will become higher than “the value of what we’re protecting.”

The effects of climate change that negotiators at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, are working to mitigate already are a reality here.

Catrin Wager, a cabinet member of Gwynedd Council, the local authority overseeing Fairbourne, stressed that while Fairbourne may be the first Welsh coastal village to be designated unviable due to climate change, it certainly won’t be the only one. There’s no precedent for how to develop policies for helping the villagers adapt, she said.

“We need more answers from the Welsh and U.K. governments, that’s my message going into this (U.N. summit),” Wager said. “We really need to get some guidance on not only mitigating the effects of climate change, but about how we adapt for things that are already happening.”

Across the U.K., half a million properties are at risk of coastal flooding -- and that risk figure will jump to 1.5 million by the end of the 2080s, according to the Climate Change Committee, an independent advisory body set up under climate change laws.

Britain’s government, which is hosting the U.N. climate summit, needs to be much more upfront about such risks, said Richard Dawson, a member of the committee and professor of engineering at Newcastle University.

Ultimately, “difficult decisions” need to be made about many coastal settlements with disproportionately high numbers of older and poorer residents, he said, and officials need to prepare people for moving inland.

“Whatever happens at COP the sea level will continue to rise around the U.K., that’s something we absolutely need to prepare for,” Dawson said. “We have to be realistic. We can’t afford to protect everywhere. The challenge for government is that the problem is not being confronted with the urgency or openness that we need.”

In Fairbourne, a continuing standoff between villagers and officials underlines that challenge. Residents feel they have been unfairly singled out and aren’t convinced there is a clear timeframe on how quickly sea levels will rise enough to threaten their homes. When and how will evacuation take place? Will they be compensated, and if so how much should it be?

There are no answers. The village vicar, Ruth Hansford, said many residents suffered “emotional fatigue” from years of uncertainty and negativity. Others simply decided to carry on with their lives.

Becky Offland and her husband recently took on the lease of the Glan Y Mor Hotel, going against the grain and investing in the village’s future. They’re hopeful their business will bring more visitors and financial support to Fairbourne.

“It’s like a big family, this place. It’s not a village, it’s a family,” said Offland, 36. “We’ll all fight to keep it where it is.”

Down the street, Fairbourne Chippy owner Alan Jones, 64, also said he has no plans to go anywhere.

“Until water actually comes in here, ’til we physically can’t work, we’ll carry on,” he said.

Eves said he and his son believe that “what will be, will be.” But he will mourn the inevitable disintegration of the village he loves.

“You can’t sort of take this village here, and put it over there and expect it to work again,” he said. “What you have here is a human catastrophe, albeit on a small scale.”

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Read stories on climate issues by The Associated Press at https://apnews.com/hub/climate

Biden announces effort to ID toxic air issues in veterans

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A tomb guard of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, known as "The Old Guard," stands during a centennial commemoration event at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in Arlington National Cemetery, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)


WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden, the father of an Iraq war veteran, is using his first Veterans Day in office to announce an effort to better understand, treat and identify medical conditions suffered by troops deployed to toxic environments.

It centers on lung problems suffered by troops who breathe in toxins and the potential connection between rare respiratory cancers and time spent overseas breathing poor air, according to senior White House officials. Federal officials plan to start by examining lung and breathing problems but said they will expand the effort as science identifies potential new connections.

Biden planned to travel to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on Thursday to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony and deliver remarks.

The new federal effort is also designed to make it easier for veterans to make claims based on their symptoms, to collect more data from troops who are suffering and to give veterans more time to make medical claims after symptoms such as asthma and sinus problems develop.

“We’re discovering there is a whole host of lung conditions related to deployment,” said Dr. Richard Meehan, an immunologist and rheumatologist. The retired U.S. Naval Reserve officer, who served in the Mideast during the 1990s and again in 2008, is co-director of the Denver-based National Jewish Hospital Center for Excellence on Deployment-Related Lung Disease.

Biden has hypothesized about a potential link between his son Beau’s death from an aggressive brain cancer after returning from Iraq and his exposure to toxins in the air, particularly around massive pits where the military disposes of waste by burning. There’s no scientific evidence to suggest that link.

Beau Biden’s death was a defining moment for Joe Biden, one he said affected his decision to sit out the 2016 presidential race. The younger Biden deployed from October 2008 until September 2009 as a captain in the Delaware Army National Guard. In 2013, he was diagnosed with a tumor, and he died two years later at age 46.

Meehan, who is investigating the role of inhalation exposures among military personnel who were deployed to Southwest Asia, said it isn’t only burn pits that are the issue — the air quality in some countries is so poor that troops would not be allowed to work there under civilian federal workplace guidelines. The center receives funding from the Department of Defense, along with private donors.

Meehan has worried that troops who came back with breathing problems were being compared with regular Americans to determine whether there was a higher rate of lung illness. But those deployed with the U.S. military are in peak physical condition and can generally run faster and are stronger and more fit than average Americans. To come back unable to make it up stairs without getting winded or unable to lift anything without breathing heavily is highly unusual.

“When you compare them to another group, you have to compare them to another healthy, fit group,” Meehan said. “That’s one of the problems overlooked in surveys that have shown no higher incidence of cancer.”

The new rules will allow veterans to make claims within 10 years of service, and the government has changed how it determines what symptoms count and why.

The U.S. military has been aware for years of the health risks associated with open-air burn pits. In 2013, federal investigators found a military camp in Afghanistan was operating a pit for more than five years, nearly four times longer than Pentagon rules allowed. The Defense Department has said burn pits should only be used as a temporary last resort when no other alternative trash disposal method is feasible, still they persisted for years.

