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The International Court of Justice is currently being asked to determine the responsibilities of nations to prevent climate change, and as I watch from the steps of the peace palace as a young person from the Pacific, I know whatever happens next has the potential to change my future, and the future of children across the Pacific and the world. I come from Vanuatu, which is 15,608 km away from The Hague, where I currently find myself. Vanuatu is known for being a tropical paradise, and it’s true, it is really nice. But it is also a paradise that is also full of our culture and heritage, and it is slowly being taken away by a climate crisis we did not cause. However, I think more and more people are coming to learn that my home is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries when it comes to the climate crisis. I celebrated my 16 birthday on the first day of the hearings, the same day that both Vanuatu and Australia presented their arguments to the court. While I was inspired by Vanuatu’s opening remarks, I was left disappointed by Australia. As a close neighbour of the Pacific Island nations Australia has a duty to stand with the Pacific and support what they are striving for here in The Hague, and for Australia to come here and completely go against that ambition, it’s very sad to see. In my 16 years, I have not known a time where the threat of the climate crisis wasn’t real. As a young Ni-Vanuatu person, I feel the effects of climate change every day of every year. I’ve experienced many cyclones, and I can tell you, it can be utterly terrifying sometimes, especially the strong ones, that are becoming more and more frequent. Every cyclone, our classrooms are destroyed, our homes are flattened to the ground, and hospitals and communication towers are ripped apart. And then there’s also the mental health impacts. We don’t really talk about it much, but these natural disasters can really cause anxiety in children and young people. This is my reality, and the reality of children not just in the Pacific, but across the world. But it should not be our reality. Children and young people across my nation, the Pacific, and the world, should not be accepting these effects of climate change as a norm of life. Just last year Vanuatu was devastated by back-to-back Category 4 Tropical Cyclones Judy and Kevin in March which affected more than 80% of the country’s population. I remember it so clearly. I remember the nights the cyclones hit us, like it was yesterday. You could just hear the iron sheets of the walls and roofing of corrugated iron houses, and you can just like hear them flying around. You shudder every time you hear a branch break or a tree crash to the ground. It’s scary and the place is pitch black and the wind is howling. We are just waiting for the storm to pass and see the damage left behind, wondering if this is our reality now. I had hoped that we would have seen some climate justice at COP29, but I, and the young people of the Pacific and small island nations, were once again left disappointed. The outcome told us that high emitting countries don’t really care about our rights, that we aren’t worth more than just some empty promises. Climate change endangers our right to a safe childhood and prosperous future, not just for us but for our future generations who deserve to enjoy the exact same things we enjoy. Being here in The Hague really brings home the scale of this climate emergency. I know that I am a part of a bigger movement by young Pacific people to get the world to act on climate. I am inspired by the tireless work of the Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change who spearheaded the move to have the ICJ provide an advisory opinion on the legal obligations of countries to take climate action, a move that was supported by the Government of Vanuatu, who I am here alongside. I stand here, at the world’s highest court, as one of the many children and young people across the globe, who are striving for change, who are striving for equality, equity, and justice, and who are for a brighter future for us all. We are not just victims of climate change; we are the climate’s warriors. We have the power to mobilise, to amplify, to lead, and to influence decision making around the world. In the world we live in, government leaders and political leaders have lots of power, so I urge world leaders to listen more to youth from the Pacific and listen to other vulnerable nations in the face of the climate crisis. They need to make their decisions wisely, because it is our future ahead of us and it may be in jeopardy right now. As leaders and decision makers, it is time to step up and fulfil your promises. The time to act is now, because there is no time to waste.
