标签： Oceania

A high-stakes two-day G7 environment ministerial gathering kicking off in Paris this week will deliberately sideline discussions on climate change, a move explicitly designed to avoid open conflict with the United States, according to the French government.

The office of French Ecology Minister Monique Barbut confirmed the controversial decision Wednesday, noting organizers opted to center the agenda on what it called less divisive environmental topics in order to accommodate the stance of the G7’s most economically and politically powerful member. “We chose not to address the climate issue head-on… because the United States’ positions on this subject are well known,” the ministry stated in a formal comment. “We wanted to prioritise G7 unity, particularly to protect this forum.”

This exclusion comes against the backdrop of major shifts in U.S. climate policy under the second Donald Trump administration, which has formally withdrawn the country from international climate accords and rolled back a raft of domestic environmental protections since taking office in 2025.

Senior environment officials from the other six G7 members – France, Italy, Canada, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom – will attend the gathering, while Washington will send Usha-Maria Turner, assistant administrator for the Office of International and Tribal Affairs at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to represent U.S. interests.

In place of climate negotiations, delegates will deliberate on a suite of other environmental priorities: ocean conservation, financing for global biodiversity protection, and the growing crisis of desertification of arid drylands. France is leading a major push to secure G7 backing for a new cross-sector public-private funding initiative for biodiversity. Sources familiar with the planning indicate the ministry aims to announce an $800 million commitment to support national park expansion and protection across roughly 20 African nations during the meeting.

The gathering is also scheduled to work toward a formal political declaration linking desertification prevention to global security, advance a global alliance for expanding marine protected areas, and host working sessions on reducing global water pollution. On the opening day Thursday, delegates will also travel to the Fontainebleau forest south of Paris for a dedicated session on forest conservation.

Environmental and climate activists have roundly criticized the decision to drop climate from the official agenda, arguing it undermines the group’s ability to address what is widely recognized as the defining environmental crisis of the 21st century. Gaia Febvre, a representative of the global activist network Climate Action Network, told reporters that “a G7 moving at the pace of the United States cannot claim to respond to the crises of the century. By yielding to pressure, it weakens collective action and renounces its potential leading role.”

Even conservation advocates who praised G7 plans for biodiversity funding have raised cautions about the new initiative. Jean Burkard, advocacy director for WWF France, noted that while the biodiversity funding pledge was a welcome step, all new financing “must be additional and not compensate” for cuts to existing public nature conservation budgets elsewhere. This exclusion of climate from the G7 agenda comes just one week before more than 50 nations gather in Bogotá, Colombia for the first ever global summit focused exclusively on phasing out fossil fuels – the primary driver of accelerating human-caused global climate change.

For a group of Latin American asylum seekers who once sought safety in the United States, the past five days confined to a locked accommodation complex near Kinshasa’s international airport have become a nightmare none of them anticipated.

The 15 South American migrants, the first contingent transferred to the Democratic Republic of the Congo under a controversial U.S. third-country deportation scheme, detailed their harrowing experience to Agence France-Presse this Wednesday, starting with the brutal 27-hour transcontinental flight where they were restrained in shackles from takeoff to landing.

Thirty-year-old Colombian migrant Gabriela, who like most of the group wears a plain white t-shirt and bears visible tattoos, spoke on behalf of the stranded group to summarize their desperate situation. “I never agreed to come to Congo. I’m terrified here, and I don’t speak a word of the local language,” she explained, adding that she only learned her final destination one day before U.S. authorities expelled her from the country.

The DRC, one of at least seven African nations that have accepted deported migrants under the U.S. policy alongside Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Ghana, Rwanda and South Sudan, is ranked among the 15 poorest countries globally, located thousands of kilometers from the migrants’ home countries in the Americas. The scheme, which typically includes U.S. financial and logistical backing for host nations, has long operated with little transparency, and host governments have released almost no information about what happens to migrants after they arrive on African soil.

Under current arrangements, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) takes over administrative responsibility for migrants once they receive short-term visas, and the organization says it can facilitate assisted voluntary return for any migrant who requests the service. But for the 15 migrants now stuck in Kinshasa, a sprawling megacity home to more than 17 million people, daily life inside the closed airport-area compound is marked by uncertainty and deteriorating health.

The compound, made up of rows of small, plain white-walled structures, is the migrants’ only home at present, and they are prohibited from leaving the premises. Police and military vehicles are posted outside the gate, and unidentified private military personnel have also been spotted on site. None of the South American migrants speak French, the DRC’s official language, cutting them off from any ability to interact with the outside world even if they were allowed to leave.

The group says they have each received roughly $100 in assistance from IOM officials, but are denied access to outside visitors. Multiple migrants have fallen ill since arriving, Gabriela reported, including herself. “We’ve had fevers, vomiting and severe stomach issues, but we’re just told this is normal and we have to adapt,” she said. While some have received basic over-the-counter medication, no licensed healthcare worker has come to the compound to examine any of the sick migrants.

Four of the migrants confirmed they received seven-day short-stay visas that can be extended for up to three months, but they have been warned that all official support will be cut off once the initial week-long period ends, leaving them to survive on their own in a country where they have no connections, work permits, or language skills. Gabriela says authorities have pressured the group to accept voluntary repatriation, telling them they will be left destitute if they refuse. “They’ve backed us into a corner. This is inhumane and unfair,” she said, her distress visible during the interview.

