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Ailing Baltic Sea in need of urgent attention

Ailing Baltic Sea in need of urgent attention
Faced head-on with pollution and climate change, the Baltic is Europe’s sick sea, and fish are disappearing there dramatically. The European Union promised on Jun. 5, 2025 to make it one of its ‘urgent priorities.’ (AFP)
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Updated 05 June 2025

Ailing Baltic Sea in need of urgent attention

Ailing Baltic Sea in need of urgent attention
  • Unveiling its road map to protect Europe’s seas, the European Ocean Pact, Brussels announced a summit on the state of the Baltic Sea in late September
  • The Baltic Sea is home to some of the world’s largest dead marine zones, mainly due to excess nutrient runoff into the sea from human activities on land

HELSINKI: Decades of pollution and climate change have caused fish to disappear from the Baltic Sea at an alarming rate, with the European Union on Thursday vowing to make the sea an “urgent priority.”

Unveiling its road map to protect Europe’s seas, the European Ocean Pact, Brussels announced a summit on the state of the Baltic Sea in late September.

The semi-enclosed sea is surrounded by industrial and agricultural nations Germany, Poland, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the three Baltic states.

Connected to the Atlantic only by the narrow waters of the Danish straits, the Baltic is known for its shallow, low-salinity waters, which are highly sensitive to the climate and environmental changes that have accumulated over the years.

“Today, the once massive Baltic cod stocks have collapsed, herring stocks in several sub-basins are balancing on critical levels, sprat recruitment is at a record low and wild salmon stocks are in decline,” Swedish European MP Isabella Lovin, rapporteur for the EU Committee of Fishing, warned in a report, calling the situation “critical.”

The Baltic Sea is home to some of the world’s largest dead marine zones, mainly due to excess nutrient runoff into the sea from human activities on land — a challenge the sea has long grappled with.

The runoff has primarily been phosphorus and nitrogen from waste water and fertilizers used in agriculture, as well as other activities such as forestry.

It causes vast algae blooms in summer, a process known as eutrophication that removes oxygen from the water, leaving behind dead seabeds and marine habitats and threatening species living in the Baltic.

Today, agriculture is the biggest source of nutrient pollution.

Marine biodiversity in the relatively small sea has also deteriorated due to pollution from hazardous substances, land use, extraction of resources and climate change, according to the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM).

“The state of the Baltic Sea is not good,” Maria Laamanen, a senior adviser at the Finnish environment ministry, told AFP.

Climate change poses “a massive additional challenge” for the marine environment, she said.

Of the world’s coastal seas, the Baltic Sea is warming the fastest.

A 2024 study said sea surface and sea floor temperatures have increased by 1.8 and 1.3 degrees Celsius respectively in the Finnish archipelago in the northern Baltic Sea, in the period from 1927 to 2020.

The consequences of rising temperatures already affect species, while increased rainfall has led to more runoff from land to sea.

Better waste water treatment and gypsum treatment of agricultural soil, as well as an expansion of protected marine areas in Finland, have had a positive effect on the maritime environment, according to Laamanen, who said environmental engagement had grown in recent years.

“The situation would be much worse without the measures already implemented,” she said.

In her report, Lovin called for an ambitious reform of fisheries, with stronger attention paid to environmental and climate change impacts.

The report also questioned whether the Baltic could continue to sustain industrial-scale trawling, and suggested giving “priority access to low-impact fisheries and fishing for human consumption.”

The head of the Finnish Fishermen’s Association (SAKL) Kim Jordas said eutrophication was to blame for the declining fish stocks in the Baltic Sea, not overfishing.

“Looking at cod for example, it is entirely due to the state of the Baltic Sea and the poor oxygen situation,” Jordas told AFP.

In Finland, the number of commercial fishermen has been declining, with a total of around 400 active today.


