The World Today for July 24, 2023

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The Peace Dividend

UKRAINE

Former American President Donald Trump recently said that, if he resided in the White House again, he could negotiate a peace plan between Russia and Ukraine in a day, the Kyiv Independent noted.

Hyperbole or not, Trump is just the latest of numerous global figures who have made gestures to end the war now raging between Ukraine and Russia.

For example, China released a plan entitled “China’s Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis.” But, as Foreign Policy magazine wrote, the plan was less about ending the war and more about China’s more aggressive stance on the global stage. The plan was designed to expand Chinese influence in developing countries that haven’t been as quick as the West to condemn Russia, reset its relationship with Europe, and make sure China gains from eventual reconstruction efforts in Ukraine.

French and Indian leaders recently met in Paris to discuss security questions, including the war, reported the New Voice of Ukraine, citing the French newspaper Le Monde. Both want to end the war through diplomacy, but India appeared more reluctant than France to play the role of a peace broker between the two.

Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, meanwhile, issued a plan that included a ceasefire, a demilitarized zone between the countries, and United Nations peacekeeping troops. His ideas were likely announced to raise his profile for the upcoming 2024 presidential election, the Asia Times contended.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would have rejected Prabowo’s proposals even if they were serious. As the Jerusalem Post explained, any plan that doesn’t identify Russia as an aggressor and mandate the return of Ukrainian territory will simply create a so-called “frozen conflict”, resembling the worst times in Northern Ireland in the last century, or the constant threat of violence that hangs over the West Bank and Gaza Strip in Israel’s occupied territories.

Meanwhile, Africa also joined the chorus. Recently, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa as well as leaders from Comoros, Egypt, Senegal, Uganda, and Zambia ventured to Moscow to try their hand at peacemaking, Al Jazeera wrote. They announced a plan that centered on de-escalating the military situation, boosting grain exports from both countries that are crucial to Africans’ survival, and returning children displaced by the war to their home countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed their ideas, the Washington Post added.

In a sense, none of these ideas have been sufficiently bold or serious to bring the war to an end, argued University of Birmingham international security professor Stefan Wolff in the Conversation.

He added, however, that if a coalition of big countries like China, India, and Brazil comes up with a sensible plan, things might change.

Until then, it’s all hot air.

THE WORLD, BRIEFLY

The Reversal

BRAZIL

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva passed a decree over the weekend that would tighten gun control rules previously loosened by his conservative predecessor, a move aimed at reducing gun-related violence, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Under the new decree, Brazilians can only buy two guns for self-defense instead of four, while hunters can only own six guns instead of 30. The yearly ammunition allowance for each gun will be reduced from 200 to 50 bullets and 24-hour shooting clubs will be banned.

The presidential decree comes after Lula passed a series of other gun control measures soon after he took office in January, including a ban on individuals carrying loaded weapons in public.

Lula said the decision will “bring the country back to normality” and reduce the number of crimes involving guns while preventing criminal groups from easily accessing weapons.

In Brazil, the issue of firearms control has become highly contentious due to the prevalence of gun-related crimes. In 2017, the country recorded the highest number of homicides worldwide, with a significant portion committed with firearms.

Lula’s predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, relaxed gun laws in the country, including allowing owners to carry loaded firearms as long as they were en route to a shooting club. Weapons sales also soared during Bolsonaro’s presidency and the estimated number of guns in civilian hands more than tripled to 2.9 million in a country of 214 million people, according to Brazilian non-profit Instituto Sou da Paz, the Associated Press added.

Bolsonaro and other conservative politicians had said that Brazilians deserve the right to defend themselves against the country’s heavily armed criminals.

Now, Brazilian gun owners and gun-club proprietors criticized the government’s decision as unfair, adding that they will end up at the mercy of criminals if they can’t train to shoot properly.

Fiddling and Burning

WORLD

The Group of 20 (G20) nations failed to agree on a deal to reduce the use of fossil fuels, the latest sign of global tensions over the role of oil, gas, and coal as the world deals with the effects of climate change, the Financial Times reported Saturday.

The G20 released a summary document following a weekend meeting in Goa, India, saying that some countries supported the need to cut back the use of fossil fuels without the capture of emissions “in line with different national circumstances.”

It added, however, that a group of nations “had different views on the matter” and instead wanted to focus on the development of technology to capture greenhouse gas emissions.

People familiar with the meeting noted that Saudi Arabia and some countries expressed resistance to phasing out fossil fuels.

The summary also said G20 countries did not make any progress on establishing a global goal for renewable energy development.

Saturday’s deadlock comes as countries are experiencing extreme weather events, including severe heatwaves and flooding.

Analysts explained that the impasse underscores the sharp divisions between nations and could put pressure on world leaders at the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP28, scheduled to take place in the United Arab Emirates in December.

According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global emissions must be reduced by 43 percent by 2030 to prevent temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, above pre-industrial levels.

Beyond this threshold, scientists predict irreversible changes to the planet and devastating consequences for populations. Still, the UN Environment Programme suggested the world is on track for a temperature rise of between 4.3 and 4.7 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, with temperatures having already increased by around two degrees Fahrenheit.

Beware of the Dog

FRANCE

A French town will require dog owners to carry “passports” for their animals, after a mayor became fed up with dog feces littering the streets of his southern municipality, the Washington Post reported this week.

Starting in July, dog owners in Béziers will have to register the DNA of their pets by a saliva sample with the local government and carry a document proving they complied with the town’s regulations.

If dog waste is found, the city will test it to identify the responsible pet and charge the owner for its cleanup.

Following a two-month grace period, owners who don’t have a genetic passport will be fined around $43. Meanwhile, people who don’t pick up after their animals will face a bill from the city’s cleaning service of around $136.

Mayor Robert Ménard said the initiative is aimed at highlighting the lack of civility in France and reducing the sanitation costs involved in cleaning up dog feces.

According to the mayoral decree, the city spends more than $89,000 annually cleaning up after dogs. Dog waste can also pose health risks because it can carry microorganisms, including antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Ménard is optimistic about the policy’s effectiveness, citing successful examples from other cities that have implemented such initiatives, such as Tel Aviv, Israel and Valencia, Spain.

Even so, questions remain over the policy’s implementation, the accuracy of DNA tests, and what the costs would be.

DISCOVERIES

The Small, the Mighty

Early mammals living in the age of the dinosaurs were smaller and couldn’t compete with the giant lizards.

But a new study showed that being small didn’t stop one cat-sized mammal from preying on a dinosaur three times its size, CBS News reported.

First discovered in northeastern China in 2012, scientists recently studied the fossilized remains of a mammal and a dinosaur from around 125 million years ago. The unique fossil shows the two creatures “locked in mortal combat,” with the mammal appearing as the aggressor.

Their findings identified the early furry animal as a Repenomamus robustus, which was one of the largest mammals living during the Cretaceous period. The dinosaur was a Psittacosaurus, an herbivore about the size of a large dog.

Paleontologists had previously suggested that R. robustus preyed on dinos after finding fossilized bones found in the mammal’s stomach.

Now, the study provides the first evidence showing actual predatory behavior by a mammal toward a dinosaur.

Co-author John Mallon told New Scientist that it also challenges the “traditional knowledge” that big dinosaurs devoured smaller mammals.

“But what’s so surprising about this fossil is that it suggests, occasionally at least, smaller mammals could take down a larger dinosaur,” he added.

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