Aid Cuts are Not Criticized as Violence Against Women, but They Should Be

• Opinion by Marissa Conway
• • February 19, 2024
• 
  

PASS BLUE AUS

A girl receiving medical attention for her wounded leg at a typically overcrowded shelter in Khan Younis, Gaza, December 2023. The essayist writes that Britain’s international aid cuts have heavily affected the well-being of women globally, thus risking their lives. Yet Britain is still making aid cuts “even as the need grows.” BISAN OUDA/UNFPA PALESTINE

Britain has cut its international aid several times since 2020 and, by the government’s own admission, the well-being of women around the world has been substantially impacted. The 2021 cut to UNFPA, the UN Population Fund, is a prime example. If the £130 million (approximately $164 million) in funding had been maintained, it would have helped prevent a quarter of a million child and maternal deaths, 14 million unintended pregnancies and 4 million unsafe abortions.

This is one of dozens of examples that showcase the profound and often disproportionate impact of aid cuts on women. Humanitarian charities and activists can point precisely to the impact that funding reductions will have as soon as they are announced. Yet, Britain doesn’t seem to be listening. It continues to reduce humanitarian aid even as the need grows.

The latest in this grim legacy of aid cuts is the British government’s pause on funding to UNRWA, the United Nations relief and works agency for Palestinians. This decision came after Israeli allegations surfaced that UNRWA staff members participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.  

UNRWA immediately terminated the contracts of those accused. However, this wasn’t enough for Britain and 17 other countries, resulting in reduced funding to the tune of $440 million. Amid an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, in which 29,000 people have been killed and 85 percent of the population is internally displaced, Britain made a knee-jerk decision that will throttle lifesaving aid by £71 million (approximately $89 million). UNRWA’s deputy director has said that come the end of March, operations will effectively shut down.

These cuts are a stark example of structural violence in which institutional decisions about funding result in a group of people being unable to meet their basic needs. There’s a particular cruelty in how these cuts will worsen the degradation of Palestine’s infrastructure, which is already in shambles. A whopping 87 percent of the Gaza population currently depends on UNRWA’s support. The Palestinian population is being punished for the actions of a few. The reports coming out of Gaza reveal the already perilously thin margin of survival, especially for women.

Doctors Without Borders shared the harrowing story of a woman who was turned away from a hospital as all delivery rooms were full. She ended up giving birth in a cold public bathroom in Rafah. What’s even more disheartening, this isn’t an unusual situation.

Many medical facilities have been destroyed, and pregnant women are giving birth wherever they can, including in shelters and tents. For those lucky enough to access medical care, operating rooms that are meant to handle no more than three C-sections a day now see upwards of 20 such surgeries. Miscarriages have jumped by 300 percent, with many being reported as preventable. Because of the lack of food and water, mothers are struggling to breastfeed and the risks of infant malnutrition and death are high.

Health care limitations are not only affecting pregnant women. Period products are no longer available, leaving women to turn to unsanitary solutions like strips of tent. Couple this with a lack of clean water and the risk of infection, complications and serious health consequences are high.

This is the situation with a fully funded UNRWA doing everything it can to get food, water and medical supplies to as many people as possible. At least 158 staff have been killed in the conflict, yet UNRWA has not abandoned its mission. It’s Britain that’s abandoning the people of Gaza.

Britain has long considered itself a champion for gender equality. Its 2023 International Women and Girls Strategy cites a commitment to acting “for and with women and girls impacted by crises and shocks, including conflict, global health, climate change, violence, food insecurity and malnutrition, and the resulting humanitarian crises” with a commitment to safeguarding and avoiding unintentional harm.

But these cuts to funding for UNRWA, coupled with a refusal to call for a ceasefire, send a sobering message about Britain’s true priorities where politics outweigh the imperative of human rights. And because of this priority, the entire Gaza population will suffer, including the unique harm that will befall women. Aid is part and parcel of a commitment to gender equality, so it’s time that Britain reverses course and restores aid, beginning with a recommitment to restoring and even increasing funding UNRWA.

Britain’s current disregard for the well-being of some of the world’s most vulnerable populations should be a wake-up call for the government to realign its actions with human rights and gender equality. The lives of an entire population depend on it.

Marissa Conway is the chief executive officer of UNA-UK. She is a co-founder of the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy, of which she was the UK executive director from 2016 to 2022.

ICYMI

It’s time for the UK-US special nuclear relationship to end – Kate Hudson, CND

19th February 2024Leave a Commenton It’s time for the UK-US special nuclear relationship to end – Kate Hudson, CND

“It’s just not possible for the UK to have an independent foreign policy, or defence and security policies, if it remains attached at the hip to the US nuclear programme.”

By Kate Hudson, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

Worried about Trump coming back to the White House? His finger back on the nuclear button would be bad news.

He’s the man who commissioned and deployed ‘usable’ nukes and talked about restarting nuclear testing. But the years of the Biden presidency have also seen a significant escalation of nuclear danger, two US-backed wars with nuclear potential, and an increase in the global nuclear weapons tally for the first time since the Cold War.

