The National Task Force West Philippine Sea (NTFWPS) vehemently condemns the illegal and aggressive actions carried out by the Chinese Coast Guard and Chinese Maritime Militia against the civilian Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) vessels Datu Sanday, Datu Bankaw, and Datu Tamblot today during a regular BFAR humanitarian and support mission of providing oil subsidy and grocery packs to over 30 Filipino fishing vessels near Bajo De Masinloc in the West Philippine Sea. As of this reporting the mission is on-going. Tiếp tục đọc “STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL TASK FORCE FOR THE WEST PHILIPPINE SEA”→
Pandemics have killed millions of people throughout history. How many deaths were caused by different pandemics, and how have researchers estimated their death tolls?
COVID-19 has brought the reality of pandemics to the forefront of public consciousness. But pandemics have afflicted humanity for millennia. Time and again, people faced outbreaks of diseases – including influenza, cholera, bubonic plague, smallpox, and measles – that spread far and caused death and devastation.
Our ancestors were largely powerless against these diseases and unable to evaluate their true toll on the population. Without good record-keeping of the number of cases and deaths, the impact of outbreaks was underrecognized or even forgotten. The result is that we tend to underestimate the frequency and severity of pandemics in history.
You are not alone if 2023 has you feeling worn down. It has been a trying year on the world scene, as the forces of disarray grew stronger. Ongoing wars ground on, while new ones erupted. Geopolitical competition increased, to the point where a meeting between rival heads of state became front-page news even though their talks yielded little tangible progress. In all, good news has been in short supply. So here are my top ten world events in 2023. You may want to read what follows closely. Many of these stories will continue into 2024 and beyond.
And if you would like visuals to go along with the list, here is the companion video my colleagues in CFR Digital have created recounting all ten events.
Ten Significant World Events 2023
10. The global democratic recession continues. Optimists are predicting a fourth wave of global democratic expansion. That prediction was a bust in 2023.Freedom House started the year by announcing that 2022 marked the seventeenth straight year in which global freedom and democracy declined.As if to prove the point, Africa’s coup epidemic continued. In July, Niger’s military ousted the country’s democratically-elected president. Neighboring states threatened to intervene if the coup wasn’t reversed, but the military juntas running Mali and Burkina Faso threatened war in response. In August, Gabon’s military took power and made vague promises to eventually hold elections. A new progressive party won the most seats in Thailand’s May election. However, a backroom deal produced a pro-military government that left the election’s biggest winner on the outside looking in. India’s government continued to use the law and intimidation to silence critics, and many other democracies restricted freedom of expression. The trend of candidates claiming they would lose their election only if the vote were rigged continued. Far-right parties fared well across Europe, reviving memories of how European democracies collapsed a century ago. Guatemala’s attorney general tried to keep the country’s president-elect from taking office, while Peru’s attorney general used corruption investigations to pressure lawmakers to help her allies. Donald Trump called his opponents “vermin,” said that if he regained the White House he would not be a dictator “except for Day One,” and suggested he would use the presidency to target his political enemies. All in all, not a good year for democracy.
UN Steps Up Pressure for Gaza Cease-Fire With Strongest Move Since 1971
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, in a letter to the Security Council, invoked the use of Article 99 of the Charter of the UN over the war in Gaza. Article 99 states that “the Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security,” according to Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres used a rarely exercised power to warn the Security Council on Wednesday of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and urged its members to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. The UN Security Council – of which most members are favourable to a ceasefire – is likely to meet Friday to discuss the matte
Invoking a rarely used article of the UN Charter, Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday called on the Security Council to “press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and unite in a call for a full humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants.
In a letter to the Council, Mr. Guterres invoked Article 99, contained in Chapter XV of the Charter.
This says that the UN chief “may bring to attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion, may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”
In a statement to journalists along with the letter, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that this was the first time Mr. Guterres had felt compelled to invoke Chapter 99, since taking office in 2017.