Cheers, hugs at Palestinian mission as UK recognizes statehood

Cheers, hugs at Palestinian mission as UK recognizes statehood
Updated 55 min 54 sec ago

Cheers, hugs at Palestinian mission as UK recognizes statehood

Cheers, hugs at Palestinian mission as UK recognizes statehood
  • “This is a South Africa moment for Palestine,” the head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK said
  • Palestinian Mission will soon be designated as Palestine’s embassy in Britain

LONDON: As Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Britain’s landmark decision to recognize the State of Palestine on Sunday, the small team in the Palestinian mission to the UK erupted in cheers of joy.
“This is a historic moment,” beamed Palestinian envoy to the UK Husam Zomlot, watching the televised announcement at the mission in west London.
Canada and Australia took the same step in a coordinated decision marking a pivotal shift in Western foreign policy, with Israel under increasing international pressure over its deadly war with Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“This is a South Africa moment for Palestine,” the head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK told AFP in the building, which will soon be designated as Palestine’s embassy in Britain.
He was referring to the end of South Africa’s white apartheid government in the 1990s, which came after growing international pressure and isolation.
Recognition was an “act of assurances to the Palestinian people that they hope for a better future and ... peace is possible.”
Zomlot was born in a refugee camp in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. “As a small boy from Rafah, this is all I was raised to know,” he said, gesturing toward the television screen which flashed with breaking news headlines about the recognition of Palestinian statehood.
“Well done, that’s a great moment,” said Zomlot, embracing and congratulating his team, as AFP journalists in the room witnessed Starmer’s announcement after a tense day of anticipation for the mission.
“It’s been decades,” joked one staff member, who wished to remain anonymous.
The UK government had said in July it would recognize Palestinian statehood in September ahead of the annual UN General Assembly unless Israel took “substantive” steps, including reaching a ceasefire in Gaza.
“Today, to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, and a two-state solution, the United Kingdom formally recognizes the State of Palestine,” Starmer said in a video message posted around 2 p.m. local time (1300 GMT).
“Merely the beginning”
While the recognition, which will be echoed by France, Belgium and other countries at the United Nations next week, is a largely symbolic move, Zomlot said he hoped it would be “actual, practical, actionable.”
“Recognition is not the destination. Recognition is merely the beginning, the first foundational step toward ... making sure that Britain takes its historic responsibility toward the Palestinian people,” said the envoy.
The UK’s Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy told the UN in July it was “with the hand of history on our shoulders” that London planned to recognize Palestinian statehood, given Britain’s pivotal role in creating the State of Israel through the 1917 Balfour Declaration.
The decision is “not only about Palestine,” said Zomlot. “It’s also about Britain. It’s about correcting historic injustice.”
The team will hold a ceremony to mark the announcement on Monday. A carefully folded Palestinian flag, which will be raised outside the building, sits patiently at the reception of the mission waiting to be unfurled.


Filipinos take to streets in mass anti-corruption protests

Protesters hold placards during a rally against phony flood control projects in Manila on Sept. 21, 2025. (AFP)
Protesters hold placards during a rally against phony flood control projects in Manila on Sept. 21, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 21 September 2025

Filipinos take to streets in mass anti-corruption protests

Protesters hold placards during a rally against phony flood control projects in Manila on Sept. 21, 2025. (AFP)
  • Public anger erupts after multibillion-dollar graft in flood control projects
  • Protest coincides with the 53rd anniversary of the declaration of martial law

MANILA: Thousands of Filipinos rallied across main Philippine cities on Sunday to protest a growing scandal over fake flood-control projects believed to have cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

Over the past few weeks, investigators have uncovered massive corruption in flood prevention and mitigation projects. An audit ordered by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. found last month that out of the 545 billion pesos ($9.54 billion) allocated to the projects since 2022, thousands of projects were found to be substandard, lacking proper documentation, or nonexistent.

Several powerful political figures have been implicated, according to ongoing House and Senate probes, igniting public outrage in one of the world’s most typhoon-vulnerable countries.

“The main objective of the mass action is to register the people’s anger with regard to the rampant corruption, the misuse of public funds, the fact that billions of pesos have ended up stolen by certain nefarious individuals with the connivance of certain government officials. That should be a cause for alarm,” Danilo Arao, journalism professor and convenor of election watchdog Kontra Daya, told Arab News at a main protest site in Luneta Park in the heart of Manila.

“Regardless of political ideology, it is important that people say that enough is enough and that we will not take this sitting down … What we’re trying to achieve is giving the government a wake-up call and that those who are involved should come out into the open. They should not hide behind their power and influence or whatever wealth they flex to the public.”

