HomeSeek

Northampton, MA –News Direct– Antea Group

Last year marked a global shift in corporations adopting low-carbon and net-zero pledges as experts at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, declared that the climate crisis is at a critical inflection point. The UN now reports that just over 1,326 corporations have signed the Business Ambition for 1.5°C commitment and 7,126 companies have joined the Race to Zero.

These collective actions have spurred more organizations around the world to make their own low-carbon commitments. We’ll take a look at what’s involved in drafting a carbon reduction plan and highlight a few organizations whose plans serve as an aspirational benchmark in the drive to a low carbon economy.

Solutions that Meet the ChallengeOne of the greatest challenges for organizations working toward a net-zero future is addressing all sources of emissions within their processes and value chain.

To understand the progress that’s been made, it’s important to know how emissions are classified. Developed as an international accounting standard by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, emissions are separated into three categories:

Scope 1: Direct emissionsEmissions from company-owned facilities, functions, and resources.

• Mobile emissions from company fleet vehicles

• Stationary emissions from on-site heating fuels

• Process emissions produced by manufacturing or production

• Fugitive emissions like leaking refrigeration or air conditioning units

Scope 2: Utilities emissionsEmissions from purchased utilities.

• Electricity

• Steam

• Heating

• Cooling

Scope 3: Indirect emissionsEmissions from upstream and downstream functions of business not directly owned by the organization.

• Purchased goods and services

• Capital goods

• Fuel- and energy-related activities

• Upstream transportation and distribution

• Waste generated in operations

• Business travel

• Employee Commuting

• Upstream leased assets

• Downstream transportation and distribution

• Processing of sold products

• Use of sold products

• End-of-life treatment of sold products

• Downstream leased assets

• Franchises

• Investments

Story continues

While many organizations have made headway on crafting plans that reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, Scope 3 remains a challenge due to its size and complexity. Fortunately, as more organizations lower their direct emissions, the companies that make up supply and value chains collectively move closer to net-zero.

7 Companies Setting a Strong ExampleThese companies are helping lead the way to a carbon-neutral future.

MicrosoftIndustry: Information TechnologyHeadquarters: United States

In 2020, Microsoft pledged to become carbon negative by 2030, remove historic carbon emissions by 2050, and invest $1B in a climate innovation fund.

At the release of the plan, Microsoft President and Vice-Chair Brad Smith shared, “We are launching today an aggressive program to cut our carbon emissions by more than half by 2030, both for our direct emissions and for our entire supply and value chain . We will fund this in part by expanding our internal carbon fee, in place since 2012 and increased last year, to start charging not only our direct emissions but those from our supply and value chains.”

MaerskIndustry: ShippingHeadquarters: Denmark

In January of 2022, global shipping giant Maersk announced a plan to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.

Shipping accounts for a significant amount of many organizations’ Scope 3 emissions. Maersk’s commitment to net-zero emissions will help organizations across the globe reduce their total carbon footprint.

“More than half of Maersk’s top 200 customers have ambitious science-based or zero-carbon targets for their supply chain,” offered Mads Stensen, Senior Sustainability Advisor at Maersk, “and they are dependent on us helping them [reach] these targets. With our new climate-neutral commitments, we can help our customers on this journey as well as help drive the whole industry towards this goal.”

CEMEXIndustry: CementHeadquarters: Mexico

In early 2020, CEMEX committed to reaching net-zero by 2050 and increased their 2030 emissions reduction target from 30% to 35%.

“Climate change has been a priority for CEMEX for many years,” offered Fernando Gonzalez-Oliveri, CEO of CEMEX. “Our efforts have brought significant progress to date, but we must do more. This is why we have defined a more ambitious strategy to reduce CO2 emissions by 2030 and to deliver net-zero CO2 concrete by 2050.”

VodafoneIndustry: TelecommunicationsHeadquarters: United Kingdom

Since joining the Race to Zero in 2019, Vodafone has expanded its commitment to net-zero for its own operations by 2030 to include the elimination of all Scope 3 emissions by 2040.

In the statement announcing the plan, Vodafone Group CEO Nick Read said, “We are committed to reduce our carbon footprint through improved energy efficiency, renewable energy supply, reducing our network waste and new environmental criteria when we select suppliers. Vodafone will also enable our customers to reduce their environmental footprint through use of our services, including the Internet of Things.”

