US climate action won’t end with Trump, envoy tells COP29

US climate action won’t end with Trump, envoy tells COP29
White House Senior Advisor for Clean Energy and International Climate Policy, John Podesta, holds a press conference during the United Nations climate change conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan November 11, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 12 November 2024
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US climate action won’t end with Trump, envoy tells COP29

US climate action won’t end with Trump, envoy tells COP29

BAKU: Washington’s top climate envoy sought to reassure countries at the COP29 talks Monday that Donald Trump’s re-election would not end US efforts to tackle global warming.
Trump’s sweep of the presidential vote has cast a long shadow over the crunch talks in Baku, with the incoming US leader pledging to withdraw Washington from the landmark Paris climate agreement.
The vote has left the US delegation somewhat hamstrung and stoked fears other countries could be less ambitious in a fractious debate on increasing climate funding for developing nations.
US envoy John Podesta acknowledged the next US administration would “try and take a U-turn” on climate action, but said that US cities, states and individual citizens would pick up the slack.
“While the United States federal government under Donald Trump may put climate change action on the back burner, the work to contain climate change is going to continue in the United States with commitment and passion and belief,” he said.
“The fight is bigger than one election, one political cycle in one country.”
The Baku talks opened earlier Monday with UN climate chief Simon Stiell urging countries to “show that global cooperation is not down for the count.”
Things got off to a rocky start, with feuds over the official agenda delaying by hours the start of formal proceedings in the stadium venue near the Caspian Sea.
But in the evening, governments approved new UN standards for a global carbon market in a key step toward allowing countries to trade credits to meet their climate targets.
COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev hailed a “breakthrough” after years of complex discussions but more work is needed before a long-sought UN-backed market can be fully realized.
The main agenda item at COP29 is increasing a $100 billion-a-year target to help developing nations prepare for worsening climate impacts and wean their economies off fossil fuels.
How much will be on offer, who will pay, and who can access the funds are some of the major points of contention.
Babayev acknowledged the need was “in the trillions” but said a more “realistic goal” was somewhere in the hundreds of billions.
“These negotiations are complex and difficult,” the former executive of Azerbaijan’s national oil company said at the opening of the summit.
Developing countries warn that without adequate finance, they will struggle to offer ambitious updates to their climate goals, which countries are required to submit by early next year.
“The global North owes the global South a climate debt,” said Tasneem Essop, executive director of Climate Action Network.
“We will not leave this COP if the ambition level on the finance... doesn’t match the scale at which finance must be delivered.”
Stiell warned rich countries to “dispense with any idea that climate finance is charity.”
“An ambitious new climate finance goal is entirely in the self-interest of every nation, including the largest and wealthiest,” he said.
The small group of developed countries that currently contributes the money wants the donor pool expanded to include other rich nations and top emitters.
Just a handful of leaders from the Group of 20, whose countries account for nearly 80 percent of global emissions, are attending. US President Joe Biden is staying away.
Afghanistan is however present for the first time since the Taliban took power, as guests of the host Azerbaijan but not party to the talks.
The meeting comes after fresh warnings that the world is far off track to meet the goals of the Paris agreement.
The UN said Monday that 2024 is likely to break new temperature records, and the Paris climate agreement’s goals were now “in great peril.”
The period from 2015 to 2024 will also be the warmest decade ever recorded, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization said in a new report.
The climate deal commits to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, preferably below 1.5C.
If the world tops that level this year, it would not be an immediate breach of the Paris deal, which measures temperatures over decades.
But it suggests much greater climate action is needed.
Last month, the UN warned the world is on a path toward a catastrophic 3.1C of warming this century based on current actions.
More than 51,000 people are expected at COP29 talks, which run from November 11 to 22.


