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Half of Afghanistan's population risks not having enough food to eat, says UN humanitarian chief. (Photo: AP/Oriane Zerah) - 

The UN humanitarian chief had a dire message for leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies meeting this weekend: Worry about Afghanistan because its economy is collapsing and half the population risks not having enough food to eat as the snows have already started to fall.

Martin Griffiths said in an interview on Friday (Oct 29) with The Associated Press that “the needs in Afghanistan are skyrocketing".

Half the Afghan children under age five are at risk of acute malnutrition and there is an outbreak of measles in every single province which is “a red light” and “the canary in the mine” for what’s happening in society, he said.

Griffiths warned that food insecurity leads to malnutrition, then disease and death, and “absent corrective action” the world will be seeing deaths in Afghanistan.

He said the World Food Program is feeding 4 million people in Afghanistan now, but the UN predicts that because of the dire winter conditions and the economic collapse it is going to have to provide food to triple that number - 12 million Afghans - “and that’s massive".

WFP appealed this week for US$200 million to finance its operations until the end of the year, and Griffiths urged countries that suspended development assistance for Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover on Aug 15, including the United States and European countries, to transfer that money for desperately needed humanitarian aid.

He noted that the European Union already shifted about €100 million to humanitarian work, and the US announced more than US$144 million in humanitarian aid on Thursday, raising its total aid to Afghans in the country and refugees in the region to nearly US$474 million in 2021.

Griffiths said the current crisis is the result of two large droughts in the past few years, the disruption of services during the conflict between the Taliban and the Afghan government and the collapse of the economy.

“So, the message that I would give to the leaders of the G 20 is worry about economic collapse in Afghanistan, because economic collapse in Afghanistan will, of course, have an exponential effect on the region,” he said.

“And the specific issue that I would ask them to focus on first, is the issue of getting cash into the economy in Afghanistan - not into the hands of the Taliban - into the hands of the people whose access to their own bank accounts is not frozen.”

Griffiths said it is also critical that frontline health workers, teachers and others get their salaries paid.

He said many ideas are being discussed with increasing urgency to get liquidity into the market and his message is that an urgent response is needed this year, not next spring.

Among the ideas are physically taking cash into Afghanistan, which Griffiths said has “lots of difficulties", and using the local Afghani currency. But the issue is how to get traders to safely provide Afghanis for use by humanitarian organisations, he said, and “they will probably only do that if they think that they can get external currency for those Afghanis".

The G20 summit on Saturday and Sunday is taking place in Rome.

Griffiths warned of exponential effects of an economic collapse, saying the first worry is that if people do not get services, food, schooling for their children and health care they will move, either inside the country or flee Afghanistan to survive.

The second worry, he said, is the growing problem of terrorism, “and that is something which usually breeds in times of uncertainty and in times of suffering".

“And that would be a terrible legacy to visit all the people of Afghanistan,” Griffiths said. “So far, I think we’re just holding our breath about the stability of the country and talking daily to the Taliban about what they need to do, for example, to make sure that women and girls have their rights.”

The undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs said the Taliban need to ensure the rights of women and girls “because that’s part of stabilising Afghanistan"//CNA

Shoppers browse an outdoor retail area on the first day of eased COVID-19 regulations in Melbourne, Australia, on Oct 22, 2021. (Photo: Reuters/Sandra Sanders) - 

Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city which has endured nearly nine months of lockdowns since the start of the pandemic, saw people flocking to shops and gigs for the first time in months on Saturday (Oct 30) as public health curbs eased.

The city of five million, which re-emerged from its sixth lockdown last week, was reopening further as full vaccination rates across Victoria state, of which Melbourne is capital, was set to reach 80 per cent for those 16 and older.

People queued at malls and boutiques despite cool weather for their first in-person shopping since early August, waiting to be let in as capacity limits were observed, television footage showed.

A crowd of 5,500 were expected to attend the Victoria Derby racehorse on Saturday, the first large event in post-lockdown Melbourne, which was to be followed by a concert for 4,000 fully vaccinated at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in the evening.

Victoria reported 1,355 new daily COVID-19 infections, its lowest in nearly a month. There were also 11 deaths reported, with health authorities saying serious infections mainly affected the unvaccinated.

"So please - particularly for those people in their 20s - go out and get vaccinated, that is your best and in fact, your only real protection against the impact of COVID," said Jeroen Weimar, Victoria's COVID-19 response commander.

Across Australia, New South Wales reported 236 new cases and three deaths. The Australian Capital Territory reported nine new infections.

Neighbouring New Zealand had 160 new cases, most of them in Auckland, which has been battling an outbreak of the Delta variant for months.

Once champions of a COVID-zero strategy of managing the pandemic, both Australia and New Zealand have been moving towards living with the virus through extensive vaccinations, as the Delta variant has proven too transmissible to suppress.

As of Saturday, 74 per cent of eligible people in New Zealand were fully vaccinated and 76.8 per cent of those 16 and older in Australia//CNA

General view of the coal power plant of German LEAG energy company, in Jaenschwalde, Germany, Oct 21, 2021. (Photo: REUTERS/Matthias Rietschel) - 

Leaders of the 20 richest countries will acknowledge the existential threat of climate change and will take urgent steps to limit global warning, a draft communique seen ahead of the COP26 summit shows.

As people around the world prepared to demonstrate their frustration with politicians, Pope Francis lent his voice to a chorus demanding action, not mere words, from the meeting starting on Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland.

The Group of 20, whose leaders gather on Saturday and Sunday in Rome beforehand, will pledge to take urgent steps to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

While the 2015 Paris Agreement committed signatories to keeping global warming to "well below" 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, and preferably to 1.5 degrees, carbon levels in the atmosphere have since grown.

"We commit to tackle the existential challenge of climate change," the G20 draft, seen by Reuters, promised.