MoFA spokesperson expresses Qatar's welcome of positive steps by Syrian oppositionThe shooting death of high-ranking UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive Brian Thompson has uncovered a deep anger among Americans who say the health insurance industry has too often failed to cover large medical bills and stood in the way of necessary care. “There’s clearly a sense of real discontent and distrust of the industry revealed in social media,” said Brian Klepper, principal of the Healthcare Performance Inc. consulting firm. “That’s not a healthy environment for an industry to prosper.” The reaction to the shooting is a wake-up call for sprawling companies that have seen their profits and stock prices rise over the past few years. Social media has given millions of Americans the means to amplify their long-simmering dissatisfaction with health insurers, and in the wake of Thompson’s death, X, Reddit, TikTok and other platforms lit up with hatred aimed at the industry. Kevin Farmer, a University of Florida orthopedics and sports medicine professor who posted on X about the shooting, said frustration with insurance is something doctors see every day. “I mean, what that can do to someone’s emotional thought process and reaction,” Farmer said. “They feel helpless.” The motive for Thompson’s killing remains unclear. New York police released images Thursday of a man they said is wanted in connection with the shooting and searched a Manhattan hostel where the person is believed to have stayed. No direct evidence has emerged to connect the shooting with any dispute over UnitedHealth’s business, though a shell casing and live ammunition round inscribed with “delay” and “depose” were recovered from the sidewalk at the midtown hotel where Thompson, 50, was attacked. The words echo complaints many American consumers have aired about long waits for insurers to pay medical bills and legal fights over claims. While the inscriptions suggest the shooting might be tied to an insurance dispute, investigators also have to consider whether they may be a distraction designed to divert from the true motive, said Joseph Giacalone, a former New York Police Department sergeant who’s now a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “They are going to take everything seriously but have to have an open mind that this could be a potential ruse,” he said. Though insurers have rarely discussed it publicly, concerns that a frustrated policyholder could turn to violence have long percolated within the industry. Former health-insurance executive Michael Sherman said when he worked at Humana Inc. more than a decade ago the company had built “safe rooms” for executives at its Louisville, Kentucky, headquarters. Later, when he became the chief medical officer at Point32Health, he said the nonprofit insurer based in Massachusetts installed a panic button under his desk and hired private security for the executive suite. Still, Sherman said the idea that an insurance executive could be targeted by a killer was largely unthinkable. “People are shocked,” he said. “This is shaking people up and causing them to think more about the implications of these decisions, and perhaps the need for more security.” Humana declined to comment on its security procedures. Security steps Thompson’s killing should compel insurers to reexamine their security measures, from increasing surveillance of executives’ parking spots to adding panic buttons and bullet-resistant safe rooms to their executive suites, said Paul Sarnese, the former president of the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety, an organization dedicated to protecting the health-care industry. UnitedHealth had a security team at the New York Hilton Midtown hotel for its investor day, but it didn’t have anyone stationed outside where the executive was shot, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company didn’t comment on the security situation. Sarnese said threats against health-care workers in general have increased since the COVID-19 pandemic, when many Americans grew disillusioned with recommendations about masking, isolating while sick and vaccines. Health insurers, who in the routine course of their business make millions of decisions every year that can have profound effects on people’s physical and financial wellbeing, are especially likely to elicit emotional responses from the public. A Gallup survey last fall asked respondents what they thought of the services provided by health insurers. Sixty-eight percent gave ratings of “only fair” or “poor.” Only 5 percent said it was “excellent.” “Imagine having a pre-existing condition and being denied your medical care,” Sarnese said. “You’re not only putting all this stress on someone who has a medical condition, but now you’re putting financial stress on their families. That stress can really push someone to threaten executives or act upon their threats.” The online vitriol generated by the Thompson shooting spilled into policy decisions by other insurers. Former Washington Post writer Taylor Lorenz generated an outcry after she posted on Bluesky Wednesday about a policy change from some units of Elevance Health Inc. that doctors said would limit coverage if operations ran long. “And people wonder why we want these executives dead,” she wrote. On Thursday, Elevance backtracked. “There has been significant widespread misinformation about an update to our anesthesia policy,” Elevance spokesperson Leslie Porras said. “As a result, we have decided to not proceed with this policy change. To be clear, it never was and never will be the policy of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield to not pay for medically necessary anesthesia services.” Several hours after the shooting on Wednesday, Sarah London, chief executive officer of health insurer Centene Corp. pulled out of a planned appearance at a conference sponsored by Forbes in New York. London canceled out of respect for Thompson, not because of security concerns, according to a person familiar with the matter. Centene’s investor day that was scheduled to be held in person next week was moved online. Centene declined to comment on its security procedures. Industry officials defended the role that insurers play in the health-care system and said that the wave of hate that bubbled up on social media in the aftermath of Thompson’s killing was unwarranted. “The people in our industry are mission-driven professionals working to make coverage and care as affordable as possible and to help people navigate the complex medical system,” Mike Tuffin, president and CEO of trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans, said in a statement. “We condemn any suggestion that threats against our colleagues — or anyone else in our country — are ever acceptable.” Lightning rod UnitedHealth is one of the largest health care conglomerates in the U.S., housing the UnitedHealthcare insurance business that Thompson led, as well as vast operations focused on managing drug benefits and doctors’ offices. As a result of that broad reach, it has become a frequent target for criticism. The company was among a group of insurers that was slammed in a Senate report earlier this year for using automated tools to increase claim denials. The rate at which the company denied prior authorization for post-acute care more than doubled from 2020 to 2022, the Senate report found. In February, Bloomberg reported that the Department of Justice had opened an antitrust investigation into the company. Last month, the U.S. sued to block its $3.3 billion purchase of Amedisys Inc. over concerns the deal would harm competition in the market for home-health and hospice services. Also this year, the company’s Change Healthcare technology business was the target of hackers who gained access to the medical and other personal information of millions of Americans.