UPDATES

Lukashenko threatens EU with gas cutoff as border tensions rise

The authoritarian Belarusian leader is enraged that the EU is contemplating another round of sanctions.


Longtime Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko

 | Pool photo by Shamil Zhumatov/AFP

BY JOHANNA TREECK
November 11, 2021 

The European Union will not be intimidated by threats from Belarus, Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said Thursday, following Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko's warnings he could cut off gas transit if the bloc pushes ahead with more sanctions against his regime.

In addition to another round of EU sanctions, Poland closed one of the main border crossings with Belarus earlier this week. One of the remaining border points is reporting trucks have to wait more than 50 hours to cross.

"We should not be intimidated, of course, by Lukashenko's threats," Gentiloni told a news conference presenting the Commission's new economic forecasts.

Earlier in the day, according to Belarus' Belta news agency, Lukashenko said: "We provide heat to Europe, and they are threatening us with the border closure. What if we block natural gas transit? I would recommend the leadership of Poland, Lithuanians and other brainless folk to think hard."

Belarus is encouraging migrants to fly from the Middle East to Minsk, after which it is reportedly aiding access to the country's borders with EU countries. Polish authorities say several thousand people are camped in the damp birch forests marking the Polish-Belarusian border.

Migrants have made several efforts to push past the Polish border fence, which is protected by 15,000 troops, police and border guards. They have also been making efforts to cross into Latvia and Lithuania, with Lithuanian officials estimating about a thousand people are gathered on the border.

In a joint statement, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian defense ministers on Thursday described “the security crisis unfolding on the Polish-Belarusian and Lithuanian-Belarusian border as very alarming.” They condemned the deliberate escalation by the Belarusian regime, “which is posing serious threats to European security.”

Lukashenko is retaliating against EU sanctions imposed against him and top allies for their brutal crackdown on pro-democracy supporters following last year's stolen presidential election.

Brussels and EU border countries have denounced Belarus' actions as hybrid warfare. The Commission is preparing another round of sanctions to force Minsk to stop channeling migrants toward the EU, which could be approved by next week.

"They have started to intimidate us with the fifth package [of sanctions]. With regard to this fifth package, the prime minister has been instructed to think of retaliatory measures," Lukashenko said on Thursday, adding that if Belarus sees the measures as "indigestible and unacceptable ... we will hit back."

It's unclear how Lukashenko would be able to turn off gas flowing from Russia to Poland on the Yamal pipeline, which is owned by Russia's Gazprom. Any such effort would have to be approved by Moscow.

The border crisis is prompting Belarus to cozy up to Russia, its sole remaining ally. The two countries already have a tight economic and security relationship. Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke earlier this week.

Two Russian Tu-160 nuclear-capable bombers rehearsed bombing runs in a training exercise over Belarus on Thursday. On Wednesday, Russia sent airplanes across Belarus in a sign of support for the country, Lukashenko said.

Russia, Western countries clash at UN over Belarus border crisis

Issued on: 11/11/2021 

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Russia traded barbs with Western members of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday over a crisis on the border between Belarus and Poland, with Russia's deputy U.N. envoy suggesting his European colleagues have "masochist inclinations."

Estonia, France, Ireland, Norway, the United States and Britain raised the migrant crisis during a closed-door meeting of the 15-member body.

"We condemn the orchestrated instrumentalisation of human beings whose lives and wellbeing have been put in danger for political purposes by Belarus, with the objective of destabilising neighbouring countries and the European Union's external border and diverting attention away from its own increasing human rights violations," they said in a statement.

They described the Belarusian approach as "unacceptable," and accused President Alexander Lukashenko of becoming a threat to regional stability and called for a "strong international reaction" to hold Belarus accountable, pledging "to discuss further measures that we can take."

The EU says Belarus is encouraging thousands fleeing war-torn parts of the world to try to cross into Poland and other neighbouring countries to retaliate for EU sanctions.

Belarus has warned the crisis could escalate into a military confrontation, while Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia said Belarus posed a serious threat to European security.

Russia's deputy U.N. Ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, told reporters ahead of the council meeting that he believed his Western council colleagues "have some kind of masochist inclinations because to raise this topic, which is a total shame for the EU, in front of us would be very brave."

When asked if Russia or Belarus were helping move the migrants to the Polish border, Polyanskiy said: "No, absolutely not." He added that not all problems needed to be tackled by the Security Council. Russia is a council veto-power so can shield Belarus from any possible attempts to impose U.N. sanctions.

Estonia, France, Ireland, Norway, the United States and Britain said: "We will remain united and determined to protect the EU against these hybrid operations by Belarusian authorities."

(REUTERS)

EU values, laws under threat amid standoff at Belarus border


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FILE - Migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere warm up at the fire gathering at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. The migration crisis at the eastern frontiers of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia is fueling calls for the EU to finance the construction of something it never wanted to build: fences and walls at the border. (Leonid Shcheglov/BelTA via AP, File)

BRUSSELS (AP) — Fears that the authoritarian leader of Belarus is using migrants and refugees as a “hybrid warfare” tactic to undermine the security of the European Union are putting new strains on some of the values and laws in the 27-nation bloc.

The crisis at the eastern frontiers of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia is fueling calls for the EU to finance the construction of something it never wanted to build: fences and walls at the border.

And this idea was voiced this week at a ceremony commemorating the fall of one of Europe’s most notorious and historic barriers, the Berlin Wall.

The border crisis with Belarus has been simmering for months. Top EU officials say the longtime authoritarian leader of Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko, is luring thousands of migrants and refugees to Minsk with the promise of help to get to western Europe.

Belarus denies it is using them as pawns, but the EU maintains Lukashenko is retaliating for sanctions it imposed on his regime after the president’s disputed election to a sixth term last year led to anti-government protests and a crackdown on internal dissent.

