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Scottish leader Sturgeon quits with independence goal unmet
Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon said Wednesday that she plans to step down after more than eight years in office, amid criticism of her drive to expand transgender rights and her strategy for achieving independence from the United Kingdom.
Sturgeon made the surprise announcement during a news conference at her official residence in Edinburgh, Bute House, saying the decision wasn’t a response to the “latest period of pressure.” But she added that part of serving well was knowing when to make way for someone else.
“In my head and in my heart I know that time is now,” she said. “That it’s right for me, for my party and my country.”
Sturgeon, 52, has led Scotland since 2014, when Scots narrowly voted to remain part of the United Kingdom. While the referendum was billed as a once-in-a-generation decision on independence, Sturgeon and her Scottish National Party have pushed for a new vote, arguing that Britain’s departure from the European Union had changed the ground rules.
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The U.K. government has refused to allow a second referendum.
The first female leader of Scotland’s devolved government, Sturgeon won praise for her calm, measured public communications during the pandemic — a contrast to the erratic messaging of then-U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
She led her party to dominance in Scottish politics but leaves office with the goal of her political life — independence — unfulfilled.
Sturgeon said she planned to remain in office until the SNP elects a new leader. Scotland is part of the U.K. but, like Wales and Northern Ireland, has its own semi-autonomous government with broad powers over areas including health care.
Sturgeon’s announcement caught political observers by surprise amid her staunch support for both independence and legislation that would make it easier for people in Scotland to legally change genders. Just two weeks ago she scoffed at resignation rumors, saying she still had “plenty in the tank.”
“This is as sudden as Jacinda Ardern … Geez,” tweeted SNP lawmaker Angus MacNeil, referring to the resignation last month of New Zealand’s prime minister.
Sturgeon came under pressure in recent weeks after she pushed the gender recognition bill through the Scottish parliament over the objections of some members of her own party. That raised concerns that Sturgeon’s position on transgender rights could undermine support for independence, the SNP’s overarching goal.
Joanna Cherry, an SNP member of Parliament who opposes the new gender law, said the resignation provided an opportunity for the party.
“We must restore the SNP’s tradition of internal party democracy, open respectful debate and intellectual rigour and we must also put the welfare of everyone living in Scotland back at the heart of our endeavours,” Cherry said on Twitter.
Sturgeon said she had been “wrestling” with whether it was time step down for weeks. She said she wasn’t resigning because of recent criticism, though she acknowledged that the “physical and mental impact” of the job had taken their toll.
Sturgeon led Scotland through the coronavirus pandemic and guided her party during three U.K.-wide elections and two Scottish elections.
“If the question is, can I battle on for another few months, then the answer is yes, of course I can,” she said. “But if the question is, can I give this job everything it demands and deserves for another year, let alone for the remainder of this parliamentary term, give it every ounce of energy that it needs in the way that I have strived to do every day for the last eight years, the answer honestly is different.”
Sturgeon weathered a period of scandal after her predecessor and former mentor Alex Salmond was tried and acquitted in 2020 on charges of sexual assault and attempted rape. A parliamentary investigation found that Sturgeon had misled lawmakers about what she knew, though she was cleared of major wrongdoing. In 2021 Salmond opened a rift in the independence movement by quitting the SNP to form a rival party, Alba.
For the past few months, much of Sturgeon’s energy has been focused on a renewed drive for independence and the gender recognition bill, which would allow people aged 16 or older in Scotland to change the gender designations on identity documents by self-declaration, removing the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
Hailed as a landmark by transgender rights activists, the legislation faced opposition from some SNP members who said it ignored the need to protect single-sex spaces for women, such as domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers.
Criticism of the bill increased after reports that a convicted rapist was being held in a women’s prison in Scotland while transitioning. The inmate was transferred to a men’s prison after being assessed by prison authorities.
While the Scottish parliament approved the legislation, it has been blocked by the British government because it would present problems for authorities in other parts of the U.K., where a medical diagnosis is needed before individuals can transition for legal purposes.
Sturgeon had vowed to take the British government to court, arguing that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s administration had made a “profound mistake” by vetoing the legislation.