Whoever is in the White House, it’s clear: Britain has to break its ‘special nuclear relationship’ with the US. We’re all familiar with the so-called ‘special relationship’ with the US, basically tying Britain into really bad foreign policy decisions. But not so many people know about the US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement (MDA) – the world’s most extensive nuclear sharing agreement. Even though it comes up for renewal in parliament every ten years, few seem to know of its existence, or the extent to which it make us dependent on the US – or indeed that it underpins the wider US/UK ‘special relationship’.

Known in full as the ‘Agreement between the UK and the USA for cooperation in the Uses of Atomic Energy for Mutual Defence Purposes’, the treaty initially established an agreement between both countries to exchange classified information to develop their respective nuclear weapon systems.

At the start, the MDA prohibited the transfer of nuclear weapons, but an amendment in 1959 allowed for the transfer of nuclear materials and equipment between both countries up to a certain deadline. This amendment is extended through a renewal of the treaty every ten years, most recently in 2014 without any parliamentary debate or vote. The British public and parliamentarians initially found out about that extension and ratification when President Obama informed the United States Congress.

Renewing such agreements on the nod, without transparency or accountability is never a good thing. When it ties us so tightly to nuclear cooperation with the White House this is an even greater cause for concern. The time has come to really vigorously oppose this Agreement.

It also puts us at odds with our commitments under the NPT: the relationship and activities enshrined in the MDA confirm an indefinite commitment by the US and UK to collaborate on nuclear weapons technology and violates both countries’ obligations as signatories to the NPT. The NPT states that countries should undertake ‘to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to… nuclear disarmament’. Rather than working together to get rid of their nuclear weapons, the UK and US are collaborating on further advancing their nuclear arsenals.

Indeed, a 2004 legal advice paper by Rabinder Singh QC and Professor Christine Chinkin concluded that it is ‘strongly arguable that the renewal of the Mutual Defence Agreement is in breach of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty’, as it implies ‘continuation and indeed enhancement of the nuclear programme, not progress towards its discontinuation’.

On every level the MDA is something that must be challenged. It’s just not possible for the UK to have an independent foreign policy, or defence and security policies, if it remains attached at the hip to the US nuclear programme. When the US seems hell-bent on taking us into war after war, unquestioning allegiance from the UK cannot continue.

The MDA is up for renewal again this year. Now is the time to start asking the questions, raising the protest, and making the case for independence. It’s time for the special nuclear relationship to end.

                                             

UK

Joe Lycett vs Sewage: Whistleblower reveals sewer networks held together with 'sticky tape and plasticine' in new Channel 4 documentary

Joe Lycett's new Channel 4 documentary unveils the true “dilapidated” state of the water industry as sewer networks currently held together "with plasticine"

By Isabella Boneham
Published 19th Feb 2024

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A new Channel 4 documentary is airing tomorrow night (Tuesday 20 February) at 9pm where Joe Lycett will take on the UK’s water companies, investigating how our waterways have become so polluted and why firms have been allowed to taint one of our most precious resources. The comedian speaks to a whistle-blower at a major UK water and sewerage company who lifts the lid on the current “dilapidated” state of the sewage treatment network and confirms that wastewater workers are incentivised not to report sewage spills.

The whistle-blower has worked in wastewater for 15 years and reveals that some wastewater works “haven’t had any investment since the 1950s”, describing them as “absolutely dilapidated and falling apart; held together with sticky tape and plasticine”. He reveals that sewage spills typically occur as a result of mechanical breakdowns which he attributes to lack of investment and upkeep, and he previously operated a large works which was putting in excess of 7 million litres of untreated sewage into local rivers every time it rained.

The whistle-blower reveals that spills are not always reported, explaining: “Absolutely not. I've seen managers who go quicker up the greasy pole if they nod and agree and don't report what they should report. And those who don't make any trouble will soon be at the top of the ladder.” They also add that when it comes to reporting spills: “There's a bit of a toxic environment, and a lot of managers have been looking to blame the person who's reported it.”

And he adds that there are financial incentives not to report spills, explaining: “Bonuses can be linked to spills. So the more spills reported, the less bonus you're likely to get. And for senior managers who will get much bigger bonuses the incentives will be much bigger.”

Joe Lycett's new Channel 4 documentary unveils the true “dilapidated” state of water companies as sewer networks currently held together "with plasticine"

In the documentary, Joe also discovers that the Church of England’s pension fund has up to £32 million worth of holdings in water companies – including shares that return dividends. The Church of England has previously disinvested from oil and gas companies like Shell over environmental concerns, so Joe implores them to do the same with water companies. In response to this, the Church of England’s Pension Board said they were not going to disinvest but said “we view that progress and improvements are possible”.

Joe explores in the documentary the seemingly revolving-door relationship between water companies and regulator, Ofwat. For example, Cathryn Ross, former co-chief executive of Thames Water, used to be the boss at regulator Ofwat.

His documentary, titled 'Joe Lycett Vs Sewage', comes after damning statistics and a boycott growing in the UK where people are refusing to pay the sewage element of their water bills due to sewage spills. Recently it was revealed that only 14% of English rivers meet "good" ecological status with sewage pollution a major contributor. In 2022, water companies in England alone were responsible for 301,091 sewage overflows, for a total of 1,754,921 hours.