The protest was simultaneously taking place in several locations in Metro Manila, with thousands of people arriving to Luneta and to EDSA — the most important and busiest roads in the capital region.

“It shows the people are angry. People are united. People are coming from all walks of life, and everyone here is represented. This is more personal, not just political. Because it is a statement from the people that we are fed up,” said Roque Poblete, a business owner and member of a cooperative movement protesting in the EDSA area.

“It is important to show the government that all the people are united, to make some changes, not only in the government, but in the whole system.”

Anti-corruption rallies also took place in Cebu City — the second most important urban center after Metro Manila — in Bacolod City, the capital of Negros Occidental, in Cagayan de Oro, the major gateway and economic hub in northern Mindanao, and in Marawi City, the capital of Lanao del Sur in Mindanao’s south.

The rallies, which were endorsed by Marcos, coincided with the 53rd anniversary of the declaration of martial law by his father and namesake. Every year, demonstrations are held on Sept. 21 to remember the abuses during the martial law period, demand justice, oppose repressive laws, corruption and rights violations.

Sunday’s protest was the biggest in a series of demonstrations that over the past weeks have been organized by civil society groups, Catholic church leaders, and anti-corruption watchdogs.

“We’re so tired of corruption, we’re so tired of those projects that we can’t see — those ghost projects. That’s why we are here, as seminarians, as members of the church, to fight for the rights of the people,” said Johnson Aban, a protesting seminarian.

“It’s really amazing that many people participated in this event, not just the people of the church, but also those in the civil society and other groups, even the youth participated. We hope that the government will be awakened with this kind of cry from the people.”


Estonia says UN Security Council to meet over Russian air incursion

Estonia says UN Security Council to meet over Russian air incursion
Updated 21 September 2025

Estonia says UN Security Council to meet over Russian air incursion

Estonia says UN Security Council to meet over Russian air incursion
  • Estonia’s foreign ministry said Sunday that UN Security Council would hold an emergency meeting this week following the incursion of three Russian aircraft into its airspace

TALLIN: Estonia’s foreign ministry said Sunday that UN Security Council would hold an emergency meeting this week following the incursion of three Russian aircraft into its airspace.
Three Russian MiG-31 fighters violated Estonian airspace over the Gulf of Finland on Friday, triggering complaints of a dangerous new provocation from the European Union and NATO but a denial from Moscow.
Italian F-35 fighters attached to NATO’s air defense support mission in the Baltic states, along with Swedish and Finnish aircraft, were scrambled to intercept the Russian jets and warn them off.
“On September 22... the United Nations Security Council will convene an emergency meeting in response to Russia’s brazen violation of Estonian airspace last Friday,” a statement from the Estonian ministry said.
It marks the first time in 34 years of Estonia’s membership in the UN that the EU and NATO member nation — a staunch supporter of Ukraine — has officially requested an emergency Security Council meeting.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said the violation is “part of a broader pattern of escalation by Russia, both regionally and globally,” following violations of Polish and Romanian airspace earlier this month.
“This behavior requires an international response,” Tsahkna said.


UK, Australia and Canada recognize Palestinian state

Head of the Palestine Mission to the UK reacts as he watches a broadcast of Starmer formally recognizing The Palestinian State.
Head of the Palestine Mission to the UK reacts as he watches a broadcast of Starmer formally recognizing The Palestinian State.
Updated 21 September 2025

UK, Australia and Canada recognize Palestinian state

Head of the Palestine Mission to the UK reacts as he watches a broadcast of Starmer formally recognizing The Palestinian State.
  • London’s step aligns it with more than 140 other nations but will irk both Israel and its main ally the US
  • Canada and Australia also recognized a Palestinian state on Sunday and other countries are expected to do so this week at UNGA

LONDON: Britain, Australia and Canada on Sunday recognized a Palestinian state in a seismic shift in decades of western foreign policy, triggering swift Israeli anger.
Portugal was also to recognize Palestinian statehood later Sunday, as Israel came under huge international pressure over the war in Gaza triggered almost two years ago by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.
“Today, to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, and a two-state solution, the United Kingdom formally recognizes the State of Palestine,” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a message on X.


