UAE Space Agency forges collaboration with Planet Labs

The UAE Space Agency has signed a partnership with Planet Labs, a pioneer in Earth data and insights, to build satellite data-driven Loss and Damage Atlas for global climate resilience. (Twitter/@uaespaceagency)

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Updated 26 May 2023

Arab News

May 26, 2023 22:58

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UAE Space Agency forges collaboration with Planet Labs

Agreement aligns with the UAESA’s vision and strategic objectives, supporting transformative initiatives, projects aimed at combating climate change
Chairperson Sarah Al-Amiri says relationship represents a robust step toward building sustainable, climate-resilient future

Updated 26 May 2023

Arab News

May 26, 2023 22:58

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ABU DHABI: The UAE Space Agency has signed a deal with Planet Labs, a pioneer in Earth data and insights, to build a satellite data-driven loss and damage atlas for global climate resilience.
The agreement aligns with the UAESA’s vision and strategic objectives as it actively supports transformative initiatives and projects aimed at combating climate change, reported the Emirates News Agency on Friday.
It also resonates with the UAE’s commitment as it prepares to host the 28th UN Climate Change Conference from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12 at Expo City Dubai.
Sarah Al-Amiri, the UAE’s minister of state for public education and advanced technology, and UAESA’s chairperson, said the strategic collaboration represented a robust step toward building a sustainable and climate-resilient future.
She said: “It reflects our commitment to strengthening our analytical capabilities to combat climate change and make better-informed decisions.”
Al-Amiri said the parties would be using cutting-edge technology, space data, and satellites to map the loss and damage from climate change and help establish early-warning systems.
She added: “The project also supports our plans to build capacities and adapt to the accelerating climate changes, as well as helping other countries to develop plans and strategies to limit future climate changes.”
Will Marshall, CEO at Planet Labs, said the company was proud of the partnership.
He added: “Climate change is one of the biggest challenges we as a planet have ever faced, and it’s critical that vulnerable countries are able to have real, tangible insights to build resilience.
“We have the technology to capture those insights and to help build early-warning systems for climate risks, but we can’t do it alone.”
The establishment of a loss and damage fund was a highlight at COP27 and the culmination of decades of pressure from climate-vulnerable developing countries.
The fund aims to provide financial assistance to nations most impacted by the effects of climate change.
The Loss and Damage Atlas project was conceived to extend technology and expertise to developing countries to help tackle the loss and damage resulting from climate change.
Salem Butti Salem Al-Qubaisi, UAESA’s director general, underlined the agency’s commitment to fostering and empowering national private sector companies in their efforts to bolster sustainability and combat climate change.
He said: “This agreement marks a significant milestone in the pursuit of Sustainable Development Goals, by establishing an unprecedented loss and damage atlas.
“The implementation of this pioneering atlas holds immense potential to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change.”

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UN agency for Palestinian refugees raises just a third of $300m needed to help millions

Updated 58 min 17 sec ago

June 03, 2023 04:32

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UN agency for Palestinian refugees raises just a third of $300m needed to help millions

UNRWA chief grateful for the new pledges but they are below the funds needed to keep over 700 schools and 140 clinics open from September through December

