The UK presidency of the 26th session of the UN Climate Change Conference, known as COP26, on Wednesday published the first draft agreement of decisions that the summit parties will negotiate and issue on Friday at the end of the summit.

The draft agreement that focuses on cutting carbon emissions advised immediate action to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 C.

It underlined the importance of multilateralism and international cooperation in addressing climate change and its impacts in "this critical decade," and encouraged to urgently accelerate action and scale up finance to support the developing countries.

The six-page draft agreement of the UN climate agency also highlighted ensuring a sustainable, resilient, and inclusive global recovery in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly showing solidarity with developing countries.

It stressed the important role of civil society -- including youth and indigenous peoples -- in addressing and responding to climate change, and emphasized the urgent need for action.

Touching on the improvement by countries in their carbon reduction plans, the draft text urged parties to "revisit and strengthen the 2030 targets in their nationally determined contributions, as necessary to align with the Paris Agreement temperature goal by the end of 2022."

The agreement also focused on equity, common but differentiated responsibilities, and respective capabilities in light of different national circumstances.

It called on paying attention to human rights, gender issues, youth participation and empowerment, poverty alleviation, climate justice, as well as the integrity of Earth in the context of sustainable development.

The climate conference will continue through Nov. 12 with more panels, meetings, and side events, all looking for remedies to reduce the levels of global warming by keeping it at 1.5 C.

Many heads of state and government, as well as 25,000 more delegates from 200 countries, are at the Glasgow conference./aa

Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) announced positive financial results this year. “Great efforts by the management resulted in achieving profits of KD 5 million in September 2021, while losses of KD 3 million were expected. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, KAC registered losses of KD 10 million in September 2019. Now we are expecting that results in October 2021 will be positive as well, which means that we are on the right path to reach our goals,” KAC Chairman Ali Al-Dakhan said during a press conference yesterday, which was also attended by CEO Ma’an Razouqi and other directors.

“We are working on reaching the budget breakeven point, and to achieve this goal, we are working on the acquisition of a larger share of passengers by upgrading our services and focusing more on passenger comfort. This includes all our services at T4 terminal – from when they enter the terminal until boarding their flights,” he added.

“We know the requirements of our passengers and what difficulties they face during their trip. Passengers have a full right to demand excellent services, and we are obliged to provide it at a top level. We work hard to make their journey on KAC a pleasant and comfortable one. For this reason, KAC has formed a special ‘customer service committee’, which seeks to develop better services to meet the expectations of our passengers. We have also set up special numbers for customers to communicate through our social media channels,” stated Dakhan.

Fleet renewal
Renewing the KAC fleet is a priority. “We are currently working with Airbus on modifying some of our aircraft booked in 2014. This will allow KAC to modify its operational and marketing plans that suit our future needs. KAC will now have a new fleet that will help the national carrier to attain growth and profitability. We hope that Airbus will meet our demands, especially since we are doing business with them since the early 1980s,” he said.

The aviation industry has faced many difficulties due to the coronavirus pandemic, especially the tourism sector. “All airlines were affected and KAC was one of them. A new board of directors was appointed during the pandemic, and in the first year, we faced many obstacles. The most significant was the operational challenges during the coronavirus pandemic and finding new ways to improve and develop KAC’s performance to bring it back to its peak,” Dakhan explained.

KAC is one of the few airlines in the world that didn’t receive any financial support during the coronavirus pandemic. “The company faced many obstacles, including suspending commercial flights for many months before resuming operations gradually at 30 percent capacity,” he noted. This led to cutting a number of flights, which led to a hike in fares to cover the cost of flights. “Passengers complained about the hike, which lasted till this month, when the airport began to function at full capacity after the efforts and cooperation of officials from the Directorate General for Civil Aviation,” stressed Dakhan.