Sturgeon also came under fire for saying she would make the next Scottish parliament election a de facto referendum on independence after the government in Westminster refused to sanction a new vote on Scotland’s links to the U.K.
The party is set to hold a conference on the strategy next month, with some members saying it won’t work and others criticizing Sturgeon for waiting too long to press ahead with independence.
Bronwen Maddox, chief executive of the Chatham House think tank, said Sturgeon had made her mark, being both influential and divisive. But she failed to secure the ultimate prize.
“She’s been more successful in one way of being a figurehead, leading her party and leading the Scottish government, but she has failed to do the one thing she really set out to do, which is to secure independence,″ Maddox said.
At least 39 migrants dead in bus crash in Panama
At least 39 migrants were killed and about 20 were injured early Wednesday when the bus they were riding in western Panama tumbled off a cliff, authorities said.
Officials did not immediately report nationalities, but the migrants had crossed the treacherous Darien Gap from Colombia.
The Panamanian government typically moves migrants who have crossed the Darien to a camp near the Costa Rica border on the other side of Panama. The migrants pay for the bus tickets, but the buses are only for migrants. There are usually two drivers, as well as personnel from the National Immigration Service.
Samira Gozaine, director of Panama’s National Immigration Service, said it appeared the bus driver had passed the entrance to a shelter in Gualaca and when he tried to turn around to get back on the highway, the bus collided with another bus and went off the cliff.
Images from the scene showed a broken guardrail on a curve in a forested area just a couple hundred yards beyond the shelter. The bus was carrying 66 migrants to the Los Planes shelter.
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Ambulances carried the injured to the nearest hospital in David.
“This news is regrettable for Panama and for the region,” President Laurentino Cortizo said via Twitter.
It was the worst accident involving migrants in Panama in at least a decade. The flow of migrants through Panama surged in recent years as more risked the dangerous crossing as they tried to make their way north to the United States.
Last year, nearly 250,000 migrants crossed the Darien jungle – the majority Venezuelans – a record number that nearly doubled the total from the previous year. In January, more than 24,000 migrants crossed Darien, mostly Haitians and Ecuadoreans, according to Panamanian authorities.
1 killed, 3 hurt in shooting at El Paso, Texas shopping mall
Police in El Paso, Texas, say one person was killed and three other people were wounded in a shooting Wednesday in a shopping mall.
One person has been taken into custody, El Paso police spokesperson Sgt. Robert Gomez said. No immediate information was given about that person.
“It’s too early to speculate on motive,” Gomez said.
The three who were wounded were hospitalized, Gomez said. Their conditions were not known.
Gomez said police believe the scene is secure and that officers are sweeping through the whole mall to verify that.
Authorities have set up a reunification center at a nearby high school.
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Police earlier said the shooting was reported at the shopping mall’s food court.
Wednesday’s shooting at the Cielo Vista Mall happened in a busy shopping area and across a large parking lot from a Walmart where 23 people were killed in a racist attack in 2019.
Rare video of 1986 dive in Titanic wreckage to be released
Rare and in some cases never before publicly seen video of the 1986 dive through the wreckage of the Titanic is being released Wednesday by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
The more than 80 minutes of footage on the WHOI's YouTube channel chronicles some of the remarkable achievements of the dive led by Robert Ballard that marked the first time human eyes had seen the giant ocean liner since it struck an iceberg and sank in the frigid North Atlantic in April 1912. About 1,500 people died during the ship's maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City.
A team from Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in partnership with the French oceanographic exploration organization Institut français de recherche pour l’exploitation de la mer, discovered the final resting place of the ship in 12,400 feet (3,780 meters) of water on Sept. 1, 1985 using a towed underwater camera.
Nine months later, a WHOI team returned to the site in the famous three-person research submersible Alvin and the remotely-operated underwater exploration vehicle Jason Jr., which took iconic images of the ship’s interior.
The release of the footage is in conjunction with the 25th anniversary release on Feb. 10 of the remastered version of the Academy Award-winning movie, “Titanic.”