Updated 58 min 17 sec ago

June 03, 2023 04:32

UNITED NATIONS: Despite a dire warning from the UN chief that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees “is on the verge of financial collapse,” donors at a pledging conference on Friday provided just $107 million in new funds — significantly less than the $300 million it needs to keep helping millions of people.
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the agency known as UNRWA, said he was grateful for the new pledges but they are below the funds needed to keep over 700 schools and 140 clinics open from September through December.
“We will continue to work tirelessly with our partners, including host countries — the refugees’ top supporters — to raise the funds needed,” he said in a statement.
At the beginning of the year, UNRWA appealed for $1.6 billion for its programs, operations and emergency response across Syria, Lebanon, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and Jordan. That includes nearly $850 million for its core budget, which includes running schools and health clinics.
According to UNRWA, donors on Friday announced $812.3 million in pledges, but just $107.2 million were new contributions. The countries pledging new funds were not announced.
Lazzarini told a press conference Thursday that UNRWA needs $150 million to keep all services running until the end of the year, and an additional $50 million to start 2024 without liabilities. In addition, he said, the agency needs $75 million to keep the food pipeline in Gaza operating and about $30 million for its cash distribution program in Syria and Lebanon.
UNRWA was founded in the wake of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 to provide hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes with education, health care, social services and in some cases jobs. Today, their numbers — with descendants — have grown to some 5.9 million people, most in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, as well as neighboring countries in the Middle East.
UNRWA has faced a financial crisis for 10 years, but Lazzarini said the current crisis is “massive,” calling it “our main existential threat.”
“It is deepening, and our ability to muddle through is slowly but surely coming to an end,” he said. “The situation is even more critical now that some of our committed donors have indicated that the will substantially decrease their contribution to the agency.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a speech read by his chief of staff at the start of the pledging conference that “when UNRWA’s future hangs in the balance so do the lives of millions of Palestine refugees relying on essential services.”
Those services include education for over half a million girls and boys, health care for around 2 million people, job opportunities for young people in Gaza and elsewhere, psycho-social support for hundreds of thousands of children, and a social safety net for nearly half a million of the poorest Palestinians, he said. More than 1.2 million Palestinians also receive humanitarian assistance.

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Topics: UNRWA Palestine

Turkiye: Erdogan to be sworn in for third term as president

Updated 03 June 2023

AFP

June 03, 2023 04:15

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Turkiye: Erdogan to be sworn in for third term as president

Erdogan’s inauguration in parliament will be followed by a lavish ceremony at his palace in Ankara

Updated 03 June 2023

AFP

June 03, 2023 04:15

ANKARA: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to be sworn in on Saturday as head of state after winning a historic runoff election to extend his two-decade rule for another five years as Turkiye’s economic woes worsen.
The inauguration in parliament will be followed by a lavish ceremony at his palace in the capital Ankara attended by dozens of world leaders.
Turkiye’s transformative but divisive leader won the May 28 runoff against a powerful opposition coalition, and despite an economic crisis and severe criticism following a devastating February earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people.
Erdogan won 52.18 percent of the vote while his secular rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu 47.82 percent, official results show.
Turkiye’s longest-serving leader faces immediate and major challenges in his third term driven by a decelerating economy and foreign policy tensions with the West.
“From a geopolitical point of view, the election will reinforce Turkiye’s recent pursuit of an independent foreign policy,” said Matt Gertken, chief geopolitical strategist at BCA Research.
“This policy aims to extract maximum economic and strategic benefits from eastern and autocratic states while still preventing a permanent rupture in relations with western democracies,” he said.
“Tensions with the West will likely increase again, within that framework, now that Erdogan has a new mandate.”
Addressing the country’s economic troubles will be Erdogan’s first priority with inflation running at 43.70 percent, partly due to his unorthodox policy of cutting interest rates to stimulate growth.
Late on Saturday the president is due to unveil his new cabinet with media speculating that former finance minister Mehmet Simsek, a reassuring figure with international stature, could play a part.
A former Merrill Lynch economist, Simsek is known to oppose Erdogan’s unconventional policies.
He served as finance minister between 2009 and 2015 and deputy prime minister in charge of the economy until 2018, before stepping down ahead of a series of lira crashes that year.
“Erdogan’s government looks like it will pursue an orthodox stabilization program,” said Alp Erinc Yeldan, professor of economics at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.
“What we see now is that the news about Mehmet Simsek and his team is greeted with enthusiasm by the markets,” he said.
Turkiye’s new members of parliament started being sworn in on Friday in a first session after the May 14 election, also attended by Erdogan.
His alliance holds a majority in the 600-seat parliament.
Erdogan’s victory came against a unified opposition coalition led by Kilicdaroglu, whose future as leader of the CHP party remains in doubt following the defeat.

