Volodymyr Zelenskiy appears at climate summit via video link; climate experts say US has acted ‘in bad faith’ for decades
I’ve been looking at what some climate scientists on Twitter have been saying about Cop27. Here is a small selection:
Dr Chandni Singh has been checking out the displays at different country pavilions, including one from Pakistan.
Continue reading...Hardline parliamentarians insist only response to recent unrest is for violent protesters to be executed
The Iranian leadership is resisting growing demands from clerics and some reformist politicians to stage a new referendum on Iran’s constitution as hardline parliamentarians meanwhile insist the only response to the recent unrest sweeping the country is for violent protesters to be executed.
The power struggle among the country’s rulers appears to leave the government sending out mixed messages on how to respond to the protests, but in practice the security forces have gone ahead with a severe crackdown and arrested nearly 10,000 people, including 60 journalists.
Continue reading...Doubt cast on official version of events after deadly crush at border fence in which at least 23 died
The Spanish government is facing growing calls to explain how at least 23 people died during a mass storming of the border fence between Morocco and Spain’s north African enclave of Melilla almost five months ago.
MPs who visited the border on a fact-finding trip have appeared to corroborate reports – first aired in a BBC Africa Eye investigation broadcast last week – that dead bodies were dragged out of a Spanish-controlled area by Moroccan police.
Continue reading...Ex-ambassador warns hunger striker’s situation at crucial stage after Rishi Sunak meeting with Egyptian president
The release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the detained British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist who is on hunger strike, has become the defining issue for British-Egyptian relations, the former British ambassador to Egypt John Casson has warned.
His comments came as Abd el-Fattah’s aunt, the novelist Ahdaf Soueif, said there was a danger the British “are allowing themselves to be fobbed off with the excuses they have been given since last December when we started asking for consular visits”.
Continue reading...As the UN’s Cop27 summit begins in Egypt, there are warnings more must be done to avert climate breakdown
Last year’s UN Cop26 climate talks in Scotland were framed by John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy on the climate crisis, as the “last best hope for the world to get its act together” and avert climate breakdown. As world leaders gather in Egypt for Cop27, evidence suggests they have yet to fully do so.
The Glasgow conference drew collective promises by governments to “phase down” coal use, curb deforestation, advance remedial payments to developing countries hit hardest by floods, heatwaves and droughts, and to come back the following year with more ambitious emissions reduction targets.
Continue reading...British-Egyptian activist and figurehead of 2011 uprising now refusing water after six-month hunger strike
The family of the British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah are demanding proof of life, after waiting hours in front of the desert prison where he is currently held, hoping to receive a letter that would provide information about his condition as he continues to refuse all food and water while delegates gather for Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Abd el-Fattah has been on hunger strike for more than six months, and told his family shortly before the beginning of the UN climate conference that he would begin a water strike on Sunday. His letter from prison would indicate proof of life on his second day without water, after more than six months without more than 100 calories a day.
Continue reading...Conservative cleric and a newspaper editor openly critical of government’s stance on weapons it supplied to Moscow
An internal rift over the supply of deadly drones to Russia for use in Ukraine has opened up in Iran, with a prominent conservative cleric and newspaper editor saying Russia is the clear aggressor in the war and the supply should stop.
A former Iranian ambassador to Moscow has also hinted the foreign ministry may have been kept in the dark both by the Kremlin and the Iranian military.
Continue reading...Exclusive: In newly released correspondence, arbitrarily detained engineer speaks of fear skin cancer will return
Australian Robert Pether, jailed in Baghdad last year over a business dispute, has penned an emotional letter warning his prognosis is “bleak”, his human rights are being violated, and he is facing a potential “death sentence”.
In the letter to his family, released to Guardian Australia, Pether also reveals his daily torment about how he should break it to his children that he might not be coming home.
Continue reading...Poll finds only 43% of people think England and Wales should take part, while 39% think they should not
A large majority of people in Britain think the World Cup should not be held in Qatar because of its position on LGBTQ+ rights.
Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, attracting punishments of up to seven years in prison. Despite this and other serious human rights concerns, Fifa members voted in 2010 to award the 2022 tournament to the Gulf state.
Continue reading...Attendees say they are unable to visit Human Rights Watch and other sites needed during climate talks
Attendees at the Cop27 climate meeting have found that the conference internet connection blocks access to the global rights organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) as well as other key news websites needed for information during the talks.
HRW is due to lead a panel discussion at Cop27 along with Amnesty International, whose website is accessible on the conference wifi. The list of blocked sites also includes the blogging platform Medium, Egypt’s lone independent news outlet, Mada Masr, and the Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera.