Coca-Cola HBCIndustry: Beverage manufacturingHeadquarters: Switzerland

In addition to committing to net-zero emissions by 2040, Coca-Cola HBC is working with suppliers to address 90% of emissions in Scope 3.

“This commitment is the ultimate destination of a journey that we started many years ago,” shares Zoran Bogdanovic, CEO of Coca-Cola HBC. “It is fully aligned with our philosophy to support the socio-economic development of our communities and to make a more positive environmental impact. Both are integral to our future growth. Although we don’t yet have all the answers, our plan, track record and partnership approach give us confidence that we will deliver.”

SasolIndustry: Oil and gasHeadquarters: South Africa

With a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% in 2030 and reach net zero by 2050, Sasol has expanded their to address Scope 3 emissions as well.

“Based on detailed assessments and modeling,” offers Fleetwood Grobler, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sasol, “our 2030 target can be delivered without divestments and offsets, but through the direct decarbonisation of our existing assets.”

Wire PropertiesIndustry: Real EstateHeadquarters: Hong Kong

Leading the charge among real estate developers in the Asia Pacific region, Swire Properties has committed to net-zero emissions by 2050.

“Climate change is an immediate and present crisis that must be tackled by everyone, and our signing of the Business Ambition for 1.5°C pledge is a step in the right direction and is absolutely the right thing to do,” said Guy Bradley, Chief Executive of Swire Properties.

Set a Bold Vision and Follow ThroughEvery industry and region has unique regulations around emissions, as well as site-specific features that must be considered when drafting a carbon transition plan.

The scope of work that goes into drafting a carbon reduction plan may seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Antea Group offers a variety of services that aid organizations in assessing their carbon footprint and drafting plans that meet or exceed global emissions benchmarks.

Contact us to learn more about how your organization can get started drafting your own carbon transition plan.

About Antea GroupAntea®Group is an environment, health, safety, and sustainability consulting firm. By combining strategic thinking and multidisciplinary perspectives with technical expertise, we do more than effectively solve client challenges; we deliver sustainable results for a better future. We work in partnership with and advise many of the world’s most sustainable companies to address ESG-business challenges in a way that fits their pace and unique objectives. Our consultants equip organizations to better understand threats, capture opportunities and find their position of strength. Lastly, we maintain a global perspective on ESG issues through, not only our work with multinational clients, but also through our sister organizations in Europe, Asia, and Latin America and as a founding member of the Inogen Alliance.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Antea Group on 3blmedia.com

View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/7-companies-leading-the-net-zero-energy-revolution-230101912

The Hague-based court sent its ‘largest-ever’ team of experts to probe alleged war crimes since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has sent its “largest-ever” team of experts to Ukraine to investigate alleged war crimes since the Russian invasion in February, according to the chief prosecutor of the Hague-based court.

Karim Khan said on Tuesday that the 42-member team comprised of investigators, forensic experts and support staff “advance our investigations into crimes falling into the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and provide support to Ukrainian national authorities”.

The team will the gathering of witness, improve the identification of forensic materials and help ensure that “evidence is collected in a manner that strengthens its admissibility in future proceedings” at the court, he said.

Khan thanked the Netherlands, where the court is based, for sending a “significant number of Dutch national experts” to help the mission.

The experts are to interview witnesses, secure and analyze evidence and support national investigators in securing evidence.

In addition, the team is also to work together with French forensic experts who are already in Ukraine. The work of all those involved in the conflict area must be effectively coordinated, according to the prosecution.

‘Ukraine is a crime scene’

The ICC prosecutor announced an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity just four days after the February 24 Russian invasion.

In April, Khan said that “Ukraine is a crime scene” during his visit to the town of Bucha near Kyiv, where bodies were found lying in the streets after Russian forces withdrew in late March.

To be classed as crimes against humanity attacks have to be part of what the ICC’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, calls “a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population”.

Khan says that “now more than ever we need to show the law in action” in Ukraine.

Russia does not recognise the court. Ukraine, however, has explicitly recognised the court’s jurisdiction over its basic territory.

The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said last week that it corroborated 7,061 civilian outcome, with 3,381 killed and 3,680 injured.

The team also said most of the deaths took place from the use of explosive weapons. The high toll suggests that Russian troops are attacking indiscriminately and disproportionately, according to the UN team.