As part of the documentary, Joe has launched a social media campaign for the general public to support the ‘poo promise’ by emailing their water company to call on them to stop paying dividends to shareholders. Over 20,000 people have emailed their water companies as part of the campaign - and there were over 100 emails a minute at one stage.

Joe Lycett sewage: Comedian to investigate water companies in new 'provocative' Channel 4 documentary

Sewage UK: Public warned not to swim at 113 beaches as raw waste pumps into sea - see list of affected locations

River Wye pollution: People power is fierce to save iconic river and protect UK waterways - while the authorities squirm

In response to findings in the programme, Water UK said: “Companies have set out proposals for a record £96 billion of investment, to ensure the security of our water supply in the future and reduce spills into rivers and seas as fast as possible.” The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it is “driving the largest infrastructure programme in water company history to upgrade the network,” and is bringing in “significantly more Environment Agency inspections and spot-checks.”

The Environment Agency said it “takes the management of conflicts of interest very seriously” and has “systems in place to manage and monitor these” and that none of its most senior staff have an interest in a water company. While Ofwat said that “employees ‘intending to leave’ are removed from projects where there is the ‘potential for a conflict of interest’.”

 

Church could drop £30m water firm stake over ‘deep concern’ at sewage crisis

EXCLUSIVE

After Joe Lycett's TV investigation, Church of England pension board may dump its water company shares unless leaks are tackled

Joe Lycett urged Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby to drop pension fund investments in water companies (Photos: Getty)

By Adam Sherwin

Arts and Media Correspondent

February  19, 2024 

                                                          

The Church of England has warned it could drop around £30m of investment in water companies if the industry fails to tackle a crisis in untreated sewage being discharged into rivers and seas.

The Church Pensions Board, which is committed to “responsible and ethical investment”, said it was “deeply concerned” at reports that water companies were prioritising dividend payments over vital work to tackle sewage.

Responding to a Channel 4 investigation by comedian-turned-activist Joe Lycett, the Church board said it “does not rule” out withdrawing its water utility company holdings if bosses do not respond to its calls to take action over sewage leaks.

Last year, the board divested its investments in oil and gas companies for failing to show “sufficient ambition” to hit decarbonisation targets.

In Joe Lycett vs Sewage, which will be broadcast on Tuesday night, the comedian discovers that water companies in England alone are responsible for 301,091 sewage overflows, running for a total of 1,754,921 hours in 2022.

While the privatised water and sewerage companies in England paid £1.4bn in dividends in the last financial year, Mr Lycett is told by whistleblowers that the prospect of slashed bonuses disincentivises water company bosses from reporting discharges.

In a letter to the Church, addressed “Dear Archbishop who art in Canterbury”, Mr Lycett writes that the institution holds “up to £32m of investments in water companies… The same companies responsible for every year pumping millions of litres of untreated sewage into the UK’s waterways”.

Lycett’s letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury calling on the Church of England to divest its water utility shareholdings (Photo: Channel 4/Multitude Media)

He asks the Church to support his cause: “We’re calling on the water companies to change their ways, and spend their money preventing spills rather than paying dividends to shareholders.”

In a reply to Mr Lycett, the pensions board said it “remains deeply concerned by the operation of several companies, the effectiveness of the regulation of the sector and also how investors can better engage with the sector to improve it”.

“Given the level of concern and the issues that you rightly raise, this is not an easy task but we view that progress and improvements are possible.”

The board confirmed to i that it “does not rule out disinvesting from companies or refusing to fund future debt if we believe the management are not suitably responsive to our engagement.

“That form of escalation could also be an option for water utility companies, but it is not one that we are recommending to our trustees as being necessary at this stage.”

In the film, Mr Lycett speaks to a whistleblower at a major UK water and sewerage company, who reveals the current “dilapidated” state of the sewage treatment network and claims that wastewater workers are incentivised not to report sewage spills.

Joe Lycett vs Sewage is due to air on Channel 4 (Photo: James Stack/Channel 4)

Mr Lycett, who previously tackled the oil industry and called on David Beckham to step down from his reported £10m ambassadorial role in Qatar, investigates the “incestuous” nature of the water industry.

The documentary shows how executives move frequently between regulatory bodies such as Ofwat, environmental agencies and water companies. The bodies involved deny any conflict of interest.

The Church of England said it holds £365,000 in UK water company shares, and about £30m in bonds across the sector, out of a portfolio of more than £3bn in funds under management.

Known for his attention-grabbing stunts, Mr Lycett records a Turdcast podcast with Gary Lineker, in which the Match of the Day presenter talks about the notorious moment he “relieved” himself on the pitch in England’s opening game of the 1990 World Cup.

The podcast’s “launch” was abandoned when Mr Lycett’s inflatable toilet leaked sewage into Liverpool’s Albert Docks – in reality, harmless marine mud.

