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UN chief urges divided nations to approve blueprint to address global challenges from climate to AI

UN chief urges divided nations to approve blueprint to address global challenges from climate to AI
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres speaks at a press conference ahead of the opening of the 79th High-level session of the UN General Assembly at the United Nations on September 18, 2024 in New York. (AFP)
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Updated 19 September 2024
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UN chief urges divided nations to approve blueprint to address global challenges from climate to AI

UN chief urges divided nations to approve blueprint to address global challenges from climate to AI
  • Guterres stressed that in every area — from climate to AI — “there is a serious problem of governance,” and that’s what the Summit of the Future is about
Updated 19 September 2024
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UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations chief urged the world’s divided nations on Wednesday to compromise and approve a blueprint to address global challenges from conflicts and climate change to artificial intelligence and reforming the UN and global financial institutions.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters that discussions on the “Pact of the Future” are in their final stretch and failure to reach the required consensus among all 193 UN member nations “would be tragic.”
A year ago, Guterres sounded an alarm about the survival of humanity and the planet and summoned world leaders to a Summit of the Future at their global gathering this year to unite and take action to reform the UN and other institutions established after World War II and address new global threats. It is taking place Sunday and Monday, just before Tuesday’s start of the annual high-level meeting at the UN General Assembly.
Negotiations on the 30-page pact, now in its fourth revision, have been taking place for months, and in recent interviews and at Wednesday’s press conference the secretary-general has faced questions about its lack of vision, and what is different from UN documents adopted in recent years that haven’t been implemented.
“It’s very simple,” the UN chief replied.
All the previous “extraordinary, important declarations” were about what is needed to meet the challenges of the 21st century, he said. The Summit of the Future is about implementing those challenges, which requires reform of global institutions established after World War II including the United Nations.
Guterres stressed that in every area — from climate to AI — “there is a serious problem of governance,” and that’s what the Summit of the Future is about.
The draft Pact of the Future says world leaders are gathering “at a time of profound global transformation,” and it warns of “rising catastrophic and existential risks” that could tip people everywhere “into a future of persistent crisis and breakdown.”
But the draft says leaders are coming to the UN “to protect the needs and interests of present and future generations through actions in the Pact for the Future.”
It includes 51 actions on issues including eradicating poverty, combating climate change, achieving gender equality, promoting peace and protecting civilians, and reinvigorating the multilateral system to “seize the opportunities of today and tomorrow.”
Guterres pointed to “potential breakthroughs” in the pact including “the strongest language on Security Council reform in a generation,” and the most concrete steps to enlarging the powerful 15-member body since 1963.
He also cited the first measures to govern new technologies including Artificial Intelligence, a “major advance” in reforming international financial institutions, and a commitment to multiply resources for developing countries to meet UN development goals by 2030.
Urging member states to get the Pact of the Future “over the finish line,” Guterres said, “We can’t create a future fit for our grandchildren with systems built for our grandparents.”
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters Tuesday that a priority for the Biden administration at this year’s Summit of the Future is “to create a more inclusive and effective international system.”
She said the Group of 77 which now represents 134 developing countries at the UN, the 27-member European Union and the United States all agreed to the fourth revision of the Pact of the Future.
But the US ambassador said Russia objected to about 15 different issues, Saudi Arabia had problems with the climate language, and other countries objected to the language on reforming the international financial institutions including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund..
“I do think the Summit of the Future will make a difference,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “There are still some major differences. … But I am still hopeful that we will get there.”

