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US congressional committee subpoenas Blinken over Afghanistan

US congressional committee subpoenas Blinken over Afghanistan
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to media at the David Kempinski Hotel in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 04 September 2024
Reuters
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US congressional committee subpoenas Blinken over Afghanistan

US congressional committee subpoenas Blinken over Afghanistan
  • Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul says Blinken must appear on Sept. 19 or face contempt charges
  • Events surrounding the US pullback from Afghanistan are becoming increasingly politicized issue ahead of Nov. 5 elections
Updated 04 September 2024
Reuters
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WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee subpoenaed Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, saying he had refused to appear before the panel to testify on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
In a letter about the subpoena, Chairman Michael McCaul said Blinken must appear before the committee on Sept. 19 or face contempt charges, the committee said.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Blinken was not currently available to testify on the dates proposed by the committee, but has proposed “reasonable alternatives” to comply with McCaul’s request for a public hearing.
“It is disappointing that instead of continuing to engage with the Department in good faith, the Committee instead has issued yet another unnecessary subpoena,” Miller said in a statement.
He said Blinken had testified before Congress on Afghanistan more than 14 times, including four times before McCaul’s committee. He also said State has provided the committee with nearly 20,000 pages of department records, multiple high-level briefings and transcribed interviews.
McCaul asked Blinken in May to appear at a hearing in September on the committee’s report on its investigation of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
In his letter to Blinken, the Republican committee chairman said current and former State Department officials confirmed that Blinken was “the final decisionmaker” on the withdrawal and evacuation.
“You are therefore in a position to inform the Committee’s consideration of potential legislation aimed at helping prevent the catastrophic mistakes of the withdrawal, including potential reforms to the Department’s legislative authorization,” McCaul wrote.
The subpoena from McCaul’s committee, which has been investigating the deadly and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan for years, comes as events surrounding the pullback become an increasingly politicized issue ahead of the Nov. 5 elections.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, visited Arlington National Cemetery late last month and took part in a wreath-laying ceremony honoring the 13 servicemembers killed during the US withdrawal.
He also visited Section 60 of the cemetery, where troops are buried and which is considered hallowed ground in the military.
Federal law and Pentagon policies do not allow political activities in that section of the cemetery, but videos were taken by Trump’s campaign and used in advertisements.
During a speech in Pennsylvania on Friday, Trump said families of service members who died in Afghanistan had asked him to go to the cemetery.

Topics: US Afghanistan withdrawal

Dumaliang sisters continue fight for Philippines’ biodiversity haven despite constant threats

Dumaliang sisters continue fight for Philippines’ biodiversity haven despite constant threats
Updated 4 sec ago
Samantha Beltran
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Dumaliang sisters continue fight for Philippines’ biodiversity haven despite constant threats

Dumaliang sisters continue fight for Philippines’ biodiversity haven despite constant threats
  • Ann and Billie Dumaliang were featured in TIME Magazine’s Next Generation Leaders last month
  • In 2024, Philippines was named deadliest country in Asia for environmental defenders for 11th year in a row
Updated 4 sec ago
Samantha Beltran

MANILA: On the outskirts of Manila, a 2,600-hectare nature reserve has been lauded by top climate activists and film stars after it gained international recognition for one of the largest collaborative reforestation efforts in the Philippines.

Behind the rescue of over 2,000 hectares of that land is sisters Ann and Billie Dumaliang. They have been at the forefront of conserving the biodiversity-rich Masungi Georeserve and nurturing it as a geotourism site, which is home to lush rainforests, 60-million-year-old limestone formations and over 400 species of flora and fauna.

They have become the faces of conservation in the Philippines, a country named in 2024 as the deadliest in Asia for environmental defenders — for the 11th year in a row — with the killings of 17 activists.

The Dumaliang sisters and the nearly 100 rangers at the reserve are no stranger to the deluge of threats that come with their work, which range from physical to legal, and include disinformation and harassment campaigns.

Over the years, rangers at the reserve have been shot at by intruders and were the targets of booby traps and improvised explosives set across the landscape.

But the dangers that come with their conservation efforts have not deterred them from the mission to protect Masungi.

“We’re a small group and a team of young people. All of these groups that we’re up against have unlimited resources … how do we compete with these very powerful and well-resourced interests?” Billie, 31, told Arab News.

The sisters were among the trailblazers featured in TIME Magazine’s Next Generation Leaders last month, recognized for their work protecting Masungi from illegal loggers, land grabbers and quarrying companies.

Billie says TIME’s “empowering” recognition was a “symbol” that the international community has been paying attention to their team’s work and the challenges they face.

“A lot of times when you don’t have enough support at home, if your organization is repressed or harassed, sometimes it’s really the international community that provides the much-needed support,” Billie said.

