Colombia coal exports plummet after ban on Israel sales

Colombia’s coal exports fell by almost half in July compared to the same month last year, official figures showed Wednesday, amid a global price crisis and days after President Gustavo Petro’s ban on sales to Israel.Colombia is Latin America’s leading coal producer but the sector has contracted for five consecutive quarters due to the collapse of international prices and domestic policies. The country exported $479.8 million worth of coal in July, a 45.8 percent drop from the $885.8 million sold during July 2024, according to the National Administrative Department of Statistics.Local mining unions blame increased production in Indonesia that has driven down global prices.Last month, Petro issued a second decree for Colombia to halt coal exports to Israel in protest against its deadly war in Gaza, renewing a June 2024 edict. Colombia was previously Israel’s top coal supplier. In a broader push for sustainability, the leftist president has imposed higher taxes on coal with a view to moving his country toward renewable energies.  Since coming to power in 2022, Petro has also halted several mining projects and instead promoted agriculture and tourism as alternative sectors for the roughly 350,000 people employed in mineral exploration. But some miners have told AFP they fear losing their jobs, while towns whose economies depend on the industry are also feeling the impact.”The government wants to end mining … but they don’t think about us,” said Jorge Noriega, a 60-year-old worker at a coal mine in Tausa, a town about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from capital Bogota. El Cerrejon, Colombia’s largest coal mine operated by Anglo-Swiss firm Glencore, said in March it would reduce its production by 50 percent due to high operating costs. 

Guyana: le président sortant Irfaan Ali réélu pour gérer la manne pétrolière

Le chef d’Etat du Guyana, Irfaan Ali, a annoncé mercredi à l’AFP avoir remporté la présidentielle de ce petit pays d’Amérique du sud qui dispose des plus grandes réserves de pétrole par habitant de la planète. Le dirigeant de centre-gauche, 45 ans, a fait la promesse de sortir le pays de 850.000 habitats de la pauvreté grâce à la manne pétrolière. Il devra aussi gérer l’épineux dossier de l’Essequibo, la région au riche sous-sol que réclame son voisin géant le Venezuela.”Les chiffres sont clairs. Le PPP/Civic (son parti, centre gauche) a remporté une victoire écrasante. Nous avons une grande majorité et nous sommes prêts à faire avancer le pays”, a-t-il dit dans une brève déclaration par téléphone.La Commission électorale (Gecom) n’a pas encore publié de résultats de l’élection de lundi et doit procéder des comptages jeudi à partir de 8H00 (12H00 GMT).Selon les observateurs internationaux, tant du Carter Center que de l’Union européenne, les élections ont été pluralistes sans “irrégularité significatives” le jour de vote mais avec un “avantage indu” pour M. Ali qui a “faussé le terrain de jeu” pendant la campagne en procédant notamment à de nombreuses inaugurations.”En raison de sa nouvelle richesse (…) le monde a les yeux tournés vers le Guyana (…). Le Guyana sera bientôt un pays riche, et la question est de savoir s’il sera un pays riche peuplé de pauvres ou s’il sera un pays riche fondé sur une démocratie qui n’exclut pas les gens du système”, a souligné mercredi Jason Carter, chef de la mission d’observation du Carter Center.Les rentrées pétrolières ont permis de quadrupler en cinq ans le budget de l’Etat (6,7 milliards de dollars en 2025) avec la plus forte croissance économique d’Amérique latine (43,6% en 2024). Celle-ci devrait dépasser les deux chiffres en 2025. Le Guyana, qui a commencé l’exploitation pétrolière en 2019, espère faire passer sa production de 650.000 barils par jour à plus d’un million en 2030.- Coût de la vie -M. Ali, qui a fait campagne sur ses réalisations, a assuré qu’il y avait “plus à faire”, promettant une politique d’investissement dans les infrastructures mais aussi des hausses de salaires et de retraites ainsi qu’une réduction du prix de l’électricité. Opposition et société civile ont elles déploré un coût de la vie qui a explosé. “Nous avons une richesse qui entre dans ce pays comme jamais auparavant : les gens sont toujours pauvres”, avait critiqué l’opposante Amanzia Walton-Desir, candidate à la présidentielle, accusant aussi le pouvoir de “corruption”. La veille de l’élection, le Guyana avait dénoncé des coups de feu tirés sur un de ses bateaux depuis la rive vénézuélienne de la rivière Cuyuni, qui constitue une des frontières entre les deux pays. Caracas a accusé son voisin de vouloir “créer un front de guerre” alors que les Etats-Unis ont déployé des navires de guerre dans les Caraïbes et affirmé avoir frappé un bateau suspecté de transporter de la drogue au large du Venezuela. M. Ali soutient le déploiement américain.L’élection à un tour couronne comme président la tête de liste du parti –en l’occurrence le Parti populaire Progressiste/Civic– qui a recueilli le plus de voix. Il faudra attendre une annonce de Gecom pour connaitre la composition exacte du Parlement, qui pourrait conduire à une coalition d’opposition.Selon certains médias locaux, le populiste Azruddin Mohamed, parfois surnommé le “Trump Guyanien” pourrait avoir créé a surprise. Le milliardaire, qui fait l’objet de sanctions américaines pour évasion fiscale, et son parti WIN (Gagner/Nous investissons dans la nation) arriveraient deuxième du scrutin. Ils bouleverseraient ainsi le vote traditionnellement bi-partite du pays qui suivait des lignes ethniques indo-guyaniennes pour le parti de M. Ali, et afro-guyaniennes pour l’opposant Aubrey Norton (APNU, Partenariat pour une nouvelle unité, gauche), le grand perdant du scrutin.

