World

LISBON — Portugal was due to name its new prime minister on Wednesday once the final results of its March 10 election are announced after the counting of overseas ballots.

After a narrow win, Luis Montenegro, the leader of the centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD), is expected to be appointed as Portugal’s next prime minister, succeeding socialist Antonio Costa.

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa received Montenegro at the presidential palace on Wednesday evening, before the overseas results were completed.

Montenegro said that he told Sousa that his party was ready to take charge of the government and, “as a consequence of that, to be named prime minister”.

The meeting was the final step of consultations Sousa was due to hold with the parties represented in parliament before inviting the election winner to form the next government.

Near-complete official results showed the AD won 29.5 per cent of the vote and at least 79 seats, far short of a majority in the 230-seat parliament.

The incumbent Socialist Party (PS), in power for eight years, came in second place, winning at least 77 seats.

Even with the backing of the tiny business-friendly Liberal Initiative (IL) Party, the AD would still need the support of anti-immigration party Chega to reach a majority of 116 seats in the assembly.

However, Montenegro has ruled out forming a coalition with Chega, which took 48 seats, insisting that he intends to form a minority government.

Chega’s leader Andre Ventura warned of political instability if the AD continued to reject a coalition.

“We are continuing to put in all our efforts... to reach an agreement that will ensure the country’s stability,” Ventura said on Monday.

“If there is no government agreement, the AD will be responsible for the instability that will result.”

A minority administration will “not necessarily” be unstable because “none of the actors has an interest in triggering a crisis”, said Antonio Costa Pinto, an analyst from the University of Lisbon’s Institute of Social Sciences.

The election results marked another advance for the far right in Europe, where populist and nationalist parties are either already governing — often in coalitions — in countries such as Italy, Hungary and Slovakia, or are steadily gaining as in France and Germany.

Chega, which means “Enough”, calls for stricter controls over immigration, tougher measures to fight corruption and chemical castration for some sex offenders.

WASHINGTON — The US Supreme Court lifted its hold on Tuesday on a controversial Texas law that would allow state police to arrest and deport migrants who cross illegally into the United States from Mexico.

The move by the conservative-majority court allows the law, known as Senate Bill 4 (SB 4), to take effect while legal challenges play out in lower courts.

The administration of Democratic President Joe Biden has strongly opposed SB 4, arguing that the federal government has authority over immigration matters, not individual states.

The White House swiftly denounced the high court’s move.

“We fundamentally disagree with the Supreme Court’s order allowing Texas’ harmful and unconstitutional law to go into effect,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

“SB 4 will not only make communities in Texas less safe, it will also burden law enforcement, and sow chaos and confusion at our southern border,” Jean-Pierre said. “SB 4 is just another example of Republican officials politicising the border while blocking real solutions.”

A federal judge last month temporarily blocked the law passed by the Republican majority in the Texas state legislature saying it “conflicts with key provisions of federal immigration law”.

But a conservative-dominated appeals court said SB 4 could go into force unless the Supreme Court ruled otherwise.

The nation’s highest court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, issued a temporary stay on SB 4 earlier this month but lifted it on Tuesday while further arguments about the law are heard in the appeals court.

‘Invites further chaos’ 

The three liberal justices on the court dissented.

“Today, the Court invites further chaos and crisis in immigration enforcement,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote.

“Texas passed a law that directly regulates the entry and removal of noncitizens and explicitly instructs its state courts to disregard any ongoing federal immigration proceedings,” Sotomayor said. “That law upends the federal-state balance of power that has existed for over a century.”

Republicans blame Biden for the recent record flow of migrants into the United States, while the White House accuses Republicans of deliberately sabotaging a bipartisan attempt to find a solution.

Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas and an ally of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, has decried an “invasion” of the southern border.

“Texas has the right to defend itself because of President Biden’s ongoing failure to fulfill his duty to protect our state from the invasion at our southern border,” Abbott said recently.

SB 4 is the latest immigration flashpoint between Abbott and federal authorities.

The US Justice Department has also filed a lawsuit seeking the removal of a floating barrier installed by Texas authorities in the Rio Grande River to stop migrants crossing from Mexico.

