UN's global disaster alert systems goal faces uphill climb

by Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS

Early warning systems can help communities prepare for weather emergencies including

 storms and floods, such as this one that hit the town of Parys, South Africa in February 2023.

How can anyone seek shelter from a natural disaster they don't even know is coming? Last year the United Nations called for every person on the planet to be covered by early warning systems by 2027—but months into the effort it is becoming clear that the project will require more data and expertise.

With a relatively low price tag of $3.1 billion, the UN's plan hopes to implement the simple principle of early warning systems: assess risks using meteorological data, forecast impending problems using modelling, prepare populations ahead of time, and send out alerts to those expected to be impacted.

But building out those steps poses unique issues at each turn, according to those involved in the effort, many of whom are gathered this week in New York for a historic UN conference on water-related crises.

In Tajikistan, 100 years of weather data exist only on paper, chair of the country's environmental protection committee, Bahodur Sheralizoda said.

Digitizing this data could provide "more precise weather forecasts" or be applied to climate modeling, he added.

"With the small investments, we can have really big impact in the long run."

To help fill the data gap, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is also hoping to deploy weather stations made from 3D printers around the world, said the agency's chief scientist Sarah Kapnick.

When it comes to analyzing the meteorological data and predicting future weather events, there is also a lack of local expertise, said Stefan Uhlenbrook, director of hydrology, water and cryosphere at the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

"You need local capacity to run the local models," he told AFP.

Some help should be coming from NOAA, which Kapnick said has plans to "train local climate forecasters and leaders."

After risks are identified, getting those alerts to remote populations poses possibly the biggest hurdle.

"To reach the last mile... and then to get them acting and prepared is a big challenge," said Uhlenbrook.

This is where the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), a WMO partner in the field, comes in.

Regular training and drills

For IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain, the country of Bangladesh should be viewed as a model to replicate.

Scarred by the horrific 1970 cyclone that killed hundreds of thousands, the South Asian country has for decades built up storm-resistant shelters and warns residents of upcoming dangers, by bicycle if necessary, Chapagain told AFP.

While church bells, loudspeakers and sirens are still used as warning systems in many isolated places, alerts sent via radio, TV and SMS have become the norm.

"In 2022, 95 percent of the world's population had access to mobile broadband networks and close to 75 percent of the population owned a mobile phone," said Ursula Wynhoven with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

That makes mobile networks "powerful communication channels" for alerts, especially because "SMS warnings can be targeted to reach only those located in an at-risk area," she added.

Few developing countries have installed such systems, she said, noting a "relatively low cost."

WMO chief Petteri Taalas also highlighted the cost effectiveness of setting up early warning programs, saying that "you'll get the money back at least tenfold that you invest."

He pledged at the UN Water conference to speed up implementation of the UN's 2027 goal, beginning with water-related disasters.

Floods and droughts account for 75 percent of climate-related disasters, which are expected to increase further due to global warming.

But simply alerting a population is not enough—there must also be "regular training and drills," warns IFRC chief Chapagain.

People must practice the processes of interpreting different signals and finding the nearest escape routes or shelter.

"Once people understand the logic, they manage these things better," he said.

While climate change is expected to intensify storms, at the opposite extreme, it is also expected to increase the severity of droughts.

Though the potential for drought-induced disaster happens more slowly, Uhlenbrook said, warnings are still important to protect livelihoods.

For example, "we had in Europe a very dry, warm winter, so the (water) reservoir levels are very low," Uhlenbrook said.

Farmers near Italy's Po River who plan to plant rice, which need lots of irrigation, should take that into consideration, he explained.

NOAA's Kapnick highlighted that drought predictions, based off advanced climate modeling, are of particular importance in "developing nations with heavily agriculturally based economies."

"Early warning systems based on seasonal predictions are critical for planning for food security and macro-economic forecasts," she said.

© 2023 AFP

UN unveils global 'early warning' system for disasters at $3 billion

Indonesia fuel depot fire death toll rises to 33

Issued on: 24/03/2023 

Criticism over the blast has forced the government to consider relocating the facility or the residents who live next to it 

© ADITYA AJI / AFP/File

Jakarta (AFP) – The death toll from a fire at an Indonesian fuel storage depot run by state energy firm Pertamina has risen to 33 with nearly a dozen more in critical condition, health authorities said Friday.

Top officials called for an audit of Indonesia's energy facilities after the March 3 blaze ripped through a nearby residential area, gutting houses and burning cars next to the depot in capital Jakarta.

"As of today, 33 people in total have died and 11 are still being treated. They are in the ICU and their condition is serious," Jakarta health agency spokesman Luigi, who like many Indonesians has one name, told AFP Friday.

Authorities previously gave a death toll of 18 the day after the explosion.

Thousands of people were forced to evacuate when the fire broke out but the local disaster mitigation agency said all evacuees have since left shelters.

Witnesses likened the fire to a bomb blast after an initial explosion sent panicked locals screaming and fleeing through narrow roads with the fireball lighting up the Jakarta skyline behind them.

In response, Pertamina apologised and one of its directors was removed from his post.

The state-owned firm said a pipe leak had been detected before the fire started.

But criticism over the blast has forced the government to consider relocating the facility or the residents who live next to it.

