World

KATHMANDU — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the world on Monday to “stop the madness” of climate change as he visited Himalayan regions struggling from rapidly melting glaciers to witness the devastating impact of the phenomenon.

“The rooftops of the world are caving in,” Guterres said on a visit to the Everest region in mountainous Nepal, adding that the country had lost nearly a third of its ice in just over three decades.

“Glaciers are icy reservoirs — the ones here in the Himalayas supply fresh water to well over a billion people,” he said. “When they shrink, so do river flows.”

Nepal’s glaciers melted 65 per cent faster in the last decade than in the previous one, said Guterres, who is on a four-day visit to Nepal.

Glaciers in the wider Himalayan and Hindu Kush ranges are a crucial water source for around 240 million people in the mountainous regions, as well as for another 1.65 billion people in the South Asian and Southeast Asian river valleys below.

The glaciers feed 10 of the world’s most important river systems, including the Ganges, Indus, Yellow, Mekong and Irrawaddy, and directly or indirectly supply billions of people with food, energy, clean air and income.

Scientists say they are melting faster than ever before due to climate change, exposing communities to unpredictable and costly disasters.

“I am here today to cry out from the rooftop of the world: Stop the madness”, Guterres said, speaking from Syangboche village, with the icy peak of the world’s highest mountain Everest towering behind him.

‘Catastrophe’ 

“The glaciers are retreating, but we cannot. We must end the fossil fuel age,” he said.

The world has warmed an average of nearly 1.2ºC since the mid-1800s, unleashing a cascade of extreme weather, including more intense heatwaves, more severe droughts and storms made more ferocious by rising seas.

Hardest hit are the most vulnerable people and the world’s poorest countries, which have done little to contribute to the fossil fuel emissions that drive up temperatures.

“We must act now to protect people on the frontline, and to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, to avert the worst of climate chaos,” Guterres said. “The world can’t wait.”

In the first phase of climate change’s effects, melting glaciers can trigger destructive floods.

“Melting glaciers mean swollen lakes and rivers flooding, sweeping away entire communities”, he added.

But all too soon, glaciers will dry up if change is not made, he warned.

“In the future, major Himalayan rivers like the Indus, the Ganges and Brahmaputra could have massively reduced flows,” he said. 

“That spells catastrophe.” 

MAKHACHKALA, Russia — Russia on Monday blamed "external interference" and singled out Ukraine for a riot in Muslim-majority Dagestan, which saw crowds of angry men overrunning an airport as they looked for Israeli passengers.

The mob descended onto Makhachkala airport Sunday evening, barging through barriers and taking over the runway, in an attempt to encircle a plane that had flown in from Israel.

Authorities said 60 people had been arrested, suspected of violently storming the airport and seeking to attack Jews.

The airport reopened Monday, but authorities reported some damage and an airline said its flights to Israel in the coming days were cancelled.

The Kremlin announced President Vladimir Putin would gather top advisers and spy chiefs later Monday to discuss the "West's attempts to use the events in the Middle East to split Russian society".

Moscow also accused Ukraine, which it has been fighting for more than 20 months, of orchestrating the riot.

Russia regularly blames domestic unrest on external, usually Western,  forces.

"Yesterday's events at Makhachkala airport are, to a large extent, the result of external interference," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"Against the backdrop of TV footage showing the horrors of what is happening in the Gaza Strip, the deaths of people, children, old people, it is very easy for enemies to take advantage of and provoke the situation," Peskov told reporters on Monday.

Russia's foreign ministry later singled out Kyiv.

There was no immediate reaction from Kyiv to the allegations and Ukraine’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to an AFP request to comment.

 ‘Sow discord’ 

Russia’s Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill also saw outside interference, condemning the violence as a bid to “sow discord” between Russia’s Jews and Muslims.

“I have no doubt that forces who provoked this incident will stop at nothing to cause disorder in our country,” the powerful cleric and Kremlin ally said.

The same day of the airport riot, Russian state media reported that a Jewish centre in another North Caucasus region — Kabardino-Balkaria — was set on fire.

