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US President Joe Biden to miss COP28 climate summit in Dubai

US President Joe Biden to miss COP28 climate summit in Dubai
US President Joe Biden has put a high priority on climate domestically, channeling billions of dollars to the green economy including through incentives for electric cars. (AP)
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Updated 27 November 2023
AFP
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US President Joe Biden to miss COP28 climate summit in Dubai

US President Joe Biden to miss COP28 climate summit in Dubai
  • Some 70,000 people including national leaders and Pope Francis are expected at climate summit
  • Until Joe Biden, it was not customary for the US president to attend each COP summit
Updated 27 November 2023
AFP
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WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden will miss the latest UN climate summit in Dubai, after two years of attending the talks in hopes of highlighting US leadership, a US official said Sunday.

Some 70,000 people including national leaders and Pope Francis are expected at COP28 as it opens Thursday, in what could be the largest United Nations climate summit ever.

Schedules released by the White House for Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris showed neither heading to Dubai this week.

Biden’s engagements include a trip to Colorado to highlight US investment in wind energy, a meeting with the president of Angola and the lighting of the national Christmas tree.

A US official confirmed that Biden was not planning to attend COP28 this week or during a second window close to the end of the talks on December 12.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Biden administration was still discussing whether to send a top-level official to Dubai.

John Kerry, the US climate envoy and former secretary of state and senator, will be leading day-to-day negotiations for the United States.

The official did not give a reason for Biden’s decision. But Biden has been focused for more than a month on the war between Israel and Hamas and is also looking to highlight his domestic agenda with less than a year to the US presidential election.

Until Biden, it was not customary for the US president to attend each COP summit.

Biden in 2021 traveled to Glasgow to vow that the United States would again take a global leadership role on climate after his predecessor Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris climate accord.

Trump, who is seeking the White House again, is a climate skeptic who says that action is too costly to the United States.

Biden again made a brief trip last year to COP27 in Sharm Eel-Sheikh, Egypt.

Biden has put a high priority on climate domestically, with the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, his signature legislative achievement, channeling billions of dollars to the green economy including through incentives for electric cars.

Ahead of COP28, Kerry held extended talks with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, with the two negotiators promising that their countries, the world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters, would work together for progress in Dubai.

Topics: Gaza Biden COP28 Pakistan in COP28

Israel deems arrests over Amsterdam clashes ‘very low’

Israel deems arrests over Amsterdam clashes ‘very low’
Updated 58 min 42 sec ago
AFP
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Israel deems arrests over Amsterdam clashes ‘very low’

Israel deems arrests over Amsterdam clashes ‘very low’
  • Israel offered its help in the investigation into violence in Amsterdam Friday following a match between an Israeli team and a Dutch one
Updated 58 min 42 sec ago
AFP

JERUSALEM: Newly appointed Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters in Jerusalem Monday that Israel deemed the number of arrests over clashes in Amsterdam last week “very low.”
“I was informed by the mayor of Amsterdam that they formed a special inquiry team, but I can tell that until now, the number of arrests is very low,” Saar said, adding that Israel offered its help in the investigation into violence in Amsterdam Friday following a match between an Israeli team and a Dutch one.

Topics: football Israel Amsterdam

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17 Chadian soldiers and 96 rebels killed in a Boko Haram attack, army says

17 Chadian soldiers and 96 rebels killed in a Boko Haram attack, army says
Updated 11 November 2024
AP
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17 Chadian soldiers and 96 rebels killed in a Boko Haram attack, army says

17 Chadian soldiers and 96 rebels killed in a Boko Haram attack, army says
  • The Lake Chad region has been plagued this year by frequent attacks from insurgents, including Boko Haram and Daesh in West Africa
Updated 11 November 2024
AP

N’DJAMENA: Boko Haram insurgents killed 17 Chadian soldiers in a weekend attack on a military post that also left 96 of the assailants dead in the country’s west, Chad’s army said.
The attack in the Lake Chad region happened on Saturday, army spokesperson Gen. Issakh Acheikh said on national television Sunday night. He did not provide details.
The Lake Chad region has been plagued this year by frequent attacks from insurgents, including Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa. It has revived fears of violence after a period of peace following a successful operation launched in 2020 by the Chadian army to destroy the extremist groups’ bases.
Last month, 40 soldiers were killed during an attack on a military base, prompting President Mahamat Deby Itno to launch an operation to dislodge Boko Haram militants from Lake Chad. In March, an attack the government blamed on Boko Haram killed seven soldiers.
Boko Haram, which launched an insurgency more than a decade ago against Western education, seeks to establish Islamic law in Nigeria’s northeast. The insurgency has spread to West African neighbors including Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
Chad, a country of nearly 18 million people, has been reeling from political turmoil before and after a controversial presidential election that resulted in Deby Itno’s victory. He had led the country as interim president during the period of military rule that followed the death of his father in 2021.

Topics: Boko Haram

UN: Paris agreement climate goals ‘in great peril’

UN: Paris agreement climate goals ‘in great peril’
Updated 11 November 2024
AFP
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UN: Paris agreement climate goals ‘in great peril’

UN: Paris agreement climate goals ‘in great peril’
  • The period from 2015-2024 will also be the warmest decade ever recorded
  • Long-term global warming was currently likely to be around 1.3°C
Updated 11 November 2024
AFP

