Days before Rudolph and his team set off with Santa’s sleigh on their annual round-the-world dash, a Norwegian reindeer herder has been ordered to put down dozens of their real-life relatives in a controversial cull. The supreme court in Oslo rejected an appeal by Jovsset Ante Sara, a small reindeer herder from the indigenous Sami community in the Norwegian Arctic, ruling he must comply with an earlier order to cull 41 of his 116-strong herd. Sara, who had twice successfully challenged the order, argued he would be unable to sustain himself and his family with such a small number of reindeer and that the government’s herd reduction policy was an infringement of indigenous rights.

The ministry of agriculture and food has vigorously defended its policy, saying it is necessary to prevent Norway’s estimated 220,000 reindeer overgrazing the fragile tundra landscape of the country’s high north. The court said the order did not violate Sara’s rights, ruling in a majority decision that the reduction policy was “in the interests of the whole reindeer husbandry industry” and regulation was “reasonable and objectively justifiable”.(theguardian)…[+]

Boris Johnson and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov sparred over the issue of alleged Russian meddling in the Brexit referendum during the first visit by a British foreign secretary to Moscow for five years. Johnson was in Moscow on Friday to engage with the Russians on global issues such as Syria and North Korea but also to warn them over election interference. The public statements suggested there had been little progress on either front. During a joint press conference, Lavrov made the latest in a series of blanket Russian denials over interference in western votes, and said Johnson himself had said there was “no evidence of Russian interference in the Brexit referendum”.

Johnson corrected the Russian minister, saying: “‘Not successfully’ is what I said.”“He’s scared that if he doesn’t disagree with me, his reputation will be ruined at home,” Lavrov said. “Sergei, it’s your reputation I’m worried about,” Johnson retorted.

The exchange, only half-joking, was symptomatic of the deep discord in the relationship. In public comments before the talks, Lavrov chided Johnson for his public criticism of Russia and said the miserable state of bilateral relations was London’s fault.(theguardian)…[+]

BRIDGETOWN – There is a strong correlation between gender equality and disaster resilience, and it is one that the Region is taking into account on the path to ending poverty. To improve awareness of the importance of this relationship and measure its impact on vulnerable groups in the Region, the Caribbean Development Bank is designing a toolkit, in collaboration with its borrowing member countries (BMCs). The Enhanced Country Poverty Assessment (CPA) toolkit, financed by the Community Disaster Risk Reduction Fund, of which the Government of Canada and the European Union (EU) are donors, is scheduled to be launched in the first quarter of 2018. It will have the capacity to measure how communities, and vulnerable groups, including women, children, and people with disabilities are affected by natural hazards and climate change impacts and assist in making recommendations to build resilience.

A 2010 United Nations report indicates that disasters lower women’s life expectancy more than men’s; and women and children, especially girls, are 14 times more likely to die. Women and girls are also more likely to be victims of domestic and sexual violence in post-disaster situations. These and other statistics demonstrating the multi-dimensional and gendered nature of poverty have been informing discussions among regional statisticians, social development practitioners and representatives from international development organisations who convened in Barbados from December 6 to 8 to participate in shaping the final stages of the toolkit prior to its implementation.(CDB)…[+]

Climate change will drive a huge increase in the number of migrants seeking asylum in Europe if current trends continue, according to a new study. The number of migrants attempting to settle in Europe each year will triple by the end of the century based on current climate trends alone, independent of other political and economic factors, according to the research. Even if efforts to curb global warming are successful, the number of applications for asylum could rise by a quarter, the authors predict.

Wolfram Schlenker, professor at the school of international and public affairs at Columbia University in New York, and lead author of the study, said: “Europe will see increasing numbers of desperate people fleeing their home countries.” Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, at the London School of Economics and Political Science, who was not involved with the report, told the Guardian the results should be taken seriously by policymakers, though current forecasting models frequently fail to take such factors into account.(theguardian)…[+]

An interpreter for Ukraine’s prime minister who was photographed with Theresa May inside Downing Street has been arrested on suspicion of working as a Russian spy.

Ukraine’s SBU security service arrested Stanislav Yezhov on Wednesday evening in the capital, Kiev. Video showed two officers leading him away. Yezhov had worked “for the enemy state [Russia] for a long time,” the prime minister, Volodymyr Groysman, declared on his Facebook page. The arrest is embarrassing for the Ukrainian authorities. Yezhov was based inside the cabinet of ministers and had regular high-level access to sensitive information. He travelled on high-profile trips to the west, including to London and Washington. The alleged Russian spy visited Downing Street in July when Groysman held talks with the prime minister. In June 2016 he visited the White House and interpreted for Groysman during a meeting with the then US vice-president, Joe Biden.  The SBU said in a statement that Russian intelligence had recruited Yezhov during a “long-term foreign mission”. It supplied him with “special equipment” which was used to collect information about the “activities of [Ukrainian] government structures”.(theguardian)…[+]

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Board of Directors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has approved over USD5 million in funding to support the Anguilla Electricity Company Limited (ANGLEC) with the complete restoration of its transmission and distribution system, which was damaged during the passage of Hurricane Irma in September.