Joe Lycett vs Sewage is on Channel 4 on Tuesday 20 February at 9pm

Daughter of Tunisian political prisoner Said Ferjani confronts Tunisian ambassador to UK

Kaouther Ferjani, the daughter of imprisoned Tunisian Ennahda Party member Said Ferjani, confronted the Tunisian ambassador to the UK on Saturday on the unlawful detention of political prisoners in Tunisia. Said Ferjani, 68, has been imprisoned since 27 February 2023 as part of a crackdown on dissent by the country’s increasingly authoritarian president.

     
February 19, 2024 

Imprisoned Tunisian opposition leader begins hunger strike

Rached Ghannouchi joins other dissidents in protest of alleged wrongful incarceration

Associated Press
Published February 19, 2024 

Tunisian opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi began a hunger strike in prison on Monday, joining other government critics striking to protest what they see as unjust incarceration.

TUNISIAN OPPOSITION LEADER SLAMS MILITARY PROSECUTION AS DISSIDENT CRACKDOWNS CONTINUE

Imed Khemiri, the spokesperson for his political party, told The Associated Press on Monday that Ghannouchi's strike intended to draw attention to the plight of Tunisia's political prisoners and the violations of their freedoms. He said the strike was "to demand a return to democracy" in the North African nation known for the protests that kicked off the Arab Spring 13 years ago.

Leader of the Ennahdha party, Rached Ghannouchi, speaks to the media after he was freed by the Tunisias anti-terrorism unit in Tunis, Tunisia, Tuesday, July 19, 2022.

 (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi, File)

Ghannouchi, 82, co-founded and leads Ennahda, the Islamist party that ascended to power in Tunisia after the country toppled then-President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. He was sentenced earlier this month to three years in prison on charges related to foreign financing of Ennahda's 2019 political campaigns.

Ghannouchi was arrested last April as part of a broader crackdown against political opponents of President Kais Saied and has refused to appear in court to face charges that his lawyers have described as "unfounded and politically motivated."

Six other Saied critics who've been imprisoned since Feb. 23 as part of an investigation into a "conspiracy against state security" began hunger striking last week. All but one whose doctor recommended they suspend striking have continued, their families said in a joint statement.

UK

University of Kent proposes cuts to courses and jobs

By Daniel Sexton

BBC News, South East

One senior lecturer at the University of Kent has started a petition protesting the cuts

The University of Kent is proposing to cut 58 jobs in an attempt to respond to "financial challenges".

The proposals, which include cutting nine courses from its portfolio, have opened for consultation.

The university said: "We are exploring changes to our size and shape to ensure we are well placed to grow in priority areas in the future."

The head of culture and languages at the university has started a petition to try and stop the cuts.

Dr Alvise Sforza Tarabochia said: "It is important that the withdrawal of courses from the University of Kent is not treated as business as usual.

Dr Tarabochia, who is also a senior lecturer of Italian, added: "Taking away these subjects will affect the diversity offering at the university and the students' prospects - this needs to be kept under public scrutiny."
Voluntary redundancy priority

The courses that are subject to the proposed cuts are health and social care, journalism, anthropology, music and audio technology, art history, comparative literature, English language and linguistics, modern languages, philosophy, and philosophy, religion and ethics.

Courses take place across both campuses of the university, at Medway and Canterbury.

The University of Kent's vice chancellor, Professor Richard Reece, said the university did not have a specific target it hoped to save by making the proposed cuts.

He acknowledged that "universities up and down the country are in difficult financial positions".

The University of Kent said: "We are now in a period of consultation with staff on these proposals, working closely with them and staff and trade union representatives before any final decisions are taken.

"Our priority in the weeks ahead will be supporting staff being consulted with on the plans, including working to our redundancy avoidance agreement to ensure we prioritise voluntary redundancy, vacancy review and reduced hours as far as possible."

Pakistan Elections: An Explainer – Analysis


Supporters of Pakistan’s BANNED PTI political party. 

Photo Credit: Mehr News Agency

February 20, 2024 
By IPCS
By Muneer Ahmed

None of the three main political parties in Pakistan were able to secure a majority in parliament following the 8 February election. Of the 266 contestable National Assembly (NA) seats, independent candidates backed by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won 93. Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N) and Bhutto-Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) secured 75 and 54 seats, respectively.

Plagued by the army’s relentless intermingling, these elections delivered two dominant conclusions. One, Imran Khan appears large in Pakistani politics even while languishing in jail, and two, after failing to counter Imran’s popularity, his rivals, Nawaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, have been forced to form a coalition government, readying the country for another round of instability.

Why Imran Looms So Large

For decades, Pakistan’s government has been an army-run game of musical chairs between the PML-N and PPP, both led by two dynasties. Imran Khan’s PTI managed to create a niche for itself during the 2018 elections. Imran was unseated in April 2022 by a no-confidence motion brought by the opposition, with the support of the army.

The initial fault lines between Imran Khan and the military leadership occurred over a dispute related to the transfer of an Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officer. Imran, however, didn’t step down quietly, and indirectly accused Gen. Bajwa for his unceremonious ouster. In May 2023, Khan openly blamedthe new Army Chief Asim Munir for orchestrating his arrest. Imran’s allegations were seen as plausible, as he was arrested in the High Court by the Pakistan Rangers, who operate under the Interior Ministry and are commanded by officers on secondment from the army.

