Indonesia is the world's largest producer of this raw material and the crossroads of discussions on its environmental sustainability. Over the last year, prices have fallen by more than 17%, but operators in the sector are optimistic about the biofuel market. Forty-one per cent of Indonesian plantations are owned by small farmers.
Tension is high in the capital of Bangladesh and other areas, with violence targeting vehicles and public spaces during the days of protests called by the Awami League against Yunus's ‘illegal government’. There have been about twenty attacks as of last night, with patrols and roadblocks. The leaders of the party excluded from the elections deny any involvement and speak of a government manoeuvre to discredit it. Offices and schools are closed today.
In 2017, the parish priest of the Svjato-Onežskij cathedral on the Russian Arctic coast began negotiations with the Norwegian mayor of Vardø to build a Russian Orthodox chapel on the fishing island. But when the plans included an imposing 17-metre-high building in the middle of NATO's large radar installations, the city council refused to grant permission despite generous Russian offers of subsidies.
The memory of the Oblate missionary, killed on 10 November 1987, lives on in Buttala, the village where he went to live to defend the rights of the poor. According to local Buddhist monks, older residents remember the light he brought to the village. One of his confreres, Father Shanil, calls on fellow members of the clergy to “reflect upon what prompted him to live that type of life” and follow his “living testimony” today.
Joy Reyes, who experienced firsthand the devastation of cyclone Ulysses in 2020, shared her experience at the UN Conference on Climate Change. “I used to love the sound of rain. Now every drop brings fear,” she said. The perverse connection with international debt, which weighs heavily on the victims of other people's pollution, is a powerful one. Cardinal David calls for a tax on mining to compensate local communities.
The Pakistani government blames the Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for a bomb attack at a district courthouse that killed 12 people, acting with the support of Kabul and India. In response, Afghanistan halted all trade, including medical imports, with its neighbour. Meanwhile, a UN report warns that the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is getting worse, with repatriated Afghan refugees living in extreme poverty and 90 per cent of families experiencing hunger.