The mountainous North Caucasus has had a Jewish community for centuries.

The day after the riot, AFP saw a police car with several officers outside Makhachkala’s synagogue.

The violence also prompted Israel to call on Russia to protect its citizens and Jews.

Outside a Moscow synagogue, people were shaken but unsurprised by the events, given rising global tensions over the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“Political events should not set fire to our common home,” Ariel Razbegayev, the 37-year-old director of the Moscow Choral Synagogue, told AFP.

Prominent figures in Dagestan have spoken in support of Palestine and against Israel since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

‘Stab in the back’ 

Rumours spread on Sunday that a Telegram channel owned by a former Russian lawmaker who now lives in Ukraine, Ilya Ponomarev, was behind the protests.

He has previously provided financial support to the Telegram channel called Utro Dagestan (Dagestan Morning) which called for protests at the airport on Sunday, independent media had reported.

Russia’s foreign ministry said Kyiv had used Ponomarev — granted Ukrainian citizenship in 2019 — to orchestrate the protests, accusing its enemy of “information-sabotage”.

Ponomarev’s spokesperson has not responded to AFP requests for comment.

The governor of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, was also quick to find a Ukrainian trace.

He said the riots were instigated by social media posts from Utro Dagestan, run by “traitors” working from Ukraine.

He called the riot a “stab in the back” of Dagestani soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

According to independent reports, Dagestan has sent proportionately more men to fight in Ukraine than many ethnic Russian regions.

He called on his people not to succumb to “provocations” over events in Israel and Gaza.

“All Dagestanis empathise with the suffering of victims by the actions of unrighteous people and politicians and pray for peace in Palestine,” he said, vowing punishment.

“But what happened at our airport is outrageous and should receive the appropriate assessment from law enforcement.”

ISTANBUL — Turkey marked its centenary as a post-Ottoman republic on Sunday with somewhat muted celebrations held in the shadow of Israel’s escalating war with Hamas militants in Gaza.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was front and centre of day-long events that both honour the secular republic’s founder and play up the achievement of the Islamic-rooted party that has run Turkey since 2002.

“Our country is in safe hands, you may rest in peace,” Erdogan said after laying a wreath at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk — the Turkish military commander.

Ataturk is lionised across Turkish society for driving out invading forces and building a brand new nation out of the fallen Ottoman Empire’s ruins in the wake of World War I.

Turkey was formed as a Westward-facing nation that stripped religion from its state institutions and tried to forge a modern new identity out its myriad ethnic groups.

It eventually became a proud member of the US-led NATO defence alliance and a beacon of democratic hopes in the Middle East.

Erdogan tapped into these as he led his conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) to power over the leftist Republican People’s Party (CHP) formed by Ataturk.

He has spent much of the past decade testing the limits of Turkey’s secular traditions as well as its ties with the West.

These competing forces were on full display as Erdogan moved from honouring Turkey’s past to celebrating his own government’s achievement while he was prime minister and president.

Palestinian cause 

Sunday’s celebrations have been partially eclipsed by Erdogan’s increasingly fierce attacks against Israel over its response to the October 7 Hamas surprise attacks.

The militants killed 1,400 people and took 220 hostages in a surprise raid that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the worst in the history.

Israel has retaliated with ferocious air strikes and an unfolding ground offensive that the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says has claimed more than 8,000 lives.

Turkish state television has also scrapped the broadcast of concerts and other festivities because of the “alarming human tragedy in Gaza”.

Erdogan’s lifelong defence of Palestinian rights has turned him into a hero across swathes of the Muslim world.

He announced that 1.5 million people had come out for a pro-Palestinian rally in Istanbul on Saturday that ended up drowning out national television coverage of the centenary.

Erdogan accused the Israeli government of behaving like a “war criminal” and trying to “eradicate” Palestinians.

“Israel, you are an occupier,” Erdogan declared.

His remarks prompted Israel to announce the withdrawal of all diplomatic staff for a “re-evaluation” of relations.

