United News of Bangladesh

Just hours away from several of India's major tiger reserves in the southern city of Mysuru, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to announce Sunday how much the country's tiger population has recovered since its flagship conservation program began 50 years ago. Protesters, meanwhile, will tell their own stories of how they have been displaced by such wildlife conservation projects over the last half-century. Project Tiger began in 1973 after a census of the big cats found India’s tigers were fast going extinct through habitat loss, unregulated sport hunting, increased poaching and retaliatory killing by people. Laws attempted to address those issues, but the conservation model centered around creating protected reserves where ecosystems can function undisturbed by people. Several Indigenous groups say the conservation strategies, deeply influenced by American environmentalism, meant uprooting numerous communities that had lived in the forests for millennia. Members of several Indigenous or Adivasi groups — as Indigenous people are known in the country — set up the Nagarahole Adivasi Forest Rights Establishment Committee to protest evictions from their ancestral lands and seek a voice in how the forests are managed. “Nagarahole was one of the first forests to be brought under Project Tiger and our parents and grandparents were probably among the first to be forced out of the forests in the name of conservation,” said J. A. Shivu, 27, who belongs to the Jenu Kuruba tribe. “We have lost all rights to visit our lands, temples or even collect honey from the forests. How can we continue living like this?” The fewer than 40,000 Jenu Kuruba people are one of the 75 tribal groups that the Indian government classifies as particularly vulnerable. Jenu, which means honey in the southern Indian Kannada language, is the tribe’s primary source of livelihood as they collect it from beehives in the forests to sell. Adivasi communities like the Jenu Kurubas are among the poorest in India. Experts say conservation policies that attempted to protect a pristine wilderness were influenced by prejudices against local communities. The Indian government's tribal affairs ministry has repeatedly said it is working on Adivasi rights. Only about 1% of the more than 100 million Adivasis in India have been granted any rights over forest lands despite a government forest rights law, passed in 2006, that aimed to “undo the historical injustice" for forest communities. Their Indigenous lands are also being squeezed by climate change, with more frequent forest fires spurred by extreme heat and unpredictable rainfall. India's tiger numbers, meanwhile, are ticking upwards: the country's 2,967 tigers account for more than 75% of the world’s wild tiger population. India has more tigers than its protected spaces can hold, with the cats also now living at the edge of cities and in sugarcane fields. Tigers have disappeared in Bali and Java and China’s tigers are likely extinct in the wild. The Sunda Island tiger, the other sub-species, is only found in Sumatra. India's project to safeguard them has been praised as a success by many. “Project Tiger hardly has a parallel in the world since a scheme of this scale and magnitude has not been so successful elsewhere,” said SP Yadav, a senior Indian government official in charge of Project Tiger. But critics say the social costs of fortress conservation — where forest departments protect wildlife and prevent local communities from entering forest regions — is high. Sharachchandra Lele, of the Bengaluru-based Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, said the conservation model is outdated. "There are already successful examples of forests managed by local communities in collaboration with government officials and tiger numbers have actually increased even while people have benefited in these regions,” he said. Vidya Athreya, the director of Wildlife Conservation Society in India who has been studying the interactions between large cats and humans for the last two decades, agreed. “Traditionally we always put wildlife over people,” Athreya said, adding that engaging with communities is the way forward for protecting wildlife in India. Shivu, from the Jenu Kuruba tribe, wants to go back to a life where Indigenous communities and tigers lived together. “We consider them gods and us the custodians of these forests,” he said.

