Author: web Desk

JAKARTA, The number of pig deaths suspected to be caused by the African Swine Fever (ASF) virus in Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara has reached 256.

“There were only 253 deaths at first, but now there are three more cases in North Central Timor Regency,” Nusa Tenggara Animal Husbandry Service official, Melky Angsar, told local media yesterday.

Since Dec 21 last year, the virus has spread to Kupang Regency, Kupang City, Ende Regency, East Flores Regency, Sikka Regency, South-west Sumba Regency, West Sumba Regency, and North Central Timor Regency.

To combat the infectious virus, the authorities have distributed 39,200 litres of disinfectant to farmers, and banned the movement of pigs in and out of the province.

The same swine flu also attacked East Nusa Tenggara in 2000, and killed thousands of pigs.

Source: Nam News Network

Hollywood Cat is no longer. The Los Angeles area’s most famous mountain lion, an aged wild male feline sighted around the city’s Griffith Park, was euthanized Saturday, wildlife officials said.

For years, it was known to prowl around the hillside “Hollywood” sign visible around much of Los Angeles, a fitting setting for a celebrity cat.

It earned the nickname Hollywood Cat, but the mountain lion — estimated to be around 11 years old — is officially called P-22.

State and federal wildlife officers decided earlier this month to capture it due to its erratic behavior, perhaps associated with being struck by a vehicle.

Veterinarians found “significant trauma” to its head, right eye and internal organs, California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement.

The experts also found underlying health issues, including “irreversible kidney disease, chronic weight loss, extensive parasitic skin infection over his entire body and localized arthritis.”

“The most difficult, but compassionate choice was to respectfully minimize his suffering and stress by humanely ending his journey,” the statement said.

“Mountain lion P-22 has had an extraordinary life and captured the hearts of the people of Los Angeles and beyond.”

Euthanizing the cougar was a punch to the gut for game experts who had grown to love the animal.

“This really hurts,” said Chuck Bonham, director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, when he announced P-22’s death, according to USA Today.

“It’s been an incredibly difficult several days.”

‘Our favorite celebrity’

Congressman Adam Schiff, who represents part of Los Angeles County, said he was “heartbroken” at P-22’s passing.

“He was our favorite celebrity neighbor, occasional troublemaker, and beloved L.A. mascot,” Schiff tweeted.

“But most of all he was a magnificent, wild creature, who reminded us that we are part of a natural world much bigger than ourselves.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom praised P-22’s “incredible journey” in a statement.

“P-22’s survival on an island of wilderness in the heart of Los Angeles captivated people around the world,” Newsom said.

Griffith Park, where P-22 lived for perhaps a decade, is hemmed in by freeways and urban sprawl. It is a nine-square-mile (23-square-kilometer) isolated patch of nature.

Experts marveled at how the wild cat got across either of two major Los Angeles freeways — the 405 and 101 — to get to Griffith Park as early as 2012.

Officials said they were not looking for the driver who hit it.

“This situation is not the fault of P-22, nor of a driver who may have hit him,” the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

“Rather, it is an eventuality that arises from habitat loss and fragmentation, and it underscores the need for thoughtful construction of wildlife crossings and well-planned spaces that provide wild animals room to roam.”

In a profile of P-22 done long before its death, the National Park Service lamented that Griffith Park is too small for a second cougar, and “it’s unlikely he will ever find love with a female lion.”

The cat’s renown was due to frequent sightings, video doorbell cameras and physical encounters.

A Facebook page in honor of the cougar has more than 20,000 followers.

Source: Voice of America

“I feel anxious about inflation every time I go to the grocery store,” Caroline Fitzsousa, a bar manager in Baltimore, Maryland, told VOA. “And at work, my customers aren’t happy either. The rising cost of food and liquor caused us to raise prices. People are frustrated having to pay more for the same items they’ve always ordered.”

That frustration was felt across the United States in 2022, as global supply chain disruptions, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, stimulative U.S. fiscal policies and other factors contributed to the highest inflation levels – and the biggest price increases for many goods and services – America has seen in four decades.

Inflation peaked in June when the consumer price index, a measure of the average change in the cost of goods and services compared to the year before, rose 9.1%. For October, the index was 7.7% higher, which economists saw as an improvement but still stubbornly high.

The U.S. Federal Reserve aims for 2% annual inflation and has been aggressively raising interest rates in hopes of bringing it under control.