Military leaders are rattled by a list of ‘woke’ officers that a group urges Hegseth to fire

Military leaders are rattled by a list of ‘woke’ officers that a group urges Hegseth to fire
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Military leaders are rattled by a list of ‘woke’ officers that a group urges Hegseth to fire

Military leaders are rattled by a list of ‘woke’ officers that a group urges Hegseth to fire
WASHINGTON: Military leaders are rattled by a list of “woke” senior officers that a conservative group urged Pete Hegseth to dismiss for promoting diversity in the ranks if he is confirmed to lead the Pentagon.
The list compiled by the American Accountability Foundation includes 20 general officers or senior admirals and a disproportionate number of female officers. It has had a chilling effect on the Pentagon’s often frank discussions as leaders try to figure out how to address the potential firings and diversity issues under President-elect Donald Trump.
Those on the list in many cases seem to be targeted for public comments they made either in interviews or at events on diversity, and in some cases for retweeting posts that promote diversity.
Tom Jones, a former aide to Republican senators who leads the foundation, said Friday that those on the list are “pretty egregious” advocates for diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, policies, which he called problematic.
“The nominee has been pretty clear that that has no place in the military,” Jones said of Hegseth.
Hegseth has embraced Trump’s effort to end programs that promote diversity in the ranks and fire those who reflect those values. Other Trump picks, like Kash Patel for FBI director, have suggested targeting those in government who are not aligned with Trump.
But Hegseth has been fighting to save his nomination as he faces allegations of excessive drinking and sexual assault and over his views questioning the role of women in combat. He spent the week on Capitol Hill trying to win the support of Republican senators, who must confirm him to lead the Pentagon, doing a radio interview and penning an opinion column.
Some service members have complained in the past about the Pentagon’s DEI programs, saying they add to an already heavy workload. The Pentagon still has a long way to go in having a general officer corps or specialty occupations such as pilots that have a racial and gender makeup reflective of the country.
A defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the list said senior leaders are hoping that once Trump is sworn in, they will be able to discuss the issue further. They are prepared to provide additional context to the incoming administration, the official told The Associated Press, which is not publishing the names to protect service members’ privacy.
Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday that the list would have “considerable, wide and deep consequences.” He said when military members see people singled out, they will start focusing on their own survival rather than the mission or their job.
“You will drive people out,” Hagel said. “It affects morale as widely and deeply as anything — it creates a negative dynamic that will trickle through an organization.”
The list, which was first reported by The New York Post, includes nine Air Force general officers, seven Navy admirals of different ranks and four Army general officers. Eight of those 20 are women even though only 17 percent of the military is female. None are Marines.
One female Navy officer was named because she gave a speech at a 2015 Women’s Equality Day event, where she noted that 80 percent of Congress is male, which affects what bills move forward. The officer also was targeted because she said “diversity is our strength.”
The phrase is a widely distributed talking point that officers across the Pentagon have used for years to talk about the importance of having a military that reflects different educational, geographic, economic, gender and racial backgrounds in the country.
An Air Force colonel, who is white, was called out for an opinion piece he wrote following the death of George Floyd, saying, “Dear white colonel, we must address our blind spots about race.”
A female Air Force officer was targeted because of “multiple woke posts” on her X feed, including a tweet about LGBTQ rights, one about “whiteness” and another about honoring the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on a stamp.
Another female Air Force officer was on the list because she “served as a panelist for a diversity, equity and inclusion” discussion in 2021.
The list names an Army officer who traveled to 14 historically Black colleges to expand the military’s intelligence recruitment efforts, and an Air Force officer partly because he co-chairs the Asian-Pacific Islander subgroup of the service’s diversity task force.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump transition team, said in a statement that “No policy should be deemed official unless it comes directly from President Trump.”
But in an interview Wednesday for Megyn Kelly’s SiriusXM satellite radio show, Hegseth said Trump told him he wanted a “warfighter” who would clean out the “woke crap.”
Hegseth got a boost Friday from Trump, who posted on his social media site that Hegseth “will be a fantastic, high energy, Secretary of Defense.” The president-elect added that “Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!”
Jones told the AP in June that his American Accountability Foundation was investigating scores of federal employees suspected of being hostile to Trump’s policies. The work aligns with the Heritage Foundation’s far-reaching Project 2025 blueprint for a conservative administration.
A letter Jones sent to Hegseth containing the list, dated Tuesday, says “purging the woke from the military is imperative.” The letter points to tensions with Iran, Russia and China and says “we cannot afford to have a military distracted and demoralized by leftist ideology. Our nation’s security is at stake.”
Conservatives view the federal workforce as overstepping its role to become a power center that can drive or thwart a president’s agenda. During the first Trump administration, government officials came under attack from the White House and congressional Republicans, as Trump’s own Cabinet often raised objections to some of his more singular or even unlawful proposals.