The crisis came to a head after large groups of asylum-seekers recently gathered at a border crossing with Belarus near the village of Kuznica, Poland. Warsaw bolstered security there, sending in riot police to turn back those who tried to cut through a razor-wire fence.

Polish lawmakers introduced a state of emergency and changed the country’s asylum laws. Only troops have access to the area, to the dismay of refugee agencies and Poland’s EU partners. Lithuania is taking similar measures and has begun extending its border fence.

The EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, believes walls and barriers are ineffective, and has so far resisted calls to fund them, although it will pay for infrastructure like surveillance cameras and equipment.

“We are facing a brutal, hybrid attack on our EU borders. Belarus is weaponizing migrants’ distress in a cynical and shocking way,” European Council President Charles Michel said at an event in Germany on Tuesday, the 32nd anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

“We have opened the debate on the EU financing of physical border infrastructure. This must be settled rapidly because Polish and Baltic borders are EU borders. One for all and all for one,” Michel said.

That approach, and other border tactics, are sowing dismay. Addressing EU lawmakers Wednesday, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called for European leadership and appealed to the bloc to avoid “a race to the bottom” on migration policy.

“These challenges simply do not justify the knee-jerk reaction we have seen in some places: the irresponsible xenophobic discourse; the walls and barbed wire; the violent pushbacks that include the beating of refugees and migrants, sometimes stripping them naked and dumping them in rivers, or leaving them to drown in seas; the attempts to evade asylum obligations by paying other states to take on one’s own responsibilities,” Grandi said.

“The European Union, a union based on rule of law, should and can do better,” he said.

About 8,000 migrants have entered from Belarus this year, and border guards have prevented about 28,000 attempted crossings, according to European Commission figures.

Monique Pariat, a senior commission home affairs official, said most are Iraqis or Syrians, flying to Minsk from Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. They pay a lot of money to a state-owned tourist company, which goes “into Lukashenko’s pockets,” she said.

It’s the last thing Europeans want to see. The entry in 2015 of well over 1 million people, most fleeing conflict in the Middle East, sparked the EU’s most intractable political crisis. They are unable to agree on who should take responsibility for refugees and migrants and whether other EU countries should be obliged to help.

Greece and Italy were on the front line six years ago. Spain has received thousands of asylum-seekers in recent years. Now, it’s the turn of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Many in the West believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin supports Lukashenko in targeting Europe.

“They know very well that this is a subject that divides European Union member states. We must be very aware that it would be playing their game to bicker among ourselves,” Isabel Wiseler-Lima, a conservative EU lawmaker from Luxembourg, said.

At a summit late last month, leaders of the bloc ordered the commission “to propose any necessary changes to the EU’s legal framework and concrete measures underpinned by adequate financial support to ensure an immediate and appropriate response.”

A few weeks earlier, 12 member countries -– Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia -– had demanded that the European Commission bolster the rules governing Europe’s passport-free travel zone, known as the Schengen area.

They want “stronger border protection” and new tools to avoid the “grave consequences of overburdened migration and asylum systems and exhausted accommodation capacities” that might hurt public trust in the EU’s ability to act decisively.

The question is whether these tools would constitute “pushbacks” -– the denial of entry to people, often by force, without affording them any opportunity to apply for asylum – which are illegal under international refugee treaties and EU law.

EU officials and U.N. agencies already worry that Poland is denying access to its border area near Belarus, where thousands have been refused entry in circumstances that cannot be independently verified. Eight people have died in the border no man’s land.

The commission is also examining recent changes to Polish law on the right to asylum, “which seems in this case not to be assured,” spokesman Adalbert Jahnz said.

As tensions mount, security is tightening and old methods are again gaining favor.

Europe must protect its external borders, and time has proven that the only effective solution is physical barriers to secure European citizens against the mass arrival of illegal migrants,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wrote in a letter to the commission last week, seeking reimbursement for funds his government spent on its own border fences.

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Follow AP’s global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

EXPLAINER: What’s behind the crisis at Belarus-Poland border

By YURAS KARMANAU

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FILE - Migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere rest on the ground as they gather at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus, Monday, Nov. 8, 2021. Thousands of migrants flocked to Belarus' border with Poland hoping to get to Western Europe, an influx that prompted Polish authorities to introduce a state of emergency and deploy thousands of troops and police. 

(Leonid Shcheglov/BelTA via AP, File)


Thousands of migrants and refugees have flocked to Belarus’ border with Poland, hoping to get to Western Europe, Many of them are now stranded at the frontier, setting up makeshift camps as Polish security forces watch them from behind a razor-wire fence and try to prevent them from entering the country. The European Union has accused the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, of aiding illegal border crossings in retaliation for EU sanctions. Lukashenko denies encouraging migration to Europe.

A look at what led to the standoff:

WHAT IS BEHIND THE CRISIS?

Belarus was rocked by months of massive protests following the August 2020 election that gave authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office. The opposition and the West rejected the result as a sham.

Belarusian authorities responded to the demonstrations with a fierce crackdown that saw more than 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police.


The European Union and the U.S. reacted by imposing sanctions on Lukashenko’s government.

Those restrictions were toughened after an incident in May when a passenger jet flying from Greece to Lithuania was diverted by Belarus to Minsk, where authorities arrested dissident journalist Raman Pratasevich. The EU called it air piracy and barred Belarusian carriers from its skies and cut imports of the country’s top commodities, including petroleum products and potash, an ingredient in fertilizer.

A furious Lukashenko shot back by saying he would no longer abide by an agreement to stem illegal migration, arguing that the EU sanctions deprived his government of funds needed to contain flows of migrants. Planes carrying migrants from Iraq, Syria and other countries began arriving in Belarus, and they soon headed for the borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Pavel Latushka, a member of the Belarusian opposition, charged that state-controlled tourist agencies were involved in offering visa support to migrants and helping them drive to the border.