“The operations and support sectors were also affected by the retirement of many experienced staff, who benefited from privatization law no. 6/2008. So we had to set up a new structure that suited our new size. This needed huge efforts from the new board of directors to set new principles for administrative, operational and technical works,” he concluded./agencies

Thousands of irregular migrants are facing desperate conditions as they continue waiting at the Polish-Belarusian border, hoping to cross onto EU soil.

After crossing the Bruzgi border point in Grodno, Belarus on Monday, the immigrants – most of them from Iraq – came to the Polish border to spend Tuesday night.

Nearly 2,000 immigrants, including many women and children, stayed in tents they set up in front of the border fences in the forested area.

When the temperature drops to freezing during the night, the migrants try to stay warm by burning wood from the forest. There is little food or water.

Polish security forces, keeping a vigil across the border during the night with strict security measures, made occasional announcements about migrants being returned to their home countries.

The Belarusian State Border Committee said that the migrants set up camp at the border and took no aggressive actions.

A statement said the migrants’ physical condition and morale were bad, and that there was not enough food and water at the camp.

The migrants spent the night on the ground in the cold, including a number of pregnant women and babies in the unhygienic, makeshift camp.

Belarus’ Defense Ministry decried the deployment of 10,000 Polish soldiers at the border, saying that doing without informing the Belarusian side is a violation of regional security agreements.

Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller told the state-run TVP Info on Monday that a special parliamentary session on the situation is needed.

"We have an extraordinary situation on our hands, with another country disrupting the integrity of Poland's borders in an organized manner," Muller said.

Poland and the EU have accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of trying to retaliate for EU sanctions by deliberately inviting in and herding migrants towards the Polish border.

EU countries bordering Belarus – Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland – have been reporting a dramatically growing number of irregular crossings since August.

NATO and the EU consider Belarus’ approach towards migrants an effort to destabilize and undermine security in European countries through non-military means.

According to the EU’s latest figures, 7,935 people tried to enter the bloc via the Belarus-EU border so far this year, up sharply from just 150 last year.​​​​​​ A total of 4,216 crossed the border into Lithuania, 3,305 into Poland, and 414 into Latvia.

On Monday, Polish authorities stepped up border protection and mobilized over 12,000 troops after a large group of migrants started marching towards the country’s frontier with Belarus accompanied by the Belarusian military.​​​​​​​/aa

General Electric (GE) announced Tuesday that it will split into three companies to focus on aviation, health care and energy.

The American multinational conglomerate said GE Healthcare will be realized in early 2023, in which GE will retain a 19.9% stake.

GE Renewable Energy, GE Power and GE Digital will be combined into a single business in early 2024.

After the transactions, GE said it will be an aviation-focused company.

While the three companies will be run independently, they will be better positioned to deliver long-term growth, the statement said.

They will have deeper operational focus, accountability, distinct strategies based on industry-specific dynamics, strategic and financial flexibility with their dedicated boards of directors and investor bases, it added.

"By creating three industry-leading, global public companies, each can benefit from greater focus, tailored capital allocation, and strategic flexibility to drive long-term growth and value for customers, investors, and employees," GE Chairman and CEO H. Lawrence Culp, Jr. said in the statement.

Founded by Thomas Edison in 1892 , GE was one of the largest publicly-traded companies in the world. But its stocks have underperformed on US exchanges in recent years. GE was ousted from the Dow Jones in 2018 after becoming the worst performer on the blue-chip index the year previous year.

Its stock price fell from $252 at the beginning of 2017 to below $44 on May 2020, losing more than 80% in almost three and a half years.

GE stocks were up 3.8% to $112.39 per share with a $123.6 billion market value at 12.20 p.m. EDT after the announcement./aa

China urged cooperation on global infrastructure initiatives on Tuesday as the US moved to announce its global mega-infrastructure program, Build Back Better World (BBBW).

