Top UN court to open unprecedented climate hearings next week

Top UN court to open unprecedented climate hearings next week
This file photo, taken on May 23, 2024, shows seats of the judges at the International Court of Justice, or World Court, in The Hague, Netherlands. (AP/File)
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Updated 29 November 2024

Top UN court to open unprecedented climate hearings next week

Top UN court to open unprecedented climate hearings next week
  • Representatives from more than 100 countries, organizations will make submissions before the International Court of Justice
  • Activists hope the legal opinion from the ICJ judges will have far-reaching consequences in the fight against climate change

THE HAGUE: The world’s top court will next week start unprecedented hearings aimed at finding a “legal blueprint” for how countries should protect the environment from damaging greenhouse gases — and what the consequences are if they do not.
From Monday, lawyers and representatives from more than 100 countries and organizations will make submissions before the International Court of Justice in The Hague — the highest number ever.
Activists hope the legal opinion from the ICJ judges will have far-reaching consequences in the fight against climate change.
But others fear the UN-backed request for a non-binding advisory opinion will have limited impact — and it could take the UN’s top court months, or even years, to deliver.
The hearings at the Peace Palace come days after a bitterly negotiated climate deal at the COP29 summit in Azerbaijan, which said developed countries must provide at least $300 billion a year by 2035 for climate finance.
Poorer countries have slammed the pledge from wealthy polluters as insultingly low and the final deal failed to mention a global pledge to move away from planet-heating fossil fuels.
The UN General Assembly last year adopted a resolution in which it referred two key questions to the ICJ judges.
First, what obligations did states have under international law to protect the Earth’s climate system from greenhouse gas emissions?
Second, what are the legal consequences under these obligations, where states, “by their acts and omissions, have caused significant harm to the climate system and other parts of the environment?“
The second question was also linked to the legal responsibilities of states for harm caused to small, more vulnerable countries and their populations.
This applied especially to countries under threat from rising sea levels and harsher weather patterns in places like the Pacific Ocean.
“Climate change for us is not a distant threat,” said Vishal Prasad, director of the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change (PISFCC) group.
“It is reshaping our lives right now. Our islands are at risk. Our communities face disruptive change at a rate and scale that generations before us have not known,” Prasad told journalists a few days before the start of the hearings.
Launching a campaign in 2019 to bring the climate issue to the ICJ, Prasad’s group of 27 students spearheaded consensus among Pacific island nations including his own native Fiji, before it was taken to the UN.
Last year, the General Assembly unanimously adopted the resolution to ask the ICJ for an advisory opinion.
Joie Chowdhury, a senior lawyer at the US and Swiss-based Center for International Environmental Law, said climate advocates did not expect the ICJ’s opinion “to provide very specific answers.”
Instead, she predicted the court would provide “a legal blueprint in a way, on which more specific questions can be decided,” she said.
The judges’ opinion, which she expected sometime next year, “will inform climate litigation on domestic, national and international levels.”
“One of the questions that is really important, as all of the legal questions hinge on it, is what is the conduct that is unlawful,” said Chowdhury.
“That is very central to these proceedings,” she said.
Some of the world’s largest carbon polluters — including the world’s top three greenhouse gas emitters, China, the United States and India — will be among some 98 countries and 12 organizations and groups expected to make submissions.
On Monday, proceedings will open with a statement from Vanuatu and the Melanesian Spearhead Group which also represents the vulnerable island states of Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands as well as Indonesia and East Timor.
At the end of the two-week hearings, organizations including the EU and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are to give their statements.
“With this advisory opinion, we are not only here to talk about what we fear losing,” the PISFCC’s Prasad said.
“We’re here to talk about what we can protect and what we can build if we stand together,” he said.