Turbulent spell 

The emerging diplomatic crisis further pulled attention away from Turkey’s birthday party and onto Erdogan’s handling of global affairs.

Turkey has suffered a turbulent spell of relations with Western allies since Erdogan survived a failed coup attempt in 2016 that he blamed on a US-based Muslim preacher.

Istanbul’s Kadir Has University lecturer Soli Ozel saw Saturday’s pro-Palestinian rally as part of Erdogan’s tacit effort to support Gaza.

“Couldn’t [this rally] have waited until next week? The centenary only comes around once in a century,” Ozel said in an interview.

But one survey suggested that Erdogan’s comments play to his Islamic conservative core of supporters and not the public at large.

The Metropoll survey showed just 11.3 per cent of the respondents saying they “back Hamas”.

But 34.5 per cent said Turkey should stay “neutral” and 26.4 per cent said it should mediate.

PARIS — Ahead of UN climate talks in Dubai from November 30, here are 10 key dates in the battle against global warming.

1988 — Alarm bells 

Alerted by scientists to signs that the Earth’s surface was warming, in 1988 the United Nations established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to investigate.

Two years later, the panel reported that heat-trapping “greenhouse” gases generated by human activity were on the rise and could intensify planetary warming.

In a series of studies, evidence accumulated that human activities — voracious burning of coal, oil and gas; rainforest logging; and destructive farming practices — were heating the Earth’s surface, a prelude to disruptions of its climate system.

1992 — Earth Summit 

An “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 created the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, with the aim of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. 

Since 1995, so called “Conferences of the Parties”, or COPs, have been meeting to pursue that elusive goal.

1997 — Kyoto Protocol 

In 1997, nations agreed in Kyoto, Japan, on a 2008-2012 timeframe for industrialised nations to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by an average of 5.2 per cent from 1990 levels.

Developing countries, including China, India and Brazil, were not required to take on binding targets.

But in 2001, the United States, at the time the world’s biggest carbon emitter, refused to ratify the protocol, which took effect in 2005.

2007 — Nobel prize 

The IPCC reported in 2007 that evidence of global warming was now “unequivocal” and that extreme weather events would probably multiply.

In October 2007, the UN panel shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former US vice president Al Gore for their efforts in raising the alarm about climate change.

2009 — Copenhagen collapse 

Participants at the COP15 gathering in Copenhagen failed to achieve an agreement for the post-2012 period.

Several dozen major emitters, including China and the United States, announced a goal of limiting global temperature increases to 2ºC above pre-industrial levels but were vague on how the goal was to be reached.

2015: Breakthrough in Paris

In December 2015, nearly every nation on Earth committed to limit warming to “well below” 2ºC above pre-industrial levels.

A more ambitious cap of 1.5ºC is also adopted as the preferred target.

2018 — Greta Thunberg 

In 2018, Swedish teen Greta Thunberg started skipping school on Fridays to sit outside the Swedish parliament, demanding more substantive action to combat climate change.

Despite ending her Friday protests in 2023 after graduating, her protest inspired students worldwide to skip class each Friday in a bid for more efforts from global leaders.

2022 — Record emissions 

In 2022, the International Energy Agency reported that global CO2 emissions would hit an annual record.

But at a COP27 meeting that year in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, participants failed to agree on more ambitious emissions cuts.

2022 — Biodiversity deal 

An accord on biodiversity is reached in Montreal in December 2022, calling for the designation of 30 per cent of the planet’s land and oceans as protected zones by 2030, and an end of extinctions of threatened species due to human activities.

2023 — New warning 

The United Nations warned that despite efforts so far, the world would see its first full year at 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels in the early 2030s.

According to the European Union’s climate observatory Copernicus, global temperatures in the summer of 2023 were the hottest ever registered.

KARAGANDA, KAZAKHSTAN — Kazakhstan held nationwide mourning on Sunday after 42 people died in a blaze at an ArcelorMittal mine, the worst accident in the Central Asian country’s post-Soviet history. 