President Joko Widodo visited survivors and called on Jakarta's governor and ministers to find a solution to fuel depots located near residential areas to avoid a repeat disaster.

Pertamina's director Nicke Widyawati told reporters last week the depot could not be relocated immediately as it may disrupt the national fuel supply.

The fire was one of several that have broken out at the company's facilities in recent years.

A massive blaze broke out in 2021 at the Balongan refinery in West Java, also owned by Pertamina and one of Indonesia's biggest such facilities.

That same depot saw fires in 2009 and again in 2014, when the flames spread to 40 houses nearby. No casualties were reported in either of those cases.

© 2023 AFP

EU governments sued for violating human rights through climate inaction

Issued on: 24/03/2023 - 

This photo shows emissions pouring from the Borealis chemical plant in Ottmarsheim, eastern France, November 8, 2022. © Jean-Francois Badias, AP/ File picture

Citizens affected by climate change are suing the governments of more than 30 European countries in three separate cases before the European Court of Human Rights, alleging that state inaction has violated their human rights.

They are the first such cases to be heard before the Court in Strasbourg, France, and could result in orders for the governments involved to cut carbon dioxide emissions much faster than currently planned.

Here’s what you need to know.

What are the three cases?

The first case being heard next Wednesday focuses on the health impact of climate change-induced heatwaves, in a case brought by thousands of elderly Swiss women against the Swiss government as part of a six-year legal battle.

Also on Wednesday, the court will hear a case brought by Damien Carême, a member of the European Parliament for the French Green party, who is challenging France’s refusal to take more ambitious climate measures.

The third case, due to be heard after the summer concerns six Portuguese youths, who are taking on 33 countries - including all 27 European Union member states, Britain, Norway, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine.

They, too, argue those countries have violated their rights and should be ordered to take more ambitious action to address climate change. Six other climate cases are pending.
What rights may have been violated?

The cases will be the first time the Court considers whether climate change policies, if they are too weak, can infringe people’s human rights enshrined in the European Convention.

The Swiss women argue that by failing to cut emissions in line with a pathway that limits global warming to 1.5C, Bern violated, among others, their right to life.

The case cites the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—which found with very high confidence that women and older adults are among those at highest risk of temperature-related mortality during heatwaves—and uses the applicants’ medical records to show their vulnerability.

Carême’s application, made in 2019 when he was mayor of the municipality of Grande-Synthe in northern France, will assess whether insufficient government action can amount to a violation of the right to life, by exposing people’s homes to climate risk.

In his case, the French Council of State already ordered Paris to take additional measures to cut emissions by 40% from 1990 levels by 2030.

Carême will now ask the Strasbourg court to assess whether the government’s failure to do more to address climate change violated his right to private and family life.

The Portuguese youths - whose ages range from pre-teens to early 20s - also argue that the 33 countries have failed to agree to curb emissions fast enough to limit global warming to 1.5C. They argue that their right to life is being threatened by climate change-fuelled impacts like wildfires, and that failure to tackle climate change discriminates against young people who will be hit hardest.

One of the youths was prevented from attending school for days because of the amount of smoke in the air from wildfires, while another of the group’s garden was covered in ash.

What’s at stake for governments?

The outcome of the cases at the European Court of Human Rights could have wider ripple effects, by either supporting or undermining the prospects of similar cases being won in future - both in national courts, or at the Strasbourg court.

A win could also embolden more activists and citizens to bring similar cases against governments - or, equally, a loss for the claimants could have a chilling effect on potential similar claims.

Some eight countries have piled into the Swiss proceedings as third parties in a move which shows how important the cases are for them.

The 33 governments in the Portuguese case also tried, unsuccessfully, to stop the court fast-tracking their case.

Some of the countries involved argue that the cases are inadmissible, saying it is not Strasbourg’s job to be “supreme court” on environmental matters or enforce climate treaties, in Switzerland’s words.

What could the court decide?

The fact that the three cases are all being referred directly to the court’s top bench—the ‘Grand Chamber’—is seen as significant since only cases that raise serious questions about the Convention’s interpretation are sent there.

There have already been some cases where national courts have upheld citizens’ rights in relation to climate change, most notably the 2019 “Urgenda” case in the Netherlands. In that case the Dutch High Court ordered the government to speed up plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions, saying it hadn’t done enough to protect its citizens from the dangerous effects of climate change.

The European Court of Human Rights typically deals with cases within three years although it could be faster since at least the Swiss case has priority status.

The Swiss case asks for the court to prescribe deep emissions cuts within three years that would ensure the levels are “net negative” versus 1990 levels by 2030.

A panel of 17 judges will decide on the cases and the outcomes cannot be appealed.

(Reuters)

Dissident Selek says won't return to Turkey to stand trial

Issued on: 24/03/2023 - 

'I can't go to Turkey,' says Pinar Selek, who faces a March 31 court date

 © Valery HACHE / AFP

Nice (France) (AFP) – Pinar Selek, a Turkish-French dissident sociologist living in France, will not go to Turkey to face trial, the latest twist in 25-year legal battle with the authorities, she told AFP.

Turkey has accused Selek over a 1998 explosion that killed seven people and, even after four acquittals, wants her in the dock again after issuing an international arrest warrant in January.

In an interview with AFP in the southern French city of Nice where she teaches sociology, Selek said: "You never get used to injustice".