“More than a century after the loss of Titanic, the human stories embodied in the great ship continue to resonate,” ocean explorer and filmmaker James Cameron said in a statement. “Like many, I was transfixed when Alvin and Jason Jr. ventured down to and inside the wreck. By releasing this footage, WHOI is helping tell an important part of a story that spans generations and circles the globe.”
War in Ukraine at 1 year: Pain, resilience in global economy
An Egyptian widow is struggling to afford meat and eggs for her five children. An exasperated German laundry owner watches as his energy bill jumps fivefold. Nigerian bakeries have shut their doors, unable to afford the exorbitant price of flour.
One year after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and caused widespread suffering, the global economy is still enduring the consequences — crunched supplies of grain, fertilizer and energy along with more inflation and economic uncertainty in a world that was already contending with too much of both.
As dismal as the war's impact has been, there’s one consolation: It could have been worse. Companies and countries in the developed world have proved surprisingly resilient, so far avoiding the worst-case scenario of painful recession.
But in emerging economies, the pain has been more intense.
In Egypt, where nearly a third of the population lives in poverty, Halima Rabie has struggled for years to feed her five school-age children. Now, the 47-year-old widow has cut back on even the most basic groceries as prices keep rising.
“It’s become unbearable,” Rabie said, heading to her job as a cleaner at a state-run hospital in Cairo’s twin city of Giza. “Meat and eggs have become a luxury.”
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In the United States and other wealthy countries, a painful surge in consumer prices, fueled in part by the war’s effect on oil prices, has steadily eased. It's buoyed hopes that U.S. Federal Reserve inflation fighters will relent on interest rate increases that have threatened to tip the world’s biggest economy into recession and sent other currencies tumbling against the dollar.
China also dropped draconian zero-COVID lockdowns late last year that hobbled growth in the second-largest economy.
Some good fortune has helped, too: A warmer-than-usual winter has helped lower natural gas prices and limit the damage from an energy crisis after Russia largely cut off gas to Europe. Still, oil and gas prices were high enough to cushion the impact on the energy-exporting Russian economy from the international sanctions imposed after President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
The war “is a human catastrophe,’’ said Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “But its impact on the world economy is a passing shock.’’
Still, in ways big and small, the war is causing pain. In Europe, for example, natural gas prices are still three times what they were before Russia started massing troops on Ukraine's border.
Sven Paar, who runs a commercial laundry in Walduern, southwest Germany, is facing a gas bill this year of about 165,000 euros ($176,000) — up from 30,000 euros ($32,000) last year — to run 12 heavy-duty machines that can wash 8 tons of laundry a day.
“We have passed the prices on, one to one, to our customers,” Paar said.
So far, he has been able to keep his customers after showing them the energy bills that accompany the price increases.
“Fingers crossed, it’s working so far," he said. “At the same time, the customers groan, and they have to pass the costs on to their own customers.”
While he's kept his steady customers, they're offering less business. Restaurants with fewer customers need fewer tablecloths washed. Several hotels closed in February rather than pay heating costs during their slow season, meaning fewer hotel sheets to clean.
Punishingly high food prices are inflicting particular hardship on the poor. The war has disrupted wheat, barley and cooking oil from Ukraine and Russia, major global suppliers for Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia where many struggle with food insecurity. Russia also was the top supplier of fertilizer.
While a U.N.-brokered deal has allowed some food shipments from the Black Sea region, it's up for renewal next month.
In Egypt, the world’s No. 1 wheat importer, Rabie took a second job at a private clinic in July but still struggles to keep up with rising prices. She earns less than $170 a month.
Rabie said she cooks meat once a month and has resorted to cheaper byproducts to ensure her children get protein. But even those are becoming harder to find.
The government urged Egyptians to try chicken feet and wings as an alternative source of protein — a suggestion met with scorn on social media but that also led to a spike in demand.
“Even the feet have become expensive,” Rabie said.
In Nigeria, a top importer of Russian wheat, average food prices skyrocketed 37% last year. Bread prices have doubled in some places amid wheat shortages.
“People have huge decisions to make,” said Alexander Verhes, who runs Life Flour Mill Limited in the southern Delta state. "What food do they buy? Do they spend it on food? Schooling? Medication?”
At least 40% of bakeries in the Nigerian capital of Abuja shut down after the price of flour jumped about 200%.
