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Geopolitics

Karachi: 45 Dead, 150 Wounded In Bomb Blast

AFP, BBC (UK), VOICE OF AMERICA (USA)

Worldcrunch

KARACHI – The death toll has reached at least 45, with 150 wounded from a powerful blast in a mainly Shiite Muslim area of Karachi. There are reports that the explosion was set off by Sunni terrorists, although by midday Monday no group had claimed responsibility for the attack in the city of 21 million, Pakistan's largest.

The device was triggered as worshippers were coming out of mosques in Abbas Town, a Shiite neighborhood after Sunday evening prayers.

Authorities and civilians were still digging through the rubble of the holy place and the two partially collapsed apartment blocks on Monday in the search for survivors, reports the BBC.

Pakistan’s largest city was almost completely frozen on Monday, as the local government announced three days of mourning: “There will be no public transport on the roads today,” said Karachi Transporters Association chief Irshad Bokari, quoted by AFP.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is one of the extremist Sunni groups suspected of orchestrating the attack, as they are responsible for a growing number of bombings over the past few years, noted the BBC.

The city and the country have been the theater of many violent ethnic clashes: last year, 2,284 people died due to political, religious and ethnic conflicts in the city alone, reports VOA news.

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Economy

"Fox Guarding Henhouse" — Fury Over UAE Oil Sultan Heading COP Climate Talks

Even with months to go before the next COP, debate rages over who will chair it. Is it a miscalculation or a masterstroke to bring the head of an oil company to the table?

Participants of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin

Leaders, including Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE’s Minister of Industry and CEO of the National Oil Company, at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, held this May in Berlin.

© Imago via ZUMA Press
Ángela Sepúlveda

-Analysis-

The controversy has already begun ahead of the next COP climate conference in November. The 28th United Nations Conference on Climate Change will be hosted by the United Arab Emirates, one of the world's largest producers and exporters of oil.

Not only will the UAE host, but presiding over the conference will be Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE’s Minister of Industry and CEO of the National Oil Company (ADNOC).

“It's like a fox guarding the henhouse,” said Pedro Zorrilla, a spokesperson for Greenpeace Climate Change. Alongside 450 other international organizations, the NGO has signed a letter addressed to UN president António Guterres, calling for Al Jaber’s dismissal.

For the letter's signatories, the Sultan represents "a threat to the legitimacy and effectiveness" of the conference, they write. "If we have any hope of addressing the climate crisis, the COP must not be influenced by the fossil fuel industry, whether that be oil, gas or coal."

The figure of the presidency may only be symbolic, but Zorrilla points out that the president has decision-making power in this type of international meeting, where nations are expected to agree on concrete decisions to curb the climate emergency. "They are the ones who set the agenda."

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