World
NGO urges leaders in COP27 to discuss ‘plant-based treaty’
![NGO urges leaders in COP27 to discuss ‘plant-based treaty’ NGO urges leaders in COP27 to discuss ‘plant-based treaty’](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2022-10-26T114936Z_1011668116_RC2N6X9SICDR_RTRMADP_3_CLIMATE-UN-CLIMATE-PLEDGES.jpg?resize=1920,1440)
In open letter to world leaders, NGOs and local weather activists name for ‘sustainable and simply plant-based meals transition’.
An NGO and local weather activists have known as on world leaders attending this 12 months’s COP27 local weather summit in Egypt to begin negotiations for a “plant-based treaty”.
An open letter signed by celebrities, politicians, and companies was delivered to COP27 President Sameh Shoukry, calling for “a broad, holistic method to a sustainable and simply plant-based meals transition by a worldwide Plant Based mostly Treaty this decade to avert local weather disaster”.
The treaty outlined three core rules; to cease the growth of animal agriculture, promote a shift to sustainable plant-based diets, and “reforest and rewild” planet Earth.
Meals manufacturing accounts for roughly a 3rd of worldwide greenhouse gasoline emissions and is the primary risk to 86 % of the world’s species susceptible to extinction, whereas cattle ranching is answerable for three-quarters of Amazon rainforest loss.
Livestock accounts for almost a 3rd of the worldwide methane emissions linked to human exercise, launched within the type of cattle burps, manure and the cultivation of feed crops.
Based on the letter, fossil fuels and animal agriculture are the primary driving forces behind world warming and local weather change points. The group stated the three fundamental greenhouse gases are at “devastatingly excessive ranges and quickly accelerating”.
The signatories hoped to deliver the difficulty of a transition to plant-based meals manufacturing to the forefront of meals insecurity and the local weather agenda.
In addition they hoped that world leaders would begin negotiations for the treaty on COP27’s Agriculture and Adaptation Day on November 12.
“A step in the proper route could be an acknowledgement of the wastefulness of the animal industries of the International North and their massively unfavorable implications on meals safety all around the world,” Plant Based mostly Treaty campaigner Maximilian Weiss, informed Al Jazeera.
Whereas the difficulty is changing into extra mainstream in some areas reminiscent of the UK, Weiss stated extra is required to be executed utilizing a “bottom-up” method to strain governments into together with plant-based options in local weather actions plans.
“We’re on the freeway to local weather hell with a methane-emitting meat burger in a single hand and our foot on the fossil gasoline gasoline pedal. It’s time for a plant-based meals and renewable power revolution,” stated Anita Krajnc, Plant Based mostly Treaty world marketing campaign coordinator.
Impacts of ‘animal manufacturing’
“It’s excessive time for decision-makers within the local weather debate to cease overlooking the affect of animal manufacturing. We now not have time to clarify the hyperlinks between animal agriculture, human rights, biodiversity, pure sources, and environmental safety,” stated Anna Spurek, chief working officer of Inexperienced Rev Institute.
“COP27 needs to be the second to endorse the Plant Based mostly Treaty and resolve on a simply transition of the worldwide meals system.”
Among the measures to transition to a plant-based meals system is making such meals the default possibility in all public hospitals, colleges, nursing properties, prisons and public establishments, the letter stated.
Based on the Plant Based mostly Treaty organisers, the letter has been endorsed by greater than 60,000 people and a couple of,000 teams and companies. Amongst their fundamental goals is a “world settlement alongside motion in any respect ranges”, they stated.
Earlier this week, a senior government on the UN meals company informed the Reuters information company that the physique goals to launch a plan throughout the 12 months to make the world’s meals system extra sustainable.
Chatting with Reuters information company on the sidelines of COP27, Meals and Agriculture Organisation Deputy Director Zitouni Ould-Dada stated the plan would present how the meals trade and farming can align with the world’s objective of capping world warming at 1.5 levels Celsius (2.7F).
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has pushed a surge in meals costs globally, delegates on the convention had been extra open to discussing the difficulty, Ould-Dada stated.
He added that the difficulty can be slowly gaining the eye of some governments.
Based on Weiss, motion from the UN meals company is “lengthy overdue”.
“With only a decade to implement options, motion must be bolder and sooner,” he stated.
