UN, World Bank urge schools to remain open amid pandemic

UNITED NATIONS, United States - The UN and World Bank pleaded in a new report Wednesday for schools to remain open despite Covid-19 risks, highlighting the damage the pandemic has inflicted on children's education, especially in poor nations. 

Children in impoverished countries have been deprived of close to four months of schooling since the pandemic began early this year, while pupils in rich nations benefiting from remote learning have lost six weeks, the report said. 

"Prioritizing reopening schools and providing much-needed catch-up classes are critical," said Robert Jenkins, education chief at the UN children's fund UNICEF. 

"We don't need to look far to see the devastation the pandemic has caused to children's learning across the world," he added in a statement.

The devastation has been magnified in low- and middle-income nations, where there has been a lack of access to distance learning, higher chances of delays for school reopenings and fewer resources to mitigate health risks.

UN cultural agency UNESCO and the World Bank also said it is essential for countries to invest immediately in school systems to reduce the widening gap between the education provided in poor and rich countries because of the pandemic.

The report from UNICEF, UNESCO and the World Bank was based on information collected from nearly 150 nations between June and October.

Agence France-Presse

UN expert urges states to ban evictions amid pandemic

GENEVA - A UN rights expert called Tuesday for governments to ban evictions until the COVID-19 pandemic ends, warning the number of people being expelled from their homes was rising globally.

Warning of an impending "tsunami" of evictions, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the United Nations' top expert on the right to housing, stressed that "losing your home during this pandemic could mean losing your life".

The independent expert, who is appointed by the UN but does not speak on its behalf, stressed that "the right to housing is central to any response to the pandemic".

"But now we are seeing an acceleration in evictions and home demolitions."

Rajagopal said that while some governments have implemented temporary bans on forced evictions, many people are continuing to lose their homes.

He pointed for instance to Kenya where more than 8,000 people were forcibly ejected from their homes in a single day in May, and Brazil where more than 2,000 families have been evicted amid the pandemic.

But he emphasized that the danger was global.

"Temporary bans in many countries have ended or are coming to an end, and this raises serious concerns that a tsunami of evictions may follow," he warned. 

"Governments must not allow people to become homeless during this pandemic because they lose their job and cannot pay their rent or mortgage."

His comments came as activists and relief groups in the United States -- the country hardest hit in the pandemic -- scramble to avert seeing millions pushed into homelessness.

The Aspen Institute has estimated that more than 40 million people in the country could be at risk of eviction in coming months. 

"Forced evictions are an outrageous violation of human rights," Rajagopal said.

Agence France-Presse

UN chief backs global access to 'people's vaccine' for coronavirus

LONDON - United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday said a new vaccine against the coronavirus had to be available to everyone across the world, as an international conference got under way to raise funds for new life-saving treatments.

The virtual meeting, hosted by Britain, aims to raise $7.4 billion for immunization programs stalled by the pandemic, and launch a new fundraising drive to support potential COVID-19 vaccines.

In a video message, Guterres said: "A vaccine must be seen as a global public good -- a people's vaccine, which a growing number of world leaders are calling for."

There needed to be "global solidarity to ensure that every person, everywhere, has access," he added.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for a "new era of global health cooperation" to "unite humanity in the fight against disease," particularly in the poorest countries.

More than 50 countries are taking part in the meeting, as well as individuals such as billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, to raise funds for Gavi, the vaccine alliance.

Over the next 5 years, it wants to reboot halted programs and provide vaccines at a much-reduced cost to some 300 million children worldwide. 

Gavi and its partners will also launch a financing drive to purchase potential COVID-19 vaccines, scale-up their production and support delivery to developing nations.

The pandemic has exposed new ruptures in international cooperation, notably with US President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the World Health Organization (WHO).

But Johnson said helping developing countries would benefit places such as Britain, which has seen more than 39,000 deaths in the coronavirus outbreak -- the second-highest in the world behind the United States.

"This support for routine immunizations will shore up poorer countries' health care systems to deal with coronavirus -- and so help to stop the global spread," he told reporters on Wednesday.

"This virus has shown how connected we are. We're fighting an invisible enemy. And no one is safe frankly until we are all safe."

ALL AT RISK

Trump sent a recorded message to the conference, telling delegates: "As the coronavirus has shown, there are no borders. It doesn't discriminate.

"It's mean, it's nasty. But we can all take care of it together... we will work hard. We will work strong."

Microsoft founder Gates earlier said pharmaceutical companies had been working together to try to secure the required production capacity. 

"It's been amazing, the pharmaceutical companies stepping up to say 'yes, even if our vaccine is not the best, we will make our factories available,'" he told BBC radio.

The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 380,000 people since it emerged in China last December, according to an AFP tally of official sources.

Stay-at-home orders were imposed across the world, causing huge economic disruption and the suspension of many routine immunisation services.

The WHO, UN children's agency UNICEF and Gavi warned last month that vaccine services were disrupted in nearly 70 countries, affecting some 80 million children under the age of 1.

