Trump win in 2024 could harm fight against climate change, warns Canada PM - Arab News

Trump win in 2024 could harm fight against climate change, warns Canada PM | Arab News

OTTAWA: If Republican frontrunner Donald Trump wins the 2024 US election it could harm the global effort to fight climate change, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in an interview aired on Friday. Trump, who denies the science of climate change, said last week that if elected he would renege on a $3 billion US pledge to a global fund meant to help developing countries cut emissions. Trump has made attacking the Biden administration’s investments in renewable energy a core part of his campaign message. “Yes, there’s a concern particularly around the environment at a time where it’s so important to move forward on protecting and building an economy of the future,” Trudeau told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. “A Trump presidency that goes back on the fight against climate change would slow down the world’s progress in ways that are concerning to me,” he said, describing Trump’s approach to the climate during his presidency as “a menace not just to Canada but to the world.” Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which outlined massive investments to accelerate the green transition, prompted Canada to spend billions to attract major automakers seeking sites to manufacture electric vehicles and battery components. Trudeau had a rocky relationship with Trump, who once called him “dishonest and weak,” and he was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Biden on his 2020 election victory.
Demonstrators grouped outside the Puma store with many chanting: "Shut it down" Two Zara branches were targeted by the protesters, who were heard shouting: "Zara, Zara, you can't hide, stop supporting genocide"

Updated 24 December 2023

LONDON: Christmas shoppers in Central London were urged by 100s of pro-Palestinian protesters not to purchase items from Israeli-linked fashion stores, Sky News reported on Saturday. Over 400 demonstrators marched from Soho Square, across Oxford Street, Regent Street and into Carnaby Street, where they grouped outside the Puma store with many chanting: "Shut it down." The Israeli national football team is sponsored by the sportswear brand Puma. Puma was printed on a list of brands to boycott on leaflets that the demonstrators handed out. During the march, protestors waved Palestinian flags, played music and let off smoke coloured red, black, green and white, held banners showing solidarity with Gaza while some blocked Puma store’s entrance. Another targeted store was fashion giant, Zara, which had earlier this month removed an online advert following complaints it contained images resembling the Israel-Hamas war. Two Zara branches were targeted by the protesters, who were heard shouting: "Zara, Zara, you can't hide, stop supporting genocide." Security guards shut down the Zara stores and kept them guarded. Police said no arrests were made during the march, which was organised by direct action group Sisters Uncut, which campaigns against gender-based violence. As the demonstration started from Soho Square, protesters chanted "free Palestine". Distributed leaflets read: "No Christmas as usual in a genocide. The UK is complicit. "Don't fund genocide in Palestine. Boycott Israel." As protestors marches towards Oxford Street, traffic came at a standstill. "The protest was a pre-planned event by Sisters Uncut - yes, we have a policing presence there. The march has now moved from Oxford Street and it is fully open. There have been no arrests,” said a Met Police statement.
Millions of migrants and refugees were on the move in 2023 after the outbreak of war in Sudan and a coup in Niger The region’s political upheavals and security threats have become a major concern for Europe and the Arab world

Updated 24 December 2023

ROBERT BOCIAGA

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania: With world attention riveted on the war raging in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, conflicts elsewhere, particularly the violence in Sudan and instability across the Sahel, are in danger of being forgotten.

The Sahel belt of Africa, stretching from Mali in the west to Sudan in the east, was catapulted into the global spotlight in early 2023 by a wave of political upheaval, humanitarian challenges, and security threats.

Given its strategic significance for Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, the region’s recent spate of coups, extremist insurgencies, and proliferation of migration routes have made it a particular source of concern for policy planners.

International actors, from former colonial rulers including France to multilateral bodies such as the African Union, have been left increasingly concerned by a perceived disinterest in the region and a failure to help resolve problems.

In April 2023, fighting between Sudan's army and the paramilitary forces of Mohammed Dagalo broke out, sending tens of thousands of people fleeing their homes. (AFP)

Sudan crisis

The region’s first major upheaval of 2023 arose in Sudan, where violence erupted in mid-April between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, triggering a massive wave of displacement that has since rippled through neighboring countries.

The capital, Khartoum, the troubled Darfur region, and other parts of the country have ended the year ravaged by fighting and mass displacement, triggering an economic collapse, the disintegration of the health system, and a growing risk of famine.

