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KYIV: Russia launched a drone attack overnight on Kyiv, with air defense units engaged in repelling the strikes, Ukrainian military officials said on Monday on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters’ witnesses reported a series of loud explosions in what sounded like air defense systems in operation.
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.
GENEVA: Climate change is contributing to record numbers of people being uprooted from their homes globally, while worsening the often already “hellish” conditions of displacement, the United Nations said Tuesday.
With international climate talks under way in Baku, the UN refugee agency highlighted how soaring global temperatures and extreme weather events are impacting displacement numbers and conditions, as it called for more and better investment in mitigating the risks.
In a fresh report, UNHCR pointed to how climate shocks in places like Sudan, Somalia and Myanmar were interacting with conflict to push those already in danger into even more dire situations.
“Across our warming world, drought, floods, life-threatening heat and other extreme weather events are creating emergencies with alarming frequency,” UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said in the foreword to the report.
“People forced to flee their homes are on the front lines of this crisis,” he said, pointing out that 75 percent of displaced people live in countries with high-to-extreme exposure to climate-related hazards.
“As the speed and scale of climate change increase, this figure will only continue to rise.”
A record 120 million people already live forcibly displaced by war, violence and persecution — most of them inside their own countries, UNHCR figures from June showed.
“Globally, the number of people that have been displaced by conflict has doubled over the last 10 years,” Andrew Harper, UNHCR’s special adviser on climate action, pointed out to AFP.
At the same time, UNHCR pointed to recent data from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center indicating that weather-related disasters have displaced some 220 million people inside their countries over the past decade alone — equivalent to approximately 60,000 displacements per day.
“We’re just seeing more and more and more people being displaced,” Harper said, lamenting a dire lack of the funds needed to support those who flee and the communities that host them.
“We are seeing across the board, a hellish situation become even tougher.”
Most refugee settlement areas, he pointed out, are found in lower-income countries, frequently “in the desert, in areas which are prone to flooding, in places without necessary infrastructure to deal with the increasing impacts of climate change.”
This is set to get worse. By 2040, the number of countries in the world facing extreme climate-related hazards is expected to rise from three to 65, UNHCR said, with the vast majority of them hosting displaced populations.
And by 2050, most refugee settlements and camps are projected to experience twice as many days of dangerous heat as they do today, the report cautioned.
That could not only be uncomfortable and a health hazard to the people living there, but could also lead to crop failures and livestock dying off, Harper warned.
“We’re seeing increasing loss of arable land in places exposed to climate extremes, like Niger, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Afghanistan, but at the same time we’ve got the massive increase in populations,” he said.
UNHCR is urging decision-makers gathered for the COP29 in Baku to ensure that far more of international climate financing reaches refugees and host communities most in need.
Currently, UNHCR pointed out, extremely fragile states receive only around $2 per person in annual adaptation funding, compared to $161 per person in non-fragile states.
Without more investment in building climate resilience and adaptation in such communities, more displacement toward countries less impacted by climate change will be inevitable, Harper said.
“If we don’t invest in peace, if we don’t invest in climate adaptation in these areas, then people will move,” he said.
“It’s illogical to expect them to do anything different.”
BAKU: When representatives from nearly 200 countries, along with hundreds of journalists, arrive in Azerbaijan in November for the UN climate conference known this year as COP29, they’ll bring a level of scrutiny the hosts aren’t accustomed to — and don’t often tolerate.
Azerbaijan has had a poor human rights record for many years and the government has regularly targeted journalists, activists and independent politicians. President Ilham Aliyev and his administration are accused by human rights organizations of spearheading an intensifying crackdown on freedom of speech ahead of the climate summit, including against climate activists and journalists.
Aliyev’s father, Haidar, ruled Azerbaijan from 1993 until he died in 2003 and Ilham took over. Both suppressed dissent as the country of almost 10 million people on the Caspian Sea basked in growing wealth from huge oil and natural gas reserves.
