Links 26/11/13

Politics: 

The Guardian reports atrocities committed by soldiers and militia gangs in the Central African Republic, the U.N. is debating a peacekeeping mission.

The severe Syrian refugee crisis continues. "In Lebanon, the smallest of the host nations and the most politically fragile, Syrian refugees are expected soon to make up a quarter of the population."

Negotiations in Geneva about the Iranian nuclear programme resulted in an agreement this weekend - Iran will neutralise its stockpile of Uranium "refined to a fissile concentration of 20%" and stop enriching Uranium above the level needed for peaceful use of nuclear power, as a result, sanctions against the country will be limited. The agreement was welcomed in Iran, but criticized by Israel.

Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, refuses to sign a deal that would have kept U.S. soldiers in the country past the end of their mission in 2014.

Kiribati, a small island nation with about 103,000 citizens, is facing a dire future in the light of rising seawater levels and natural disasters, and might be wiped out completely, raising questions about future migratory movements due to climate change. Meanwhile the climate talks in Warsaw only brought vague results.

The "like-minded developing countries" group takes the view that the strict separation of nations into "developed" and "developing", which was set at the first international climate talks in 1992, and enshrined in the 1997 Kyoto protocol – in which developed countries were obliged to cut emissions but developing countries had no obligations – must remain as the bedrock of any future agreement. They argue that the "historical responsibilities" for climate change lie with the first nations to industrialise.

That view is firmly rejected by the US and the EU, both of which have agreed to take a lead in cutting emissions, but have also repeatedly pointed out that the tables have turned on historic responsibilities.  

The Guardian: Warsaw climate talks set 2015 target for plans to curb emissions, November 24, 2013

Pop Culture: 

Here's the official video for Aferlife, another song off Arcade Fire's Reflektor, directed by Emily Kai Bock.