The IIT Kanpur has unveiled a new technology called the Metamaterial Surface Cloaking System (Anālakṣhya MSCS), which is set to play a crucial role in boosting India’s defence and national security. This innovative technology is designed to make military vehicles, aircraft, and other equipment nearly invisible to radar systems, commonly used to detect objects from a distance, especially from the sky. By absorbing radar waves, the Anālakṣhya MSCS helps hide objects from enemy eyes, making it a powerful tool in modern warfare. The Anālakṣhya MSCS uses special materials known as “metamaterials” to absorb a broad range of radar waves, including those used by Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). SAR is a type of radar commonly used in military and surveillance operations for high-resolution imaging, allowing enemies to detect objects on the ground from the air. The system significantly reduces the chances of military assets being detected by SAR, providing crucial protection from such radar-guided systems. The technology offers enhanced stealth against guided missiles that rely on radar signals to track and target their objectives. The system was developed by a team of researchers at IIT Kanpur, led by Prof Anantha Ramakrishna, Kumar Vaibhav Srivastava, and J Ramkumar, along with their students. The research team took from 2019 to now, to perfect the technology through rigorous laboratory and field testing. Over 90% of the materials used in the project were sourced from India, marking a significant step toward self-reliance in defence technology. IIT Kanpur’s director, Prof Manindra Agrawal, congratulated the research team for their hard work and emphasised that the technology would greatly improve India’s defence capabilities. The Anālakṣhya MSCS has now been licenced to Meta Tattva Systems, a company responsible for its manufacture and deployment for the Indian armed forces. Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, air officer commanding in chief, Central Command, described the technology as a major breakthrough in countering modern surveillance systems. Lt General Cherish Mathson (retd), praised the development for aligning with India’s vision of achieving self-sufficiency in defence technology and strengthening the country’s national security.The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% to top the all-time high it set a couple weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 123 points, or 0.3%, to its own record set the day before, while the Nasdaq composite gained 0.6% as Microsoft and Big Tech led the way. Stock markets abroad mostly fell after President-elect Trump said he plans to impose sweeping new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China once he takes office. But the movements were mostly modest. Stock indexes were down 0.1% in Shanghai and nearly flat in Hong Kong, while Canada’s main index edged down by less than 0.1%. Trump has often praised the use of tariffs , but investors are weighing whether his latest threat will actually become policy or is just an opening point for negotiations. For now, the market seems to be taking it more as the latter. The consequences otherwise for markets and the global economy could be painful. Unless the United States can prepare alternatives for the autos, energy products and other goods that come from Mexico, Canada and China, such tariffs would raise the price of imported items all at once and make households poorer, according to Carl Weinberg and Rubeela Farooqi, economists at High Frequency Economics. They would also hurt profit margins for U.S. companies, while raising the threat of retaliatory tariffs by other countries. And unlike tariffs in Trump’s first term, his latest proposal would affect products across the board. General Motors sank 9%, and Ford Motor fell 2.6% because both import automobiles from Mexico. Constellation Brands, which sells Modelo and other Mexican beer brands in the United States, dropped 3.3%. The value of the Mexican peso fell 1.8% against the U.S. dollar. Beyond the pain such tariffs would cause U.S. households and businesses, they could also push the Federal Reserve to slow or even halt its cuts to interest rates. The Fed had just begun easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high a couple months ago to offer support for the job market . While lower interest rates can boost the economy, they can also offer more fuel for inflation. “Many” officials at the Fed’s last meeting earlier this month said they should lower rates gradually, according to minutes of the meeting released Tuesday afternoon. The talk about tariffs overshadowed another mixed set of profit reports from U.S. retailers that answered few questions about how much more shoppers can keep spending. They’ll need to stay resilient after helping the economy avoid a recession, despite the high interest rates imposed by the Fed to get inflation under control. A report on Tuesday from the Conference Board said confidence among U.S. consumers improved in November, but not by as much as economists expected. Kohl’s tumbled 17% after its results for the latest quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations. CEO Tom Kingsbury said sales remain soft for apparel and footwear. A day earlier, Kingsbury said he plans to step down as CEO in January. Ashley Buchanan, CEO of Michaels and a retail veteran, will replace him. Best Buy fell 4.9% after likewise falling short of analysts’ expectations. Dick’s Sporting Goods topped forecasts for