“The ones still in the business are doing so at breaking point with no profits,” said Mansur Umar, chairman of the bakers’ association. “A lot of people have stopped eating bread. They have gone for alternatives because of the cost.’’
In Spain, the government is spending 300 million euros ($320 million) to help farmers acquire fertilizer, the price of which has doubled since the war in Ukraine.
“Fertilizer is vital because the land needs food,’’ said Jose Sanchez, a farmer in the village of Anchuelo, east of Madrid. “If the land does not have food, then the crops do not grow up."
It all means a slowing global economy. The International Monetary Fund dropped growth expectations this year and in 2022 that equates to about $1 trillion in lost production. Europe's economy, for example, “is still experiencing significant headwinds" despite a drop in energy prices and is at risk of falling into recessio n, said Nathan Sheets, global chief economist at banking giant Citi.
The IMF says consumer prices jumped 7.3% in the wealthiest countries last year — above its January 2022 forecast of 3.9% — and 9.9% in poorer ones, up from 5.9% expected pre-invasion.
In the U.S., such inflation has forced businesses to be nimble.
Stacy Elmore, co-founder of The Luxury Pergola in Noblesville, Indiana, said the cost of providing health insurance for eight workers has spiked 39% over the past year — to $10,000 a month. Amid a labor shortage, she also had to raise hourly wages for her top installer from $24 to $30 an hour.
Inflation-whipped consumers began to balk at paying $22,500 for a 10-by-16-foot louvered pergola — kind of a gazebo without walls — that was sold through dealers. Sales sank last year. So Elmore pivoted to do-it-yourself models, selling directly to shoppers at a sharply reduced price of $12,580.
“With inflation so high, we’ve worked to broaden the appeal of our products and make them easier for the average person to acquire,” Elmore said.
In the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, many street vendors know they can’t pass along surging food prices to their already struggling customers. So some are skimping on portions instead, a practice known as “shrinkflation.’’
“One kilogram of rice was for eight portions ... but now we made it 10 portions," said Mukroni, 52, who runs a food stall and like many Indonesians goes by only one name. Customers, he said, “will not come to the shop" if prices are too high.
“We hope for peace," he said, “because, after all, no one will win or lose, because everyone will be a victim.’’
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Wiseman reported from Washington and McHugh from Frankfurt, Germany. AP journalists Samy Magdy in Cairo; Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria; Anne D’Innocenzio in New York; Iain Sullivan in Anchuelo, Spain; and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed.
UN agencies seek $5.6B to help Ukraine, its refugees abroad
The U.N.'s humanitarian aid and refugee agencies said Wednesday they are seeking $5.6 billion to help millions of people in Ukraine and countries that have taken in fleeing Ukrainians in the wake of Russia's invasion of their country nearly a year ago.
The bulk of the joint appeal — $3.9 billion — is for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which aims to help more than 11 million people by funneling funds through more than 650 partner organizations.
Refugee agency UNHCR, meanwhile, is seeking $1.7 billion to help some 4.2 million refugees who have fled to 10 host countries in eastern and central Europe.
The joint appeal, one of the largest of its kind for a single country, could draw a large outpouring of funds from Western countries, as a similar appeal did since the war began. Such U.N. appeals rarely get fully funded.
“We were relatively well-funded last year," said Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. “I think the refugee appeal was funded in excess of 70% — not total, but quite good. We count on that to last.”
The appeal comes as a string of crises around the world have stretched the generosity of wealthy donors.
“Of course, this is not the only crisis in the world,” Grandi added. "There’s many others that deserve — I’m just back from Ethiopia, Burundi. Who talks about Burundi? Sorry, but this is the reality and people need support as much as anywhere else.”
The appeal from UNHCR does not cover Russia. Its figures, which are largely drawn from numbers provided by national governments, show that more than 2.8 million refugees from Ukraine have been taken in by Russia.
Grandi said Russia gets funds for those refugees “from other sources” — including un-earmarked funds.
“We stand ready to do more if it’s needed for any Ukrainian that is in need in Russia," he said. "That offer is on the table and is available.”