The recruitment of foreign fighters from across the wider Sahel, many of them children and destitute farmers driven to desperation, has led to fears the conflict could spill over into the wider region, proliferating the spread of light weaponry and destabilizing neighboring states.

The conflict in Sudan has revived fears about children being exploited by the warring sides to fight. (AFP/File)

Saudi Arabia and the US have brokered multiple rounds of ceasefire talks with Sudan’s warring parties, while the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, an eight-country trade bloc in Africa, has also sought to reach a settlement.

As for a domestic resolution, initial hopes for a non-military government in Sudan, after the military overthrew the civilian-led administration in late 2021, have been all but dashed.

Aid agencies have issued repeated calls for the warring parties to stop perpetrating violence against civilians, particularly women and girls, shedding light on the humanitarian dimensions of the turmoil.

Experts have also warned that the conflict and resulting breakdown of government authority could be exploited by extremist groups such as Daesh and Al-Qaeda, or open the way for the creation of new radical organizations with similar objectives.

Experts have warned that the conflict and resulting breakdown of government authority could be exploited by extremist groups such as Daesh and Al-Qaeda to pursue their goals. (AFP/File)

Niger coup

Amid the focus on Sudan, the international community was caught off guard in July when a coup in Niger marked the latest in a series of military takeovers in the region — Mali and Burkina Faso having witnessed coups of their own in recent years.

This development underscored the fragility of governance structures in the Sahel, raising questions about the efficacy of international efforts to promote stability and democratic institutions.

Niger, a landlocked country of 25 million, had been a beneficiary of Western programs aimed at stopping migrants from traveling further north. However, the junta turned its back on the West, aligning with the broad public sentiment that little of this money had trickled down to local communities.

Niger's National Council for Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) seized power in the West African nation in July 2023, aggravating the political crisis in the region. (AFP)

The coup had wider implications, particularly for the flow of migrants transiting through the region.

Prior to the coup, Niger had worked with Western governments to help manage these migration routes. As a result, European states looked to Tunisia and Libya to control irregular migration across the Mediterranean Sea.

In tandem with these developments, support for anti-immigration politicians has grown across Europe. In turn, moderates have been forced into offering heightened border protections and revised asylum policies to head off electoral challenges.

Migrants wait to be saved by the Aquarius rescue ship run by the "SOS Mediterranee" and "Medecins Sans Frontieres" (Doctors Without Borders) off Libya in the Mediterranean Sea on August 2, 2017. (AFP)

Storms and earthquakes

Beyond the conflicts and coups, nature also made its capacity for devastation felt in September when Morocco was hit by a catastrophic earthquake and Libya suffered cataclysmic flooding, leaving thousands dead and many more missing.

These twin disasters sparked a global aid response, but the support delivered to suffering Moroccans differed greatly from that provided to Libya, with the latter remaining closed off to the world, while militias preyed on the local population and the large number of migrants transiting through the country.

A man searches through the rubble in the earthquake-hit village of Imi N’Tala, in central Morocco on October 5, 2023. (AFP/File)

Displacement

The result of these multiple, overlapping disasters has been the mass displacement of the Sahel’s population, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation. International agencies have drawn particular attention to the ongoing recruitment of child soldiers across the Sahel.

The spread of child exploitation added a grim dimension to an already complex set of challenges and underscored the need for international cooperation to protect the most vulnerable in times of crisis.

Simultaneously, the UN expressed alarm about the mounting hunger crisis in Sudan. This humanitarian emergency added urgency to the critical need for food assistance and aid to address the escalating challenges faced by the population.

Children queue for food at a refugee center for people displaced by the war in Sudan, in tis July 2023 photo. (AFP/File)

By November, warnings had reemerged about the potential for a genocide in Sudan’s Darfur, echoing past tragedies in the region. Analysts said this ominous development underscored the need to address the root causes of conflict, prompting renewed calls for diplomatic initiatives and peacekeeping efforts.

The year drew to a close with the fall of Sudan’s city of Wad Madani to the RSF, despite recent ceasefire talks and prior US warnings. The RSF’s latest battlefield success followed three days of intense fighting, leading to a mass exodus of residents toward the south and the suspension of operations by aid organizations.

The tragic result of these mass displacement episodes was made all too clear on Dec. 16 when 61 migrants, many of them from Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea, drowned in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya when the small smuggling vessel they were traveling in got into difficulty.

