Near a wooden hut high up in the Kyrgyz mountains, scientist Gulbara Omorova walked to a pile of grey rocks, reminiscing how the same spot was a glacier just a few years ago.
At an altitude of 4,000 meters, the 35-year-old researcher is surrounded by the giant peaks of the towering Tian Shan range that also stretches into China, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
The area is home to thousands of glaciers that are melting at an alarming rate in Central Asia, already hard-hit by climate change.
A glaciologist, Omarova is recording that process — worried about the future.
She hiked six hours to get to the modest triangular-shaped hut that serves as a science station — almost up in the clouds.
“Eight to 10 years ago you could see the glacier with snow,” Omorova told AFP.
“But in the last three-to-four years, it has disappeared completely. There is no snow, no glacier,” she said.
The effects of a warming planet have been particularly visible in Central Asia, which has seen a wave of extreme weather disasters.
The melting of thousands of glaciers is a major threat to people in the landlocked region that already suffers from a shortage of water.
Acting as water towers, glaciers are crucial to the region’s food security and vital freshwater reserves are now dwindling fast.
Equipped with a measuring device, Omorova kneeled over a torrent of melted water, standing on grey-covered ice shimmering in strong sunshine.
“We are measuring everything,” she said. “The glaciers cannot regenerate because of rising temperatures.”
A little further on, she points to the shrinking Adygene glacier, saying it has retreated by “around 16 centimeters (six inches)” every year.
“That’s more than 900 meters since the 1960s,” she said.
The once majestic glacier is only one of thousands in the area that are slowly disappearing.
Between 14 and 30 percent of glaciers in the Tian-Shan and Pamir — the two main mountain ranges in Central Asia — have melted over the last 60 years, according to a report by the Eurasian Development Bank.
Omorova warned that things are only becoming worse.
“The melting is much more intense than in previous years,” she said.
With scientists warning that 2024 is likely to be the hottest year on record, professions like hers have hugely grown in importance.
But resources are scarce in Kyrgyzstan — one of the poorest countries in former Soviet Central Asia.
“We lack measuring equipment and there is not enough money to transport things to our observation station, where we don’t even have electricity,” Omorova said.
She hopes the Kyrygz government will draw up a law to protect the ice-covered giants.
The shrinking glaciers have also created a new threat for Kyrgyz towns and cities, with meltwater forming new lakes before tumbling down mountains in dangerous torrents, including toward the capital Bishkek.
Further down the valley — in a grass-covered part of the mountain at 2,200 meters — two scientists, brothers Sergei and Pavel Yerokhin, worked on the banks of the fast-flowing water.
The elder brother, 72-year-old Sergei, warned of the dangers of the torrents.
“This water mass takes rocks with it, flows down the valley and can reach towns,” he told AFP.
He said their task was to monitor and predict the water flow and to “draw up maps to ensure people and infrastructure don’t end up in these dangerous areas.”
His brother Pavel had a sensor installed about 50 centimeters above the water that would send radio signals in case of flooding.
For the Kyrgyz government, the melting glaciers threaten more than infrastructure damage.
Water distribution in the region — devised in the Soviet era — remains a thorny issue and is a frequent source of tension between neighbors.
Mountainous Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan — home to around 10,000 glaciers each, according to Omorova — are the main water providers for Central Asia.
“We share water with our neighbors downstream,” Omorova said, referring to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, home to most of Central Asia’s population.
Aside from rising temperatures, the glaciers also face another threat: a growing appetite for immense natural resources in the region, including for gold, whose extraction with chemicals accelerates the melting of ice.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have stepped up efforts to draw attention to a looming catastrophe.
Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov warned last year that forecasts show Central Asian glaciers “will halve by 2050 and disappear completely by 2100.”
’Disappeared completely’: melting glaciers worry Central Asia
https://arab.news/5rpxd
’Disappeared completely’: melting glaciers worry Central Asia
India and Canada expel top envoys in Sikh separatist killing row
New Delhi said it was withdrawing its six diplomats from Canada, but an Ottawa government source told AFP they had been expelled, not withdrawn.
The 2023 murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar crashed the country’s diplomatic relations with India after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” linking Indian intelligence services to the crime.
The expulsion of the diplomats — the most senior envoys on both sides — is a major escalation in the row.
India “decided to expel” Ottawa’s acting High Commissioner Stewart Wheeler, his deputy and four first secretaries, ordering they leave before midnight on Sunday.
Ottawa announced similar measures in return, with Canadian police saying they had “evidence pertaining to agents of the government of India’s involvement in serious criminal activity” in Canada.
Nijjar — who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2015 — had advocated for a separate Sikh state, known as Khalistan, carved out of India.
He had been wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder.
Four Indian nationals have been arrested in connection with Nijjar’s murder, which took place in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Vancouver in June 2023.