Imran’s arrest triggered protests across the country. Demonstrators set fire to a corps commander’s home in Lahore and attacked army headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi. Such public outrage against the army was expressed for the first time in Pakistan’s history. These elections proved to be a medium for many Pakistani voters to express their discontent with the army and institutions that were acting under its influence. The primary grievance was that these shadowy institutions attempted to rob the voters of their choice, and campaigners were denied a level playing field. Despite being banned from the elections, denied their political ‘bat’ symbol, constant crackdowns on members, and campaigning amidst fears of arrest, PTI-backed independents secured 93 seats. These recent election results, therefore, can be read as a huge setback for the army and its meddling in political affairs.


A Fragile Alliance of Former Foes

With no party in majority, Pakistan has inevitably moved towards a six-party alliance government led by the PML-N and PPP. Shehbaz Sharif will be prime minister, and important appointments will be split between several parties. With a total of 152 general seats, the bloc is likely to cross the majority mark of 169 after the allocation of reserved seats. There are 70 seats reserved for women and minorities that are shared proportionately among parties represented in the National Assembly (NA). PML-N, PPP, and other parties had previously shared power for 16 months, until August 2023, under the aegis of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), with Shehbaz Sharif lading the government and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as foreign minister.

This alliance shouldn’t come as a surprise. Gen. Asim Munir backed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s appeal to his opponents to assist in forming a coalition government since the general elections have resulted in a hung parliament. Under the leadership of a ‘compliant’ Shehbaz Sharif, the army seems to have achieved its aim of installing a weak coalition government. There are, however, a few ground realities that the army appears to have overlooked, especially since Imran’s ouster. One, Imran Khan continues to be the most popular leader in Pakistan. Two, the PDM government’s rating fell as they struggled to control inflation and a faltering economy during its previous tenure. Three, the six-party coalition appears to be an uneasy gathering of former foes. The two leading parties of the alliance, PML-N and PPP, have a history of bitter rivalry. They staunchly opposed each other up until the recent polling, with a senior PPP leader calling his party’s participation in the 16-month-long power-sharing PDM, a mistake.

Meanwhile, the PTI is readying itself to create obstacles for the coalition government. PTI-backed candidates are working to create an alliance with the religious parties. The ‘ineligible’ PTI seeks a share of reserved seats using another party’s banner. There is no clarity in Section 104 of the Election Act, 2017 to indicate if PTI-backed members will be able to obtain reserved category seats merely by joining smaller parties. Under this clause, nomination lists had to be submitted to the Election Commission (EC) by 22 December 2023. Nonetheless, even the reserved seats won’t bring the party to power as they will still be short of the 169 mark. The PTI independents are, however, set to create a strong opposition that will have massive popular support. While the PTI was threatening to move the Supreme Court against ‘rigged’ polls, the Rawalpindi Commissioner admitted his involvement and accused the EC and the Chief Justice of election rigging.
Another Round of Instability?

This election outcome has sent a strong public signal about the army establishment’s persistent political interference. To add insult to the army’s injury, the results have further bolstered Imran Khan’s popular image. For now, the PML-N and PPP, despite trailing PTI-backed candidates, have been able to muster a coalition with the army’s blessing. Imran might attempt to use popular support to further fuel anti-establishment sentiment—thus sending strained civil-military ties further down a slippery slope. What methods the military chooses to demonstrate—and re-establish—de facto leadership from this point on remains to be seen.

About the author: Muneer Ahmed is Senior Researcher with IPCS’ Centre for Internal and Regional Security (IReS).

Source: This article was published by IPCS


IPCS  (Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies) conducts independent research on conventional and non-conventional security issues in the region and shares its findings with policy makers and the public. It provides a forum for discussion with the strategic community on strategic issues and strives to explore alternatives. Moreover, it works towards building capacity among young scholars for greater refinement of their analyses of South Asian security.

Mongolia’s Beijing-Financed Hydro-Electric Dams Threaten Lake Baikal – OpEd


Russia's Lake Baikal

February 20, 2024 0 Comments
By Paul Goble

Mongolia’s decision to build hydro-electric dams to solve its domestic electricity shortage, a decision that Beijing has backed by financing the project, threatens transborder rivers flowing from Mongolia into Russia and even the survival of Lake Baikal, Viktor Danilov-Danilyan says.

The corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences who heads the Moscow Institute on Water Problems says that in fact, “for Baikal,” what Mongolia with China’s backing is now doing, represents “a catastrophe for Baikal” and therefore must be of concern to all Russians (babr24.com/mong/?IDE=256528).

By reducing the flow of the Selenga River northward, the Mongolian project will lower water levels in the lake and threaten its fragile ecosystems, Danilov-Danilyan says. But he doesn’t address what may be the even more serious consequences of this development on the political relations between Moscow, on the one hand, and Mongolia and China, on the other.