Colombia denies UN claims of 20,000 bodies at Bogota airport

Colombia denies UN claims of 20,000 bodies at Bogota airport
Updated 07 December 2024
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Colombia denies UN claims of 20,000 bodies at Bogota airport

Colombia denies UN claims of 20,000 bodies at Bogota airport
  • Bogota Mayor Carlos Fernando Galan denied the report
  • The UN said its report was based on information it had received from local authorities

BOGOTA: Colombian authorities on Friday denied a United Nations report claiming that the bodies of 20,000 people who were forcibly disappeared over decades of conflict were being kept at Bogota airport.
On Thursday, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances stated that “thousands of unidentified bodies lie in poorly managed cemeteries or storage facilities,” citing “a hangar at Bogota airport where around 20,000 unidentified bodies are currently stored.”
Bogota Mayor Carlos Fernando Galan denied the report, which followed a visit by a UN delegation to Colombia, and asked the UN to substantiate its claims.
Isabelita Mercado, senior adviser on peace and reconciliation at Bogota town hall, told the W station the city’s cemeteries held the bodies of around 5,500 unidentified missing people or people who had been identified but whose bodies have not been claimed.
The UN said its report was based on information it had received from local authorities but didn’t say which ones.
A press officer did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment.
The Search Unit for Persons Reported Missing, which is in charge of locating and identifying the thousands of people who disappeared over the course of six decades of conflict, said it had “no information” on the existence of a “site of forensic interest” near the airport.
The organization has counted more than 104,000 people who went missing during the conflict between security forces, guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug cartels which began in the 1960s.
The biggest guerrilla group, FARC, laid down arms after signing a peace deal in 2016 but a handful of armed groups remain active in the country.


Ghanaians see presidential vote as a way out of hardship

Supporters of the former Ghana President and presidential candidate for the National Democratic Congress, John Mahama, in Accra.
Supporters of the former Ghana President and presidential candidate for the National Democratic Congress, John Mahama, in Accra.
Updated 07 December 2024
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Ghanaians see presidential vote as a way out of hardship

Supporters of the former Ghana President and presidential candidate for the National Democratic Congress, John Mahama, in Accra.
  • Ghana’s presidential elections have historically been two-horse races

ACCRA: Joseph Antwi knows what he wants as a young person in Ghana casting his vote for the first time on Saturday when the West African nation elects its next president.
What he is not sure of, though, is whether the election’s outcome would improve the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation in Ghana, one of the region’s economic powerhouses which has struggled in recent years with high public debt, a weakened local currency and high inflation.
“I want to vote to kick out the current government because they have not been kind to young people,” said Antwi, a trader in the capital of Accra, accusing the outgoing government of President Nana Addo Akufo-Addo of breaking its electoral promises since it was first elected eight years ago.
But the options for a candidate that will bring change are limited, he said, echoing the concerns of some of the 18.7 million people registered to vote for both president and members of parliament.
Ghana’s presidential elections have historically been two-horse races. This time is no different.
Although 12 candidates are running to become Ghana’s next president, it is seen as a tight race between Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia of the ruling New Patriotic Party government that has struggled to resolve the economic crisis, and immediate past President John Mahama, the leader of the main opposition National Democratic Congress.
In their final campaign rallies on Thursday, both candidates made a last push to pitch their political parties as the answer to Ghana’s economic woes.
Bawumia, a former deputy governor of the central bank, promised to build on the outgoing administration’s efforts and stabilize the economy. “I know what I want to do from day one in the presidency,” Bawumia, 61, told cheering supporters in Accra.
Mahama, on the other hand, restated his promise to “reset” the country on various fronts. “We need to reset our democracy, governance, economy, finances, agriculture, infrastructure, environment, health sector, and all that we hold dear as a people,” the 65-year-old former president said.
Across the city, the election mood has been high-spirited with political rallies, while election jingles and songs blast from public speakers.
In addition to the economic hardship, illegal gold mining — known locally as galamsey — has also been a major source of concern, triggering protests in recent weeks.
Ghana is Africa’s top gold producer and the world’s sixth largest, but illegal gold mining, which pollutes rivers and the environment, has spiked as people become more desperate for a better life.
Voters will be looking at whoever will promise to solve the problem of unemployment and hardship, said Lord Mawuko-Yevugah, a professor of political economy at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration.
Ghana’s opposition parties have also alleged plans by the election commission to rig the vote in favor of the ruling party, although without providing any evidence. The claims raised fears for a country seen as a beacon of democratic values at a time when democracy in West Africa is threatened by coups.
“We view transparency, responsiveness, and inclusiveness as critical to ensuring, credible and fair processes,” said Jean Mensa, head of the Ghanaian electoral commission. “And we have demonstrated these three elements in all aspects of our work.”