The U.N. says humanitarian groups helped nearly 16 million people in Ukraine last year, including in areas not controlled by the Kyiv government. More than one-third of those received cash assistance, which can help prop up the battered national economy.
Indian officials search BBC offices for second straight day
India’s tax officials searched BBC offices in India for a second straight day on Wednesday questioning staff about the organization's business operations in the country, some staff members said.
BBC management told editorial and other staff members to work from home after they were able to leave the office on Tuesday night, said staff who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to media.
The searches came weeks after the BBC aired a documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the U.K.
There was no overnight break in the search and investigators scanned the desktops of some employees who were earlier told not to use their phones and keep them aside, the staff members said.
Indian income tax officials have not made any statements since the searches were launched in the BBC’s New Delhi and Mumbai offices on Tuesday morning.
The Press Trust of India news agency said the officials were making copies of electronic and paper-based financial data from the organization.
Rights groups and opposition politicians denounced the move by India's Income Tax Department as an attempt to intimidate the media.
Britain's publicly funded national broadcaster said it was cooperating fully with authorities and hoped "to have this situation resolved as soon as possible.” Late in the evening, the BBC said officials were still at the two offices.
“Many staff have now left the building but some have been asked to remain and are continuing to cooperate with the ongoing inquiries,” it said, adding: “Our output and journalism continue as normal.”
While there has been no British government statement so far, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Tuesday: “We are aware of the search of the BBC offices in Delhi by Indian tax authorities."
“We support the importance of a free press around the world. We continue to highlight the importance of freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief as human rights that contribute to strengthening democracies around the world. It has strengthened this democracy here in this country. It has strengthened India’s democracy,” Price told reporters in Washington.
India's News Broadcasters and Digital Association criticized the income tax "surveys" at the BBC offices.
While the association "maintains that no institution is above the law, it condemns any attempt to muzzle and intimidate the media and interfere with the free functioning of journalists and media organizations,'' it said in a statement.
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Gaurav Bhatia, a spokesperson for Modi's governing Bharatiya Janata Party, said the BBC should have nothing to fear if it follows Indian laws. But he added that the broadcaster's history is “tainted” and “full of hatred” for India and called it corrupt, without offering any specifics.
The documentary, “India: The Modi Question,” was broadcast in the U.K. last month, examining the prime minister's role in 2002 anti-Muslim riots in the western state of Gujarat, where he was chief minister at the time. More than 1,000 people were killed in the violence.
Modi has denied allegations that authorities under his watch allowed and even encouraged the bloodshed, and the Supreme Court said it found no evidence to prosecute him. Last year, the court dismissed a petition filed by a Muslim victim questioning Modi’s exoneration.
The second portion of the two-part documentary examined “the track record of Narendra Modi’s government following his re-election in 2019,” according to the BBC website.
The program drew an immediate backlash from India's government, which invoked emergency powers under its information technology laws to block it from being shown in the country. Local authorities scrambled to stop screenings organized at Indian universities, and social media platforms including Twitter and YouTube complied with government requests to remove links to the documentary.
The BBC said at the time that the documentary was “rigorously researched” and involved a wide range of voices and opinions.
“We offered the Indian Government a right to reply to the matters raised in the series — it declined to respond,” its statement said.
India’s Foreign Ministry called the documentary a “propaganda piece designed to push a particularly discredited narrative” that lacked objectivity.
Press freedom in India has been on a steady decline in recent years. The country fell eight places, to 150 out of 180 countries, in the 2022 Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders. Media watchdog groups accuse the Modi government of silencing criticism on social media under a sweeping internet law that puts digital platforms including Twitter and Facebook under direct government oversight.
Some media outlets critical of the government have been subjected to tax searches.
Authorities searched the offices of the left-leaning website NewsClick and independent media portal Newslaundry on the same day in 2021. Tax officials also accused the Dainik Bhaskar newspaper of tax evasion in 2021 after it published reports of mass funeral pyres and floating corpses that challenged the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2017, the government's investigation bureau said it was probing cases of loan defaults when it raided the offices of New Delhi Television, known for its liberal slant.