Trump sets off for the Mideast to mark a ceasefire deal and urge Arab leaders to seize the moment

Trump sets off for the Mideast to mark a ceasefire deal and urge Arab leaders to seize the moment
Updated 5 sec ago

Trump sets off for the Mideast to mark a ceasefire deal and urge Arab leaders to seize the moment

Trump sets off for the Mideast to mark a ceasefire deal and urge Arab leaders to seize the moment
  • Trump thinks there is a narrow window to reshape the Mideast and reset long-fraught relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors
  • First phase of deal calls for the release of the final 48 hostages held by Hamas, and release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump set off for Israel and Egypt on Sunday to celebrate the US-brokered ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas and urge Middle East allies to seize the opportunity to build a durable peace in the volatile region.
It’s a fragile moment with Israel and Hamas only in the early stages of implementing the first phase of the Trump agreement designed to bring a permanent end to the war sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants.
Trump thinks there is a narrow window to reshape the Mideast and reset long-fraught relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
It is a moment, the Republican president says, that has been helped along by his administration’s support of Israel’s decimation of Iranian proxies, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Very excited about this moment in time,” Trump told reporters before Air Force One took off.
He said many people in both Israel and Arab countries were “cheering” the agreement, adding that “everybody’s amazed and their thrilled and we’re going to have an amazing time.”
The White House says momentum is also building because Arab and Muslim states are demonstrating a renewed focus on resolving the broader, decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict and, in some cases, deepening relations with the United States.
Trump’s comments as the trip began followed him saying Friday that, “I think you are going to have tremendous success and Gaza is going to be rebuilt” and that “you have some very wealthy countries, as you know, over there. It would take a small fraction of their wealth to do that. And I think they want to do it.”
A tenuous point in the agreement
The first phase of the ceasefire agreement calls for the release of the final 48 hostages held by Hamas, including about 20 believed to be alive; the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel; a surge of humanitarian aid to Gaza; and a partial pullback by Israeli forces from Gaza’s main cities.
Israeli troops on Friday finished withdrawing from parts of Gaza, triggering a 72-hour countdown under the deal for Hamas to release the Israeli hostages, potentially while Trump is on the ground there. He said he expected their return to be completed on Monday or Tuesday.

Trump will visit Israel first to meet with hostage families and address the Knesset, or parliament, an honor last extended to President George W. Bush during a visit in 2008. Vice President JD Vance on Sunday said Trump also was likely to meet with newly-freed hostages, too.
“Knock on wood, but we feel very confident the hostages will be released and this president is actually traveling to the Middle East, likely this evening, in order to meet them and greet them in person,” Vance told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Trump then stops in Egypt, where he and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi will lead a summit in Sharm el-Sheikh with leaders from more than 20 countries on peace in Gaza and the broader Middle East.
It is a tenuous truce and it is unclear whether the sides have reached any agreement on Gaza’s postwar governance, the territory’s reconstruction and Israel’s demand that Hamas disarm. Negotiations over those issues could break down, and Israel has hinted it may resume military operations if its demands are not met.
“I think the chances of (Hamas) disarming themselves, you know, are pretty close to zero,” H.R. McMaster, a national security adviser during Trump’s first term, said at an event hosted by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies on Thursday. He said he thought what probably would happen in the coming months is that the Israeli military “is going to have to destroy them.”
Israel continues to rule over millions of Palestinians without basic rights as settlements expand rapidly across the occupied West Bank. Despite growing international recognition, Palestinian statehood appears exceedingly remote because of Israel’s opposition and actions on the ground,
The war has left Israel isolated internationally and facing allegations of genocide, which it denies. International arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister are in effect, and the United Nations’ highest court is considering allegations of genocide brought by South Africa.
Hamas has been militarily decimated and has given up its only bargaining chip with Israel by releasing the hostages. But the Islamic militant group is still intact and could eventually rebuild if there’s an extended period of calm.
Netanyahu reiterated that Israel would continue with its demilitarization of Hamas after the hostages are returned.
“Hamas agreed to the deal only when it felt that the sword was on its neck — and it is still on its neck,” Netanyahu said Friday as Israel began to pull back its troops.
Trump wants to expand the Abraham Accords
Much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble and rebuilding is expected to take years. The territory’s roughly 2 million residents continue to struggle in desperate conditions.
Under the deal, Israel agreed to reopen five border crossings, which will help ease the flow of food and other supplies into Gaza, parts of which are experiencing famine.
Trump is also standing up a US-led civil-military coordination center in Israel to help facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid as well as logistical and security assistance into Gaza.
Roughly 200 US troops will help support and monitor the ceasefire deal as part of a team that includes partner nations, nongovernmental organizations and private-sector players. US troops will not be sent to Gaza, Adm. Brad Cooper, the US military commander for the region, said in a social media post Saturday.
The White House has signaled that Trump is looking to quickly return attention to building on a first-term effort known as the Abraham Accords, which forged diplomatic and commercial ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
A permanent agreement in Gaza would help pave the path for Trump to begin talks with as well Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country, toward normalizing ties with Israel, according to a senior Trump administration official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity.
Such a deal with , the most powerful and wealthy Arab state, has the potential to reshape the region and boost Israel’s standing in historic ways.
But brokering such an agreement remains a heavy lift as the kingdom has said it won’t officially recognize Israel before a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.


