India forms committee to look into security concerns raised by US - CNA

NEW DELHI: India will formally investigate security concerns aired by the United States in a warning to New Delhi about its links to a foiled plot to murder a Sikh separatist leader, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday (Nov 29).

The issue comes at a delicate time for both India and the Biden administration as they try to build closer ties in the face of an ascendant China perceived as a threat for both democracies.

Just a week before the foreign ministry's statement, the White House confirmed that it had warned New Delhi about its involvement in a thwarted plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

"India takes such inputs seriously since they impinge on our national security interests as well," the ministry said, vowing to "take necessary follow-up action" on the findings of the panel set up on Nov 18.

The Financial Times newspaper on Nov 22 first reported the thwarted plot against Pannun in the United States.

The White House said it was treating the issue with "utmost seriousness" and had raised it with India at the "seniormost levels".

The foiled plot and the US concerns were reported two months after Canada said it was looking at credible allegations linking Indian agents to the June murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, another Sikh separatist, in a Vancouver suburb.

New Delhi fiercely rejected Ottawa’s accusations, and has said it is yet to provide any "specific or relevant" information for India to look into.

The US had started voicing its concerns and related details to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government as early as April, an Indian official who is aware of the matter, but not authorised to speak to the media, told Reuters.

The official said the issue was also discussed on Nov 10, when Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin met their counterparts in the Indian capital for the so-called 2+2 dialogue.

Those talks focused on defence co-operation and security concerns in the Indo-Pacific region.

Like the murdered Canadian, Pannun, the target of the thwarted plot in the US, is a proponent of a decades-long demand to carve out an independent Sikh homeland from India called Khalistan that sparked a violent insurgency in the 1970s and 1980s.

Although now relegated to the fringes of politics, the demand continues to be viewed with concern by New Delhi.

Over the weekend Sanjay Verma, India’s high commissioner, or ambassador, to Canada, told Canadian broadcaster CTV that New Delhi was co-operating with the US as they had shared "legally presentable" information.

Speaking of what he described as the "belief" about the Indian connection, Verma said, "I don't mean the government of India connections, there are 1.4 billion people, so some of the Indian connections are there," which New Delhi will investigate.

Ottawa had yet to provide any specifics of its accusation, he added. "All we're asking is, 'Give us something specific and relevant to move ahead.' Unless that is there, what do I follow up with?"

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2023-11-29 13:25:00Z
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US military aircraft crashes in sea off Japan killing at least one - CNA

TOKYO: A US military aircraft carrying six people crashed into the sea in western Japan on Wednesday (Nov 29), killing at least one crew member with the condition of at least two hauled from waters unclear.

Japan's coast guard said it found what appeared to be wreckage from the tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey and one person who was later confirmed to have died some 3km from Yakushima island.

Fishing boats in the area found three people in the surrounding waters, a representative of a local fisheries cooperative said, adding their condition was unknown.

Another Osprey landed safely at the island's airport on Wednesday afternoon around the time of the crash, a spokesperson for the local government said.

US forces in the region were still gathering information, a spokesperson said.

The United States has about 54,000 US troops in Japan, many in the strategically important southern island chain, amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea.

The crash happened just before 3pm with witnesses saying the aircraft's left engine appeared to be on fire as it approached an airport for an emergency landing, despite clear weather and light wind, media reported.

The coast guard corrected the number of people on board the plane to six from an initially announced eight.

Yakushima is in Japan's Kagoshima prefecture, some 1,040km southwest of the capital Tokyo and known for its World Heritage-accredited wildlife and forests.

Japan, which also operates Osprey aircraft, said on Wednesday it had no plans to ground the aircraft but had asked the US military to investigate the crash.

Developed jointly by Boeing and Bell Helicopter, the Osprey can fly both like a helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft and is operated by the US Marines, US Navy and the Japan Self-Defense Forces.

The deployment of the Osprey in Japan has been controversial, with critics saying it is prone to accidents. The US military and Japan say it is safe.

In August, a US Osprey crashed off the coast of northern Australia while transporting troops during a routine military exercise, killing three US Marines.

Another crash-landed in the ocean off Japan's southern island of Okinawa in December 2016, prompting a temporary US military grounding of the aircraft.