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World
Hamas says three captives to be released amid ceasefire deal collapse fears
![Hamas says three captives to be released amid ceasefire deal collapse fears Hamas says three captives to be released amid ceasefire deal collapse fears](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2025-02-13T133417Z_889410639_RC2OTCAP7RUB_RTRMADP_3_ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-GAZA-CEASEFIRE-AID-1739455841.jpg?resize=1920%2C1440)
Hamas says it will release captives according to timeline set out in truce after fears agreement would not hold following Israel’s violations.
Hamas says it is committed to the release of captives held in Gaza according to a timeline set out in a ceasefire, days after fears arose that the truce would not hold following Israel’s violation of the agreement.
In a statement released on Thursday, Hamas said it “confirms continuation in implementing the agreement in accordance with what was signed, including the exchange of prisoners according to the specified timetable”.
Hamas spokesperson Abdul Latif al-Qanoua also confirmed to the Anadolu news agency that the group will release captives on Saturday if Israel adheres to the terms of the ceasefire.
“The [Israeli] occupation has violated the agreement multiple times, whether by preventing the return of displaced people or blocking the entry of humanitarian aid,” he said. “If Israel does not adhere to the terms of the agreement, the prisoner exchange process will not take place.”
A Palestinian source quoted by AFP news agency said on Thursday that mediators had obtained from Israel a “promise … to put in place a humanitarian protocol starting from this morning” that would allow construction equipment and temporary housing into the devastated territory.
The Hamas statement added that talks being held this week in Cairo aimed at overcoming an impasse in implementing the deal had been “positive”.
Later on Thursday, Israel said Hamas must release three living captives on Saturday or Israel will return to war.
This week, the agreement with Israel has come under severe strain.
Hamas warned it would delay the next release of captives scheduled for Saturday due to Israel violating the truce by shooting Palestinians in Gaza and not allowing the agreed-upon number of tents, shelters and other vital aid to enter the besieged enclave.
Israel responded by saying that if Hamas failed to free captives according to the schedule, it would resume its war.
Since the ceasefire went into effect on January 19, Israeli forces have killed at least 92 Palestinians and wounded more than 800, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss the ceasefire with mediators Egypt and Qatar.
Egyptian state-linked media said heavy equipment and trucks carrying mobile homes were ready to enter Gaza from Egypt on Thursday. The AFP news agency shared images showing a row of bulldozers on the Egyptian side of the border.
However, Israel later said they would not be allowed to enter through the crossing.
“There is no entry of caravans or heavy equipment into the Gaza Strip, and there is no coordination for this,” Omer Dostri, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wrote on X, adding: “No goods are allowed to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing.”
Hamas has previously accused Israel of holding up the delivery of heavy machinery needed to clear the vast amounts of rubble across the enclave.
United States President Donald Trump had warned this week that “hell” would break loose if Hamas failed to release “all” the remaining captives by noon (10:00 GMT) on Saturday.
If fighting resumes, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said: “The new Gaza war … will not end without the defeat of Hamas and the release of all the hostages.”
“It will also allow the realisation of US President Trump’s vision for Gaza,” he added.
Trump, whose return to the White House has emboldened the Israeli far right, caused a global outcry over his proposal for the US to take over the Gaza Strip and move its 2.3 million residents to Egypt or Jordan.
The Gaza truce, currently in its first phase, has seen Israeli captives released in small groups in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli custody.
World
Czech Dam Project Was Stalled by Bureaucracy. Beavers Built Their Own.
![Czech Dam Project Was Stalled by Bureaucracy. Beavers Built Their Own. Czech Dam Project Was Stalled by Bureaucracy. Beavers Built Their Own.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/02/12/multimedia/00xp-beavers/00xp-beavers-facebookJumbo.jpg)
For years, officials in the Czech Republic had pushed a dam project to protect a river south of Prague, and the critically endangered species living in it. But the project, hamstrung by land negotiations, stalled.
In the meantime, a group of chisel-toothed mammals — renowned for their engineering skills and work ethic, and unencumbered by bureaucracy — decided to take on the task. The beavers of Prague simply built dams themselves.