Elections since independence from the Soviet Union in the 1990s haven’t been regarded as fully free or fair. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Azerbaijan’s most recent parliamentary elections in September took place in a “restrictive” environment. They were marked by turnout of 37 percent and no opposition party won any seats.
Human Rights Watch said the “vicious” crackdown against journalists and human rights activists has intensified over the last two years with phony criminal charges against critics and highly restrictive laws that make it hard for media and activists to work.
Ahead of COP29, Azerbaijan’s authorities have extended the pretrial detention of at least 11 journalists from Azerbaijan’s remaining independent news outlets on currency smuggling charges related to alleged funding from Western donors.
Azerbaijani government officials did not respond to numerous requests from The Associated Press for an interview or comment on their actions.
A look at just five of Baku’s critics currently detained in Azerbaijan:
Ulvi Hasanli and Sevinj Vagifgizi
Hasalni and Vagifgizi are journalists and leaders of Abzas Media, an independent online outlet. Abzas Media has investigated reports of protests and pollution at a gold mine in western Azerbaijan, reconstruction in the Karabakh region and corruption allegations against high-ranking officials.
Hasanli and Vagifgizi, along with four colleagues, were arrested in November 2023. Azerbaijani officials allege they conspired to smuggle money into Azerbaijan and claim they found more than $40,000 in Hasanli’s home. The journalists deny the allegations and Hasanli said the money was planted.
“That is why they decided to eliminate Ulvi and his team ... to make sure they would no longer be able to expose their wrongdoings,” Rubaba Guliyeva, Hasanli’s wife told The Associated Press.
Hasanli and Vagifgizi are imprisoned in Baku with no trial date. Guliyeva called conditions there “extremely bad” and said she had seen bruises on her husband and had been told that their meetings and phone calls are monitored. Hasanli is allowed brief visits with his 2-year-old daughter but struggles when she leaves, his wife said.
Vagifgizi’s mother Ophelya Maharramova said the prison has water shortages and that the water isn’t drinkable. Prisoners “suffer from hair loss and their teeth are rotting,” she said.
Despite being imprisoned, Vagifgizi still asks what investigations Abzas Media is publishing, her mother said: “It’s what makes her feel motivated.”
Guliyeva said states should boycott COP29 because of Azerbaijan’s poor human rights record.
Gubad Ibadoghlu
Ibadoghlu is an academic and economist at the London School of Economics who was detained in Azerbaijan in July 2023. He was moved to house arrest in April after spending months in prison.
He was accused by Azerbaijan of selling counterfeit money, but his children dispute the charges. They believe he was targeted because he investigated corruption in Azerbaijan’s oil and gas industry and because he is an opposition figure. Ibadoghlu’s sons say he also set up a charitable organization in the United Kingdom to work with the UK Home Office to try to transfer money confiscated by the National Crime Agency from rich Azerbaijanis to the charity to serve the people of Azerbaijan.
Ibadoghlu is also the chairman of the Azerbaijan Democracy and Prosperity Movement, which has been denied registration as a political party in Azerbaijan.
His son Emin Bayramov told AP his father was arrested by unidentified police officers who beat his mother when she questioned who they were. Ibadoghlu has heath issues including diabetes and his family say he is being denied medical care. Another son, Ibad Bayramov, told AP the International Committee of the Red Cross had tried to visit him four times but were not allowed to see him.
Ibadoghlu also has no trial date. His sons have accused Azerbaijan’s government of delaying it until after the climate summit to avoid negative publicity.
Azerbaijan hosting COP29 while carrying out a crackdown on freedom of speech brings “shame on the international community,” Emin Bayramov said.
Anar Mammadli
Mammadli is a human rights and climate activist who was detained by masked men and driven away while he was on his way to pick up his child from nursery in April in Baku. He has also been accused of smuggling and of trying to unlawfully bring money into Azerbaijan. He denies the charges.
He heads an election monitoring and democracy group that joined others to co-found the Climate of Justice Initiative in Azerbaijan. In an open letter, the groups criticized Azerbaijan as “one of the most problematic countries in Europe in terms of political and civil liberties.”