“We believe that there is wide room for global infrastructure cooperation and various initiatives don't have to counter or replace each other,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin responded when asked if BBBW was seen as a counter to China’s multitrillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Wang said different countries should work to build “rather than tear down bridges, promote connectivity rather than decoupling, seek mutual benefits and win-win results rather than isolation and exclusiveness.”

The administration of US President Joe Biden’s global infrastructure program could be announced as early as January.

“We hope the US will take concrete actions to earnestly boost common development and revitalization of all,” Wang added.

At least 139 countries have joined the BRI.

Wang said the BRI has “followed the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits and the philosophy of open, green and clean cooperation and high-standard, people-centered development,” since launching eight years ago.

"The BRI has become the largest cooperation platform,” said Wang./aa

The European Union is seeking cooperation with countries of origin or transit to prevent migrants trying to enter the bloc’s territory via Belarus, an EU official said Tuesday.

“We will deploy all our diplomatic capacity to contact the countries of origin or transit for migrants,” European Commission spokesperson Dana Spinant told reporters at a daily press briefing.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and EU Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas will soon start a series of travels to prevent the escalation of the migration crisis at the bloc’s borders with Belarus.

Poland and the EU have accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of trying to retaliate for EU sanctions by deliberately inviting in and herding migrants towards the Polish border.

“It is important to stop the flow of migration at the source and to make understand that these people have been put in danger by the actions of Lukashenko’s government,” Spinant added.

The Belarusian regime reaches out to potential travelers through their diplomatic representations or travel agencies and invites them to Belarus by offering visa and transports them to the EU border, explained Peter Stano, the European Commission’s foreign policy spokesperson.

“Sometimes even the authorities in these countries are not aware what is going on,” he said.

The bloc wants to raise the awareness of its partners of this dangerous pattern based on “seemingly official authority” by the Belarusian regime, Stano added.

EU countries bordering Belarus - Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland - have been reporting a dramatically growing number of irregular crossings since August.

NATO and the EU consider Belarus’ approach towards migrants an effort to destabilize and undermine security in European countries through non-military means.

According to the EU’s latest figures, 7,935 people tried to enter the bloc via the Belarus-EU border so far this year, up sharply from just 150 last year.​​​​​​ A total of 4,216 crossed the border into Lithuania, 3,305 into Poland, and 414 into Latvia.

On Monday, Polish authorities stepped up border protection and mobilized over 12,000 troops after a large group of migrants started marching towards the country’s frontier with Belarus accompanied by the Belarusian military.​​​​​​​/aa

The world not only faces a shortage of vaccines to combat COVID-19, but it could face a deficit of 1 to 2 billion syringes needed to put jabs into arms, a senior adviser to the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

"A shortage of syringes is, unfortunately, a real possibility," said Lisa Hedman, a WHO senior adviser on access to health products, at a UN news conference in Geneva.

"With a global manufacturing capacity of around 6 billion per year for immunization syringes, it's pretty clear that a deficit in 2022 of over 1 billion could happen if we continue with 'business as usual'," she said, explaining the shortfall could lift as high as 2 million.

This year, there have been nearly double the number of routine vaccinations dispensed each year, which meant double the number of immunization syringes, Hedman added.

She said there are other types of syringes that go beyond that manufacturing capacity, "but if we shift capacity from one type of syringe to another or attempt to expand capacity for specialized immunization syringes, it takes time and investment."

Syringe availability

Syringe availability has to be looked at in terms of global market dynamics, where a constraint on syringe supply would be made worse by export restrictions and transportation problems that have affected many health products.

One serious result of a shortage could be delays in routine immunizations and other health services.

"Here, we are talking about the injections that we give as part of normal health care," said Hedman.

"It could have a public health impact for years to come if we have a generation of children who don't routinely receive childhood vaccinations."

Another problem she cited is the potential for the very unsafe practice of reusing syringes and needles, a problem historically linked to when there are not enough syringes and needles.

"Let's go further into this one. Injections are the most commonly practiced invasive medical procedure. The total is a larger number," said the WHO adviser.

