Insurance firms should shun the East African Crude Oil Pipeline
Last year was the hottest on record, with extreme weather events in many corners of the globe. It was also the year in which countries reached a landmark agreement at the UN Climate Conference (COP28) to begin “transitioning away from fossil fuels”. If governments are to comply with this agreement and avert global climate collapse, there cannot be any new expansion of coal, oil and gas production. This includes the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), one of the largest and most controversial fossil fuel projects currently under development. Financing for EACOP is yet to be secured, but if it is and the project moves forward, a 1,443km (897-mile) pipeline will stretch from oil fields in western Uganda to the port of Tanga in eastern Tanzania. The project’s completion would not only contribute to increased greenhouse gas emissions which fuel climate change but also harm local communities. That is why, Human Rights Watch is calling on insurance firms to stop providing support for it. The pipeline is planned to traverse some of Africa’s most sensitive ecosystems, including Murchison Falls National Park and the Murchison Falls-Albert Delta Ramsar site. Pipeline ruptures, inadequate waste handling, and other pollution impacts would cause significant damage to the land, water, air and the species that rely on them. Our research found that the project’s initial land acquisition process has already devastated thousands of people’s livelihoods in Uganda, causing food insecurity and household debt that has resulted in children dropping out of school. During our interviews with local communities, many described being largely self-sufficient before the project began, using revenue from coffee, bananas and other cash crops to pay for school fees and other household expenses. When their land was allocated for the pipeline construction, they were not compensated immediately for it. They waited an average of three to five years after the land evaluation process took place, and interviewees repeatedly told Human Rights Watch that the payments they received were not adequate to purchase replacement land. They said they were worse off than they were previously. While they were waiting for compensation, many farmers understood that they were not permitted to access their land to tend perennial crops, and were therefore deprived of crucial income. Residents described how the payment delays impacted their food security, pushing them to sell household assets, including livestock, or borrow money from predatory lenders at excessive rates to buy the food they would have previously grown on their plots and cover other expenses. This has left many families poorer and more insecure about their future. If the pipeline is completed, more than 100,000 people in Uganda and Tanzania will permanently lose land to make way for it. Civil society groups in Uganda and Tanzania have called for the pipeline not to be built, citing climate, environmental and social risks. Ugandan civil society groups say that, instead of building the pipeline, the Ugandan government should develop its abundant renewable energy resources – particularly solar and hydropower – to drive economic development and secure access to energy without further contributing to climate change. Their demands have been met with hostility from the Ugandan authorities. Our research documented the Ugandan government’s systematic harassment, arbitrary arrests of and threats against environmental defenders and anti-fossil fuel activists for raising concerns over the pipeline project and oil development. In this context, it is deeply troubling that insurance companies are enabling this and other big fossil fuel projects by providing insurance for them. This is despite the fact that new oil projects are wholly inconsistent with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoiding the worst consequences of climate change. In late 2023, Human Rights Watch wrote to 15 insurance and reinsurance companies and shared our findings on the grave environmental and human rights risks associated with the pipeline. Only two companies – Lloyd’s of London and Chubb – responded to us, and neither agreed to reassess their involvement in the project. In early March, civil society groups across the world organised a global week of action to end fossil fuels, including confronting insurance companies about their role in the climate crisis and asking them to rule out support for fossil fuel projects. Anti-fossil fuel activists held peaceful protests at regional offices of the insurance companies still involved in the East African project with the message: “Insure our futures, not fossil fuels.” Increasing numbers of insurers have made public commitments to not underwrite the pipeline, but others have persisted. Continued support for EACOP is a mistake. By underwriting the project, insurers are helping to build the longest heated oil pipeline in the world at a time when the world is warming at dangerous levels. Insurance companies should refuse to support this project. The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. Adblock test (Why?)
