Feed aggregator

Le projet de petit réacteur nucléaire d’EDF, Nuward, voit une partie de ses partenaires quitter le navire, après que l’entreprise a décidé de remettre le design de son projet à plat en juillet dernier.

Klimaschädliche Steuervergünstigungen kosten die Schweiz Milliarden. Eine neue Studie zeigt: Durch deren Abschaffung könnten Bund und Kantone 4,6 Milliarden Franken einnehmen.

Der chinesische e-JS1 von JAC wirbt mit dem Slogan: «Mehr Reichweite fürs Geld gibts nicht». Doch stimmt das wirklich? Blick stellt die Aussage auf die Probe und vergleicht den Chinesen mit anderen aktuellen Stromer-Modellen.

Credit: US National Archives

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 2 2024 (IPS)

If and when the devastating military conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza come to an end, the ultimate winners will not be the Russians, the Americans or the Israelis but the world’s arms manufacturers—contemptuously described as “merchants of death”.

And so will be the winners in a rash of conflicts and civil wars in Syria, Myanmar, Lebanon, Yemen, Sudan and Afghanistan.

The latest report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) points out revenues from sales of arms and military services by the 100 largest companies in the industry reached $632 billion in 2023, a real-terms increase of 4.2 per cent compared with 2022.

The new data, released December 2, says arms revenue increases were seen in all regions, with particularly sharp rises among companies based in Russia and the Middle East.

Overall, smaller producers were more efficient at responding to new demand linked to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, growing tensions in East Asia and rearmament programmes elsewhere.

In 2023, according to SIPRI, many arms producers ramped up their production in response to surging demand. The total arms revenues of the Top 100 bounced back after a dip in 2022.

Almost three quarters of companies increased their arms revenues year-on-year. Notably, most of the companies that increased their revenues were in the lower half of the Top 100.

“There was a marked rise in arms revenues in 2023, and this is likely to continue in 2024,” predicted Lorenzo Scarazzato, a Researcher with the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.

“The arms revenues of the Top 100 arms producers still did not fully reflect the scale of demand, and many companies have launched recruitment drives, suggesting they are optimistic about future sales,” he said.

Dr. Simon Adams, President and CEO, the Center for Victims of Torture, told IPS the number of people in the world displaced by persecution, conflict and atrocities has more than tripled in the past decade to over 120 million.

The people who have gained the most from this expansion in human misery, he said, are the war criminals, torturers and human rights violators of the world.

“But they can’t survive without the weapons manufacturers who arm and enable them. And it is the arms manufacturers who have directly profited the most”.

“Wherever we see civilian suffering, bombed buildings, death and destruction in the world, there is some arms trader who sees a fresh business opportunity and increased profit margins.”

This is an industry whose economic livelihood is bloodshed,” declared Dr Adams.

In an article titled “War Profiteering” in the July issue of The Nation, David Vine and Theresa Arriola single out the five biggest US companies thriving off the war industry: Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Boeing and General Dynamics.

And it was US President Dwight Eisenhower, who in 1961, warned Americans about the might of the “military industrial complex” (MIC) in the US.

According to Brown University’s Costs of War project, cited in the article, “the MIC has sowed incomprehensible destruction globally, keeping the United States locked in endless wars that, since 2001, have killed an estimated 4.5 million people, injured many millions more, and displaced at least 38 million.”

Dr M.V. Ramana, Professor and Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, and Graduate Program Director, at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, told IPS the latest statistics published by SIPRI shows how military industries and investors in these producers of the means of killing and maiming people are thriving economically even as their role in perpetuating slaughter of civilian populations and the violation of the human rights among peoples in multiple countries becomes clearer by the day.

“Leading this ignominious list is the United States, which sells roughly half of all the weapons sold; the top five arms merchants are U.S. companies, which together account for around a third of all sales.”

This state of affairs, he argued, is tragic, not only because of the human toll extracted by these weapons in places around the world, ranging from Gaza and Lebanon to Ukraine, but also because this money could be used to meet pressing human needs around the world.

