Chad hopes ‘green charcoal’ can save vanishing forests

Chad hopes ‘green charcoal’ can save vanishing forests
A worker pours a gum arabic-based binder at Grace International's green coal production site in N'Djamena, Chad. (AFP)
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Updated 20 June 2025
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Chad hopes ‘green charcoal’ can save vanishing forests

Chad hopes ‘green charcoal’ can save vanishing forests
  • Chad has lost more than 90 percent of its forest cover since the 1970s, hit by climate change and overexploitation of trees for household uses such as cooking

N’DJAMENA: As they zigzagged from one machine to another in the searing African sun, the workers were covered in black soot.
But the charcoal they were making is known as “green,” and backers hope it can save impoverished Chad from rampant deforestation.
Chad, a vast, landlocked country of 19 million people perched at the crossroads of north and central Africa, is steadily turning to desert.
It has lost more than 90 percent of its forest cover since the 1970s, hit by climate change and overexploitation of trees for household uses such as cooking, officials say.
“Green charcoal” aims to protect what forest is left.
Made from discarded plant waste such as millet and sesame stalks or palm fronds, it is meant to save trees from being chopped down for cooking.
The product “releases less emissions than traditional charcoal, it doesn’t blacken your pots, it has high energy content and lasts up to three times longer than ordinary charcoal,” said Ousmane Alhadj Oumarou, technical director of the Raikina Association for Socioeconomic Development (Adser).
“Using one kilogramme of green charcoal saves six kilogrammes of wood.”
The group has installed a production facility in Pont Belile, just north of the capital, N’Djamena.
There, workers grind up burnt plant waste, then mix it with gum arabic, which helps it ignite, and clay, which makes it burn more slowly.
The resulting black nuggets look like ordinary charcoal.
Like the traditional kind, it emits CO2 when it burns — but less, said Souleymane Adam Adey, an ecologist at the University of N’Djamena.
And “it contributes to fighting deforestation, by ensuring the trees that aren’t cut down continue to capture and store carbon,” he said.

The conflict in neighboring Sudan, which is facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, is adding to pressure on Chad, which has become home to more than 800,000 Sudanese refugees since 2023 — double the 400,000 it already hosted.
“Desertification has progressed in the regions that have been hosting Sudanese refugees for the past two years,” said Adser’s director, 45-year-old businessman Ismael Hamid.
Adser invested 200 million CFA francs (about $350,000) to launch the project, then won backing from the World Bank, which buys the charcoal for 750 CFA francs per kilogramme.
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, distributes the charcoal in refugee camps in eastern Chad.
But Hamid said he hoped to expand production and slash prices to 350 to 500 CFA francs per kilo to make “green charcoal” available and affordable nationwide.
The plant currently produces seven to nine tons per day.
“If we want to meet the country’s needs, we have to increase our output by at least a factor of 10,” said Hamid, calling for subsidies to support the budding sector.
Environment Minister Hassan Bakhit Djamous told AFP the government was working on a policy to promote such projects.
“We need to bet on green charcoal as an energy source for the future of our country,” he said.
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Snakes on a plane bound for India, again

Updated 13 sec ago
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Snakes on a plane bound for India, again

Snakes on a plane bound for India, again
NEW DELHI: Indian customs officers in Mumbai said they have stopped a plane passenger arriving from Thailand with a wriggling cargo of live snakes, the third such seizure this month.
“Customs officers... foiled yet another wildlife smuggling attempt, 16 live snakes... seized from passenger returning from Thailand,” said customs officers in the airport in the Indian financial hub.
The passenger, who arrived on Sunday, has been arrested, the customs agency said in a statement, with “further investigation underway.”
The live snakes included reptiles often sold in the pet trade, and were largely non-venomous, or with venom too weak to affect people.
They included garter snakes, a rhino rat snake and a Kenyan sand boa, among others.
In early June, customs officers stopped a passenger smuggling dozens of venomous vipers, also arriving from Thailand.
Days later, officers stopped another traveler carrying 100 creatures including lizards, sunbirds and tree-climbing possums.
Wildlife trade monitor TRAFFIC, which battles the smuggling of wild animals and plants, has warned of a “very troubling” trend in trafficking driven by the exotic pet trade.
More than 7,000 animals, dead and alive, have been seized along the Thailand-India air route in the last 3.5 years, it said.