Continue reading...Movement against country’s regime sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death keeps going in face of crackdown
New protests erupted in Iran on Sunday at universities and in the largely Kurdish northwest, keeping a seven-week anti-regime movement going even in the face of a fierce crackdown.
The protests, triggered in mid-September by the death of Mahsa Amini after she was arrested for allegedly breaching strict dress rules for women, have evolved into the biggest challenge for the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.
Continue reading...Hunger striker’s sister welcomes news but says he may die before end of summit
Rishi Sunak has said he will raise the issue of imprisoned writer Alaa Abd El-Fattah in Egypt at the Cop27 summit, but the writer’s sister has said her brother’s hunger and water strike may mean he will die before the end of the summit.
Sunak wrote to the family of the British-Egyptian writer saying he would raise his imprisonment with the Egyptian government and reply again by the end of the climate summit.
Continue reading...Contentious opening to UN climate conference as delegates struggle to reach agreement on discussion of loss and damage
The Cop27 UN climate summit has made a delayed start after delegates tussled late into Saturday night and on into Sunday morning over what should be discussed at the conference.
At the heart of the disagreement was the vexed question of loss and damage, which refers to the devastating consequences of climate breakdown suffered by the poorest and most vulnerable countries, and how to help them.
Continue reading...Cybersecurity experts warn that official Cop27 climate app requires access to a user’s location, photos and even emails
There are mounting fears over the surveillance of delegates at the Cop27 climate talks in Egypt, with cybersecurity experts warning that the official app for the talks requires access to a user’s location, photos and even emails upon downloading it.
The revelation, as more than 25,000 heads of state, diplomats, negotiators, journalists and activists from around the world gather at the climate summit that starts in Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday, has raised concerns that Egypt’s authoritarian regime will be able to use an official platform for a United Nations event to track and harass attendees and critical domestic voices.
Continue reading...Ebrahim Raisi declares streets ‘safe and sound’ while shopkeepers strike and student demonstrations sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death reach 50th day
Iranian students protested and shopkeepers went on strike despite a widening crackdown, according to reports on social media, as demonstrations that flared over Mahsa Amini’s death continued for a 50th day.
Saturday’s protests came as President Ebrahim Raisi said Iran’s cities were “safe and sound” after earlier dismissing a pledge from the US president, Joe Biden, to “free Iran”.
Continue reading...Minister says ‘small number’ of drones were sent to Russia months before invasion but denies supply continues
Iran has acknowledged for the first time that it supplied Moscow with drones but said they were sent before the war in Ukraine, where Russia has used drones to target power stations and civilian infrastructure.
The Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said a “small number” of drones were supplied to Russia a few months before Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine on 24 February. He denied Tehran that was continuing to supply drones to Moscow.
Continue reading...A look at who will – and who may not – be at Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh climate summit this month
Delegates arrive for Cop27 on 6 November in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and the conference is scheduled to end on 18 November, though it is likely to run later. World leaders will attend on 7 and 8 November, and after they depart the crunch negotiations will be done by their representatives, environment ministers or other high-ranking officials.
Continue reading...Veteran leader and his far-right allies win decisive 64 seats in 120-seat Knesset
The former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has begun coalition negotiations on forming a government, after winning a decisive majority in Israel’s fifth election in four years with the help of ultra-Orthodox parties and a new alliance with the far right.
After a year in opposition, and years of political chaos triggered by his ongoing corruption trial, the veteran politician engineered a comeback in Tuesday’s vote. His majority means that the period of electoral deadlock is in all probability over for now, and Netanyahu – already the country’s longest serving prime minister – is set to stay in the job for at least the next four years. Back in office, the 73-year-old’s first priority will be seeking to get his trial dropped. He denies all charges.
Continue reading...Detained students could face death penalty, human rights groups report, with at least 277 people killed as protests enter eighth week
Iran’s security forces have launched a series of attacks on university students at campuses across the country with dozens of students being arrested, according to the Students’ Union of Iran.
According to student organisations and human rights groups, the attacks on universities intensified this week as young people gathered to mark 40 days since Mahsa Amini died in the custody of Iran’s morality police in September. The death of the 22-year-old woman sparked eight weeks of nationwide protests against the regime. The highly symbolic 40th day traditionally marks the end of mourning.
Continue reading...Outgoing coalition suffers poor election result as some parties of the left lose voice in Knesset altogether
Israel’s leftwing and pro-Arab-rights parties have been left licking their wounds in the aftermath of this week’s election. When vote-counting finished on Thursday, the former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right partners had won by a comfortable majority.
Last summer a broad coalition succeeded in their mutual desire to kick Netanyahu, leader of Likud, out of office. He is currently standing trial on corruption charges.
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