Polio eradication drives were suspended in dozens of countries, while measles vaccination campaigns were also put on hold in 27 countries, UNICEF said. 

Guterres urged the conference to commit to finding "safe ways to continue delivering vaccinations, even as COVID-19 spreads" and to make sure that any coronavirus vaccine "reaches everyone".

Recent Gavi-supported modelling from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimated that for every coronavirus death prevented by halting vaccination campaigns in Africa, up to 140 people could die from vaccine-preventable diseases. 

"More children in more countries are now protected against more diseases than at any point in history," said Seth Berkley, chief executive of Gavi.

"However, these historic advances in global health are now at risk of unravelling as COVID-19 causes unprecedented disruption to vaccine programs worldwide. 

"We face the very real prospect of a global resurgence of diseases like measles, polio and yellow fever, which would put us all at risk."

Agence France-Presse

Pandemic could create 'human rights disaster': UN

The UN rights chief warned Monday that countries flouting the rule of law in the name of fighting the novel coronavirus pandemic risk sparking a "human rights disaster".

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called on countries to refrain from violating fundamental rights "under the guise of exceptional or emergency measures."

"Emergency powers should not be a weapon governments can wield to quash dissent, control the population, and even perpetuate their time in power," she warned in a statement.

"They should be used to cope effectively with the pandemic –- nothing more, nothing less."

Her comments came after more than 200,000 people have perished in the pandemic and nearly three million have been infected worldwide by the novel coronavirus since it surfaced in China late last year.

Bachelet acknowledged that states have the right to restrict some rights to protect public health, but she insisted that any restrictions should be necessary, proportionate and non-discriminatory, and also limited in duration.

"There have been numerous reports from different regions that police and other security forces have been using excessive, and at times lethal, force to make people abide by lockdowns and curfews," she said, lamenting that "such violations have often been committed against people belonging to the poorest and most vulnerable segments of the population."

"Shooting, detaining, or abusing someone for breaking a curfew because they are desperately searching for food is clearly an unacceptable and unlawful response.

"So is making it difficult or dangerous for a woman to get to hospital to give birth."

- 'Incalculable damage' -

"In some cases, people are dying because of the inappropriate application of measures that have been supposedly put in place to save them," Bachelet said.

She also decried the mass arrests in some countries over curfew violations as "both unnecessary and unsafe."

"Jails and prisons are high risk environments, and states should focus on releasing whoever can be safely released, not detaining more people."

The UN rights chief also warned that efforts to rein in dangerous misinformation around the pandemic was in some cases being used as an excuse to crack down on legitimate free speech.

"It is important to counter misinformation, but shutting down the free exchange of ideas and information not only violates rights, it undermines trust," she said.

"Undermining rights such as freedom of expression may do incalculable damage to the effort to contain COVID-19 and its pernicious socioeconomic side-effects," she warned.

Bachelet also insisted that any exceptional measures or state of emergencies introduced in the name of fighting COVID-19 should be subject to proper parliamentary, judicial and public oversight to avoid abuses.

"If the rule of law is not upheld, then the public health emergency risks becoming a human rights disaster, with negative effects that will long outlast the pandemic itself," she said.

Agence France-Presse

Global hunger could double due to COVID-19 blow: UN

GENEVA - The number of people facing acute food insecurity could nearly double this year to 265 million due to the economic fallout of COVID-19, the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP) said on Tuesday.

The impact of lost tourism revenues, falling remittances and travel and other restrictions linked to the coronavirus pandemic are expected to leave some 130 million people acutely hungry this year, adding to around 135 million already in that category.

"COVID-19 is potentially catastrophic for millions who are already hanging by a thread," said Arif Husain, chief economist and director of research, assessment and monitoring at the WFP.

-reuters-

Only a COVID-19 vaccine will allow return to 'normalcy': UN chief

UNITED NATIONS, United States - A COVID-19 vaccine may be the only thing that can bring back "normalcy," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday, hoping for just that before the end of the year.

"A safe and effective vaccine may be the only tool that can return the world to a sense of 'normalcy,' saving millions of lives and countless trillions of dollars," he added during a video conference with the 50 or so African countries that are members of the United Nations.

He called for its accelerated development and accessibility to all, adding it must have a "universal global benefit" and "allow us to control the pandemic."

"We need an ambitious effort to ensure that international stakeholders operate through a harmonized, integrated and leveraged approach to maximize the speed and scale needed for the universal deployment of such a vaccine by the end of 2020," he insisted.

Guterres said his appeal on March 25 for $2 billion in donations for a comprehensive UN humanitarian response to the pandemic had so far raised about 20 percent of that amount.

Through the World Health Organization, the United Nations has been able to equip 47 African countries with COVID-19 tests, he said.

The UN chief also praised the efforts of several African governments to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic.

He cited Uganda, which has given businesses more time to file their tax returns; Namibia, which provides emergency income for workers who have lost their jobs; Cape Verde, which provides food aid; and Egypt, which has reduced taxation on industries.

Agence France-Presse

World faces food crisis in wake of coronavirus: UN, WTO

PARIS - The heads of three global agencies warned Wednesday of the risk of a worldwide "food shortage" if authorities fail to manage the ongoing coronavirus crisis properly.