For consumers and businesses alike, the impact of rising prices and falling purchasing power has been plain to see.

“There are some nights that seem as busy as before the pandemic,” Fitzsousa said, commenting on her bar’s ability to attract customers, “but there are also plenty of patches of time when the bar is dead because people can’t afford to eat and drink out as much.”

She added, “You hear people complaining about places being overpriced, but there’s nothing we can do. If we’re going to recover from the pandemic’s losses and keep our doors open, this is what we have to charge. Things just cost more this year.”

Year of worry

A November survey conducted by U.S. News & World Report and The Harris Poll reported that 86% of U.S. adults were either very or somewhat concerned about the economy and inflation.

And, with the holiday shopping season under way, 41% of American consumers plan to spend less this year than they did in 2021, according to a CNBC All-America Economic Survey.

“In most current polls, you’ll see Americans rank higher prices and the economy as the country’s biggest problem,” said Robert Collins, professor of urban studies and public policy at Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. “It ranks ahead of crime, border security, the environment, abortion, and everything else. The economy is top of mind.”

Despite it being a priority, Collins said this isn’t a challenge that can be solved quickly. Inflation takes time to go down, he warns, and relief will be slow and incremental.

For many Americans, such as Steve Ryan, an investor and professional poker player living in Las Vegas, Nevada, however, the need for relief is urgent.

“I’m honestly worried about my ability to continue to afford living here,” he told VOA. “The stock market stagnated and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to rebound any time soon, but I have to sell my shares at rock bottom prices because I need to cobble together money just to afford my rent.”

And that rent, unfortunately, is rising. Ryan had to leave his apartment of more than a decade because the price nearly doubled after renovations were made.

“I found a new place,” he said, “but it definitely costs more. And I’m paying for it while making less than I used to. At some point, I may just have to leave.”

Complicated economy

“It’s important to remember that the economy is very complex and very cyclical,” said Collins of Dillard University. “One of the things that caused the inflation we’re seeing now is the low unemployment rate most workers see as a good thing.”

In November, the economy added 263,000 jobs, keeping the national unemployment rate at 3.7%, which is near a half-century low.

Robust job creation is usually associated with an expanding, vibrant economy. But finding workers to fill those jobs has been a challenge for many employers over the last two years.

“I love that workers are gaining more power,” said Fitzsousa in Baltimore, “but we’re having a tough time attracting the staff we need to run our business because there are less people to choose from and more jobs competing for them. As a small business our profit margins are so thin. It’s hard to keep pace with the higher wages corporate restaurant groups can pay to bring in workers.”

As employers offer higher wages to attract workers, the increased labor costs usually are passed down to consumers in the form of higher prices.

“Unfortunately, the increased wages workers are receiving aren’t keeping up with the inflation it’s helping to fuel,” explained Patrick Button, associate professor of economics at Tulane University in New Orleans.

That’s been the case for Lisa Martin, a teacher in Cincinnati, Ohio, whose dream of home ownership has been put on hold.

“Rent is so expensive and I know buying a house is a smart move,” she told VOA. “It’s a goal of mine, but my income isn’t high enough to allow me to save for a mortgage. I’m hopeful this year prices might come down a little.”

Looking ahead

As the Federal Reserve keeps boosting interest rates, the heads of some large U.S. banks warn a recession could loom in 2023.

“Those things might very well derail the economy and cause this mild to hard recession that people are worried about,” JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, told CNBC earlier this week.

It’s a worry for millions in this country, especially Americans nearing retirement.

“I feel the economy has affected those of us preparing for retirement in a big way,” 62-year-old Lisa Ash of Mandeville, Louisiana, told VOA. “Our lifelong savings – whether in the stock market or in our savings accounts – have taken a big hit and I don’t see that correcting itself in the next three years.”

She added, “I’m no longer thinking about buying another home or about traveling. I’m working.”

For all the gloom, some financial experts have a simple message: hang in there.

“Throughout history the economy expands and the economy contracts; business peaks and business troughs,” said Marigny deMauriac, a certified financial planner in New Orleans. “It’s called a cycle because it’s happened before and it will happen again. There might be some pain next year in the case of a recession, but the sooner there is pain, the sooner there will be relief.”

Source: Voice of America

Every time a part of his old grey Mercedes breaks, 62-year-old Beirut cab driver Abed Omayraat faces a tough choice: go into debt to import an expensive car part, or raise fares for customers whose wallets are already drained by a severe economic crisis.

