Sanaa Seif, the sister of Alaa Abdel-Fattah, stated Thursday that she is worried her brother’s well being might have deteriorated and that authorities might need resorted to force-feeding him to maintain him alive.
“I’m actually scared,” she stated. “I don’t know for positive (what occurred), however I’m imagining that Alaa is handcuffed someplace. He’s placed on IVs in opposition to his will.”
Seif, the youngest of three siblings of late rights lawyer Ahmed Seif, spoke with The Related Press within the seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh the place she has been campaigning for her brother’s launch on the U.N. local weather convention.
She referred to as on Biden, who’s scheduled to fulfill with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on Friday in Sharm el-Sheikh, to intervene in her brother’s case.
“I enchantment to President Biden, and I hope that he makes an intervention, that he talks, he finds a means. We want assist. I nonetheless have some hope.”
She referred to as for the Egyptian authorities to “please discover a resolution.”
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Amnesty Worldwide’s Secretary Common Agnès Callamard urged Egyptian authorities to permit an “unbiased” medical evaluation for pro-democracy activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah, who’s on a starvation and water strike in an Egyptian jail.
Jail authorities have advised Abdel-Fattah’s household that they’ve intervened medically with the activist.
“We’re very alarmed. Why? As a result of the jail system in Egypt is abysmal in its therapy, medical therapy of prisoners,” stated Callamard. “He ought to have entry to unbiased medical physician.”
Chatting with The Related Press on the U.N. local weather convention in Egypt’s Crimson Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the rights defender referred to as for Egyptian authorities to switch Abdel-Fattah to a medical facility, chosen by his household.
She additionally demanded that authorities permit his household to go to him and launch him “as quickly as his medical situation permits.”
The character of the medical intervention was not recognized, and it was not clear if he was moved to a jail hospital. His lawyer, Khaled Ali, stated officers on the jail refused to permit a lawyer for the household to go to him, regardless of approval by the prosecutors’ workplace for the go to.
Ali stated Inside Ministry officers advised him the approval was not legitimate as a result of it was dated Wednesday, including in a tweet that he was solely notified of the approval on Thursday morning.
The pinnacle of the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross referred to as on world leaders and negotiators on the U.N. local weather convention to pay better consideration and mobilize funds for conflict-stricken nations which might be among the many most weak to local weather change.
ICRC’s Director-Common, Robert Mardini, advised The Related Press Thursday that individuals in nations like Yemen, Somalia and the Horn of Africa the place conflicts have been raging for years are dealing with “double problem, double adversity, double dangers.”
“We’re right here to shine a highlight on the very acute scenario for folks affected by armed battle and excessive climate occasions,” he stated. “And in addition, to make the case that local weather motion and local weather finance ought to go to these communities.”
He stated that “near zero” local weather finance is reaching conflict-impacted areas.
The Russian struggle in Ukraine additionally doubled the challenges and prices of residing for folks in Yemen, Somalia and different conflict-hit nations, who’re additionally extraordinarily weak to local weather change shocks, he stated.
“There’s a knock-on impact of the Ukraine worldwide armed battle,” he stated, pointing to the skyrocketing costs of meals, vitality, fertilizers, and the straining provide chain.
“So doing the identical factor in a spot like Somalia or Mali is extra pricey for us, and we have to mobilize extra funds from our donors to do the identical sort of undertaking that we used to do a yr in the past,” he stated.
U.S. Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated China must work with the U.S. on local weather talks, regardless of the 2 nations’ variations.
“They know for the great of their very own folks that they’ve acquired to cut back the smog and improve their participation. And in the event that they don’t wish to do one thing any excuse will do,” Pelosi advised reporters after talking at a facet occasion on the U.N. local weather talks, generally known as COP27.
“However I do imagine that we ought to be working with the Chinese language,” she added. “I take second place to nobody in concern in regards to the human rights violations, their commerce violations, their proliferation of weapons of mass destruction over time. However I do imagine that we should work with them on local weather.”
Russia’s struggle in Ukraine, which has crimped pure fuel provides to Europe and sped the push to develop fuel sources from elsewhere, shouldn’t overshadow the transition to renewable vitality, Pelosi stated.
“I do suppose that what I’ve heard from all of the nations within the EU and NATO and all the remaining is about diversification,” Pelosi stated. “We can not have Putin’s invasion of Ukraine be an excuse to desert our good coverage by way of saving the planet.”
Pelosi additionally stated growing nations struggling to transition to inexperienced vitality can use new know-how to “leapfrog over errors made by all of us in our improvement with the intention to get to the specified place a lot sooner.”
Environmental teams are complaining of a rise within the variety of fossil gasoline lobbyists who’re registered for this yr’s U.N. local weather talks in Egypt.
International Witness, Company Accountability and Company Europe Observatory stated Thursday that they’ve counted 636 folks linked to fossil gasoline firms on the assembly’s provisional record of individuals.
This is a rise of greater than 25% in comparison with the 503 fossil gasoline lobbyists counted finally yr’s local weather talks in Glasgow, they stated.