the latest quarter thanks to a strong back-to-school season, but its stock lost an early gain to fall 1.4%. Still, more stocks rose in the S&P 500 than fell. J.M. Smucker had one of the biggest gains and climbed 5.7% after topping analysts’ expectations for the latest quarter. CEO Mark Smucker credited strength for its Uncrustables, Meow Mix, Café Bustelo and Jif brands. Big Tech stocks also helped prop up U.S. indexes. Gains of 3.2% for Amazon and 2.2% for Microsoft were the two strongest forces lifting the S&P 500. All told, the S&P 500 rose 34.26 points to 6,021.63. The Dow gained 123.74 to 44,860.31, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 119.46 to 19,174.30. In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady following their big drop from a day before driven by relief following Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary. The yield on the 10-year Treasury inched up to 4.29% from 4.28% late Monday, but it’s still well below the 4.41% level where it ended last week. In the crypto market, bitcoin continued to pull back after topping $99,000 for the first time late last week. It’s since dipped back toward $91,000, according to CoinDesk. It’s a sharp turnaround from the bonanza that initially took over the crypto market following Trump’s election. That boom had also appeared to have spilled into some corners of the stock market. Strategists at Barclays Capital pointed to stocks of unprofitable companies, along with other areas that can be caught up in bursts of optimism by smaller-pocketed “retail” investors. AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — In an era of rising authoritarianism, at the heels of a six-hour martial law decree that unfolded while many South Koreans slept, something noteworthy happened: Democracy held. The past week in Seoul, officials and academics warn, is what a threat to democracy looks like in 2024. It's a democratically-elected president declaring martial law over the nation he leads, asserting sweeping powers to prevent opposition demonstrations, ban political parties and control the media. It's members of the military attempting to block lawmakers from exercising their power to vote on cancelling the power grab. And here's what it took to defeat President Yoon Suk Yeol 's lurch toward government by force: Unified popular support for democracy. Legislators storming the National Assembly past midnight, live-streaming themselves climbing over fences. A politician grabbing at a soldier's rifle and yelling “Aren't you ashamed?” until he retreated. And finally, decisively, Parliament assembling a quorum and voting unanimously to cancel martial law. It was a victory for a hard-won democracy — and for the idea that checks and balances among branches of government must work to counteract each other's ambitions, as the American founders wrote in the Federalist Papers in 1788. But as the drama played out in Seoul, the scaffolding of democracy rattled around the world. In other countries, the grab for power might have worked. Other would-be authoritarians might have been better prepared than Yoon. In deeply polarized societies — the United States, for example, where Republicans are staunchly loyal to president-elect Donald Trump — there might not have been decisive support from the public or the opposition. The military might have used force. And the members of the legislature might not have voted as one to snuff out the attempted takeover. “President Yoon's attempt to declare martial law reveals the fragility of the rule of law in divided societies, especially those with governments in which the chief executive cannot be easily dismissed by the legislature," said Tom Pepinsky, a government professor at Cornell University who studies backsliding among democracies in Southeast Asia. Notably, he said in an email, “No members of President Yoon’s own party were willing to defend his actions in public." Nevertheless, Yoon’s surprise attempt to impose martial law revealed both the fragility and resilience of the country’s democratic system. Within three hours of his stunning announcement to impose military rule — claiming the opposition was “paralyzing” state affairs — 190 lawmakers voted to cancel his actions. In so doing, they demonstrated the strength of the country’s democratic checks and balances. Yoon’s authoritarian push, carried out by hundreds of heavily armed troops with Blackhawk helicopters and armored vehicles sent to the National Assembly, harked back to an era of dictatorial presidents. The country’s democratic transition in the late 1980s came after years of massive protests by millions that eventually overcame violent suppressions by military rulers. Civilian presence was again crucial in shaping the events following Yoon’s late night television announcement on Tuesday. Thousands of people flocked to the National Assembly, shouting slogans for martial law to be lifted and Yoon to step down from power. There were no reports of violent clashes as troops and police officers. “We restored democracy without having a single casualty this time,” said Seol Dong-hoon, a sociology professor at South Korea’s Jeonbuk National University. It’s virtually impossible for any leader of a democracy to pull off a transition toward martial law without a public willing to support it, or at least tolerate it. Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, who narrowly lost to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election, attracted millions of views as he began live-streaming his journey to the National Assembly, pleading for people to converge to the parliament to help lawmakers get inside. The shaky footage later shows him exiting his car climbing over a fence to get onto the grounds. The vote at the National Assembly was also broadcast live on the YouTube channel of Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik, who also had to scale a fence to get in. Yoon’s sense of crisis clearly wasn’t shared by the public, whose opinions, Seol said, were shaped predominantly by the shocking videos broadcast to their devices. “Ultimately, democracy is all about moving public opinion,” he said. “What was most crucial in this case was that everything was broadcast live on smartphones, YouTube and countless other media.” Opposition lawmakers are now pushing to remove Yoon from office, saying he failed to meet the constitutional requirement that martial law should only be considered in wartime or a comparable severe crisis — and that he unlawfully deployed troops to the National Assembly. On Saturday, an opposition-led impeachment motion failed after most lawmakers from Yoon’s party boycotted the vote. Yet the president’s troubles persist: The vote’s defeat is expected to intensify nationwide protests and deepen South Korea’s political turmoil, with opposition parties preparing to introduce another impeachment motion when parliament reconvenes next Wednesday. Han Sang-hie, a law professor at Seoul’s Konkuk University, said the martial law debacle highlights what he sees as the most crucial flaw of South Korea’s democracy: that it places too much power in the hands of the president, which is easily abused and often goes unchecked. Political scientists call what happened in South Korea an “autogolpe” — a “self-coup” — defined as one led by incumbent leaders themselves, in which an executive takes or sponsors illegal actions against others in the government. Yoon qualifies because he used troops to try to shut down South Korea's legislature. Self-coups are increasing, with a third of the 46 since 1945 occurring in the past decade, according to a study by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Penn State University. About 80% of self-coups succeed, they reported. In 2021, a power grab by Tunisian President Kais Saied raised similar concerns around the world after the country designed a democracy from scratch and won a Nobel Peace Prize after a largely bloodless revolution. In the United States, some have expresed worry about similar situations arising during the second administration of Donald Trump. He has vowed, after all, to shake some of democracy's pillars . He's mused that he would be justified if he decided to pursue “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” That’s in contrast to the oath of office he took in 2017, and will again next year, to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution” as best he can. Nearly half of voters in the Nov. 5 election, which Trump won, said they were “very concerned” that another Trump presidency would bring the U.S. closer to authoritarianism, according to AP Votecast survey data. Asked before a live audience on Fox News Channel in 2023 to assure Americans that he would not abuse power or use the presidency to seek retribution against anyone, Trump replied, “except for day one," when he'll close the border and “drill, drill, drill.” After that, Trump said, "I'm not a dictator.” Kellman reported from London.
Barkley's brilliance helps Eagles beat Panthers 22-16 but pass game has Philly frustrated
Minister of Digital Governance Dimitris Papastergiou attended the EU Council of Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Ministers of the European Union, which took place in Brussels on Friday. Papastergiou stressed in his speech that in addition to the measures to be taken by each state, EU member states must jointly take initiatives to force major digital platforms and social media to stop targeting user addiction.Papastergiou cited as an example at European level the Digital Services Act (DSA), which includes specific provisions for the protection of minors and explicitly addresses the problem of addictive design. As he said "soon in Greece we will present the National Strategy for the protection of minors from algorithmic addiction. Social media and digital platforms must come to the table and show that they will take tangible, measurable actions to prioritise safety over profit. The design of their apps and services should be age-appropriate," he said, referring to the implementation of age verification and age assurance tools, age verification. Referring to other Council issues, Papastergiou stressed the need to adjust the objectives of the "Digital Decade" and targeted funding due to the rapid development of technologies such as 6G, Artificial Intelligence and cloud computing. He also referred to the European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH) and the usefulness of extending upgrade and retraining programmes for ICT professionals. He made particular reference to the role of ENISA (the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity) in improving common situational awareness and management of large-scale cyber incidents and crises in the EU, as well as the European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (EDIC). In the margins of the Council, the Minister had an introductory meeting with the new Executive Vice President of the European Commission Henna Virkkunen. He also had bilateral contacts with ministers.