At least 24 migrants trying to make their way to Europe died over two days when their fragile, overloaded boats sank, the prosecutor's office of the coastal port city of Sfax said Saturday. The Tunisian Coast Guard pulled the bodies of four sub-Saharan migrants from the waters off the coast of Sfax on Saturday, while 36 migrants were saved and three others were missing, according to Faouzi Masmoudi, spokesman for the prosecutor's office in Sfax. A day earlier, 20 sub-Saharan migrants drowned when their boat went under about 35 miles (about 56 kilometers) from Sfax, and 17 others, including three children, were saved, Masmoudi said. He added that two of the survivors pulled from the water were reported in critical condition. The numbers of migrants launching from Tunisian coastal waters and aiming to reach the shores of Italy have skyrocketed this year. The Coast Guard intercepted numerous other boats loaded with migrants on Friday and Saturday, Masmoudi said. According to the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, 132 migrants have died or disappeared in the first three months of this year while trying to reach Europe, reflecting the numbers of attempted and successful crossings. Nearly two weeks ago, the Coast Guard recovered the bodies of 29 migrants in several boat sinkings. The prosecutor's office in Sfax, one of the main regions for migrants to launch their perilous expeditions, is trying to find those who provide desperate migrants with small unseaworthy vessels to make voyages onward to Europe. People fleeing conflict or poverty routinely take boats from Tunisian shores toward Europe, even though the central Mediterranean is the most dangerous migration route in the world, according to the International Organization for Migration. Many migrants are from sub-Saharan Africa.

Ben Ferencz, the last living prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials, who tried Nazis for genocidal war crimes and was among the first outside witnesses to document the atrocities of Nazi labor and concentration camps, has died. He had just turned 103 in March. Ferencz died Friday evening in Boynton Beach, Florida, according to St. John's University law professor John Barrett, who runs a blog about the Nuremberg trials. The death also was confirmed by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. “Today the world lost a leader in the quest for justice for victims of genocide and related crimes,” the museum tweeted. Born in Transylvania in 1920, Ferencz immigrated as a very young boy with his parents to New York to escape rampant antisemitism. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Ferencz joined the U.S. Army in time to take part in the Normandy invasion during World War II. Using his legal background, he became an investigator of Nazi war crimes against U.S. soldiers as part of a new War Crimes Section of the Judge Advocate’s Office. When U.S. intelligence reports described soldiers encountering large groups of starving people in Nazi camps watched over by SS guards, Ferencz followed up with visits, first at the Ohrdruf labor camp in Germany and then at the notorious Buchenwald concentration camp. At those camps and later others, he found bodies “piled up like cordwood” and “helpless skeletons with diarrhea, dysentery, typhus, TB, pneumonia, and other ailments, retching in their louse ridden bunks or on the ground with only their pathetic eyes pleading for help,” Ferencz wrote in an account of his life. “The Buchenwald concentration camp was a charnel house of indescribable horrors,” Ferencz wrote. “There is no doubt that I was indelibly traumatized by my experiences as a war crimes investigator of Nazi extermination centers. I still try not to talk or think about the details.” At one point toward the end of the war, Ferencz was sent to Adolf Hitler's mountain retreat in the Bavarian Alps to search for incriminating documents but came back empty-handed. After the war, Ferencz was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army and returned to New York to begin practicing law. But that was short-lived. Because of his experiences as a war crimes investigator, he was recruited to help prosecute Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials, which had begun under the leadership of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson. Before leaving for Germany, he married his childhood sweetheart, Gertrude. At the age of 27, with no previous trial experience, Ferencz became chief prosecutor for a 1947 case in which 22 former commanders were charged with murdering over 1 million Jews, Romani and other enemies of the Third Reich in Eastern Europe. Rather than depending on witnesses, Ferencz mostly relied on official German documents to make his case. All the defendants were convicted, and more than a dozen were sentenced to death by hanging even though Ferencz hadn't asked for the death penalty. “At the beginning of April 1948, when the long legal judgment was read, I felt vindicated,” he wrote. “Our pleas to protect humanity by the rule of law had been upheld.” With the war crimes trials winding down, Ferencz went to work for a consortium of Jewish charitable groups to help Holocaust survivors regain properties, homes, businesses, art works, Torah scrolls, and other Jewish religious items that had been confiscated from them by the Nazis. He also later assisted in negotiations that would lead to compensation to the Nazi victims. In later decades, Ferencz championed the creation of an international court which could prosecute any government’s leaders for war crimes. Those dreams were realized in 2002 with establishment of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, though its effectiveness has been limited by the failure of countries like the United States to participate. Ferencz is survived by a son and three daughters. His wife died in 2019.

Jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been charged with espionage in Russia and has entered a formal denial, two Russian news agencies reported Friday. The state news agency Tass and the Interfax news agency said a law enforcement source informed them that Russia’s Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, had officially charged the American journalist. The news outlets didn’t say in what form Gershkovich was formally charged or when it happened, but generally suspects are presented a paper outlining the accusations. In the Russian legal system, the filing of charges and a response from the accused represent the formal start of a criminal probe, initiating what could be a long and secretive Russian judicial process. Tass quoted its source as saying: “The FSB investigation charged Gershkovich with espionage in the interests of his country. He categorically denied all accusations and stated that he was engaged in journalistic activities in Russia.” The source declined further comment because the case is considered secret. Russian authorities arrested Gershkovich, 31, in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, on March 29. He is the first U.S. correspondent since the Cold War to be detained for alleged spying. The FSB specifically accused Gershkovich of trying to obtain classified information about a Russian arms factory. The Wall Street Journal has denied the accusations. The case has caused an international uproar. In a rare U.S. bipartisan statement, the Senate’s top two leaders demanded Friday that Russia immediately release Gershkovich. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. declared that “journalism is not a crime” and praised Gershkovich as an “internationally known and respected independent journalist.” On Thursday, the U.S ambassador to Russia and a top Russian diplomat met to discuss the case. In the meeting with U.S. Ambassador Lynne T. Tracy, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov stressed “the serious nature of the charges” against Gershkovich, according to a Russian Foreign Ministry statement. The statement repeated earlier Russian claims that the reporter “was caught red-handed while trying to obtain secret information, using his journalistic status as a cover for illegal actions." Lawyers representing Gershkovich met with him Tuesday for the first time since his detention, according to Wall Street Journal. Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker. Tucker said the reporter is in good health and “is grateful for the outpouring of support from around the world. We continue to call for his immediate release." Gershkovich was ordered held behind bars for two months in Russia pending an investigation. A Moscow court said Monday that it had received a defense appeal of his arrest; the appeal is scheduled to be heard on April 18, Russian news agencies reported.

North Korea on Saturday claimed it tested this week a second known type of nuclear-capable underwater attack drone designed to destroy naval vessels and ports, adding to a flurry of weapons demonstrations this year that have heightened tensions with rivals. The report of the four-day test came a day after the nuclear envoys of the United States, South Korea and Japan met in Seoul to discuss the growing North Korean nuclear threat and called for stronger international efforts to crack down on illicit North Korean activities funding its weapons program. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said the drone, named "Haeil-2" after a Korean word meaning tsunamis or tidal waves, traveled underwater for more than 71 hours before successfully detonating a mock warhead in waters near the eastern port city of Tanchon on Friday. KCNA said the test proved that the weapon could strike targets 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) away with “fatal attack ability.” North Korean state media last month reported two tests of another drone, named “Haeil-1,” and described the weapon as capable of setting off a “radioactive tsunami” to destroy enemy vessels and ports. Analysts, however, are skeptical whether such a device would add a meaningful new threat to North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal built around missiles and whether it’s reasonable for the North to pursue such capabilities considering its still-limited supplies of nuclear bomb fuel. South Korea’s military has said it believes North Korean claims about Haeil-1 were likely “exaggerated or fabricated.” On Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden’s special representative for North Korea, Sung Kim, met with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in Seoul where they issued a joint statement calling for stronger international support to stem North Korean efforts to evade U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons ambitions. The envoys expressed particular concern about North Korea’s cybercrimes and illicit labor exports, which Seoul says could possibly expand as it further reopens its borders as COVID-19 fears ease. Also read: South Korea, US, Japan hold anti-North Korea submarine drill North Korea in 2023 alone fired around 30 missiles in 11 different launch events, including an intercontinental ballistic missile that demonstrated potential range to reach the U.S. mainland and several shorter-range weapons designed to deliver nuclear strikes on South Korean targets.