Romania, Moldova both report strange objects in their skies
Romania briefly scrambled military jets and neighboring Moldova temporarily closed its air space Tuesday after authorities in both countries reported mysterious weather balloon-like objects traversing their skies.
The incidents occurred at around midday local time and briefly raised concerns in the two Eastern European countries, both which border Ukraine and have been affected by Russia’s war.
Romania’s defense ministry said it deployed two jets that are under NATO command to its southeastern skies to seek an aerial object it described as being small with “characteristics similar to a weather balloon.” It had been detected initially by radar systems in Romanian airspace at an altitude of about 11,000 meters (36,000 feet).
“The crews of the two aircraft did not confirm the presence of the aerial target, neither visually nor on the onboard radars,” a ministry statement said, adding that the two MiG-21 LanceR aircraft stayed in the vicinity for about 30 minutes before returning to base.
Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York that “the Romanian fighter jets did not find any object, even if it was spotted on the radar … so no threat for the Romanian airspace.”
It was unclear whether the two incidents were related, and neither country said where they believed the objects had come from.
The events follow a string of comparable incidents this month in the U.S., in which objects detected and shot down by warplanes included a high-altitude Chinese balloon that traversed American airspace. China said it was a weather balloon that had accidentally drifted off course.
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The incident in Moldova triggered widespread travel disruption and brief panic when authorities temporarily closed the country's airspace over what they later described as an object “similar to a weather balloon” spotted near the northern border with Ukraine.
Scores of flights in the country of about 2.6 million people, one of Europe’s poorest, were canceled or rescheduled. Some were diverted to Romania.
“Given the weather conditions and the impossibility of monitoring and identifying the object as well as its flight path … the decision was taken to temporarily close the airspace,” Moldova's aviation authority said in a statement.
Romania has been a NATO member since 2004 and a European Union member since 2007. Moldova is militarily neutral and thus not a potential NATO member. It's looking to forge closer ties with the west and was granted EU candidate status last June, the same day as Ukraine.
On Monday, Moldovan President Maia Sandu accused Russia of plotting to overthrow her country's government and derail it from its EU accession path.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed Sandu’s claims on Tuesday as “absolutely unfounded and unsubstantiated.”
UN chief: Rising seas risk 'death sentence' for some nations
The United Nations chief warned Tuesday that global sea levels have risen faster since 1900 and their relentless increase puts countries like Bangladesh, China, India and the Netherlands at risk and acutely endangers nearly 900 million people living in low-lying coastal areas.
In a grim speech to the Security Council’s first-ever meeting on the threat to international peace and security from rising sea levels, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declared that sea levels will rise significantly even if global warming is “miraculously” limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), the elusive international goal.
He warned the Earth is more likely on a path to warming that amounts to “a death sentence” for countries vulnerable to that rise, including many small island nations.
In addition to threatened countries, Guterres said, “mega-cities on every continent will face serious effects, including Cairo, Lagos, Maputo, Bangkok, Dhaka, Jakarta, Mumbai, Shanghai, Copenhagen, London, Los Angeles, New York, Buenos Aires and Santiago.”
The U.N. chief stressed that every fraction of a degree in global warming counts, since sea level rise could double if temperatures rise by 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and could increase exponentially with further temperature increases.
The World Meteorological Organization released data Tuesday spelling out the grave danger of rising seas, Guterres said.
“Global average sea levels have risen faster since 1900 than over any preceding century in the last 3,000 years,” he said. “The global ocean has warmed faster over the past century than at any time in the past 11,000 years.”
According to the data cited by Guterres, the global mean sea level will rise by about 2 to 3 meters (about 6.5 to 9.8 feet) over the next 2,000 years if warming is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius. With a 2-degree Celsius increase, seas could rise up to 6 meters (19.7 feet), and with a 5-degree Celsius increase, seas could rise up to 22 meters (72 feet), according to the WMO.
“Our world is hurtling past the 1.5-degree warming limit that a livable future requires, and with present policies, is careening towards 2.8 degrees — a death sentence for vulnerable countries,” Guterres said.
Read more: Rising sea levels put one-third Bangladeshis at risk of displacement: IMF
The consequences are unthinkable, Guterres said. Low-lying communities and entire countries could disappear, the world would witness a mass exodus of entire populations on a biblical scale, and competition would become ever fiercer for fresh water, land and other resources.