Azerbaijan, the groups said, has not implemented a systematic policy to monitor and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Climate emissions have continued to rise and oil production has polluted land, it said.
Human Rights Watch said Mammadli has been a key defender of human rights in Azerbaijan, highlighting violations of “fundamental freedoms.” He has called for freedom for political prisoners and an improved legal and political environment for human rights activists.
In a previous case, Mammadli was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison in 2014 on charges of tax evasion, illegal business and abuse of office. Amnesty International said the charges were trumped up, and he was awarded the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize shortly after he was sentenced. He was pardoned in 2016.
Like the others, Mammadli is imprisoned awaiting a trial date.
Akif Gurbanov
Gurbanov is chairman of the Institute for Democratic Initiatives, an independent organization that seeks to develop a more open society through democratic initiatives such as training young journalists, human rights defenders and economists.
He was detained in March after police searched his home and raided the IDI’s office. Later police accused him and others of currency smuggling. At the same time, authorities raided the offices of the online news platform Toplum TV and the civil society organization Platform III Republic — both co-founded by Gurbanov.
Toplum TV worked with the other organizations to train young journalists, Human Rights Watch said. Platform III Republic is an organization that promotes discussion about Azerbaijani politics, good governance and proposes development strategies for the country’s future.
Gurbanov’s wife, Ayan Musayeva, told AP that he was arrested for his work “defending human rights, providing alternative information, speaking the truth.”
States attending COP29 in Baku, she said, should be calling for his immediate release along with “all other political prisoners in Azerbaijan.”
THE HAGUE: Dutch police on Monday said they had arrested five more people for their suspected involvement in attacks on Israeli football supporters late last week which authorities have condemned as antisemitic.
The suspects are men aged 18 to 37 and living in the Netherlands, police said in a statement. Previously, 63 suspects had been arrested.
Earlier on Monday Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof vowed that the Netherlands would focus all its efforts on bringing perpetrators of the violence to justice.
“The images and reports for Amsterdam and what we’ve seen this weekend of antisemitic attacks against Israelis and Jews are nothing short of shocking and reprehensible,” Schoof told a press conference, adding that police and prosecutors are still piecing together the details of what happened.
The attacks occurred early on Friday on Israeli soccer supporters following a match between visiting Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax Amsterdam left at least five people injured. They were denounced as antisemitic by the Dutch authorities and foreign leaders including Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Following the attacks, Israel sent extra planes to bring Maccabi supporters home
Reacting to reports that there had also been altercations between Maccabi supporters and locals before the match on Thursday, Schoof said there was no justification for the violence against Israeli supporters.
Dutch police have said Maccabi fans on Wednesday attacked a taxi and burned a Palestinian flag in Amsterdam. On the day of the game, Maccabi supporters were filmed chanting anti-Arab slogans in videos verified by Reuters.
“We are well aware of what happened earlier with Maccabi supporters but we think that’s of a different category and we condemn any violence as well, but that is no excuse whatsoever for what happened later on that night in the attacks on Jews in Amsterdam.” Schoof said.Dozens of people armed with sticks and firecrackers set a tram on fire in Amsterdam on Monday, police said, while the city is facing tensions following violence last week targeting fans of an Israeli soccer club.
Police said the fire was quickly extinguished and riot officers cleared the square. Images online showed people damaging property and setting firecrackers.
Police said it was not clear who started the unrest and whether it was related to what happened last week.
A Russian Navy frigate equipped with new generation hypersonic cruise missiles has conducted drills in the English Channel and is carrying out tasks in the Atlantic Ocean, Russian news agencies reported on Tuesday.
The crew of the frigate, which Russian TASS state news agency said is equipped with Zircon (Tsirkon) hypersonic anti-ship missiles, conducted counter-terrorism drills and training on avoiding dangerous targets, Russian state agencies reported, citing the Northern Fleet’s press service.
