Day: September 1, 2021

A new report released Wednesday by the United Nations indicates extreme weather events have increased fivefold over the past 50 years, while the number of fatalities related to those events has dropped.

Officials from the U.N.’s weather and climate agency, the World Meteorological Organization, introduced the report during a briefing from the agency’s headquarters in Geneva. The report shows weather-related disasters have occurred on average at a rate of one per day over the past five decades, killing 115 people and causing $202 million in losses daily.

Mami Mizutori, U.N. special representative for disaster risk reduction, told reporters she found the report “quite alarming.” She noted that this past July was the hottest July on record, marked by heat waves and floods around the world. The study shows that more people are suffering due to this increased frequency and intensity of weather events.

Mizutori said 31 million people were displaced by natural disasters last year, almost surpassing the number displaced by conflicts. She said on average, 26 million people per year are pushed into poverty by extreme weather events. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic is compounding the problem.

The U.N. disaster risk specialist said, “We live in this, what we call, the multihazard world, and it demonstrates that we really need to invest more in disaster risk reduction and prevention.”

WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said the good news in the report is that during that same period, fatalities related to these disasters dropped by nearly three times, due to early warning systems and improved disaster management.

But the study also shows that more than 91% of the deaths that do occur happen in developing or low-income countries, as many do not have the same warning and management systems in place.

The WMO officials said the economic losses associated with these disasters will worsen without serious climate change mitigation. Taalas said if the right measures are put in place, the trend could be stopped in the next 40 years. WMO called on the G-20 group of world economic powers to keep their promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Source: Voice of America

NEW DELHI– India established the first official contact with the Taliban, as India’s ambassador to Qatar held talks with a top Taliban leader yesterday, an official at India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said.

The meeting took place at the Taliban’s request, said the Ministry, in a written statement.

In the statement, the ministry said that, India’s ambassador to Qatar, Deepak Mittal, met Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, head of the Taliban’s Political Office in Doha, at India’s embassy in Doha.

“Discussions focused on safety, security and early return of Indian nationals stranded in Afghanistan. The travel of Afghan nationals, especially minorities, who wish to visit India also came up,” the statement said, and added that, India’s ambassador raised India’s concern that Afghanistan’s soil “should not be used for anti-Indian activities and terrorism in any manner.”

The Taliban representative assured the ambassador that these issues would be positively addressed.

 

 

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Four years after his arrest on unsubstantiated treason charges, former Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha wants to resume the long-suspended trial that has sidelined him from politics, his lawyer said Wednesday, the eve of the anniversary of his 2017 arrest.

Kem Sokha, 68, is in political limbo awaiting the resumption of a trial that has been put off in what analysts say is a government tactic to tie him down through the next election cycle.

His trial opened on Jan. 15, 2020, more than two years after his arrest in a case denounced by his family as a “farce” and considered by the United States as politically motivated. The trial was suspended in March of that year on the pretext of the coronavirus pandemic until 2021, when it was further delayed.

The acting leader of the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), Sam Rainsy, lives in exile in France and was sentenced in absentia in March to 25 years for attempting to overthrow the government.

Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP two months after Kem Sokha’s arrest in September 2017, launching a wider crackdown by Prime Minister Hun Sen on the political opposition, NGOs, and the independent media that paved the way for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) to win all 125 seats in parliament in the country’s July 2018 general election.

Attorney Pheng Heng said Kem Sokha, who maintains his innocence, is living with anxiety because he has been banned from involvement in politics while the Phnom Penh Municipal Court has refused to hold his trial.

“In principle, he has continued to deny the allegations, and he wants to see all charges against him dropped,” Pheng Heng said.

“If it is a political dispute, only politicians can talk to quickly end it. His stand is that he wants to see national reconciliation and not take any Cambodians as enemies,” he said.

The attorney said he has met both formally and informally with the judges to discuss expediting the case, but to no avail.

“Submitting letters for interventions [from the court] is not an answer at this time due to political tension. The court is using the excuse of the COVID-19 [virus pandemic] to delay the hearing,” Pheng Heng said.

RFA could not reach Taing Sunlay, director of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, for comment on Wednesday.

CPP spokesman Sok Ey San refused to comment on Kem Sokha’s freedom or his possible participation in the next general election in 2023, saying that the CNRP has been dissolved.

He also said that the CPP has no plan to negotiate with the defunct CNRP, which he called a “rebel group.”

“The government is a legitimate government. It can’t negotiate with an outlaw group regardless of circumstances. The individual case is being handled by the court so there is no negotiation,” Sok Ey San said.

Political analyst Meas Ny told RFA that Kem Sokha’s case is a politically motivated one that the court has delayed as “a strategy to weaken [his] influence and ensure the ruling party’s victory.”

“As long as the ruling party does not have the confidence that it will get full support from the people, Kem Sokha’s trial will be delayed until 2023 or 2024,” he said. “If the situation does not improve for the ruling party, then the democratic movement will continue to come under pressure.”

Meas Ny said that court cases against Kem Sokha and the CNRP have plunged Cambodia into a prolonged political crisis and damaged relationships with Western countries, some of which have imposed trade sanctions or visa bans on the country and its officials.

Without a quick political solution, Cambodia will fall into an even deeper crisis, he said.

In early August, former CNRP officials formed new parties to try to restore democracy to Cambodia, after asking Hun Sen to reinstate their political rights by dropping an order banning them from politics for five years that accompanied the court-ordered dissolution of the party.

 

 

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AFFECTED AREA/S

Bù Đăng

DESCRIPTION

On the night of August 30 and early morning, August 31, in Bu Dang district (Binh Phuoc) appeared a prolonged heavy rain, causing many areas to be flooded, many properties were washed away.

According to the Bu Dang district’s Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Control, the initial statistics showed that 50 houses and 5 cars were flooded with 1-2 meters of heavy damage; 40 hectares of crops were damaged including 30 hectares of rice, 10 hectares of fruit trees submerged more than 2m deep; A 25m long suspension bridge over Dak Woa stream and many other valuable properties were washed away.

 

 

Source: ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance