Tag: un
Moment Brit envoy storms out of UN meeting as Putin’s ‘kid catcher’ wanted for abduction of Ukrainian children speaks
THIS is the moment diplomats from the UK and other countries stormed out of a UN meeting as a Russian mum branded “Putin’s child catcher” spoke.
Ex-music teacher Maria Lvova-Belova, 38, is wanted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court – accused of abducting children from Ukraine and sending them to Russia.
Several ambassadors left the room as Marie Lvova-Belova, top right of screen, started speaking[/caption]
Vladimir Putin and his ‘child catcher’ Lvova-Belova[/caption]
She demanded an informal UN meeting to focus on “evacuating children from conflict zones”.
But Britain and the US blocked the informal conference from being webcast by the UN.
Diplomats from the countries and from Malta and Albania promptly left the room as Lvova-Belova started speaking to UN Security Council members by video.
US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the US joined Britain in blocking the webcast so Lvova-Belova did not have “an international podium to spread disinformation and to try to defend her horrible actions that are taking place in Ukraine”.
After returning to the room after Lvova-Belova had spoken, British diplomat Asima Ghazi-Bouillon told the meeting: “Russia claims it is protecting these children.
“Instead this is a calculated policy that seeks to erase Ukrainian identity and statehood.”
During her statement, Lvova-Belova showed footage of Ukrainian children in Russia, then said: “I want to stress that unlike the Ukrainian side, we don’t use children for propaganda.”
The ICC last month issued arrest warrants for Lvova-Belova and Vladimir Putin over their alleged involvement in the abductions of children from Ukraine.
A panel of judges agreed that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Vlad and his children’s rights commissioner bore responsibility for the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children.
An investigation by The Sun into Ukraine’s missing children back in September revealed that thousands of children have been deported during Putin’s invasion.
Ukraine’s human rights chief, Dmytro Lubinets, has said 16,226 children were deported and the country has managed to bring back just 308 of them.
Footage meanwhile emerged of Lvova-Belova bragging as she talked about taking a boy from Ukraine during a meeting with Putin.
Since being appointed Putin’s children’s commissioner in 2021, she has portrayed the forced deportation of Ukrainian children as a Russian rescue mission.
She has adopted 18 children and also five biological kids with her husband, a Russian Orthodox priest.
Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said last month that the informal meeting had been planned long before the ICC announcement.
He said it was not intended to be a rebuttal of the charges against Putin and Lvova-Belova.
Diplomats have said it is rare for a UN webcast to be blocked.
Lvova-Belova had demanded an informal UN meeting to focus on ‘evacuating children from conflict zones’[/caption]
The ICC last month issued arrest warrants for Lvova-Belova and Putin[/caption]
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Bad Bunny’s ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’ Becomes First Spanish-Language Album to Score Album of the Year Nomination
Bad Bunny continues to break barriers.
Case in point, his latest GRAMMY nomination has landed him in the history books.
More details below…
The nominations for the 65th GRAMMY Awards has been announced and in the coveted category of Album of the Year, Bad Bunny scored his first nomination with ‘Un Verano Sin Ti.’
With this nomination,
The post Bad Bunny’s ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’ Becomes First Spanish-Language Album to Score Album of the Year Nomination appeared first on ..::That Grape Juice.net::.. – Thirsty?.
New UN system will track methane emissions from space
The United Nations will launch a new high-tech space system to track the largest methane polluters, announced at global climate conference COP27 on Nov. 11. The UN-monitored platform, called the Methane Alert and Response System (MARS), will provide “neutral and reliable” reporting statistics for the climate change causing gas. It’s set to launch in 2023.
Using satellite data, the system will monitor major emission events and publish figures on methane leaks. Governments, companies, and operators emitting the most methane will then be contacted by the international body to reduce their emissions, after which the data will be made available to the public. It’s the “first publicly available global system capable of transparently connecting methane detection to notification processes,” the United Nations explained.
While it’s a great step towards enhanced climate monitoring, there are no enforcement mechanisms to actually make emitters cease polluting beyond reporting. Actors will be encouraged to participate in UN mitigation processes. The system also received initial funding from the European Commission, the U.S. government, Global Methane Hub, and, notably, the Bezos Earth Fund.
Methane is the second biggest contributor to human-caused global warming, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), and one of the most concerning greenhouse gasses, trapping heat on the planet’s surface 28 times more than carbon dioxide does. It’s also steadily increasing in quantity each year, with 2021 setting the record amount of increase in parts per billion since 1983.
Even with such large quantities, discovering the cause of methane pollution isn’t as simple as it may seem. As explained by Mashable science reporter Mark Kaufman, “Methane can come from some disparate, indirect, awfully hard-to-monitor sources… Some elusive methane sources include ‘fugitive gases’ (like leaking methane from oil drilling sites) and methane from remote biological sources (like bacteria decomposing plants in wetlands). Atmospheric scientists can actually identify when methane comes from biological sources, as opposed to fossil fuels. But, scientists can’t easily distinguish between the types of biological sources.”
Scientists used a plethora of techniques to monitor the amount of methane entering the atmosphere. “To track and estimate these emissions, scientists collect emission data from world nations, observe emissions from space, take readings from aircraft, towers, and cars, and more,” Kaufman writes.
The United Nations MARS initiative combines these systems into a single tracking platform, using data from NASA and the European, German, and Italian space agencies. In the future, the system will also include data from private satellite operators, the Associated Press reported.
With the consolidation of several systems to detect methane and the United Nations backing, the MARS program is an optimistic monitoring effort in the upward battle against climate pollution.