Tackling Corporate Fraud: For more Transparency in Global Trade

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The motto of the World Economic Forum 2025 ‘Collaboration for the intelligent age’ makes it clear: the fight against money laundering and financial crime through transparency and secure company identification.

Davos. – In the shadows of the global economy, criminal activities continue to thrive. The scale, sophistication, and impact of corporate fraud have reached unprecedented levels worldwide. The global economy is determined to confront these challenges head-on.

Under the theme “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age,” the World Economic Forum 2025 in Davos focuses on global cooperation and technological innovation. Among the key voices, Alexandre Kech, the newly appointed CEO of the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF), demonstrates how the fight against financial crime can be revolutionized. GLEIF, a nonprofit organization founded by the Financial Stability Board of the G20, is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.

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Mali: Algeria is interfering in internal Affairs

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The Military Government of Mali accuses the Algerian leadership of “persistent interference” in its internal affairs. According to moroccoworldnews.com the Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf had stated that Mali’s military strategy was failing in the fight against terrorism and that a political solution would be necessary. “Mali neither seeks nor accepts lessons from Algeria, which, in recent history, conducted its fight against terrorism in full sovereignty,” the statement of the Mali Foreign Ministry said.

In December last year, the Malian government had summoned its ambassador to Algeria and accused Algiers to host meetings with “terrorists”, that are hostile towards Mali’s government.


Chad: 1st Parliamentary Election in more than 10 years

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Chad

Map: Everest700, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Berlin. – The citizens of the Central African nation Chad are voting on Sunday in parliamentary, regional and municipal elections for the first time in more than a decade. The military government had the elections delayed serveral times, due to «financial problems» and the Covid-19 pandemic. Opposition voices are sceptical whether the Central African country is really on a democratic path.

Officials in the capital N’djamena declared, that the election will formally end a three-year «transitional period» after the death of the former leader Idriss Deby, who died in the 2021. His son forcefully took over. Mahamat Idriss Deby was confirmed as the country’s president after an election in May.

Many opposition party members are boycotting the polls. They called them a «masquerade» and accused the Debry government and his «Patriotic Salvation Movement» (MPS) of trying to legitimise a «political dynasty».

Chad is one of Africa’s poorest countries, ruled by the Deby family since 1991. It is first of the coup-hit states in the Sahel region to hold elections. But human rights groups said without full opposition participation, the election could not be free and fair.

«It will be difficult to have a credible election without inclusivity,» Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International’s country director in Nigeria, told Al Jazeera. «That some are boycotting the election shows that there must be a review of the process and system to ensure that a level playing field is provided to accommodate all Chadians.»

The Elections

According to Al Jazeera,

  • some 8.3 million registered voters of the country’s 18-million population will vote for legislators in the country’s 188-seat parliament. Parties need 95 seats for a majority.
  • More than 100 political parties have put forward some 1,100 candidates for the parliamentary elections. Winners are elected by a first-past-the-post or a more-than-half majority method, depending on the constituency size.
  • Voters will also choose regional and local governments across 22 regions and the capital, N’Djamena.

The Transformers Party, as well as other opposition parties, are boycotting the elections. The argue that the vote will be neither free nor fair.

Mali: Military Regime kills 8 Tuareg leaders in the country’s north

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Drone strikes by the Military Regime have “killed eight Tuareg rebel leaders in the town of Tinzaouatine” in the north of Mali, africanews reports reffering to a rebel spokesman. It has been “the first time since the start of the rebellion in 2012, that so many Taureg leaders have been killed in a single attack,” the story reads.

Read also:
=> Mali cuts TV news station’s signal over broadcast criticizing Burkina Faso’s ruling junta
=> The Fateful Alliance: Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger

“Die Welt steht in Flammen”

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UNO braucht 2025 47 Milliarden US-Dollar für humanitäre Hilfe

Genf (epo.de). – Im kommenden Jahr sind rund 305 Millionen Menschen auf humanitäre Hilfe angewiesen, warnen die Vereinten Nationen. In einem globalen Appell für 2025 ruft die UNO die internationalen Geldgeber dazu auf, 47 Milliarden US-Dollar zur Verfügung zu stellen.