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Topics: Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan

UNSC condemns Sudan violence, calls on parties to honor ceasefire agreements

Updated 03 June 2023

Ephrem Kossaify

June 03, 2023 05:28

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UNSC condemns Sudan violence, calls on parties to honor ceasefire agreements

Council members urge Burhan and Dagalo to honor Jeddah Declaration and African Union Roadmap
More than 700 Sudanese have died and thousands have been injured in six weeks of clashes

Updated 03 June 2023

Ephrem Kossaify

June 03, 2023 05:28

NEW YORK: The UN security council on Friday expressed concern over the continued fighting in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces and condemned attacks on civilians and UN and humanitarian workers, as well as on medical workers and facilities, and the looting of humanitarian aid.

In a statement issued after a meeting on Sudan late on Friday afternoon, council members called on the warring parties to grant humanitarians safe and unimpeded access across the country, in line with international law and UN principles.

According to the UN, at least 730 people have been killed and 5,500 injured since the outbreak of hostilities last month. The actual toll could be much higher.

Clashes between military leader Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan’s Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, and the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, a paramilitary group led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, have continued across several parts of the country, including in the capital Khartoum, and in Zalingi, Central Darfur, Al-Fasher, North Darfur and Al-Obeid.

Security Council members stressed the need for an immediate ceasefire to allow for humanitarian access, and to arrange for a permanent ceasefire as well as “resume the process toward reaching a lasting, inclusive, and democratic political settlement in Sudan.”

Their statement reaffirmed the council’s support of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan, or UNITAMS, and urged its continued engagement in the war-ravaged country.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday rejected a request from Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan to remove his office’s special envoy, Volker Perthes, who serves as the special representative for Sudan and head of UNITAMS. Guterres said that the Security Council had the final say on the fate of the mission.

The 15-member body, tasked with the maintenance of international peace and security, underscored the need for “strengthened international coordination and continued collaboration,” and reiterated its support for African Union, or AU, efforts to establish mechanisms to address the conflict.

They also welcomed UN and Arab League efforts toward a viable peace process and the resumption of the transition to democracy in Sudan. They also backed the AU Roadmap toward those goals.

The Security Council statement welcomed the May 11 signature in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, by the SAF and RSF, of the Declaration of Commitment to Protect the Civilians of Sudan — or the “Jeddah Declaration” — and called on both parties to implement its provisions.

Council members encouraged international support for the 2020 Juba Peace Agreement, which “remains binding for all its signatories (and) must be implemented in full, in particular its provisions on a permanent ceasefire in Darfur.”

The statement concluded by reaffirming the Security Council’s “strong commitment to the sovereignty, unity, independence, and territorial integrity of the Republic of Sudan in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principle of good neighborliness, non-interference and regional cooperation.”

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Topics: Sudan Unrest

After Daesh and bombs, refugee sisters sing of Kurdish sorrow

Updated 03 June 2023

AFP

June 03, 2023 01:30

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After Daesh and bombs, refugee sisters sing of Kurdish sorrow

They have twice been driven from their family home in northern Syrian town of Kobani
Kurdish folk songs are our favorite type of music. They tell the plight of the Kurds, the wars, the tragedy of displacement and the killings

Updated 03 June 2023

AFP

June 03, 2023 01:30

IRBIL: When the Syrian Kurdish sisters Perwin and Norshean Salih sing about loss, it comes from the heart.