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2023-11-29 08:35:00Z
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Israel, Hamas due to release more people amid efforts to further extend truce - The Straits Times

Israel responded to the Hamas action with a bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which the armed group controls. Health authorities there said more than 15,000 people have been killed as a result.

Qatar, which mediated indirect talks between Hamas and Israel that resulted in the ceasefire, on Nov 28 hosted the spy chiefs from Israel’s Mossad and the United States’ CIA.

The officials discussed possible parameters of a new phase of the truce, including Hamas releasing hostages who are men or military personnel, not just women and children, said a source briefed on the matter.

They also considered what might be needed to reach a ceasefire lasting more than a handful of days.

Qatar spoke to Hamas before the meeting to get a sense of what the group might agree to. The Israelis and Hamas are now internally discussing the ideas explored at the meeting, the source added.

Separately, in a joint statement on Nov 28, foreign ministers of the Group of Seven nations called for an extension of the ceasefire and more humanitarian aid.

About 159 hostages remain in Gaza. The White House said on Nov 28 that they include eight to nine Americans.

National security spokesperson John Kirby said the US was hopeful that Hamas would release more Americans, and the US government would work with Qatar to extend the pause in fighting.

“We want to see all the hostages out. The way to do that is these pauses,” Mr Kirby told reporters travelling on the president’s plane on Nov 28.

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2023-11-29 03:59:25Z
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A showdown is brewing over money, oil and carbon. Here's what's at stake at the COP28 climate summit - CNBC

In this aerial view water vapour and exhaust rise from the steel mill of Salzgitter AG, one Europe's largest steel producers, on November 22, 2023 in Salzgitter, Germany.

Sean Gallup | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Policymakers and business leaders from across the globe are set to arrive in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates for the world's biggest and most important annual climate conference.

The COP28 summit, which starts on Thursday and is scheduled to run through to Dec. 12, will provide a critical forum for government officials, business leaders and campaign groups to accelerate action to tackle the climate crisis.

The pressure to deliver is immense. Global temperatures and greenhouse gas emissions continue to break records, with no continent left untouched by more frequent and intense extreme weather events.

Here's a look at what's at stake at COP28.

Money

Climate finance is always a hotly debated talking point at the U.N. summit and COP28 promises to be no different. It refers to the financing needed to support efforts to both significantly reduce emissions and adjust to the effects of climate change.

Talks in Bonn, Germany earlier in the year became gridlocked over this issue of finance and support, with some low-income countries refusing to talk about slashing emissions unless there was an equal focus on how wealthy nations would provide cash to them.

It laid the groundwork for what one environmental group expects to be a "huge fight" between high-income and low-income nations at COP28.

Climate activists hold a banner outside the InterContinental London Park Lane during the "Oily Money Out" demonstration organised by Fossil Free London on the sidelines of the opening day of the Energy Intelligence Forum 2023 in London on October 17, 2023. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP) (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP via Getty Images)

Henry Nicholls | Afp | Getty Images

Data published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in mid-November, however, showed that rich countries had finally fulfilled their promise to provide $100 billion a year to low-income countries — albeit two years after the deadline. It is hoped that this could go some way to fostering goodwill at the summit.

"COP28 has a massive role to play in setting the political direction for a transformational shift in climate ambition. But without finance and economic confidence, countries won't be able to act at the pace and scale needed," said Alex Scott, program lead at E3G, an independent climate think tank.

Loss and damage

Another major financial issue will be to operationalize the so-called "loss and damage" fund, arguably the main legacy of last year's COP27 summit in Egypt.

Rich countries, despite accounting for the bulk of historical greenhouse gas emissions, have long opposed the creation of a fund to compensate low-income countries for the loss and damage they've caused.

Advocates argue, however, that it is required to account for climate impacts — including hurricanes, floods and wildfires or slow-onset impacts such as rising sea levels — that countries cannot defend against because the risks are unavoidable, or the countries cannot afford it.

The establishment of the loss and damage fund at COP27 was seen as a historic breakthrough and potential turning point in the climate crisis, although many key details were left unresolved — such as who should pay into the fund, how large should it be and who should administer the money.