New Delhi had earlier said it had “received a diplomatic communication from Canada suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats are persons of interest” in the ongoing investigation.
It said their envoy, Sanjay Kumar Verma, a former ambassador to Japan and Sudan, was a respected career diplomat and that the accusations were “ludicrous.”
New Delhi’s foreign ministry said it had told Verma to return home.
“We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security,” it said in a statement.
India on Monday called allegations it was connected to the killing “preposterous” and a “strategy of smearing India for political gains.”
Last year, the Indian government briefly curbed visas for Canadians and forced Ottawa to withdraw diplomats, and on Monday threatened further action.
“India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau Government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India,” the foreign ministry said.
The foreign ministry also summoned Canadian envoy Wheeler, who said that Ottawa had given India the evidence it had demanded.
“Canada has provided credible, irrefutable evidence of ties between agents of the Government of India and the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil,” Wheeler told reporters after leaving the ministry.
“Now, it is time for India to live up to what it said it would do and look into all those allegations. It is in the interest of both our countries and the peoples of our countries to get to the bottom of this. Canada stands ready to cooperate with India.”
India then announced his expulsion.
Canada is home to around 770,000 Sikhs, who make up about two percent of the country’s population, with a vocal minority calling for an independent state of Khalistan.
In November 2023, the US Justice Department also charged an Indian citizen living in the Czech Republic with allegedly plotting a similar assassination attempt on US soil.
Prosecutors said in unsealed court documents that an Indian government official was also involved in the planning of that attempt.
WHO approves Bavarian Nordic’s mpox vaccine for adolescents
- The US Food and Drug Administration has also approved Bavarian’s shot, but only for use in adults 18 years and older, although it granted Emergency Use Authorization for its use in adolescents during the mpox outbreak of 2022
GENEVA: The World Health Organization said on Monday it had approved Bavarian Nordic’s mpox vaccine for adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, an age group considered especially vulnerable to outbreaks of the disease that has triggered global concern.
The WHO said it gave the Jynneos vaccine prequalification for adolescents on Oct. 8. The organization declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years in August after a new type of the virus spread from the Democratic Republic of Congo to its neighbors.
The UN agency approved the use of the vaccine in September as the first shot against mpox in adults, making it easier for badly hit African countries to access the vaccine.
SPEEDREAD
• The WHO said it gave the Jynneos vaccine prequalification for adolescents on Oct. 8.
• The organization declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years in August.
Children, adolescents and those with weakened immune systems have been particularly vulnerable to mpox, a viral infection that typically causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions filled with pus.
WHO’s latest decision comes after the EU approved the drug for the vaccine for adolescents in September.
The Danish biotech firm is also preparing to conduct a clinical trial to assess the vaccine’s safety in children aged two to 12, potentially extending its use.
The trial, partially funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, is expected to start in October.
The US Food and Drug Administration has also approved Bavarian’s shot, but only for use in adults 18 years and older, although it granted Emergency Use Authorization for its use in adolescents during the mpox outbreak of 2022.
Another mpox vaccine, LC16, made by Japan’s KM Biologics, can already be given to children, according to the Japanese regulator, although it requires a special kind of needle.
Bavarian Nordic did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the prequalification.
British royal left tearful after visit to Sudanese refugees in Chad
- Duchess of Edinburgh hears stories of mass slaughter, sexual violence
- ‘What they do to the children is … I can’t even use the words,’ she tells The Times
LONDON: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, was brought to tears during a visit to survivors of the ongoing Sudanese genocide on the border with Chad.
The duchess told The Times that she had private audiences with female survivors of the violence, which included stories of rape in return for safety and food for their families.
“What they do to the children is … I can’t even use the words,” she told the newspaper. “These women have no option but to leave.”
The duchess spoke to one refugee, Hadidah Abdullah, in the town of Adre on the Chadian border with the war-torn Darfur region.
Abdullah, cradling her 9-month-old baby Bayena, said they had traveled for 60 km to reach safety.
Around 230,000 refugees are in Adre, with many comparing the situation to that of the previous genocide in Darfur over 20 years ago, which killed 300,000 people.
The region, which is being fought over by the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, is also experiencing famine, with millions at risk of starvation.
One woman who arrived at the camp in Adre during the duchess’s visit with five children in tow said she had not seen her husband since the outbreak of the conflict in April 2023.
Others talk of the RSF forcing young men and boys into service, and killing people who refuse to cooperate.
The duchess has traveled to numerous conflict zones, including Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as part of her work helping victims of sexual violence in war.
After meeting five women at a hospital in Adre, one of them told The Times that she and her family had been trapped in the city of Geneina where they witnessed RSF atrocities, including rape and looting.
She said: “If you tried to go out … some can kill you or threaten sexual violence. More than 10 people were killed at a time and they took whatever from the houses.”