Aged in their early 20s, they have twice been driven from their family home in the northern Syrian town of Kobani — once by the Daesh group, and again by the threat of Turkish bombs.
Now they have found a safe haven in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region, where they carve out a living by performing the often melancholy music of their people in a restaurant.
“Kurdish folk songs are our favorite type of music,” said Perwin Salih, 20, who plays the santoor, tambourine and Armenian flute. “They tell the plight of the Kurds, the wars, the tragedy of displacement and the killings.” The Kurds, a non-Arab ethnic group of between 25 million and 35 million people, are spread mainly across Turkiye, Syria, Iraq and Iran, with no state of their own.
They have long complained of oppression but endured special horrors during Syria’s 12-year civil war, especially the Daesh onslaught.
When the jihadists attacked Kobani in late 2014, and heavy fighting turned the town into a symbol of Kurdish resistance, the sisters fled across the border to Turkiye.
After several unhappy months in Istanbul, they moved to the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir in Turkiye’s southeast where they continued their music studies.
They moved back home in 2019, after Syrian Kurdish-led forces drove Daesh out of their last territorial stronghold, with US backing. Turkiye has kept targeting parts of northern Syria in what Ankara says is a fight against Kurdish militants.
Once, the sisters say, mortar shells hit their family home, thankfully without exploding.
Late last year, when Turkiye launched major air and artillery strikes, the Salih sisters fled once more, this time to Iraq, where they and two more siblings now rent a modest two-room house in Irbil.
The two women said they grew up in a household of music lovers, with their mother singing to them before bedtime while their father played the tambourine.
But the trauma they have endured since has left deep scars.
“A vision of Daesh still haunts me,” said Perwin. “Men in black clothes, holding black flags, on a quest to turn life itself black.”
At a recent concert, Perwin played the flute while Norshean, 23, captivated the audience with a Kurdish folk tune about displacement.
“I am a stranger,” she sang softly. “Without you, mother, my wings are broken. I am a stranger, and life abroad is like a prison.”
Norshean, a classical music afficionado, also plays the piano, guitar and kamanja, an ancient Persian string instrument, and dreams of making it as a violinist.
But for now she has recurring nightmares of the jihadists.
“The Daesh still haunts my dreams,” she said. On their latest escape from Kobani, the sisters faced another nightmare.
At the border, Syrian soldiers demanded that they play, warning that they would confiscate the instruments if they didn’t like the music. “We cried while we played, and when we were done they smiled and said: now you can pass,” recounted Norshean.
The sisters now mainly perform at a restaurant called Beroea, an ancient name for the once-vibrant Syrian city of Aleppo.
Co-owner Riyad Othman said he was not surprised by the dangers the women have had to face.
A Syrian Kurd himself, he said his people “spend their entire life fleeing, estranged and suffering.”

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Topics: Iraq Daesh

Tunisian president proposes taxing the wealthiest

President Kais Saied. (REUTERS)

Updated 03 June 2023

AFP

June 03, 2023 01:12

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Tunisian president proposes taxing the wealthiest

Saied did not say how such a plan might operate as employees’ taxes are deducted at source and many Tunisians in the private sector do not declare their full income

Updated 03 June 2023

AFP

June 03, 2023 01:12

TUNIS: Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has proposed taxing the North African country’s wealthiest citizens as a way of avoiding what he has called the “diktats” of the International Monetary Fund.
Despite reaching an agreement in principle last October on a bailout package worth nearly $2 billion, talks with the IMF have stalled for months over demands to restructure public bodies and lift subsidies on basic goods.
Saied said during a meeting with Prime Minister Najla Bouden that the current subsidy system benefits all Tunisians, including the wealthy, a presidency statement said.

FASTFACTS

• Saied said that the current subsidy system benefits all Tunisians, including the wealthy.

• He floated the idea of ‘taking surplus money from the rich to give to the poor.’

He floated the idea of “taking surplus money from the rich to give to the poor,” citing a quote attributed to Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, one of Islam’s first caliphs.
“Instead of lifting subsidies in the name of rationalization, it would be possible to introduce additional taxes on those who benefit from them without needing them,” Saied added.
He said he believed such a mechanism would mean the country would not have to bow down to “foreign diktats.”
Saied did not say how such a plan might operate as employees’ taxes are deducted at source and many Tunisians in the private sector do not declare their full income.
The IMF has called for legislation to restructure more than 100 state-owned firms, which hold monopolies over many parts of the economy and in many cases are heavily indebted.
The country is going through a financial crisis marked by chronic shortages of basic food products.
Political tensions are also running high since Saied launched a sweeping power grab in July 2021, rocking the democracy in the birthplace of the Arab Spring revolts over 10 years previously.

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Topics: Tunisia

UAE Space Agency forges collaboration with Planet Labs

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UAE Space Agency forges collaboration with Planet Labs

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