A few of the 636 individuals recognized as being affiliated with fossil gasoline firms are registered as members of 29 nationwide delegations such because the United Arab Emirates and Russia, they stated.
“Tobacco lobbyists wouldn’t be welcome at well being conferences, arms sellers can’t promote their commerce at peace conventions,” the teams stated. “These perpetuating the world’s fossil gasoline habit shouldn’t be allowed by means of the doorways of a local weather convention.”
Tens of millions of individuals in Ethiopia dealing with the area’s worst drought in many years after two years of failed rains advised the visiting president of the Worldwide Rescue Committee this week their livelihoods have been devastated.
“Our livestock have died, our farming land has dried, we have now no entry to water,” stated Mohamed Adem, one in every of many individuals displaced throughout the area. “We got here with nothing,” stated one other displaced individual, Rumia Demimussa.
The IRC president, David Miliband, stated his message for the U.N. local weather convention is {that a} “really African COP” should handle the wants of the folks he’s assembly.
The Horn of Africa faces each a local weather disaster and a starvation disaster, he stated. Somalia and Kenya are also affected.
A bunch of local weather activists gathered on the U.N. local weather summit’s fundamental venue to protest in opposition to gasoline fossil firms and different polluters.
The activists chanted slogans like, “kick polluters out, let folks in” and sang and danced on the venue’s entrance.
Audio system on the protests blamed massive polluters for harmful climate occasions, like flooding drought and rising see ranges.
“We stand right here as we speak to consider our folks, to consider our planet,” one of many audio system stated. “Now we have to reclaim our rights now.”
Cansin Leylim, an activist from the 350.org local weather group, criticized comfortable drink big Coca Cola’s sponsorship of the occasion as it’s a main contributor to plastic air pollution.
“The truth that Coca Cola is sponsoring the local weather talks is, frankly, a joke,” she stated, including that fossil gasoline lobbyists on the summit have surpassed “the mixed delegations of the small island states, the growing nations.”
Protests at COP27 are uncommon and small and all have taken place contained in the venue’s Blue Zone, which is taken into account a U.N. territory.
Just a few dozen activists held a silent protest early Thursday on the U.N. local weather convention venue to spotlight human rights violations globally, significantly in Egypt, the host nation.
The protesters held indicators that learn, “No local weather justice with out human rights.”
Most of them wore white T-shirts and had their fingers tied or a bit of material of their mouths, to spotlight the plight of jailed activists particularly in Egypt the place many pro-democracy activists have been behind bars for years.
“We’re in solidarity with Egyptian prisoners of conscience proper now,” stated Dipiti Bhatnagar, an activist with the Pals of the Earth Worldwide, a community of environmental organizations. “All human rights of everybody should be revered with the intention to obtain the dream of local weather justice.”
One other environmental activist from Tanzania, Shamim Navil Nyanda, stated human rights ought to be prioritized on the local weather talks.
“We have to put human rights first. We have to take care of humanity, and collectively we are able to defend the planet,” she stated.
Seven Asian nations have saved roughly $34 billion this yr by utilizing photo voltaic vitality as an alternative of fossil fuels, a report by three Asia-based local weather suppose tanks stated Thursday. The report comes as officers talk about easy methods to drastically slash emissions on the U.N. local weather talks within the Crimson Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.
The report discovered that almost all of the estimated financial savings are in China, the place photo voltaic met 5% of the entire electrical energy demand and averted roughly $21 billion in extra coal and fuel imports within the first half of this yr.
Japan noticed the second-highest affect, with $5.6 billion in averted gasoline prices because of solar energy era alone. In India, solar energy saved $4.2 billion in gasoline prices within the first half of the yr.
“Asian nations must faucet into their huge photo voltaic potential to quickly transition away from pricey and highly-polluting fossil fuels,” stated Isabella Suarez, one of many report’s authors and vitality analyst on the Centre for Analysis on Power and Clear Air. “Whereas bold targets are essential, comply with by means of would be the key factor to look at shifting ahead.”
A report launched Thursday says deforestation within the expansive Congo Basin rainforest elevated by 5% in 2021.
The Forest Declaration Evaluation stated solely two of the six Congo Basin nations who signed a 2021 dedication on halting and reversing deforestation by 2030 — Congo and Gabon — are on observe with the objective. The report comes as officers and negotiators meet within the seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt for U.N. local weather talks.
“The Congo Basin Forest is at a crossroads,” stated Marion Ferrat, senior the lead creator of the report. “Deforestation has been low in comparison with different tropical areas, however we’re seeing an upward development.”
“If this development continues, we threat shedding the most important remaining intact forest within the tropics together with its immense and irreplaceable worth for biodiversity, local weather, and other people.”
It’s estimated that $100 billion is required to protect the Amazon Basin every year, stated Lawrence Nsoyuni of the Geospatial Expertise Group, who urged better monetary pledges.
“If world leaders are critical about their commitments to cease forest loss, they have to step up monetary assist for the Congo Basin,” he stated.
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