16B injections annually

"We have over 16 billion injections per year, counting vaccines and injectable medicines to treat diseases, and then with COVID-19 vaccines, we move to well over 22 billion. We need to be clear and definite about avoiding this risk."

Regarding syringe manufacturing, Hedman said the vast majority of exports come from both India and China.

In some cases, they come from national producers, and in others, they're affiliated with global suppliers.

Hedman added that there is syringe production almost on every continent.

The WHO adviser said that when it comes to syringes, the world must pay attention to waste management, "making sure that the sharps waste is also planned."

"This means that we have to dispose of the increased amount of sharps waste in a safe and responsible manner to avoid risk at the point of disposal where people can be exposed to unclean needles in their work or waste collection sites," Hedman also noted./aa

US economy would be unable to reach its potential if inequities prevent some Americans from full participation in the labor market, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday.

The coronavirus pandemic-led recession had adversely affected workers who were finally beginning to experience the benefits of a period of historically long economic growth, but they had to "disproportionately shoulder the brunt of the pandemic's burden," he said at the Conference on Diversity and Inclusion in Economics, Finance, and Central Banking.

Although most inequities are beyond the power of the Fed's monetary policy, Powell said one of its mandates, given by the US Congress, is to achieve maximum employment in the labor market for a strong and stable economy.

Powell said the Fed looks at a wide range of indicators when it assesses maximum employment, adding the central bank officials are attentive to disparities in the labor market, rather than just headline numbers.

"Diversity and inclusion play a role in policymaking as well. As policymakers working on behalf of the entire public, we benefit greatly by seeking out and listening to the perspectives and experiences of people who represent the diverse landscape of the economy," he noted./aa

European banks and banking supervision provided resilience and flexibility during the coronavirus pandemic, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said Tuesday.

"Unlike past crisis, banks were not part of the problem. They were part of the solution," she said via webcast at the ECB Forum on Banking Supervision in Frankfurt, Germany.

Stressing that banks were in a strong financial position during the start of the pandemic and strengthened the common response to the crisis, she said "We saw the sharpest contraction in output ever recorded, and one of the steepest recoveries ever observed" during the pandemic.

Lagarde laid out three key areas where European banking supervision provided a valuable response to the COVID-19 crisis.

First, European supervision ensured the entire banking system built resilience during the run-up to the pandemic through having a common rulebook and set of standards in Europe.

Second, European supervision leveraged banks' strong financial positions to unlock lending across the EU when the economy urgently needed it.

"The combined response allowed banks to rapidly funnel liquidity to the economy. Between March and May 2020, bank lending to companies in the Euro area rose by almost €250 billion ($289.3 billion), the largest jump on record in any three-month period," she said.

Lagarde noted that European supervision also recommended suspending dividend payments to ensure capital was not flowing out of the banking sector but used to support the economy.

And third, European supervision ensured the consistency of those measures across the banking sector.

"Having a single supervisor meant that bold collective action could be taken to reduce banks’ natural incentives to retrench and cut lending to the economy during a recession. And crucially, that action could happen in all countries simultaneously and with breakneck speed," she told./aa

At least 7.3 million people in war-torn Yemen need shelter and non-food assistance, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday.

On Twitter, the UNHCR Yemen Office said 7.3 million Yemenis "require shelter & non-food assistance," with 75% being women and children.

The agency added that an exhibition was being organized on Tuesday in the capital Sanaa, aimed at "presenting solutions to the soaring shelter needs."

Yemen has been engulfed by violence and instability since 2014, when Iran-aligned Houthi rebels captured much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

A Saudi-led coalition aimed at reinstating the Yemeni government has worsened the situation, causing one of the world’s worst man-made humanitarian crises with 233,000 people killed, nearly 80% or about 30 million needing humanitarian assistance and protection, and more than 13 million in danger of starvation, according to UN estimates./agencies