Russia may pull out of a wartime deal that allows the export of Ukrainian grain to global markets if the West fails to remove obstacles to Russian agricultural exports, Moscow’s top diplomat suggested Friday. The deal, which was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July, unblocked shipments that were stuck in Ukraine's blockaded and mined ports, alleviating rising food prices and threat of hunger in some countries. A separate agreement aimed to facilitate the export of Russian fertilizers and grain. Moscow has repeatedly complained that the deal failed to work for Russian agricultural exports, which have had trouble reaching world markets due to Western sanctions. Speaking at a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters that Russia agreed last month to extend the deal for 60 days - instead of the 120 days set under a previous extension - to send a warning signal to the West. “After we extended the deal for 120 days, we saw no indication that those issues could be solved and grew tired of appealing to the conscience of those who determine it,” Lavrov said of Moscow's dissatisfaction. ”We made a small escalatory move and offered to extend the deal only for 60 days on the assumption that if there is no change in removing the obstacles to the exports of Russian fertilizers and grain, we would think whether the deal is needed.” Lavrov shrugged off the West's argument that Russian food and fertilizers are not subject to sanctions. He noted that “obstacles related to financing, logistics, transportation and insurance of Russian exports have remained and even have grown tougher.” Experts say private shipping and insurance companies remain cautious about handling Russian commodities amid the war in Ukraine, although Russian wheat shipments were at or near record highs in November, December and January, according to financial data provider Refinitiv. Lavrov said the West has effectively blocked the U.N-Turkey agreement on Russian agricultural exports and “that’s why we’ve asked for letters of comfort from certain governments.” Instead of agreeing to another extension later this year, Russia may decide to cooperate directly with Turkey and Qatar to ensure grain gets to the countries that need it. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, whose country joined the U.N. and Ukraine in pressing for a 120-day extension before the deal on Ukrainian exports expired last month, said he and Lavrov "agreed that the obstacles to the export of Russian grain and fertilizer should be removed immediately.” “We value the continuation of the deal,” Cavusoglu said. “This is not only important for Ukraine’s and Russia’s grain and fertilizer exports. It is also important in terms of reducing the world food crisis and especially the problem experienced by every household in the world.” Lavrov's warning echoed one from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said last month that Moscow could end its participation in the initiative if its conditions were not met. Putin said Russia expected the facilitation of exports of its own agricultural products as part of a package agreement. Lavrov and Cavusoglu also discussed Russian efforts to forge a reconciliation between Turkey and Syria. Earlier this week, Moscow hosted the deputy foreign ministers of Turkey, Syria and Iran to facilitate the rapprochement. Turkey has backed armed opposition groups that have sought to overthrow President Bashar Assad’s government during the Syrian civil war. Turkey has control over large swaths of territory in northwestern Syria, and Damascus is pressing for the withdrawal of Turkish forces from Syria as a prerequisite for a normalization of ties. Turkey, for its part, is looking for security guarantees, including regarding Kurdish militants in Syria that Ankara considers to be terrorists. “We know that not all issues can be settled in one or two meetings,” Cavusoglu said. “But the dialogue needs to continue and it would be beneficial if the consultations continue in the same way.”