Meanwhile, more than six million refugees have fled the fighting since the beginning of Russia’s invasion, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said. Some 90 percent of them are women and children, it added.

Most have made their way to neighbor countries including Poland and Romania.

The big-box retailer cut its full-year earnings forecast, sending shares down more than 8 percent in morning trading.

Walmart reported stronger sales for its fiscal first quarter, but its profit took a beating as the nation’s largest retailer grappled with surging inflation on food and fuel and higher costs from a snarled global supply chain.

The company also on Tuesday cut its full-year earnings forecast, sending shares down more than 8 percent in morning trading.

Walmart Inc, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, is among the first major retailers to report quarterly results and is considered a major barometer of spending given its size and the breadth of its customer base.

Like many big-box retailers, Walmart benefitted in the early days of the pandemic as shoppers splurged on food and other necessities, particularly online. But shoppers are resuming to pre-pandemic behaviours, such as pulling back their spending online and going back to the physical stores. And supply chain clogs and surging inflation are presenting challenges for Walmart and other retailers.

Walmart executives told analysts on a conference call on Tuesday that, while some shoppers bought high-ticket items such as game consoles and patio furniture in the latest quarter, others were switching to private brands from national brands, particularly in lunch meats, as they juggled higher costs.

Meanwhile, Home Depot, the nation’s largest home improvement retailer, said on Tuesday that first-quarter sales improved despite a slow spring start and the home improvement chain raised its full-year guidance. Still, the quarterly sales exhibited the slowest pace of growth in two years, noted Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData,

The pair of earnings reports came as the government reported that US retail sales rose 0.9 percent in April, a solid increase that underscores Americans’ ability to keep ramping up spending even as inflation persists at nearly a 40-year high. The increase was driven by greater sales of cars, electronics, and at restaurants, the Department of Commerce said. Even adjusting for inflation, which was 0.3 percent on a monthly basis in April, sales increased.

Walmart reported earnings of $2.05bn, or 74 cents per share. Adjusted earnings per share totalled $1.30, but that is still far short of the per-share earnings of $1.48 that Wall Street had expected, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research. It also fell below last year’s earnings of $2.73bn, or 97 cents per share.

Sales rose 2.4 percent to $141.57, better than the $138.8bn that analysts had projected.

“Bottom line results were unexpected and reflect the unusual environment,” said CEO Doug McMillon. “US inflation levels, particularly in food and fuel, created more pressure on margin mix and operating costs than we expected.”

The government reported last week that inflation eased slightly in April after months of relentless increases. Consumer prices jumped 8.3 percent last month from a year ago, below the 8.5 percent surge in March, but it remains very close to a four-decade high.

And there are sobering signs that inflation may be becoming more entrenched. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, so-called “core prices” jumped twice as much from March to April as they did the previous month. The increases were driven by spiking prices for airline tickets, hotel rooms and new cars. Apartment rental costs are also spiking.

Still, Walmart’s sales held up. The retailer tends to benefit in an inflationary environment as shoppers typically trade down to lower-price stores.

Sales at stores opened at least a year at Walmart’s US division rose 3 percent, below the fourth quarter pace of 5.6 percent and the 9.2 percent jump in the third quarter. Online sales rose 1 percent in the fiscal first quarter as growth has slowed from the pandemic-infused spree of early 2021. That is down from 8 percent growth in the third quarter.

Shares rose 16 cents to $148.21 in morning trading on Tuesday.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland’s foreign minister said the lining up by Britain of new laws that would effectively override parts of a deal with the European Union on post-Brexit trade to Northern Ireland was of “great concern.”

“I deeply regret the decision of the British government to introduce legislation in the coming weeks… The path chosen is of great concern,” Simon Coveney said after his British counterpart Liz Truss set out the plans on Tuesday.

“Such unilateral action in respect of an internationally binding agreement is harmful to trust and will serve only to make it more challenging to find solutions,” Coveney said in a statement that also welcomed London’s preference for a negotiated solution with the European Union.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Kate Holton)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday welcomed a recent decision to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank that the Palestinians and most of the international community view as illegal.

During a visit to the settlement of Elkana, he cast the expansion of settlements as a response to recent Palestinian violence. The Palestinians view settlement construction as the main obstacle to peace because it furthers their hopes for an independent state on lands Israel seized through war.

“In the face of enemy violence, the Zionist answer has always been settlement, security and immigration,” Bennett said. “Last week we approved here in Elkana, to my understanding, the largest volume of construction at once, since the establishment of the town.”