The tragedy, which struck at the Kostenko coal mine in the Karaganda region Saturday, came after a series of deadly incidents at ArcelorMittal mines and has prompted the nationalisation of the company’s local affiliate. 

“As of 3pm [09:00 GMT] the bodies of 42 people were found,” Kazakhstan’s emergency services said on social media. 

“The search for four miners continues.” 

Rescuers earlier warned that finding the remaining miners alive were “very low”, due to the lack of ventilation and the force of Saturday’s explosion, which spread 2 kilometres.

The death toll overtook a 2006 accident that killed 41 miners at another ArcelorMittal site. It also came just two months after another incident killed five miners. 

Anger and disbelief reigned after the disaster in Karaganda, central Kazakhstan.

“Every miner is a hero, because when he goes down, he does not know if he will come back or not,” said former miner Sergei Glazkov. 

Many welcomed the government’s move towards nationalisation, angered by the company’s safety record. 

Daniar Mustafin, a 42-year-old salesman, said he favoured “full nationalisation without material compensation for the current owners”.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has ordered cooperation with the Luxembourg-based company to be “brought to an end”.

Speaking to victims’ relatives at the mine, Tokayev called ArcelorMittal “the worst enterprise in Kazakhstan’s history in terms of cooperation with the government”.

The Kazakh government and the steel giant announced a preliminary agreement to “transfer ownership of the [local] firm in favour of the Republic of Kazakhstan”, Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov stated.

“ArcelorMittal can confirm that the two parties have... signed a preliminary agreement for a transaction that will transfer ownership to the Republic of Kazakhstan,” the global steel giant stated, adding it was committed to “finalising this transaction as soon as possible”.

On Sunday, flags were at half-mast to mark the day of national mourning declared by Tokayev, an AFP correspondent saw.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, about 200 miners have died in Kazakhstan, the vast majority at ArcelorMittal sites. 

‘His guardian angel saved him’

There were 252 people inside the mine when the fire started, ArcelorMittal said. 

Outside a hospital in Karaganda, relatives of those who had survived the blast were thanking the heavens. 

“His guardian angel saved him. He is alive,” said Nikolai Bralin, the brother of an injured miner. 

“Two of his ribs were slightly torn apart from the blow and he had surgery to put them back in place,” he added. 

Local politicians also called for the immediate nationalisation of the company. 

“They must answer before court because they did not ensure people’s safety,” said local MP Kudaibergen Beksultanov. 

“The state needs to take it upon itself now.” 

The group’s arrival in Kazakhstan in 1995 was initially seen as a beacon of hope during the economic slump that followed the fall of communism. 

But a lack of investment and inadequate safety standards were repeatedly criticised by the authorities, while trade unions called for tighter government control. 

ArcelorMittal, led by Indian businessman Lakshmi Mittal, operates some 15 factories and mines in the centre of the former Soviet republic.

ACAPULCO, Mexico — Acapulco was struggling Saturday to recover from the extraordinarily powerful Hurricane Otis, which claimed 39 lives and provoked widespread power, water and telephone outages.

The picturesque Mexican tourist haunt, which once lured Hollywood stars like Elizabeth Taylor and Elvis Presley, had never experienced a Category 5 hurricane like Otis, which roared ashore Wednesday and made local landmarks built over decades look like they had been bombed. 

A lack of phone signal has left survivors desperate to communicate with loved ones. Some 200,000 homes were damaged, with a number of restaurants and businesses in ruins.

“We must restart the reconstruction of Acapulco as soon as possible,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.

As aid finally began to arrive after the storm’s devastating landfall — initial estimates report $15 billion in damage — the government on Saturday upped the death toll from the previous report of 27. 

Secretary of Security Rosa Icela Rodriguez said in a video on social media that at least 10 people remain missing, up from four previously reported.

A security force of some 17,000 has been deployed across the area after reports that supermarkets had been looted, authorities said.