The EU accused Lukashenko of using the migrants as pawns in a “hybrid attack” against the 27-nation bloc in retaliation for the sanctions. Lukashenko denies encouraging the flow of migrants and said the EU is violating migrants’ rights by denying them safe passage.

WHAT HAS BEEN THE RESPONSE BY EU COUNTRIES?

During the summer, Lithuania introduced a state of emergency to deal with an influx of migrants and strengthen its border with Belarus. It set up tent camps to accommodate the growing number of migrants.

In previous months, small groups of asylum-seekers tried to sneak into Lithuania, Poland and Latvia at night, using forest paths away from populated areas. This week, much larger groups gathered openly at the Polish border, and some people used shovels and wire cutters to try to break through a razor-wire fence at Poland’s border.

Authorities in Warsaw estimated the crowds at about 3,000-4,000 and said they prevented hundreds of people from entering the country. Poland deployed riot police and other forces to bolster the border guards. Eight deaths have been confirmed at the Belarus-Poland border,, and temperatures have fallen below freezing at night.

The EU has made a strong show of solidarity with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. EU officials are expected to discuss another round of sanctions against Belarus, and European Council President Charles Michel said for the first time that the bloc would consider the possibility of financing “physical infrastructure” such as barriers or fences on the border.

Analysts say Lukashenko’s heavy-handed approach would likely backfire.

“Such brutal tactics would make Belarus toxic and delay the prospect of talks with the EU,” said Artyom Shraybman, a Belarusian political analyst who was forced to leave the country under pressure from authorities. “European politicians won’t engage in talks under pressure.”

Pavel Usau, head of the Center for Political Analysis and Prognosis based in Poland, also said Lukashenko is mistaken if he thinks he can force the EU into concessions.

“Lukashenko expects the EU to give in to pressure and ask Poland to let migrants cross into Germany,” Usau said. “But the EU realizes that doing so would allow Lukashenko to emerge as the winner and encourage him to continue to take further such steps, raising the number of migrants to tens of thousands.”

The Belarusian opposition has urged the EU to take even tougher measures, including a trade embargo and a ban on transit of cargo via Belarus.

WHAT IS RUSSIA’S ROLE?

Belarus has received strong support from its main ally, Russia, which has helped buttress Lukashenko’s government with loans and political support.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the migrants flows resulted from the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Western-backed Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. He challenged the EU to offer financial assistance to Belarus to deal with the influx.

At the same time, the Kremlin angrily rejected Poland’s claim that Russia bears responsibility for the crisis.

Usau said Russia could step in as a mediator in the hope of improving ties with Germany and other EU nations.

WHAT COMES NEXT?

Belarus is estimated to host between 5,000 and 20,000 migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa. Many have run out of money and grown increasingly desperate as the winter approaches. Belarusian residents are uneasy about their presence, raising pressure on the authorities to act.

Some observers expect Lukashenko to escalate the crisis and pressure the EU to ease sanctions.

“As a minimum, Lukashenko wants to take revenge against the EU, and as a maximum he aims to soften the European sanctions that have dealt a painful blow to key Belarusian industries,” said independent analyst Valery Karbalevich. “Belarusian authorities have tried unsuccessfully to persuade the EU to engage in talks and bargaining, and migrants are just an instrument in a hybrid attack by Minsk.”

“Lukashenko has nothing to lose,” he added. “He’s no longer worried about his reputation.”

___

Associated Press writer Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed.

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Follow AP’s migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

Chinese leaders issue official history to elevate Xi

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Portraits of China's former top leaders from left Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and including the current President Xi Jinping are seen at a military camp in Beijing, China, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. China's leaders have approved a resolution on the history of the ruling Communist Party that was expected to set the stage for President Xi Jinping to extend his rule next year during a four-day meeting of its Central Committee that ended Thursday. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)


BEIJING (AP) — Leaders of China’s ruling Communist Party on Thursday set the stage for President Xi Jinping to extend his rule next year, praising his role in the country’s rise as an economic and strategic power and approving a political history that gives him status alongside the most important party figures.

Central Committee members declared Xi’s ideology the “essence of Chinese culture” as they wrapped up a leadership meeting. In unusually effusive language even for a Chinese leader, a party statement said it was “of decisive significance” for “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

Xi, who has amassed more personal authority than any leader since at least Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s, has widely been expected to pursue a third five-year term as party general secretary. That would break with a two-decade-old party tradition that would require the 68-year-old leader to step down next year.

The party leadership’s resolution on its history is only the third since its founding 100 years ago, following one under Mao Zedong, the first leader of the Communist government, and another under Deng, who launched reforms that turned China into an economic powerhouse. The decision to issue one under Xi symbolically raises him to their status.

The party removed term limits on Xi’s post as president in 2018, indicating his intention to stay in power. Then, officials told reporters Xi might need more time to make sure economic and other reforms were carried out.

Xi, the son of one of Mao’s generals, faces no obvious rivals, but a bid to say in power has the potential to alienate younger party figures who might see their chances for promotion diminished.

Also, political scientists point to the experience of other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America and warn that long periods of one-person rule lead to poor official decisions and economic performance.

Thursday’s party statement emphasized its successes in overseeing China’s emergence as the world’s second-biggest economy, glossing over deadly political violence in its early decades in power and growing complaints about human rights abuses.

The statement affirmed Beijing’s handling of Hong Kong, where it is trying to crush pro-democracy activism, and relations with Taiwan. The party claims the island democracy is part of its territory and is trying to intimidate the Taiwanese public by sending growing numbers of fighter jets and bombers to fly near its coast.