Armenia claims Azerbaijan ‘completed’ ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh
Azerbaijan systematically ‘erasing’ all traces of ethnic Armenians in the disputed region, Yerevan says. Azerbaijan has “completed” the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia claimed to the UN’s top court. In a case brought by Yerevan against its Caucus neighbour and rival over alleged discrimination and ethnic cleansing, lawyers for Armenia on Tuesday told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Baku is “erasing all traces of ethnic Armenians’ presence” in the contested territory. “After threatening to do so for years, Azerbaijan has completed the ethnic cleansing of the region,” Armenia’s representative Yeghishe Kirakosyan claimed. The two Caucasian countries have been contesting the Nagorno-Karabakh territory during the three decades since the Soviet Union collapsed. Yerevan has sought to bring international attention to the mountainous enclave since Baku took control in a military operation in September. The ICJ case, filed by Armenia in 2021, accuses Azerbaijan of glorifying racism against and allowing hate speech against Armenians and destroying Armenian cultural sites. Armenia said that put Azerbaijan in violation of a UN anti-discrimination treaty. Baku has denied all the accusations against it. The case stems from a 2020 war over Nagorno-Karabakh that left more than 6,600 people dead, one of three full-scale conflicts that the pair have fought over the issue. Azerbaijan’s armed forces recaptured the mountainous region in September after years of ethnic Armenian control, prompting most ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia. Kirakosyan said Baku was “now consolidating [its control of Nagorno-Karabakh] by systematically erasing all traces of ethnic Armenians’ presence, including Armenian cultural and religious heritage”. He told the judges that Baku “has increasingly been characterising Armenia’s human rights claims … as some sort of challenge to Azerbaijan’s sovereignty or territorial integrity.” “Azerbaijan is profoundly mistaken. Armenia has no claims to Azerbaijan’s territory and is also committed to establishing conditions for genuine and enduring peace,” the lawyer asserted. Bad faith On Monday, the first day of the hearings, Azerbaijan told the court that most of Armenia’s complaints did not fall within the scope of the UN treaty. Baku’s lawyers also accused Armenia of failing to genuinely engage in negotiations, a pre-requisite under the treaty for bringing the case to the ICJ. Kirakosyan rejected the claims. “Armenia negotiated with Azerbaijan in good faith and pursued discussions far beyond the point of utility,” he stated. An ethnic Armenian woman from Nagorno-Karabakh sits inside an old Soviet-style car as she arrives in Goris, in Syunik region, Armenia, on September 27 [File: Vasily Krestyaninov/AP Photo] In November, the court issued emergency measures in the case, ordering Azerbaijan to allow ethnic Armenians who fled Nagorno-Karabakh to return. Azerbaijan says it has pledged to ensure all residents’ safety and security, regardless of national or ethnic origin, and that it has not forced ethnic Armenians to leave Karabakh. The hearings will cover only the legal objections to the jurisdiction of the ICJ and will not go into the merits of the discrimination claims. A final ruling in both cases could be years away and the ICJ has no way to enforce its rulings. Adblock test (Why?)
Global day of action over Gaza war
NewsFeed Pro-Palestine protesters shut down the Golden Gate bridge as part of a global day of action over Israel’s war on Gaza, which also saw key economic sites blockaded in cities across the world. Published On 16 Apr 202416 Apr 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Armourer for the film Rust sentenced to 18 months in fatal on-set shooting
A New Mexico state judge cited Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s apparent lack of remorse in her decision to impose the sentence. The weapons supervisor for the film Rust has been sentenced in the United States to 18 months in prison for her role in the fatal on-set shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armourer on the film, received the maximum possible sentence at Monday’s hearing in Santa Fe, New Mexico, after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter on March 6. The state judge who handed down the sentence, Mary Marlowe Sommer, said Gutierrez-Reed had a responsibility to keep the set safe and that she failed to do so. “You were the armourer, the one that stood between a safe weapon and a weapon that could kill someone,” Marlowe Sommer said. “You alone turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon. But for you, Ms Hutchins would be alive, a husband would have his partner and a little boy would have his mother.” Hutchins’s killing in October 2021 sent shockwaves through the Hollywood film industry. Rust’s star and producer, Alec Baldwin, had been practising for a shootout scene with a revolver when the gun went off. The revolver was carrying live ammunition – something banned on US film sets – and the round struck Hutchins in the chest. She died on the way to the hospital. The bullet also hit director Joel Souza, though he has since recovered from his injuries. Baldwin has repeatedly denied pulling the trigger, though a forensic analysis from the prosecution concluded the revolver was unlikely to fire unless he did. He too faces trial for involuntary manslaughter in July, with a sentence of up to 18 months in prison as well. Olga Solovey speaks to the loss of her daughter Halyna Hutchins via video conference in court on April 15 [Eddie Moore/Reuters, pool] Ahead of Monday’s sentencing, defence lawyers asked the judge to consider the “devastating effect a felony will have” on the 26-year-old Gutierrez-Reed. But prosecutors