As Sri Lanka votes, a $2.9bn IMF loan looms large
Ahead of Sri Lanka’s presidential election, no issue is more central than the economy. With the South Asian country still struggling from its worst financial crisis in decades, Saturday’s ballot amounts to a referendum on austerity measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last year. In a crowded field of 38 candidates, all eyes are on three men: incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe and his two closest rivals, Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Sajith Premadasa, both of whom want a new deal with the Washington, DC-based lender. A six-time prime minister, Wickremesinghe represents the old guard. His United National Party (UNP) has been one of Sri Lanka’s dominant political forces since the country’s independence in 1948. While Wickremesinghe’s supporters commend his $2.9bn IMF loan – and subsequent debt restructuring deals – Sri Lankans experienced a cost-of-living crisis on his watch, with inflation peaking at nearly 74 percent in 2022. After the end of its civil war in 2009, Sri Lanka borrowed heavily to fund infrastructure-led growth. Then, in 2019, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa introduced unfunded tax cuts. Fiscal pressures were compounded when the COVID-19 pandemic led tourism and remittance inflows to dry up. In 2022, a surge in oil prices and rising US interest rates tipped Sri Lanka into a balance of payments crisis. To maintain imports, Colombo was forced to prop up its plunging currency – the rupee – by running down scarce international reserves. A protester wearing a mask of Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa performs during a protest in front of the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on April 9, 2022 [Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters] Rajapaksa’s government faced an increasingly stark choice – continue servicing its international debt or pay for critical imports like food, fuel and medicine. In April 2022, Sri Lanka defaulted on $51bn of external debt. By July, with the country facing shortages of essential goods and power blackouts, inflation was hovering at 60 percent. Anger over the government’s handling of the crisis led to mass street protests, forcing Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign. As Rajapaksa’s successor, Wickremesinghe was tasked with reversing Sri Lanka’s economic crisis. With few options on the table, he turned to the IMF. In March 2023, Colombo agreed to a 48-month emergency loan. As with all IMF deals, it came with strict conditions. In exchange for funds, Wickremesinghe was forced to remove electricity subsidies and double the rate of value-added tax (VAT). “Wide-ranging austerity also included a sovereign debt restructuring,” Katrina Ell, director of economic research at Moody’s Analytics, told Al Jazeera. Refinancing operations typically involve exchanging old debt instruments for new, more affordable ones. Sri Lanka’s foreign and domestic lenders had to accept equivalent losses of 30 percent as part of the IMF agreement. “All these measures do not offer a quick fix,” Ell said. Still, “Sri Lanka’s economy has shown meaningful signs of improvement” since 2022, she said. The rupee has stabilised and inflation has come down sharply from its 2022 peak. The World Bank forecasts the economy to expand 2.2 percent in 2024, following two straight years of negative growth. On the other hand, real wages remain significantly below pre-crisis levels and the country’s poverty rate has doubled, according to the World Bank. Samagi Jana Balawegaya party leader and presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa addresses supporters during a rally in Colombo on September 18, 2024 [Ishara S Kodikara/AFP] Presidential contender Premadasa, whose Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) party splintered off from Wickremesinghe’s UNP in 2020, has criticised the IMF deal. Premadasa has argued that boosting export markets and strengthening the rule of law are the way forward. Yet he is not the main candidate for change, according to Jayati Ghosh, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “That mantle falls to Anura,” Ghosh told Al Jazeera. Dissanayake’s political stock has risen dramatically in recent months. Though his far-left Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) secured just three seats in the last parliament, it has since re-branded itself to project a more mainstream image. Today, the JVP represents a coalition of leftist groups. And while it receives strong support from young voters, those over 50 still recall the JVP’s attempts at insurrection in the late 1980s – a period of terror in southern Sri Lanka that led to between 60,000 and 100,000 deaths. “Dissanayake has distanced himself from his party’s past and his old Marxist leanings,” Ghosh said. “And though he’s inched towards the centre, he’s still the progressive in the race.” Dissanayake has pledged to increase Sri Lanka’s income tax-free threshold and exempt some health and food items from the 18 percent value-added tax to make them more affordable. “Anura wants to change the Fund’s insistence on treating external and domestic debt equally,” Ghosh said. “On top of regressive VAT increases, public pension funds bore a big