It’s a dilemma he says has become more acute in recent months as Lebanon’s government moved to increase tariffs on imported goods about ten-fold in a country that ships in more than 80% of what it consumes – including spare parts he needs.

“My tires are finished now, you can see they’re worn out. When it rains, I’m worried the car will slide,” Omayraat said. Changing them is necessary, “but I can’t afford it.”

Lebanon’s economic meltdown, now in its fourth year, has seen the currency lose more than 95% of its value and left eight in 10 Lebanese poor, according to the United Nations.

With foreign currency coffers dwindling, the state has already lifted subsidies on fuel and most medication.

Hiking the rate at which the customs fee is calculated, officials say, will boost state revenues and is a step towards unifying various exchange rates.

They are among pre-conditions set by the International Monetary Fund in April for Lebanon to get a $3 billion bailout, but the lender of last resort says reforms have been too slow.

The tariff jump came into effect on Dec 1. Import taxes began being calculated at an exchange rate of 15,000 Lebanese pounds per dollar instead of the old 1,507, meaning traders suddenly had to pay much more to bring in products like home appliances, telephones or car parts.

That is set to pile even more financial pressure on people struggling to make ends meet.

Omayraat says many passengers already ask for discounts to the standard 40,000 L.L. ride fee.

“Do you tell a person that you want a 100,000 pound fare? I’m basically telling them: don’t ride with me. Neither can he (afford it), nor can I take him. He’s not able to eat and I won’t be able to eat,” Omayraat said.

Rabih Fares, an architect from northern Lebanon who began importing used cars when business slowed down, said the new rate was forcing car dealerships to boost prices or go out of business.

“You need to work four to five years just to be able to afford the customs rate on a car now,” said Fares, who estimated fees to import one used car could average 94 million Lebanese pounds – or about 156 times the minimum monthly wage.

The finance ministry said revenues gathered in the 15 days since the decision came into effect showed a “huge difference” but said figures would be ready by the end of the month.

Parliament agreed on the rate in September but it was not rolled out until December – a delay that caretaker Economy Minister Amin Salam said allowed traders to load up on imports before the tariff hike, while increasing selling prices.

“When you announced it three months ago, it’s as if you are going and telling those who don’t want to work right in the market: go find a way to benefit. And this is what happened,” he said.

It has left him sceptical that Lebanon will implement the reforms necessary to score a final IMF bailout in the coming months.

“As we are now, I in my personal opinion do not see it happening soon – which worries me because, as I said, each day of delay is costing the country millions and millions and costs the people pain and misery,” Salam told Reuters.

Source: Voice of America

U.N. chiefs held talks with Russian officials Friday on the Black Sea agreements about exporting grain and fertilizers, eight days before one of the deals is set to expire, but no settlements were reached.

U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths and Rebeca Grynspan, head of the U.N. trade and development agency UNCTAD, met a high-level delegation from Moscow, led by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin. The talks took place behind closed doors at the U.N. Palais des Nations headquarters in Geneva and finished by midafternoon.

“The discussions updated on progress made in facilitating the unimpeded export of food and fertilizers, including ammonia, originating from the Russian Federation to global markets,” a U.N. representative said. “The U.N. team briefed on steps taken to facilitate payments, shipping insurance, and access to EU ports for grains and fertilizer, among others.”

10.2 million tons exported

Two agreements brokered by the U.N. and Turkey were signed July 22. The first was to allow the export of Ukrainian grain blocked by Russia’s war in the country, while the second was on the export of Russian food and fertilizers despite Western sanctions imposed on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine.

The 120-day Black Sea Grain Initiative runs out November 19, and the United Nations is seeking to renew it for one year. Moscow, however, has not yet said whether it will agree to that.

It has complained that the second agreement exempting its fertilizers from sanctions, which is due to run for three years, is not being respected.

“The U.N. calls on all actors to expedite the removal of any remaining impediments to the export and transportation of fertilizers to countries most in need,” the U.N. representative added.

Ukraine is one of the world’s top grain producers, and the Russian invasion had blocked 20 million metric tons of grain in its ports until the safe passage deal was struck.

Until Thursday, 10.2 million tons of grains and other foodstuffs had been exported from Ukraine under the deal, relieving some fears about a deepening global food security crisis.