Additionally, the Mexican army and navy have established an air bridge “to accelerate the distribution of humanitarian aid”, a government statement said. 

Thousands of liters of water and food supplies have been distributed in the resort city, home to 790,000 people. 

The government said victims in need of specialised care were being flown to hospitals elsewhere in Mexico.

Survivors angry 

Despite the government efforts, many survivors around the area were still struggling to contact family and friends elsewhere in Mexico. 

Andrea Fernandez, who is eight months pregnant, said she was distraught — unable to let her husband in another state know that she is fine.

“There is no [cellular] service. I haven’t been able to communicate for three days,” she said, jostling on a bridge with about 20 others keen to reach loved ones.

“I’m desperate,” she said through tears.

Cell phones intermittently pick up signals in some parts of the port, but the situation is hit or miss.

One local woman could be overheard saying: “There is no way to get out of here! I’ll talk to you again when I can. Everything here is gone. It’s horrible.”

Some survivors have told local media they were angry to hear tourists were taken to safe places to ride out the storm — in sharp contrast to the local population. 

Francisco Perez, 50, was desperate to get word to his mother. He accused the authorities of a grossly inadequate response.

“[They put] some portable [phone] antennas at a couple of places, but... what are we supposed to do?” he asked angrily, as people’s focus has begun turning to the lack of reliable water and food.

Some tourists approached journalists on the port’s main avenue, Costera Miguel Aleman, asking them to pass on details of a sick person who needed to be evacuated from a damaged building.

Otis strengthened with dramatic speed, growing in just hours from a tropical storm to the most powerful category of the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale before hitting land early Wednesday.

The World Meteorological Organisation described the hurricane as “one of the most rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones on record”, exceeded in modern times only by another Pacific hurricane, Patricia, in 2015.

The speed with which Otis intensified took the government and weather forecasters by surprise, leaving little time to issue warnings and prepare residents for its arrival.

In 1997, Hurricane Paulina hit the Acapulco region as a Category 4 storm, killing more than 200 people.

MOSCOW — Russian lawmakers backed a record increase in military spending to fund Moscow’s offensive on Ukraine, in a first reading of the bill on Thursday.

Defence spending will account for almost a third of all outlays in 2024, up 68 per cent to 10.8 trillion rubles ($115 billion).

At more than 6 per cent of the country’s GDP, military spending will hit its highest share of the economy since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Moscow has already spent tens of billions of dollars on ammunition, missiles, tanks, drones, equipment and soldiers’ salaries since it sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

President Vladimir Putin has doubled down on the offensive, as the economic and human costs of Moscow’s 20-month campaign continue to mount.

Overall government spending will rise more than 20 per cent next year to 36.66 trillion rubles ($391 billion), according to the budget proposals.

The defence funding increase was included in the spending plans for 2024-26, which State Duma lawmakers voted to approve.

 ‘Everything for the front’ 

According to Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, Russia uses up to 15,000 tonnes of materials,  including ammunition and fuel, every day in its offensive against Ukraine.

Before the vote on Thursday, finance minister Anton Siluanov told lawmakers the proposed budget was “aimed at today’s main task,  ensuring our victory”.

Some lawmakers echoed Soviet-era World War II slogans in their endorsements of the ramp-up in spending.

“Everything for the front, everything for victory,” said lawmaker Leonid Slutsky, who heads the Duma’s foreign affairs committee, quoting a 1940s wartime propaganda message.

The Russian economy has become increasingly militarised throughout the 20-month offensive.

“The war has become existential for the Russian economy because a big part of demand is now spread through the expanded military-industrial sector,” Alexandra Prokopenko, a former adviser at Russia’s central bank, told AFP.

The Kremlin said such a significant spending increase was essential in the face of Western support for Kyiv.

“It is obvious that such an increase is absolutely necessary, because we are in a state of hybrid war,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier in October.

Lawmakers voted 320-80 in favour of passing the budget Thursday.

It will pass through two more readings in Russia’s rubber-stamp lower chamber, before going to the upper house for approval and then Putin for signing.