To offer but one example, the United Nations World Food Program, he said, estimates that it would cost $40 billion every year “to feed all of the world’s hungry people and end global hunger by 2030”.

That’s less than 40 percent of the revenues of the top two corporations involved in the arms business. In all, the data meticulously produced year after year by SIPRI is a really sad commentary on the priorities of governments and powerful institutions that control decisions on spending, Dr Ramana declared.

According to SIPRI, the 41 companies in the Top 100 based in the United States recorded arms revenues of $317 billion, half the total arms revenues of the Top 100 and 2.5 per cent more than in 2022. Since 2018, the top five companies in the Top 100 have all been based in the USA.

Of the 41 US companies, 30 increased their arms revenues in 2023. However, Lockheed Martin and RTX, the world’s two largest arms producers, were among those registering a drop.

‘Larger companies like Lockheed Martin and RTX, manufacturing a wide range of arms products, often depend on complex, multi-tiered supply chains, which made them vulnerable to lingering supply chain challenges in 2023,’ said Dr Nan Tian, Director of SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. ‘This was particularly the case in the aeronautics and missile sectors.’

Meanwhile, the combined arms revenues of the 27 Top 100 companies based in Europe (excluding Russia) totalled $133 billion in 2023. This was only 0.2 per cent more than in 2022, the smallest increase in any world region.

However, behind the low growth figure the picture is more nuanced. European arms companies producing complex weapon systems were mostly working on older contracts during 2023 and their revenues for the year consequently do not reflect the influx of orders.

‘Complex weapon systems have longer lead times,’ said Scarazzato. ‘Companies that produce them are thus inherently slower in reacting to changes in demand. That explains why their arms revenues were relatively low in 2023, despite a surge in new orders.’

At the same time, a number of other European producers saw their arms revenues grow substantially, driven by demand linked to the war in Ukraine, particularly for ammunition, artillery and air defence and land systems.

Notably, companies in Germany, Sweden, Ukraine, Poland, Norway and Czechia were able to tap into this demand. For instance, Germany’s Rheinmetall increased production capacity of 155-mm ammunition and its revenues were boosted by deliveries of its Leopard tanks and new orders, including through war-related ‘ring-exchange’ programmes (under which countries supply military goods to Ukraine and receive replacements from allies).

The SIPRI Arms Industry Database, which presents a more detailed data set for the years 2002–23, is available on SIPRI’s website at <https://www.sipri.org/databases/armsindustry>.

Thalif Deen is a former Director, Foreign Military Markets at Defense Marketing Services; Senior Defense Analyst at Forecast International; and military editor Middle East/Africa at Jane’s Information Group. He is author of the 2021 book on the United Nations titled “No Comment – and Don’t Quote me on That” available on Amazon. The link to Amazon via the author’s website follows: https://www.rodericgrigson.com/no-comment-by-thalif-deen/

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');  

Earlier this month, two cables were cut, which Germany and Sweden attributed to “sabotage”.

The two centre-right parties are expected to hammer-out a coalition deal and seek a third partner.

To foster dialogue, new Commissioner will announce European Board Agriculture and Food ‘in the coming days’, he told Euractiv

The German car manufacturer is faced with problems that even layoffs wouldn't fix, experts warn.

Mit seinen Haar-Werken sorgt «Dog Crazy», ein brasilianischer Coiffeur (26), für Aufsehen. Nicht nur wegen der skurrilen Figuren und ausgefallenen Muster. Unter UV-Licht leuchten seine Frisuren sogar.

In this episode, host Giada Santana chats with economics reporter Anna Brunetti about the wind of change sweeping European economic policy and its potential consequences for the Union’s workforce.

Kosovo has warned about such impending attacks in recent months.

Poland will host 22 informal council meetings in Warsaw, the upcoming Council Presidency announced.

