Síntesis informativa - 8 de agosto 2019
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Climate Change Threatens the World’s Food Supply, United Nations Warns
The world’s land and water resources are being exploited at “unprecedented rates,” a new United Nations report warns, which combined with climate change is putting dire pressure on the ability of humanity to feed itself.
The report, prepared by more than 100 experts from 52 countries and released in summary form in Geneva on Thursday, found that the window to address the threat is closing rapidly. A half-billion people already live in places turning into desert, and soil is being lost between 10 and 100 times faster than it is forming, according to the report.
Climate change will make those threats even worse, as floods, drought, storms and other types of extreme weather threaten to disrupt, and over time shrink, the global food supply. Already, more than 10 percent of the world’s population remains undernourished, and some authors of the report warned in interviews that food shortages could lead to an increase in cross-border migration.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/climate/climate-change-food-supply.html
Pakistan Hits Back at India Over Kashmir Move, Targeting Bilateral Trade
NEW DELHI — Pakistan announced on Wednesday that it would halt trade with India and expel the country’s top diplomat in Islamabad in retaliation for India’s decision to unilaterally eliminate the autonomy of Kashmir.
The Pakistani government, which also claims the restive region of Kashmir, said it would recall its own chief diplomat based in New Delhi.
A statement from a national security committee headed by the Pakistani prime minister, Imran Khan, said the changes would be put in place because of “illegal actions” by the Indian government regarding Kashmir, which has a Muslim majority.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/07/world/asia/pakistan-kashmir-india.html
In Migrant Crisis, Border Towns Become Final Destination
CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — There is a new hint of life in the dilapidated downtown of Ciudad Juárez, which residents abandoned as a recession and drug gang murders ravaged the city a decade ago.
Thousands of Cubans, waiting in limbo for a decision on their requests for asylum in the United States, have made the crumbling few blocks their home, finding work and renting cheap hotel rooms.
Border communities like Ciudad Juárez, filled with migrants from Cuba, Central America and elsewhere, are adapting to a new reality: They may be the final destination, and no longer just a stop on the way north to the United States.
President Trump’s strict anti-immigration policies mean that a growing number of migrants are stranded in such cities. The divisive debate over immigration in the United States has taken on more resonance in Ciudad Juárez, after a gunman fueled by racism killed 22 people this weekend at a Walmart just across the border in El Paso, Tex.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/world/americas/ciudad-juarez-mexico-migrants.html
China Signals It Will Continue to Weaken Its Currency as Trade War Rages
China’s central bank set the midpoint of the renminbi’s daily trading range above 7 to the American dollar for the first time in more than a decade. Thursday’s move in effect tells financial markets that Beijing expects the renminbi to continue to weaken versus the dollar, perhaps well past the 7-to-the-dollar level.
That is likely to provoke more ire from the Trump administration. A weaker currency helps Chinese factories offset the higher costs of Mr. Trump’s tariffs when selling their goods to the United States.
The move by the People’s Bank of China in itself will not change the economics of the Chinese-American trade relationship. China on Thursday set the currency’s midpoint at 7.0039 to the dollar, compared with the 6.9996 point it set on Wednesday. China tightly controls trading of its currency, with that midpoint determining the center of a narrow range in which the renminbi can strengthen or weaken during the day.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/07/business/china-currency-yuan-renminbi.html
Top State Dept. Official Steps Down From Post Overseeing Western Hemisphere
WASHINGTON — The senior State Department official who oversees diplomacy from South America to Canada is resigning as President Trump continues to limit asylum and block Central American migrants from entering the United States.
The official, Kimberly Breier, has been assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs for less than a year. An expert in Latin American issues, she also has helped lead the Trump administration’s crackdown on Cuba, including restrictions that were announced in April to allow exiles to sue for property seized during Fidel Castro’s rule.
Ms. Breier’s resignation was first reported by The Washington Post, which said she was a target of criticism from Stephen Miller, a White House policy adviser, for not being more supportive of an agreement that requires Central American migrants to seek asylum in Guatemala before coming to the United States.