MANILA — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Saudi Arabia and Egypt this week to discuss efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and increase humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory, a State Department spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Blinken will hold talks with Saudi leaders in Jeddah on Wednesday before travelling to Cairo on Thursday for talks with Egyptian authorities, spokesman Matthew Miller said from the Philippines, where Blinken is touring.

This will be Blinken's sixth trip to the Middle East since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7.

"The secretary will discuss efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire agreement that secures the release of all remaining hostages, intensified international efforts to increase humanitarian assistance to Gaza, and coordination on post-conflict planning for Gaza, including ensuring Hamas can no longer govern nor repeat the attacks of October 7," Miller said in a statement.

Blinken will also discuss "a political path for the Palestinian people with security assurances with Israel, and an architecture for lasting peace and security in the region".

And he will raise the imperative issue of ending attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on commercial ships, to restore stability and security in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, Miller added.

Blinken is in Manila as part of a brief Asia tour aimed at reinforcing US support for regional allies against China.

The announcement comes a day after Israel’s Mossad spy chief, David Barnea, was to meet with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egyptian officials in Doha, a source close to the talks said.

The meeting follows the latest proposal from Hamas for a six-week truce, vastly more aid into Gaza and the initial release of about 42 hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

During the proposed truce, Israeli forces would withdraw from “all cities and populated areas” in Gaza, according to a Hamas official.

The war began when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack from Gaza on October 7.

Israel has carried out a relentless bombing campaign and ground offensive that Gaza’s health ministry says has killed at least 31,726 people, most of them women and children.

The United Nations has warned for weeks that a famine is looming in Gaza, with aid agencies reporting huge difficulties gaining access to the territory, particularly the north.

Donors have turned to deliveries by air or sea, but these are not viable alternatives to land deliveries, UN agencies say.

GENEVA — Global temperatures “smashed” heat records last year, as heatwaves stalked oceans and glaciers suffered record ice loss, the United Nations said on Tuesday — warning 2024 was likely to be even hotter.

The annual State of the Climate report by the UN weather and climate agency confirmed preliminary data showing 2023 was by far the hottest year ever recorded.

And last year capped off “the warmest 10-year period on record”, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said, with even hotter temperatures expected.

“There is a high probability that 2024 will again break the record of 2023,” WMO Climate Monitoring Chief Omar Baddour told reporters.

Reacting to the report, UN chief Antonio Guterres said it showed “a planet on the brink”.

“Earth’s issuing a distress call,” he said in a video message, pointing out that “fossil fuel pollution is sending climate chaos off the charts”, and warning that “changes are speeding up”.

The WMO said that last year the average near-surface temperature was 1.45ºC above pre-industrial levels — dangerously close to the critical 1.5 degree threshold that countries agreed to avoid passing in the 2015 Paris climate accords.

‘Red alert’ 

“I am now sounding the red alert about the state of the climate,” Saulo told reporters, lamenting that “2023 set new records for every single climate indicator”.

The organisation said many of the records were “smashed” and that the numbers “gave ominous new significance to the phrase ‘off the charts’”.

“What we witnessed in 2023, especially with the unprecedented ocean warmth, glacier retreat and Antarctic sea ice loss, is cause for particular concern,” Saulo said.

One especially worrying finding was that marine heatwaves gripped nearly a third of the global ocean on an average day last year.

And by the end of 2023, more than 90 per cent of the ocean had experienced heatwave conditions at some point during the year, the WMO said.

More frequent and intense marine heatwaves will have “profound negative repercussions for marine ecosystems and coral reefs”, it warned.

Meanwhile, key glaciers worldwide suffered the largest loss of ice since records began in 1950, “driven by extreme melt in both western North America and Europe”.

In Switzerland, where the WMO is based, Alpine glaciers lost 10 per cent of their remaining volume in the past two years alone, it said.

The Antarctic sea ice extent was also “by far the lowest on record”, WMO said.

Rising sea levels 

The maximum area at the end of the southern winter was around 1 million square kilometres below the previous record year — equivalent to the size of France and Germany combined, according to the report.