« UEMOA : 30 ans d'intégration régionale pour le transport terrestre et les infrastructures routières » est le titre de l'ouvrage de Marion Vern Vinagbon Ayinon, présenté au public ce samedi en présence du Directeur des éditions l'Harmattan Bénin, Stephens Akplogan, du Commissaire en charge du Département de l'Aménagement du Territoire Communautaire et des transports de l'Uemoa, Jonas Gbian, du Directeur des transports terrestre et aérien Jacques Ayadji et de plusieurs experts des infrastructures routières.

« Ce livre est un projet éditorial auquel nous avons cru (...) », a fait savoir le Directeur des éditions l'Harmattan Bénin, Stephens Akplogan.
En présentant l'ouvrage, la journaliste Arlette Bonou a souligné qu'il est primordial de lire cet ouvrage parce qu'il est un ouvrage de référence pour les acteurs du secteur routier.
« Par cet essai, l'auteur a appréhendé les enjeux de long terme lié aux infrastructures de transport en tant que chargé de mission, il est en mesure de proposer des solutions à la fois réaliste et innovante tenant compte des défis lié à la mobilité durable. », souligne-t-elle avant de préciser qu'«
Il est un bien précieux non seulement pour les gouvernements et les institutions comme l'Uemoa mais aussi pour les entreprises de transport, les chercheurs et les organisations internationales impliquées dans le développement des infrastructures ».
Jacques Ayadji, en sa double qualité de postfacier mais aussi de représentant de Monsieur José TONATO, Ministre du cadre de vie et des transports chargé du développement durable, recommande la lecture de l'ouvrage.

« Je voudrais à cette occasion, vous recommander de lire ce livre, pour y découvrir tout le trésor qu'il renferme, pour ne pas dire qui y est caché.
J'ai personnellement fait l'exercice et j'en suis très heureux et très fier. », a-t-il indiqué. Il précise que ce le livre offre une vision complète et on ne peut plus claire des défis et opportunités qui se présentent dans le domaine du transport terrestre au sein de l'espace UEMOA. Il met aussi en lumière les progrès réalisés au cours des trois dernières décennies, sans occulter les défis persistants qui requièrent l'attention et l'action collectives.
C'est pour cette raison que le Directeur des transports terrestre et aérien, Jacques Ayadji, convaincu de la richesse de l'ouvrage, recommande à tout le monde d'en procurer.
« C'est l'occasion pour moi de vous inviter, de nous inviter à nous procurer ce livre pour y parcourir ses pages. C'est une opportunité pour comprendre l'importance stratégique du transport terrestre pour l'intégration régionale, mais aussi, les efforts déployés au fil des années pour promouvoir son développement. », soutient-il avant de féliciter l'auteur pour le travail exceptionnel qui a contribué à la réalisation de ce livre.
En prenant la parole, le Représentant Résident de la Commission de l'Uemoa, Yaovi Batchassi, a montré que, en 30 d'existence de l'Uemoa, il n'y a pas assez de livres qui retrace les actions de l'institution sous-régionale. « (...) Sans écrit et sans communication, c'est comme si vous ne faisiez rien. Par les livres on communique. Il y a d'autres moyens de communication. Mais l'important est de laisser des tarces à travers des documents comme celui de Monsieur Ayinon. », a expliqué Monsieur Batchassi.

Pourquoi ce livre ?