brunt of the restructuring. Teachers and nurses had their pensions slashed. It’s criminal,” she added. “Dissanayake would try and push the IMF to shift the burden away from ordinary Sri Lankans onto external creditors. Poor people’s livelihoods have already been badly hit. He has been far more critical on the debt issue than Premadasa.” Following a $4.2bn debt restructuring with China’s Ex-Im Bank in October, Sri Lanka completed a $5.8bn restructuring with a number of countries including India and Japan in June. In a last-minute agreement before the election, the country on Thursday clinched a deal with private investors to restructure $12.5bn of international bonds, clearing the way for the release of its fourth tranche of IMF bailout funds. National Peoples Power party leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake takes part in a protest in Colombo on February 26, 2023 [Ishara S Kodikara/AFP] But, according to Ahilan Kadirgamar, a Sri Lankan economist, “it’s far too favourable to the creditors”. “In theory, restructuring operations are meant to lower debt costs and free up public resources for things like education and healthcare. That’s not what’s happening in Sri Lanka,” Kadirgamar told Al Jazeera. Sri Lanka’s debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio is expected to fall from
US believes Gaza ceasefire deal unlikely in Biden’s term: Report
Wall Street Journal cites multiple US officials saying they are sceptical a ceasefire can be achieved before January. Officials in the United States believe that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is unlikely before President Joe Biden leaves office in January, according to the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper on Thursday cited top-level officials in the White House, State Department and Pentagon without naming them. “No deal is imminent. I’m not sure it ever gets done,” one of the US officials told the newspaper. The officials told the Journal there were two key obstacles to a deal: the number of Palestinian prisoners Israel must release in exchange for each captive held by Hamas, and the rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. In public, officials in Washington have stressed that they will continue to work for an agreement. “I can tell you that we do not believe that deal is falling apart,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters on Thursday before the Wall Street Journal report was published. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said two weeks ago that 90 percent of a ceasefire deal had been agreed upon. Washington has been working for months with mediators Qatar and Egypt to try and bring Israel and Hamas to a final agreement. Biden laid out a three-phase ceasefire proposal on May 31 saying that Israel had agreed to it. The US holds its presidential election on November 5 with Vice President Kamala Harris running against Republican Donald Trump. The latest bloodshed began nearly a year ago when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing 1,139 people and taking more than 200 captive. Israel’s subsequent assault on the Hamas-governed territory has killed at least 41,272 Palestinians and injured 95,551. It has also led to the displacement of nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, a hunger crisis and a genocide case at the World Court. Adblock test (Why?)
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani makes baseball history
Player becomes first in MLB to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani has made Major League Baseball (MLB) history by becoming the first player in the league’s history to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. Ohtani made three home runs and lifted his tally of steals to 51 in the Dodgers’ 20-4 victory over the Miami Marlins on Thursday. The win sent the Dodgers into the playoffs, a first for Ohtani. “To be honest, I’m the one probably most surprised,” the Japanese player said through a translator of his spectacular performance. “I have no idea where this came from, but I’m glad I performed well today.” It has been an eventful year for Ohtani who joined the Dodgers in December on a 10-year, $700m contract after spending six seasons with the crosstown rival Angels. He is not pitching this season as he recovers from reconstructive surgery on his throwing elbow and has also endured a scandal in which his former friend and interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, stole millions of dollars from him to repay sports gambling debts. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, addressing his players in the clubhouse as they celebrated the victory, noted the achievement. “This is a game that has been played for over 200 years,” Roberts said. “And this is something that has never been done.” Ohtani, 30, tried to keep the focus on the team. “I’m glad that the team won,” he said, admitting that with so much attention focused on his 50-50 pursuit, it “was something I wanted to get over as quickly as possible. “It’s something that I’m going to cherish for a very long time.” Earlier this season, Ohtani became the MLB’s all-time leader in home runs among Japanese-born players when he surpassed the 175 of Hideki Matsui with 222 home runs over the course of his career. Adblock test (Why?)