She added that her teenage son was taken by the RSF alongside her brothers to fight, and that when she and her remaining relatives escaped, they saw bodies stacked “like a wall” in the streets.
The duchess told The Times that the experience of talking to the women about their ordeals had left her feeling “quite wobbly.”
She said the international community’s attention is “focused very much on other conflicts around the world,” and she wants to “shine the light” on the crisis in Sudan which, The Times said, “aid organisations rank as the world’s gravest” humanitarian crisis.
“This is a human catastrophe that is vast and Chad is having to pick up the pieces when it can ill afford to do,” Sophie said.
“The organisations are saying they are seeing budgets being pulled back and things like that because the money is being siphoned to go elsewhere.
“And, again, whose need is greater? Everybody’s need is great but this is pretty desperate. We’ve got to keep the attention on this.”
Far-right Danish-Swedish politician on trial for Qur’an burnings in Sweden
- Paludan, leader of the Danish Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party, is the first individual to stand trial in Sweden in connection with Qur’an burnings
LONDON: Rasmus Paludan, a far-right Danish-Swedish politician known for burning copies of the Qur’an, went on trial in Sweden on Monday facing charges of incitement against an ethnic group.
Paludan, leader of the Danish Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party, is the first individual to stand trial in Sweden in connection with Qur’an burnings.
He faces two charges of incitement against an ethnic group and one charge of insult, stemming from public gatherings held in Sweden in 2022 and 2023.
During an event in April 2022, Paludan made statements that allegedly incited violence against ethnic groups, leading to riots in several cities, including Malmo, where about 20 percent of the population identifies as Muslim.
In a separate incident in September 2022, he was accused of verbally attacking “Arabs and Africans,” resulting in the insult charge, which can carry a penalty of up to six months’ imprisonment.
And in January 2023, he was involved with Qur’an burnings outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm, which sparked diplomatic tensions between Sweden and Muslim-majority countries. The furore delayed Sweden’s bid for NATO membership, political commentators said.
Paludan has denied all charges.
He appeared via video link at Monday’s hearing from an undisclosed location, saying he feared for his safety if attending the Malmo district court in person.
Law professor Vilhelm Persson from Lund University highlighted the significance of the trial as the first related to Qur’an burnings, though he noted that a ruling from the Swedish supreme court would be necessary to establish legal precedent, The Guardian newspaper reported.
UK tribunal rules academic’s anti-Zionism beliefs are protected under law
- Although Miller won his case, the tribunal acknowledged that his public statements “contributed” to his dismissal
LONDON: An employment tribunal in the UK has ruled that an academic’s anti-Zionism should be protected under anti-discrimination laws as a “philosophical belief,” concluding that his views were “worthy of respect in a democratic society.”
The judgment came after Prof. David Miller’s dismissal from the University of Bristol in 2021, where he taught political sociology, for alleged antisemitic remarks in which he argued Zionism was inherently “racist, imperialist, and colonial,” leading to apartheid and ethnic cleansing.
The tribunal, which first ruled in February that Miller had been unfairly discriminated against, has now published a 120-page judgment outlining its decision, acknowledging the divisive nature and controversy of his comments but concluding that his beliefs were genuinely held and protected.
Judge Rohan Pirani said: “Although many would vehemently and cogently disagree with (Miller)’s analysis of politics and history, others have the same or similar beliefs. We find that he has established that (the criteria) have been met and that his belief amounted to a philosophical belief.”
The tribunal also recognized Miller’s expertise in the field and confirmed that his dismissal was due to the expression of these protected beliefs.
Miller gave a lecture in 2019 in which he identified Zionism as a pillar of Islamophobia, which prompted complaints from Jewish students and led the Community Security Trust, which campaigns against antisemitism, to call his remarks a “disgraceful slur.”
A university review found Miller had no case to answer because he did not express hatred toward Jews, but he was dismissed for gross misconduct two years later after sending an email to the university’s student newspaper.
In the email, he said, “Zionism is and always has been a racist, violent, imperialist ideology premised on ethnic cleansing” and claimed the university’s Jewish Society was tantamount to an “Israel lobby group.”
His statements were deemed offensive, leading to his eventual sacking.
However, the tribunal found that Miller’s comments were lawful and did not incite violence.
“What (Miller) said was accepted as lawful, was not antisemitic and did not incite violence and did not pose any threat to any person’s health or safety,” the tribunal decided.
Pirani found that Miller’s anti-Zionism did not equate to antisemitism or opposition to Jewish self-determination, but rather “opposition to Zionism’s realization of exclusive Jewish rights within a land that also includes a significant non-Jewish population.”
Although Miller won his case, the tribunal acknowledged that his public statements “contributed” to his dismissal, resulting in any compensation being reduced by 50 percent. The final amount will be determined in a future hearing.