highlighted Gutierrez-Reed’s seeming lack of remorse. “Ms Gutierrez continues to refuse to accept responsibility for her role in the death of Halyna Hutchins,” said special prosecutor Kari Morrissey. In a court filing earlier this month, prosecutors requested that Gutierrez-Reed receive the maximum sentence “due to her recklessness in the face of knowledge that her acts were reasonably likely to result in serious harm”. They cited instances where Gutierrez-Reed was allegedly in possession of cocaine and smuggled a firearm into a bar, something for which she faces charges in a separate case. The filing also outlined jailhouse phone calls where Gutierrez-Reed allegedly said “she can’t believe that the judge put her in jail” and that she was “wrongly incarcerated”. Those calls appeared to have played a role in the outcome of her sentencing hearing. “The word ‘remorse’ – a deep regret coming from a sense of guilt for past wrongs – that’s not you,” Judge Marlowe Summer said after referring to a portion of the phone call transcripts. At the sentencing hearing, family and friends of the late Hutchins gathered to share statements and remembrances. “I struggle to deal with this repeatedly being called an accident, because it was not an accident, it was negligence,” said Jen White, a colleague. Hutchins’s mother, Olga Solovey, also appeared at the hearing via video conference from Kyiv in her native Ukraine. Speaking in Ukrainian, she testified to the impact her daughter’s death has had: “It’s the hardest thing to lose a child. There are no words to describe.” Adblock test (Why?)
Tesla to lay off more than 10 percent of staff worldwide amid falling sales
CEO Elon Musk says in memo that job cuts will leave firm ‘lean, innovative and hungry for the next growth phase cycle’. Electric carmaker Tesla plans to lay off more than 10 percent of its global workforce, according to a memo sent to employees by CEO Elon Musk. Musk told staff in an email on Monday that the cuts were necessary due to the “duplication of roles and job functions in certain areas”, which had followed the company’s rapid global expansion. “As we prepare the company for our next phase of growth, it is extremely important to look at every aspect of the company for cost reductions and increasing productivity,” Musk said in the memo obtained by multiple media outlets. “As part of this effort, we have done a thorough review of the organisation and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10 per cent globally. There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done. This will enable us to be lean, innovative and hungry for the next growth phase cycle.” Musk thanked the remaining staff for the “difficult job that remains ahead” as the company worked to develop “revolutionary technologies in auto, energy and artificial intelligence”. In a post on X after the news became public, Musk said that Tesla needed to “reorganise and streamline the company for the next phase of growth” about every five years. Electrek, a media outlet focused on electric transportation and sustainable energy, first reported the layoffs. The announcement comes less than two weeks after Tesla reported that vehicle deliveries fell by 8.5 percent in the first quarter, the first year-over-year drop since 2020. Tesla’s disappointing results followed supply chain disruptions caused by Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and an arson attack by environmental activists at a production facility in Germany. In a further sign of upheaval at the company, two senior executives announced their departure on social media. Andrew Baglino, the senior vice president of powertrain and energy engineering, said on X that he had made the “difficult decision to move on from Tesla after 18 years”. “I am so thankful to have worked with and learned from the countless incredibly talented people at Tesla over the years,” Baglino said. Rohan Patel, the senior global director of public policy and business development, also said he would be leaving the company after eight years. Tesla shares fell by more than 5 percent on Monday, continuing a downward streak which has seen the stock lose about one-third of its value so far this year. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 782
As the war enters its 782nd day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Fighting At least two people were killed after a Russian guided aerial bomb hit an education centre in the village of Lukiantsi in the northeastern Kharkiv region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a new plea to Ukraine’s allies for air defences to protect against Russian strikes on cities and infrastructure and noted that Ukraine’s forces were facing difficult situations along the eastern front line in Chasiv Yar, west of the destroyed Russian-held town of Bakhmut, and in Pokrovsk and Kupiansk, further west and north. Politics and diplomacy International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi told the United Nations Security Council that “reckless attacks” on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power plant in Ukraine had put the world “dangerously close to a nuclear accident”. Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the incidents over the last week but Grossi said it was “impossible” at the moment to prove who was behind them. Senior officials in the United States accused China of supporting Russia’s war effort in Ukraine by providing drone and missile technology, satellite imagery and machine tools. The Chinese Embassy in the US said it has not provided weaponry to any party and that it was “not a producer of or party involved in the Ukraine crisis”. US House Speaker Mike Johnson said the House of Representatives would consider aid to Ukraine and Israel as separate pieces of legislation this week. Some $60bn in assistance to Ukraine, which was passed by the Senate as a single bill alongside aid for Israel and Taiwan, has been blocked by Republicans for weeks. A Russian military court jailed a 29-year-old man for 14 years after he was found guilty of cooperating with a foreign state and “justifying terrorism”. Vladlen Menshikov was initially accused of attempting to sabotage railway lines carrying military equipment near his hometown of Rezh, a small village near the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. The US imposed sanctions on 12 Belarus entities and 10 individuals over what it said was their support for Russia’s war on Ukraine. A ballet performance in South Korea featuring principal dancers from Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet was cancelled a day before opening night, the organiser said. The last-minute cancellation came after Seoul performances of a ballet starring Svetlana Zakharova, a Ukrainian-born Russian prima ballerina and vocal supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, were called off in March. Weapons Colonel Vadym Sukharevskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s drone forces, said Ukraine had delivered three times more drones to its army so far this year than in the whole of 2023. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba appealed for “extraordinary and bold steps” to supply air defences to help Ukraine defend itself against waves of Russian air strikes. “We urgently require additional Patriot and other modern air defence systems, weapons and ammunition,” Kuleba told a Black Sea security conference via videolink. Adblock test (Why?)
What is Donald Trump’s ‘hush money’ trial all about?
NewsFeed Here’s what you need to know about Donald Trump’s ‘hush money’ criminal trial involving Stormy Daniels. Published On 15 Apr 202415 Apr 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Lawmakers brawl as Georgian Parliament considers ‘foreign agent’ bill
Legislators debate bill requiring organisations that accept overseas funds to register as foreign agents or face fines. Lawmakers in Georgia have come to blows inside parliament as ruling party legislators appeared likely to advance a bill on “foreign agents” that has been criticised by Western countries and has caused protests at home as “pro-Russia”. Footage broadcast on Georgian television showed Mamuka Mdinaradze, leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party’s parliamentary faction and a driving force behind the bill, being punched in the face on Monday by opposition MP Aleko Elisashvili while speaking before the legislative body. Tensions in parliament have bubbled up in recent years as the ruling party and the opposition have debated whether to deepen relations with the West or reconnect the former Soviet republic with Russia. Russia is widely unpopular in Georgia due to Moscow’s support of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia also defeated Georgia in a short war in 2008. The incident on Monday prompted a wider brawl between several lawmakers, an occasional occurrence in the often raucous Georgian Parliament. ‘No to the Russian law’ Footage showed Elisashvili being greeted with cheers after the incident by protesters gathered outside the parliament building. Before a rally to protest the bill on Monday evening, protesters unfurled a large European Union flag and shouted: “No to the Russian law!” “Georgia’s society is strong enough not to allow the country to slide into Russian-styled authoritarianism,” Saba Gotua, an architect, told the Agence France-Presse news agency. Georgian Dream said this month that it would reintroduce legislation requiring organisations that accept funds from abroad to register as foreign agents or face fines, 13 months after protests forced it to shelve the plan. The bill has strained relations with European countries and the United States, which have said they oppose its passage. The EU, which gave Georgia candidate status in December, has said the legislation is incompatible with the bloc’s values. Georgian Dream says it wants the country to join the EU and NATO even as it has deepened ties with Russia and faced accusations of authoritarianism at home. It says the bill is necessary to combat what it calls “pseudo-liberal values” imposed by foreigners and to promote transparency. Deep divisions Georgia’s government said Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze held a meeting on Monday with the EU, British and US ambassadors during which they discussed the bill. In a statement, Kobakhidze defended the draft law as promoting accountability and said it was “not clear” why Western countries opposed it. The US said last week that passing the law would “derail Georgia from its European path”. “We are deeply concerned that, if it is enacted, this draft legislation would harm civil society organisations [and] … impede independent media organisations,” US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller told journalists. Last year, Kobakhidze also clashed with the West over the imposition of sanctions on Russia, saying the move would “destroy” Tbilisi’s economy and “damage the interests” of Georgian citizens. Georgian critics have labelled the bill “the Russian law”, comparing it to similar legislation used by the Kremlin to crack down on dissent in Russia. If approved by members of the legislature’s legal affairs committee, which is controlled by Georgian Dream and its allies, the foreign agent bill could proceed to a first reading in parliament. The adoption of the legislation is likely to further deepen divisions in Georgia, whose staunchly pro-Western president, Salome Zurabishvili, has condemned the bill as damaging to democracy. Georgia is due to hold elections by October. Opinion polls show that Georgian Dream remains the most popular party but has lost ground since 2020 when it won a narrow majority. Adblock test (Why?)