Judge in Brazil orders Musk’s X to obey ban or face daily fine
The social network X faces hefty new fine after its appears to defy ban ordered by a judge. Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered the social media platform X to remove access to its website after service was restored despite a judge’s ban or face a daily fine of more than $900,000. The social network, formerly known as Twitter, was banned last month in Latin America’s largest nation as part of a crackdown on disinformation, but access to the phone app returned on Wednesday. X said the return of its service was “inadvertent and temporary”, but the government accused the company of deliberately violating the suspension order. Judge Alexandre de Moraes said X would face a daily fine of 5 million reais ($913,000) until it obeys the order to suspend its service. The social media platform has more than 22 million users in Brazil. Last month, the judge ordered the suspension of X after Musk refused to remove dozens of right-wing accounts accused of spreading fake news. The suspension has fuelled a fierce debate on freedom of expression and the limits of social networks, both inside and outside the country. The judge also froze the assets of X and Musk’s satellite internet operator Starlink, which has been operating in Brazil since 2022, especially in remote communities in the Amazon. Internet providers explained that X had been accessible again after an automatic update to the phone application. New software allows the app to use constantly changing identifying IP addresses, which makes it much harder to block. The National Telecommunications Agency, also called Anatel, said Thursday that it had “identified a mechanism which we hope” will block the service again. De Moraes has also ruled that anyone using “technological subterfuges”, such as virtual private networks (VPNs), to access the blocked site could be fined up to $9,000. X owner Elon Musk has refused Brazilian court orders to block accounts accused of spreading election misinformation [File: Susan Walsh/AP] X’s history of problems This is not the first time X has been banned by a country. China was the first country to ban the platform in June 2009 when it was still called Twitter, two days before the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Venezuela ordered a 10-day block of X last month over a disputed presidential vote in the country after election authorities declared incumbent Nicolas Maduro the winner. Political tensions escalated after the disputed election results. Why has Brazil banned X? In January 2023 after supporters of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, spurred on by false claims of electoral fraud, stormed the National Congress, the Brazilian Supreme Court issued an order for X and other social media platforms to restrict accounts linked to fake news and hate speech. In April, de Moraes again asked X to block several accounts accused of spreading misinformation about Bolsonaro’s defeat in the 2022 general election. This time, Musk refused and removed X’s legal representative in Brazil in protest. According to Brazilian law, foreign companies that conduct business in Brazil are required to have a legal representative in the country who acts as a liaison between the firm and local authorities. Adblock test (Why?)
UN accuses Israel of ‘massive’ violation of child rights treaty in Gaza
UN committee says horrific impact on children from Israel’s war on Gaza will have an ‘extremely dark place in history’. A United Nations committee has accused Israel of severe breaches of a global treaty protecting children’s rights, saying its military actions in Gaza have had a catastrophic impact on children and are among the worst violations in recent history. More than 11,355 minors have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war triggered by Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on October 7. More than 1,100 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were killed in the Hamas-led attacks and about 250 were taken captive. In response, Israel has waged a war in the besieged enclave, killing more than 41,000 people and reducing large swaths of the Palestinian territory to rubble. “The outrageous death of children is almost historically unique. This is an extremely dark place in history,” Bragi Gudbrandsson, vice chairperson of the committee, told reporters on Thursday. “I don’t think we have seen before a violation that is so massive as we’ve seen in Gaza. These are extremely grave violations that we do not often see,” he said. On top of the registered casualties by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, thousands of children are believed to be missing under the rubble, buried in unmarked graves or severely wounded by explosives, the British aid group Save the Children said in a report published in June. According to an Al Jazeera tally in January – when the number of children killed by Israel’s war in Gaza was about 10,000 – one Palestinian child was being killed there every 15 minutes. The 18-member UN committee monitors countries’ compliance with the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, a widely adopted treaty that seeks to protect children from violence and other abuses. Israel, which ratified the treaty in 1991, sent a large delegation to the UN hearings in Geneva on September 3-4. They argued that the treaty did not apply in Gaza or the occupied West Bank but said Israel was committed to respecting international humanitarian law. It says its military campaign in Gaza is aimed at eliminating Hamas and it does not target civilians but Palestinian fighters hide among them, which Hamas denies. Civilians and health workers on the ground have repeatedly told Al Jazeera that attacks against homes with no warnings and no ongoing fighting have taken place since October 7 with entire families being obliterated in Israeli air attacks. The committee praised Israel for attending the hearings but said it “deeply regrets the state party’s repeated denial of its legal obligations”. In its conclusions, the committee called on Israel to provide urgent assistance to thousands of children maimed or injured by the war, provide support for orphans and allow more medical evacuations from Gaza. The UN body has no means of enforcing its recommendations, although countries generally aim to comply. During the hearings, the UN experts also asked many questions about Israeli children, including details about those taken captive by Hamas, to which Israel’s delegation gave extensive responses. Sabine Tassa, the mother of a 17-year-old boy shot dead in the October 7 attacks, addressed the UN hearings and said child survivors were traumatised. “The children of Israel are in an appalling state,” she said. Adblock test (Why?)