Pour soutenir les différentes interventions au sujet de son ouvrage et montrer combien de fois ce livre est un outil d'une grande importance dans le secteur routier, Monsieur Marion Vern Vinagbon Ayinon a essayer de clarifier.
« Écrit c'est partagé. Mais le présent ouvrage va au-delà du partage car son contenu, va durer dans le temps et traverser des décennies. Il est exploitable par toutes les instances pertinentes.. ».
Le livre de Monsieur Ayinon n'est pas destiné uniquement aux spécialistes du secteur routier. Il peut servir, aussi bien les étudiants que les chercheurs.
« Pour les universitaires l'ouvrage peut inspirer beaucoup de thème de mémoire et ou de thèse de doctorat. », a-t-il précisé.
Pour les professionnels ce livre est à usage multiples. D'une part il permet aux consultants d'avoir une prise en main rapide de la situation régionale du secteur de transport et des infrastructures et d'autre part, il sert de miroir aux acteurs des différents états pour une reconnaissance sous différents angles des réalités du secteur qu'ils vivent au quotidien. Pour les décideurs à tous les niveaux, le présent livre est à conseiller en vue de la prise de décision à long rayon d'impact. C'est aussi un livre pour s'auto évaluer pour approfondir certains aspects structurants.
Monsieur Ayinon n'a pas manqué de remercier tous ceux qui l'ont soutenu au cours de la rédaction de son ouvrage.

«

»

The Peace Palace housing the International Court of Justice. The court today will begin hearings into the responsibilities of UN member states with regard to climate change. Credit: ICJ

By Cecilia Russell
JOHANNESBURG, Dec 2 2024 (IPS)

The intersection of law, diplomacy, and science will come under the spotlight at the International Court of Justice hearings starting today (Monday, December 2, 2024) in The Hague as the court starts its deliberations into the obligations under international law of UN member states to protect people and ecosystems from climate change.

The case was started by the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change (PISFCC) with the support of Ishmael Kalsakau, the then prime minister of the Pacific island of Vanuatu. Now Vanautu will be the first of 98 countries that will make presentations during the fortnight of hearings, after which the court will give an advisory opinion.

Grace Malie, Tuvalu youth and climate activist speaking at COP29 in Baku, says the advisory opinion will set a “baseline that cannot be ignored,” especially for the youth in climate change-affected countries.

Tuvalu, a small low-lying atoll nation, faces an uncertain future due to sea level rise and it is estimated that by 2050 half the land area of the capital will be flooded by tidal waters. While it has ambitious adaptation plans, it also has developed a Te Ataeao Nei project (Future Now) that outlines how it will manage statehood should it face the worst-case scenario and sink due to rising sea levels.

“What this means for Pacific youth is that climate talks can no longer dismiss our existential concerns as negotiable.” It will foster an environment that secures the islands as “thriving” and “resilient,” rather than as “distant” memories.

The ruling, she believes, will secure the Pacific’s youths’ rights, including to remain rooted in culture, land, and heritage as protected by international law.

The ICJ’s hearings and advisory opinion are unique in that they do not focus solely on a single aspect of international law. Instead, they include the UN Charter, the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the duty of due diligence, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the principle of prevention of significant harm to the environment, and the duty to protect and preserve marine environments.

The court will give its opinion on the obligations of states under international law to ensure the protection of the climate system for present and future generations.

It will also consider the legal consequences of causing significant harm to the climate system and the environment and its impact on other states, including “small island developing states (SIDS), which are affected by climate change, and peoples and individuals, both present and future generations, affected by the adverse effects of climate change.”

Attorney General Graham Leung of Fiji says the court isn’t a substitute for negotiations, which are complex and painstakingly slow.

“The ICJ opinion will be precedent-setting. That is to say it will cover and discuss and analyze the legal issues and the scientific issues, and it will come to a very, very important or authoritative decision that will carry great moral weight.

While the court doesn’t have enforcement rights and while it won’t be legally binding, it will work through moral persuasion.

“It’s going to be a very brave country that will stand up against an advisory opinion on the International Court of Justice, because if you are in that minority that violates the opinion of the court, you can be regarded as a pariah or as an outlaw in the international community.”

The hearings come as the outcome of the COP29 negotiations was met with criticism, especially with regard to the financing of the impacts of climate change.

Ahead of the hearings, WWF Global Climate and Energy Lead and COP20 President Manuel Pulgar-Vidal said, “With most countries falling far short of their obligations to reduce emissions and protect and restore nature, this advisory opinion has the potential to send a powerful legal signal that states cannot ignore their legal duties to act.”

