Month: November 2022

Biden touted the passage of a massive, $369 billion spending package to green the United States economy as an example for the entire world.

While the US spending on its own renewable energy push has been praised by activists, Washington has come under criticism for falling short on its pledges to financially help developing countries with their own transitions and to cope with intensifying climate-induced impacts.

“The climate crisis is about human security, economic security, environmental security, national security and the very life of the planet,” Biden told an audience at the COP27 in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Biden said the United States is “on track” to achieve its pledge of cutting emissions 50-52 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

“To permanently bend the emissions curve, every nation needs to step up. At this gathering, we must renew and raise our climate ambitions,” he said.

“The United States has acted, everyone has to act. It’s a duty and responsibility of global leadership.” His speech, which lasted about 22 minutes, was briefly interrupted by unidentified people in the crowd making howling noises and attempting to unfurl a banner protesting fossil fuels.

Biden’s visit to the COP27, lasting only a few hours, came three days after US midterm elections that have raised questions about what the result could mean for US climate policy.

Before his speech, Biden met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the sidelines of COP27, where he raised human rights issues with his host amid concerns over the health of jailed dissident Alaa Abdel Fattah, who is on a hunger strike.

“I graduated from high school only three years ago, so I know what our generation needs,” says Ms Khan, who is the youngest among those elected this year to state legislatures in US mid-term elections.

Her parents migrated to New Jersey from Karachi. “Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible. Together, we made history,” said Salman Bhojani, who is a Pakistani-American, like Alisha and Suleman Lalani.

Mr Bhojani and Mr Lalani made history as the first Muslims and South Asians elected to the Texas legislature. Both are Democrats.

Now, “we build bridges here, not walls,” said Mr Lalani in an apparent reference to the Trump administration’s decision to build a wall along the Texas-Mexico border to prevent immigration.

Their victory is also significant because in the Texas legislature, Muslims haven’t always been met with open arms. In 2007, Dan Patrick, then a state senator, boycotted the Texas senate’s first-ever prayer by a Muslim cleric.

Patrick now presides over the senate as lieutenant governor.

In Tuesday’s mid-terms, 82 Muslims were elected to federal, state, local and judicial offices across the United States. There are a number of Pakistanis among them.  Axios, a news site, reported that a record number of Asian-Americans were elected this year, including several Indians and Pakistanis.

The site did not disclose the exact number, but published several names.  Among them are Shri Thanedar, the first Indian-American elected to the US House of Representatives from Michigan, and Aruna Miller, the first immigrant and first Asian-American elected as Maryland’s lieutenant governor.

Earlier this week, Jetpac Resource Center and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a final count of 82 local, state legislative, statewide, judicial, and federal American Muslim electoral victories in the mid-term polls.  It is the highest since Jetpac and CAIR started tracking the electoral progress of American Muslims — 71, the previous high-water mark, was set in 2020.

Of the 29 state-level Muslim incumbents, many were the first Muslims elected to their state’s legislature and kept their seats. The results pushed the total number of Muslim state lawmakers nationwide to 43.

Those re-elected include Madinah Wilson-Anton, a Delaware state representative, Iman Jodeh, a Colorado state representative, and Pakistani- American Saud Anwar, a Colorado state senator.

In Georgia, incumbent state senator Sheikh Rahman will no longer be the only Muslim in the legislature as two Muslim women won by flipping Republican-held seats.

Nabilah Islam will become a state senator and Ruwa Romman will represent the state in the House of Representatives.

In a constituency in Indiana, Muslim Democrat Andre Carson made history by getting elected to Congress for a record seventh time.

He received 116,870 votes against his Republican rival Angela Grabovsky’s 53,487 votes.

In Michigan, Democrat Rashida Tlaib was elected for the third time.

She received 196,601, defeating Republican Steven Elliot who received 72,889 votes.

Another Muslim Democrat, Ilhan Omar, was re-elected for the third time from Minnesota. She received 214,217 votes against her Republican rival Cicely Davis’s 70,698 votes.

Keith Ellison, the first Muslim Congressman, was re-elected this year as Minnesota’s attorney general, receiving 1,254,369 votes against his Republican opponent Jim Schultz’s 1,233,571.

Jetpac and CAIR tracked the election results of a record-breaking 146 American Muslim candidates running for local, state, and federal office, including 51 state legislative candidates running in 23 states.

In a statement, CAIR’s National Executive Director Nihad Awad said: “We are witnessing the next step in the American Muslim community’s political transformation from marginalised voices that were sidelined, or worse, to decision makers.”

Prince Harry has just been accused of ‘constantly’ trying to chase commercial deals’ like Mike Tindall.

Royal biographer and author Katie Nicholl made these revelations in her interview for True Royalty TV’s The Royal Beat.

She began by saying, “He’s [Mike] making a lot of money out of it. I do think this all leads to the much bigger question about royals and commercialisation.”

“We dedicate so much time to discussing Harry and his commercial deals. How is this any different? It’s not.”

“But I think the point is, this really crystalises Charles’ argument and vision for a slimmed-down monarchy.”

During the course of her interview, Katie also referenced the seeming lack of ‘permission needed’ and claimed, “Knowing Princess Anne…The idea that she’ll be sitting, cheering Mike on is absolutely unthinkable.”

“I think she’ll be thinking, ‘What on earth is he doing?’ And that’s probably the thoughts of most of the senior royals.”

“One wonders if the Queen was still alive, and knowing how close Zara was to her grandmother, whether she might have actually had a conversation [about her husband appearing] saying, ‘Granny, just so you know…’ I think that’s much more likely than not.”