The rodents’ fast work saved the local authorities some 1.2 million euros, according to a news release from the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic, a government agency responsible for conservation across the country. “Nature took its course,” Bohumil Fišer, the head of the Brdy Protected Landscape Area, where the revitalization project was planned, said in the statement. The beavers, he added, had created the ideal environmental conditions “practically overnight.”
The project, on a former army site on the Klabava, a river about 40 miles southwest of Prague, the Czech capital, was drafted in 2018 and had a building permit, but had been delayed for years by negotiations over the land, which had been used as a military training grounds, Agence France-Presse reported on Tuesday. Officials had hoped to build a barrier to protect the river and its population of critically endangered crayfish from sediment and acidic water spilling over from two nearby ponds, A.F.P. reported.
The beavers began working before the excavators could even break ground. It was not immediately clear specifically when the dams were built and how long it took to build them.
The new wetland created by the dams covers nearly five acres, the conservation group said. It is twice as large as the area that the humans had planned, Agence France-Presse reported. “It’s full service,” Mr. Fišer told A.F.P. “Beavers are absolutely fantastic and when they are in an area where they can’t cause damage, they do a brilliant job.”
Despite their remarkable ability to construct dams, beavers often draw the ire of landowners and farmers for destroying trees, eating crops and flooding roads and fields. But in thinning a tree canopy, the rodents can often help to diversify an ecosystem by allowing in sunlight in so that other plant species can thrive, said Emily Fairfax, an assistant professor of ecology at the University of Minnesota.
“They’re fundamentally changing the way water and life moves through that landscape,” she said.
To build a dam, the beavers, whose weight as adults can range from about 40 to 80 pounds, begin by piling small stones across a river or stream, packing those stones in with mud, and repeating the process to construct a pond, which they then expand to become a wetland, Dr. Fairfax said.
They are motivated by their fear of predators: Beavers are adept swimmers and can hold their breath underwater for 15 minutes. On land, their ungainly waddle makes them easy prey. “They’re basically a big chicken nugget for predators,” which include bears, mountain lions and wolves, she said.
The Czech dam is not the first time the rodents have assisted in building a wetland. Beavers in California have helped to restore a floodplain about 30 miles northeast of Sacramento. In that case, the beavers’ work also helped local officials save money. “All they had to do was let the beavers be there,” Dr. Fairfax said. In other cases, beavers often did work that went unacknowledged. “We sort of have a blindness for beavers,” she said, noting that they were often considered a nuisance because of their alarming size and capacity to rapidly change the landscape.
“They’re powerful, they’re big, and they’re elusive,” Dr. Fairfax said, noting that, despite the beavers’ engineering prowess, they presented a challenge for conservation groups when planning restoration projects.
“Oftentimes we don’t want to allow the beavers to make the choices, because it’s hard to plan around that uncertainty; it’s hard to turn over control to a giant water rodent,” she said. “But that’s when beavers are at their best.”
World
Mother of Israeli hostage begs Trump, Netanyahu to bring son home before ceasefire collapses: 'No more time'
![Mother of Israeli hostage begs Trump, Netanyahu to bring son home before ceasefire collapses: 'No more time' Mother of Israeli hostage begs Trump, Netanyahu to bring son home before ceasefire collapses: 'No more time'](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/02/gettyimages-2198436197.jpg)
Idit Ohel, the mother of Israeli hostage Alon Ohel, urgently pleaded for President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure the release of the remaining Oct. 7 captives held by Hamas amid fears the current ceasefire deal is disintegrating.
“They have no more time. And please don’t go back to war. Please. Because if that happens, if we go back to war, the hostages could die. The hostages that are alive could die,” she told Fox News Digital. “That’s what happened last time. Last time we saw that after the hostages came out and war started, so many hostages died and were murdered by Hamas. So we cannot let this happen. Please do everything in your power and do something for my son. He’s in the tunnels. He’s crying for help.”
Idit Ohel said she received confirmation that her son is still alive from released hostages Eli Sharabi and Or Levy, two of the three gaunt, frail-looking Israelis forced to speak Saturday during a Hamas hand-over ceremony in Gaza.
The mother said the released hostages, who were held with her son for part of their nearly 500 days in captivity, told her that Alon Ohel is unable to see out of an eye after being struck by shrapnel when Hamas was closing in on Oct. 7, 2023. Alon Ohel, a civilian, was attending the Nova music festival when terrorists attacked, and he took cover in a bomb shelter. Hamas pounded the shelter with grenades and gunfire, and he “was taken, wounded, with blood all over him,” Idit Ohel said.