Topics: UNGA79 Antonio Guterres artificial intelligence UNGA climate change

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Mozambique opposition leader Mondlane sets conditions for post-election talks

Mozambique opposition leader Mondlane sets conditions for post-election talks
Updated 9 sec ago
AFP
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Mozambique opposition leader Mondlane sets conditions for post-election talks

Mozambique opposition leader Mondlane sets conditions for post-election talks
  • We are open to dialogue. It has to be a genuine dialogue. It cannot be full of traps
Updated 9 sec ago
AFP

MAPUTO: Mozambique’s opposition leader said he would accept the president’s offer of talks after deadly post-election unrest on terms including their being held virtually and legal proceedings against him being dropped.
President Filipe Nyusi invited Venancio Mondlane to his office in Maputo on Nov. 26 after the killing of dozens of people in a police crackdown on demonstrations against the results of the Oct. 9 election.
Mondlane, who says the election was rigged in favor of Nyusi’s Frelimo party, is believed to have left the country for fear of arrest or attack, but his whereabouts are unknown.
“We are open to dialogue,” Mondlane said in a Facebook live address. “It has to be a genuine dialogue. It cannot be full of traps.”
A written reply to Nyusi’s invitation lists as one condition for the meeting: “That the participation of the elected candidate Venancio Mondlane is virtual.”
Authorities have laid criminal and civil charges against him, including for damages caused during protests by his supporters, which has led to his bank accounts being frozen.
Another condition in the document made public by Mondlane’s office is that “the judicial proceedings in question must be immediately terminated.” It also lays out 20 points that Mondlane wants on the agenda for talks, including “restoring electoral truth” and prosecuting anyone involved in vote-rigging.
Others are a public apology and compensation for the deaths during the demonstrations, as well as constitutional, economic, and electoral reforms.
Rights groups have accused Mozambique authorities of using live ammunition on demonstrators in the country, which has been governed since independence from Portugal in 1975 by Frelimo.
The Center for Democracy and Human Rights civil society group says around 65 people have been killed. Mondlane on Friday gave a toll of more than 60.
Nyusi said Tuesday 19 people had died, including five police officers.
The president is meant to hand over to Frelimo candidate Daniel Chapo in January, whom the election authority says won 71 percent of votes against 20 percent for Mondlane.
The unrest was discussed Wednesday by regional leaders at a summit of the 16-nation Southern Africa grouping Southern African Development Community, or SADC, which said in a statement afterward that it “extended condolences to the government and people” for the lives lost.
Human Rights Watch criticized the SADC, for failing to denounce Mozambique for excessive use of force.
“SADC has squandered an opportunity to condemn human rights abuses against post-election protesters in Mozambique publicly,” it said in a statement.
The rights watchdog urged the grouping to tell Nyusi’s government to respect the right to peaceful protest and cease using unnecessary and excessive force.

 

Topics: Mozambique

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EU recalls its ambassador from Niger

Niger's General Abdourahamane Tiani. (AFP file photo)
Niger's General Abdourahamane Tiani. (AFP file photo)
Updated 4 min 50 sec ago
Reuters
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EU recalls its ambassador from Niger

Niger's General Abdourahamane Tiani. (AFP file photo)
  • The EU expresses its profound disagreement with the allegations
Updated 4 min 50 sec ago
Reuters

NIAMEY: The EU will recall its ambassador from Niger after the country’s ruling military questioned an EU delegation’s management of humanitarian aid meant for flood victims, the European External Action Service, or EEAS, said on Saturday. Niger’s junta issued a statement on Friday accusing the EU ambassador in the West African country of dividing a 1.3 million euro fund to assist flood victims between several international NGOs in a non-transparent manner, and without collaborating with the authorities.
It ordered an audit into the fund’s management as a result.
The EU “expresses its profound disagreement with the allegations and justifications put forward by the transitional authorities,” the EEAS said in a statement.
“Consequently, the EU has decided to recall its ambassador from Niamey for consultations in Brussels.”
Niger has been under military rule since the junta seized power in a 2023 coup.

 

Topics: European Union Niger

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Afghanistan bets on ‘red gold’ for global market presence

Afghanistan bets on ‘red gold’ for global market presence
Updated 23 November 2024
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Afghanistan bets on ‘red gold’ for global market presence

Afghanistan bets on ‘red gold’ for global market presence
  • Afghanistan is the world’s second-largest saffron producer, after Iran
  • Afghan saffron has been for years recognized as the world’s best
Updated 23 November 2024
MODASER ISLAMI

Kabul: As the saffron harvest season is underway in Afghanistan, traders are expecting better yields than in previous years, sparking hopes that exports of the precious crop, known locally as “red gold,” will help uplift the country’s battered economy and livelihoods.
Afghanistan is the world’s second-largest saffron producer, after Iran, but it ranks first in terms of quality. In June, the Belgium-based International Taste Institute for the ninth consecutive year recognized Afghan saffron as the world’s best.
Saffron is the world’s most expensive spice, selling for about $2,000 per kilogram. Its exports provide critical foreign currency to Afghanistan, where US-imposed sanctions have severely affected the fragile economy since the Taliban took control in 2021.