Russia attacks Ukraine’s power grid as Moscow worries over US Tomahawk missiles

Russia attacks Ukraine’s power grid as Moscow worries over US Tomahawk missiles
Updated 46 min 31 sec ago

Russia attacks Ukraine’s power grid as Moscow worries over US Tomahawk missiles

Russia attacks Ukraine’s power grid as Moscow worries over US Tomahawk missiles
  • Kyiv regional governor said two employees of Ukraine’s largest private energy company were wounded in the strikes
  • Zelenskyy said Russia had launched “more than 3,100 drones, 92 missiles, and around 1,360 glide bombs” over the past week

Russia attacked Ukraine’s power grid overnight, part of an ongoing campaign to cripple Ukrainian energy infrastructure before winter, and expressed “extreme concern” over the US potentially providing Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine.
Kyiv regional Gov. Mykola Kalashnyk said two employees of Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK were wounded in Russian strikes on a substation. Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said that infrastructure was also targeted in the regions of Donetsk, Odesa and Chernihiv.
“Russia continues its aerial terror against our cities and communities, intensifying strikes on our energy infrastructure,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X, noting that Russia had launched “more than 3,100 drones, 92 missiles, and around 1,360 glide bombs” over the past week.
Zelensky called for tighter secondary sanctions on buyers of Russian oil. “Sanctions, tariffs, and joint actions against the buyers of Russian oil — those who finance this war — must all remain on the table,” he wrote, adding he had a “very productive” phone call with US President Donald Trump, in which they discussed strengthening Ukraine’s “air defense, resilience, and long-range capabilities,” along with “details related to the energy sector.”
Their discussion followed an earlier conversation on Saturday, Zelensky said, during which the leaders agreed on Sunday’s topics.
In an interview with Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing” after his call with Trump, Zelensky was asked whether Trump had approved the Tomahawks.
“We work on it,” he said. “And I’m waiting for president to yes. Of course we count on such decisions, but we will see. We will see.”
Zelensky said Friday that he was in talks with US officials about the possible provision of various long-range precision strike weapons, including Tomahawks and more ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles.
Trump, who has been frustrated by Russia in his efforts to end the war, said last week that he has “sort of made a decision” on whether to send Tomahawks to Ukraine, without elaborating. A senior Ukrainian delegation is set to visit the US this week.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in remarks published Sunday that “the topic of Tomahawks is of extreme concern.”
“Now is really a very dramatic moment in terms of the fact that tensions are escalating from all sides,” he told Russian state television reporter Pavel Zarubin.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also said in comments released Sunday that he doubts the US will provide Ukraine with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
“I think we need to calm down in this regard. Our friend Donald … sometimes he takes a more forceful approach, and then, his tactic is to let go a little and step back. Therefore, we shouldn’t take this literally, as if it’s going to fly tomorrow,” Lukashenko told Zarubin, who posted them on his Telegram channel on Sunday.
Ukraine’s energy sector has been a key battleground since Russia launched its all-out invasion more than three years ago.
The latest attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid came after Russian drone and missile strikes wounded at least 20 people in Kyiv, damaged residential buildings and caused blackouts across the country Friday, which Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko described as “one of the largest concentrated strikes” against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Each year, Russia has tried to cripple the Ukrainian power grid before the bitter winter season, apparently hoping to erode public morale. Winter temperatures run from late October through March, with January and February the coldest months.
Ukraine’s air force said Saturday that its air defenses intercepted or jammed 103 of 118 Russian drones launched against Ukraine overnight, while Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had shot down 32 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory.