Aux Etats-Unis, les Etats républicains et démocrates se divisent sur les vaccins

La Floride a annoncé mercredi vouloir supprimer toutes les obligations vaccinales, y compris pour les écoliers, au moment où la Californie forme une “alliance sanitaire” contre les politiques antivax, dans un contexte de forte division entre Etats pro et anti-Trump.Depuis le retour au pouvoir du président républicain Donald Trump, les Etats-Unis ont amorcé, sous la houlette du ministre de la Santé, Robert Kennedy Jr., une refonte de la politique vaccinale, restreignant par exemple l’accès aux vaccins contre le Covid-19 ou coupant des fonds pour la recherche.Dans ce sillage, le plus haut responsable de la santé de Floride a comparé les obligations vaccinales à de l'”esclavage”.Les autorités locales vont “s’efforcer de mettre fin à toutes les obligations vaccinales en Floride, toutes sans exception, jusqu’à la dernière”, a déclaré Joseph Ladapo, devant un public enthousiaste à l’école chrétienne Grace Christian School, dans le centre de cet Etat républicain, où se situe la fameuse résidence Mar-a-Lago du président Trump.”Qui suis-je, moi qui me tiens ici devant vous, pour vous dire ce que vous devez mettre dans votre corps? Qui suis-je pour vous dire ce que votre enfant doit mettre dans son corps? Je n’ai pas ce droit. Votre corps est un don de Dieu”, a lancé ce médecin connu pour son opposition aux vaccins contre le Covid-19.- “Enfants en danger” -Si cette mesure venait à s’appliquer, la Floride deviendrait le premier Etat américain à abandonner les obligations vaccinales, pourtant considérées comme ayant permis d’éradiquer des maladies comme la rougeole, les oreillons, la rubéole, la polio et l’hépatite B.Pour Amesh Adalja, expert en maladies infectieuses à l’université Johns Hopkins, l’annonce de la Floride relève d'”une capitulation servile devant le mouvement nihiliste antivaccins”.”Les vaccins sont sûrs, efficaces et sauvent des vies”, abonde l’épidémiologiste Syra Madad. Selon elle, supprimer la vaccination obligatoire à l’école revient à “mettre en danger les enfants et des millions d’autres personnes”.Mercredi, plus d’un millier d’employés et anciens employés du ministère américain de la Santé ont signé une lettre adressée aux parlementaires demandant la démission de Robert Kennedy Jr., accusé de “mettre en danger” la population.Les critiques contre les vaccins se sont amplifiées ces dernières années, alimentées par de fausses allégations comme celles les associant à l’autisme. Mais les conservateurs ont toujours été plus enclins à demander des exemptions pour des raisons religieuses.En 2025, les Etats-Unis ont connu leur pire épidémie de rougeole en plus de trois décennies. – “Politisation de la science” -A l’opposé du spectre politique, trois Etats démocrates ont riposté mercredi en annonçant la formation d’une “alliance sanitaire”, en “réponse” au limogeage la semaine dernière de Susan Monarez, qui était à la tête de la principale agence sanitaire du pays.Accusant le gouvernement Trump de “politisation de la science”, les dirigeants démocrates de la Californie, de l’Oregon et de l’Etat de Washington ont expliqué dans un communiqué vouloir fournir à leurs résidents des recommandations vaccinales ainsi que des informations sur l’efficacité et la sûreté des vaccins “élaborées par des scientifiques, des médecins et d’autres responsables de santé publique de confiance”.Ce n’est pas la première fois que le gouverneur de la Californie, Gavin Newsom, s’érige contre le gouvernement de Donald Trump, de nombreux observateurs le considérant comme un futur candidat sérieux à la présidentielle.En juin, lors des manifestations anti-Trump de Los Angeles, Gavin Newsom s’était opposé au déploiement de l’armée par le président, qui a menacé d’imposer cette même mesure à d’autres Etats démocrates. Plus récemment, le dirigeant démocrate est entré dans une bataille des cartes électorales initiée par l’Etat républicain du Texas, avec pour chacun l’objectif de favoriser son camp respectif.