Long-time Mideast rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia took another significant step toward reconciliation Thursday, formally restoring diplomatic ties after a seven-year rift, affirming the need for regional stability and agreeing to pursue economic cooperation. The agreement was reached in Beijing during a meeting between the Iranian and Saudi foreign ministers, a month after China had brokered an initial reconciliation agreement between the two regional powerhouses. The latest understanding further lowers the chance of armed conflict between the rivals, both directly and in proxy conflicts around the region. It could bolster efforts by diplomats to end a long war in Yemen, a conflict in which both Iran and Saudi Arabia are deeply entrenched. Thursday’s announcement also represents another diplomatic victory for the Chinese as Gulf Arab states perceive the United States slowly withdrawing from the wider region. But it remains to be seen how far the reconciliation efforts will progress. The rivalry dates back to the 1979 revolution that toppled Iran's Western-backed monarchy, and in recent years the two countries have backed rival armed groups and political factions across the region. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian laid out details of Thursday’s agreement in a tweet, after his talks with Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud. The minister wrote that Thursday marked the beginning of “official diplomatic relations ... economic and commercial cooperation, the reopening of embassies and consulates general, and the emphasis on stability, stable security and development of the region.” Amirabdollahian said that the issues are “agreed upon and on the common agenda.” The official Iranian news agency, IRNA, said that in addition to reopening embassies in the two capitals, diplomatic missions would start operating in two other major cities — Mashhad in Iran and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The report said both sides also agreed to study the prospects of resuming flights and official and private visits between the two nations, in addition to how to facilitate the visa process for their people. China’s Foreign Ministry last month reported that both sides had agreed to reopen their embassies and missions within two months. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the two foreign ministers signed a joint statement and expressed their determination to improve ties in line with their talks in Beijing last month. The state-run Saudi Press Agency carried a brief news item on the meeting, saying “discussions were held on joint relations and ways to enhance cooperation in many fields,” with both sides aiming to “enhance the security, stability, and prosperity of the two countries and peoples.” Thursday’s talks in Beijing marked the first formal meeting of senior diplomats from the two nations since 2016, when the kingdom broke ties with Iran after protesters invaded Saudi diplomatic posts there. Saudi Arabia had executed a prominent Shiite cleric with 46 others days earlier, triggering the demonstrations. The warming of ties shows that “regional countries have the will and ability to take the lead” in maintaining peace, Mao said at the briefing. She said China is ready to support both sides in fostering good relations, urging the international community to help the Middle Eastern countries resolve their differences. “The colonial hegemonic tactics of stirring up contradictions, creating estrangement and division should be rejected by the people all over the world,” she said. The United States has welcomed diplomatic progress between Saudi Arabia, with which it has a close but complicated alliance, and Iran, which it considers a regional menace. But U.S. officials have also expressed skepticism about whether Iran will change its behavior. “If this dialogue leads to concrete actions by Iran to curb its destabilizing activities in the region, including the proliferation of dangerous weapons, then of course, we would welcome that,” said Vedant Patel, the principal deputy State Department spokesman. While the reopening of embassies would mark a major step forward, the extent of the rapprochement could depend on peace efforts in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia has been at war with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels since 2015, following the rebels' capture of the capital and much of northern Yemen. Saudi Arabia is also deeply suspicious of Iran's nuclear program, which has advanced significantly since the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from a 2015 agreement with world powers to curb Iran's atomic activities in exchange for sanctions relief. “I know from my conversations with the Saudis, they are going to be watching the Yemen space,” Tim Lenderking, the Biden administration’s envoy for Yemen, told a think-tank audience in Washington earlier this week. "If the Iranians want to show that they’re really turning a corner on the conflict, then there won’t be smuggling of weapons to the Houthis anymore in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.” He pointed to alleged Iranian involvement in smuggling narcotics as well. Lenderking cited Iran's support for an ongoing truce there as a recent positive sign, and called on Iran to support political efforts for a lasting peace agreement. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the restoration of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran is “a very important development” to increase stability in the region, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Thursday.