Countries reached a consensus on how to approach loss and damage payments during tense discissions that ran into overtime earlier this month. Yet it remains to be seen whether this fragile agreement can hold for countries to successfully operationalize the fund in the UAE.

"Billions of people, lives and livelihoods who are vulnerable to the effects of climate change depend upon the adoption of this recommended approach at COP28," Sultan al-Jaber, president-designate of COP28, said in a statement on Nov. 5.

People carry their belongings while crossing the section of a road collapsing due to flash floods at the Mwingi-Garissa Road near Garissa on November 22, 2023. The Horn of Africa is experiencing torrential rainfall and floods linked to El Nino climate pattern. Several communities are isolated as thousands of homes have been destroyed or damaged by floods that struck at least 33 of Kenya's 47 counties, killing more than 70 people and displacing many across the East African nation. (Photo by LUIS TATO / AFP) (Photo by LUIS TATO/AFP via Getty Images)

Luis Tato | Afp | Getty Images

Al-Jaber was seen as a controversial choice to lead COP28 discussions in Dubai given that he also works as the head of the state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

Climate activists criticized his appointment saying his position as an oil executive reflects a clear conflict of interest — akin to "putting the fox in charge of the henhouse." His office has said he will play a pivotal role in the intergovernmental discussions to build consensus at the event.

Fossil fuels

Melanie Robinson, global climate program director at the World Resources Institute, said COP28 will be the biggest accountability moment for climate action in history — and fossil fuels will be at the heart of the talks.

She anticipated three main debates around the use of oil, gas and coal — the burning of which is the chief driver of the climate crisis.

"So, one is this 'phase out' or 'phase down' [of fossil fuels]. Actually, for us at WRI, since neither of those has got a timeline, the most important thing for us is that whatever language they agree to, it needs to send a really strong signal that the world is rapidly shifting away from fossil fuels and it will do so equitably," Robinson told CNBC via telephone.

"The second, but perhaps slightly linked, issue is whether it is 'abated' or 'unabated.' There's a whole debate about the role of carbon capture technology abating emissions and there are certainly some oil companies and producer countries who would try to have us believe that with CCS [carbon capture and storage] we can continue to burn fossil fuels and still achieve our climate goals," she continued.

"We think the science suggests that is simply not true. There is no credible scenario where CCS will allow continued use of fossil fuels, let alone expanding oil and gas. So, for us, it is important that COP28 acknowledges the limited role CCS will play."

Sultan Al Jaber, chief executive of the UAE's Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and president of this year's COP28 climate summit gestures during an interview as part of the 7th Ministerial on Climate Action (MoCA) in Brussels on July 13, 2023.

Francois Walschaerts | Afp | Getty Images

Abated fossil fuels refer to the process in which emissions are captured and stored with carbon capture and storage technologies. The definition of unabated fossil fuels lacks clarity, despite the term cropping up in several climate commitments, but it is said to refer to fossil fuels produced and used without interventions to substantially reduce the amount of emitted greenhouse gases.

Robinson said the third talking point on fossil fuels was that there is a risk Dubai "could become a platform celebrating pledges from the oil and gas industry that fail to curb the emissions of their products."

She warned that any net zero pledge from the oil and gas industry that doesn't involve so-called Scope 3 emissions would not be significant. Scope 3 emissions refer to the emissions produced from across a company's entire value chain, and often account for the lion's share of a firm's carbon footprint.

"For us, it's a bit like a cigarette company saying that whatever happens to cigarettes after they leave the factory gate has got nothing to do with them. So, that I think we have to watch," Robinson said.

A course correction?

One unique component of the Dubai climate talks is the conclusion of the first global stocktake since the landmark Paris Agreement — the 2015 accord that aims to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

The world has already warmed by around 1.1 degrees Celsius, scientists say, after over a century of burning fossil fuels as well as unequal and unsustainable energy and land use. Indeed, it is this temperature increase that is fueling a series of extreme weather events around the world.

The stocktake is the main tool through which progress under the Paris Agreement is assessed. According to the U.N. global stocktake synthesis report released in early September, only transformational change will be enough to get the world back on track to meeting its climate goals.