Many governments around the world have put their populations on lockdown causing severe slow-downs in international trade and food supply chains.

Panic buying by people going into confinement has already demonstrated the fragility of supply chains as supermarket shelves emptied in many countries.

"Uncertainty about food availability can spark a wave of export restrictions, creating a shortage on the global market," said the joint text signed by Qu Dongyu, head of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Roberto Azevedo, director of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"In the midst of the COVID-19 lockdowns, every effort must be made to ensure that trade flows as freely as possible, especially to avoid food shortage(s)" from developing, they said in their statement.

"When acting to protect the health and well-being of their citizens, countries should ensure that any trade-related measures do not disrupt the food supply chain," they added.

Over the longer-term confinement orders and travel restrictions risk causing disruptions in agricultural production due to the unavailability of agricultural labor and the inability to get food to markets.

"Such disruptions including hampering the movement of agricultural and food industry workers and extending border delays for food containers, result in the spoilage of perishables and increasing food waste," said the three leaders.

They also stressed the need to protect employees engaged in food production, processing and distribution, both for their own health and that of others, as well as to maintain food supply chains.

"It is at times like these that more, not less, international cooperation is essential," they said.

"We must ensure that our response to COVID-19 does not unintentionally create unwarranted shortages of essential items and exacerbate hunger and malnutrition."

Agence France-Presse

Coronavirus the worst global crisis since WWII, says UN chief

UNITED NATIONS, United States - The coronavirus pandemic is the worst global crisis since World War II, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday, expressing concern that it could trigger conflicts around the world.

Guterres said that the scale of the crisis was due to "a disease that represents a threat to everybody in the world and... an economic impact that will bring a recession that probably has no parallel in the recent past."

"The combination of the two facts and the risk that it contributes to enhanced instability, enhanced unrest, and enhanced conflict are things that make us believe that this is the most challenging crisis we have faced since the Second World War," he told reporters.

The New York-based United Nations was founded at the end of the war in 1945 and has 193 member states.

"A stronger and more effective response... is only possible in solidarity if everybody comes together and if we forget political games and understand that it is humankind that is at stake," Guterres added.

More than 40,000 people have been killed so far as the disease spreads across the world, and causes economic devastation.

"We are far from having a global package to help the developing world to create the conditions both to suppress the disease and to address the dramatic consequences," Guterres warned, pointing to unemployment, the collapse of small firms and vulnerable people in the informal economy.

"We are slowly moving in the right direction, but we need to speed up, and we need to do much more if we want to defeat the virus."

The UN on Tuesday created a new fund to help developing countries after last week appealing for donations for poor and conflict-hit nations.

Beyond traditional aid from rich countries "we need to have innovative financial instruments," so that developing nations are able to respond to the crisis, Guterres said.

He warned that the coronavirus outbreak could return from poorer countries, especially in Africa, to hit wealthy countries again, and that millions could die.

Agence France-Presse

Saudi involved in hacking of Amazon boss Bezos' phone, UN report will say

SAN FRANCISCO/CAIRO - Two UN officials will report on Wednesday that there is enough evidence suggesting that Saudi Arabia had hacked Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos' phone and both the kingdom and the United States should investigate, a person familiar with the matter said.

The United Nations' officials plan a public statement asserting that they found credible a forensic report commissioned by Bezos' security team which concluded that his phone probably had been hacked with a tainted video sent from a WhatsApp account belonging to Saudi's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The report by FTI Consulting concluded that massive amounts of data began leaving Bezos’ phone about a month after the video was shared in mid-2018, the person said, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the subject.

Outside experts consulted by the UN agreed that while the case was not airtight, the evidence was strong enough to warrant a fuller investigation.

The report is set to worsen relations between the world's richest man and the kingdom which had soured following the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, who was also a columnist for the Bezos' owned Washington Post.

The Guardian first reported the crown prince's alleged involvement. It said the encrypted message from the number used by the crown prince is believed to have included a malicious file that infiltrated the phone Bezos had used and extracted large amounts of data.

Saudi Arabia's US embassy dismissed the report.

"Recent media reports that suggest the Kingdom is behind a hacking of Mr. Jeff Bezos' phone are absurd. We call for an investigation on these claims so that we can have all the facts out," it said in a message posted on Twitter.

The UN statement will come from Agnes Callemard, special rapporteur for extra-judicial killings, and David Kaye, special rapporteur for free expression.

They are building toward a fuller report they expect to give to the UN in June, the person said. They said in Twitter posts that they will be releasing a statement on Wednesday addressing the Guardian report.

Amazon declined to comment.

The relationship between the Amazon chief executive and the Saudi government had soured since early last year after he alluded to Saudi Arabia's displeasure at the Washington Post's coverage of the murder of Khashoggi.

Bezos' security chief said at the time that Saudi had access to his phone and gained private information from it involving text messages between him and a former television anchor, who the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper said Bezos was dating.