The party “firmly implemented ‘patriots ruling Hong Kong’” and “resolutely opposed Taiwan separatists,” the statement said.

Xi has overseen an assertive foreign policy and expansion of the party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army. It has the world’s second-largest military budget after the United States and is developing submarines, stealth aircraft and ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads to extend China’s power beyond its shores.

On economic matters, the ruling party under Xi has pursued a sometimes contradictory strategy of promising to give market forces a dominant role while tightening state control over industry. Tech companies are under pressure to invest their own money to promote party development ambitions.

China was the first major economy to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic but in the longer term faces steadily declining growth and a shrinking workforce at a time when Chinese incomes still are below the world average.

Xi is leading a “Common Prosperity” initiative that calls for narrowing income and wealth gaps between China’s billionaire elite and the poor majority. Companies are under pressure to share their wealth with workers and the public by raising wages and paying for rural job creation and other development efforts.

The party has tightened control over society, suppressing independent religious groups and human rights activists.

More than 1 million members of mostly Muslim ethnic minority groups in the Xinjiang region in the northwest have been detained and subjected to political indoctrination. Government spokespeople reject reports of abuses including forced abortions and say detention camps are for job training and to combat extremism.

Xi has used his control of the party’s vast propaganda apparatus to promote his image.

State media associate him with national successes including fighting the coronavirus, China’s rise as a technology creator and last year’s successful lunar mission to bring back moon rocks.

The 1981 assessment under Deng distanced the party from the violent upheaval of the ultra-radical 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.

By contrast, Xi has promoted a positive image of the party’s early decades in power and called for it to revive its “original mission” as China’s leading economic, political and cultural force.

Thursday’s statement cited Xi’s ideology initiative, “Xi Jinping Thought for a New Era of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics,” by its full name seven times and referred to the “New Era” 21 times.

UN chief says global warming goal on ‘life support’

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres gestures during an interview at the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. Guterres says the Paris temperature goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees "is on life support" with climate talks so far not reaching any of the U.N.'s three goals, however "until the last moment hope should be maintained." (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)


GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F) is “on life support” as U.N. climate talks enter their final days, but he added that “until the last moment, hope should be maintained.”

In an exclusive interview Thursday with The Associated Press, Guterres said the negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland, set to end Friday, will “very probably” not yield the carbon-cutting pledges he has said are needed to keep the planet from warming beyond the 1.5-degree threshold.

So far, the talks have not come close to achieving any of the U.N.’s three announced priorities for the annual conference, called COP26. One is cutting carbon emissions by about half by 2030 to reach the goal Guterres alluded to.

The other two are getting rich countries to fulfill a 12-year-old pledge of providing $100 billion a year in financial climate aid to poor nations and ensuring that half of that amount goes to helping developing nations adapt to the worst effects of climate change.

Guterres said the Glasgow talks “are in a crucial moment” and need to accomplish more than securing a weak deal that participating nations agree to support.

“The worst thing would be to reach an agreement at all costs by a minimum common denominator that would not respond to the huge challenges we face,” Guterres said.

That’s because the overarching goal of limiting warming since pre-industrial times to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F) by the end of the century “is still on reach but on life support,” Guterres said. The world has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit), leaving far less than a degree before the threshold is hit.

Less than 36 hours from the scheduled close of the negotiations, Guterres said that if negotiators can’t reach ambitious carbon-cutting goals - “and very probably it will not happen” - then national leaders would need to come up with new pledges next year and in 2023 during high-level meetings.

He said it is “very important” that nations update their goals and send top leaders to the climate talks every year, at this point. However, Guterres would not say at what point he thinks the 1.5-degree goal would have to be abandoned.

“When you are on the verge of the abyss, it’s not important to discuss what will be your fourth or fifth step,” Guterres said. “What’s important to discuss is what will be your first step. Because if your first step is the wrong step, you will not have the chance to do a search to make a second or third one.”

Guterres praised a Wednesday evening agreement between the United States and China to cut emissions this decade as a reason why he still hopes for some semblance of success in Glasgow. He said China promising that its carbon emissions would peak by 2030 represented a key change in the top emitter’s outlook.

The U.N. chief said he hoped that two sticky issues that defied resolution for six years can be solved in Glasgow: creating workable markets for trading carbon credits and transparency that shows that promised pollution-reducing actions are real.

“It is the moment to reach agreement by increasing ambition in all areas: mitigation, adaptation and finance in a balanced way,” Guterres said in the 25-minute AP interview.

Fresh drafts of the documents on regulating international cooperation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including the carbon markets section, were released overnight, as were new proposals containing various options for assessing and tracking financial aid for developing countries.

Poor nations have insisted they will not back any deal that fails to address their need for funds to help cut emissions and adapt to the consequences of global warming, a problem they have contributed least to.

“We’re still at the stage of options,” a European negotiator told The Associated Press on Thursday. “But it’s moving forward. We still need that push though.”

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to be quoted.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday urged fellow world leaders to call their negotiating teams in Glasgow and give them the political backing to clinch an ambitious deal.

Officials and observers have said the bar for success must be a strong affirmation of the goal set in Paris in 2015 of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) — ideally no more than 1.5 C (2.7 F) - backed by credible policies from all nations to get there.

So far, scientists say the world is not on track.

The chair of this year’s U.N. climate meeting called on negotiators from almost 200 countries to engage in “another gear shift” as they try to reach agreement on outstanding issues a day before the talks are scheduled to end.

British official Alok Sharma said Thursday that the drafts released overnight on a number of crunch topics “represent a significant step further toward the comprehensive, ambitious and balanced set of outcomes, which I hope parties will adopt by consensus at the end of tomorrow.”