Feeling hopeless in custody, many drop claims to remain in the US, leave voluntarily

Feeling hopeless in custody, many drop claims to remain in the US, leave voluntarily
Updated 56 min 53 sec ago

Feeling hopeless in custody, many drop claims to remain in the US, leave voluntarily

Feeling hopeless in custody, many drop claims to remain in the US, leave voluntarily
  • His case is an exemplar of the impact of the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to deport millions of migrants on an accelerated timetable, casting aside years of procedure and legal process in favor of expedient results

SEATTLE: Ramón Rodriguez Vazquez was a farmworker for 16 years in southeast Washington state, where he and his wife of 40 years raised four children and 10 grandchildren. The 62-year-old was a part of a tight-knit community and never committed a crime.
On Feb. 5, immigration officers who came to his house looking for someone else took him into custody. He was denied bond, despite letters of support from friends, family, his employer and a physician who said the family needed him.
He was sent to a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Tacoma, Washington, where his health rapidly declined in part because he was not always provided with his prescription medication for several medical conditions, including high blood pressure. Then there was the emotional toll of being unable to care for his family or sick granddaughter. Overwhelmed by it all, he finally gave up.
At an appearance with an immigration judge, he asked to leave without a formal deportation mark on his record. The judge granted his request and he moved back to Mexico, alone.
His case is an exemplar of the impact of the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to deport millions of migrants on an accelerated timetable, casting aside years of procedure and legal process in favor of expedient results.
Similar dramas are playing out at immigration courts across the country, accelerating since early July, when ICE began opposing bond for anyone detained regardless of their circumstances.
“He was the head of the house, everything — the one who took care of everything,” said Gloria Guizar, 58, Rodriguez’s wife. “Being separated from the family has been so hard. Even though our kids are grown, and we’ve got grandkids, everybody misses him.”
Leaving the country was unthinkable before he was held in a jail cell. The deportation process broke him.
‘Self deport or we will deport you’
It is impossible to know how many people left the US voluntarily since President Donald Trump took office in January because many leave without telling authorities. But Trump and his allies are counting on “self-deportation,” the idea that life can be made unbearable enough to make people leave voluntarily.
The Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts, said judges granted “voluntary departure” in 15,241 cases in the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, allowing them to leave without a formal deportation mark on their record or bar to re-entry. That compares with 8,663 voluntary departures for the previous fiscal year.
ICE said it carried out 319,980 deportations from Oct. 1, 2024 to Sept. 20. Customs and Border Protection declined to disclose its number and directed the question to the Department of Homeland Security.
Secretary Kristi Noem said in August that 1.6 million people have left the country voluntarily or involuntarily since Trump took office. The department cited a study by the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates for immigration restrictions.
Michelle Mittelstadt, spokesperson for the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said 1.6 million is an over-inflated number that misuses the Census Bureau data.