Although the successive trials, acquittals and retrials started well before President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power, she said they "are an illustration of both the continuity of the repressive regime, and the new tools of the regime".

Selek, now 51 and known for her critical studies of the Kurdish conflict in Turkey and her work with street children, was first arrested in 1998 and accused of belonging to the PKK, a Kurdish militant organisation considered by Turkey and its western allies -- including the United States and the European Union -- to be a terrorist organisation.

She was then accused of bombing a spice market popular among tourists in Istanbul, a charge she was informed of only "when I was already in my prison cell".

But then a witness, who had testified that she had been part of the plot, withdrew his statement. An expert report concluded that the explosion had been an accident. Selek was freed in 2000 with the court citing lack of evidence, but the trial was not over.

She moved to France and pursued her sociology research, first in the eastern city of Strasbourg and then in Nice in the south, and obtained the French nationality in 2017.
'Safe in France'

But back home, the judicial process against her ground on. She was acquitted in 2006, then again in 2008 and again in 2011. But each time, the supreme court cancelled the acquittals.

In 2012 a court in Istanbul decided on a retrial and, a year later, sentenced her to life imprisonment.

The supreme court overturned that verdict, too, and ordered another retrial which ended with yet another acquittal, in 2014.

Then, in June of last year, the supreme court intervened again, annulling all previous acquittals.

An international arrest warrant was issued, and a new court date set for March 31.

"I'm not going to my trial, I can't go to Turkey," she said in the interview. "I feel safe in France, my lawyers have advised me not to leave the territory."

But, she said, there would be "around a hundred people" to represent her. "Parliamentarians, academic colleagues and activists from several countries. There is an incredible mobilisation," she said.

Selek said she hoped to win her own fight against the judiciary, and also wished for Turkey to "enter a process of justice for everybody", including prisoners.

"That country has become a huge prison. People who were untouchable before are now behind bars, great filmmakers, writers, activists, Kurds and many women. I try to do what I can to be their voice," she said.

Her defence in the upcoming trial will be handled by her father, a 93-year-old lawyer, and her sister, a lawyer and former economist.

"She's a feminist, and very active in the social movements for democracy and freedom," Selek said of her sister. "Like my father, she doesn't want to leave Turkey because they want to change things from within."

Would she herself return home if Turkey had a different president? "I don't think the question of my return depends entirely on Erdogan," she replied.

She said her ordeal started because of the Grey Wolves, an ultra-nationalist organisation, which she said preceded Erdogan and is still influential in government.

© 2023 AFP

ANOTHER REASON TO SUPPORT PROTESTERS

King Charles III visit to France postponed over protests

Issued on: 24/03/2023 - 

02:00
A planned visit to France from Sunday by King Charles III has been postponed due to ongoing protests over pension reform, the French presidency announced. FRANCE 24's Bénédicte Paviot reports from London.

'Not the moment': French protests stall landmark UK royal visit


Issued on: 24/03/2023


London (AFP) – It was meant to be Charles III's first major foray on the international stage as king, a prestigious celebration of historic cross-Channel relations before he is officially crowned in May.

But the 74-year-old monarch will now have to wait a bit longer to visit France, after widespread street protests over unpopular pension reforms forced its postponement.

Charles and Queen Consort Camilla, who had been due in Paris on Sunday, "greatly look forward to the opportunity to visit France as soon as dates can be found", Buckingham Palace said.

The UK government said President Emmanuel Macron had requested the postponement, as tensions spilled over on the streets, and protesters fought running battles with security forces in some cities.

But with royal visits carefully choreographed for the maximum positive exposure, officials will likely be relieved.

The UK's former ambassador to France, Peter Ricketts, said the postponement would have been a "difficult decision but understandable".

"State visits are a time for celebration and this was not the moment," he wrote on Twitter.

The postponement avoids a situation of the royal couple being caught up in demonstrations, and even protocol faux pas, after striking workers threatened to withhold red carpets for the tour.

On the French side, too, Macron will have been mindful of the public relations implications of wining and dining a high-profile foreign dignitary as tear gas and smoke choke French cities.

Charles, 74, and his wife, 75, had been due to tour Paris and Bordeaux before heading to Germany.

The German leg of the tour is still going ahead as planned.

Entente

Macron first invited Charles last September, after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, a fluent French speaker who made five state visits to France during her 70-year reign.

The trip was designed as the "soft-power" follow-up to a visit by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak earlier this month, with London keen to rebuild bridges with Paris after a tumultuous few years.

During Boris Johnson's premiership from 2019 to last year, the UK left the European Union, with wrangling over a Brexit trade deal souring ties.

His short-lived successor Liz Truss, failed to reverse the mistrust in Paris after declaring that the "jury's out" on whether Macron was a "friend or foe" of the UK.

But Sunak's arrival in Downing Street last year has changed the dynamic: he and Macron are of a similar age and share a finance background, with a close sartorial style.

Their new-found partnership has even been dubbed "le bromance".

Germany

In Paris, Charles and Camilla had been due to join Macron for a ceremony of remembrance and wreath laying at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, where household waste has been piling up since early March due to a refuse collectors' strike.

Charles -- a French-speaker since the age of seven and a frequent visitor -- was to have addressed the Senate, and been hosted at a state banquet before heading southwest to Bordeaux.