Signs of hope

Perhaps the only positive news emanating from the region in the closing days of 2023 was the US helping to foster reconciliation between Algeria and Morocco in addressing the Western Sahara conflict.

UN's Western Sahara envoy Staffan de Mistura (L) shakes hands with Polisario leader Brahim Ghali (R) in Algeria's southwestern city of Tindouf. (AFP/File)

A persistent source of contention between the two Arab neighbors, the disputed nature of the territory also bears significance for external actors owing to its role as a transit point for Africans migrating toward Spain.

If one lesson can be drawn from the past 12 months, analysts believe it is the need for comprehensive solutions, addressing both the root causes of the many overlapping conflicts in the Sahel and their broader impact on migration patterns.
Marne emergency services had installed makeshift beds for the 303 stranded passengers The flight, which was operated by Romanian charter company Legend Airlines, landed at Vatry on Thursday for a technical stopover

Updated 23 December 2023

Reuters

PARIS: Around 300 Indian nationals who were on board a plane grounded in France on suspicion of human trafficking were being cared for on Saturday in the hall of an airport in the eastern region of Marne while an investigation was ongoing, a local official said. Marne emergency services had installed makeshift beds for the 303 stranded passengers, gave them access to toilets and showers and provided meals and hot drinks at Vatry airport, a spokeswoman for the Marne prefect’s office said. Officials from the Indian general consulate were visiting them regularly, she added in a statement. The flight, which was operated by Romanian charter company Legend Airlines, landed at Vatry on Thursday for a technical stopover en route from Dubai when French police intervened, the Marne prefect’s office said on Friday. It said a judicial investigation into the conditions and purpose of the trip had been launched, with a unit specializing in organized crime investigating suspected human trafficking. AFP reported the passengers on the grounded plane, which was bound for Nicaragua, included 13 unaccompanied minors. The Paris public prosecution office said on Friday that two people were held for questioning, adding that authorities had been tipped off by an anonymous informant. It gave no further information on Saturday. A lawyer representing Legend Airlines said on Saturday the plane’s crew had been released after questioning. “The members of the crew have been questioned, the questioning has ended and they are all free to move. None has been put in custody,” Liliana Bakayoko told BFM TV. The flight was chartered by a “trusted” client, Bakayoko said, adding that it was a non-European company which the airline did not want to name. Legend Airlines did not understand why the plane had been grounded, she added. The Indian embassy in Paris and the Indian foreign ministry did not immediately reply to request for comment on Saturday.
“Disturbing news that Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali could be shortly executed on charges of ‘enmity against God’,” the UN human rights office said on X Djalali was sentenced to death in 2017 on espionage charges that have been denounced as baseless by Stockholm and his supporters

Updated 23 December 2023

AFP

GENEVA: The United Nations warned Saturday that an Iranian-Swedish citizen is facing imminent execution in Iran, after a Swedish court upheld the conviction of a former Iranian prison official. “Disturbing news that Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali could be shortly executed on charges of ‘enmity against God’,” the UN human rights office said on X. Djalali was sentenced to death in 2017 on espionage charges that have been denounced as baseless by Stockholm and his supporters. Before his arrest in Iran in April 2016, Djalali was a visiting professor in disaster medicine at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, a Belgian research university. The UN rights office said his execution could take place soon “despite failures to respect fair trial and due process standards.” “Iran must stop this execution.”

#Iran: Disturbing news that Dr Ahmadreza Djalali could be shortly executed on charges of ‘enmity against God’ despite failures to respect fair trial & due process standards. Iran must stop this execution. Moratorium on all death sentences is urgently required - @volker_turk