Jury tells Google to pay $425 mn over app privacy

A US federal jury on Wednesday ordered Google to pay about $425 million for gathering information from smartphone app use even when people opted for privacy settings, the company confirmed.”This case is about Google’s illegal interception of consumers’ private activity on consumer mobile applications (apps),” attorneys for the plaintiffs charged in a class action suit filed in July 2020.The jury verdict came at the end of a trial in San Francisco, and a day after a federal judge in Washington, DC, handed the internet giant a victory by rejecting the government’s demand that Google sell its Chrome web browser as part of a major antitrust case.”This decision misunderstands how our products work, and we will appeal it,” Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in a statement. “Our privacy tools give people control over their data, and when they turn off personalization, we honor that choice.”In the smartphone app privacy suit, plaintiffs argued that Google intercepted, tracked, collected and sold users’ mobile app activity data regardless of what privacy settings they chose.”Google’s privacy promises and assurances are blatant lies,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys said in the lawsuit.Google has long been under pressure to balance targeting money-making ads at the heart of its financial success with protecting the privacy of users.The Silicon Valley giant has been striving to replace online activity tracking “cookies” with a mechanism less invasive but equally effective.Cookies are small files saved to browsers by websites that can collect data about users’ online activity, making them essential to online advertising and the business models of many large platforms.France’s data protection authority on Wednesday issued record fines against Google and fast-fashion platform Shein for failing to respect the law on internet cookies.The two groups, each with tens of millions of users in France, received two of the heaviest penalties ever imposed by the CNIL watchdog: 150 million euros ($175 million) for Shein and 325 million euros for Google.Both firms failed to secure users’ free and informed consent before setting advertising cookies on their browsers, the authority found in a decision the companies can still appeal.Google said it would study the decision and that it has complied with earlier CNIL demands.Wednesday’s fine against Google is the third issued by the CNIL over the search giant’s use of cookies, after paying 100 million euros in 2020 and 150 million in 2021.

