Int'l Conference in Egypt Recommends Support for Developing Countries to Protect Environment

Part of the IPU Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians, which was held in Sharm el-Sheikh. (Conference Administration )
Part of the IPU Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians, which was held in Sharm el-Sheikh. (Conference Administration )
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Int'l Conference in Egypt Recommends Support for Developing Countries to Protect Environment

Part of the IPU Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians, which was held in Sharm el-Sheikh. (Conference Administration )
Part of the IPU Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians, which was held in Sharm el-Sheikh. (Conference Administration )

Parliamentary delegations from 60 countries concluded on Thursday activities of the eighth Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians, which was held in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt’s South Sinai province.

They underscored the importance of supporting developing countries to protect the environment and promote green investment.

They also called for involving civil society representatives in climate legislation discussions.

The two-day event was held under the auspices of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and in cooperation with the Egyptian House of Representatives and the IPU.

It focused on legislative, legal, and developmental approaches to climate change issues.

Egypt will host the COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2022 in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in November. World leaders and heads of state and governments are expected to attend the summit.

Egypt's Speaker of the House of Representatives Hanafi El Jebali said at the closing session that dialogue among the world’s youths has become essential to address the extraordinary challenges the globe currently suffers.

IPU President Duarte Pacheco called for taking advantage of the upcoming summit to protect the planet, in light of the growing concerns of famine and food insecurity, while working to achieve and activate the discussions of young parliamentarians on the climate change crisis.

President of the IPU Forum of Young Parliamentarians MP Sahar al-Bazar, for her part, warned that climate change is an emergency case and an imminent threat, while referring to the link between climate change and human rights.

She called on the young parliamentarians to use the various legislation tools to reduce the effects of climate change as a matter of existential challenge.

Tamar Chugoshvili, the parliamentary expert and first vice deputy speaker of Goergia’s parliament, reviewed during one of Thursday’s sessions a report on parliamentary work in the field of climate.

She pressed for providing tools that can evaluate parliamentary participation in an effective manner, so that participation is considered positive, especially in terms of support and communication with many other institutions.

She also called for establishing a general mechanism to advance efforts through the participation of ordinary individuals and introducing them to parliamentary activities and works through various means.

Chugoshvili underscored the need to “improve performance and establish evaluation mechanisms on climate action to maintain public participation, stressing that participation is not limited to parliamentarian figures.



Hegseth Keeps 2 Aircraft Carriers in Middle East for Another Week for Battle with Yemen’s Houthis

Aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman is moored near Split, Croatia, Feb. 14, 2022. (AP)
Aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman is moored near Split, Croatia, Feb. 14, 2022. (AP)
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Hegseth Keeps 2 Aircraft Carriers in Middle East for Another Week for Battle with Yemen’s Houthis

Aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman is moored near Split, Croatia, Feb. 14, 2022. (AP)
Aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman is moored near Split, Croatia, Feb. 14, 2022. (AP)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier to remain in the Middle East for a second time, keeping it there another week so the US can maintain two carrier strike groups in the region to battle Yemen-based Houthi militias, according to a US official.

In late March, Hegseth extended the deployment of the Truman and the warships in its group for a month as part of a campaign to increase strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis. The official said Hegseth signed the latest order Thursday and it is expected the Truman and its strike group warships will head home to Norfolk, Virginia, after the week is up.

Gen. Erik Kurilla, head of US Central Command, requested that the Truman be extended again, according to officials. The San Diego-based USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its strike group arrived in the region a few weeks ago and are operating in the Gulf of Aden. The Truman, along with two destroyers and a cruiser in its strike group, is in the Red Sea.

The officials spoke Friday on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.

The US has increased its attacks on the Houthis, launching daily strikes since March 15, when President Donald Trump ordered a new, expanded campaign. He promised to use "overwhelming lethal force" until the Houthis stop their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, a vital trade corridor.

According to Central Command, the US has been waging an "intense and sustained campaign" against the Houthis. In a statement over the weekend, the command said the US has struck more than 1,000 targets in Yemen since Operation Rough Rider began. It hasn't provided details on the targets or how the data is compiled.

It has been rare in recent years for the US to have two aircraft carriers in the Middle East at the same time. Navy leaders have generally been opposed to the idea because it disrupts ship maintenance schedules and delays time at home for sailors strained by the unusually high combat tempo.

If there are no additional extensions and the Truman and its warships leave the region next week, those sailors could be back home by next month.

Last year, the Biden administration ordered the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier to remain in the Red Sea for an extended time as US warships waged the most intense running sea battle since World War II. Prior to that, it had been years since the US had committed that much warship power to the Middle East.

The Houthis had been waging persistent missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group's leadership has described as an effort to end Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

From November 2023 until this January, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually.

The group paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the US launched a broad assault against the militants in mid-March.