Hezbollah chief: Israel crossed “all red lines” with device explosions
NewsFeed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah blamed Israel for sabotaging communication devices that exploded across Lebanon, vowing retaliation for the attack he says crossed “all laws and red lines.” Published On 19 Sep 202419 Sep 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Lebanese people talk about fears after pager and walkie-talkie explosions
Beirut, Lebanon – Electronic devices exploded in south Beirut and other parts of Lebanon for a second day on Wednesday, resulting in casualties and fires, a second attack blamed on Israel. Twenty people were killed and more than 450 wounded in Wednesday’s attack, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health. On Tuesday, thousands of Hezbollah pagers exploded, killing 12 people and wounding nearly 3,000. The two attacks coming so close together has left many in Lebanon worried about their use of electronic devices and the state of the country’s security situation. The attack allegedly targeted mobile phones, laptops, solar energy cells as well as walkie-talkie radios that were purchased at a similar time – about five months earlier – as the exploding pagers. Devices exploded in cities including Beirut and its southern suburbs, Hermel, Baalbek, Saida, Nabatieh, Tyre, Naqoura and Marjayoun. ‘We really don’t know’ Officials were still conducting controlled explosions of suspicious devices found in locations around the country on Wednesday evening. Lebanese soldiers prepare to carry out a controlled explosion of a walkie-talkie outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) on September 18, 2024 [Mohamed Azakir/Reuters] The tension and worry it caused among Lebanese people was heightened, as the devices said to be exploding on Wednesday were more “modern” and used more widely. Event planner Maria Boustany has told her team to ditch the walkie-talkies they use to communicate at weddings and events due to doubts over their safety. “It may not be the same brand but we really don’t know what’s happening,” she said. Instead, Boustany said her team would be using WhatsApp to communicate. “It’s better to be safe,” she said. The team had not been using pagers. Lebanon’s hospitals ‘are managing’ Outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC), relatives or friends of people wounded on Tuesday stood in groups the next day. Neighbours greeted each other and inquired about others’ loved ones inside the hospital’s doors. Many were wearing black. Inside, nurses were turning people away who had come to donate blood, telling them that so many people came to donate on Tuesday that they no longer needed blood on Wednesday. While Tuesday necessitated a “Herculean effort” on the part of Lebanese healthcare, given the massive numbers of injuries, caretaker Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the hospitals were “managing” to cope with new injuries on Wednesday. “We still have 140 patients in house and some are still going to surgeries,” Salah Zeineldine, AUBMC’s chief medical officer, told Al Jazeera. “We’ve frozen all elective … cases.” Zeineldine noted that of the 140 patients, several are still critical but none are in life-threatening conditions. “A lot [of them] lost fingers or eyes,” he said. ‘Fear is the furthest thing from our minds’ Many of the people in front of AUBMC on Wednesday did not want to speak to the media. On a nearby kerb, 40-year-old Ali agreed to chat, saying he had come to the hospital to visit a wounded person, without specifing his relationship to them. A day earlier, he said, he had been in Beirut’s southern suburbs when he heard a series of explosions. “Every five to 10 seconds, I heard another,” he said. An ambulance arrives at AUBMC after the incident involving Hezbollah members’ wireless devices in Beirut, Lebanon, on September 17, 2024 [Wael Hamzeh/EPA-EFE] Ali called Tuesday’s attack “stupid”, adding: “The people are strong and fear is the furthest thing from our minds.” At nearby Clemenceau hospital, men lined the area outside the main entrance, waiting to visit loved ones. Witnesses said that, while Beirut’s hospitals were busier than usual, they were much calmer than on Tuesday when all medical personnel were requested to report for duty to help treat the deluge of patients. A doctor who reported for emergency duty at Mount Lebanon Hospital on Tuesday said the roads to the hospital were relatively empty – having been kept empty by authorities – but the vicinity of the hospital was crowded to the extent that they had to abandon their cars wherever they could. By the time he arrived, the most serious life-threatening injuries had already been transferred to the operating rooms, which were at capacity. The hospital was full of admitted patients, he said, three floors with at least 20 patients per floor. He and other doctors began triaging, determining who was in urgent need of surgery to be scheduled, who needed antibiotics or tetanus shots, and who had injuries minor enough that they could be sent home. All the patients he saw were men in or around their 30s with mild to moderate injuries – mostly to the face and hands. “These were not nice injuries,” the doctor said. “They were frightening wounds but the patients were all calm. They were like: ‘Finish up with me and I’ll be OK.’ “They were calm … not scared or anxious.” What happened and what’s next? The attacks have left many Lebanese wondering what will happen next. Social media was roiled with debates over whether the attacks were impressively precise or indiscriminate and a violation of international law. Boy scouts raise the picture of a fellow scout, killed when pagers exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday, during the funeral procession of some victims, in Beirut’s southern suburbs on September 18, 2024 [Anwar Amro/AFP] Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily cross-border attacks since last October, Hezbollah saying they are fighting in support of Hamas and would cease fire should one be agreed in Gaza. Meanwhile, Israel has intensified discussions about expanding the war against Hezbollah. On Tuesday, Premier Benjamin Netanyahu announced an expansion of Israel’s war goals to include returning families to their homes in the north, which many Israelis believe can only be accomplished through fighting Hezbollah. The Northern Command’s top general was lobbying for a potential invasion into Lebanon, according to Israeli media. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday the war had entered “a new phase”. For its part, Hezbollah has promised a response. Speaking almost
Hong Kong man sentenced to 14 months in jail for ‘seditious’ T-shirt
Chu Kai-pong is the first person to be convicted under Article 23, the China-ruled city’s tough new national security law. A Hong Kong man has been sentenced to 14 months in jail for wearing a T-shirt and a mask with protest slogans deemed “seditious”, the first person to be convicted under the city’s tough new national security law. Chu Kai-pong, 27, was sentenced on Thursday at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts, having pleaded guilty earlier in the week to one count of “doing acts with seditious intention”, an offence carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail under the new legislation, known as Article 23. Chu was arrested for wearing a T-shirt reading “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” and a yellow mask printed with “FDNOL” – shorthand for another pro-democracy slogan, “five demands, not one less” – on June 12, a date marking the fifth anniversary of the city’s huge pro-democracy protests in 2019. The 2019 protest movement was the most concerted challenge to the Hong Kong government since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. It waned because of widespread arrests, the exile of democracy activists, the COVID-19 pandemic and China’s imposition of an earlier security law in 2020. Referring to the 2019 protests, Chief Magistrate Victor So – a judge handpicked by the government to hear national security cases – said on Thursday that Chu “took advantage of a symbolic day with the intention to reignite the ideas behind the unrest”. In January, the judge had sentenced Chu to three months in jail for wearing a similar T-shirt at the airport and possessing publications deemed seditious. He noted that Chu’s “subsequent act” showed the “deterrent effect of his previous sentence was insufficient”. Quelling dissent The sedition offence was created under British colonial rule, which ended in 1997, but was seldom used until Hong Kong authorities revived it in 2020 after the protests. With the protests quashed, China imposed a national security law on the city in mid-2020 to quell further dissent. The new national security law – the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, also known as Article 23 – came into force in March. The revised law augments the offence of sedition to include inciting hatred against China’s communist leadership, upping its jail sentence to a maximum penalty of 10 years if the sedition is conducted in collusion with an “external force”. Critics, including Western nations such as the United States, say Article 23 will further erode freedoms and silence dissent in Hong Kong – a finance hub once considered one of the freest territories in China. As of this month, 303 people have been arrested under the two security laws, with 176 prosecuted and 160 convicted. China introduced a draconian national security law in Hong Kong following mass pro-democracy protests in 2019 [File: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters] Adblock test (Why?)