He appeared to be referring to the approval of more than 4,000 settled homes by a military planning body. That decision came a week after Israel’s Supreme Court upheld an order to expel at least 1,000 Palestinians from a region in the West Bank declared a military firing zone.

captured Israel the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state. Israel has already built more than 130 settlements that today are home to nearly 500,000 settlers. Nearly 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank under Israeli military rule.

Most of the international community, including the Biden administration, view the settlements as an obstacle to peace because they shrink and divide up the territory where an independent Palestinian state would be established. But global powers have given Israel no incentive to stop building them, despite calling for a two-state solution.

Bennett, a longtime supporter of settlements who once led the main settler council, is opposed to Palestinian statehood. He leads a government that includes parties from across Israel’s political spectrum, including some opposed to settlements.

In the interest of keeping the coalition together, they have ruled out any major peace initiatives or outright annexation, while continuing to expand settlements and taking some steps to help the Palestinians economically.

There have been no serious or substantive peace talks in more than a decade. Many Palestinians view attacks on Israel as an inevitable response to nearly 55 years of military occupation with no end in sight.

“Are you an Egyptian superhero?” asks a young Egyptian girl in Cairo in Disney’s latest Marvel offering, Moon Knight. “I am” answers Layla El-Faouly, towering in her commanding white and gold winged suit. With those two words, Layla, Disney and Marvel create history as we finally witness an Arab superhero on screen. And it’s a woman.

From the offset, the new Disney+ series is steeped in Ancient Egyptian mythology and modern culture. Even one of the Arab world’s most famous musicians, Abdel Halim Hafez, has his music episode making an appearance in the opening scenes of the first. The credits are also full of Arab talent: Moon Knight is directed by Mohamed Diab, edited by Ahmed Hafez, and its music is composed by Hesham Nazih. There are also a number of Arab actors playing leading characters, such as Egyptian Palestinian May Calamaway as Layla and Egyptian British Khalid Abdalla as Salim.

Calamawy recently said, “I cannot represent every Arab woman or every Egyptian woman…I just hope that all Arab women can watch that and feel like a superhero, and that they have that space on that big scale.”

This space has not always been present. Growing up as an Iraqi in the West, I don’t remember having positive representation on screen. I took it as a given that Middle Eastern characters would, in some way, be tied to “terrorism”. As a child, these negative perceptions can be confusing and damaging as you try to figure out your role in society. They can convince you that as an Arab you have a responsibility to demonstrate your innocence in routine social interactions, such as going through airport security.

And this negative impact is not limited to the self-image of Arabs or Muslims either.

It is well-documented that media plays an important role in shaping a society’s views. The constant association made between Arabs, Muslims and “terrorism” in the media in the years that followed 9/11 undoubtedly helped shape current popular attitudes towards these groups in the West. Two decades on, 53 percent of Americans still have an unfavorable view of Islam.

There is no denying that after 9/11 Islamophobia took on a meteoric rise in the West. But Arab damaging presentations on-screen long preceded that. For his book, Reel Bad Arabs, Jack Shaheen analysed more than 1,000 films featuring Arab characters made between 1986 and 2000. He found that only 12 representations were positive, 53 were neutral and 935 were negative. In these movies, Arab characters were routinely reduced to stereotypes – “terrorists”, misogynists or oil sheikhs. They helped move the plot forward, but were rarely portrayed as real people with complex feelings, thoughts and motivations.

After 9/11, production companies simply doubled down on this Islamophobia. Fox’s Twenty-Four repeatedly had Middle Eastern characters with story arches linked to “terrorism”, much like Showtime’s Homeland and others.

After 2003, the Iraq war became a subject commonly explored in American movies and TV series. But the Iraqi characters rarely had major parts in these shows and were almost never positively depicted. Actually, the only Iraqi character I can remember from that era is Sayid Jarrah in ABC’s hit-show Lost – played for some reason by a British Indian actor putting on an absurd accent. He was, of course, not just a guy who happened to be from Iraq – he was a former torturer for dictator Saddam Hussein.