The comments came amid fears that a Swedish appeals court decision confirming the conviction of former Iranian prison official Hamid Noury could jeopardize the fate of several Swedish prisoners in Iran. Amnesty International warned Friday that Djalali in particular was “at grave risk of imminent retaliatory execution” after the court this week confirmed Noury’s life sentence for crimes committed during a 1988 purge of dissidents. Noury, 62, was convicted of “grave breaches of international humanitarian law and murder” over his role in a purge that saw at least 5,000 prisoners killed across Iran. The crackdown is widely considered retaliation for attacks carried out by the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), an exiled opposition group, at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Sweden tried Noury under its principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows it to prosecute a case regardless of where the offenses took place. Since the appeals verdict, “mounting evidence indicates that Iranian authorities are threatening to carry out Ahmadreza Djalali’s execution in retaliation for their unmet demands to pervert the course of justice in Sweden,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa. “The cruel toying with Ahmadreza Djalali’s life immediately after a Swedish court of appeals upheld (Noury’s) conviction and life sentence... heightens concerns that Iranian officials are holding Ahmadreza Djalali hostage to compel Sweden into a prisoner swap,” she said in a statement. Iran has previously used detained foreigners as bargaining chips to secure the release of its citizens abroad, and Swedish media reports have also speculated about the possibility of a prisoner swap. Djalali is not the only Swede being held in Iran. EU diplomat Johan Floderus, 33, was arrested in Iran in April 2022 — as Noury’s lower court trial was underway in Stockholm — and has now been held for more than 600 days. Floderus’s trial opened in Iran this month, with Tehran accusing him of conspiring with Israel and of “corruption on Earth” — one of Iran’s most serious offenses, which carries a maximum penalty of death. The UN rights office said Saturday that a “moratorium on all death sentences is urgently required” in Iran. According to rights groups, Iran executes more people per year than any other nation except China. In a November report, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group said the country had executed more than 600 people so far this year, the highest figure in eight years. Amnesty said Friday that Iran had “recently embarked on another alarming executions spree, executing at least 115 people in November 2023 alone.”
The lone gunman also wounded 24 others, including three foreigners Daily life halted for a minute of silence for the victims in the EU and NATO member country at noon on Saturday

Updated 23 December 2023

AFP

PRAGUE: Church bells rang, flags flew at half mast and masses were held across the Czech Republic on Saturday, a day of national mourning for the victims of a deadly shooting at Prague’s Charles University. A heavily armed 24-year-old student killed 14 people and then himself at the Faculty of Arts on Thursday. The lone gunman also wounded 24 others, including three foreigners. The gunfire sparked frantic scenes of students running from the attacker, with some escaping onto the roof and then jumping onto a balcony below, while others clung to top-floor windows from ledges. Daily life halted for a minute of silence for the victims in the EU and NATO member country at noon (1100 GMT) on Saturday. “We are all trying to build heaven on earth, but the reality of life shows us that evil exists,” said Prague Archbishop Jan Graubner, celebrating a mass for the victims at the Gothic St. Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle. Students attending the mass said top politicians were present, including President Petr Pavel, and that many in the cathedral were in tears. “The life of each person in its uniqueness enriches and becomes a part of the lives of others, and its loss is therefore irreplaceable,” Charles University rector Milena Kralickova said at the mass, her voice breaking. A choir singing at the mass was led by David Eben, a musician and musicology teacher at the Faculty of Arts. His department lost its director, Lenka Hlavkova, a mother of two, in the carnage. Since the shooting, people have lit thousands of candles for the victims at makeshift memorials set up in Prague and other cities. During the mass on Saturday, Faculty of Arts students brought eighteen roses to the altar — 14 for the university victims, one for the gunman and three for other people he had killed. Police said that the gunman appeared to have killed a randomly chosen young man and his two-month-old daughter in a Prague forest on December 15. “A ballistic analysis proved the gun used in the... forest was IDENTICAL with a gun found at the university gunman’s home,” police said on X. On Thursday, he killed his father in a village west of Prague where the family lived, and then left for the capital, leaving a suicide note, police said. Police launched a manhunt for him, but appeared to have missed him at the university, searching a Faculty of Arts building where he was expected to attend a lecture, while the gunman walked into the faculty’s main building nearby. Police learned about the shooting at the university at around 1400 GMT and sent a rapid response unit to the scene. Twenty minutes later, the gunman was dead. The gunman appeared to have been inspired by a similar shooting in Russia, police said, citing his social media account. This week’s shooting in Prague’s UNESCO-listed historic center was the deadliest since the Czech Republic emerged as an independent state in 1993. Sympathy poured in from across the world with Pope Francis, US President Joe Biden, Britain’s King Charles and many others sending their condolences. At a makeshift memorial in Prague, technical university student Antonin Volavka lit a candle to pay tribute to the dead. “This could have happened to anyone. Really, it could have been me,” he told AFP. The Czech Republic is the world’s 12th safest country, according to the 2023 Global Peace Index, and mass gun violence is rare. But in 2015, a man shot dead seven men and a woman before killing himself in a restaurant in the southeast, while another gunman killed seven people in an eastern hospital and then himself in 2019.