But better markets and better monitoring will let them do more
image: ben denzer
“Everything you see, as far as the eye can see, belongs to us,” says David Beleznay. “Us” is Mosaic, a forest-management company that looks after the upkeep and logging of much of Vancouver Island; Mr Beleznay is its director of climate and watersheds. “As far as the eye can see” takes in a long, deep valley whose forested flanks rise to the rocky top of Mount Arrowsmith. Towering evergreens—Douglas fir, cedar, hemlock—drape the island from its central peaks to the water’s rocky edge.
This drapery is, though, a bit patchy in places. Directly behind Mr Beleznay’s parked pickup are some “polygons”, as the industry calls them, where the trees have been clear-cut, leaving behind jumbled soil, stumps and woody debris; tiny saplings poke through it higgledy-piggledy. Mosaic has an eye to water quality in forest streams, to maintaining biodiversity, to being a partner to the island’s first nations. But the forest it manages is also the basis of a timber business.
A Palestinian is seen from behind as they look outside through a large broken window. Some shards of fractured glass remain in the frame, but the rest of the opening reveals dark smoke billowing from a dense street of buildings in Gaza City. The sky is otherwise light but hazy.
The war between Israel and Hamas—now in its ninth week after a brief cease-fire—has made talk of peace processes and hopes for final-status agreements seem more remote than ever. But the brief pause in fighting and the successful hostage exchange brokered with the assistance of Qatar—along with Egypt and the United States—suggested that there is space for diplomacy even amid a brutal war.
Rather than seeking blueprints for a permanent peace deal, which seems far-fetched given the current Israeli and Palestinian political leadership, Foreign Policy asked a range of experts two narrower questions:
What will Gaza look like one year from now?
What single policy could any actor in this conflict pursue that would make it less likely that this war will end like so many others, with the same security threats remaining and key political grievances unresolved?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embraces U.S. President Joe Biden on a sunny day as photographers snap photos in the background. Biden’s mouth is open and he squints against the sun as he speaks to Netanyahu, holding a pair of sunglasses in the hand he’s using to hug the other man.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) greets U.S. President Joe Biden on his arrival in Tel Aviv on Oct. 18.BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
On the eve of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28), the media buzz about corporate climate action is decidedly mixed. Optimism about the growing numbers of companies setting climate goals is tempered by disappointing news about the pace of many companies’ actions to achieve their goals. We are still creating new structures and systems to guide corporate climate action and working through challenges as these systems mature. Beneath the surface, however, there are encouraging signals. Strong systemic forces are inexorably driving more companies to report greenhouse gas emissions, set independently verified climate action targets, and implement strategies to achieve these goals.
RMI is creating new tools and methods, still under development, to better analyze the potential implications of corporate climate action. In this article, we assess recent developments across this landscape, including preliminary analysis from the Corporate Commitments and Emissions Explorer (Corporate Explorer), a new online tool that allows users to explore sectoral emissions targets and actions.
Health has made it onto the agenda of a UN climate conference, and health advocates at COP28 in Dubai on Sunday said the topic was long overdue for discussion as climate inaction is costing lives and impacting health every single day.
Our planet has logged higher mean temperatures each year, with 2023 set to be the hottest on record. Ice sheets are melting at an unprecedented rate. Wildfires have made the air hazardous in some regions, while in others, floods regularly threaten to contaminate drinking water.
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“For too long, health has been a footnote climate discussion. No more, after what we have seen starting today. I thank sincerely the UAE for taking this historic step and making health central to its COP28 Presidency. Thank you, UAE for being the pathfinder.”
Against this backdrop, more and more people are being affected by disasters, climate-sensitive diseases and other health conditions.
Climate change exacerbates some existing health threats and creates new public health challenges. Worldwide, only considering a few health indicators, an additional 250,000 deaths per year will occur in the next decades because of climate change, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told delegates at COP28 that it was long overdue for talks around environmental health, rising sea levels, and melting glaciers to include the direct impacts of such climate shocks on human health.