South Korea, the U.S. and Japan called for stronger international support of efforts to ban North Korea from sending workers abroad and curb the North’s cybercrimes as a way to block the country’s means to fund its nuclear program. The top South Korean, U.S. and Japanese nuclear envoys met in Seoul on Friday in their first gathering in four months to discuss how to cope with North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal. The North’s recent weapons tests show it is intent on acquiring more advanced missiles designed to attack the U.S. and its allies, rather than returning to talks. Despite 11 rounds of U.N. sanctions and pandemic-related hardships that have worsened its economic and food problems, North Korea still devotes much of its scarce resources to its nuclear and missile programs. Contributing to financing its weapons program is also likely the North’s crypto hacking and other illicit cyber activities and the wages sent by North Korean workers remaining in China, Russia and elsewhere despite an earlier U.N. order to repatriate them by the end of 2019, experts say. In a joint statement, the South Korean, U.S. and Japanese envoys urged the international community to thoroughly abide by U.N. resolutions on the banning of North Korean workers overseas, according to Seoul’s Foreign Ministry. The ministry said a large number of North Korean workers remains engaged in economic activities around the world and transmits money that is used in the North’s weapons programs. It said the three envoys tried to call attention to the North Korean workers because the North may further reopen its international borders as the global COVID-19 situation improves. It is not known exactly how many North Korean workers remain abroad. But before the 2019 U.N. deadline passed, the U.S. State Department had estimated there were about 100,000 North Koreans working in factories, construction sites, logging industries and other places worldwide. Civilian experts had said that those workers brought North Korea an estimated $200 million to $500 million in revenue each year. “We need to make sure that its provocations never go unpunished. We will effectively counter North Korea’s future provocations and cut their revenue streams that fund these illegal activities,” Kim Gunn, the South Korean envoy, said in televised comments at the start of the meeting. Sung Kim, the U.S. envoy, said that with its nuclear and missile programs and "malicious cyber program that targets countries and individuals around the globe,” North Korea threatens the security and prosperity of the entire international community. South Korea’s spy agency said in December that North Korean hackers had stolen an estimated 1.5 trillion won ($1.2 billion) in cryptocurrency and other virtual assets in the past five years, more than half of it last year alone. The National Intelligence Service said North Korea’s capacity to steal digital assets was considered among the best in the world because it has focused on cybercrimes since U.N. economic sanctions were toughened in 2017 in response to its earlier nuclear and missile tests. Friday’s trilateral meeting will likely infuriate North Korea, which has previously warned that the three countries’ moves to boost their security cooperation prompted urgent calls to reinforce its own military capability. North Korea has long argued the U.N. sanctions and U.S.-led military exercises in the region are proof of Washington’s hostility against Pyongyang. The North has said it was compelled to develop nuclear weapons to deal with U.S. military threats, though U.S. and South Korean officials have steadfastly said they have no intention of invading the North. Earlier this week, the United States conducted anti-submarine naval drills with South Korean and Japanese forces in their first such training in six months. The U.S. also flew nuclear-capable bombers for separate, bilateral aerial training with South Korean warplanes. North Korea hasn’t performed weapons tests in reaction to those U.S.-involved drills. But last month, it carried out a barrage of missile tests to protest the earlier South Korean-U.S. military training that it sees as an invasion rehearsal. Takehiro Funakoshi, the Japanese envoy, said North Korea's recent weapons tests and fiery rhetoric pose a grave threat to the region and beyond. “Under such circumstances, our three countries have significantly deepened our coordination,” he said. Sung Kim reiterated that Washington seeks diplomacy with Pyongyang without preconditions. North Korea has previously rejected such overtures, saying it won't restart talks unless Washington first drops its hostile policies, in an apparent reference to the sanctions and U.S.-South Korean military drills. Many experts say North Korea would still eventually use its enlarged weapons arsenal to seek U.S. concessions such as the lifting of the sanctions in future negotiations. There are concerns that North Korea could conduct its first nuclear test in more than five years, since it unveiled a new type of nuclear warhead last week. Foreign experts debate whether North Korea has developed warheads small and light enough to fit on missiles.