ISRAEL SLAMS PALESTINIAN ‘DECEPTION SCHEME’ OVER CLAIM IT HALTED TERROR REWARDS PROGRAM
A placard of Alon Ohel seen during a rally marking his 24th birthday in Tel Aviv. (Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Alon Ohel’s ancestors survived the Holocaust, including his great-grandfather who weighed just 30 kilos [about 66 pounds] when he was released from the Auschwitz concentration camp, Idit Ohel said. “So if he was alive today, he would probably die instantly just knowing that his great-grandson in the year of 2025 is starving,” she said. “Alon has these genes. So he’s fighting. He’s fighting for his life every day.”
Under the deal, another three hostages were due to be released by next Saturday, but Hamas said Monday that the group would not let them go, accusing Israel of violating terms of the ceasefire agreement.
Concerns that fighting will resume are rising. Trump has since said that Hamas must release all remaining 76 hostages by noon Saturday, or he would demand the ceasefire deal be canceled and “let all hell break out.” Netanyahu backed the demand.
Israeli media is reporting that Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, is being dispatched to Israel and Qatar this week to prevent the ceasefire deal from unraveling. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected in Israel on Saturday.
To Trump and Netayanhu directly, Idit Ohel said, “Do something and bring them home. Please. Please.”
![Alon Ohel's mother speaks at Tel Aviv rally](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/02/1200/675/gettyimages-2198436197.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Idit Ohel speaks to the crowd during a Tel Aviv rally marking the 24th Birthday of her son Alon Ohel who is held hostage by Hamas. (Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“Give him a chance. It’s unbearable. Something has to change. You have to do everything in your power to bring him home to me, to his family,” she said. “There’s still hostages alive. There’s still hostages alive. Please. Please, do something.”
Idit Ohel said she learned her son is being held in tunnels without medical attention and little food and has been “tortured, chained and starved.”
“It’s not humane. There’s so much food getting into Gaza, and he’s not getting any of it,” she said.
HAMAS SAYS IT’S DELAYING NEXT HOSTAGE RELEASE, CLAIMING CEASEFIRE VIOLATIONS
“Alon, right now as we speak, is still being not fed, sleeping on the floor, being chained, constrained. So he cannot move for 494 days,” Idit Ohel said. “My son is important. My son is only an innocent civilian. He went to the Nova festival to have fun. He’s a pianist. He loves music. He did nothing wrong to nobody. We need to get him out now. He cannot continue. This is humanitarian.”
Days before Trump took office, Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement. Former President Joe Biden said at the time that the first phase involved a “surge of humanitarian assistance into Gaza” – something Idit Ohel stressed her son is not getting.
She said the International Committee of the Red Cross “have never seen Alon and have never seen any of the hostages – [he] didn’t get any treatment.”
![Tel Aviv demonstration in honor of Alon Ohel's 24th birthday](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/02/1200/675/gettyimages-2198436220.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Israelis stand under placards with photos of hostages during a rally in Tel Aviv marking the 24th Birthday of Alon Ohel, who is held by Hamas in Gaza. (Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“Where is he? Why is he not coming?” Idit Ohel added. “I do not understand it. I will never understand it. This is wrong. This is not moral.”
Ohel rallied thousands in Tel Aviv over the weekend on her son’s 24th birthday – the second birthday he has spent in captivity since the Oct. 7 attacks.
“I wanted to say happy birthday to my son. I couldn’t even talk [to him] and see and hear his voice,” she said. “When I heard about his condition, I fainted … I haven’t been sleeping for days … I cannot control what Hamas is doing to my son.”
“Every mother in this world. Think just for a second. If there’s one night that your son or daughter doesn’t eat, you can’t even live with yourself,” Ohel added. “My son has not been getting food for 494 days.”
The mother also delivered a message directly to her son.
“If you’re listening to me, you know I love you and your father loves you. And we’re doing everything in our power to make sure that you’re home alive. You’re coming home. And there’s so many people all over the world and in Israel that are with you and are praying for you,” Ohel said, asking fellow musicians to play songs in her son’s honor in the coming days. “And you are not alone, Alon. You are not alone.”
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