Around the World briefs

By Associated Press

A citizen journalist imprisoned for ‘provoking trouble’ by reporting

on COVID in China is released

BANGKOK | Zhang Zhan, a citizen journalist, was released from prison after serving four years for charges related to reporting on the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China, according to a video statement she released Tuesday, eight days after her sentence ended, though there are concerns about how much freedom of movement she has.

Zhang was sentenced to four years in prison on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a vaguely defined charge often used in political cases, and served her full term. Yet, on the day of her release, her former lawyers could not reach her or her family. Shanghai police had paid visits to activists and her former lawyers in the days leading up to her release.

In a short video, Zhang said she was taken by police to her brother Zhang Ju’s home on May 13, the day she finished her sentence.

“I want to thank everyone for their help and concern,” she said in a soft voice, standing in what appeared to be a hallway of an apartment building.

The video was posted by Jane Wang, an overseas activist who launched the Free Zhang Zhan campaign in the United Kingdom and is in contact with one of Zhang’s former lawyers. However, Wang said in a statement that Zhang still has limited freedom. They became concerned that Zhang would be kept under further control by police even if she was no longer in prison.

The United States Department of State also issued a statement of concern over Zhang’s status in the days after she was due to be released.

Ren Quanniu represented Zhang before being stripped of his license in February 2021. He said he confirmed the video was true by speaking with Zhang’s family.

“She’s not free, she’s relatively free,” he said in a message to the AP. “She’s still under the watch and care of the police.”

During her detention at Shanghai’s Women Prison, Zhang staged a hunger strike and was hospitalized at one point in 2021. Zhang’s family, who could often only speak to her by phone, faced police pressure during her incarceration, and her parents refused to speak to news outlets.

Zhang was among a handful of citizen journalists who traveled to the central Chinese city of Wuhan after the government put it under total lockdown in February 2020, in the early days of the pandemic. She walked around the city to document public life as fears grew about the novel coronavirus.

Others spent time in jail for documenting the early days of the pandemic, including Fang Bin, who published videos of overcrowded hospitals and bodies during the outbreak. Fang was sentenced to three years in prison and released in April 2023.

Chen Qiushi, another citizen journalist, disappeared in February 2020 while filming in Wuhan. Chen resurfaced in September 2021 on a friend’s live video feed on YouTube, saying he had suffered from depression. He did not provide details about his disappearance.

The coronavirus remains a sensitive topic in China. In the first week of May, the Chinese scientist who first published a sequence of the COVID-19 virus protested authorities barring him from his lab, after years of demotions and setbacks.

At international energy conference, delegates push to make clean

cooking accessible to all

NAIROBI, Kenya | Participants at a global conference on how to reduce the world’s energy use are calling for universal access to clean cooking through government incentives and subsidies to unlock more private sector funds.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency’s 9th annual conference on energy efficiency brings together ministers, CEOs and thought leaders from around the world to discuss how to speed up progress on energy efficiency, which experts say can drastically reduce planet-warming emissions. On the agenda is how to deliver affordable clean cooking, which involves using electricity, solar and other solutions instead of more polluting fuels like charcoal, wood and kerosene.

“There are many practical barriers to energy efficiency, and of course the barrier of the need for investment up front,” said Brian Motherway, head of IEA’s office of energy efficiency and inclusive transitions. “The key to unlocking efficiency is in the hands of governments – strong, co-ordinated policies by governments will unlock finance and enable business and consumers to take the actions required to lower their bills.”

This year’s conference, which is being held in Nairobi, focuses on accelerating progress towards doubling energy efficiency progress by 2030 as agreed by governments at COP28.

Rashid Abdallah, the executive director of the Africa Energy Commission, said at a panel discussion on Tuesday that “clean cooking should be part of any energy policy” or socio-economic development plan.

Globally, around 2.3 billion people cook using solid biomass fuel – such as wood and charcoal – and kerosene. In Asia, 1.2 billion people lack access to clean cooking facilities, and in Africa, more than 900 million people use biomass as their primary energy source. These energy sources release harmful toxic fumes and smoke that leads to illnesses and deaths and contribute to climate change.