The administration is offering $1,000 to people who leave voluntarily using the CBP Home app. For those who don’t, there is a looming threat of being sent to a third country like Eswatini, Rwanda, South Sudan or Uganda,.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the voluntary departures show that the administration’s strategy is working, and is keeping the country safe.
“Ramped-up immigration enforcement targeting the worst of the worst is removing more and more criminal illegal aliens off our streets every day and is sending a clear message to anyone else in this country illegally: Self-deport or we will arrest and deport you,” she said in a statement sent to The Associated Press.
“They treat her like a criminal”
A Colombian woman dropped her asylum claim at a June appearance in a Seattle immigration court, even though she was not in custody.
“Your lawyer says you no longer wish to proceed with your asylum application,” the judge said. “Has anyone offered you money to do this?” he asked. “No, sir,” she replied. Her request was granted.
Her US citizen girlfriend of two years, Arleene Adrono, said she planned to leave the country as well.
“They treat her like a criminal. She’s not a criminal,” Adrono said. “I don’t want to live in a country that does this to people.”
At an immigration court inside the Tacoma detention center, where posters encourage migrants to leave voluntarily or be forcibly deported, a Venezuelan man told Judge Theresa Scala in August that he wanted to leave. The judge granted voluntary departure.
The judge asked another man if he wanted more time to find a lawyer and if he was afraid to return to Mexico. “I want to leave the country,” the man responded.
“The court finds you’ve given up all forms of relief,” Scala said. “You must comply with the government efforts to remove you.”
“His absence has been deeply felt”
Ramón Rodriguez crossed the US border in 2009. His eight siblings who are US citizens lived in California, but he settled Washington state. Grandview, population 11,000, is an agricultural town that grows apples, cherries, wine grapes, asparagus and other fruit and vegetables.
Rodriguez began working for AG Management in 2014. His tax records show he made $13,406 that first year and by 2024, earned $46,599 and paid $4,447 in taxes.
“During his time with us, he has been an essential part of our team, demonstrating dedication, reliability, and a strong work ethic,” his boss wrote in a letter urging a judge to release him from custody. “His skills in harvesting, planting, irrigation, and equipment operation have contributed significantly to our operations, and his absence has been deeply felt.”
His granddaughter suffers from a heart problem, has undergone two surgeries and needs a third. Her mother doesn’t drive so Rodriguez transported the girl to Spokane for care. The child’s pediatrician wrote a letter to the immigration judge encouraging his release, saying without his help, the girl might not get the medical care she needs.
The judge denied his bond request in March. Rodriguez appealed and became the lead plaintiff in a federal lawsuit that sought to allow detained immigrants to request and receive bond.
On September 30, a federal judge ruled that denying bond hearings for migrants is unlawful. But Rodriguez won’t benefit from the ruling. He’s gone now and is unlikely to come back.

 


In minutes, Mexico’s rains swept away homes and people

In minutes, Mexico’s rains swept away homes and people
Updated 12 October 2025

In minutes, Mexico’s rains swept away homes and people

In minutes, Mexico’s rains swept away homes and people
  • The disaster zone is the Sierra Madre Oriental, a mountain range that runs parallel to Mexico’s east coast
  • Huauchinango, with 100,000 residents, is one of the largest communities in the disaster zone

