After more than a decade of negotiations, a new round of talks to finalize a code to regulate deep-sea mining in international waters begins Monday in Jamaica, with hopes high for adoption this year.The International Seabed Authority (ISA), an independent body established in 1994 under a UN convention, has been working since 2014 on the new rules for developing mineral resources on the ocean floor.The huge task has gathered pace, under pressure from corporate concerns eager to cash in on the untapped minerals.Canada’s The Metals Company plans to file the first commercial mining license request in June, through its subsidiary Nori (Nauru Ocean Resources Inc.), which hopes to extract polymetallic nodules from the Pacific.Here is a look at the proposed rules, and why they have sparked intense debate:- What does this mining code entail? -Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the ISA must both oversee any exploration or mining of coveted resources (such as cobalt, nickel, or manganese) in international waters, and protect the marine environment.For activists worried about the protection of hard-to-reach ocean ecosystems, this twin mandate is nonsensical. Some groups, and more and more countries, are asking for a moratorium on seabed mining.With no consensus, the ISA-led negotiations have continued.The ISA Council, made up of 36 of the authority’s 169 member states, will spend the next two weeks trying to bridge the gaps on finalizing the code.They are working from a 250-page “consolidated text” already riddled with parenthetical changes, and comments on disagreements.But then there are dozens of amendments filed by countries, companies and non-governmental organizations.Emma Wilson of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition told AFP there were “over 2,000 textual elements that are still being discussed — and that those debates were  “not close to being resolved.”- How would seabed mining work? -Any entity wishing to obtain a contract to mine the ocean floor must be sponsored by a specific country.Those applications for mining licenses would first go through the ISA’s legal and technical commission, which NGOs say is too pro-industry and opaque. The commission would evaluate the financial, technical and environmental aspects of the proposed plans, and then make a recommendation to the ISA Council, the final decision-maker.But some worry that rules already set by UNCLOS would make it too difficult to reject any favorable recommendations.The draft code calls for initial contracts lasting 30 years, followed up with extensions of five years at a time.- What about environmental protection? -Potential mining companies must conduct a survey of the possible environmental risks of their activities, but details on these surveys are still up in the air, with negotiators not yet even agreed on how to define the terms. More and more countries, along with NGOs, highlight that even the idea of surveying potential impact is effectively impossible, given the lack of scientific data about the zones. And some Pacific states insist that the code explicitly state the need to protect “underwater cultural heritage,” but that is under debate.- What about compliance? -The draft text calls for inspections and evaluations for deep-sea mining companies, but how such a system would work is under debate. Some even think such mechanisms are ultimately not all that feasible.- Will there be profit-sharing? -Under UNCLOS, resources on the ocean floor are seen as the “common heritage of mankind.”The mining code under consideration stipulates that each company must pay royalties to the ISA based on the value of the metals. But what percentage should they pay?A working group has proposed royalties of anywhere from three to 12 percent, while African states believe 40 percent is more just.

President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday began mass layoffs at Voice of America and other US-funded media, making clear its intent to gut outlets long seen as critical for US influence.Just a day after all employees were put on leave, staff working on a contractual basis received an email notifying them that they were terminated at the end of March.The email, confirmed to AFP by several employees, told contractors that “you must cease all work immediately and are not permitted to access any agency buildings or systems.”Contractors make up much of VOA’s workforce and dominate staffing in the non-English language services, although recent figures were not immediately available.Many contractors are not US citizens, meaning they likely depend on their soon-to-disappear jobs for visas to stay in the United States.Full-time VOA staff, who have more legal protections, were not immediately terminated but remain on administrative leave and have been told not to work.Voice of America, created during World War II, broadcast around the world in 49 languages with a mission to reach countries without media freedom. Trump signed an executive order Friday targeting VOA’s parent US Agency for Global Media in his latest sweeping cuts to the federal government.The agency had 3,384 employees in the 2023 fiscal year. It had requested $950 million for the current fiscal year.With VOA in limbo, some of its services have switched to playing music for lack of new programming.The sweeping cuts also froze Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, formed in the Cold War to reach the former Soviet bloc, and Radio Free Asia, established to provide reporting to China, North Korea and other Asian countries with heavily restricted media.Other US-funded outlets being gutted include Radio Farda, a Persian-language broadcaster blocked by Iran’s government, and Alhurra, an Arabic-language network established after the Iraq invasion in the face of highly critical coverage by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera.The White House in a statement Saturday said that “taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda,” a charge rarely leveled before Trump at staid VOA, long aimed at countering communism.Trump regularly criticizes media coverage of him and has questioned the wisdom of funding VOA when it has a “firewall” ensuring its editorial independence.The cuts come as China and Russia invest heavily in state media to compete with Western narratives, with China often offering free content to outlets in the developing world.In an editorial on the demise of VOA, China’s state-run Global Times said that “the monopoly of information held by some traditional Western media is being shattered.””As more Americans begin to break through their information cocoons and see a real world and a multidimensional China, the demonizing narratives propagated by VOA will ultimately become a laughingstock of the times,” it said.