There’s also evidence that household air pollution from cooking with dirty fuels can lead to diabetes and adverse pregnancy outcomes such as stillbirth and low birth weight, said Matt Shupler, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “There are many known health effects,” he said.

Cleaner alternatives include electric and ethanol cookers that emit fewer pollutants.

High prices are an obstacle to making clean, green and affordable cooking available to all, but positive trends are emerging in the sector, with investment in clean cooking enterprises surging to an all-time high of $215 million in 2022 and the number of clean cooking enterprises with revenue exceeding $1 million growing to 11 that same year, according to a report by the Clean Cooking Alliance.

Despite this progress, a huge capital gap remains in achieving universal access to clean cooking by 2030, as IEA estimates that $8 billion is needed annually as investment in clean cooking stoves, equipment and infrastructure to meet the goal.

One of the countries that has significantly scaled up affordable, high quality, clean cooking is Indonesia. In 2007 the government started implementing a program to transition its primary cooking fuel from kerosene to LPG. The proportion of the population with access to clean cooking doubled from 40% in 2010 to 80% in 2018. Regulation and incentives have been key to the program’s success, said Dadan Kusdiana, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Energy and Mineral Resources.

“What we do is to provide the energy with affordability,” he said at a panel discussion on Tuesday. “They need this kind of energy, but they can’t afford it at the commercial price.”

Sherpa guide Kami Rita climbs Mount Everest for his record 30th time, his second one this month

KATHMANDU, Nepal | Renowned Sherpa mountain guide Kami Rita scaled Mount Everest for a record 30th time Wednesday, completing his second climb this month to the top of the world.

Rita reached the 29,032-foot summit at 7:49 a.m., according to Khim Lal Gautam, a government official at the base camp.

His first ascent of this year’s climbing season was on May 12 guiding foreign clients.

“He is in good health and happy to have achieved this record,” said Mingma Sherpa of the expedition Seven Summits Treks, which organized the expedition.

They were able to briefly speak to him while he was on the summit and was in good health condition, Mingma said.

Rita was still descending to the lower camps on the mountain, and Mingma confirmed Rita would not be climbing again this season and likely would travel home in the next few days.

He also climbed Mount Everest twice last year, setting the record for most climbs of the world’s highest mountain on the first and extending it less than a week later.

His closest competitor for the most climbs of Mount Everest is fellow Sherpa guide Pasang Dawa, who has 27 successful ascents of the mountain.

Rita first climbed Everest in 1994 and has been making the trip nearly every year since. He is one of many Sherpa guides whose expertise and skills are vital to the safety and success each year of foreign climbers who seek to stand on top of the mountain.

His father was among the first Sherpa guides. In addition to his Everest climbs, Kami Rita has scaled several other peaks that are among the world’s highest, including K2, Cho Oyu, Manaslu and Lhotse.

Officials said more than 450 climbers have already scaled Mount Everest from the Nepali side of the peak in the south this climbing season, which ends in a few days. Most climbing of Everest and nearby Himalayan peaks is done in April and May when weather conditions are most favorable.

Nepalese authorities issued hundreds of climbing permits to foreign climbers this season, and at least as many local Sherpa guides were accompanying them.

The mountain can also be climbed from China. The official Xinhua news agency reported 70-year-old Wang Jian reached the summit Tuesday, becoming the oldest Chinese person to do so.

Everest was first climbed in 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.

It’s so hot in Mexico that howler monkeys are falling dead from the trees

MEXICO CITY | It’s so hot in Mexico that howler monkeys are falling dead from the trees.

At least 138 of the midsize primates, who are known for their roaring vocal calls, were found dead in the Gulf Coast state of Tabasco since May 16, according to the Biodiversity Conservation of The Usumacinta group. Others were rescued by residents, including five that were rushed to a local veterinarian who battled to save them.

“They arrived in critical condition, with dehydration and fever,” said Dr. Sergio Valenzuela. “They were as limp as rags. It was heatstroke.”