HUAUCHINANGO: Standing near the lifeless body of her sister, Rosalia Ortega is grateful to have found her in the river of mud that suddenly swept away her house as torrential rains pounded this Mexican mountain town.
At least 44 people have died since Thursday as floods wreaked a trail of destruction in the hardest-hit states of Hidalgo, Puebla, Queretaro and Veracruz.
“We’re sad, but at least we’re going to give her a Christian burial,” Ortega, 76, told AFP in the town of Huauchinango, in Puebla, a state east of Mexico City that according to official reports saw nine deaths and substantial damage.
The disaster zone is the Sierra Madre Oriental, a mountain range that runs parallel to Mexico’s east coast and is dotted with villages.
On Thursday, well after dark, a rain-swollen mountain river overflowed its banks in Huauchinango and within minutes robbed local residents of their homes and, in some cases, their loved ones.
That’s what happened to Maria Salas, a 49-year-old cook who is sheltering from the rain with an umbrella, watching two soldiers guarding the entrance to her neighborhood.
Salas lost five relatives when their house collapsed, and her own home was destroyed by a landslide.
“I can’t get my belongings, I can’t sleep there,” she said. “I have nothing.”
The grieving families are struggling to pay for funerals and, if anything is left over, to recuperate something from lost or damaged homes.
Huauchinango, with 100,000 residents, is one of the largest communities in the disaster zone and one of a very few that could be accessed Saturday.

Rivers of mud

The floodwaters swept away everything in their path, forming heavy rivers of mud that also rendered uncollapsed homes unusable.
“It was knee-deep,” says Petra Rodriguez, a 40-year-old domestic worker whose house was surrounded by water on both sides.
She and her husband and two sons managed to escape, holding hands so that if the water took one of them, “it would take us all,” she said.
In another part of town, teacher Karina Galicia, 49, showed AFP her mud-damaged, musty house. She and her family were able to run out; had they not, “we would have been buried,” she said.
In less damaged houses, neighbors are trying to remove water with plastic bottles, brooms and shovels.
Adriana Vazquez, 48, climbed a rough path strewn with stones and mud to see if anything was left of a relative’s house.
What she found was a jumble of wood and tin houses levelled by a landslide. Soldiers were using a backhoe to remove a pile of debris from the street.
Her relative “answered the telephone,” Vasquez said, but she could hardly hear anything and hopes that was due to a poor connection.
About 100 small communities are incommunicado due to road closures and power outages that have made telephone contact and travel difficult.
Mexico has been hit by particularly heavy rains throughout 2025, with a rainfall record set in the capital, Mexico City.
Meteorologist Isidro Cano told AFP that the intense rainfall since Thursday was caused by a seasonal shift and cloud formation as warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico rises to the mountaintops.


Bangladesh launches typhoid vaccination drive to combat drug-resistant threat

Bangladesh launches typhoid vaccination drive to combat drug-resistant threat
Updated 12 October 2025

Bangladesh launches typhoid vaccination drive to combat drug-resistant threat

Bangladesh launches typhoid vaccination drive to combat drug-resistant threat
  • Bangladeshi health workers are vaccinating children through schools, community clinics and door-to-door visits, with special attention to urban slums and remote rural areas

DHAKA: Bangladesh launched a nationwide vaccination campaign on Sunday to protect millions of children from typhoid, a deadly and increasingly drug-resistant disease that poses a growing public health threat.
The month-long campaign aims to immunize around 50 million children aged between nine months and 15 years with a single dose of the Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine. Approved and pre-qualified by the World Health Organization, the vaccine provides protection for up to five years and is being administered free under the government’s Expanded Programme on Immunization.
The vaccination push comes amid rising concerns over drug-resistant typhoid strains across South Asia. Since 2016, Pakistan has battled an outbreak resistant to nearly all antibiotics except one.
Bangladeshi health workers are vaccinating children through schools, community clinics and door-to-door visits, with special attention to urban slums and remote rural areas. The drive will continue until November 13, after which TCV will be included in Bangladesh’s routine immunization schedule.
Typhoid is caused by Salmonella Typhi bacteria and spreads through contaminated food and water. It causes fever, nausea, stomach pains and pink spots on the chest, and in severe cases can lead to complications in the gut and head that can be fatal.
Bangladeshi researchers have recently detected ceftriaxone-resistant strains — a troubling sign, as ceftriaxone remains one of the few effective treatments available.
Health experts warn that without urgent preventive measures, resistant strains could make typhoid much harder to treat. Supported by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the TCV campaign is expected to reduce infections and slow the spread of resistance.