Sharma said he was “under no illusion” that the texts being considered would wholly satisfy all countries at this stage but thanked negotiators for the “spirit of cooperation and civility” they had shown so far.

“We are not there yet,” he said, adding that he aimed to get a fresh draft of the overarching decision released early Friday.

Time is running out at Cop26 climate talks


The United Nations climate summit in Glasgow has made “some serious toddler steps” towards cutting emissions but far from the giant leaps needed to limit global warming to internationally-accepted goals, new data and top officials said Tuesday.

Time is running out on the two weeks of Cop26 negotiations.

The president of the climate talks, Alok Sharma, told high-level government ministers at the UN conference they needed to reach out to their capitals and bosses soon to see if they can get more ambitious pledges because “we have only a few days left".

Sharma assured his audience that the conference is "not seeking to reopen the Paris Agreement," adding that the 2015 deal "clearly sets out the temperature goal well below 2 degrees and pursuing efforts to 1.5 degrees". He stressed that "our overarching goal of 'keeping 1.5 degrees within reach' has been our lodestar".

Limited progress

Sharma listed several breakthroughs, notably:

30 countries have agreed to work together to make zero emission vehicles "the new normal" by 2030 or sooner;

Launch of a new World Bank trust fund that will mobilise $200 million over the next 10 years to decarbonise road transport in poor countries;

Nineteen governments have stated their intent to support the establishment of ‘green shipping corridors’.

He added that the UK intends to end sales of polluting diesel trucks by 2040.

But critics say the pledges are far from enough. A UN Environment Programme analysis of the promises found they wouldn't bring down global warming sufficiently.

"Emissions gap"

All they did was slightly diminish the “emissions gap” which defines how much carbon pollution can be sustained without the global climate hitting dangerous warming levels, according to the review released Tuesday.

The data showed that by 2030, the world will be emitting 51.5 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, 1.5 billion tonnes less than before the latest pledges.

To achieve the limit first set in the 2015 Paris climate accord, which came out of a similar summit, the world can emit a maximum of 12.5 billion metric tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2030.

"Don't kill us"

Outside the cavernous halls of the climate change conference, hundreds of climate activists gather every day. Some chant lists of how pollution affects their neighbourhoods. One group carries a banner that reads "don't kill us".

Others carry a grim slogan with the stylised, encircled hourglass symbol of the radical group Extinction Rebellion saying "fossil fuels = mass murder".

There is a strong police presence along the road leading to the venues. Protesting could heat up during these last two days if the delegates don't manage to hammer out a document providing clear solutions to the problem of the planet's rapidly deteriorating environment.

Saudi Arabia denies playing climate saboteur at Glasgow


Saudi Arabia's Minster of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud speaks at the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit, in Glasgow, Scotland, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. The U.N. climate summit in Glasgow has entered its second week as leaders from around the world, are gathering in Scotland's biggest city, to lay out their vision for addressing the common challenge of global warming.

 (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)


GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — The tightest of smiles on his face and the fabric of his traditional thobe swirling about him as he strides through a hallway at U.N. climate talks, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister expresses shock at repeated complaints that the world’s largest oil producer is working behind the scenes to sabotage negotiations.

“What you have been hearing is a false allegation and a cheat and a lie,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman al Saud said this week at the talks in Glasgow, Scotland. He was responding to journalists pressing for a response to claims that Saudi Arabia’s negotiators have been working to block climate measures that would threaten demand for oil.

“We have been working well” with the head of the U.N. climate talks and others, Prince Abdulaziz said.

Negotiators from about 200 countries are coming up against a weekend deadline to find consensus on next steps to cut the world’s fossil fuel emissions and otherwise combat climate change.

Saudi Arabia’s participation in climate talks itself can seem incongruous — a kingdom that has become wealthy and powerful because of oil involved in negotiations where a core issue is reducing consumption of oil and other fossil fuels. While pledging to join emission-cutting efforts at home, Saudi leaders have made clear they intend to pump and sell their oil as long as demand lasts.

Saudi Arabia’s team in Glasgow has introduced proposals ranging from a call to quit negotiations — they often stretch into early morning hours — at 6 p.m. every day to what climate negotiation veterans allege are complex efforts to play country factions against one another with the aim of blocking agreement on tough steps to wrench the world away from coal, gas and oil.

That is the “Saudis’ proposal, by the way. They’re like, ‘Let’s just not work at nights and just accept that this is not going to be ambitious’” when it comes to fast cuts in fossil fuel pollution that is wrecking the climate, said Jennifer Tollmann, an analyst at E3G, a European climate think tank.

And then “if other countries want to agree with Saudi, they can blame Saudi Arabia,” Tollmann said.

Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and head of a group of senior political leaders on climate, choked up as she told Sky News that Saudi Arabia was playing “dirty games” and seeking to gut crucial, consensus-building parts of draft agreements out of the talks.

Saudi Arabia long has been accused of playing a spoiler in the climate talks, and this year it is the main country singled out so far by negotiators, speaking privately, and observers, speaking publicly. Russia and Australia are also lumped in with Saudi Arabia at the talks as countries that see their futures as dependent on coal, natural gas or oil and as working for a Glasgow climate deal that doesn’t threaten that.

Despite efforts to diversify the economy, oil accounts for more than half of Saudi Arabia’s revenue, keeping the kingdom and royal family afloat and stable. About half of Saudi employees still work for the public sector, their salary paid in large part by oil.

And there’s China, whose dependence on coal makes it the world’s current biggest climate polluter. It argues it can’t switch to cleaner energy as fast as the West says it must, although the United States and China did jointly pledge to speed up their efforts to cut emissions.