The International Monetary Fund chief said Thursday the world economy is expected to grow less than 3% this year, down from 3.4% last year, increasing the risk of hunger and poverty globally. Kristalina Georgieva said the period of slower economic activity will be prolonged, with the next five years of growth remaining around 3%, calling it “our lowest medium-term growth forecast since 1990, and well below the average of 3.8% from the past two decades.” Georgieva said slower growth would be a “severe blow," making it even harder for low-income nations to catch up. "Poverty and hunger could further increase, a dangerous trend that was started by the COVID crisis,” she said. Georgieva’s comments at a Politico event at the Meridian International Center come ahead of next week’s spring meetings of the IMF and its sister lending agency, the World Bank, in Washington, where policymakers will convene to discuss the global economy’s most pressing issues. The annual gathering will take place as central banks around the world continue to raise interest rates to tame persistent inflation and as an ongoing debt crisis in emerging economies pushes debt burdens higher, preventing nations from developing. Roughly 15% of low-income countries are already in debt distress, and another 45% face high debt vulnerabilities, according to the IMF. Georgieva said high interest rates, a series of bank failures in the U.S. and Europe, and deepening geopolitical divisions are threatening global financial stability. Given the economic projections, non-governmental organizations are calling for the IMF to allocate more funds to low-income countries through Special Drawing Rights, which are an IMF international reserve asset that can be exchanged for hard currency. More than 50 NGOs, labor unions and civil organizations sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department and the White House on Thursday calling for the U.S. representative at the IMF to support a new allocation of Special Drawing Rights for use by low-income countries. Center for Economic and Policy Research co-director Mark Weisbrot said the funds could be used for food and medicine and to help countries “avoid destructive economic crises." President Joe Biden’s budget proposal requests $2.3 billion for contributions to multilateral development banks, including the IMF. Republicans have yet put forth their own budget plan before negotiations start with the Democratic president. Georgieva said that countries have thus far been “resilient climbers” out of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed almost 6.9 million people globally, according to the World Health Organization, and has disrupted global supply chains and exacerbated worldwide food insecurity. Based on her report, countries see stark differences in the possibility of recession risks. “Asia especially is a bright spot,” she said, as India and China are expected to account for half of global growth in 2023. Advanced economies face the challenge of high inflation, as 90% of them are projected to see a decline in their growth rate this year. This all comes as the United States, the European Union and others are rethinking their trade relationships with China. Tensions with China accelerated after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with Chinese President Xi Jinping pledging a friendship without limits to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Georgieva warned in her speech: “But the path ahead — and especially the path back to robust growth — is rough and foggy, and the ropes that hold us together may be weaker now than they were just a few years ago.” “Now is not the time to be complacent,” she said. “We are in a more shock-prone world, and we have to be ready for it.”