Such dehumanisation of Arabs made it easier for the American public to support Washington’s brutal wars in the Middle East. In a 2015 poll, 30 percent of 530 Republican primary voters said they would be in favor of bombing Agrabah – the fictional city from Disney’s Aladdin. That movie had opened with the lyrics “I come from a land…where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face…it’s barbaric but hey it’s home”. Watching the original Aladdin from 1992, you notice that majority of the characters on the streets are portrayed as barbaric, sword-wielding snake charmers and speak with obscure accents.

So, when former US president George W Bush announced his decision to invade Iraq in 2003, it was not so surprising that 72 percent of Americans said they support his move.

The effects of these decades-long dehumanization were also highlighted in the context of the Ukraine war earlier this year, with several announcing their shock at witnessing war in a “relatively civilized, relatively European” country, a place much different than “Iraq or Afghanistan”.

The negative Arab and Muslim stereotypes pushed by the media also increase support for discriminatory laws and policies – Donald Trump famously won his presidency by Muslims pledging to introduce “a total and complete shutdown of entering the United States”. These harmful portrayals also fuel hate crimes across the world, such as the mass shooting at Masjid al-Noor and Linwood Islamic Center in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019.

Western media’s negative portrayal of Arab and Muslim culture also led to many young Arabs and Muslims in the West growing estranged from their native culture. This already led to the emergence of a new genre of TV shows and movies in which young “Western-minded” Muslims try to escape from the grip of their culture. In such movies and TV shows, such as Netflix’s Elite or Apple TV’s Hala, there is usually a very dramatic headscarf removal scene. Or, as Ramy Yusuf once put it, characters that declare “Hey mom and dad, I wanna be white!”

This is why unapologetically Arab characters in Western productions, like Layla in Moon Knight, are a welcome change. And there is reason to believe we will soon start to see many more positive Arab and Muslim characters in Western movies and TV shows. Last November, Disney announced a new initiative to change the way Muslims are portrayed in its films. Also last year, Netflix announced Abubakr Ali would be the first Arab Muslim actor to be a series lead in a comic book adaptation. And, over the summer, Disney gave its global audience a taste of American Eid written and directed by the formidable Aqsa Altaf. Hearing my niece say: “She’s like me,” after seeing the protagonist struggle to navigate a Muslim holiday in the West was a genuinely heartwarming moment.

In the real world, Arab superheroes do exist. Remember, just a few years ago it was Arabs and Kurds – including many female superheroes who look like Layla – who gave up their lives to protect their region and the rest of the world from the violence of ISIL (ISIS). So, it is time we see more positive Arab and Muslim role models like Layla on TV.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

The two leading candidates in Kenya’s presidential election have decided running mates from the vote-rich Kikuyu ethnic group to bolt their chances of winning August’s much-anticipated poll.

Deputy President William Ruto has picked businessman Rigathi Gachagua while former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has settled for the former Justice Minister Martha Karua.

“The two are worlds apart, save for the fact that they come from the Mount Kenya region,” analyst Javas Bigambo told the BBC.

The Mount Kenya region is home to the Kikuyu community, the support of which could be vital to determining the outcome of the election.

Mr Gachagua is a strong mobiliser and has the ear of struggling Kikuyus, who have been backing Mr Ruto over his plans to address economic grievances.

Ms Karua is a political icon beyond the Kikuyu – and is known for her passion for judicial reform and campaigns against corruption.

Analysts say that while the intellectual elite might go for the avid anti-corruption campaigner, this election is mostly about economic reforms.

“Both sides are tainted by corruption claims and that is why none is pointing. Corruption is no longer an issue. It seems to be our way of life and it has become hard to show a strong leader who is not tainted by corruption,” analyst Bobby Mkangi told the BBC.

Mr Gachagua is facing charges of corruption and money-laundering worth $65m (£53m). He denies the charges, and says he is being persecuted by the state for supporting Mr Ruto.

Outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta is supporting Mr Odinga, with whom he famously shook hands in 2018 to signal that they had reconciled after years of political acrimony.

Analysts say that since then, Mr Odinga, a veteran leader who has failed in four previous attempts to win the presidency, has largely ignored all the rot in government.

His choice of Ms Karua as running mate is also an attempt to win the female vote, but Mr Bigambo is not sure how successful she will be.

Story continues

“She appeals to the women academically and not practically. She only appeals to part of the middle class and the NGO community who do not have a strong bearing on the election outcome,” Mr Bigambo says.

Ms Karua ran to be president in 2013 and got 43,881 votes – or 0.36% of the total number cast.