The severe weather event destroyed poles, transmission lines and transformers, causing notable disruption to Anguilla’s electricity supply. The outage also interrupted the island’s water supply and resulted in the cancellation of numerous hotel bookings.

The Director also noted the need to address Anguilla’s vulnerability to climate change, and build the country’s resilience to its impacts.

“This project will also include a climate vulnerability and risk assessment that will provide recommendations to improve the climate resilience of Anguilla’s electricity network. The Bank will also support the preparation of a business continuity plan to help ANGLEC recover better and faster after a disaster event,” he said.

Under the project, the transmission and distribution system will be rebuilt in accordance with current installation standards, and ANGLEC will use the opportunity to introduce measures to correct some pre-existing issues. These include improving the anchoring and staying of new poles and re-routing power lines. In addition to a loan from CDB, the project will be supported through USD61,000 in grant resources provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB) to CDB under the EIB Grant Facility for Climate Action Support, and counterpart financing from ANGLEC.(CDB)…[+]

A bitter row over the difficulties of debating racism in France has erupted after a high-profile feminist and anti-racism campaigner was forced off a government advisory body, prompting the resignation of the director and scores of members. Journalist Rokhaya Diallo has repeatedly spoken out against what she calls institutional racism in France, notably police stop and search practices against non-white young men.

Diallo, 39, was one of 30 people appointed last week to France’s national digital council, the CNNum, an independent commission of digital experts. The voluntary panel was to advise the centrist president Emmanuel Macron’s government on a new, more inclusive digital policy. The appointments were approved by the digital minister Mounir Mahjoubi – one of the few faces of ethnic diversity in government – as well as the prime minister. But the government then bowed to complaints about Diallo’s presence.(theguardian)…[+]

The EU has triggered a process that could ultimately see Poland stripped of voting rights in Brussels in an unprecedented step designed to force the country’s rightwing government to drop reforms the bloc regards as a threat to the country’s democracy.

The country’s fellow 27 member states have been advised by the European commission that the legislative programme of Poland’s government is putting at risk fundamental values expected of a democratic state by allowing political interference in its courts. “Within a period of two years a significant number of laws have been adopted – 13 in total – which put in serious risk the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers”, the vice president of the commission, Frans Timmermans, told reporters in Brussels. “Judicial reforms in Poland mean that the country’s judiciary is now under the political control of the ruling majority. In the absence of judicial independence, serious questions are raised about the effective application of EU law.”(theguardian)…[+]

BRIDGETOWN – The Board of Directors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has approved a grant of USD218,020 to the Government of Guyana to build capacity in key areas of local government to facilitate decentralisation of public service delivery, and greater local involvement in social and economic development, consistent with the sustainable development goals.The Project will assist the Government of Guyana in building the capacity of the Ministry of Communities to better support the process of reform in local government; as well as capacity building of the Guyana Association of Municipalities (GAM) and an institutional assessment of five municipalities, to help these entities improve performance and results delivery.

To better support local government reform efforts, the Project will aim to achieve key results, including:

• attaining greater clarity on the resource needs of Ministry of Communities, GAM and the municipalities;
• identifying areas for cooperation and potential synergies to reduce and eliminate wasteful public expenditure; and
• identifying the needs of the vulnerable groups who are likely to be socially and economically excluded;(CDB)…[+]

Germany’s leaders have admitted that the government failed to provide adequate support to relatives of the victims of last year’s terrorist attack on a Berlin Christmas market, and acknowledged security gaps in the run-up to the atrocity. A year after Anis Amri, a Tunisian whose asylum application had been turned down months before, rammed a truck into the crowded market at the Breitscheidplatz, killing 12 people and wounding 70, the authorities have been criticised for security failings and their clumsy handling of the aftermath of the assault. After being accused of failing to personally contact families of victims, the chancellor, Angela Merkel, met them for the first time on Monday.

“The talks were very open and, from the part of those affected, no holds barred, and pointed to the weakness of our country in this situation,” Merkel said as Germany held a day of solemn commemoration for the victims on Tuesday. “Today is a day of sadness, but also a day of our will to make better things that did not work well,” she said, adding that she had offered to meet the bereaved again in a few months. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also told the bereaved and emergency workers at a private church memorial that “it is true that some support came late and remained unsatisfactory”. “Many family members and injured – many of you – felt abandoned by the state,” he added, recalling the words of a woman whose daughter was killed in the attack.(theguardian)…[+]