Very serious implications

The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization said the implications could be very concerning for global food security if the deal is not renewed.

“We see it as an important initiative that has improved food availability,” said Boubaker Ben Belhassen, director of the FAO’s markets and trade division.

“However, should we be in a scenario that nobody wants to see, that there is a termination of the deal, I think the situation could be really difficult and the implications could be very serious,” he told reporters via video link from Rome, where the FAO is based.

He pointed to global food security, prices, availability and food staples.

Ben Belhassen said that in the short term, prices would increase, especially for wheat, maize and sunflower seed oil, while availability of grains on the global market would go down.

There could be a heavy impact on countries that depend on Black Sea imports, notably in the Middle East and North Africa.

Source: Voice of America

The World Food Program is warning it soon will be forced to suspend food assistance to 1 million people displaced by fighting in Mozambique’s volatile Cabo Delgado province without an immediate infusion of cash.

The United Nations food agency said aid will be cut off in February if $51 million is not received. February is the peak of the lean season in Mozambique, when food stocks are at their lowest.

The month is also during the country’s cyclone season, a period of great vulnerability.

WFP Country Director and Representative in Mozambique Antonella D’Aprile said that without humanitarian assistance, 1 million desperate and uprooted people will be on the verge of hunger. This funding situation has been going on for some time, she said.

“We have been delivering half rations since April 2022 because of limited funding and increased needs,” D’Aprile said, explaining that families affected by the conflict received or have been receiving less than 40 percent of their minimum caloric needs.

Around 4,000 people in Cabo Delgado have been killed and more than 1 million have been forced to flee their homes during five years of fighting between insurgents and Mozambique’s army. The government’s fight against the Islamist rebels is backed by troops from Rwanda and the regional bloc SADC, which is the Southern African Development Community.

U.N. officials said violence has intensified in recent months with unprecedented attacks in districts close to the provincial capital of Pemba and is spreading to neighboring provinces.

Speaking from the Mozambican capital of Maputo, D’Aprile said the attacks have pushed more people to flee their villages, leaving everything behind.

She described their condition as dire.

“These people are displaced and traumatized multiple times…50 percent of the people that are displaced are children,” she said. “… If the food insecurity gets worse, the first ones to suffer are children and women.”

UNICEF reports some 33,000 children in Cabo Delgado are severely malnourished and need special nutritional feeding.

D’Aprile said WFP needs the international community to step in now to avert hunger in the short term. She said money also is needed to address the root causes of chronic food insecurity in Mozambique, so people can become self-sufficient.

Source: Voice of America

Combating climate change and averting, minimising and addressing its impacts are essential if we are going to realise the ultimate goal of lives well lived for all. The United Nations uses the language of sustainable development, including reducing the impact of disasters, as one means to secure the rights of present and future generations. To do so effectively requires a whole of society approach[1]- ensuring that all actors are given the opportunity to do their part – as well as a whole of government approach[2] – ensuring coherence between a host of reinforcing processes. For people and planet, we must commit to ensuring rapid implementation of the Paris Agreement and addressing the urgency of action on Loss and Damage in the UNFCCC climate change negotiations/processes. The Stakeholder Engagement Mechanism for Disaster Risk Reduction is an open, structured mechanism of 17 constituencies of non-state actors to participate in the implementation and monitoring of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (Sendai Framework). It sees tremendous benefit to greater policy coherence and shared approaches between the Paris Agreement and the Sendai Framework and will be advancing such initiatives at COP27 and beyond.

A number of specific recommendations are outlined in greater detail below, but three experiences from disaster risk reduction come to the fore. Firstly, stakeholder inclusion at all levels is essential for any meaningful and sustained advance in combating the climate crisis. Second, solutions and strategies already exist within communities beyond the conventional UNFCCC mechanisms. Drawing on them would do much to strengthen integration and improve effectiveness, including on losses and damages. Finally, climate action and disaster risk reduction are two sides of the same coin – as climate change is mitigated, disasters are reduced, and as resilience is built in communities the impacts of climate change are tempered.

The IPCC reports not only clearly articulate the precipice upon which the world finds itself, but also demonstrate the negative impacts without riskinformed development. In order to counteract the impact, increase adaptation measures, and reduce vulnerability, we call for an enhanced coherence among previously siloed UN processes, especially DRR and climate action. The priorities of the Egyptian presidency, including prioritising adaptation, financing climate action, and advancing a just and equitable transition are shared by the disaster risk reduction community. Disaster risk reduction, humanitarian response, and climate change adaptation have the common objective of reducing vulnerability and enhancing capacity and resilience. A comprehensive disaster and climate risk management approach, starting with agreed-upon definitions, is key to making the shift towards integrated plans and policies, supported by shared risk understanding and inclusive institutions.