But she is known for being bold and an astute fighter for multi-party democracy.

She has walked out on two former presidents.

In 2001 she stormed out of an event attended by then-President Daniel arap Moi, protesting against comments made against her then-party leader Mwai Kibaki.

Ms Karua resigned as justice minister in 2009 citing frustrations after Mr Kibaki, the president at the time, appointed judges without her knowledge.

“The big question is whether or not she has the capacity to step out as the Mount Kenya supremo now that President Uhuru is retiring. Will she be fully embraced among the lower ranks of Mount Kenya?” Mr Bigambo asks.

Mr Gachagua on the other hand has been lauded by analysts for his ability to tap into the political network he was part of while working as President Kenyatta’s personal assistant and as a district officer in different regions.

“His ability to negotiate his way to this position considering other names that were fronted and were known nationally is quite something,” Mr Mkangi says.

Mr Gachagua is the member of parliament for Mathira constituency in central Kenya, which has produced three of Kenya’s four presidents – Jomo Kenyatta, Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta.

He is a businessman whose speeches on the campaign trail suggest he understands the issues affecting the Kikuyu.

“He is the feared political bulldog that Ruto needed to be able to counter President Uhuru in the central region,” Mr Bigambo says.

Despite economic issues emerging in this election as a possible determinant in how people will vote, ethnicity still has a strong influence on the electorate.

This is the first time since Kenya’s independence that a Kikuyu has not emerged as the main presidential candidate – Mr Ruto is a Kalenjin, the third biggest ethnic group, and Mr Odinga is a Luo, the fourth biggest ethnic group.

The two have therefore both nominated a Kikuyu – the largest ethnic group – as running mates for the 9 August election, a decision that could make or break their presidential campaigns.

“The choice of the running mates from the Kikuyu community was the only way the bloc was going to be incentivised to come out and vote,” Mr Mkangi says.

Afroz misses school every day to spend hours waiting with a handcart full of containers for a special train bringing precious water to people suffering a heatwave in India’s desert state of Rajasthan.

Temperatures often exceed 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) here, but this year the heat came early in what many experts say is more proof of climate change making life unbearable for India’s 1.35 billion people.

“It’s always been very hot here and we have always struggled for water,” said Afroz, 13, as he waited in Pali district for the second time that day for the special train.

“But I don’t remember filling up containers in April.”

For more than three weeks now, the 40-wagon train – carrying some 2 million litres (528,344 gallons) – has been the only source of water for thousands of people in the district.

Every day, dozens of people, mostly women and children, jostle with blue plastic jerry cans and metal pots to fill from hoses gushing water out of the army-green train into an underground tank.

Water has been dispatched by train to Pali before, but according to local railway officials, the shortage this year was already critical in April so they started early.

The wagons – filled in Jodhpur, about 65km (40 miles) away – are first emptied into cement storage tanks, from which the water is sent to a treatment plant for filtering and distribution.

But for Afroz’s family and many others like them, life is easier if they fill directly from the storage tanks, despite the water being untreated.

That their children skip school at times to ensure there is water in the house is what hits the families the most.

“I can’t ask the breadwinner of the family to help me. Otherwise, we’ll be struggling for both food and water,” Afroz’s mother Noor Jahan said as she filled up an aluminum pot.

“It is affecting my child’s education, but what do I do? I cannot carry all these containers on my own,” she said.

“I have already made three trips from my house in the last one hour. And I’m the only one who can do it,” said Laxmi, another woman collecting water, pointing to cracks on her feet.

“We have no direct water to our homes and it is so hot. What are we supposed to do if something happens to us while we walk up and down to fetch water?”

In 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched an ambitious Jal Jeevan (Water Life) mission, promising a functional tap connection to all households in rural India by 2024.

But less than 50 percent of the population has access to safely managed drinking water, according to UNICEF, with two-thirds of India’s 718 districts affected by “extreme water depletion”.

A little further from Pali, 68-year-old Shivaram walked on the cracked bottom of a dried-out pond in Bandai village, his bright pink turban protecting his head from the scorching sun.

The pond, which was the main source of water for both residents and their animals, has been dry for almost two years because of low rainfall. The shells of dead turtles litter the cracked mud.

“Farmers have been severely impacted,” Shivaram said. “Some of our animals have died too.”