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2023-11-29 06:38:11Z
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Israel, Hamas due to release more people amid efforts to extend truce - The Straits Times

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories - Hamas and Israel were expected to release more hostages and prisoners on Nov 29, the last day of a prolonged six-day truce in the Gaza war.

Attention has focused on whether mediator Qatar could negotiate another extension.

Israeli media, citing the prime minister’s office, reported that Israel received a list of hostages expected to be released by Hamas on Nov 29. The prime minister’s office had no immediate comment.

The Palestinian armed group Hamas and its allied group Islamic Jihad freed 12 hostages on Nov 28.

It brought the total number of people released since Nov 24, when the initial four-day truce began, to 81.

Those released so far by Hamas have been mostly Israeli women and children, and foreign citizens.

After they were handed over by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Israeli military said Nov 28’s freed hostages, comprising 10 Israeli women and two Thai citizens, received initial medical checks.

They then moved to Israeli hospitals where they were to meet their families.

The hostages were aged 17 to 84 and included a mother-daughter pair.

A short time later, Israel released 30 Palestinians from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank and a Jerusalem detention centre.

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2023-11-29 02:12:45Z
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Hamas releases more hostages, as Israel frees Palestinian prisoners - CNA

BURYING THE DEAD

More than two-thirds of Gaza's 2.3 million people have lost their homes to Israeli bombardments, with thousands of families sleeping rough in makeshift shelters with only the belongings they could carry.

Many are using the truce to return to abandoned or destroyed homes, like Abu Shamaleh, who was picking through the rubble of his flattened home in Khan Younis, looking for anything recoverable.

He said 37 family members had been killed and that there was no machinery to excavate the body of a cousin still buried in the ruins.

"The truce is the time to lift the rubble and search for all the missing people and bury them. We honour the dead by burying them. What use is the truce if the bodies remain under the rubble?" he said.

Among Israeli hostages yet to be freed was 10-month-old baby Kfir Bibas, along with his brother Ariel, 4, and their parents Yarden and Shiri, seized from a kibbutz by gunmen on Oct 7.

Yarden's sister told reporters relatives had learned the family would not be in the group to go free on Tuesday. Israeli officials said they believed the family was being held by a militant group other than Hamas.

"Kfir ... is a child who still doesn't even know how to say 'Mommy'", Jimmy Miller, a cousin, told Channel 12 TV. "We in the family are not managing to function ... The family hasn't slept for a long, long time already - 51 days."

When the war resumes, Israel has made clear it intends to press on with its assault from the northern half of Gaza into the south. U.S. officials said they have told their ally to be more careful protecting civilians as its forces press on.

Israel's siege has led to the collapse of Gaza's health care system, especially in the north where no hospitals remain functioning. The World Health Organization said more Gazans could soon be dying of disease than from bombing.

There were already a very high number of cases of infants suffering from diarrhoea, said WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris: "No medicines, no vaccination activities, no access to safe water and hygiene and no food."

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2023-11-28 20:33:00Z
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All 41 Indian workers trapped in tunnel for 17 days rescued: Minister - CNA

"EFFORT AND SACRIFICE"

Indian billionaire Anand Mahindra paid tribute to the men at the rock face who squeezed into the narrow pipe to clear the rocks by hand.

"After all the sophisticated drilling equipment, it's the humble 'rathole miners' who make the vital breakthrough," Mahindra said on X, formerly Twitter.

"It's a heartwarming reminder that at the end of the day, heroism is most often a case of individual effort and sacrifice."

Last week, engineers working to drive a metal pipe horizontally through the earth ran into metal girders and construction vehicles buried in the rubble, snapping a giant earth-boring machine.

A separate vertical shaft was also started from the forested hill above the tunnel, as well as from the far side of the road tunnel, a much longer route estimated to be around 480 metres.

Before Tuesday, the workers were seen alive for the first time last week, peering into the lens of an endoscopic camera sent by rescuers down a thin pipe through which air, food, water and electricity were delivered.

Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, who had been advising the engineers, told reporters ahead of the rescue that the men were in good spirits, and that he had heard they had been "playing cricket".

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2023-11-28 15:04:00Z
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