The budget also includes funds for the “integration of new regions” — financial support for the four Ukrainian regions that Russia said it was annexing last year.

Despite Western sanctions, Russia has continued to earn huge sums of revenue through its vital oil and gas exports, which it has reorientated away from Europe to the likes of China and India.

The government has also benefited more recently from a weak ruble, as it means the Kremlin earns more on its exports.

In its budget forecasts, the finance ministry sees the ruble at 90 against the dollar. The currency was trading Thursday at 93.5.

But the ruble’s volatility has stoked inflation at home and the central bank has hiked interest rates to 13 per cent in a bid to cool rapid price rises.

The planned surge in government spending “is inflationary, no matter how it is financed”, said independent economist Victor Tunyov.

“The increase in defence spending is mainly a external shock to the economy,” he added.

Russia has swung to a budget deficit since it launched its military offensive in Ukraine, forcing the finance ministry to increase borrowing from state banks and sell some foreign currency reserves.

ACAPULCO, MEXICO — Hurricane Otis killed at least 27 people as it lashed Mexico's beach resort city of Acapulco as a scale-topping category 5 storm, officials said on Thursday, in what residents called a "total disaster."

The storm crashed into Acapulco with furious winds of 270 kilometres per hour, largely cutting off communications and road links with the region.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador arrived at the scene late Wednesday, after his convoy found roads blocked by landslides and other debris, forcing top officials to abandon their vehicles and walk the final miles.

The closures meant some residents slogged for hours through mud and debris in an attempt to find food and shelter.

"Acapulco is a total disaster. It is not what it was before. The park was totally destroyed, the buildings, all the streets," said 24-year-old Eric Hernandez, who made the decision to leave on foot. 

"The shops had all been looted, people were fighting for things. So we decided to walk as there wasn't anything left there," he said. 

Others said an overflowing river and collapsed bridges had cut off communities near Acapulco. 

"A lot of people got stuck on the other side of the river in our village, which was overflowing a lot. People were left homeless, there's no electricity," said Israel Perez, a 21-year-old baker.

Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez told a news conference Thursday that 27 people were dead and four were missing.

Aid convoy

A convoy carrying humanitarian aid set off to try to reach Acapulco — home to about 780,000 people — by land since the airport was closed, authorities said. 

Otis rapidly strengthened to the most powerful category of the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale before hitting land overnight Tuesday-Wednesday, taking authorities by surprise.

"Rarely, according to records, does a hurricane develop so quickly and with such force," Lopez Obrador said.

People recounted a terrifying ordeal as Otis made landfall on the usually sun-kissed resort town.

"The building shook as if there was an earthquake," Citlali Portillo, a tourist accommodation manager, told the television channel Televisa, adding that she had taken shelter in a bathtub.

Videos posted on social media showed severely damaged hotels and other buildings, including many shattered windows.

Tourists used beds and mattresses for protection in their hotel rooms, once windows were blown out.

Toppled trees were seen in the debris-strewn streets and a shopping mall appeared to have suffered major structural damage in Acapulco, located in the southern state of Guerrero.

More than 500 emergency shelters were opened for residents.

Hurricanes hit Mexico every year on both its Pacific and Atlantic coasts, usually between May and November, though few make landfall as a Category 5.

In October 1997, Hurricane Pauline hit Mexico's Pacific coast as a Category 4 storm, leaving more than 200 people dead, some of them in Acapulco.

It was one of the deadliest hurricanes to batter Mexico.

In October 2015, Patricia became the most powerful hurricane ever recorded, pummeling Mexico's Pacific coast with sustained winds of 200 miles per hour.

But the storm caused only material damage and no deaths as it made landfall in a sparsely populated mountainous area.

Just this week, Tropical Storm Norma left three people dead, including a child, after making landfall for a second time in the northwestern state of Sinaloa.

Earlier this month, two people died when Category 4 Hurricane Lidia struck the western states of Jalisco and Nayarit.

Scientists have warned that storms are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer with climate change.