“But the idea that they’d have checked with Wills and Kate? No!” she added before concluding.

Hypersonic missiles, like traditional ballistic missiles which can deliver nuclear weapons, can fly more than five times the speed of sound.

“This hypersonic ballistic missile was developed to counter air defence shields,” General Amirali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps aerospace unit said, quoted by Iran’s Fars news agency.

“It will be able to breach all the systems of anti-missile defence,” said the general, adding that he believed it would take decades before a system capable of intercepting it is developed.

“This missile, which targets enemy anti-missile systems, represents a great generational leap in the field of missiles.”

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi expressed concerns about the announcement.

“We see that all these announcements increase the attention, increase the concerns, increase the public attention to the Iranian nuclear programme,” Grossi told AFP on the sidelines of the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

But he added that he does not see this as “having any influence” on negotiations over the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme.

The announcement comes after Iran admitted on Saturday that it had sent drones to Russia, but said it had done so before the Ukraine war.

The Washington Post reported on October 16 that Iran was preparing to ship missiles to Russia, but Tehran rejected the report as “completely false”.

Stalled nuclear talks

It also comes at a time of protests that have rocked Iran since the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest for allegedly flouting the Islamic republic’s dress code for women.

Unlike ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles fly on a trajectory low in the atmosphere, potentially reaching targets more quickly.

North Korea’s test of a hypersonic missile last year sparked concerns about the race to acquire the technology, which is currently led by Russia, followed by China and the United States.

Both Iran and Russia are targeted by stringent sanctions — Iran after the US unilaterally pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal, and Russia since it invaded Ukraine in February.

The two countries have responded to the sanctions by boosting cooperation in key areas to help prop up their economies.

Iran on Wednesday hosted Russia’s security chief Nikolai Patrushev for talks on subjects that the Russian side said included “the fight against terrorism and extremism” as well as measures to counter Western interference.

A hypersonic missile is manoeuvrable, making it harder to track and defend against.

While countries like the United States have developed systems designed to defend against cruise and ballistic missiles, the ability to track and take down a hypersonic missile remains a question.

Thursday’s announcement comes against a backdrop of stalled talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.

The deal reached with six major powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US — gave Iran relief from sanctions in return for guarantees it could not develop an atomic weapon.

Iran has always denied wanting a nuclear arsenal.

The deal collapsed after the US’s unilateral withdrawal in 2018 under then president Donald Trump.

Warning to Saudi Arabia

Iran’s claim to have developed a hypersonic missile also follows its announcement on November 5 of the successful test flight of a rocket capable of propelling satellites into space.

The United States has repeatedly voiced concern that such launches could boost Iran’s ballistic missile technology, extending to the potential delivery of nuclear warheads.

In March, the US government imposed sanctions on Iran’s missile-related activities.

Iran on Wednesday warned its neighbours including Saudi Arabia that it would retaliate against moves to destabilise it amid the protests sparked by Amini’s death.

“I would like to say to Saudi Arabia that our destiny and that of other countries in the region are linked to each other,” Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib said.

“Iran has so far adopted strategic patience but it cannot guarantee that it will maintain this strategic patience if hostilities against it continue.

“If the Islamic republic decides to punish these countries, their glass palaces will collapse and they will no longer enjoy stability,” said Khatib.

The minister has also warned Britain it would “pay” for harbouring hostile Persian-language media reporting on the Amini protests.

The administration of US President Joe Biden sees the expansion of nuclear energy as a critical in tackling emissions linked to climate change in the world’s second-biggest greenhouse gas emitter, and views recycling as a smart way to both boost domestic nuclear fuel supplies and reduce waste.

The US Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, aims to develop a dozen projects to recycle spent nuclear fuel. Last month it granted $38 million for reprocessing to companies including GE Research, the development part of General Electric Company.

When asked about the US exploration of reprocessing, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi downplayed the chances it would become a reality anytime soon.

“I don’t see many really looking seriously into reprocessing,” Grossi said in an interview late on Wednesday at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

“Reprocessing is a very difficult technology that requires a lot of infrastructure.” Grossi added that “of course it has a proliferation angle.” Reprocessing involves converting plutonium and uranium in waste into new nuclear fuel. Proliferation experts warn that the practice could provide new targets for militants looking to make a crude nuclear weapon. While France practices reprocessing, supply chains in the United States could be longer and more vulnerable, experts say.

Former US President Jimmy Carter had halted reprocessing of nuclear waste in 1977, citing proliferation concerns. Former President Ronald Reagan lifted the moratorium in 1981, but high costs have prevented plants from opening.

A US Department of Energy spokesperson said the department “examines all sides of the nuclear fuel cycle at the R&D stage to help enhance fuel performance, reduce waste generation, and limit proliferation risks, and beyond research always works with the IAEA to move nuclear forward.” Grossi said if the United States pursues reprocessing, the IAEA will monitor it to ensure it is safe.

“Nobody will be doing reprocessing without the IAEA being involved,” he said, noting that any nuclear waste recycling North Korea is undertaking is an exception.

The United States has spent billions of dollars over decades on a project at Yucca Mountain in Nevada to store nuclear waste. But former President Barack Obama shut Yucca after local opposition. The waste is now stored at reactors across the country in pools and in casks of steel and concrete.

Nuclear power has seen increasing interest from countries and companies looking to cut emissions and boost energy supplies, Grossi said. But he added he does not believe an expansion of the industry would increase threats of proliferation or mishaps.

“Maybe I would have to fight for a bigger budget, I don’t know, and countries are very tight on that,” Grossi said. “But it wouldn’t be a technical problem for us.”