Women can be drafted into the Danish military as Russian aggression and military investment grows

Women can be drafted into the Danish military as Russian aggression and military investment grows
Updated 20 min 4 sec ago
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Women can be drafted into the Danish military as Russian aggression and military investment grows

Women can be drafted into the Danish military as Russian aggression and military investment grows
  • The Scandinavian country is seeking to increase the number of young people in the military by extending compulsory enlistment to women for the first time

HOVELTE: Peering across a dense stretch of woodland outside of Denmark’s capital with camouflage paint smeared across her face, 20-year-old Katrine scans the horizon for approaching threats.
After nearly four months of military training, the young soldier and the rest of her unit spent early June completing their final exercises near the Danish army’s barracks in Hovelte, 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of Copenhagen.
Katrine and other female soldiers, all of whom spoke to The Associated Press on June 11 on the condition that only their first names be used because of operational security, volunteered for military service earlier this year. Until now, that was the only way for women to be part of the armed forces.
The Scandinavian country is seeking to increase the number of young people in the military by extending compulsory enlistment to women for the first time. Men and women can both still volunteer, and the remaining places will be filled by a gender-neutral draft lottery.
“In the situation the world is in now, it’s needed,” Katrine said. “I think it’s only fair and right that women participate equally with men.”
Under new rules passed by Denmark’s parliament earlier in June, Danish women who turn 18 after Tuesday will be entered into the lottery system, on equal footing with their male compatriots. The change comes against a backdrop of Russian aggression and growing military investment across NATO countries.
Russia’s looming threat
Even from the relative safety of Denmark, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine casts its shadow. Lessons from the Ukrainian battlefields have even filtered down into their training.
“That makes it very real,” Katrine said.
Denmark’s gender-parity reforms were originally outlined in 2024 as part of a major defense agreement. The program was originally expected to be implemented by early 2027, but has been brought forward to summer 2025.
Col. Kenneth Strøm, head of the conscription program, told AP the move is based on “the current security situation.”
“They could take part in NATO collective deterrence,” Strøm added. “Raising the number of conscripts, that would simply lead to more combat power.”
Denmark, a nation of 6 million people, has about 9,000 professional troops. The new arrangement is expected to bring up to 6,500 annual conscripts by 2033, up from 4,700 last year.
Under Danish law, all physically fit men over age 18 are called up for military service. But because there are usually enough volunteers, there’s a lottery system so not all young men serve. Women, by contrast, could only volunteer previously, making up roughly a quarter of 2024’s cohort.
“Some will probably be very disappointed being chosen to go into the military,” Anne Sofie, part of Katrine’s cohort of volunteers, said of the new female conscripts. “Some will probably be surprised and like it a lot more than they think they would.”
The duration of service is also being extended from four to 11 months. Conscripts will first spend five months in basic training, followed by six months of operational service, plus additional lessons.
Military buildup
The move is part of a broader military buildup by the Nordic nation.
In February, Denmark’s government announced plans to bolster its military by setting up a $7 billion fund that it said would raise the country’s defense spending to more than 3 percent of gross domestic product this year. Parts of the conscript program are being financed by the so-called Acceleration Fund.
“We see a sharpened security situation in Europe. We have the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. We have focus on the Baltic countries, where Denmark is contributing a lot of soldiers. So, I think it’s a general effort to strengthen the Danish defense,” said researcher Rikke Haugegaard from the Royal Danish Defense College.
But Haugegaard notes there are many challenges, from ill-fitting equipment and a lack of additional barracks, to potential cases of sexual harassment.
“For the next year or two, we will be building a lot of new buildings to accommodate all these people. So, it will be a gradual process,” she added.
In 2017, neighboring Sweden instituted a military draft for both men and women after its government spoke of a deteriorating security environment in Europe. Norway introduced its own law applying military conscription to both sexes in 2013.


US envoy expects Trump, Erdogan to resolve arms sanctions on Turkiye this year

US envoy expects Trump, Erdogan to resolve arms sanctions on Turkiye this year
Updated 34 min 17 sec ago
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US envoy expects Trump, Erdogan to resolve arms sanctions on Turkiye this year

US envoy expects Trump, Erdogan to resolve arms sanctions on Turkiye this year

ANKARA: The US ambassador to Turkiye said he expects Donald Trump and Tayyip Erdogan to resolve long-standing defense-related sanctions on Turkiye by year end, according to an interview with state owned Anadolu Agency.
Thomas Barrack, the envoy, said the two presidents could give directions to settle the issue of sanctions, which the US imposed in 2020 over Turkiye’s purchase of Russian S-400 missile defense systems.
“In my view, President Trump and President Erdogan will tell Secretary (Marco) Rubio and Foreign Minister (Hakan) Fidan to fix this, find a way, and a resolution is possible by year-end,” he was quoted as saying on Sunday.
The CAATSA sanctions, referring to the ‘Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act’, also removed NATO member Turkiye from the F-35 program where it was both a buyer and manufacturer of the fighter jets.
Ankara, which has closer US ties since Trump’s return to the White House, has said its removal from the program was unjust and has demanded to be reinstated or reimbursed.
“We all believe there’s a tremendous opportunity here, as we have two leaders who trust each other,” said Barrack, who is also special envoy to neighboring Syria.