Britain and Canada became the first G7 countries to take the step, with France and other nations expected to follow at the annual UN General Assembly which opens Monday in New York.
“Canada recognizes the State of Palestine and offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future for both the State of Palestine and the State of Israel,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote on X.
It is a watershed moment for Palestinians and their decades-long ambitions for statehood, with the most powerful western nations having long argued it should only come as part of a negotiated peace deal with Israel.
But the move puts those countries at odds with the United States and Israel, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacting angrily and vowing to oppose it at the UN talks.
Calls for a Palestinian state “would endanger our existence and serve as absurd reward for terrorism,” Netanyahu said Sunday.
A growing number of longtime allies have shifted positions, as Israel has intensified its Gaza offensive, vowing to eliminate the Hamas Palestinian militants.
The Gaza Strip has suffered vast destruction, a spiralling death toll and a lack of food that has sparked a major humanitarian crisis since the start of the conflict which has drawn an international outcry.

“Special burden”

The UK government has come under increasing public pressure to act, with thousands rallying every month on the streets. A poll released by YouGov on Friday showed two-thirds of young Britons aged 18-25 supported Palestinian statehood.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy acknowledged at the UN in July that “Britain bears a special burden of responsibility to support the two-state solution.”
Over a century ago, the UK was pivotal in laying the groundwork for the creation of the state of Israel through the 1917 Balfour Declaration.
Three-quarters of UN members already recognize Palestinian statehood, with over 140 of the 193 having taken the step.
Starmer said in July that his Labour government intended to recognize a Palestinian State unless Israel took “substantive” steps including reaching a ceasefire in Gaza, getting more aid into the territory and confirming it would not annex the West Bank.
Starmer has also repeatedly called on Hamas to release the remaining hostages they captured in the 2023 attack, and is expected to set out new sanctions on the Palestinian militants.
Lammy told the BBC on Sunday that the Palestinian Authority — the civilian body that governs in areas of the West Bank — had been calling for the move for some time “and I think a lot of that is wrapped up in hope.”
“Will this feed children? No it won’t, that’s down to humanitarian aid. Will this free hostages? That must be down to a ceasefire.”
But he said it was an attempt to “hold out for” a two-state solution.
Palestinian foreign minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin told AFP last week: “Recognition is not symbolic.”
“It sends a very clear message to the Israelis on their illusions on continuing their occupation forever,” she added.

“Worrying evolution”

Hamas’s 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 65,208 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Gazan health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Portugal said that it would also formally declare its recognition in New York on Sunday.
“By acting now, as the Portuguese government has decided, we’re keeping alive the possibility of having two states,” Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said.


US deal on Bagram base ‘not possible’ says Afghan Taliban official

US deal on Bagram base ‘not possible’ says Afghan Taliban official
Updated 21 September 2025

US deal on Bagram base ‘not possible’ says Afghan Taliban official

US deal on Bagram base ‘not possible’ says Afghan Taliban official
  • An Afghan Taliban government official said Sunday that a deal over Bagram air base was “not possible,” after US President Donald Trump said he wanted the former US base back

KABUL: An Afghan Taliban government official said Sunday that a deal over Bagram air base was “not possible,” after US President Donald Trump said he wanted the former US base back.
Trump threatened the country Saturday with unspecified punishment, just days after he raised the idea of the United States retaking control of the base while on a state visit to the United Kingdom.
“If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!” the 79-year-old leader wrote on his Truth Social platform.
On Sunday, Fasihuddin Fitrat, Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Defense, said “some people” want to take back the base through a “political deal.”
“Recently, some people have said that they have entered negotiations with Afghanistan for taking back Bagram Air base,” he said in comments broadcast by local media.
“A deal over even an inch of Afghanistan’s soil is not possible. We don’t need it.”
Bagram, the largest air base in Afghanistan, was a linchpin of the US-led war effort against the Taliban, whose government Washington toppled following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
US and NATO troops chaotically pulled out of Bagram in July 2021 as part of a Trump-brokered deal with Taliban insurgents.
The loss of crucial air power saw the Afghan military collapse just weeks later and the Taliban sweep back to power.