Month: August 2021

TOKYO – U.S. climate envoy John Kerry met in Tokyo on Tuesday with Japan’s top diplomat to push efforts to fight climate change ahead of a United Nations conference in November.
Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi highlighted what he said was the importance of getting other major carbon emitters, especially China, to cooperate.
“China is the world’s biggest carbon emitter and the number two economy as well, and it is extremely important that we encourage China to firmly fulfill its responsibility to match its place,” Motegi told reporters after his meeting with Kerry.
Motegi added that he hoped Japan and the United States would lead global decarbonizing efforts at the U.N. conference to be held in Glasgow in late November, known as COP26, and beyond.
The United States is the second-largest carbon emitter. Japan is fifth.
Kerry was also scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, as well as Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshi Kajiyama.
Kerry arrived in Japan on Monday and will fly out on Tuesday evening to China for more climate talks — his second trip to the country during the Biden administration.
Kerry has called on global leaders to work together and accelerate actions needed to curb rising temperatures to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. He urged China to join the U.S. in urgently cutting carbon emissions.
Many countries have pledged to eliminate net carbon emissions by 2050. Japan has promised to strive to reduce its emissions by 46% from 2012 levels, up from an earlier target of 26%, to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. China has also set a goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2060.
Suga has said Japan will try to push the reduction as high as 50% to be in line with the European Union.
In order to achieve that target, Japan’s Environment Ministry is seeking a significant budget increase to promote renewable energy and decarbonizing programs. The Trade and Industry Ministry plans to use large subsidies to promote electric vehicles and wind power generation, according to a draft budget proposal for 2022.
The Trade and Industry Ministry, in its draft basic energy plan released in July, said the share of renewables should be raised to 36-38% of the power supply in 2030 from the current target of 22-24%.
During his Sept. 1-3 China visit, Kerry is expected to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua.

Source: Voice of America

DETROIT – The parents and brother of an American journalist who has been detained in Myanmar for 100 days vowed Tuesday to never stop working to secure his release.
Danny Fenster, 37, is managing editor of Frontier Myanmar, an independent online news outlet based in Yangon, the Southeast Asian nation’s largest city. He was detained May 24 while trying to board a flight to visit his family who live in the Detroit area, and is being held in Yangon’s Insein Prison.
“We’re just trying to stay tough — as tough as Danny is — and we’re not going to stop until we bring him home,” Buddy Fenster, his father, said during a news conference held via Zoom.
Myanmar’s military-installed government accuses Fenster of incitement, saying he spread false or inflammatory information. If convicted, Fenster could be imprisoned for up to three years.
Military officials say they are not suppressing press freedom by holding the journalist, but that limits on publishing information are needed to prevent violence and disorder. The junta has detained dozens of journalists since it took power in February this year.
Fenster’s next hearing is scheduled for next week, according to his brother, Bryan Fenster.
His family wanted to raise awareness about his detention and call for his immediate release on humanitarian grounds.
Danny Fenster told his lawyer in July that he believed he had COVID-19, but prison authorities denied he was infected. The Fensters say they have not spoken to Danny since Aug. 1. During that conversation, they came to believe that he had indeed contracted the coronavirus.
“He still was having some brain fog, loss of taste and smell, some fatigue,” mother Rose Fenster said, adding that her son has not been vaccinated against COVID-19.
The U.S. government and press freedom associations have been pushing for Danny Fenster’s release.
“It’s 100 days, and he’s not home, which is frustrating,” Bryan Fenster said Tuesday. “But we know that at the highest levels this is a top priority. And resources are being used to secure his release.”
Michigan Rep. Andy Levin said he is in regular contact with the U.S. State Department and the Fenster family, whom he represents in Congress. The Democrat from suburban Detroit predicted that Fenster eventually will be freed.
“We will get Danny out, because the Fensters will not give up,” Levin said.
The National Press Club announced Monday that Danny Fenster will receive the 2021 John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award, which recognizes journalists who bravely push to disclose the truth in trying circumstances.

Source: Voice of America

Communities in the southern U.S. states of Louisiana and Mississippi are cleaning up and assessing the damage as the remnants of what was Hurricane Ida move out of the region.
The storm came ashore Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane, one of the most powerful ever to hit the mainland United States. Officials say the storm is responsible for the deaths of four people.
The Mississippi State Patrol says two people died late Monday after they were involved in a seven-vehicle accident where a portion of highway collapsed in the southern part of the state, opening a hole in the road.
Police officials say they believe hours of torrential rain contributed to the collapse and prevented motorists from seeing the opening in the highway.
Meanwhile, the sheriff’s department in Slidell, Louisiana says a man is missing after his wife reported he had been attacked by an alligator Monday. The woman told officials her husband was attacked on their flooded property. When she saw he was severely injured, she went for help in a small boat. He was gone when she returned.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said he expects the death toll to rise significantly as the destruction caused by the hurricane made some communities impossible to reach.
Meanwhile, more than one million people remain without power in Louisiana, including in the city of New Orleans, and in Mississippi. Utility company Entergy said all eight electric transmission lines that feed New Orleans are out of service, with one tower falling into the Mississippi River.
Authorities said it could be days, even weeks, before power is fully restored, raising further concerns over residents falling ill from the area’s searing late-summer heat, which forecasters say could go as high as 32 degrees Celsius this week.
Many residents are comparing Ida to Katrina – the infamous hurricane that hit the same day 16 years earlier. New Orleans fared much better this time, thanks to a new $14.5 billion system of levees erected around the city that withstood the onslaught of Ida and kept the waters of the Mississippi River from flooding the city again.
With Katrina, in 2005, the levees failed and left the city underwater, killing 1,800 people and trapping thousands of other residents for days.
But other areas outside New Orleans did far worse. The town of LaPlace, about 55 kilometers west of New Orleans, saw its streets flooded, trapping many residents in their homes. A group of volunteers searched in motorboats in LaPlace and other small towns to rescue trapped residents.
The U.S. National Weather Service says what’s left of Ida is not done causing problems. Forecasters say the storm system is expected to bring very heavy rain to parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions over the next 36 hours. Pennsylvania, in particular, could see serious flooding.
Some information in this report was reported was provided by the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies.

Source: Voice of America

Two more million doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine Cambodia has ordered from China arrived in Phnom Penh this morning.
H.E. Dr. Yuok Sambath, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Health and her colleagues welcomed the vaccines’ arrival at Phnom Penh International Airport.
According to the health secretary of state, these 2 million doses of Sinovac will be used as booster doses.
With the newly-arrived vaccines, Cambodia has currently more than 27 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from purchases and donations: 7.8 million doses of Sinopharm, 16.5 million doses of Sinovac, 1,739,000 doses of AstraZeneca, and 1,064,600 doses of Johnson & Johnson.
As of Aug. 30, for the target of 10 million adults, 9,175,478 people have obtained their first jab, or 91.75 percent, among them 8,153,574 have been fully vaccinated.
For the children-youth aged 12 to under 18 years old, 1,518,488 or 77.20 percent of the nearly two-million target have received their first dose, while 304,519 already got the 2nd dose.
Besides, 610.428 booster doses have been administered to frontline officials across the countries.
If we add all the figures, Cambodia has so far vaccinated about 66.84 percent of the total population of 16 million.

Source: Agence Kampuchea Press