With this year’s production expected to exceed 50 tons — about double that of the 2023 and 2022 seasons — the government and the Afghanistan National Saffron Union are trying to boost exports abroad.
“The harvest of saffron this year is good. During the first nine months (of 2024), Afghanistan exported around 46 tons of saffron to different countries,” Abdulsalam Jawad Akhundzada, spokesperson at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, told Arab News.
“Everywhere our traders want to export saffron, we support them in any part of the world through air corridors and facilitating the participation of Afghan traders in national and international exhibitions.”
Known to have been cultivated for at least 2,000 years, saffron is well suited to Afghanistan’s dry climate, especially in Herat, where 90 percent of it is produced. Most of the spice’s trade is also centered in the province, which last weekend inaugurated its International Saffron Trade Center to facilitate exports.
“The new international saffron trade center is established with global standards and will bring major processing and trade companies to one place providing a single venue for farmers to trade their products with the best possible conditions,” Mohammad Ibrahim Adil, head of the Afghanistan National Saffron Union, told Arab News.

The union’s main export market is India, where saffron is a common ingredient in food, followed by Gulf countries — especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
“Saffron exports bring the much-needed foreign currency to Afghanistan contributing significantly to stabilization of the financial cycle in the country,” said Qudratullah Rahmati, the saffron union’s deputy head.
The union estimates that saffron contributes about $100 million to the Afghan economy a year.
Most, or 95 percent, of the workers are women, according to the saffron union.
“Saffron production is supporting many families, especially women, during the harvest and processing phase through short-term and long-term employment opportunities. There are around 80-85 registered small and big saffron companies in Herat and the small ones employ four to five people while the bigger ones have up to 80 permanent staff,” said Qudratullah Rahmati, the saffron union’s deputy head.
Harvesting the little purple saffron crocus flowers is heavily labor intensive, as each of them needs to be picked by hand. Once the flowers are picked, their tiny orange stigmas are separated for drying. About 440,000 stigmas are needed to produce one kilogram of the fragrant spice.
The harvest season usually begins between October and November are lasts just a few weeks before the flowers wilt.

Pressure ramps up at UN talks to reach a deal for cash to curb and adapt to climate change

Pressure ramps up at UN talks to reach a deal for cash to curb and adapt to climate change
Updated 23 November 2024
AP
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Pressure ramps up at UN talks to reach a deal for cash to curb and adapt to climate change

Pressure ramps up at UN talks to reach a deal for cash to curb and adapt to climate change
  • The rough draft of a new proposal circulating in that room was getting soundly rejected, especially by African nations and small island states
  • The “current deal is unacceptable for us. We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do,” Evans Njewa, the chair of the LDC group, said
Updated 23 November 2024
AP