While Mexico’s brutal heat wave has been linked to the deaths of at least 26 people since March, veterinarians and rescuers say it has killed dozens and perhaps hundreds of howler monkeys. Around a third of the country saw highs of 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday.

In the town of Tecolutilla, Tabasco, the dead monkeys started appearing Friday, when a local volunteer fire-and-rescue squad showed up with five of the creatures in the bed of a truck.

Normally quite intimidating, howler monkeys are muscular and some can be as tall as 90 centimeters (3 feet), with tails just as long. Some males weigh more than 13.5 kilograms (30 pounds) and can live up to 20 years. They are equipped with big jaws and a fearsome set of teeth and fangs. But mostly they’re know for their lion-like roars, which bely their size.

“They (the volunteers) asked for help, they asked if I could examine some of the animals they had in their truck,” Valenzuela said Monday. “They said they didn’t have any money, and asked if I could do it for free.”

The veterinarian put ice on their limp little hands and feet, and hooked them up to IV drips with electrolytes.

So far, the monkeys appear to be on the mend. Once listless and easily handled, they are now in cages at Valenzuela’s office. “They’re recovering. They’re aggressive … they’re biting again,” he said, noting that’s a healthy sign for the usually furtive creatures.

Most aren’t so lucky. Wildlife biologist Gilberto Pozo counted about 138 of the animals dead or dying on the ground under trees. The die-off started around May 5 and hit its peak over the weekend.

“They were falling out of the trees like apples,” Pozo said. “They were in a state of severe dehydration, and they died within a matter of minutes.” Already weakened, Pozo says, the falls from dozens of yards (meters) up inflict additional damage that often finishes the monkeys off.

Pozo attributes the deaths to a “synergy” of factors, including high heat, drought, forest fires and logging that deprives the monkeys of water, shade and the fruit they eat, while noting that a pathogen, disease or other factor can’t yet be ruled out.

For people in the steamy, swampy, jungle-covered state of Tabasco, the howler monkey is a cherished, emblematic species; local people say the monkeys tell them the time of day by howling at dawn and dusk.

Pozo said the local people — who he knows through his work with the Biodiversity Conservation of The Usumacinta group — have tried to help the monkeys they see around their farms. But he notes that could be a double-edged sword.

“They were falling out of the trees, and the people were moved, and they went to help the animals, they set out water and fruit for them,” Pozo said. “They want to care for them, mainly the baby monkeys, adopt them.”

“But no, the truth is that babies are very delicate, they can’t be in a house where there are dogs or cats, because they have pathogens that can potentially be fatal for howler monkeys,” he said, stressing they must be rehabilitated and released into the wild.

Pozo’s group has set up a special recovery stations for monkeys — it currently holds five monkeys, but birds and reptiles have also been affected — and is trying to organize a team of specialized veterinarians to give the primates the care they need.

Belatedly, the federal government acknowledged the problem Monday, with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador saying he had heard about it on social media. He congratulated Valenzuela on his efforts and said the government would seek to support the work.

López Obrador acknowledged the heat problem — “I have never felt it as bad as this” — but he has a lot of human problems to deal with as well.

By May 9, at least nine cities in Mexico had set temperature records, with Ciudad Victoria in the border state of Tamaulipas clocking a broiling 47 C (117 F).

With below-average rainfall throughout almost all the country so far this year, lakes and dams are drying up, and water supplies are running out. Authorities have had to truck in water for everything from hospitals to fire-fighting teams. Low levels at hydroelectric dams have contributed to power blackouts in some parts of the country.

Consumers are feeling the heat as well. On Monday, the nationwide chain of OXXO convenience stores — the nation’s largest — said it was limiting purchases of ice to just two or three bags per customer in some places.

“In a period of high temperatures, OXXO is taking measures to ensure supplies of products for our customers,” parent company FEMSA said in a statement. “Limits on the sale of bagged ice seek to ensure that a larger number of customers can buy this product.”

But for the monkeys, it’s not a question of comfort, but of life or death.

“This is a sentinel species,” Pozo said, referring to the canary-in-a-coal-mine effect where one species can say a lot about an ecosystem. “It is telling us something about what is happening with climate change.”

—From AP reports