According to the initial programme, he was to have toured areas devastated by last year's wildfires as well as visit an organic vineyard.

The focus will now switch to Germany next week, where he will receive a ceremonial welcome at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, meet Ukrainian refugees and address the Bundestag.

In northern city of Hamburg, he will be told about the port's adoption of green technologies -- an issue close to his heart as a lifelong environmentalist.

The state visits had been meant to take the focus away from blanket coverage of Charles's youngest son Prince Harry's autobiography and his Netflix docuseries with his wife, Meghan, both of which criticised royal life.

Charles, who was heir to the throne for 70 years, is less popular than his mother in opinion polls and has faced anti-monarchy protests since coming to the throne.

© 2023 AFP

Rights groups accuse French police of brutality in pension protests

Issued on: 24/03/2023 

France has been rocked by mass protests and strikes since mid-January over the pensions overhaul 

© CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP

Paris (AFP) – Criticism from human rights groups mounted on Friday over the alleged brutality of French police in handling protests opposed to President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform.

French authorities arrested more than 450 people on Thursday in the most violent day of demonstrations since the start of the year against the bill to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

In the days leading up to Thursday's protests, rights watchdogs had expressed worries over what they termed "arbitrary" detentions and the police's excessive use of force.

But security officials have defended their actions, saying they are responding to violent rioters and anarchist groups which frequently infiltrate French demonstrations to provoke clashes.

The French Human Rights League has accused the authorities of "undermining the right of citizens to protest by making disproportionate and dangerous use of public force".

"The authoritarian shift of the French state, the brutalisation of social relations through its police, violence of all kinds and impunity are a major scandal," the league's president Patrick Baudouin said on Friday.

Hundreds have been detained by police  © Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP

Rights groups have raised concerns over the police's repeated use of "kettling", also called "trap and detain" in the United States, a crowd-control tactic consisting of cordoning off protesters in a small area.

Reports have emerged that police have detained foreign schoolchildren and other innocent bystanders, fired teargas at protesters in closed-off areas, and even hurt a man so badly he had to have a testicle amputated.
Teenagers, jogger detained

Macron's government on Thursday last week used a controversial executive power to adopt the pensions bill without a parliamentary vote, fuelling outrage and spontaneous protests in major cities.

In the days since, videos have appeared on social media appearing to show police knocking over or hitting demonstrators.

Human Rights Watch told AFP it was very concerned about "what appears to be abusive police practices".

It said they echoed similar "abusive crowd control and anti-riot tactics" during the anti-government "Yellow Vest" movement in 2018-2019 during Macron's previous term in office.

"The French authorities have apparently not drawn lessons from this or reviewed their police crowd control policies and practices," HRW's France director Benedicte Jeannerod said.

France has raised the retirement age from 62 to 64 © LOIC VENANCE / AFP

Critics have denounced police carrying out sweeping "preventive" detentions, saying even blameless passersby have been caught up in their dragnet.

In one instance on Thursday night last week, two 15-year-old Austrians on a school trip were among those kettled by police, Liberation newspaper reported.

The two teenagers, who had been trying to find their host families, spent the night in jail before their embassy intervened.

A man out jogging was detained the same night.

He told France Inter radio he was booked on allegations ticked at random on the charge sheet, and was not released until the following afternoon.

Security forces detained 292 people that night, but 283 of them were freed without charge.

'View to commit violence'

Macron on Friday condemned the violence overnight and said security forces had worked "in an exemplary manner".

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the police had responded to "troublemakers, often from the far left", who had caused 441 police to be injured.

AFP saw suspected anarchists and other protesters setting fire to rubbish, smashing shop windows and launching stones and fireworks at security forces.

Darmanin said that 11 internal inquiries had been opened into alleged police brutality in the past week.

"It is possible that, individually, police, often because they are tired, commit acts inconsistent with what they were taught," he said.

Paris police chief Laurent Nunez has said the BRAV-M motorbike unit is 'particularly well adapted to dispersing' protesters © Thomas SAMSON / AFP

In one such case, a woman had complained that a member of a motorbike unit beat her with a truncheon while she was caught against a wall in Paris on Monday, a source following the file told AFP.

In another, earlier this year, police on January 19 beat a man so hard with a truncheon that he had to have a testicle amputated, his lawyer told AFP.

Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said earlier this week said there were "no unjustified arrests", and that security forces detained people from "gatherings with a view to commit violence".

He defended the police's motorbike unit, known as BRAV-M, which critics have called to be disbanded, as being one "particularly well adapted to dispersing" groups.

Right groups have long accused French police of brutality and racism in the force, but say internal investigations seem to result in few sanctions.

burs-ah/adp/fb

© 2023 AFP

At least 457 people arrested, 441 security forces injured in violent French pension protests

Issued on: 24/03/2023 - 

A protester clashes with riot police during a demonstration on the ninth day of nationwide protests against the French government's pension reform, Paris, France, March 23, 2023. 

© Nacho Doce, Reuters

Text by:NEWS WIRES

A total of 457 people were arrested and 441 security forces injured on Thursday during nationwide protests against French President Emmanuel Macron’s pensions reform, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

Speaking to the CNews channel on Friday morning, Darmanin also said that there had been 903 fires lit in the streets of Paris during by far the most violent day of protests since they began in January.