Azerbaijan calls for ICJ to throw out Armenian ethnic cleansing case
The case accuses Azerbaijan of glorifying racism and allowing hate speech against Armenians. Azerbaijan has called for the UN’s International Court of Justice to throw out a case accusing it of ethnic cleansing brought by its neighbour and rival Armenia. Lawyers for Azerbaijan argued on Monday that the case does not meet the conditions of the United Nations anti-discrimination treaty on which it is based. They also claimed that the ICJ does not have the jurisdiction to rule on the issues contained in the complaint. The two Caucasian countries have been contesting the Nagorno-Karabakh territory during the three decades since the Soviet Union collapsed. Yerevan has sought to bring international attention to the mountainous enclave since Baku took control in a military operation in September. The ICJ case, filed by Armenia in 2021, accuses Azerbaijan of glorifying racism against and allowing hate speech against Armenians and destroying Armenian cultural sites. Baku has denied all the claims. The case stems from a 2020 war over Nagorno-Karabakh that left more than 6,600 people dead, one of three full-scale conflicts that the pair have fought over the issue. ‘Premature’ The UN convention on stamping out racial discrimination has a clause allowing disputes to be resolved by the ICJ should bilateral talks fail to broker a settlement. Azerbaijan’s representative Elnur Mammadov claimed to the court that Armenia had failed to “engage in negotiations with Azerbaijan in an attempt to settle” the issue and that the lawsuit was therefore “premature”. There were “limited negotiations” but Yerevan “failed to pursue them”, Mammadov said. “From the outset, Armenia had its sights firmly set on commencing these proceedings before the court … and using the fact of these proceedings to wage a public media campaign against Azerbaijan.” International law professor Stefan Talmon, representing Azerbaijan, added that Armenia “never gave negotiations a chance”. He argued that “with no negotiations and no genuine attempt at negotiations, that basically is the end of Armenia’s application”. Azerbaijan also asserted that most of the allegations in Armenia’s case fall outside the scope of the discrimination convention, meaning the court does not have jurisdiction. Armenia is scheduled to respond on Tuesday to Azerbaijan’s arguments. Azerbaijan also has a case against Armenia lodged with the court, alleging breaches of the same convention. Objections filed by Armenia to that case will be heard later this month. The 2020 conflict ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire agreement that granted Azerbaijan control over parts of Nagorno-Karabakh as well as some adjacent territories. Azerbaijan then waged a lightning military campaign in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023 that resulted in the vast majority of the region’s 120,000 residents fleeing. In December, the two sides agreed to begin negotiations on a peace treaty. However, many residents of Armenia’s border regions have resisted the demarcation effort, seeing it as Azerbaijan encroaching on areas they consider their own. Adblock test (Why?)
US: Iran ‘will be held responsible’ for further attacks
NewsFeed The United States is warning Iran that if it or its proxies attack the United States or Israel, it will be held responsible. The warning came during a UN Security Council meeting Sunday in which the US condemned what it called Iran’s ‘unprecedented’ drone and missile attack on Israel. Published On 14 Apr 202414 Apr 2024 Adblock test (Why?)