Other criticisms of the present status quo include a belief that the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are inadequate, and climate finance, intended as a polluter pays mechanism, has failed to reach those most affected, with, for example, the Pacific countries only receiving 0.2 percent of the USD 100 billion a year climate finance pledge.

Cristelle Pratt, Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States (OACPS), , agrees that the court’s decision will make it easier to negotiate on climate finance and loss and damage provisions by making that clearer.

It’s expected the ICJ to publish its final advisory opinion in 2025.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');  

Excerpt:

Youth and climate activists believe that the International Court of Justice's advisory opinion will send a powerful legal signal that UN member states cannot ignore their legal duties to act and protect the environment against climate change.

Americas Elbit Systems of America has scored a major win with the US Air Force, securing an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract with a ceiling of $89 million for replacing outdated Head-Up Displays (HUDs) in the service’s F-16 Block 40/42 fleet. The contract, announced on November 21, calls for the installation of Elbit’s Wide-Angle Conventional Head-Up Display (WACHUD) in place of the existing Diffractive Optic HUDs currently in use. The first delivery order, worth over $57.5 million, was placed in September 2024, with work scheduled to be carried out at Elbit America’s Talladega, Alabama facility and systems expected to be delivered by September 2027. CAE and KF Aerospace’s Ontario-based joint venture SkyAlyne has contracted Grob and Pilatus to deliver 32 training aircraft for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Under the project, the service will receive 23 G 120TP systems from Grob and 19 PC-21s from Pilatus, with deliveries to start in 2025 and 2026, respectively. The incoming fleet will be stationed at the Moose Jaw RCAF Base in Saskatchewan, where they will be operated by SkyAlyne as part of Canada’s 25-year Future Aircrew Training (FAcT) program to bolster its tactical aerial capabilities in response to emerging threats. Middle East & Africa According […]

Dassault Rafale (click for cutaway view) Will Dassault’s fighter become a fashionably late fighter platform that builds on its parent company’s past successes – or just “the late Rafale”? It all began as a 1985 break-away from the multinational consortium that went on to create EADS’ Eurofighter. The French needed a lighter aircraft that was suitable for carrier use, and were reportedly unwilling to cede design authority over the project. As is so often true of French defense procurement policy, the choice came down to paying additional costs for full independence and exact needs, or losing key industrial capabilities by partnering or buying abroad. France has generally opted for expensive but independent defense choices, and the Rafale was no exception. Those costs, and associated delays triggered by the end of the Cold War and reduced funding, proved to be very costly indeed. Unlike previous French fighters, which relied on exports to lower their costs and keep production lines humming, the Rafale has yet to secure a single export contract – in part because initial versions were hampered by impaired capabilities in key roles. The Rafale may, at last, be ready to be what its vendors say: a true omnirole aircraft, […]

Trotz Versprechens, sich nicht einzumischen, begnadigt Joe Biden seinen Sohn Hunter. Der scheidende Präsident begründet den Schritt mit «selektiver und unfairer Verfolgung» durch die Justiz. Worte, wie sie bislang von seinem Amtsvorgänger und -nachfolger zu hören waren.

Rüstungskonzerne verzeichnen Rekordumsätze: Die 100 grössten Waffenhersteller steigerten ihre Verkäufe 2023 um 4,2% auf 632 Milliarden Dollar. Kriege in der Ukraine und Gaza treiben die Nachfrage nach schweren Waffen an.

Les dernières cotations officielles de la Banque d’Algérie, allant du 29 novembre au 3 décembre, révèlent une certaine stabilité des taux de change des principales […]

L’article Volatilité des devises sur le marché informel : quels sont les taux de change de ce 2 décembre ? est apparu en premier sur .

Überraschende Wende: Norwegen bremst Tiefseebergbau-Pläne und setzt Erkundungslizenzen aus. Umweltschutz siegt vorerst über Rohstoffinteressen.