“There were a lot of demonstrations and some of them turned violent, notably in Paris,” Darmanin added, saying the toll was “difficult” while praising the police for protecting the more than million people who marched around France.

Police had warned that anarchist groups were expected to infiltrate the Paris march and young men wearing hoods and facemasks were seen smashing windows and setting fire to uncollected rubbish in the latter stages of the demonstration.

Darmanin, a rightwing hardliner in Macron’s centrist government, dismissed calls from protesters to withdraw the pensions reform which cleared parliament last week in controversial circumstances.

“I don’t think we should withdraw this law because of violence,” he said. “If so, that means there’s no state. We should accept a democratic, social debate, but not a violent debate.”

Elsewhere on Thursday, the entrance to Bordeaux city hall was set on fire during clashes in the southwestern wine-exporting hub.

“I have difficulty in understanding and accepting this sort of vandalism,” the mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, told RTL radio on Friday.

“Why would you make a target of our communal building, of all people of Bordeaux? I can only condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”

British King Charles III is set to visit the southwestern city next Tuesday, and had been expected to visit the city hall and meet with Hurmic.

(AFP)

France's Macron says he will not yield to violence after pensions reform protests

Issued on: 24/03/2023 

04:07 Video by: Armen GEORGIAN

French President Emmanuel Macron strongly condemned violence that erupted in Thursday's demonstrations against raising the French retirement age and said he would not give in to it."We will yield nothing to violence, I condemn violence with the utmost strength," Macron told a news conference, after an EU Summit in Brussels, on Friday. FRANCE 24's European Affairs Editor Armen Georgian reports from Brussels.

Violence flares as French protesters vent fury at Macron reform

24 Mar 2023,  AFP

Protesters run in tear gas smoke next to a street fire on the sidelines of a demonstration as part of a national day of strikes and protests, a week after the French government pushed a pensions reform through parliament without a vote (AFP)

Almost 150 police were injured and scores of protesters arrested nationwide, the government said, as a day of protests descended into chaos in several cities including Paris, where protesters lit fires in the historic centre of the city

Protesters clashed with French security forces Thursday in the most serious violence yet of a three-month revolt against President Emmanuel Macron's hugely controversial pension reform.

The uproar over the imposition of the reform -- which the government chose to push through without a parliamentary vote -- has turned into the biggest domestic crisis of Macron's second term in office.

It also threatens to cast a shadow over King Charles III's visit to France next week, his first foreign state visit as British monarch. Unions have announced fresh strikes and protests for Tuesday, the second full day of his trip.

In the southwestern city of Bordeaux, which King Charles is due to visit on Tuesday, the porch of the city hall was briefly set on fire.

Trash set alight

The numbers in Paris and other cities were higher than in previous protest days, given new momentum by Macron's refusal in a TV interview Wednesday to back down on the reform.

Police and protesters again clashed on the streets of the capital during a major demonstration, security forces firing tear gas and charging crowds with batons.
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Some protesters lit fires in the street, setting ablaze pallets and piles of uncollected rubbish, prompting firefighters to intervene, AFP correspondents said.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that across France, 149 members of the security forces had been injured and at least 172 people arrested, including 72 in Paris.

Around 140 fires were set alight in Paris, said Darmanin, blaming "thugs" for the violence, who had come to Paris "to have a go at the cops and public buildings".

Some 1.089 million protesters took part in demonstrations across France, the interior ministry said, putting the Paris turnout at 119,000, the highest for the capital since the movement started in January.

The nationwide figure still fell short of the 1.28 million people who marched on March 7, according to the government figures.

Unions claimed a record 3.5 million people had protested across France, and 800,000 in the capital.

- 'Until the end' -

In Paris, several hundred black-clad radical demonstrators were breaking windows of banks, shops and fast-food outlets, and destroying street furniture, AFP journalists witnessed.

In the northeastern city of Lille, the local police chief Thierry Courtecuisse was lightly injured by a stone.

In Paris, a video went viral of a police officer in helmet and body armour being knocked unconscious and plunging to the ground after being hit on the head by a stone.

The garbage that has accumulated in the streets due to strikes by refuse collectors proved an appealing target, protesters setting fire to the trash piled up in the city centre.

"It is a right to demonstrate and make your disagreements known," Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Twitter, but added: "The violence and destruction that we have seen today are unacceptable."

Unions again appealed for peaceful protests. "We need to keep public opinion on side until the end," said Laurent Berger, leader of the moderate CFDT.

Protesters briefly occupied the tracks at the Gare de Lyon train station in Paris, and some blocked access to Charles de Gaulle airport.

Anger surged after a defiant Macron said on Wednesday he was prepared to accept unpopularity over the pensions reform which he said was "necessary".

Even before then, a survey on Sunday showed Macron's personal approval rating at just 28 percent, its lowest since the anti-government "Yellow Vest" protest movement in 2018-2019.

Mountains of rubbish have formed across the French capital, sometimes echoing the barricades of past revolutions. © Benoît Tessier, Reuters

Rubbish collectors and sewage workers gather at Place de la Bastille in Paris for the start of Thursday's rally. © Benjamin Dodman, FRANCE 24

Élisabeth Borne's use of Article 49.3 of the French constitution to force Macron's pension reform through parliament without a vote has incensed the president's opponents. © Benjamin Dodman, FRANCE 24

'Excessive force'

Acting on Macron's instructions, Borne last week invoked an article in the constitution to adopt the reform without a parliamentary vote. That sparked two no-confidence motions in parliament, which she survived -- but one by a narrow margin.