The office that Ms. Breier headed has the most responsibility for relations with the Northern Triangle countries of Central America — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — that would be most affected by the so-called safe-third country agreement.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/07/us/politics/kimberly-breier-state-department.html
AL JAZEERA
Venezuela's Maduro halts talks with opposition after US sanctions
Negotiations scheduled in Barbados on Thursday and Friday shelved as Caracas blames US president for latest impasse.
Maduro "has decided to not send the Venezuelan delegation" for talks on Thursday and Friday with representatives of opposition leader Juan Guaido "due to the grave and brutal aggression" being "continuously ... carried out by the Trump administration against Venezuela," a government statement said late on Wednesday.
"Venezuelans have noted how the leader of the opposition delegation, Juan Guaido, has celebrated and promoted these actions that are harmful to national sovereignty," the information ministry said in a statement.
'Blatant aggression': Syria rejects US-Turkey safe zones deal
Turkey and the US reached a deal for northern Syria on Wednesday to establish joint operations centre.
"Syria expresses categorical rejection of the agreement announced by the US and Turkish occupations on establishing the so-called [safe zone] which constitutes a blatant aggression against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic and a flagrant violation of the principles of the international law and the UN Charter," a Syrian source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told SANA press agency on Thursday.
Land degradation accelerates global climate change
Desertification or land degradation already affects more than 500 million people in the world's poorest countries.
Ylenia Gostoli.- Climate Change and Land, published on Thursday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - the UN agency responsible for assessing climate change science - looks at the role land use can play in contributing to or mitigating global warming.
While land use, including forestry and agriculture, accounts for at least 23 percent of human greenhouse gas emissions, land is also able to absorb nearly a third of emissions from fossil fuels and industry.
More than 500 million people currently live in areas that already experience desertification or degradation, mostly in the world's poorest countries, which are also the most exposed to food insecurity.
AL MAYADEEN
EE.UU. vs Venezuela: el embargo como parte de una guerra sin retorno
La última medida fue la firma de la orden ejecutiva para congelar los activos venezolanos en EEUU. "Todos los bienes e intereses del Gobierno de Venezuela que se encuentran en EEUU están bloqueados y no pueden transferirse, pagarse, exportarse, retirarse ni negociarse de otra manera", reza el texto.
"Una decisión de derrocar un Gobierno no puede tener altos, se debe golpear permanentemente hasta el momento en que se creen las condiciones para derrocarlo", explica Escalona. La línea de tiempo así lo demuestra: los ataques han ido en escalada y este 2019 ha sido de redoble de los asaltos.
Juan Guaidó afirmó el martes 6 de agosto que "continúa la opción de Noruega". En términos de negociación, se puede ver la nueva medida como una acción para mejorar su correlación de fuerzas en la negociación. Y, no hay duda, el diálogo, como afirma Escalona, es del Gobierno venezolano directamente con EEUU.
En cuanto a la opción de la intervención militar directa y abierta, Escalona pone en duda que pueda suceder de esa manera: "es políticamente inconveniente en Venezuela, en EEUU hay un sector de la dirección política que no quiere una guerra imperial, que sabe lo que puede costar eso". El acuerdo está en los dos puntos centrales: la desestabilización y la guerra paramilitar. Todo es guerra, el asunto es, en parte, la presentación de la misma.
Ministro iraní: Formar una coalición marítima de EE.UU. en el Golfo aumentará la inseguridad
De acuerdo con Hatami, todos los países de la región tienen la responsabilidad de salvaguardar la seguridad marítima en el Golfo Pérsico, y para poder cumplir con su deber, afirmó, tienen que entablar diálogos constructivos.
Salami resaltó que algunos aliados de Estados Unidos en la región intentaron alentar a Washington a empezar una guerra contra Irán, pero estos se dieron cuenta de que un conflicto con Irán amenazaría su sistema político. Por ello, añadió, EE.UU. e Israel saben que una confrontación bélica con Teherán no les beneficiará.