BAKU: As nerves frayed and the clock ticked, negotiators from rich and poor nations were huddled in one room Saturday during overtime United Nations climate talks to try to hash out an elusive deal on money for developing countries to curb and adapt to climate change.
But the rough draft of a new proposal circulating in that room was getting soundly rejected, especially by African nations and small island states, according to messages relayed from inside. Then a group of negotiators from the Least Developed Countries bloc and the Alliance of Small Island States walked out because they didn’t want to engage with the rough draft.
The “current deal is unacceptable for us. We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do,” Evans Njewa, the chair of the LDC group, said.
When asked if the walkout was a protest, Colombia environment minister Susana Mohamed told The Associated Press: “I would call this dissatisfaction, (we are) highly dissatisfied.”
The last official draft on Friday pledged $250 billion annually by 2035, more than double the previous goal of $100 billion set 15 years ago but far short of the annual $1 trillion-plus that experts say is needed. The rough draft discussed on Saturday was for $300 billion, sources told AP.
Accusations of a war of attrition
Developing countries accused the rich of trying to get their way — and a small financial aid package — via a war of attrition. And small island nations, particularly vulnerable to climate change’s worsening impacts, accused the host country presidency of ignoring them for the entire two weeks.
After bidding one of his suitcase-lugging delegation colleagues goodbye and watching the contingent of about 20 enter the room for the European Union, Panama chief negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez had enough.
“Every minute that passes we are going to just keep getting weaker and weaker and weaker. They don’t have that issue. They have massive delegations,” Gomez said. “This is what they always do. They break us at the last minute. You know, they push it and push it and push it until our negotiators leave. Until we’re tired, until we’re delusional from not eating, from not sleeping.”
With developing nations’ ministers and delegation chiefs having to catch flights home, desperation sets in, said Power Shift Africa’s Mohamed Adow. “The risk is if developing countries don’t hold the line, they will likely be forced to compromise and accept a goal that doesn’t add up to get the job done,” he said.
Cedric Schuster, the Samoan chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States issued a statement saying they “were not part of the discussion that gave rise to these imbalanced texts” and asked the COP29 presidency to listen to them.
A climate cash deal is still elusive
Wealthy nations are obligated to help vulnerable countries under an agreement reached at these talks in Paris in 2015. Developing nations are seeking $1.3 trillion to help adapt to droughts, floods, rising seas and extreme heat, pay for losses and damages caused by extreme weather, and transition their energy systems away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward clean energy.
For Panama’s negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez even a higher $300 billion figure is “still crumbs.”
“How do you go from the request of $1.3 trillion to $300 billion? I mean, is that even half of what we put forth?” he asked.
On Saturday morning, Irish environment minister Eamon Ryan said that there’ll likely be a new number for climate finance in the next draft. “But it’s not just that number — it’s how do you get to $1.3 trillion,” he said.
Ryan said that any number reached at the COP will have to be supplemented with other sources of finance, for example through a market for carbon emissions where polluters would pay to offset the carbon they spew.
The amount in any deal reached at COP negotiations — often considered a “core” — will then be mobilized or leveraged for greater climate spending. But much of that means loans for countries drowning in debt.
Teresa Anderson, the global lead on climate justice at Action Aid, said that in order to get a deal, “the presidency has to put something far better on the table.”
“The US in particular, and rich countries, need to do far more to to show that they’re willing for real money to come forward,” she said. “And if they don’t, then LDCs (Least Developed Countries) are unlikely to find that there’s anything here for them.”
Anger and frustration over state of negotiations
Alden Meyer of the climate think tank E3G said it’s still up in the air whether a deal on finance will come out of Baku at all.
“It is still not out of the question that there could be an inability to close the gap on the finance issue,” he said. “That obviously is not an ideal scenario.”
Jiwoh Emmanuel Abdulai, the Sierra-Leone environment minister, echoed that sentiment, saying “a bad deal may be worse than no deal for us.”
Nations were also angry at potential backsliding on commitments to slash fossil fuels. German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock called out rich fossil fuel emitters who she said have “ripped off” climate vulnerable states.
“We are in the midst of a geopolitical power play by a few fossil fuel states,” Baerbock said. “We have to do everything to come toward the 1.5 degree (Celsius, 2.7 Fahrenheit) pathway” of keeping warming below that temperature limit since preindustrial times, she said.
But despite the fractures between nations, some still held out hopes for the talks.
“We remain optimistic,” said Nabeel Munir of Pakistan, who chairs one of the talks standing negotiating committees.
When asked how, COP29 climate champion Nigar Arpadarai chimed in. “We have no choice,” she said, as the harms of climate change continue to worsen.