Saudi had said it had nothing to do with the reporting. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Thousands rally worldwide against abuse of women

PARIS - Tens of thousands have rallied across the world to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, as France unveiled new measures to combat domestic violence.

Demonstrators on Monday gathered in countries as diverse as Guatemala, Russia, Sudan and Turkey, where riot police in Istanbul blocked the path of roughly 2,000 protesters before firing tear gas and plastic bullets to disperse them.

The French government announced it would make it easier for doctors to share information on vulnerable women and write into law the concept of psychological "entrapment", following massive rallies in France over the weekend.

Roughly 87,000 women and girls were murdered across the world in 2017, according to the United Nations.

Monday's rallies -- animated by growing anger over the failure of justice systems to punish offenders -- follow a weekend of protests against what is being termed femicide.

Crowds marched through the streets of Moscow to highlight the government's failure to pass laws protecting women, and hundreds of Sudanese women chanted "freedom, peace and justice" as they gathered in Khartoum in the first such protest in decades.

In Mexico City, masked demonstrators with sledgehammers smashed glass panes of bus stops, spray-painted monuments and clashed with riot police Monday to protest authorities' failure to halt soaring rates of femicide and rape in the country.

'Sexist, patriarchal attitudes'

Tens of thousands of Spaniards marched in Madrid on Monday evening following a weekend of protests. Spain's long-standing laws against gender violence have not halted the problem -- 52 women have been killed by their partners or ex-partners since the start of 2019.

South Africa has one of the worst records of any country on gender violence and the government has faced several rounds of mass protests on the issue.

President Cyril Ramaphosa used Monday's events to launch a campaign to improve victims' access to justice and urge men to drop their "sexist and patriarchal attitudes".

The UN warned that more action was needed around the world, singling out Afghanistan as a country where too little is done to counter sexual violence and rape.

And in a rare move, global police cooperation agency Interpol launched an international appeal to find eight men suspected of murdering or committing violence against women.

'Electric shock'

The French government is among those to face sustained pressure for reform -- at least 117 women have been killed by their partner or former partner since the start of the year, according to a count by AFP, compared with 121 women last year. 

Also, 213,000 women have suffered physical or sexual violence carried out by their partner or ex-partner, according to the latest official figures. 

The lights of the Eiffel Tower were switched off for one minute at midnight to mark the day.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said he hoped his new measures would deliver an "electric shock" by focusing on ending "absurdities" and "dysfunctional aspects" in the law.

He said the measures, to be put to parliament in January, would be backed by 360 million euros ($400 million) of additional funding.

Advocates for women's rights broadly welcomed Philippe's announcement but called for more concrete help.

"What is needed is to bolster special measures such as offering sanctuary and then supporting the victims," said Francoise Brie, who heads the National Federation of Women's Solidarity.

Equality Minister Marlene Schiappa promised that the new measures would be funded, but also stressed in a newspaper interview that the "fight against marital violence is not just a question of money".

An AFP examination this month of every case of femicide in France showed how the justice system had failed to act in the face of warning signs of the potential for violence.

But in an open letter Monday, more than a dozen top French judges urged women to keep faith in a system that is "improving and adapting itself."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

UN agencies: 45-M people in southern Africa facing food crisis

CAPE TOWN - A record 45 million people across southern Africa face severe food shortages in the next six months, with around a quarter of them currently enduring drought-induced "crisis" food insecurity, three United Nations agencies warned on Thursday.

The 16-member Southern African Development Community is in the grips of a severe drought, as climate change wreaks havoc in impoverished countries struggling to cope with extreme natural disasters, such as Cyclone Idai which devastated Mozambique earlier this year.

"We've had the worst drought in 35 years in central and western areas during the growing season," said Margaret Malu, acting regional director for southern Africa at the World Food Program (WFP).

"We must meet the pressing emergency food and nutrition needs of millions of people, but also invest in building the resilience of those threatened by ever more frequent and severe droughts, floods and storms," Malu said in a statement.

WFP, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) appealed jointly for urgent funding to help mitigate the effects of climate change in Africa.

Southern Africa's temperatures are rising at twice the global average, according to the International Panel on Climate Change, and the region includes six of the nine African countries set to be hardest-hit by adverse weather in coming years - DR Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

"With the region so prone to shocks and afflicted by high rates of chronic hunger, inequality and structural poverty, climate change is an existential emergency which must be tackled with the utmost urgency," said Robson Mutandi, IFAD Director for the Southern Africa hub said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

At least 28 killed in mosque blast in Afghanistan

JALALABAD, Afghanistan - At least 28 worshippers were killed and dozens wounded by a blast inside an Afghan mosque during Friday prayers, officials said, a day after the United Nations said violence in the country had reached "unacceptable" levels.

The explosion, which witnesses said collapsed the mosque's roof, took place in eastern Nangarhar province and wounded at least 55 people, provincial governor spokesman Attaullah Khogyani told AFP.

He said the dead were "all worshippers" in the blast in Haska Mina district, roughly 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the provincial capital Jalalabad.