Thursday's protests were the latest in a string of nationwide stoppages that began in mid-January against the pension changes.

The ministry of energy transition on Thursday warned that kerosene supply to the capital and its airports was becoming "critical" as blockages at oil refineries continued.

Since the government imposed the reform last Thursday, nightly demonstrations have taken place across France, with young people coordinating their actions on encrypted messaging services.

There have been hundreds of arrests and accusations of heavy-handed tactics by police.

Amnesty International has expressed alarm "about the widespread use of excessive force and arbitrary arrests reported in several media outlets".

King Charles is due to arrive Sunday, with a trip scheduled on the new strike date of Tuesday to Bordeaux.

The fire at the entrance to the city hall in Bordeaux damaged its massive wooden door and was put out after 15 minutes, mayor Pierre Hurmic said.

French public sector trade unionists have warned they will not provide red carpets during the visit, but non-striking workers are expected to roll them out.

French garbage crisis: Trash pile up in Paris as collectors continue strike

Issued on: 24/03/2023 - 

01:18

Paris municipal garbage collectors have pledged to uphold a rolling strike until Monday, as thousands of tonnes of rubbish linger in the streets.

‘Democracy at stake’: French protesters vent fury at Macron over pension push

Benjamin DODMAN

FRANCE24
Thu, 23 March 2023 

© Benjamin Dodman, FRANCE 24

French protesters downed their tools and marched once again in Paris and other cities on Thursday, galvanised by President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to ram his deeply unpopular pension reform through parliament without a vote, in what critics have branded a “denial of democracy”.

More than two months into a bitter battle that has roiled the nation, opponents of Macron’s plans to raise the retirement age showed no sign of relenting, with the number of protesters on the rise again after dipping in recent weeks.

The rallies marked the ninth day of nationwide strikes and protests, and the first since Macron ordered his prime minister to use special executive powers to bypass parliament, turning an already festering dispute into a political and institutional crisis.

In the French capital, several hundred thousand protesters turned out, setting off from the symbolic protest hub of Bastille. Many held posters with a montage of Macron dressed in full regalia in the manner of “Sun King” Louis XIV, accompanied by the slogan “Méprisant de la République” (contemptuous of the Republic).

“We’re fed up with a president who thinks he’s Louis XIV, who doesn’t listen, who thinks he’s the only one to know what’s good for this country,” said Michel Doneddu, a 72-year-old pensioner from the Paris suburbs.

How Vietnam is trying to stop rice warming the planet

Issued on: 24/03/2023

High levels of methane are generated by bacteria that grow in rice paddies and thrive if leftover straw rots in the fields after harvest 

Can Tho (Vietnam) (AFP) – As a child, Dong Van Canh watched while the rice fields of Vietnam's Mekong Delta were set alight to make way for the next crop, blackening the sky and flooding the air with potent greenhouse gases.

Rice -- Asia's principal staple -- is to blame for around 10 percent of global emissions of methane, a gas that over two decades traps about 80 times as much heat as carbon dioxide.

Usually associated with cows burping, high levels of methane are also generated by bacteria that grow in flooded rice paddies and thrive if leftover straw rots in the fields after harvest.

The message from scientists is: rice cannot be ignored in the battle to cut emissions.

In the Mekong Delta, Canh, now a 39-year-old rice farmer, does not leave straw out to decay on the paddies -- nor does he burn it, as his parents did before him.

Motivated by the memory of being forced inside his home on days the smoke was thick -- sometimes so acrid it made him choke or faint -- he joined an initiative that removes straw from the fields and turns it into mushrooms and organic fertiliser, earning a small income on the side.

Farmers drive a truck carrying rice bags in a field in Can Tho 

"If we can collect the straw and make money, all of us benefit," he told AFP, running his fingers through a large, soft mound of straw, cow dung and rice husks that will soon become nutritious food for Mekong crops.
Shrinking emissions

The programme -- organised by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) -- is one of a handful across Vietnam and the region trying to steadily shrink methane emissions from rice production.

Many of the initiatives are not new but have been spotlighted since around 100 countries signed the Global Methane Pledge two years ago, agreeing to reduce emissions by 30 percent from 2020 levels by 2030.

Several of the world's biggest rice producers, including Indonesia, Bangladesh and Vietnam, are on board -- although the two largest, China and India, failed to sign.

A farmer holds a basket of straw mushrooms in Can Tho 

In Vietnam, as the harvesting season draws to a close, farmers push carts overflowing with straw bales that will later be soaked and laid out to grow straw mushrooms.

Once the fungi are ready they will be sold before the farmers take back the straw and funnel it into a composting machine. Two months later it will be ready -- and can be sold for around 15 cents a kilogram (2.2 pounds).

"In the past a few farmers did this manually but it took too much manpower and the cost was high. Now we've cut costs by half and we will expand to meet the demands of the market," said Le Dinh Du, a rice farmer who also heads the local district's plant protection department.

"The rice goes on a nice journey. We don't waste anything."

Methane-producing bacteria

Vietnam's environment ministry says irrigated rice accounted for almost half of methane emissions in 2019.