China lifts a nearly 2 year ban on seafood from Japan over Fukushima wastewater

China lifts a nearly 2 year ban on seafood from Japan over Fukushima wastewater
Updated 56 min 34 sec ago
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China lifts a nearly 2 year ban on seafood from Japan over Fukushima wastewater

China lifts a nearly 2 year ban on seafood from Japan over Fukushima wastewater

BEIJING: China has reopened its market to seafood from Japan after a nearly two-year ban over the discharge of slightly radioactive wastewater from the tsunami-destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant.
A notice from the customs agency said the ban had been lifted Sunday and that imports from most of Japan would be resumed.
The ban, imposed in August 2023, was a major blow to Japan’s fisheries industry. China was the biggest overseas market for Japanese seafood, accounting for more than one-fifth of its exports.
The nuclear plant at Fukushima was heavily damaged by a deadly tsunami that followed a huge offshore earthquake in 2011. Water still must be pumped in to cool the radioactive fuel. The water is then stored in what was an ever-growing complex of tanks on the property.
After years of debate, the utility won government permission to discharge the water gradually into the sea after treating it to remove most of the radioactive elements. Japanese officials said the wastewater would be safer than international standards and have negligible environmental impact.
China disagreed and imposed a ban, saying the discharge would endanger the fishing industry and coastal communities on its east coast.
The ban will remain in place for seafood from 10 of Japan’s 47 prefectures, including Fukushima and nearby ones.
Japanese seafood exporters will have to reapply for registration in China and all imports will have to include a health certificate, a certificate of compliance for radioactive substance testing and a certificate of origin, the Chinese customs agency said.


Canadian Prime Minister Carney says trade talks with US resume after Canada rescinded tech tax

Canadian Prime Minister Carney says trade talks with US resume after Canada rescinded tech tax
Updated 30 June 2025
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Canadian Prime Minister Carney says trade talks with US resume after Canada rescinded tech tax

Canadian Prime Minister Carney says trade talks with US resume after Canada rescinded tech tax

 

TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said late Sunday trade talks with US have resumed after Canada rescinded its plan to tax US technology firms.
US President Donald Trump said Friday that he was suspending trade talks with Canada over its plans to continue with its tax on technology firms, which he called “a direct and blatant attack on our country.”
The Canadian government said “in anticipation” of a trade deal “Canada would rescind” the Digital Serves Tax. The tax was set to go into effect Monday.
Carney’s office said Carney and Trump have agreed to resume negotiations.
“Today’s announcement will support a resumption of negotiations toward the July 21, 2025, timeline set out at this month’s G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis,” Carney said in a statement.
Carney visited Trump in May at the White House, where he was polite but firm. Trump traveled to Canada for the G7 summit in Alberta, where Carney said that Canada and the US had set a 30-day deadline for trade talks.
Trump, in a post on his social media network last Friday, said Canada had informed the US that it was sticking to its plan to impose the digital services tax, which applies to Canadian and foreign businesses that engage with online users in Canada.
The digital services tax was due to hit companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb with a 3 percent levy on revenue from Canadian users. It would have applied retroactively, leaving US companies with a $2 billion US bill due at the end of the month.
“Rescinding the digital services tax will allow the negotiations of a new economic and security relationship with the United States to make vital progress,” Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said in a statement.
Trump’s announcement Friday was the latest swerve in the trade war he’s launched since taking office for a second term in January. Progress with Canada has been a roller coaster, starting with the US president poking at the nation’s northern neighbor and repeatedly suggesting it would be absorbed as a US state.
Canada and the US have been discussing easing a series of steep tariffs Trump imposed on goods from America’s neighbor.
Trump has imposed 50 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum as well as 25 percent tariffs on autos. He is also charging a 10 percent tax on imports from most countries, though he could raise rates on July 9, after the 90-day negotiating period he set would expire.
Canada and Mexico face separate tariffs of as much as 25 percent that Trump put into place under the auspices of stopping fentanyl smuggling, though some products are still protected under the 2020 US-Mexico-Canada Agreement signed during Trump’s first term.