A doctor at a hospital in Haska Mina gave a slightly higher toll, telling AFP that "around" 32 bodies had been brought in, along with 50 wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Both the Taliban and the Islamic State group are active in Nangarhar province.

Witnesses said the roof of the mosque had fallen through after the "loud" explosion, the nature of which was not immediately clear.

"Dozens of people were killed and wounded and were taken in several ambulances," Haji Amanat Khan, a 65-year-old local resident, told AFP.

The blast came after the UN released a new report on Thursday saying an "unprecedented" number of civilians were killed or wounded in Afghanistan from July to September.

The report, which also charts violence throughout 2019 so far, underscores how "Afghans have been exposed to extreme levels of violence for many years" despite promises by all sides to "prevent and mitigate harm to civilians."

It also noted the absurdity of the ever-increasing price paid by civilians given the widespread belief that the war in Afghanistan cannot be won by either side.

"Civilian casualties are totally unacceptable," said the UN's special representative in Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto, adding they demonstrate the importance of talks leading to a ceasefire and a permanent political settlement.

The figures - 1,174 deaths and 3,139 injured from July 1 until September 30 - represent a 42-percent increase compared to the same period last year.

The UN laid most of the blame for the spike at the feet of "anti-government elements" such as the Taliban, who have been carrying out a bloody insurgency in Afghanistan for more than 18 years.

July alone saw more casualties than in any other month on record since the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) began documenting the violence in 2009.

The first six months of 2019 had seen casualties drop slightly compared to previous years.

But the violence has surged so far in the third quarter that it yanked the overall total for the year back on par with the bloodiest since NATO withdrew its combat forces at the end of 2014.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

UN may run out of money by end of the month: Guterres

UNITED NATIONS, United States - The United Nations is running a deficit of $230 million, Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, and may run out of money by the end of October.

In a letter intended for the 37,000 employees at the UN secretariat and obtained by AFP, Guterres said unspecified "additional stop-gap measures" would have to be taken to ensure salaries and entitlements are paid.

"Member States have paid only 70 per cent of the total amount needed for our regular budget operations in 2019. This translates into a cash shortage of $230 million at the end of September. We run the risk of depleting our backup liquidity reserves by the end of the month," he wrote.

To cut costs, Guterres mentioned postponing conferences and meetings and reducing services, while also restricting official travel to only essential activities and taking measures to save energy.

Guterres had asked member states earlier this year to up contributions to the world body to head off cash flow problems, but they refused, a UN official said on condition of anonymity.

"The ultimate responsibility for our financial health lies with Member States," Guterres said.

Not including what it pays for peacekeeping operations, the UN's operating budget for 2018-2019 is close to $5.4 billion, with the United States contributing 22 percent. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

First let me take a selfie, El Salvador's president tells UN

El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, whose social media savvy helped win him power earlier this year, took a selfie before his maiden speech at the UN General Assembly, which he called "obsolete" and suggested scrapping.

In a dark suit and no tie, his hair slicked back in his signature style, the 38-year-old thanked the other leaders present and said he especially wanted to greet his wife and baby daughter sitting in the gallery.

"If you'll just bear with me a second," he then added, pulling out his iPhone 11, lifting it up to his grinning face and snapping a photo he later posted on Twitter to his 1.1 million followers.

"Believe me, many more people will see that selfie when I share it than will listen to this speech -- I hope I took a good one."

"A couple of images on Instagram can have more impact than any speech delivered in this assembly," he said, quipping that the annual summit of the world's leaders could be done by video-conference.

The conservative businessman and former mayor of the capital San Salvador was sworn into office in June in the small Central American country of 6.6 million people, tasked with turning around grinding poverty and rampant gang violence that are sending thousands fleeing to the United States.

He traded on his telegenic looks and promises of a break with the past, but critics have called him light on policy and substance.

TRUMP BROMANCE

On Wednesday, he held his first meeting with US President Donald Trump, a fellow prolific social media user and self-styled iconoclast whom Bukele has aggressively courted -- a contrast with his predecessor Salvador Sanchez Ceren, a leftist former guerrilla.

The 2 countries reached an agreement last week to curb illegal migration that opens the door for the United States to send refugees back to the violent Central American country, a move slammed by migrant rights advocates.

"For us, the United States is not only a partner and an ally, but also a friend," Bukele told reporters after that meeting.

"We're hoping that this meeting will only strengthen our relationship even more, and I think it will because, you know, President Trump is very nice and cool, and I'm nice and cool, too. We both use Twitter a lot, so, you know, we'll get along."

Talking to journalists on Thursday after his speech, he defended his show of bonhomie with the US leader.

"Someone made fun of the fact that I joked with Trump. Did they want me to come fight with him -- or for me put on a cranky face or something?"

On the controversial migration agreement, he appeared to agree that those Salvadorans fleeing to the US were involved in gangs.

"We've supported our natural and biggest ally," he said. "We've caught human traffickers, we've seized their money, their arms, false documents."