Given the sensitivity of Baikal in Russian thinking, Mongolia’s decision to take an action that will threaten its survival and China’s decision to back that will concessionary loans are likely to have a negative impact on Moscow’s relations with both Ulan Bator and, more importantly, Beijing.

Moscow has been alarmed by Mongolia’s drift away from Russia and especially by its increasing attractiveness to the Mongolian-related Buryats and Tuvans on the Russian side of the border (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/02/moscow-again-fighting-pan-mongolism.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/02/russias-buddhist-nations-want-ulan.html).

Of course, the Kremlin isn’t nearly as concerned by Mongolia’s action as by China’s moves in support of what Ulan Bator is doing because while Russia could effectively pressure Mongolia if China weren’t involved, it will find it far harder to do so if Beijing is acting in support of Ulan Bator.

And that in turn means that what looks like a small problem in Mongolia could trigger new tensions between Moscow and Beijing, especially considering how important the survival of Lake Baikal is in the Russian imagination.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Singapore’s biggest money laundering case tests city’s weak property market

Tan KW

Publish date: Tue, 20 Feb 2024, 

A mass sale of prized real estate seized in Singapore’s biggest money-laundering case is set to provide a key test of demand for a niche part of the financial hub’s property market.

More than a dozen so-called shophouses, each worth millions of dollars, have been put on sale as the nation’s largest bank DBS Group Holdings Ltd. steps up efforts to reduce about S$100 million ($74 million) in exposure to the scandal, public listings show. At least five more marketed are linked to businesses that took loans from DBS, according to briefing materials and business filings seen by Bloomberg News.

Results of the sales will provide the first indication of demand for the properties in a market that’s been in the doldrums since August. That’s when the China-born money-laundering suspects were arrested, spooking investors who piled into a booming part of the island’s real estate sector in recent years.

“It’s a question of orderly decline or non-orderly decline” for shophouse prices after the Chinese buyer wave fades, said Alan Cheong, executive director of research for Singapore at Savills Plc. “Either a white knight comes in to bail the market out or there’s a great reset.”

Shophouses in Singapore have gone from being seen as colonial relics to symbols of refined urban life. With typical features like terracotta roof tiles, French-style timber windows and brightly-colored facades, they provide a distinctive heritage value for the city-state. 

Median prices reached a record in early 2023, as the properties were snapped up for retail, restaurants or bars downstairs, and homes or offices in the upper floors.

But the boom has also been fueled in part by alleged dirty cash, ensnaring banks that provided loans backed by the properties.

Sales of shophouses have plunged in the wake of the record $2.2 billion money-laundering probe. Total transactions fell to S$111 million in the last quarter of 2023, a drop of 65% from the previous three months, according to data on publicly disclosed deals published by the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

What is complicating predictions for how the sales pan out is the opacity of the market. Singapore has just more than 6,500 shophouses, which date back to the 1800s, making them highly coveted. 

Authorities in turn have yet to provide a detailed breakdown of all the assets seized, which include other real estate ranging from offices to opulent bungalows, amounting to more than 200 properties.

It’s not fair to assume that the assets up for sale will hurt the market because prices depend largely on the location, although buyers could seek to submit lowball bids, said Tang Wei Leng, head of capital markets in Singapore at Colliers International Group Inc. “Shophouses are finite in supply and the opportunity to own one is very much desired.” 

DBS Chief Executive Officer Piyush Gupta said this month that the bank is trying to sell the assets through receivers. “Once they sell the property, we can get our money back,” he said. 

Singapore police said on Feb. 9 that they will lift orders prohibiting the disposal of the properties by DBS “when we are satisfied that the sale is conducted fairly.”

Among the shophouses for sale are five spread across Amoy Street and Telok Ayer Street, popular dining venues in the city center. They are owned by Jiasheng Amoy Pte. At least three more units at Mosque Street, in the Chinatown district, are owned by Jiacai Investments Pte and also being sold, according to marketing materials seen by Bloomberg News.

The two firms together secured nine loans from DBS between 2021 and February 2023 to purchase such buildings, and are now in receivership.

The director of both companies, Chinese national Su Binghai, did business with one of the 10 arrested in last year’s raids, and is now a subject of police interest after leaving the country, according to the Straits Times. The receiver for the companies, Martin Wong of FTI Consulting, declined to comment. 

Other assets for sale are three buildings with a starting price of S$61.6 million in total at Stanley Street in the city center, marketed by real estate agency Knight Frank. They are owned by Aalto Group Pte and Breuer Group Pte, both directed by Chinese national Su Fuxiang, who is also at large and a subject of interest for the police in connection to the alleged ring. KPMG LLP, which DBS appointed as the receiver for both firms, said it isn’t able to provide comments, citing confidentiality.

Another one of Su’s companies, Suyh Pte, owns five shophouses in the city’s red-light district Geylang that are being put on the market by FTI Consulting.

FTI Consulting is also seeking to sell two shophouses in South Bridge Road that count among its tenants the popular Chinese baijiu liquor brand Wuliangye. The units are owned by a business which received loans from DBS and local bank United Overseas Bank Ltd, according to business records. Another suspected associate of the ring, Chinese national Chen Lingling, is a shareholder in the firm.