Guterres has been trying to call the world’s attention to the dangers posed by climate change, to spur action.
In October, he warned that the world is in “a life-or-death struggle” for survival as “climate chaos gallops ahead” and accused the world’s 20 wealthiest countries of failing to do enough to stop the planet from overheating. In November, he said the planet is heading toward irreversible “climate chaos” and urged global leaders to put the world back on track to cut emissions, keep promises on climate financing and help developing countries speed their transition to renewable energy.
The landmark Paris agreement adopted in 2015 to address climate change called for global temperatures to rise a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century compared to pre-industrial times, and as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Guterres said the world must address the climate crisis as the root cause of rising seas, and the Security Council has a critical role to play in building the political will required.
The Security Council meeting, organized by Malta, which holds the council presidency this month, heard speakers from some 75 countries, large and small, endangered and landlocked, all voicing concern about the impact of the contining rising seas on the future of the world — and for some, the survival of their own countries.
Samoa’s U.N. ambassador, Fatumanava-o-Upolu III Pa’olelei Luteru, speaking on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States which he chairs, told the council: “There is a litany of new examples of the sudden and slow onset impact of climate change on small islands, from king tides, to super hurricanes to the unstoppable and unprecedented rise in sea levels.”
The impact on people and the economies of the islands “will continue to be extraordinary,” he said, raising issues of their survival and continuation as states.
Alliance members “are among the lowest emitters of greenhouse gases that drive climate change and sea level rise. Yet, we face some of the most severe consequences of rising sea levels,” Lutero said. “To expect small island state to shoulder the burden of sea level rise, without assistance from the international community will be the pinnacle of inequities.”
He said that cooperation to address rising seas is “a legal obligation” for every country, and that there is an urgent need for nations to fulfill their international commitments on climate change and finance.
Ambassador Amatlain Kabua of the Marshall Islands said many of the tools to address climate change and rising seas are already in from of the Security Council, and “more focused action from the international system can be invited.” But she said, “What is needed most in the political will to start the job, supported by a U.N. special representative” to spur global action.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that “the threat of sea level rise is real, it is a direct result of our climate crisis, and it is a matter of international peace and security.”
“The council must take action,” she said, pointing to the threat of hundreds of millions in low-lying coastal areas losing their homes, livelihoods and communities.
“Fortunately, the worst impacts can be avoided, but we have to act now, and we have to act together," Thomas-Greenfield said.
General Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi said, “At the current rate, sea levels will be 1 to 1.6 meters higher by 2100, according to the World Climate Research Program.”
“In the Nile and Mekong Deltas — some of the richest agricultural regions in the world — ten to twenty percent of arable land will sink beneath the waves,” he said.
“Climate induced sea-level rise is also provoking new legal questions that are at the very core of national and state identity. What happens to a nation’s sovereignty — including U.N. membership — if it sinks beneath the sea?” he asked.
“Science tells us that whether cities or countries disappear depends on whether we as humans counteract the threat,” Kőrösi said.
Syria's Assad could reap rewards from aid crossing deal
A convoy of 11 trucks from a United Nations agency crossed into northern Syria from Turkey on Tuesday, just hours after the U.N. and Syrian government reached an agreement to temporarily authorize two new border crossings into the rebel enclave, devastated by the region's deadly earthquake.
Syrian officials in Damascus said the decision, seven days after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed thousands, shows their commitment to supporting victims on both sides of the front line.
The increased flow of help was desperately needed. But some critics say the deal is also a political victory for embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad, who permitted the U.N. to open new crossings and gave the impression that he ultimately called the shots on territory under opposition forces.
The U.N. is normally authorized to deliver aid from Turkey to northwest Syria — an area already devastated by 12 years of conflict — through only one border crossing, Bab al-Hawa. Renewing that authorization is a regular battle at the Security Council, where Assad’s ally, Russia, has advocated for all aid to be routed through Damascus.
The delay in opening new crossings stalled immediate relief and search and rescue efforts when the “time for effective search and rescue is tragically running out,” the International Rescue Committee said in statement.