GENEVA: The Paris climate agreement’s goals “are in great peril” and 2024 is on track to break new temperature records, the United Nations warned Monday as COP29 talks opened in Baku.
The period from 2015-2024 will also be the warmest decade ever recorded, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a new report based on six international datasets.
That is accelerating the shrinking of glaciers and sea-level rise, and unleashing extreme weather that has wrought havoc on communities and economies around the world.
“The ambitions of the Paris Agreement are in great peril,” WMO said as global leaders gathered for high-stakes climate talks in Azerbaijan.
Under the Paris agreement, nearly every nation on Earth committed to work to limit warming to “well below” two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and preferably below 1.5°C.
But the EU climate monitor Copernicus has already said that 2024 will exceed the 1.5°C.
This does not amount to an immediate breach of the Paris deal, which measures temperatures over decades, but it suggests the world is far off-track on its goals.
WMO, which relies on a broader dataset, also said 2024 would likely breach the 1.5°C limit, and break the record set just last year.
“Climate catastrophe is hammering health, widening inequalities, harming sustainable development, and rocking the foundations of peace. The vulnerable are hardest hit,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
Analysis by a team of international experts established by WMO found that long-term global warming was currently likely to be around 1.3°C, compared to the 1850-1900 baseline, the agency said.
“Every fraction of a degree of warming matters,” stressed WMO chief Celeste Saulo.
“Whether it is at a level below or above 1.5°C of warming, every additional increment of global warming increases climate extremes, impacts and risks.”
Monday’s report cautioned that greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, which lock in future temperature increases even if emissions fall, hit new highs in 2023 and appeared to have climbed further this year.
Ocean heat is also likely to be comparable to the record highs seen last year, it added.
Saulo warned that a string of devastating extreme weather events across the world this year “are unfortunately our new reality.”
They are, she said, “a foretaste of our future.”

Topics: COP29 UN climate change Paris Agreement

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Taiwan says exploding pagers in Lebanon were not made in Taiwan

Taiwan says exploding pagers in Lebanon were not made in Taiwan
Updated 11 November 2024
Reuters
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Taiwan says exploding pagers in Lebanon were not made in Taiwan

Taiwan says exploding pagers in Lebanon were not made in Taiwan
Updated 11 November 2024
Reuters

TAIPEI: The investigation bureau of Taiwan's justice ministry said on Monday that there was no evidence that Taiwanese manufacturers were involved in the pagers which exploded in Lebanon in September in a deadly blow to Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Taiwanese company Gold Apollo has not in recent years produced the AR-924 pager model, but they were produced by a company called Frontier Group Entity outside of Taiwan, the bureau said in a statement.

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UK universities face funding ‘crunch’ as foreign students go elsewhere

UK universities face funding ‘crunch’ as foreign students go elsewhere
Updated 11 November 2024
AFP
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UK universities face funding ‘crunch’ as foreign students go elsewhere

UK universities face funding ‘crunch’ as foreign students go elsewhere
  • From July to September student visa applications slumped 16 percent compared to same period last year
  • Decline major cause of concern for higher education institutions as foreign students pay far more than British students
Updated 11 November 2024
AFP

LONDON: UK universities are among the most prestigious in the world, but visa restrictions mean they are now attracting fewer international students — taking a heavy toll on their finances.
The restrictions are compounding problems caused by the UK’s departure from the European Union four years’ ago.
Almost 760,000 foreign students were enrolled in British universities in 2022, making Britain the second most popular destination after the US, in a highly competitive market.
Most come from India, then China and Nigeria.
But last year, the number of student visas fell by 5 percent. Between July and September, student visa applications slumped 16 percent compared to the same period last year.
The decline is a major cause of concern for higher education institutions since foreign students pay far more in fees than British students.
Leo Xui, 20 years old and from China, began studying population and health sciences at University College London in September.
“It’s good for my career,” he said of enrolling abroad. Thinking ahead to when he will return to China, he added: “I will be able to apply for a foreign company.”
His fees for the academic year are £31,000 (37,200 euros). British students attending universities in England have paid a maximum of £9,250 since 2017.
The Labour government, elected in the summer, announced last week that the cap would rise to £9,535 from next year, a move welcomed by universities who have been calling for an increase for years.
Universities UK (UUK), which represents 141 British higher education institutions, warned at its conference in September that funding per student is at its lowest level since 2004.
It estimates that the £9,250 fee is worth less than £6,000 because of inflation, leading to deficits in teaching and research.
“We are all feeling the crunch,” UUK president Sally Mapstone told the conference.
Universities have welcomed more foreign students in a bid to fill budget gaps, to the point where many are financially dependent on them.
According to a parliamentary report, foreign students make up more than half the student body at London’s University of the Arts and Cranfield University, a science and engineering institute just north of the British capital.
The Financial Times reported earlier this year that some universities, including York, have lowered their admission criteria to attract more students from abroad.
But the previous Conservative government, ousted from power in July, complicated the universities’ task by imposing restrictions on student visas as it sought to reduce record levels of regular migration.
It forbade foreign students from bringing family members with them, with a few exceptions, and prevented them from switching to work visas while studying.
In the first four months of 2024, there were 30,000 fewer applications from overseas than in the same period in 2023, according to official statistics.
“These hard numbers confirm our fear that the previous government’s changes have made the UK a less attractive study destination,” said Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute think-tank.
Provost Ian Dunn of Coventry University, where more than a third of the 30,000 students are from overseas said the Tories’ “narrative was very destructive.”
The university had already been impacted by Brexit.
“We had 4,400 students from the European Union. Now we’re probably at 10 percent of that,” he said, adding that the situation was “difficult.”
A lecturer at another English university told AFP that teaching positions as well as courses had been cut.
“The drop in international students has dramatically worsened the crisis for us,” she said on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to talk to the media.
“Some have preferred to go to Canada, Australia or the Netherlands, where courses are taught in English,” she added.
Coventry University may have found the answer by partnering with institutions overseas to open campuses in several countries, including Egypt, Morocco, India and China.
At the end of their studies, students may not have set foot in the UK but they still “obtain a degree from Coventry University,” said Dunn.

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