Topics: COP29 Baku UN climate

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Ukraine has lost over 40 percent of the land it held in Russia’s Kursk region, senior Kyiv military source says

Ukraine has lost over 40 percent of the land it held in Russia’s Kursk region, senior Kyiv military source says
Updated 23 November 2024
Reuters
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Ukraine has lost over 40 percent of the land it held in Russia’s Kursk region, senior Kyiv military source says

Ukraine has lost over 40 percent of the land it held in Russia’s Kursk region, senior Kyiv military source says
  • “At most, we controlled about 1,376 square kilometers, now of course this territory is smaller,” the source said
  • “Now we control approximately 800 square kilometers“
Updated 23 November 2024
Reuters

KYIV: Ukraine has lost over 40 percent of the territory in Russia’s Kursk region that it rapidly seized in a surprise incursion in August as Russian forces have mounted waves of counter-assaults, a senior Ukrainian military source said.
The source, who is on Ukraine’s General Staff, said Russia had deployed some 59,000 troops to the Kursk region since Kyiv’s forces swept in and advanced swiftly, catching Moscow unprepared 2-1/2 years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“At most, we controlled about 1,376 square kilometers (531 square miles), now of course this territory is smaller. The enemy is increasing its counterattacks,” the source said.
“Now we control approximately 800 square kilometers (309 square miles). We will hold this territory for as long as is militarily appropriate.”
The Kursk offensive was the first ground invasion of Russia by a foreign power since World War Two and caught Moscow unprepared.
With the thrust into Kursk, Kyiv aimed to stem Russian attacks in eastern and northeastern Ukraine, force Russia to pull back forces gradually advancing in the east and give Kyiv extra leverage in any future peace negotiations.
But Russian forces are still steadily advancing in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
The Ukrainian General Staff source reiterated that about 11,000 North Korean troops had arrived in the Kursk region in support of Russia, but that the bulk of their forces was still finalizing their training.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Kyiv’s freshest assessment of the state of play in the Kursk region. Reuters could not independently verify the figures or descriptions given.
Moscow has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Korean forces in Kursk.
Ukraine’s armed forces chief said on Nov. 11 that its beleaguered forces were not just battling crack Russian reinforcements in Kursk but also scrambling to reinforce two besieged fronts in eastern Ukraine and bracing for an infantry assault in the south.

THREATENING RUSSIAN ADVANCE IN EASTERN UKRAINE
The General Staff source said the Kurakhove region was the most threatening for Kyiv now as Russian forces were advancing there at 200-300 meters (yards) a day and had managed to break through in some areas with armored vehicles backed by anti-drone defenses.
The town of Kurakhove is a stepping stone toward the critical logistical hub of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region.
Overall Russia has about 575,000 troops fighting in Ukraine at the moment, the Ukrainian General Staff source said, and is aiming to increase its forces up to around 690,000.
Russia does not disclose numbers involved in its fighting, and Reuters could not independently verify those figures.
As Ukraine fights a bigger and better-equipped enemy, Kyiv has sought to disrupt Russian logistics and supply chains by hitting Russian weapons and ammunition depots, airfields, and other military targets well inside Russia.
Ukraine gained a freer hand to do so earlier this month after, according to sources familiar with the matter, President Joe Biden dropped his opposition to Kyiv firing US-supplied missiles at targets deep inside Russia in response to North Korea’s entry into the war. Last week Ukraine fired US ATACMS and British Storm Shadow
cruise missiles into Russia. One of the ATACMS targets was an arms depot about 110 km (70 miles) inside Russia. Moscow vowed to respond to what it sees as an escalation by Ukraine’s Western supporters. On Thursday, Russia launched a new medium-range ballistic missile into the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, in a likely warning to NATO.
Ukrainian officials are holding talks with the United States and Britain regarding new air defense systems capable of protecting Ukrainian cities and civilians from the new longer-range aerial threats.
The Ukrainian General Staff source said the military had also implemented measures to bolster air defenses over the capital Kyiv and planned similar steps for the city of Sumy in the north and Kharkiv in the northeast, both near front lines. Russia now occupies a fifth of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin has said he wants Kyiv to drop ambitions to join the NATO military alliance and retreat from four Ukrainian regions that he partially holds, demands Kyiv has rejected as tantamount to capitulation.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Kursk Region Ukrainian military

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