Das Geld werde benötigt, um Lebensmittel, Medikamente und andere Hilfsgüter für Menschen in 32 Ländern und Krisengebieten zur Verfügung zu stellen, so die UNO. Besonders bedürftige Länder sind der Sudan, Syrien sowie der Gazastreifen.

UNO-Nothilfekoordinator Tom Fletcher erklärte bei der Vorstellung des Appells in Genf, die Welt stehe in Flammen. Man werde sich darauf konzentrieren müssen, diejenigen zu erreichen, die es am nötigsten hätten. Für gut ein Drittel der Bedürftigen werde man realistischerweise keine Hilfe finanzieren können.

Flechter beklagte, von den für 2024 benötigten 50 Milliarden Dollar seien bis November nur 43 Prozent eingegangen. Dies sei eine der schlechtesten Quoten in der Geschichte der UNO.

=> 305 million people need lifesaving help next year, says UN’s top aid official

We have the satellite data to show climate change is real. Now what?

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Image credit: NASA/NOAA


“Since 1972, the U.S Geological Survey Landsat Earth Observation satellites have been providing scientists and policy makers with up to date data on a range of features of Earth’s surface, and the picture being painted is a grim one. Earth’s surface is changing rapidly: polar ice caps are shrinking, highly biodiverse areas are being destroyed , and oceans are growing increasingly polluted, among a raft of other environmental changes. 

However, given the volume and availability of data that satellites have captured informing us of the ongoing impacts of human activity on Earth’s surface, an important question has to be asked — why has this knowledge not led to large-scale environmental action?”

=> Read more on space.com …

Record temperatures in southern Greenland

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Image of the Arctic by European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery

Image: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery

The Arctic is warming up at a rate higher than the global average temperature. Both 2022 and 2023 were among the warmest years on record for the region. During the night of 22 September 2024, the air temperature in the town of Narsarsuaq in southern Greenland reached a record high of 15.3°C, Copernicus, the Earth observation component of the European Union’s Space programme, reported on Sept. 25.

According to Copernicus, this was the hottest September night in the history of the area, and one of the highest minimum temperatures ever recorded in Greenland.

High temperatures continued throughout the following days. Narsarsuaq recorded an unusual maximum air temperature of 18.9°C on 23 September, and the nearby town of Frederikshaab reached 16.9°C. The area around Frederikshaab is visible in this image acquired by Copernicus Sentinel-2 on 23 September 2024.

The Copernicus Sentinel satellites play a key role in monitoring remote areas around the world, including the Arctic, providing in particular important information on the impacts of climate change on the cryosphere.

Source: Copernicus

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Bill Gates: “I don’t plant trees”.

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Screenshot of a Video with Bill Gates

Gates says in a New York Times video on X that it’s “complete nonsense” to think that tree planting could solve climate change. And he asks: “Are we the science people or are we the idiots?”

{Post on X by James Melville (@JamesMelville)}.

Decide by yourself.

Middle East: The Upcoming Regional War?

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IDF airstrikes on Lebanon after Hezbollah fires hundreds of rockets on Israel in response to killing of military commander Fuad Shukr

Israel’s military launched air raids across southern Lebanon and Hezbollah carried out a large drone and rocket attack, saying the barrage was in retaliation for the Israeli military’s killing of its commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut in July. => Al Jazeera

Israel stages heavy airstrikes on Lebanon as Hezbollah launches attack over slain top commander (AP via Yahoo)

Hezbollah says ‘fired 320 Katyusha rockets at Israel’; Tel Aviv launches air strikes in southern Lebanon | Hindustan Times

Malaria on the Move

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Logo World Mosquito Program

With World Mosquito Day this week, one.org has a look at a disease they carry: malaria, a silent but lethal killer. Shark attacks get a lot of headlines (and even their own popular TV series). But Mosquito Week quietly happens every week in many parts of the world, reports one.org. Mosquitos kill more people in one day than sharks have killed in the last 100 years. The vast majority of those are young children in Africa: half a million children under age 5 in Africa die each year from malaria. => Read «Aftershocks — Incisive insights on Africa» on one.org …