Russian attacks on Ukraine power grid probably violate humanitarian law: UN
Russian air strikes on Ukraine’s electricity generation, transmission and distribution facilities probably violate international humanitarian law, according to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU). The report published on Thursday focused on nine waves of attacks between March and August this year. HRMMU said it had visited seven power plants that were damaged or destroyed by attacks, as well as 28 communities affected by the strikes. “There are reasonable grounds to believe that multiple aspects of the military campaign to damage or destroy Ukraine’s civilian electricity and heat-producing and transmission infrastructure have violated foundational principles of international humanitarian law,” the report said. The first big wave of strikes hit in 2022, several months after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February that year. The attacks have continued throughout the war, though Moscow has markedly stepped up its campaign since last March. Each wave of strikes has left Ukrainian cities without power for hours at a time for weeks on end. Ukraine says the targeting of its energy system is a war crime, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for four Russian officials and military officers for the bombing of civilian power infrastructure. Russia says power infrastructure is a legitimate military target and has dismissed the charges against its officials as irrelevant. “Russia is trying to plunge Ukraine in the dark with targeted attacks on its energy systems,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday as she announced that 160 million euros ($178m) from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets will be allocated to meet Ukraine’s urgent humanitarian needs for this winter. Russia has knocked out about 9 gigawatts of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which von der Leyen said was the “power equivalent of the three Baltic states”. A fuel power plant is being dismantled in Lithuania and will be rebuilt in Ukraine, where 80 percent of the country’s thermal plants have been destroyed, she said. A third of Ukraine’s hydropower is also out. The HRMMU said the attacks posed risks to Ukraine’s water supply, sewage and sanitation, to the provision of heating and hot water, public health, education and the wider economy. It highlighted a particular problem in urban areas, where most homes are linked to centralised heating and hot water systems. The report said that nearly 95 percent of residents in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, relied on centralised basement heating systems whose output required electric pumps to reach the upper floors of the building. “Without emergency electricity supply, millions of urban residents could be left without heat,” it said. HRMMU cited experts as saying that Ukrainians should expect power outages of between four and 18 hours a day this winter. ‘Sternest test yet’ Separately, the International Energy Agency made a similar grim prediction on Thursday, with IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol saying the coming winter would prove the “sternest test yet” for Ukraine’s energy grid. The IEA report said that in 2022 and 2023 “about half of Ukraine’s power generation capacity was either occupied by Russian forces, destroyed or damaged, and approximately half of the large network substations were damaged by missiles and drones”. It warned of a “yawning gap between available electricity supply and peak demand”. The report urged European countries to expedite deliveries of equipment as well as parts to rebuild the damaged facilities and called for measures to protect them from drones. Latest attacks On Thursday, Ukraine’s national grid operator Ukrenergo said Russia attacked energy infrastructure in Sumy overnight, prompting a temporary power cut in the northeastern region. Nine Ukrainian regions were attacked by Russia overnight, according to the war-torn country’s air force, saying it shot down all 42 drones and one of four missiles. Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region, said the air force had shot down one missile over his region, and that no one was hurt there. Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said six people were wounded in a Russian attack on the eastern town of Kupiansk, 8km (five miles) from the front line. Civilian infrastructure, a school, a kindergarten and 10 apartment buildings were damaged in the city of Kharkiv, he said. An educational institution was also damaged in the Cherkasy region, regional governor Ihor Taburets said. One elderly woman was killed and two other women were wounded by Russian strikes in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Thursday. Russian forces shelled the region 161 times over the past 24 hours, damaging infrastructure facilities and residential buildings, he said on the Telegram messaging app. ‘Victory Plan’ Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that his “Victory Plan”, intended to bring peace to his country while keeping it strong and avoiding all “frozen conflicts”, was now complete after much consultation. Zelenskyy pledged last month to present his plan to US President Joe Biden, presumably next week when he attends sessions of the UN Security Council and UN General Assembly. While providing daily updates on the plan’s preparation, Zelenskyy has given few clues of its content, indicating only that it aims to create terms acceptable to Ukraine. Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that there was no alternative to peace, “no freezing of the war or any other manipulations that would simply postpone Russian aggression to another stage”. Adblock test (Why?)
Battered by typhoons: Why aren’t Philippine flood control projects working?