Asked why it took so long to increase aid access to the northwest, Syria’s U.N. ambassador Bassam Sabbagh told reporters, “Why are you asking me? We don’t control these borders.”
The move by Damascus to open additional border crossings a week after the quake was more political than humanitarian, said Joseph Daher, a Swiss-Syrian researcher and professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.
“It’s a way for the regime to reaffirm its sovereignty, its centrality, and to instrumentalize this tragedy for its own political purposes,” he said.
Before the deal with Damascus, advocates had been pushing for the Security Council to vote to permanently open more border crossings to aid deliveries — a move almost certain to be vetoed by Russia.
Others argue that no Security Council resolution is needed for the U.N. to send aid across borders in an emergency. Daher pointed out that the U.N. had airdropped aid into the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor when it was besieged by Islamic State militants.
Russia's foreign ministry Tuesday issued a statement condemning attempts to “push through” a permanent expansion of the authorized crossings.
It said Western nations “continue to strangle" Syria with sanctions that it said have caused a fuel crisis and "prohibited the import of vital goods and equipment.”
The United States, United Kingdom and European Union have imposed sanctions on Assad and oppose funneling aid to the northwest through his government, believing it would divert aid to its supporters.
A State Department spokesperson told the AP Tuesday that Washington will push for a U.N. resolution authorizing additional crossings as soon as possible. The U.S. last week issued a license to allow earthquake-related relief to bypass sanctions.
Read more: Rising toll makes quake deadliest in Turkey's modern history
The U.K. welcomed the temporary opening of new crossings, but said “sufficient access needs to be secured in the longer term.”
When the earthquake hit, the U.N. could not immediately access Bab al-Hawa because of infrastructure damage, leaving the shattered enclave without significant aid for 72 hours.
Northwest Syria’s civil defense organization, the White Helmets, said the delay in aid and the U.N.’s failure to take unorthodox measures those first few days cost lives, as they struggled with limited equipment and manpower to rescue thousands of people trapped under the rubble.
The U.N. tried to send a delivery of aid to rebel-held Idlib through government-held territory on Sunday, but the shipment was halted after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the al-Qaida-linked organization that controls the area, refused to accept aid coming from Assad-controlled areas.
That standoff was “good politically ... for both sides,” Daher said, allowing the rebels “to say, ‘I’m not collaborating with the regime’ and for the regime to say, ’Look, we tried to send assistance.”
Meanwhile, cargo planes loaded with aid have reached government-held territory, including from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt — countries that once shunned Assad and have slowly been reviving ties in recent years.
Agreeing to the temporary additional crossings is to Assad’s political advantage,says Charles Lister, Director of the Syria program at Washington-based think thank Middle East Institute.
The decision "goes against everything that the regime has publicly stood by for the past 10-plus years when it comes to cross border aid delivery,” Lister said, referring to Syria and Russia’s attempts at ending the U.N. cross-border aid mechanism.
But with the deal, the Syrian government "knows it has proved to the world that the United Nations is unwilling to do anything in Syria without the regime’s permission.”
Saria Akkad, partnerships and advocacy manager with the Ataa Humanitarian Relief Association, which works in Turkey and northwest Syria, said that Syrians like him now feel that their advocacy to the U.N. was pointless. “We should maybe go back to Assad, we should discuss with the person who killed his people, how he can support the people in northwest Syria," he said.
Lister said the current crisis has allowed Assad to “bait the international community into normalization", though he doesn't expect a total end of his political isolation without major shifts form Washington and London.
Syrian officials have urged the U.N. to fund reconstruction, and Lister believes that this, in addition to the lifting of Western sanctions, is what Damascus hopes to get.
The temporary authorization ends in three months, around the time negotiations take place before the U.N. Security Council meets in July to review the cross-border resolution. Lister believes that Assad’s agreement with the U.N. could allow him to ask for more in return in exchange for allowing the resolution to continue without a Russian veto.
“I think what we frankly saw yesterday was the U.N. politicizing aid delivery by going to the regime to secure access to a border crossing they don’t have control over,” he said. “It put all its eggs into the regime’s basket.”