Days after quake, Afghan survivors still await aid

Rescue teams struggled Wednesday to reach survivors days after a powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan left more than 1,400 people dead, as access to remote areas remained obstructed.A magnitude-6.0 shallow earthquake hit the mountainous region bordering Pakistan late Sunday, collapsing mud-brick homes on families as they slept.Fearful of the near-constant aftershocks, people huddled in the open or struggled to unearth those trapped under the heaps of flattened buildings.The earthquake killed at least 1,469 people and injured more than 3,700, according to the latest toll from Taliban authorities, making it one of the deadliest in decades to hit the impoverished country.UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said on X that the quake had “affected more than 500,000 people” in eastern Afghanistan. The vast majority of the casualties were in Kunar province, with a dozen dead and hundreds hurt in nearby Nangarhar and Laghman provinces.Access remained difficult, as aftershocks caused rockfall, stymying access to already isolated villages and keeping families outdoors for fear of the remains of damaged homes collapsing on them.- ‘Everyone is afraid’ -“Everyone is afraid and there are many aftershocks,” Awrangzeeb Noori, 35, told AFP from the village of Dara-i-Nur in Nangarhar province. “We spend all day and night in the field without shelter.”The non-governmental group Save the Children said one of its aid teams “had to walk for 20 kilometres (12 miles) to reach villages cut off by rock falls, carrying medical equipment on their backs with the help of community members”.The World Health Organization said Wednesday it was scaling up its emergency response to address the “immense” needs and that it required more resources in order to “prevent further losses”.WHO has appealed for $4 million to deliver lifesaving health interventions and expand mobile health services and supply distribution.”Every hour counts,” WHO emergency team lead in Afghanistan Jamshed Tanoli said in a statement. “Hospitals are struggling, families are grieving and survivors have lost everything.”The Taliban government’s deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat told AFP that areas which had taken days to reach had been finally accessed.”We cannot determine the date for finishing the operation in all areas as the area is very mountainous and it is very difficult to reach every area.”ActionAid noted that women and girls were particularly vulnerable in emergencies as they face steep restrictions under the Taliban authorities.Residents of Jalalabad, the nearest city to the epicentre, donated money and goods including blankets. “I am a simple labourer and I came here to help the earthquake victims because I felt very sad for them,” said resident Mohammad Rahman. – Deepening crisis -Around 85 percent of the Afghan population lives on less than one dollar per day, according to the United Nations.After decades of conflict, Afghanistan faces endemic poverty, severe drought and the influx of millions of Afghans forced back to the country by neighbours Pakistan and Iran in the years since the Taliban takeover.Even as the country reeled from its latest disaster, Pakistan began a new push to expel Afghans, with more than 6,300 people crossing the Torkham border point in Nangarhar province Tuesday.”Given the circumstances, I appeal to the (Pakistan government) to pause the implementation of the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan,” UNHCR chief Grandi said.The Norwegian Refugee Council also cautioned that “forcing Afghans to return will only deepen the crisis”.It is the third major earthquake since the Taliban authorities took power in 2021, but there are even fewer resources for the cash-strapped government’s response after the United States slashed assistance to the country when President Donald Trump took office in January.Even before the earthquake, the United Nations estimated it had obtained less than a third of the funding required for operations countrywide.In two days, the Taliban government’s defence ministry said it organised 155 helicopter flights to evacuate around 2,000 injured and their relatives to regional hospitals.Fitrat said a camp had been set up in Khas Kunar district to coordinate emergency aid, while two other sites were opened near the epicentre “to oversee the transfer of the injured, the burial of the dead, and the rescue of survivors”.Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, with the country still recovering from previous disasters.Western Herat province was devastated in October 2023 by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake, which killed more than 1,500 people and damaged or destroyed more than 63,000 homes.

Trump proposes sending US troops to New Orleans

US President Donald Trump floated the idea Wednesday of deploying troops to the southern tourist hub of New Orleans, as he targets Democratic-run cities in a high-profile crackdown on crime.The Republican leader has touted his campaign against what he describes as high-crime cities flooded with undocumented immigrants, so far sending troops to Los Angeles and the capital Washington over the objections of local officials.Critics say Trump is overstepping his powers in ordering troops to carry out duties, including arrests and search and seizures, typically handled by local police and immigration agents.”So we’re making a determination now, do we go to Chicago or do we go to a place like New Orleans, where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that’s become … quite tough, quite bad,” the US president told reporters at the White House.Trump vowed he could get New Orleans under control “in about two weeks.”Landry, a Trump ally, responded enthusiastically on X, saying, “We will take President @realDonaldTrump’s help from New Orleans to Shreveport!”Though much of Louisiana is staunchly Republican, the state’s largest city of New Orleans is deeply Democratic, with pockets of severe poverty contributing to its crime rate.Like other cities targeted by Trump in his crackdown and in keeping with national trends, New Orleans has recorded sharp declines in murders and other violent crimes this year.”Militarizing the streets of New Orleans is not a solution,” Democratic US congressman Troy Carter, who represents New Orleans and surrounding areas, said on X.”If the President wants to provide federal resources to the City, I’ll work with him to provide funding to recruit and better train police officers, better fund our district attorney, fix the infrastructure at Orleans Parish Prison and fund the very programs he has cut that get at the root cause of crime: systemic poverty.”On Wednesday, Landry also appeared alongside Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and US Attorney General Pam Bondi at a press conference outside of the Angola prison to announce a new facility there to separately house up to 400 immigrants convicted of crimes.”Angola is the largest maximum security prison in the country, with 18,000 acres bordered by the Mississippi River, swamps filled with alligators and forests filled with bears. Nobody really wants to leave the place,” Landry told reporters. “The idea is to consolidate the worst of the worst, criminal illegal aliens, gang members, rapists, drug dealers, human smugglers that have no place in this country.”Trump had been focusing most of his recent military deployment threats on the Democratic stronghold of Chicago, which he described Tuesday as a “hellhole” ravaged by gun crime.JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of the state of Illinois where Chicago is located, responded that Trump is “producing a political drama to cover up for his corruption.”Trump has also proposed putting boots on the ground in New York and Baltimore.