"We recognise that the impacts of climate change at 1.5 degrees are much lower than at 2 degrees and that immediate action must be taken to keep 1.5 degrees within reach."

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that the world was rushing headlong towards climate disaster and G20 leaders must do more to help poorer countries.

"Unfortunately, the message to developing countries is essentially this: the cheque is in the mail. On all our climate goals, we have miles to go. And we must pick up the pace," Guterres said.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg, who has berated politicians for 30 years of "blah, blah, blah" is among those who took to the streets of the City of London, the British capital's financial heart, to demand the world's biggest financial companies withdraw support for fossil fuel.

Demonstrators in the United States also protested outside several Federal Reserve Bank buildings and other banks.

US President Joe Biden will join leaders at the G20 meeting after a setback on Thursday when the House of Representatives abandoned plans for a vote on a US$1 trillion infrastructure bill, which would have represented the biggest investment in climate action in US history.

Biden had hoped to reach an agreement before COP26, where he wants to present a message that the United States has resumed the fight against global warming.

The world's political leaders, he said, must give future generations "concrete hope" that they are taking the radical steps needed.

"These crises present us with the need to take decisions, radical decisions that are not always easy," he said. "Moments of difficulty like these also present opportunities, opportunities that we must not waste."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is hosting COP26, said this week the outcome hangs in the balance.

On Friday, Britain sought to align business more closely with net-zero commitments by becoming the first G20 country to make a set of global voluntary disclosure standards on climate-related risks mandatory for large firms.

But leaders of Europe's biggest oil and gas companies, among big firms conspicuous by their absence at COP26, said only governments can effectively curb fossil fuel demand.

The statement from the G20 countries, which are responsible for an estimated 80 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, said members acknowledged "the key relevance of achieving global net zero greenhouse gas emissions or carbon neutrality by 2050".

But countries on the climate frontline struggling with rising sea levels want steps taken now.

"We need concrete action now. We cannot wait until 2050, it is a matter of our survival," said Anote Tong, a former president of Kiribati.

Tong has predicted his country of 33 low-lying atolls and islands was likely to become uninhabitable in 30 to 60 years' time.

UN climate experts say a 2050 deadline is crucial to meet the 1.5 degree limit, but some of the world's biggest polluters say they cannot reach it, with China, by far the largest carbon emitter, aiming for 2060.

Britain's Johnson said he had urged Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday to do more to reduce his country's reliance on coal and to bring forward its prediction for peak emissions.

"I pushed a bit on (peak emissions), that 2025 would be better than 2030, and I wouldn't say he committed on that," Johnson said.

Xi is not expected to attend the conference in person.

In the G20 draft communique, the 2050 date for net zero emissions appears in brackets, indicating it is still subject to negotiation.

Curent commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions put the planet on track for an average 2.7C temperature rise this century, a United Nations report said on Tuesday.

Pacific Island leaders said they would demand immediate action in Glasgow.

"We do not have the luxury of time and must join forces urgently and deliver the required ambition at COP26 to safeguard the future of all humankind, and our planet," said Henry Puna, former Cook Islands prime minister and now secretary of the Pacific Islands Forum//CNA

FILE PHOTO: A child wears a face mask on the first day of New York City schools, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Brooklyn, New York, U.S. September 13, 2021. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo - 

The US Food and Drug Administration on Friday (Oct 29) authorised the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years, making it the first COVID-19 shot for young children in the United States.

The shot will not be immediately available to the age group. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still needs to advise on how the shot should be administered, which will be decided after a group of outside advisers discuss the plan on Tuesday.

Pfizer said it will begin shipping pediatric vials of the vaccine on Saturday to pharmacies, pediatricians' offices and other places where the shots may be administered.

The FDA decision is expected to make the vaccine available to 28 million American children, many of whom are back in school for in-person learning.

It comes after a panel of advisers to the regulator voted overwhelmingly to recommend the authorisation on Tuesday.

Only a few other countries, including China, Cuba and the United Arab Emirates, have so far cleared COVID-19 vaccines for children in this age group and younger.

The FDA authorised a 10-microgram dose of Pfizer's vaccine in young children, lower than the 30 micrograms in the original vaccine for those age 12 and older.

Advisers on the FDA panel said a lower dose could help mitigate some of the rare side effects after paying close attention to the rate of heart inflammation, or myocarditis, that has been linked to both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, especially in young men.

The regulator said on Friday that known and potential benefits of the Pfizer vaccine in individuals aged between 5 and 11 outweigh the risks.

For the pediatric shots, the FDA has authorised a new version of the vaccine, which uses a new buffer and allows them to be stored in refrigerators for up to 10 weeks.

In the United States, around 58 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated, lagging other nations such as the UK and France. Many adults, who have been hesitant to get a vaccine, may be more cautious about giving the shot to their children.

"We certainly hope that as people see children getting vaccinated, and being protected and being able to participate in activities without concern, that more people will get their kids vaccinated," Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said at a press conference.

"And as we accumulate more experience with the vaccine, more comfort with the safety will occur."

Pfizer and BioNTech said their vaccine showed 90.7 per cent efficacy against the coronavirus in a clinical trial of children aged 5 to 11.

"This is a day so many parents, eager to protect their young children from this virus, have been waiting for," Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla said in a statement

The United States started administering the vaccine to teens between ages 12 and 17 in May. Vaccination coverage among the age group is lower than in older groups, according to the CDC.

Pfizer's vaccine was the first to be authorised for emergency use in the United States in December last year for those age 16 and older and was granted full US approval in August.

Earlier this week, Moderna reported interim data showing that its vaccine generated a strong immune response in children ages 6 to 11 years. It is awaiting a US regulatory decision on the authorisation for children between ages 12 and 17//CNA