At a fundamental level, modern conceptions of development are increasingly outdated. Historical assumptions of where knowledge lies are rightfully coming into question both at the local and national levels. Local level experience and expertise is vital for development to be meaningfully owned and sustained by the populations it is meant to benefit. And the learning of so-called “developing” countries will need to be drawn upon as the “developed” world increasingly faces hazards new to them. Being hosted in Africa, this COP can serve to accelerate the pattern of knowledge exchange at all levels.

As members of the UNDRR Stakeholder Engagement Mechanism (SEM), we welcome Egypt and the African region’s prioritisation of adaptation. While mitigation is critical to ensuring the Paris Agreement’s 1.5℃ target, adaptation has consistently been sidelined in the process, risking lives and livelihoods, and wreaking havoc upon those living in poverty and other populations in situations of vulnerability. The need for a permanent, clear and tangible link between the objectives and timelines of the Paris agreement and of the Sendai Framework is more urgent than ever; COP27 could play an important role in formalising these links. COP27 has the potential to renew focus on policies that reduce risk by building synergies with the effort to implement the Sendai Framework and other critical global policy agreements. With this in mind, the SEM calls upon the Parties to the UNFCCC to adopt the following measures:

Source: UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction

Traders in the Cameroon town of Kiossi, on the border with Equatorial Guinea, say business is suffering after the land border was closed last week ahead of November 20 elections. Equatorial Guinea says it closed the border to prevent what it calls “infiltration of mercenaries who want to destabilize the elections.” Political analysts say President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who came to power in a 1979 coup and is Africa’s longest still-serving leader, is sure to win.

Several hundred citizens from Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, most of them merchants, say they have not been able to cross the border from Kiossi, a Cameroonian border town, to Equatorial Guinea since November 3.

Dozens of heavily armed Equatorial Guinea government troops can be seen on the central African state’s side of the border.

Building material importer Dominique Essono says the troops are preventing him and many other Equatorial Guinea citizens from returning to their country to vote on November 20.

Essono said scores of businesspersons are stranded and cannot move to Cameroon from Ebebiyin, a town in Equatorial Guinea. Cameroon imports vegetable oil, wine, canned food and body lotions from Equatorial Guinea and exports building material, vegetables, tomatoes, rice and potato to Equatorial Guinea.

On October 25, Equatorial Guinea’s Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue said the border was sealed to prevent from the “infiltration” of groups that may want to destabilize Equatorial Guinea’s elections.

Obiang, 80, is Africa’s longest serving leader. The former military officer serving as the 2nd president of Equatorial Guinea took power in an August 1979 coup.

He will be facing two candidates in the November 20 elections.

Esono Ondo is running for the first time while Monsuy Asumu is running for the third time. Obiang told the Pan African TV Channel Afrique Media on Monday that he will continue to develop his country and reduce poverty in rural communities if reelected.

Obiang says it is by no error that continuity is the slogan of his election campaign. He says his exceptional program is to open Equatorial Guinea businesses to the rest of the world so that by 2035, the central African state can become an economically independent emerging economy.

Owona Wolfgang, a political analyst at the University of Yaounde’s political science research center in Cameroon, says Obiang is poised for another victory, as in the past six elections when he never got less than 90% of the vote.

Wolfgang says it will not be surprising if after the elections, the aging Obiang hands over leadership of Equatorial Guinea to his son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue. He says Obiang’s son is Equatorial Guinea’s vice president and a very influential member of the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea, the country’s ruling party.

The opposition says Obiang’s rule is marked by persecution and torture of political opponents, corruption and sham elections, charges Obiang’s party denies.

The ruling party holds 99 of the 100 seats in the outgoing National Assembly and all 55 seats in the Senate.

Equatorial Guinea’s presidential poll was initially scheduled for April 2023. President Obiang brought it forward to November 20 to coincide with legislative, senate, and local elections.

Equatorial Guinea has an annual oil revenue of more than $3 billion, but most of its 1.5 million people live in poverty according to the United Nations.

Source: Voice of America