"El Salvador has to propose a positive migration, academic migration, business migration, work migration, not those with false documents or drugs."


source: news.abs-cbn.com

2 million children out of school in war-torn Yemen: UN

SANAA, Yemen - Two million children are out of school in war-torn Yemen, a fourth of whom have dropped out since the conflict escalated in March 2015, the United Nations children's agency said Wednesday.

The education of a further 3.7 million children is at risk as teachers' salaries have not been paid in more than two years, UNICEF said in a statement.

"Violence, displacement and attacks on schools are preventing many children from accessing school," said Sara Beysolow Nyanti, UNICEF representative in Yemen.

One in five schools in the country can no longer be used as a direct result of the conflict that has devastated Yemen's already fragile education system, the UN agency says.

"Children out of school face increased risks of all forms of exploitation including being forced to join the fighting, child labor and early marriage," Nyanti said.

"They lose the opportunity to develop and grow in a caring and stimulating environment, ultimately becoming trapped in a life of poverty and hardship."

Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed since Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in March 2015 in support of the beleaguered government after the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels captured the capital Sanaa.

The fighting has displaced millions and left 24.1 million -- more than two-thirds of the population -- in need of aid.

According to UNICEF, 1.8 million children under the age of five are suffering from severe malnutrition.

The United Nations has described Yemen as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Teenage climate activist Thunberg takes on Trump's Twitter taunt

UNITED NATIONS - Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg shot back at on Tuesday at U.S. President Donald Trump's attempt to mock her on Twitter by changing her profile on the social media site to reflect Trump's taunting remark.

Late on Monday Trump retweeted a clip of the 16-year-old's speech to a United Nations climate summit in which she angrily denounced world leaders for failing to tackle climate change by demanding: "How dare you?"

Trump, 73, commented: "She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!"

By Tuesday Thunberg shot back, changing her Twitter biography to: "A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future."

A Reuters video of Thunberg glaring at Trump as he entered the United Nations in New York on Monday went viral on social media. Trump has questioned climate science and has challenged every major U.S. regulation aimed at combating climate change.


Thunberg started missing school on Fridays a year ago to protest for climate action outside the Swedish parliament, inspiring millions of children and sparking a global climate strike movement known as Fridays for Future.

On Tuesday, the hashtags #GretaThunbergOutdidTrump and #BeBest were trending in the United States. Be Best Melania Trump's campaign against cyber bullying.

Thunberg is in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize, one of the few people whose nomination has become known before the awards ceremony. She is the bookmakers' favorite to win the prize next month.

Trump has made the case that he deserves to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and commented again on Monday when asked about the topic.

"I think I'm going to get a Nobel Prize for a lot of things, if they gave it out fairly, which they don't," Trump said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

US pressures China on Hong Kong, Uighurs and trade

The United States ramped up pressure on China at the UN General Assembly Tuesday, rallying countries against Beijing's treatment of Uighur Muslims and warning it is watching on Hong Kong.

President Donald Trump fired several shots across the bow of the fellow Security Council member, moving beyond his typical attacks against China on international trade. 

"The world fully expects that the Chinese government will honor its binding treaty... (and) protect Hong Kong's freedom and legal system and democratic ways of life," Trump told the General Assembly.

"How China chooses to handle the situation will say a great deal about its role in the world and the future," the Republican tycoon added during his third appearance at the diplomatic forum in New York.

It marked one of his most strident speeches on the situation in Hong Kong since massive anti-government protests broke out there three months ago.

The demonstrations have triggered the Asian financial hub's biggest political crisis since its handover from Britain to China in 1997.

Until Tuesday, Trump had largely left it to the State Department to demand respect for the handover treaty which grants the territory a "high degree of autonomy," its own judicial, legislative and executive system, and the protection of its "way of life." 

He said the world was "counting on President Xi (Jinping) as a great leader" who could resolve the crisis.

The US president also let rip on international trade during his address, declaring that the time of Beijing's "abuses" of the system was "over."

"For years, these (trade) abuses were tolerated, ignored, or even encouraged," he said, arguing that globalism had caused world leaders "to ignore their own national interests.

Touting what he argued were the benefits of his tariff war with China, Trump reiterated his hope that a trade agreement "beneficial to both countries" could be struck.

"But as I said very clearly, I will not accept a bad deal for the American people," he said.

'GREAT FRACTURE' 

If proof was needed of the animosity between the 2 rival powers, then it could be found in the US State Department organizing an event Tuesday to highlight the plight of Uighurs in China.

The conference was held on the sidelines of the general assembly to garner support "to demand and compel an immediate end to China’s horrific campaign of repression," John Sullivan, the US's second-highest diplomat, said.

"We cannot be the only guardians of the truth nor the only members of the international community to call out China and demand that they stop," Sullivan added.

Washington and human rights organizations accuse Beijing of interning a million or more Muslims, mainly ethnic Uighurs, in the northwestern Xinjiang region of China.

"History will judge the international community for how we respond to this attack on human rights and fundamental freedoms," said the deputy secretary of state.

He rejected China's claims that the camps are vocational training centers and slammed their efforts to present the policy in the region as a "counter-terrorist" campaign.