The Dumaliang sisters help manage the Masungi Georeserve Foundation, which they founded in 2015 to lead and strengthen conservation efforts that began in the 1990s.

Through a private conservation model and a highly controlled geotourism program, Masungi has shot to fame as a showcase for sustainable reforestation.

Their work has also garnered support from prominent figures, including climate activist Greta Thunberg and Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio.

Despite the real dangers they face every day, some of Ann and Billie’s earliest memories were attached to the reserve — experiences that keep them passionate about their work today.

As children, they would visit Masungi with their father, a civil engineer and conservationist, as he worked on development, and later, conservation efforts.

“Instead of taking us to the mall on weekends, our dad would take us to these nature areas where he had projects,” Billie said.

The reserve was a regular destination for the Dumaliangs, back when it was still heavily barren — initially to give way to government housing projects that had eventually fallen through.

“The appreciation that we have for the outdoors, for the natural world came from seeing Masungi evolve from a place that was like that to the lush forest that it is now,” Ann, 33, said.

“The motivation for me and for Billie is really just to make sure that that stays and that it continues to exist past our time.”

Their foundation’s approach to conservation follows assisted natural regeneration, which allows these areas to naturally restore their ecosystems and regenerate through mitigating and preventing disruption.

This means the bulk of their work was focused on preventing encroachments on the area and securing the expansive reserve’s boundaries, with rangers guarding the area from intruders and deterring illegal activities such as logging and quarrying.

“They said in the early nineties, all that you could hear was the sound of chainsaws in the area. Today, it’s birds and different types of animals and the wind and the leaves. So, what it looks like now is a jungle and a thriving ecosystem,” Billie said.

“It took more than 20 years for that whole ecosystem to come back, and it started when we were able to make sure that we could manage disturbances to the landscape,” she added. “So we let nature do its thing, regenerate, reheal, and we assist through mitigating the threats.”

For Ann, the recent TIME feature was an encouragement not only for their team, but for the “frontliners of this work” in the Philippines and around the world, whose safety is often at risk for simply protecting the environment.

“These are constant harassments faced by the people who learn to love their land the most. And more often than not, they’re poorly heard, yet they’re the ones who are threatened the most.”

Topics: Philippines

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German teen held over suspected Islamist attack plot

German teen held over suspected Islamist attack plot
Updated 12 November 2024
AFP
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German teen held over suspected Islamist attack plot

German teen held over suspected Islamist attack plot
  • The Bild daily reported that the suspect had planned to attack a Christmas market with a truck.
Updated 12 November 2024
AFP

Berlin: German prosecutors on Tuesday said that a 17-year-old had been arrested for plotting an Islamist terror attack, with media reports saying he wanted to target a Christmas market.
He is suspected of “preparing a serious violent attack” and “conspiracy to commit murder,” and had “extreme Islamist views,” said the prosecutors in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein.
The suspect is a German national and was arrested on Wednesday last week in the town of Elmshorn, they said.
The Bild daily reported that the suspect had planned to attack a Christmas market with a truck.
In December 2016 a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market killed 12 people, the deadliest jihadist attack ever committed in Germany.
Alongside several other countries, Germany has been on high alert for Islamist attacks since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 assault on Israel sparked the devastating war in the Gaza Strip.
Authorities say they have foiled several planned attacks.
However, three people were killed and eight wounded in a knife attack at a street festival in the western city of Solingen in August, allegedly carried out by a Syrian asylum seeker and claimed by the Daesh group.
In June, another knife attack killed a policeman in the town of Mannheim, with an Afghan national the prime suspect.

Topics: Germany

COP 29: UK’s Starmer sets out new 2035 climate goal

COP 29: UK’s Starmer sets out new 2035 climate goal
Updated 12 November 2024
Reuters
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COP 29: UK’s Starmer sets out new 2035 climate goal

COP 29: UK’s Starmer sets out new 2035 climate goal
  • Starmer said the British public would not be burdened because of the new target
Updated 12 November 2024
Reuters

BAKU: Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 81 percent by 2035 as he committed the country to a more ambitious climate goal at the United Nations COP29 climate summit.
The new goal is in line with a recommendation from a committee of climate advisers who said last month the target should exceed the current 78 percent cut to emissions, measured against 1990 levels.
“At this COP, I was pleased to announce that we’re building on our reputation as a climate leader, with the UK’s 2035 NDC (nationally determined contributions) target to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions by at least 81 percent on 1990 levels,” Starmer told a press conference at the climate gathering in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Starmer said the British public would not be burdened because of the new target, which excludes international aviation and shipping emissions.
“What we’re not going to do, is start telling people how to live their lives. We’re not going to start dictating to people what they do,” he said.

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Moldova protests to Russian envoy over election meddling denied by Moscow

Moldova protests to Russian envoy over election meddling denied by Moscow
Updated 12 November 2024
Reuters
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Moldova protests to Russian envoy over election meddling denied by Moscow

Moldova protests to Russian envoy over election meddling denied by Moscow
  • Foreign ministry hands protest note to Russian envoy
  • Moldova accuses Russia of election meddling
Updated 12 November 2024
Reuters

CHISINAU: Moldova handed Russia’s ambassador to Chisinau a protest note on Tuesday over alleged interference by Moscow in a presidential election and a referendum on joining the European Union.
The Moldovan foreign ministry said in a statement that Russia had sought to delegitimize the democratic process of the country’s presidential election, won by pro-Western President Maia Sandu, and an Oct. 20 referendum on inserting a clause in the constitution defining EU membership as a goal.
Moscow has denied the allegations.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented today to the Ambassador ... a note of protest in connection with the illegal and deliberate interference of the Russian Federation in the electoral process of the Republic of Moldova,” Moldova’s foreign ministry said.
Russian ambassador Oleg Ozerov said of the meeting: “The conversation made it possible to clarify issues related to our acute and complex bilateral relations.”
Moldova has accused Moscow and fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor of meddling throughout the run-up to voting, saying a scheme he ran sought to buy the votes of 300,000 people.
Shor, who lives in Russia, denies wrongdoing. Russia has said the election, in which there were two rounds of voting on Oct. 20 and Nov. 3, was unfair and that it does not see Sandu as the legitimate president.
Ties between Russia and Moldova, which was formerly part of the Soviet Union, have deteriorated as the Moldovan government accelerated the push to integrate with the EU. Last month’s referendum narrowly backed enshrining the wish to join the EU in Moldova’s constitution.

Violation of airspace
Moldova’s foreign ministry also used Tuesday’s meeting with Russia’s ambassador to condemn a violation of its airspace by two drones which it said crashed on its territory on Sunday.
Ozerov said there was no evidence the drones were Russian and that Moscow did not fly drones through countries neighboring Ukraine.
Russia has regularly attacked Ukraine with drones and missiles since its full-scale invasion of Moldova’s neighbor in 2022. Moldova has on several occasions recovered weapons debris on its territory.
It said on Sunday that two Russian “decoy” drones had been found in the northern village of Borosenii Noi and the southern village of Firladeni, after a Russian drone attack on Ukraine. No one was reported hurt.

Topics: Moldova Russia Moscow

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China, Russia must fight US ‘containment’: security chief

China, Russia must fight US ‘containment’: security chief

China, Russia must fight US ‘containment’: security chief
Updated 12 November 2024
AFP
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China, Russia must fight US ‘containment’: security chief

China, Russia must fight US ‘containment’: security chief
  • Moscow and Beijing have expanded military and defense ties since Russia ordered troops into Ukraine nearly three years ago
Updated 12 November 2024
AFP

Beijing: Senior Russian official Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday told China’s foreign minister Wang Yi their two countries’ most urgent task should be countering “containment” by the United States, as they met for security talks in Beijing.
Moscow and Beijing have expanded military and defense ties since Russia ordered troops into Ukraine nearly three years ago, with Chinese President Xi Jinping one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most important allies on the world stage.
But Beijing has also found itself increasingly stuck between a burgeoning alliance of Russia and North Korea, which has sent soldiers to Ukraine and this week ratified a landmark defense pact with Moscow.
Speaking to Wang in Beijing, Shoigu, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, stressed the need for China and Russia to “counter the ‘dual containment’ policy directed against Russia and China by the United States and its satellites.”
“The comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation (between China and Russia) represent a model of collaboration between two powers in today’s world,” Shoigu told China’s top diplomat.
“Although it is not a military-political alliance like those formed during the Cold War, the relations between our countries surpass this form of interstate relations,” he said, quoted in Russian news agencies.
Ahead of the talks, Beijing said the two officials would hold “strategic security consultations” this week and would discuss “major issues involving the two countries’ strategic security interests and enhancing mutual trust.”
Shoigu was Russia’s defense minister for the first two years of its offensive on Ukraine, before being moved to the Security Council by Putin after a string of military setbacks and criticism from the country’s influential military correspondents.
Shoigu is also expected to attend this week’s Airshow China, which showcases Beijing’s civil and military aerospace sector every two years in the southern city of Zhuhai.
Russia’s most advanced jet, the Su-57 stealth fighter, will make a display flight at the show.
China presents itself as a neutral party in the Ukraine war and says it is not sending lethal assistance to either side, unlike the United States and other Western nations.
But it remains a close political and economic ally of Russia and NATO members have branded Beijing a “decisive enabler” of the war, which it has never condemned.
Last month, the two countries’ defense ministers pledged to deepen bilateral military cooperation.

Topics: China Russia

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