Climate-friendly straw management has been introduced and spread "widely to farmers and local agricultural officials" throughout the country, according to CGIAR, an international agricultural research centre.

How many practise what they have learned is unclear. Last year the World Bank said that more than 80 percent of rice straw in the Mekong Delta is still burned in the fields after harvest.

The need to find solutions is pressing.

Unlike other crops, rice paddies have a layer of standing water, so there is no exchange of air between the soil and the atmosphere, explained Bjoern Ole Sander, a senior scientist at the IRRI in Hanoi.

These conditions mean different bacteria are active in rice, compared to wheat or maize fields.

Farmers use a roller to collect straw in a field in Can Tho 

"And these bacteria eat organic matter and produce methane," he said.

As well as straw management, IRRI says another scheme called Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), which involves breaking up standing water to replenish oxygen and reduce methane-producing bacteria, could also help cut emissions.

Practised on more than 200,000 hectares (494,210 acres) of rice-growing land in the Mekong delta's An Giang province, CGIAR says it has made a significant difference.

For Mekong farmers that have taken the leap, there is pride in contributing to more sustainable farming while getting the most out of their crops.

"We lived hard lives," said Canh. "But once we realised how to take advantage of the straw, things have gotten easier."

© 2023 AFP

PHOTOS © Nhac NGUYEN / AFP

China in 1000 CE
The Most Advanced Society in the World

Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Map showing both Northern and Southern Song dynasties
See China dynasty maps at “The Art of Asia” website

In 1000, 1100, 1200, and 1300, China was the most advanced place in the world. Marco Polo (1254-1324) recognized this when he got to China in the late 13th century after traveling through much of Asia. In what is now Europe, this was the period now referred to as the “high” Middle Ages, which fostered the Crusades and witnessed the rise of Venice, the mercantile center that was Marco Polo’s home.

View the scroll »

A magnificent picture scroll painted by a Chinese artist in the 12th century provides us with a look at society and urban life in China during this time.

For several centuries the Chinese economy had grown spectacularly: “Between ... 960 and ... 1127, China passed through a phase of economic growth that was unprecedented in earlier Chinese history, perhaps in world history up to this time. It depended on a combination of commercialization, urbanization, and industrialization that has led some authorities to compare this period in Chinese history with the development of early modern Europe six centuries later.” (1)During the Song (Sung) Dynasty (960-1276), technology was highly advanced in fields as diverse as agriculture, iron-working, and printing. Indeed, scholars today talk of a Song economic revolution.
The population grew rapidly during this time, and more and more people lived in cities.
The Song system of government was also advanced for its time. The upper-levels of the government were staffed by highly educated scholar-officials selected through competitive written examinations.

Why else is the Song Dynasty so significant?

Many ways of living and acting that are now seen as most “Chinese,” or even characteristically East Asian, did not appear before the Song.

Rice and tea are historically important crops/staple foods in China; but most Chinese during the previous Tang dynasty and before ate wheat and millet and drank wine. Rice and tea became dominant food and drink in the Song.

China’s population is large, and tends to “explode” in certain periods; its first explosion occurred in the Song.

Many Chinese are “Confucians”; but the kind of Confucianism that served as government orthodoxy throughout late-imperial times was a Song reinvention.

Chinese women are known to have bound their feet; but they did not bind them until the Song.

Even the “Chinese” roof with its turned-up corners is by origin a Song Chinese roof. (2)

Yet, despite its political and economic strengths, Song China was not able to dominate its neighbors militarily. Central to its engagement with the outside world were efforts to maintain peace with its powerful northern neighbors and extend its trading networks.

The Song Dynasty in China | Asia for Educators (columbia.edu)

Iran mother's pain and hope in film on daughter's execution

ParisUpdated: Mar 24, 2023

Seven Winters in Tehran tells the story of a woman wronged by system. Photograph:(AFP)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Reyhaneh Jabbari was 26 when she was hanged for murder in 2014, 

having become an international symbol of injustice in Iran. 

She had spent seven years in prison for stabbing to death an 

ex-intelligence ministry official, 

Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi.

She was executed for killing the man who was trying to rape her. Now the subject of a devastating documentary, her mother says there are seeds of hope in her terrible story.

Reyhaneh Jabbari was 26 when she was hanged for murder in 2014, having become an international symbol of injustice in Iran.

She had spent seven years in prison for stabbing to death an ex-intelligence ministry official, Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi. 

Despite being offered a reprieve if she retracted her rape allegation, she refused to lie -- even at the cost of her life. 

Her courageous story and poetic diaries from prison are the subjects of a new documentary, Seven Winters in Tehran, which played at the Berlin Film Festival last month. 

Somehow, Jabbari found the strength to forgive those who destroyed and ultimately took her life -- something her mother has never been able to do. 

"Reyhaneh asked me to forgive the people who tortured her, and I tried for many years, but to this day, I cannot," her mother, Shole Pakravan, told AFP ahead of the film's release in France. 

- 'Piece of hope'-

But unlike previous generations in Iran, too fearful to speak out, she has managed to use the tragedy to raise awareness. 

"When I was young, I didn't know about the violence and executions in my country. It was hidden," said Pakravan, who now lives in exile in Germany. "Now with this movie, we are able to speak about these things and show it to the world." 