Global drug policies need an overhaul, new report says. Credit: Jonathan Gonzalez/Unsplash
BRATISLAVA, Dec 5 2023 (IPS) – A major advocacy group has demanded an overhaul of global drug policies as a landmark report is released showing how governments’ complacency has perpetuated a failed ‘war on drugs’ despite its devastating consequences for millions of people around the world.
Defaults by Chinese borrowers have surged to a record high since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, highlighting the depth of the country’s economic downturn and the obstacles to a full recovery.
A total of 8.54mn people, most of them between the ages of 18 and 59, are officially blacklisted by authorities after missing payments on everything from home mortgages to business loans, according to local courts. That figure, equivalent to about 1 per cent of working-age Chinese adults, is up from 5.7mn defaulters in early 2020, as pandemic lockdowns and other restrictions hobbled economic growth and gutted household incomes.
The soaring number of defaulters will add to the difficulty of shoring up consumer confidence in China, the world’s second largest economy and a crucial source of global demand. It also throws a spotlight on the country’s lack of personal bankruptcy laws that might soften the financial and social impact of soaring debt.
Under Chinese law, blacklisted defaulters are blocked from a range of economic activities, including purchasing aeroplane tickets and making payments through mobile apps such as Alipay and WeChat Pay, representing a further drag on an economy plagued by a property sector slowdown and lagging consumer confidence. The blacklisting process is triggered after a borrower is sued by creditors, such as banks, and then misses a subsequent payment deadline.
“The runaway increase in defaulters is a product of not only cyclical but also structural problems,” said Dan Wang, chief economist at Hang Seng Bank China. “The situation may get worse before it gets better.” The personal debt crisis follows a borrowing spree by Chinese consumers. Household debt as a percentage of gross domestic product almost doubled over the past decade to 64 per cent in September, according to the National Institution for Finance and Development, a Beijing-based think-tank. But mounting financial obligations have become increasingly unmanageable as wage growth has stalled or turned negative in the midst of the economic malaise.
As a growing number of cash-strapped Chinese consumers have struggled to make ends meet, many have stopped paying their bills. More Chinese residents are also struggling for work: youth unemployment hit a record 21.3 per cent in June, prompting authorities to stop reporting the data. “I will pay my Rmb28,000 ($4,000) credit card balance when I have a job,” said John Wang, a Shanghai-based office worker who defaulted on his payments after being laid off in May. “I don’t know when that will happen.” China Merchants Bank said this month that bad loans from credit card payments that were 90 days overdue had increased 26 per cent in 2022 from the year before.
By ZHAO LEI | China Daily | Updated: 2023-12-06 23:09
An illustration of the large nuclear-powered container ship, which can carry 24,000 standard containers. [Photo provided to China Daily]
China has unveiled a conceptual design for what could potentially become the world’s largest nuclear-powered container ship.
The vessel, which has yet to be named, will be powered by molten salt reactors and will have the capacity to carry 24,000 standard containers. In other words, it will be able to hold more than 1 billion boxes of Apple iPhones.
The conceptual design, made by China State Shipbuilding Corp’s Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, was published on Tuesday, as the four-day Marintec China 2023 exhibition opened in the city.
The ship’s design earned an Approval in Principle certificate from the DNV, one of the world’s leading classification societies, at an unveiling ceremony.
A senior researcher at Jiangnan Shipyard, who asked to be identified only as Hu, told China Daily on Wednesday that the idea for a nuclear-powered container ship was the result of the shipyard’s endeavor to seek clean energy solutions for its products.
“Shipbuilders around the world have been under huge pressure from shipping businesses, investors and environmentalists to find cleaner fuel solutions. It is only natural for us to take nuclear power into consideration,” he said.
According to industry statistics, shipping operations account for about 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The International Maritime Organization has repeatedly pledged to reduce the emissions caused by shipping businesses.