A core issue in the talks: Scientists and the United Nations say the world has less than a decade to cut its fossil fuel and agricultural emissions roughly in half if it wants to avoid more catastrophic scenarios of global warming.

Not surprisingly, island nations that would disappear under the rising oceans at a higher level of warming are the bloc at Glasgow pushing hardest for the most stringent deal out of this summit.

Meanwhile, climate advocates accuse the United States and European Union of so far failing to throw their weight behind the demands of the island nations, although the U.S. and the E.U. often wait until the last few days of climate talks to take hard stands on debated points.

The United States — the world’s worst climate polluter historically and a major oil and gas producer — gets plenty of criticism in its own right. The Climate Action Network dishonored the Biden administration with its “Fossil of the Day” award to President Joe Biden for coming to Glasgow last week with ambitious climate talk but failing to join a pledge to wean his nation off coal or to rein in U.S. oil production.

Jennifer Morgan, executive director of the Greenpeace environmental group, said other governments need “to isolate the Saudi delegation” if they want the climate conference to succeed..

Saudi Arabia was fine with joining in governments’ climate-pledge fever before the talks. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced in the runup to Glasgow that the kingdom would zero out its carbon emissions by 2060.

But Saudi leaders for years have vowed to pump the last molecule of oil from their kingdom before world demand ends — an objective that a fast global switch from fossil fuels would frustrate.

“Naked and cynical,” says Alden Meyer, a senior associate at the E3G climate research group, of Saudi Arabia’s role in global climate discussions.

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Associated Press writers Frank Jordans and Annirudha Ghosal contributed to this report.

Program to kill Grand Canyon bison nets 4 animals, criticism

STOP KILLING BISON UNTIL THEY ARE A THUNDERING HERD AGAIN

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In this photo provided by Grand Canyon National Park, an adult bison roams near a corral at the North Rim of the park in Arizona, on Aug. 30, 2021. Officials at the Grand Canyon have been working to remove hundreds of bison from the North Rim, using a mix of corralling and relocating the animals, and a pilot project this year to allow select skilled volunteers to shoot certain bison. 

(Lauren Cisneros/Grand Canyon National Park via AP)


FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Day three and the shooters were waiting under the cover of pine trees for the rain to let up. Thirty minutes later, a single branch snapped, revealing a small herd of bison in the distance.

Before a young cow was identified as the target, the massive animals disappeared into a thicket at the Grand Canyon’s North Rim.

“No shots and no bison,” said Charles Gorecki, one of about a dozen volunteers selected to participate in a highly anticipated and highly criticized lethal removal program at the Grand Canyon.

Gorecki and the rest of his crew came up empty-handed after a week that required shooting proficiency tests, safety training and walking at least 30 miles (48 kilometers) in elevations that can leave flat-landers short-winded. Three other groups fared better, shooting and field dressing a total of four bison.

Up to 500 bison are roaming the far northern reaches of Grand Canyon National Park, trampling archaeological and other resources and spoiling the water, park officials say. Hunting pressure on the adjacent national forest has pushed most of the animals into the park.

Critics say rather than killing the bison, the animals should be relocated to other areas or given to Native American tribes under an existing effort.

Lethal removal was one of the tools outlined in a 2017 plan approved after an environmental review, but the guidelines weren’t established until more recently with the pilot program this fall.

More than 45,000 people applied in a lottery for 12 spots to help cull the herd and make bison less comfortable at the park. One person backed out and another failed the shooting proficiency test, leaving 10 volunteers from around the U.S. working to kill up to 10 bison.

“We were following bison and trying to find bison and disturbing bison by the mere fact of trying to remove them,” said Grand Canyon wildlife biologist Greg Holm, who was among most of the crews. “So they had some activity this fall that I don’t think they’ve ever experienced in the park.”

As big as they are, they skillfully evaded most of the shooters.

“It was still a learning experience for all of us involved,” said Gorecki, a military veteran who works at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. “We got an appreciation that they are very quiet and cunning. These animals, if they catch wind of us from hundreds of yards (away) in thick forest, you’ll never ever see them. These are not big, fluffy forest cows.”

Each volunteer selected up to three people who were on standby to help cut up the bison and pack the meat out. The groups that shot a bison divided the meat and donated parts of the animals to the Navajo and Zuni tribes in Arizona and New Mexico, Holm said.

A crew led by the National Park Service killed one bison in a trial run in August. The meat was given to the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians, Holm said.

Officials at the Grand Canyon haven’t put a price tag yet on the program, but Holm said some of the cost is for overtime pay for park employees. They’ll meet soon to determine whether to do it again, he said.

Various groups pushed the park service to call off what they argued is a hunt and suggested relocating the bison to southern Colorado instead. Hunting is prohibited within national parks, but the agency has authority to kill animals that harm resources using park staff or volunteers.

Olympic National Park in Washington state turned to volunteers to reduce the number of mountain goats, and Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota used volunteers for help with elk.

Bison were introduced to northern Arizona in the early 1900s as part of a crossbreeding experiment. The state manages the animals that can be hunted nearby in the Kaibab National Forest.

The main tool in reducing the population at the Grand Canyon has been to corral them near the North Rim entrance and ship them to Native American tribes through the Intertribal Buffalo Council. The park has relocated 124 over the past three years — enough to start seeing the reproductive rate slow, Holm said. The goal population is around 200.

“Ideally, the more females we can ship out, the better,” he said. “But we also do the dance around not wanting to shift away a bunch of females because they have the knowledge to teach the younger generation.”

The Modoc Nation in Oklahoma received 16 of the bison last year.

“It’s great for us, it’s great for our heritage, and they’re beautiful animals,” said Charlie Cheek, assistant to tribal Chief Bill Follis. “We enjoy working with them, and they’re good for our tribe.”