 


Dozens arrested across Britain in people-smuggling crackdown

Police officers stand near a cordon at Manchester Victoria Station, in Manchester. (AFP file photo)
Police officers stand near a cordon at Manchester Victoria Station, in Manchester. (AFP file photo)
Updated 07 December 2024
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Dozens arrested across Britain in people-smuggling crackdown

Police officers stand near a cordon at Manchester Victoria Station, in Manchester. (AFP file photo)
  • The CTA allows British and Irish citizens only to travel without passports between the islands of Ireland, Great Britain, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands

LONDON: Police have arrested dozens of people in a cross-border crackdown against people-smuggling gangs exploiting free movement between the UK and Ireland, Britain’s Interior Ministry said.
The crackdown “has led to the arrest of 35 people in multiple locations across the UK and Ireland,” the UK Home Office said in a statement.
Immigration staff and police raided locations in Northern Ireland, England and Scotland as part of the three-day operation, it said.
It targeted criminal groups exploiting the Common Travel Area and abusing UK borders on all fronts, said the statement.

SPEEDREAD

• Earlier this year, after a surge in people applying f or asylum in the republic, Dublin said most had come over the land border with Northern Ireland.

• The Home Office said that checks at major ports, airports, road networks and private addresses across the country had detected the gangs’ activities.

• Operating in the UK and internationally, they exploit vulnerable migrants.

The CTA allows British and Irish citizens only to travel without passports between the islands of Ireland, Great Britain, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.
But it has sparked unease in Ireland amid allegations that migrants are using Belfast as a backdoor to the republic, and in the other direction into Britain.
Earlier this year, after a surge in people applying for asylum in the republic, Dublin said most had come over the land border with Northern Ireland.
The Home Office said that checks at major ports, airports, road networks and private addresses across the country had detected the gangs’ activities.
Operating in the UK and internationally, they exploit vulnerable migrants, charging them thousands of pounds to enter the UK illegally, it added.

 


Hague court lays fresh charges against ex-Kosovo leader Thaci

Hague court lays fresh charges against ex-Kosovo leader Thaci
Updated 06 December 2024
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Hague court lays fresh charges against ex-Kosovo leader Thaci

Hague court lays fresh charges against ex-Kosovo leader Thaci
  • Thaci “has been charged with three counts of obstruction of official persons in performing official duties,” said a statement released by prosecutors
  • Thaci resigned from the presidency in late 2020

PRISTINA: Prosecutors with a special international court in The Hague on Friday charged Kosovo’s former president Hashim Thaci, who is on trial for war crimes, with obstruction and contempt of court.
Thaci “has been charged with three counts of obstruction of official persons in performing official duties, four counts of violating secrecy of proceedings and four counts of contempt of court,” said a statement released by prosecutors.
A separate statement by the Kosovo Specialists Chambers (KSC) in The Hague said “the indictment charges the accused with offenses related to alleged unlawful efforts to influence witness testimonies in the Thaci et al war crimes trial.”
The KSC is a court located in The Hague to prosecute mainly former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fighters for war crimes.
Among them is former KLA commander Thaci, who dominated Kosovo’s politics after it declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and rose to become president of the tiny country.
Thaci resigned from the presidency in late 2020 to face war crimes and crimes against humanity charges, and has pleaded not guilty.