The film's director, Steffi Niederzoll, said she was deeply inspired by the family's strength. 

"They have fought to break the circle of violence in Iran," she said. "Reyhaneh forgave even the people who did this to her. She stayed with her truth, her dignity and asked her family to do the same. This creates a piece of hope in this very sad story."

The film was almost finished when protests broke out around the country in September over the death in custody of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly breaching its strict dress code.

Red carpet protest for Iran at the Berlin Film Festival, where 'Seven Winters in Tehran' was premiered © John MACDOUGALL / AFP

- 'Won't be silent' -

"I have hope in the people in these demos because the new generation are really fighting -- not like my generation," said Pakravan. 

"Before people went to jail and came out and stayed silent. Now young girls are going to jail and being raped, and they still won't be silent." But she also fears for what comes next. 

"I fight against execution and torture so when I see protesters calling for mullahs (religious leaders) to be hanged, it makes me worry," she said. "I don't know what system will come after this one, but I don't want it to use execution or torture."

Completing the film, and an accompanying book, has given her some relief after so many years of pain. "I did my responsibility to Reyhaneh, and it has made me free. I can see the world around me again."

Raccoon dog data sparks new debate about Covid origins

Daniel Lawler and Julien Dury, 

Agence France-Presse
Posted at Mar 24 2023

View of a raccoon dog or Tanuki (Nyctereutes procyonoides) at the Chapultpec Zoo in Mexico City . A month ago nine raccoon dog pups were born. This species is native from Japan and China, and the parents of the cubs were donated by Japan. AFP PHOTO / ALFREDO ESTRELLA

PARIS, France - New evidence that raccoon dogs were at the Chinese market where Covid is suspected to have first infected humans has reignited debate over the origin of the pandemic.

The researchers who unexpectedly stumbled over the genetic data say that it supports -- but cannot definitively prove -- the theory that the virus originated in animals, possibly first jumping over to humans at the market in the city of Wuhan. 

Expert wants conclusive report on raccoon dog link to COVID-19

The issue has proved divisive for the scientific community and even different US government agencies, with some maintaining that the virus likely leaked from a Wuhan lab -- a claim that China has angrily denied.

The COVID lab leak theory: Who says what?
TIMELINE: Key moments of COVID-19 pandemic
Pair of new studies point to natural COVID-19 origin

Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's technical lead on Covid, said the new data "doesn't give us the answer of how the pandemic began, but it does provide more clues".

The data comes from swabs collected by a Chinese team in January and February 2020 at the Huanan Seafood Market, the site of one of the earliest Covid clusters, before it was shut down and cleared of animals.

International researchers including Florence Debarre, an evolutionary biologist at France's CNRS research agency, were surprised to come across the data on the GISAID global science database earlier this month.

They managed to download the data before it was removed from GISAID at the request of the Chinese researchers who first posted it.

Debarre and colleagues informed the WHO about their discovery last week, when some media outlets started reporting on the data's existence.

'Piece of the puzzle'

This week the researchers published a report, which has not been peer-reviewed, saying that DNA from the samples shows that raccoon dogs, palm civets, Amur hedgehogs and bamboo rats were present at the market.

Thousands of wild animals sold in Wuhan markets months before COVID-19 outbreak -report
Chinese scientists say wild animals should be screened for coronavirus

Raccoon dogs, whose closest relatives are foxes, are in particular known to be able to carry and transmit viruses similar to SARS-CoV-2, which causes the Covid disease.

That means they could have acted as an intermediary host between humans and bats, in which Covid is suspected to have originated.

Some of the samples containing raccoon dog DNA were also positive for SARS-CoV-2.

However because the samples were taken from sites at the market and not directly from the animals, it was not possible to prove the raccoon dogs had Covid.

Notably, there was very little human DNA in one of the positive samples, raising the likelihood that it was the raccoon dog that had the virus.

"We cannot rigorously demonstrate that the animal was infected, but it is a plausible explanation," Debarre told AFP.

Even if it could be proved that the raccoon dogs were infected, it would be difficult to show they gave Covid to humans -- and not the other way around.

The data is "one additional piece of the puzzle that supports an origin of the pandemic linked to Wuhan's animal trade," said virologist Connor Bamford of Queen's University Belfast.

But "it is unlikely to provide irrefutable evidence," he said on The Conversation website.

Data still missing

There have been increasing calls for all information on the origins of Covid to be publicly released.

US President Joe Biden signed a law earlier this week declassifying intelligence material on the subject, after his energy department concluded with "low confidence" that the virus probably came from a lab.

That assessment contradicted the conclusion of several other US agencies -- but not the FBI.

After being informed of the new Huanan samples, the WHO again called on China to release all its data from the early days of the pandemic.

"These data could have -- and should have -- been shared three years ago," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said late last week.

Alice Hughes, an expert in biodiversity analytics at the University of Hong Kong, said that some researchers in China had known about the existence of the samples since April 2020.

Hughes told AFP this "critically important" information should have been made public earlier, adding that she believed it was "very likely that this is the source of spillover of SARS-CoV-2".

The authors of the new report said that more data was still missing.

There is "absolutely crucial data which sheds light on the start of the pandemic" that the researchers "cannot share because it's not ours," Debarre said.

"The more people who look into it, the more we will be able to extract information," she added.

dl/ea

© Agence France-Presse