UOB did not respond to a request for comment.

The sales may be a precursor of more to come. The 10 accused, as well as their associates, directed various companies that own more shophouses across the city, according to property records seen by Bloomberg News. They also obtained loans from banks beyond DBS. The police declined to comment further on whether more banks have been granted permission to sell properties.

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp had also sued successfully to take possession of an under-construction luxury bungalow at Ocean Drive off Singapore’s mainland, to recover about S$19.7 million from an overdue housing loan it made to one of the 10. “The repossession and sale of the property is currently in motion,” said Joseph Wong, the head of Consumer Credit Risk Management for the bank, in a statement.

  - Bloomberg

Far right groups in France are targeting mayors

One mayor resigned after his house and 2 cars were burned


Mathieu Pattier/Associated Press Dorothee Pacaud, mayor of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins, poses outside the town hall on Nov. 28, 2023 in Saint-Brevin-les-Pins. Asylum seekers had been in the town since 2016, but a plan to house them near a school triggered protests that children would be at risk. (AP Photo/Mathieu Pattier)

PUBLISHED: February 19, 2024 
By Elaine Ganley | Associated Press

SAINT-BREVIN-LES-PINS, France — The mayor of a small resort town on the Atlantic coast of France resigned, closed his medical practice and moved away after his house and two cars were set on fire. The arson followed months of death threats over plans to relocate a refugee center near a school.

More than 150 miles (240 kilometers) to the north, trouble visited another mayor when he decided to take in a handful of refugee families. The aim was to fill job vacancies in the village; instead, he received a torrent of abuse. One threat read: “I hope, Mr. Mayor, that your wife will be raped, your daughter will be raped, and your grandchildren sodomized.”

These were not isolated incidents.

Mayors, normally among the most appreciated elected officials in France, are under attack as never before. Opposition to immigration is a driving force, led by small extreme-right groups that are often backed by national politicians.

While other European countries including Germany, Sweden, Italy and Spain have seen protests over similar issues, the backlash against mayors is especially jarring in France. The French have traditionally revered state institutions. A small-town mayor embodies the values of the French Republic, harking back to the revolution of 1789.

The tactics used against French mayors in recent years go beyond the usual street protests and angry public meetings. They include violence and disinformation — and local demonstrations are often amplified by outside agitators.

In France, like elsewhere in Europe, national identity has become a war cry for far-right political groups. They promote the idea that foreigners are stealing the riches of the nation through state handouts and that they will ultimately upend France’s traditional way of life.

France’s internal security agency, the DGSI, is increasingly worried about fringe movements and their potential for violence, both on the far right and the far left.

Far right groups became more active after deadly attacks by Islamic extremists in 2015-2016. One of their goals is to “precipitate a clash” over those viewed as outsiders, then-DGSI chief Nicolas Lerner said in a rare interview with Le Monde last year.

“The normalization of a recourse to violence, and the temptation to want to impose ideas through fear or intimidation, is a grave danger to our democracies,” he said.

The violent views of the radical right in the U.S. have spread to Europe and been amplified through social media, said Lerner.

Topics debated by political parties, like migration, tend to “channel energy,” he said.

FAR RIGHT ON THE RISE

The French far right first made its mark in 1984, when the National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen won 10 seats in the European Parliament. But the nation gasped when Le Pen, a Holocaust denier, reached a runoff in the 2002 presidential election against the incumbent, Jacques Chirac.

Parties on the left and right combined to keep Le Pen from power then. But today the party of his daughter, Marine, has 88 deputies in Parliament. She plans to make her fourth bid for the presidency in 2027, after twice reaching the runoff against President Emmanuel Macron.

A new party, Reconquête (Reconquest), has staked out a position even further to the right, calling for zero immigration. Its vice president, Marion Maréchal, Marine Le Pen’s niece, is the lead candidate in elections for the European Parliament in June.

Reconquête’s ambitions go further than just a protest movement, said Jean-Yves Camus, a leading expert on the far right.

“Beyond those anti-migrant demonstrations there is a real political project, which is confronting the state,” he said. While there is no tradition of suspicion of a “deep state” in France, Reconquête’s founder, Eric Zemmour, has emulated former U.S. President Donald Trump, taking aim at elites and predicting the collapse of French society.

Zemmour, a French nationalist, has no personal connection to extremist groups, Camus said. “But he says, ‘If these people want to join me and my party, they can be useful.’”

Reconquête is also leading a campaign against the educational system with an agenda to end what it calls the “great indoctrination.” It runs a pressure group, called Vigilant Parents, that tries to keep schools from teaching about topics it deems inappropriate, such as LGBTQ rights, and encourages people to snitch on teachers who do.

Many on the far right, including Zemmour, subscribe to the “great replacement” theory, the false claim that native populations of Western countries are being overrun by non-white immigrants, notably Muslims, who will one day erase Christian civilization and its values.

This story, supported by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, is part of an ongoing Associated Press series covering threats to democracy in Europe.