The United Nations said Wednesday it cannot accept a Taliban decision to bar Afghan female staffers from working at the agency, calling it an “unparalleled” violation of women's rights. The statement came a day after the U.N. said it had been informed by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban that Afghan women would no longer be allowed to work for the world body. That announcement came after the U.N. mission in the country expressed concern that its female staffers were prevented from reporting to work in eastern Nangarhar province. Prior to Tuesday, Afghan women were already barred from working at national and international non-governmental organizations, disrupting the delivery of humanitarian aid. But the ban did not cover working for the U.N. That changed this week. On Wednesday, the U.N. mission said that under the Taliban order, no Afghan woman is permitted to work for the U.N. in Afghanistan, and that “this measure will be actively enforced.” The ban is unlawful under international law and cannot be accepted by the United Nations, the statement said. The Taliban decision is “an unparalleled violation of women’s rights, a flagrant breach of humanitarian principles, and a breach of international rules,” Wednesday's statement said. The Taliban have not commented publicly on the ban. The U.N. statement said several U.N. national female personnel have already experienced restrictions on their movements, including harassment, intimidation and detention. “The UN has therefore instructed all national staff — men and women — not to report to the office until further notice,” the statement said. The Taliban decision drew condemnation from the world's most recognized organizations. A joint statement singed by the Save the Children, Norwegian Refugee Council, Danish Refugee Council, INTERSOS, Action Against Hunger, and World Vision urged the lifting of the ban on Afghan women aid workers that has been extended to U.N. agencies. “Without our female staff, the humanitarian community cannot effectively reach women and girls. With more than 28 million people in desperate need of aid to survive, this act will cut off people’s lifelines," said the statement. “We call on the De Facto Authorities to lift the ban and allow all female aid workers in Afghanistan to return to work immediately," it said. "With Afghanistan facing record levels of hunger, the cost of this ban will be measured by lives lost.” Separately, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said Afghanistan is home to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. More than 28 million people, including over 15 million children, need humanitarian and protection assistance this year — a staggering increase of 4 million people over 2022. Hunger and disease are lurking and the economy is in tatters. “Yet despite this devastating situation, the de facto authorities have taken the unconscionable and confounding decision to ban Afghan women from working with the United Nations in Afghanistan, including UNICEF," Russell said in a statement. “Coming on the heels of the decree banning Afghan women from working with NGOs, this decision is yet another affront to women’s fundamental rights and further undermines the delivery of humanitarian assistance across the country.” She said Afghan women are the lifeblood of the humanitarian response. They are highly skilled and uniquely placed to reach the most vulnerable Afghans, including children and women, the sick and elderly, and those living with disabilities. “They have access to populations that their male colleagues cannot reach,” she said. Despite initial promises of a more moderate rule than during its previous stint in power in the 1990s, the Taliban have imposed harsh measures since taking over the country in 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces were pulling out of Afghanistan after two decades of war. Girls are banned from education beyond sixth grade. Women are barred from working, studying, traveling without a male companion, and even going to parks. Women must also cover themselves from head to toe. The secretary-general’s special representative for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, was engaging Taliban authorities to convey the U.N.'s protest and to seek an immediate reversal of the order. The U.N. said it is also engaging member states, the donor community and humanitarian partners. “In the history of the United Nations, no other regime has ever tried to ban women from working for the Organization just because they are women," said Otunbayeva. “This decision represents an assault against women, the fundamental principles of the U.N., and on international law.” Ramiz Alakbarov, the U.N. deputy special representative for Afghanistan, said at a news conference in New York that both male and female Afghan national staff have been asked to stay home until they can return to work under “normal conditions.” “We will not have a situation where we are only working with all-male teams,” he said. The U.N. has a staff of about 3,900 in Afghanistan, including approximately 3,300 Afghans and 600 international personnel. The total also includes 600 Afghan women and 200 women from other countries. Alakbarov said this means all 3,300 U.N. national staff will stay home until the women can return to work, and they will be paid. He said the ban doesn’t apply to international female staff and they are able to move freely and provide aid. But he said they are only about 30% or less of the total U.N. Afghanistan staff. Alakbarov said the new U.N. policy in the country will be revised depending on what sort of exemptions or operational environment can be negotiated. However, he said there is no scenario in which the U.N. would provide aid in the country with men only. “It is not possible to reach women without women. And without women, they will not be reached. And that’s the unfortunate reality," he said. Alakbarov said U.N. officials led by Otunbayeva met Tuesday with the Taliban’s foreign minister and they were told “there will be no additional order because the order was already issued in December,” apparently a reference to the Taliban decision that month to bar women from working for NGOs. Taliban restrictions in Afghanistan have drawn fierce international condemnation. But the Taliban have shown no signs of backing down, claiming the bans are temporary suspensions in place allegedly because women were not wearing the Islamic headscarf, or hijab, correctly and because gender segregation rules were not being followed.