Beyond Europe: This week's world affairs

Beyond Europe: This week's world affairs
Credit: Canva

As current affairs focus our attention on our immediate surroundings, it can sometimes be difficult to see through the commotion around us to events unfolding further afield. From the innumerable incidents taking place near and far, here are some that caught our eye beyond the EU-oriented Brussels microcosm.

Not the major headline-grabbers, here are a few stories you might have missed.

A developed nation once again denies accountability

Once again on the agenda for this year at COP27 will be the accountability of developed nations for their CO2 emissions disproportionately affecting the Global South. 

Speaking at the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment in Dakar (Senegal), US climate envoy John Kerry seemed to go some way in acknowledging the issue of emissions from wealthy nations impacting poorer nations: "Guess what, folks? Mother Nature does not measure where the emissions come from.”

Yet whilst this could be taken as a veiled admission of the need for rich countries to clean up their act, sceptics point to the fact that the US is the world’s greatest cumulative carbon polluter. Kerry's comments were met with outrage as the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance disparaged the “failure to comprehend the severity of climate change for the African people”.

Something fishy is going on in China

Passing from one major polluter to another, China has been the focus of media attention as its seemingly insatiable appetite for fish sees its industrial fleet going ever further to hook a catch.

Yet as China’s economy swells, so does its environmental footprint, now overstepping its territorial limits. Chinese fishing activity around the Galápagos Islands has recently been highlighted and the New York Times says that it isn't only South America that China has its sights on; waters in Africa, the South Pacific nations and even Antarctica are also said to be possible areas for Chinese commercial exploitation. 

China alone is responsible for around 80% of the fishing in international waters off Argentina, Ecuador and Peru this year. Local fishing crews in Ecuador as well as environmental groups are concerned about the possibility that China is depleting fish stocks. 

Rwanda Genocide: One of the world's most wanted finally faces trial

Félicien Kabuga, now 86 years old, was on the run for 23 years before being arrested in France in 2020. Kabuga is accused of supporting and empowering groups that were responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of Rwandans, specifically the Tutsi minority and moderate Hutus, in 1994. He has now gone on trial in The Hague.

The small central African nation with a population of six million became the scene of the continent's most deadly atrocity, with at least 800,000 killed (actual figure up to one million) in a three-month period. As a multimillionaire, Kabuga funded the extremist radio station that called for the extermination of the Tutsi minority and distributed machetes as well as funds for the brutality. 

Gates Foundation Africa aspirations fail

The Gates Foundation, and the research institutions it supports, have a vision for African farmers. This includes a switch to high-yield commodity crops and genetically-modified seeds, as well as increasing the use of pesticides and agrochemical fertilisers. 

To this end, the Foundation has pumped $5 billion into African farming initiatives under the label of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. Yet so far their efforts are falling short of expectations.

In face of its shortcomings, a new five-year plan was launched with "Green Revolution" dropped from the name. However, a civil society group, farms and faith groups have called on international donors to defund the entire initiative. 

“AGRA propagates the idea that African farmers don’t produce enough food because they don’t use enough chemical fertilisers,” said Million Belay from the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, a Uganda-based group. “The implication is that if we pump soils with chemicals, we will grow more food. But that means polluting the soil, making farmers dependent on external inputs, and climate change.”

AGRA has taken 17 years and billions of dollars to produce a result and doesn’t have much to show for its efforts. Some critics say that time is up. 

Migrants drown in the Mediterranean

On 23 September, one of the deadliest boat disasters in the Eastern Mediterranean led to the death of over 100 asylum seekers fleeing Lebanon for Italy. Of the over 150 people in the vessel, only 20 survived.

An estimated 3,500 people have attempted the dangerous journey from Lebanon this year alone – double the number from 2021, according to the UNHCR.

Lebanon’s financial crisis has pushed around 80% of the population below the poverty line, leading many to seek any route to Europe with dreams of a more stable life.

Australia: Phasing out coal and data breaches

Australia has made headlines for two reasons recently: the closure of a large power plant a decade earlier than planned, and the worst data breach in the country's history.

The coal-fired Loy Yang power station in Victoria is responsible for over 3% of the country’s emissions. Initially scheduled to shut down by 2048, this date has been brought forward to 2035. The Queensland state government has also unveiled a plan to shift away from coal power by 2035. 

From carbon emissions to digital emissions, Australia's second-largest telecoms provider Optus said that it had experienced a massive data breach with roughly 2.8 million people now at risk of identity theft and fraud. Names, dates of birth, addresses, phone and email contacts, and passport and driving licence numbers were stolen. But Optus stressed that payment details and passwords were not compromised. Initial investigations indicate that the attack came from overseas.

One environmental activist killed every 2 days

A study calculates that in the past decade, one environmental activist is killed every two days; Brazil and Colombia have the highest numbers of deaths. 

Earlier this year, global attention turned to the Amazon and the lawless violence that takes place there when British journalist Dom Phillips and a local indigenous expert, Bruno Pereira were murdered. 


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