"In Xinjiang, the Chinese government prevents Muslims from praying and reading the Quran, and it has destroyed or defaced a great number of mosques," Sullivan said.

"This is a systematic campaign by the Chinese Communist Party to stop its own citizens from exercising their unalienable right to religious freedom."

Sullivan said the UN must seek "unhindered" access to Xinjiang so that it can "investigate and closely monitor China's human rights abuses."

China angrily criticized the US for organizing the conference and called for it "to stop interfering in China's internal affairs," according to the Xinhua state news agency.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the summit on Tuesday warning of a "great fracture" between the US and China.

He said he feared them "creating two separate and competing worlds, each with their own dominant currency, trade and financial rules, their own internet and artificial intelligence capacities, and their own zero sum geopolitical and military strategies."

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will address the UN on Friday.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Indonesian forest fires putting 10 million children at risk: UN

JAKARTA - Indonesian forest fires are putting nearly 10 million children at risk from air pollution, the United Nations warned Tuesday, as scientists said the blazes were releasing vast amounts of greenhouse gases.

The fires have been spewing toxic haze over Southeast Asia in recent weeks, closing schools and airports, with people rushing to buy face masks and seek medical treatment for respiratory ailments.

Jakarta has deployed tens of thousands of personnel and water-bombing aircraft to tackle the slash-and-burn blazes set to clear agricultural land. The fires are an annual problem but this year are the worst since 2015 due to dry weather.

Almost 10 million people under 18 -- about a quarter below five -- live in the areas worst affected by fires on Indonesia's Sumatra island and the country's part of Borneo island, the UN children's agency UNICEF said.

Small children are especially vulnerable due to undeveloped immune systems while babies born to mothers exposed to pollution during pregnancy may have low birth weights and be delivered early, they said.

"Poor air quality is a severe and growing challenge for Indonesia," said Debora Comini from UNICEF.

"Every year, millions of children are breathing toxic air that threatens their health and causes them to miss school -- resulting in lifelong physical and cognitive damage."

Thousands of schools have been closed across Indonesia due to poor air quality, with millions of youngsters missing classes.

Schools were forced to shut across Malaysia last week as dense smog from its neighbor clouded the skies, while Singapore was also shrouded in haze during the weekend's Formula One motor race.

Air quality had however improved in Malaysia and Singapore Tuesday, and the skies were clearer.

There have been a series of wildfire outbreaks worldwide, from the Amazon to Australia, and scientists are increasingly worried about their impact on global warming.

The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, part of the EU's Earth observation program, said this year's Indonesian fires were releasing almost as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as blazes in 2015, the worst for two decades.

From the start of August to September 18, the fires emitted about 360 megatons of the greenhouse gas, compared to 400 megatons over the same period four years ago, the service said.

One megaton is equivalent to one million tons.

At the peak of the 2015 crisis, the fires were emitting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each day than all US economic activity, according to environmental watchdog the World Resources Institute.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Pope Francis, Greta Thunberg blast world’s ‘weak’ climate action

NEW YORK, United States—An angry and emotional Greta Thunberg berated older generations as she spoke before the United Nations Climate Action Summit Monday.

Her speech was punctuated by her frustration over the inaction to address climate change. 

“How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones,” the 16-year-old climate activist said before delegates from different countries. 

“People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”

Thunberg’s speech set the tone of the climate action summit, which is meant to boost climate commitments of countries in time for the 2020 deadline of the Paris agreement. 

The agreement aims to curb global heating to at least 2 degrees Celsius in order to combat climate change.

Thunberg, who was the face of the global youth climate strikes last Friday, called the goal of cutting carbon emissions in half in 10 years as unacceptable, especially since young people like her will have to live with its consequences.

“How dare you pretend that this can be solved with business-as-usual and some technical solutions?” she said.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis said in a video message that country pledges were still inadequate.

“Four years after that historic agreement (Paris 2015), we can see that the commitments made by states are still very weak,” he said. “Indeed they are far from achieving the objectives set.”

Pope Francis said it was “necessary to ask whether there is a real political will to allocate greater human, financial and technological resources to mitigate the negative effects of climate change and to help the poorest and most vulnerable populations, who suffer the most.”

"While the situation is not good and the planet is suffering, the window of opportunity is still open," the pope added. 

ACTION SUMMIT

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the Climate Action Summit is not for talking or negotiations but action. 

He acknowledged the failure of his generation “in its responsibility to protect our planet.”

“That must change,” he said.

Guterres, who spoke before Thunberg and the other youth activists, repeatedly referred to the calls of young people.

“I believe it's the duty of all decision makers in the world, not only to listen to the voice of young people and to do what they ask us to do, but also to support them in their own action for climate action around the world."

He also did not mince words when it came to countries that receive money from fossil fuel companies or those that construct more coal plants.

“Is it common sense to build ever more coal plants that are choking our future?Is it common sense to reward pollution that kills millions with dirty air and makes it dangerous for people in cities around the world to sometimes even venture out of their homes?” he said.

The main point of the summit was the commitments announced by various world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel who pledged that her country will become carbon neutral by 2050 and Indian Prime Minister Narendran Modi’s target to further increase their renewable energy goals.