Outside the compound walls, Kinshasa’s chaotic, overcrowded urban landscape tells the story of just how high the stakes are for the stranded migrants. Potholed roads lined with crumbling buildings see constant streams of honking minibuses and private cars, most of the city’s population lacks consistent access to running water or electricity, and World Bank data shows nearly 75 percent of all Congolese citizens live below the international poverty line.

Twenty-five-year-old Hugo Palencia Ropero, another Colombian migrant who spent five months in U.S. detention before being deported to the DRC, acknowledged that basic amenities are provided inside the compound: three meals a day, daily room cleaning, and security on site. Even so, he shares Gabriela’s overwhelming fear. “I’m more afraid of being here in Africa than I ever was back in Colombia,” he said. “If our seven-day visas run out and we don’t get any more help, things will become impossible for us, especially since we can’t work legally here.” Ropero added he would accept any travel document available just to leave the DRC as soon as possible.

The arrival of the Latin American deportees has already sparked widespread backlash among Congolese civil society and on local social media, with many criticizing the government for agreeing to take in vulnerable migrants at a time when most of the country’s own population struggles to meet basic needs.

During a high-stakes stop on his 11-day pan-African tour, Pope Leo XIV delivered a rare, pointed rebuke of inadequate prison conditions in Equatorial Guinea, during a tightly choreographed visit to the Central African nation’s most infamous correctional facility this Wednesday.

The 70-year-old American-born pontiff, who leads the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, traveled to Bata Prison in Equatorial Guinea’s largest city, where hundreds of detainees gathered in the facility’s freshly repainted courtyard to greet him. Minutes after the pope’s arrival, a heavy downpour soaked the crowd of inmates, who had lined the route and broke into song and dance to welcome the religious leader despite the rain. By the end of the meeting, the drenched prisoners chanted out the Spanish word “libertad” — freedom — for the pontiff to hear.

Speaking to the assembled group of roughly 600 detainees, including around 30 women, Pope Leo framed his remarks around the core purpose of justice systems. “The administration of justice aims to protect society,” he told the crowd. “To be effective, however, it must always promote the dignity of every person.” In an earlier open-air mass held in Mongomo, a city near the Gabon border that kicked off the day’s schedule, the pontiff made his call for reform public even with long-ruling President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo in the congregation. He urged the country to carve out “greater room for freedom” and guarantee inherent human dignity for all, noting that prisoners are too often “forced to live in troubling hygienic and sanitary conditions.”

Equatorial Guinea’s prisons have faced decades of damning international scrutiny over systemic abuse. A 2023 U.S. State Department human rights report documented consistent cases of torture, extreme overcrowding, and unsanitary conditions across the country’s correctional facilities. A 2021 Amnesty International report labeled detainees in facilities like Bata Prison “forgotten people,” noting that most are jailed following flawed judicial processes and that family members are often left with no information about whether their incarcerated loved ones are alive or dead. President Obiang, who at 81 is the world’s longest-serving non-royal head of state after taking power in 1979, has faced consistent global accusations of widespread human rights violations and crackdowns on freedom of expression — making the pope’s public critique a notable break from the norm in the closed authoritarian state.

Local observers remain skeptical that the pontiff’s intervention will drive meaningful change. Mr. Ondo, a local teacher who spoke on the condition of partial anonymity, denounced the country’s justice system for its widespread “lack of independence” and pervasive corruption among judges and magistrates, questioning whether the pope’s visit would alter how the system operates.

Pope Leo’s visit to Equatorial Guinea is the fourth stop on his African tour, which has already included stops in Algeria, Cameroon, and Angola. The pontiff has walked a careful diplomatic line during his time in the country: seeking to support the nation’s large Catholic population without offering explicit backing to Obiang’s controversial government. On previous stops of the tour, the pope took far more aggressive stances, publicly denouncing global “tyrants” who exploit their populations and condemning the exploitation of vulnerable communities by wealthy and powerful actors. He even clashed with former U.S. President Donald Trump after the former president pushed back on his call for an immediate end to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Following his prison visit, Pope Leo traveled to Bata’s main stadium, where he planned to honor the victims of a 2021 tragedy that killed more than 100 people and meet with affected families and local youth. The pontiff was greeted in Mongomo earlier this week with a raucous welcome, including fireworks, a balloon release, and cheering crowds that lined his route as he traveled through the city in the popemobile.

Equatorial Guinea, a small coastal nation with a population of just 2 million, inherited its large Catholic majority from decades of Spanish colonial rule, with roughly 80% of the population identifying as Catholic. While the country is rich in fossil fuel reserves — oil and gas account for 46% of national GDP and more than 90% of exports, per African Development Bank data — Human Rights Watch reports that the vast majority of oil revenue has been captured by a small elite circle surrounding Obiang, leaving most of the population stuck in entrenched poverty.

The pontiff is set to conclude his 11-day, 11,200-mile African tour Thursday with an open-air mass in the national capital of Malabo, before returning to Vatican City in Rome.