The Santee Sioux Nation in Nebraska received 23 bison from the Grand Canyon this year. The Cherokee Nation got 13 that boosted the herd at a tribal ranch in Kenwood, Oklahoma, to more than 200, said Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. Bison have been an essential source of food, clothing, shelter and tools for tribes and used in ceremonies, he said.

“These newly acquired bison will help revive some ancient cultural traditions, as well as provide expanded economic opportunities for future generations of Cherokee,” he said Wednesday.

‘Rust’ tragedy, labor climate frame Hollywood contract vote

Movie industry worker Hailey Josselyn, wearing a t-shirt of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSA), holds a candle during a vigil to honor cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in Albuquerque, N.M., on Oct. 23, 2021. Hutchins was fatally shot on Thursday, Oct. 21, after an assistant director unwittingly handed actor Alec Baldwin a loaded weapon and told him it was safe to use on the set of a Western filmed in Santa Fe, N.M. Members of the IATSA,will vote on a proposed three-year union contract with Hollywood producers. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton, File)


LOS ANGELES (AP) — In weighing his vote on a proposed union contract with Hollywood producers, veteran stagehand Matthew “Doc” Brashear looked closely at the agreement and beyond, to the now-closed New Mexico film set where a cinematographer died.

For crew member Brandy Tannahill, the fatal “Rust” shooting of Halyna Hutchins and the resurgence of labor actions, such as the strikes at John Deere and Kellogg, are bolstering her decision.

When voting starts Friday on a tentative three-year agreement reached by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and a trade group representing producers, Brashear and Tannahill say they will vote no.

With forces from the pandemic to the economy also framing union members’ views, bread-and-butter issues of wages and pensions remain important. But long-entrenched concerns about danger on the job have taken on increased urgency.

“I think the elected (union) leaders gave their all,” Brashear said of the proposed deal that averted the union’s first-ever national strike. While it’s generally “a win of a contract,” it falls short on a majority of safety-related issues, he said.

“Most of what we are fighting for is to just be able to spend time with our family and, if we work a 16-hour day, to make it home safe to our families,” said Brashear, a lighting programmer in Southern California.

While some point to the “Rust” shooting that injured director Joel Souza and killed cinematographer Hutchins as an outlier -- Alec Baldwin, the film’s star-producer who fired the gun, called it a “one-in-a-trillion event” — Tannahill said it’s emblematic of the industry’s critical flaws.

“There has been an understandable emotional response to what occurred,” she said. “But the underlying issue that screams to me, as someone in this business, is that the production got to the point where it was because of the producers cutting corners.”

The burdens that union members point to include long workdays that may lack breaks or lunch, and the debilitating fatigue that causes both on and off the job. A 1987 tragedy remains vivid: Brent Hershman, 35, an assistant cameraman on the film “Pleasantville,” died in a crash while driving home after a 19-hour workday.

“Those are the things that make the news,” said Tannahill, but she knows four people who dozed off at the wheel and either narrowly avoided or survived an accident. She’s been working since 2011 as a grip, with duties including setting up lighting.


Crew member Brandy Tannahill appears on the set of of a TV sitcom in Los Angeles on Nov. 9, 2021. Tannahill, a member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, will vote on a proposed three-year union contract with Hollywood producers. (Lauren Callahan via AP)

According to the union, core safety and economic issues are addressed in the proposed agreements covering workers on film and TV productions.

“This is a Hollywood ending,” IATSE International President Matthew Loeb said in announcing a deal last month. “We went toe-to-toe with some of the most powerful entertainment and tech companies in the world” to achieve a contract that “meets our members’ needs.”

The bargaining committees of all 36 local unions have unanimously recommended ratification. Electronic voting concludes Sunday and the result is expected Monday. The union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers didn’t make officials available for interviews.

IATSE represents about 150,000 behind-the-scenes workers, including stagehands, cinematographers, costumers and others employed in all forms of entertainment, from movies and TV to theater, concerts, trade shows and broadcasting.

Two proposed contracts are at stake for 60,000 union members. One primarily covers film and TV production on the West Coast and applies to about two-thirds of those members; the other is for production hubs including New Mexico and Georgia.

The agreements include across-the board wage increases and increased compensation paid by streaming services, Loeb said in a statement, a reference to Amazon, Netflix and others originally dubbed “new media” and cut financial slack.

Loeb also said that “quality of life issues were at the top of our priority list,” with the proposed contracts establishing a defined weekend rest period and imposing “stiff” penalties if meals and breaks aren’t provided.

It’s not enough, some workers contend.

“This is a version of the same deal that we’re offered every three years,” said veteran stagehand Jason Fitzgerald. “If we do not take a stand now to try to change the culture of the industry, we will continue to be treated more like disposable parts of a machine and less like human beings.”

The 98% strike-vote approval is credited by the union with building urgency for studios to reach a deal. The union had threatened to strike on Oct. 18 if the sides failed to reach an agreement, which was reached Oct. 16.

That activist spirit stoked by the strike authorization campaign remains unabated for some, even as the union encourages a “yes” vote.

“People are being more critical of contract language, especially younger workers who are really engaged in social media and using the internet for fact-finding,” said Tannahill. Last weekend, a town hall she organized for union members to discuss the contract drew more than 500 in person or online, she estimated.

Producer Tom Nunan, whose credits include the Oscar-winning “Crash,” said there’s more heightened debate this year than in the past. But he expects ratification, citing precedent and workers’ eagerness for rules addressing safety.

“This is going to get approved by the membership. They’ve never balked in the face of leadership recommending (approval) and I don’t see that this will be the exception,” said Nunan, a lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Theater, Film and Television. “The progress that the team made on behalf of IATSE is spectacular by any measure.”