“In 2030 we want to get two-thirds of our energy from renewables,” Merkel said. “In 2022 we will phase out the last of our nuclear power plants, and at latest, in 2038 we will phase out coal.”

According to the World Resources Institute, there are now 65 nations that committed to enhancing their climate goals for 2020. This does not include the Philippines.

During the climate finance session, French President Emmanuel Macron asked other countries to increase their contributions to the Green Climate Fund after the United States withdrew from it. 

Incidentally, US President Donald Trump, who was expected to skip the event as he did with other previous climate meetings, managed to drop by the opening session.

He listened to Modi and stayed for 14 minutes. 

The rest of the one-day summit will be filled with speeches from other world leaders and side events like press conferences from country coalitions.

As for the Philippines, the government did not send any of its cabinet members to what the Climate Change Commission (CCC) calls a historic summit.

Instead, attending the event are one official each from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the National Economic and Development Authority and three advisors from the CCC.

Civil society groups have expressed concern over the seeming lack of interest of interest of the Philippine government in actually participating in negotiations. It has also yet to update its climate commitments, which is due by 2020.

While CCC Secretary Emmanuel de Guzman did not attend the summit, he sent a statement asking for climate actions that are inclusive, fair and equitable.

“Now, more than ever, developed countries must ensure the flow of climate finance towards developing countries. We hope that the summit will provide clarity and direction for achieving the climate finance goal enshrined in the Paris Agreement,” De Guzman said.

President Rodrigo Duterte has acknowledged the effects of climate change but has focused on the need for accountability of developed countries.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Five-year period ending 2019 set to be hottest on record

UNITED NATIONS, United States - A damning new UN report published Sunday said the world is falling badly behind in the race to avert climate disaster because of runaway warming, with the five-year period ending 2019 set to be the hottest ever.

It comes ahead of a major UN climate summit Monday that will be attended by more than 60 world leaders, as Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pushes for countries to increase their greenhouse gas reduction targets.

The report "highlights the urgent need for the development of concrete actions that halt global warming and the worst effects of climate change," said its authors, the Science Advisory Group to the summit. 

Average global temperature between 2015-2019 is on track to be the hottest of any five-year period on record, according to the report compiled by the World Meteorological Organization.

The period "is currently estimated to be 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial (1850-1900) times and 0.2 degrees Celsius warmer than 2011-2015," it said.

The past four years were already the hottest since record-keeping began in 1850.

Guterres said last week the world was "losing the race" on climate change, and the latest report spells out the extent to which the gap between what is required and what is happening is widening.

Rather than falling, carbon dioxide grew two percent in 2018, reaching a record high of 37 billion tonnes.

More importantly, there is also no sign yet of reaching what is known as "peak emissions," the point at which levels will start to fall, though these are not growing at the same rate as the global economy.

The 2015 Paris Agreement saw countries lay out national targets to reduce their emissions in order to limit long term temperature rise by under two degrees Celsius or ideally 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

These are benchmarks that will limit in important ways the impact of warming on world weather systems.

But even if all countries meet the goals they set themselves, the world will warm by 2.9 degrees Celsius to 3.4 degrees Celsius, the report found.

The current levels of ambition would need to be tripled to meet the two degrees Celsius goal and increased five-fold to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal -- technically still possible.

"This reads like a credit card statement after a five-year long spending binge," said Dave Reay, a professor and chair in Carbon Management at the University of Edinburgh.

"Our global carbon credit is maxed out," he added. "If emissions don't start falling there will be hell to pay."

- Deadly Heatwaves -

In 2018, global carbon dioxide was 407.8 parts per million (ppm), 2.2 ppm higher than 2017 and set to reach or exceed 410 ppm by 2019.

"The last time Earth's atmosphere contained 400 parts per million CO 2 was about 3-5 million years ago," the report said. 

At that time, global mean surface temperatures were two-to-three degrees Celsius warmer, ice sheets at both poles had melted, and seas were 10 to 20 meters higher.

Other major takeaways include that the extent of Arctic summer sea ice has declined at a rate of 12 percent per decade over the past 40 years, with the four lowest values between 2015 and 2019.

Overall, the amount of ice lost from the Antarctic ice sheet increased by a factor of six each year between 1979 and 2017, while glacier loss for 2015-19 is also the highest for any five-year period on record.

Sea-level rise is also accelerating as is the process of acidification.

The report also found that heatwaves were the deadliest weather hazard in the 2015-19 period, affecting all continents and setting new national temperature records. 

The summer of 2019, which included the hottest ever month on record, July, saw unprecedented wildfires in the Arctic. 

In June, these were responsible for emitting 50 megatons of carbon dioxide.

The report also comes at a time of increasing mobilization over the question of climate change, with millions taking part in a youth-led global strike Friday, before the first UN youth climate summit on Saturday.

On Sunday, 87 major companies with a combined market share of $2.3 trillion committed to set climate targets in line with the 1.5 C goal.

source: news.abs-cbn.com