Colombia’s defense minister on Sunday warned Donald Trump’s administration against blacklisting his country for failing to curb drug exports, saying the decision would bring yet more cocaine to the United States.Washington is currently weighing whether to “decertify” Colombia as a partner in the battle against drugs, a move that could restrict millions in US military aid and be a hammer blow to Colombia’s reputation.In an interview with AFP, recently appointed defense minister Pedro Sanchez said decertification would mean “we simply lose the ability to contain the threat.”  “Not being able to contain it would go against the interests of the United States. Because more cocaine would arrive and the United States would not be stronger, more prosperous, or safer.” “Fracturing relations and cooperation between our states is an opportunity for drug trafficking,” Sanchez insisted. Colombia has launched a diplomatic offensive to avoid blacklisting ahead of a September US review. But many officials are privately pessimistic that blacklisting can be avoided, putting at risk nearly half a billion dollars in annual US funding. Since President Gustavo Petro came to power in 2022, the area under coca cultivation has increased by about 70 percent, according to Colombian government and UN estimates. Trump has taken a hardline stance against drugs entering the United States from Mexico and Canada, hitting both countries with tariffs as apparent punishment. And there is no love lost between Trump and Colombia’s similarly pugilistic president Petro. The pair recently got into a spat on social media over migrant deportations, prompting Trump to threaten sanctions on Colombia. – Plan Colombia -The United States has poured billions of dollars into Colombia’s security forces over decades, helping to beat back insurgent groups and cartels that produce 90-plus percent of cocaine in the United States. But Petro’s signature policy of “total peace” has led to fewer military operations against drug-running militias and an abandonment of forced coca eradication. Sanchez admitted that “total peace” had led to an increase in the strength of some armed groups. “They grew because they betrayed the goodwill of the national government,” he said.He revealed that armed fighters had increased by about 1,500 in the last year alone. Decertification would be a major blow to the Colombian military, just as it tries to rebuild strength and retake territory from insurgent leftist guerrilla groups. Sanchez said the military’s capabilities had been degraded in recent years, as military spending had been cut. “They are weaker in certain capabilities, in intelligence, for example. We have fallen a little short in advancing rapidly in disruptive technology, such as drones and anti-drone weapons,” he said.  “We don’t have the same aircraft flying that we had 10 years ago.”The United States decertified Colombia once before, during the presidency of Ernesto Samper, whose 1994 campaign was accused of receiving money from the Cali cartel. Some vital aid was frozen and foreign investment to Colombia dipped.Eventually, the US resumed funding and, with a new government in Bogota, established “Plan Colombia” — a billion-dollar US plan to overhaul the Colombian security services. Despite today’s challenges, Sanchez said the military’s goal was to assert territorial control over all Colombia. ELN guerrillas currently control a swathe of land near the Venezuelan border, where fighting has displaced about 56,000 people. In a recent interview with AFP, ELN commanders vowed to repel a government counteroffensive and said years of “total peace” risk turning into “total war.”Sanchez dismissed the ELN as a “narco-criminal group” and vowed they would be met with “full force.”He also pledged to retake a major coca-growing region in the south of the country, a virtual microstate run by the Estado Mayor Central (Central General Staff). Sanchez admitted retaking territory was a “wicked problem,” but said it would be achieved.  “We’re going to have to make a lot of sacrifice, we’re even going to have tears, but in the end, we’re going to achieve it.”