Ocean warming and the rapidly melting glaciers and ice sheets drove the sea level last year to its highest point since satellite records began in 1993, WMO said.

The agency highlighted that the global mean sea level rise over the past decade (2014-2023) was more than double the rate in the first decade of satellite records.

The dramatic climate shifts, it said, are taking a heavy toll worldwide, fuelling extreme weather events, flooding and drought, which trigger displacement and drive up biodiversity loss and food insecurity.

“The climate crisis is the defining challenge that humanity faces and is closely intertwined with the inequality crisis,” Saulo said.

‘Glimmer of hope’ 

The WMO did highlight one “glimmer of hope”: Surging renewable energy generation.

Last year, renewable energy generation capacity — mainly from solar, wind and hydropower — increased by nearly 50 per cent from 2022, it said.

The report sparked a flood of reactions and calls for urgent action.

“Our only response must be to stop burning fossil fuels so that the damage can be limited,” said Martin Siegert, a geosciences professor at the University of Exeter.

Jeffrey Kargel, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, stressed that the dramatic climae shifts “do not connote the inevitable doom of civilisation”.

The outcome, he said, “depends on how people and governments change or don’t change behaviours”.

Saulo acknowledged that the cost of climate action might seem high.

“But the cost of climate inaction is much higher,” she said. “The worst thing would be to do nothing.”

Guterres also emphasised that there was still time to “avoid the worst of climate chaos”.

“But leaders must step up and act — now.”

UNITED NATIONS, United States — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres invoked Oscar-winning film “Oppenheimer” on Monday as he warned that the world faced the highest risk of nuclear war in decades.

At a Security Council session called by Japan, Guterres said that the biopic about the morally conflicted father of the atomic bomb “brought the harsh reality of nuclear doomsday to vivid life for millions around the world.”

“Humanity cannot survive a sequel to Oppenheimer,” Guterres said.

“We meet at a time when geopolitical tensions and mistrust have escalated the risk of nuclear warfare to its highest point in decades,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons as he warns the West against its support for Ukraine, which Moscow invaded more than two years ago.

Without naming Putin, Guterres said, “Nuclear saber-rattling must stop.”

“Threats to use nuclear weapons in any capacity are unacceptable,” he said.

Elsewhere in the world, tensions surrounding nuclear-armed North Korea have continued to rise and Iran has been enriching uranium closer to the level needed if it decides to build an atom bomb.

Israel, the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed power albeit an undeclared one, has been at war since an October 7 surprise attack by Hamas fighters.

Guterres called on the United States and Russia to resume negotiations, at a standstill since the Ukraine war, on a successor to the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty which expires in early 2026.

He also called for progress on other initiatives including the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in 2021 but has little practical effect as no nuclear-weapons states are party to it.

“Investments in the tools of war are outstripping investments in the tools of peace. Arms budgets are growing, while diplomacy and development budgets are shrinking,” Guterres said.

Push on fissile treaty

The United States, the only country to have used nuclear weapons in warfare, said it would work on one area with ally Japan, whose cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were devastated by atomic weapons in 1945.

The United States as well as France said they would join Japan in a coalition to push through the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty, which would ban production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium, the key ingredients in nuclear weapons.

Most nuclear states have already stopped production. Discussions on a treaty have been blocked by Pakistan, which believes it would fall behind rival India and which enjoys diplomatic support from China.

“To forestall a potential arms race, we need to see an end to the production of fissile material for use in nuclear weapons, and continue pursuing negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty,” said the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, who led the meeting, vowed that Tokyo “will further increase international and political attention” toward the treaty.

Kamikawa also called for work to ensure that nuclear weapons are not placed in space.

The United States said last month that Russia was developing a system to send nuclear weapons to space, an assertion denied by Putin.

“During the Cold War, despite the confrontational environment at that time, the international community established legal frameworks to ensure the peaceful and sustainable use of outer space, which prohibit placing nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction in outer space,” Kamikawa said.

“Even now, Japan firmly believes that outer space must remain a domain free of nuclear weapons,” she said.