APnews.com BY SYLVIA HUIUpdated 4:23 PM GMT+7, December 5, 2023
Britain’s polar research ship RRS Sir David Attenborough has crossed paths with the world’s largest iceberg as it was drifting out of Antarctic waters. (Dec. 5)Photos
BY SYLVIA HUIUpdated 4:23 PM GMT+7, December 5, 2023Share
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s polar research ship has crossed paths with the largest iceberg in the world — a “lucky” encounter that enabled scientists to collect seawater samples around the colossal berg as it drifts out of Antarctic waters, the British Antarctic Survey said Monday.
The RRS Sir David Attenborough, which is on its way to Antarctica for its first scientific mission, passed the mega iceberg known as the A23a on Friday near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
This Nov. 12, 2018 photo shows The USS Carney in the Mediterranean Sea. The American warship and multiple commercial ships came under attack Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023 in the Red Sea, the Pentagon said, potentially marking a major escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Mideast linked to the Israel-Hamas war. “We’re aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available,” the Pentagon said. (Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Ryan U. Kledzik/U.S. Navy via AP)Read More
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FILE – The guided-missile destroyer USS Carney in Souda Bay, Greece. The American warship and multiple commercial ships came under attack Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023 in the Red Sea, the Pentagon said, potentially marking a major escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Mideast linked to the Israel-Hamas war. “We’re aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available,” the Pentagon said. (Petty Officer 3rd Class Bill Dodge/U.S. Navy via AP)
BY LOLITA C. BALDORUpdated 12:07 PM GMT+7, December 7, 2023 APnews
WASHINGTON (AP) — When Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen launched missiles and hit three commercial ships in the southern Red Sea last weekend, it triggered an immediate question: Will the U.S. military strike back?
The Houthis have sharply escalated their attacks against ships as they sail toward the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait. And U.S. Navy ships have shot down an array of drones headed their way and believed to have been launched by the militant group from territory it controls in Yemen.
But so far, the U.S. has avoided military retaliation — a marked difference from its multiple strikes against Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria that have fired rockets, missiles and drones at bases housing American forces in both countries.
No one has been reported hurt in the Houthi incidents, although the commercial ships suffered some damage. And U.S. officials argue that the Houthis haven’t technically targeted U.S. vessels or forces — a subtlety that Navy ship captains watching the incoming drones may question.
By Jared Cohen, the president of global affairs at Goldman Sachs and a New York Times bestselling author of five books, and Ian Bremmer, the president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media. He is also the host of the television show GZERO World with Ian Bremmer.
A globe with blocks and chunks missing from it sits atop the shoulders of a person looking into a dystopian horizon.
After decades of relative geopolitical calm, the world has entered its most volatile and dangerous period since the depths of the Cold War. Consider recent events. Despite U.S. President Joe Biden’s high-profile meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco last month, relations between their two countries have deteriorated so sharply that a war between them, though unlikely, is no longer unthinkable. The COVID-19 pandemic, although largely in the rearview mirror, unleashed political and economic shocks that continue to reverberate across the global system. Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine plunged Europe into a destabilizing war with far-reaching consequences for trade and markets worldwide. And on Oct. 7, Hamas’s terror attacks against Israel sparked a new Middle East war that threatens to destroy years of progress toward economic transformation and regional stability.
These global shifts and shocks are often grouped together, and for good reason. According to International Monetary Fund (IMF) economists, they are among the drivers of a “policy-driven reversal of global economic integration” termed “geoeconomic fragmentation.” For some analysts, they are constituents of a so-called polycrisis, in which a series of disparate shocks “interact so that the whole is even more overwhelming than the sum of the parts.” And the White House itself has repeatedly highlighted how it helped crystalize thinking about the links between national security and economic policy to produce a “New Washington Consensus.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embraces U.S. President Joe Biden on a sunny day as photographers snap photos in the background. Biden’s mouth is open and he squints against the sun as he speaks to Netanyahu, holding a pair of sunglasses in the hand he’s using to hug the other man.
CVD 