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s militant group and its allies have lost the majority they had held since 2018, according to final results from the Lebanese elections released Tuesday. Hezbollah’s most vocal opponents and more than a dozen independents have made gains, the results show.

The Hezbollah-led coalition won 61 seats in the 128-member legislature, a drop of 10 members since the last vote was held four years ago. The loss was largely due to setbacks suffered by Hezbollah’s Christian partners, the Free Patriotic Movement founded by President Michel Aoun, and several of Hezbollah’s traditional allies who lost seats.

The biggest winner turned out to be the nationalist Christian Lebanese Forces party led by Samir Geagea, one of the harshest critics of Hezbollah and its Iranian backers. Another big winner is Druze leader Walid Joumblatt whose group won all eight seats they were running for.

The Lebanese Forces now has the largest bloc in with 19 seats, overtaking Hezbollah’s main Christian allies of the Free Patriotic Movement. The movement now holds 17 seats, a drop of three seats from the previous vote.

Despite the setback, Hezbollah and its main ally, the Amal group of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, retained the 27 seats allocated to the party.

Independents and newcomers, including those from the 2019 protest movement, scooped 14 seats. That was a major achievement considering they went into the fragmented vote and facing intimidation and threats by entrenched mainstream parties.

Their showing sends a strong message to ruling class politicians who have for decades held on to their seats and despite an economic meltdown that has impoverished the country and triggered the biggest wave of emigration since the 1975-90 civil war.

The results also portend a sharply polarized, divided between pro and anti-Hezbollah lawmakers who will find it difficult to work together to form a new government and pass laws needed to enact reforms for a financial recovery in Lebanon.

Story continues

With two main blocs — Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces — opposed to each other, analysts said the results could lead to more paralysis at a time when the country desperately needs unity.

The Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, Stephane Dujarric, called for the “swift formation of an inclusive government” that can finalize an agreement with the International Monetary Fund and accelerate the implementation of reforms necessary to set Lebanon on the path to recovery.

The UN urged “the new Parliament to urgently adopt all legislation necessary to stabilize the economy and improve governance,” Dujarric said.

The biggest loss came to Hezbollah’s allies with close links to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government, including deputy parliament speaker Elie Ferzli, Druze politician Talal Arslan who had held a seat for three decades, Asaad Hardan and Faisal Karami, son of late premier Omar Karami.

Sunday’s parliamentary elections were the first since Lebanon’ economic meltdown began in late 2019. The government’s rulings have done virtually nothing to address the collapse, leaving Lebanese to fend for themselves as they plunge into poverty, without electricity, medicine, garbage collection or any other semblance of normal life.

The vote is also the first since a deadly explosion at Beirut’s port in August 2020 that killed more than 200, wounded thousands and damaged parts of the capital.

Jerusalem – At a cafe in central Jerusalem, a middle-aged couple, Leonid from Belarus and Olga from Dagestan, discussed the war in Ukraine over coffee and bourekas.

“As Jews, we have often wondered about this: how it was possible that in Germany, a whole nation became zombified by propaganda,” said Leonid, an online entrepreneur, referring to Russia.

“Turns out it’s completely possible, even now, in the age of the internet. It’s like they’re living in the Matrix, an alternative reality.”

A young Israeli language student interrupted the conversation, eager to practise his Russian. Soon the conversation drifted towards war, and the student, uneasily trying not to offend, offered what he thought was a balanced view.

“It’s terrible, of course, what Russia has begun, but the Ukrainians were wrong, too, when they tried to ban the Russian language,” he said, bringing up a contentious issue that has led to fist fights between Ukrainian MPs.

“What nonsense!” Olga blurted out. “I was in Kyiv last summer and everyone there only spoke Russian!”

Olga and Leonid are Israeli citizens who made Aliyah (immigrated to Israel) in the 1990s.

Under Israel’s Law of Return, anyone in the world with at least one Jewish grandparent is eligible for citizenship.

After the fall of communism, more than a million Jews from the former Soviet Union immigrated, changing the demographics of the entire country.

Unlike earlier arrivals from North Africa or the Middle East, Soviet Jews tended to be less religious and leaned more to the right, politically.

They now make up about a fifth of Israel’s population and spend a lot of time fearfully watching the war between Russia and Ukraine unfold.

“This conflict for me is very personal,” said 32-year-old Alexey in Haifa, who has had Israeli citizenship for years and is currently unemployed.