Manila, Philippines – With the exception of a few pieces of hanging laundry, the first two floors of 65-year-old Veronica Castillo’s three-storey home are practically empty. “Our belongings are up top. We build our houses upwards here. Every year the floods will scrape the ceilings of the second floor,” Castillo told Al Jazeera, surveying her home in one of Marikina city’s slums, among the most flood-prone areas of Metro Manila. But while the government is building a pumping station to address the problem just five minutes away, construction has been going on so long that Castillo wonders whether it will ever be finished. “It’s been eight years,” she said. Since taking office in 2022, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has spent about half a trillion dollars to address persistent flooding from extreme weather in the Philippines. But despite the significant spending, cities continue to be inundated in a country that typically sees about 20 typhoons a year. During a speech in July, Marcos Jr boasted about his administration completing more than 5,000 flood control projects, of which 656 were in Metro Manila. Days later, Super Typhoon Gaemi deposited a month’s worth of rain on the area within 24 hours, killing dozens and leaving parts of the sprawling city submerged. Veronica Castillo lives on the top storey of her home because of the risk of flooding [Michael Beltran/Al Jazeera] Earlier this month, it was followed by Tropical Storm Yagi. Officials put the cost of the damage at 4.7 billion Philippine pesos ($84.3m) with nearly seven million people affected. At least a dozen more typhoons are expected before the end of the year. The Philippines has topped the World Risk Index‘s list of countries struggling to cope with natural hazards for 16 years in a row. According to the international engineering group GHD, floods and storms will cost the nation $124bn by 2050. Some analysts say the government’s approach is failing. “No amount of engineering can completely control floods,” said environmental geographer Timothy Cipriano from the scientist group AGHAM and the Philippine Normal University. “We might be able to control street-level flooding, but we have neglected the overflow from rivers and coastal areas.” Cipriano notes that Metro Manila and its 12 nearby provinces are “one big basin surrounded with the coasts on some sides and the mountains on the other plus the many man-made activities means surface runoffs quickly increase, and thus, rivers overflow.” Currently, the government has nine “flagship” flood control projects in the pipeline. Each involves building concrete or “grey” infrastructure to drain or trap excess water. At a public inquiry last August, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) chief, Manuel Bonoan, said Marcos Jr’s accomplishments were only for “immediate relief” and admitted many big-ticket projects had encountered delays. Government data shows that just one of the smaller “flagship” projects was completed this year, while the rest have languished in their preparatory stages since at least 2018. This includes the Metro Manila Flood Management Project, which aims to rehabilitate 36 pumping stations and build 20 new ones by this year. Despite a $415m World Bank loan, only two stations have been rehabilitated and none of the new ones have been completed. The 60-kilometre (37-mile) Central Luzon-Pampanga floodway, meant to drain stormwater from Metro Manila, was supposed to begin construction in 2024. However, last month, Bonoan conceded that delays had set the project back by three years. The DPWH also reported that 70 percent of Metro Manila’s “antiquated drainage system” was clogged with rubbish and silt, hampering flood management. It also reported that the country lacks a national flood control master plan, with only 18 scattered plans for major river basins which are “still being currently updated”. Perspective shift Most flood control efforts steer stormwater west to Manila Bay or Laguna Lake in the southeast. However, civil engineering expert Guillermo Tabios III says this approach has been ineffective for many years, and sometimes just transfers flood risks to coastal communities. “We divert around 2,500 cubic metres of water to Laguna Lake,” he said, adding that water also means “a lot of the surrounding towns will be submerged”. Cipriano blames rapid urbanisation and nearby quarrying for strangling Metro Manila’s 31 rivers and their tributaries. Merjelda Toralba in her home. She says the floods get worse every year [Michael Beltran/Al Jazeera] During Gaemi, Merjelda Toralba, 70, spent nearly 24 hours on the roof of her makeshift creek-side home. She had to tie a rope from her wooden doorframe to a coconut tree to stop the rising current from carrying the entire house downstream. “The flooding is worse each year. And I’m more afraid each time it rains hard. In just a few hours, I’d be trapped and the waters just won’t go away,” she told Al Jazeera. Environmental and sanitation expert Jose Antonio Montalban of Pro-People Engineers and Leaders (Propel) says much of the new infrastructure is costly to maintain. In Yagi’s heavy downpours, sections of the Molino Riverdrive Project collapsed as floodwaters spilled onto the roads. Montalban blames unavoidable erosion to the cement and possible substandard materials, but “it was clearly over its maximum carrying capacity. Now repairs will cost taxpayers yet again”. Montalban says what is needed is a “holistic approach” that considers “all factors economic, ecological, hydrological and social. Unfortunately for us, rudimentary engineering applications are the norm”. During Gaemi, the government admitted that 71 of the Metro Manila pumping stations were unable to handle the rainfall, which was more than double the system’s 30mm/hour capacity. Cipriano says the authorities need to look at flood-prone areas as a “sponge city. Instead of controlling water, you design spaces to accommodate water. Make it less of a concrete jungle, allow waters to seep or flow without constricting rivers.” Big spender Since 2015, the Philippine government has allocated 1.14 trillion Philippine pesos ($20.3bn) for flood control, with 48 percent of it during the Marcos Jr administration. Independent public budget analyst Zy-za Nadine Suzara says probable “patronage politics” was involved after noticing