TROUBLE IN CALLAC

The far right claimed victory in January 2023, when Mayor Jean-Yves Rolland of Callac gave up his plan to house seven to 10 refugee families in his town in Brittany, in northwest France. His goal had been to help fill local jobs and inject dynamism into the isolated enclave with a shrinking population.

For months, demonstrators from near and far, some from Reconquête, converged on the village of 2,200 people.

“They were clearly threatening democracy,” Rolland said, dumping a pile of written threats on his desk in the town hall. One referred to migrants as “Dealers, Rapists, Aggressors” who should be “returned to Africa.” Another showed a patron saint of France, the Archangel Michael, trampling on a Quran and chasing Islam’s Prophet Mohammed out of France with a pitchfork.

The use of disinformation, including “troll factories” that generate swarms of emails targeting an individual, is a hallmark of extreme-right groups.

Rolland said he received hundreds of angry emails that mysteriously passed through the Czech Republic. Some carried spurious contact details, complicating investigators’ efforts to locate the senders, he said.

“In the end, those contesting came from outside … terrible extremist groups,” Rolland said.

MAYOR’S HOUSE ON FIRE

Mayor Yannick Morez of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins was awakened in the night on March 22 of last year to find flames lapping at the front of his home while his family slept. His cars were completely destroyed by fire.

Asylum seekers had been in the town since 2016, but a plan to house them near a school triggered protests that children would be at risk. As in Callac, some of the demonstrators were local, but out-of-towners seized on the opportunity to promote their anti-migrant cause, whether in person or via online campaigning.

Morez resigned and moved away, but his successor as mayor, Dorothée Pacaud stood firm, and the relocation project went ahead. Months later, the town remains tense; it went into full lockdown for a low-key immigration conference last fall.

“An elected official, a mayor, a deputy mayor, that represents democracy. To use methods like that, what happened in Callac, it’s unacceptable,” Pacaud said.


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Biden chides Congress to ‘show some spine’ against TrumpFrench mayors faced another brief challenge last year: Six nights of nationwide rioting over the police killing of a 17-year-old with North African roots. Unusually, the unrest stretched beyond metropolitan areas and reached provincial towns too, super-charged by messages shared by teenagers on TikTok. A mass police deployment brought the violence to a halt.



But the campaigns are continuing, and have touched other towns, too. And another source of tension is brewing. In recent weeks, French farmers have mounted protests across the country, demanding better pay and less red tape, especially from the EU.

The farmers are the embodiment of “la France profonde,” the very essence of what makes France French, that the far right claims to represent. Activists are seizing the opportunity. Small groups of extremists, some members sporting brass knuckles, showed up at one farmers’ demonstration last month in the southern city of Montpellier.

With elections for the European Parliament coming up in June, the protests are an opportunity for the far right to sow discontent with mainstream politics — and a warning of the possibility of more disruption to come.

Mathieu Pattier in Callac, and Jeremias Gonzalez in Saint-Jean-de-Monts, contributed to this report.

 

Portugal: Researchers aim to cut textile industry pollution, water consumption

By

 LUSA

A team of researchers from the University of Coimbra (UC) is developing an innovative technology that could reduce the pollution caused by the textile industry, one of the biggest polluters in the world, the higher education establishment announced on Monday.

“The aim is to enable the industry to reduce its consumption of water, but also of dyes, which, although low cost, have a brutal environmental impact,” said Jorge Pereira, a lecturer in the Chemical Engineering Department of the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of Coimbra.

A team of researchers from the Chemical Engineering Department (DEQ) of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra (FCTUC), in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras (IIT Madras), is developing the “CirRe-Dyeing” project, funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). CirRe-Dyeing” runs until 2025 and involves around two dozen researchers.

In a note sent to the Lusa news agency, the UC explained that this project aims to create a circular platform that allows the dyes used in fibre and fabric dyeing processes to be reused, as well as the water present in the effluents.

“The textile industry is currently one of the five biggest polluters in the world, particularly in terms of water consumption. By 2030, textile production is expected to grow by around 145 million tonnes,” he added.

According to Jorge Pereira, the textile industry is one of the most alarming sectors in terms of water consumption and drought-related problems, which are likely to get worse in the future.

“It generates more concern due to the high amount of effluents contaminated with synthetic dyes and other chemical auxiliaries after the dyeing process,” said the researcher at the Centre for Chemical Engineering and Renewable Resources for Sustainability (CERES).

To respond to this problem, the team he leads has been developing a technology that makes it possible to “recover and reuse the water, dyes and additives that make up this contaminated effluent as many times as possible” within a circular economy concept.

“The technology we are developing will significantly reduce the amount of contaminants present in the effluent, making it easier to treat the subsequent water using more conventional processes and, consequently, reducing the associated costs,” he says.

According to the team of researchers, the aim is to create an environmentally, economically and socially sustainable platform that can be used anywhere in the world and in different industries.

The technology conceived at FCTUC is currently “in the process of intellectual protection”.

“We believe that this technology has enormous potential for implementation at an industrial level and, with the support of the Portuguese textile industries, it could progress to pilot trials and, in the immediate future, contribute to a more efficient and ecological treatment of their effluents contaminated with dyes,” he concluded.