His mother is from Kyiv while his father is from Moscow, where he spent most of his life.

“It’s as if there was a rift in my own family, although my parents are both against the invasion. It’s very hard and I’d like to forget about it and think of it as a bad dream,” he told Al Jazeera.

“I’ll never forget the morning of February 24, because I thought to the last minute that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin would have enough sense not to start this war and solve these problems some other way. It’s no wonder Russia is being compared to the Nazis and they [the Russian leadership] Need to answer for what they’ve done, maybe not in Nuremberg but in The Hague.

“Sooner or later Russia will lose this war, and the guilty will be punished.”

Putin has often made a Nazi comparison, but his is aimed at the Ukrainian government led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

A stated aim of Putin’s “special military operation”, as it is offic is the “de-Nazification” of Ukraine.

In his view, the Ukrainian government is overrun by far-right ultra-nationalists following in the footsteps of Nazi collaborators of World War II, who were planning or executing a genocide of the Russian-speaking people of the Donbas.

Recently, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed that Adolf Hitler had Jewish origins, provoking uproar in Israel. Putin personally called Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to apologise.

“Yes there may be some Nazis [in Ukraine] But they’re everywhere, in every country, and I think there’s no less of them in Russia,” said Alexey. “I think it’s clear that what’s happening is a genocide. I have no other words with which to describe this,” he continued, referring to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Not everyone would use that expression, and Zelenskyy irked Israeli leaders in March by comparing war crimes committed during the Russian invasion with the Holocaust.

But overall, most Israelis do not appear sympathetic to Putin’s “de-Nazification” reasoning.

Israel’s main Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, has condemned the Russian invasion.

According to a survey published in late March – which asked former Soviet immigrants and Israeli-born citizens, including Palestinian citizens of Israel, more than two-thirds blamed the Russian government for starting the war.

Meanwhile, Israelis with military experience and training from their service in the Israeli army have volunteered to fight on the Ukrainian side.

At the diplomatic level, Israel’s right-wing nationalist prime minister, Naftali Bennett, has positioned himself as a peacemaker and is among the world leaders trying to mediate a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting.

But Bennett has been criticised for not being hard enough on Putin, and refusing to sell the Iron Dome defense system to Ukraine.

Israel has held back from imposing sanctions on Russia and did not condemn Russia at the UN Security Council, though it has condemned the Kremlin’s war.

Israel has also dispatched humanitarian aid to Ukraine and welcomed tens of thousands of refugees, although there is a brewing controversy over how long non-Jewish refugees will be allowed to stay.

And while Israeli citizens have been evacuated from the war zone, Palestinian students studying in Kyiv were left stranded as they had no passports.

According to international relations expert Yonatan Freeman at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel finds itself in a delicate position, because of its large ex-Soviet population and amid continuing conflicts in the Middle East.

“With the current crisis there have been two main camps concerning whether Israel should take a side between Russia and Ukraine,” he told Al Jazeera. “One major camp has declared we need to maintain neutrality, because of the weight of relations with Moscow. Israel is concerned that a greater distance between Jerusalem and Moscow may cause the latter to be more indifferent to Israel’s security concerns at home and abroad.

“Bennett wants Russia to continue to be understanding of Israel’s activities in Syria and to be open to hearing our concerns on Iran. Israel also wants to make sure the large Jewish population in Russia continues to be seen in good light and that links to Israel, including by air, continue.”

Israel has carried out air strikes on the Lebanese group – and Russia’s ally in Syria – Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, another country close to Moscow.

Back at the cafe in Jerusalem, Olga bemoaned the divisions within her personal network.

“I have a childhood friend from Donbas, and she is the only one in our circle who’s still saying ‘Glory to Russia!’ And she’s wondering why none of us want to talk to her,” she said.

Alexey added: “Of my friends who don’t support Russian aggression, those who can have left [Russia], but not everyone can because they have jobs, families, and so on. There are unfortunately a few people very close to me whom I know from my childhood who are for this, and I don’t want to spoil relations with them so I try not to bring it up.

“Their human qualities are still dear to me but while this is all happening, I’ll think I’ll keep my distance from them.”

For now, Leonid, Olga and Alexey will continue to closely watch the latest news from the front.

“I’m really afraid now, I don’t know what will happen,” Leonid said. “In Ukraine, they will chase [the Russians] all the way to the border, but [Putin] doesn’t know how to lose.”