Pope to meet Biden, Zelensky, Modi at G7 summit/node/2529881/world
Pope to meet Biden, Zelensky, Modi at G7 summit
US President Joe Biden shakes hands with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau look on upon arrival at the Borgo Egnazia resort for the G7 Summit hosted by Italy on Jun. 13, 2024. (AFP)
Francis, the first ever pope to attend a Group of Seven rich nations summit, has been invited by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
The 87-year-old is also expected to talk about the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine
Updated 13 June 2024
AFP
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis will meet with US President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and India’s Narendra Modi at the G7 summit in Italy, the Vatican said Thursday.
Francis, the first ever pope to attend a Group of Seven rich nations summit, has been invited by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to address a session on artificial intelligence (AI) in Puglia on Friday.
The 87-year-old, who arrives by helicopter at 12:30 p.m. local time (1030 GMT), is also expected to talk about the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine during a series of bilateral meetings.
As well as Zelensky, Biden and Modi, Francis will sit down with France’s Emmanuel Macron, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva.
He will also meet privately with Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Türkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Algeria’s Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the Vatican said.
Francis appeals regularly for peace but Vatican efforts to find a diplomatic solution in Ukraine have yet to bear fruit.
The leaders of the G7, which brings together Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US, are meeting Thursday and Friday in the luxurious seaside resort of Borgo Egnazia in southern Italy.
Kyiv says Russian attacks on medical center in Ukraine’s Sumy kill 8, injure 11
Updated 28 September 2024
Reuters
KYIV: Russian forces hit a medical center in Sumy in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday morning then struck again as the building was being evacuated, killing a total of eight people, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian prosecutors said that at the time of the attacks, 86 patients and 38 staff members were in the hospital.
“The first attack killed one person and damaged the ceilings of several floors of the hospital,” Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram.
As people were being evacuated, the Russians struck again, killing a further five people, he said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky later said eight people were killed and 11 injured.
“Everyone in the world who talks about this war should pay attention to where Russia is hitting. They are fighting hospitals, civilian objects, and people’s lives,” Zelensky said on Telegram.
“Only force can force Russia to peace. Peace through force is the only right way.”
Klymenko did not specify what weapons were used in Saturday’s attacks but the regional administration and air forces said the strike was carried out by drones.
Attacks on Sumy city and the Sumy region have become much more frequent since Ukrainian forces launched an operation in Russia’s Kursk region in August and captured dozens of settlements.
Sumy city is located just 32 km (20 miles) from the Russian border and Russian forces have been attacking the region and the city with drones and guided bombs.
Ukrainian air forces earlier on Saturday said they had shot down 69 of 73 drones during an overnight Russian attack that included two ballistic and two cruise missiles.
About 15 Russian attack drones were destroyed by air defenses in the capital Kyiv and on its outskirts, the military administration there said.
Somali PM: Country faces ‘flagrant violation’ of its territorial integrity by Ethiopia
Israel’s war against Palestinians has ‘reached catastrophic levels,’ Hamza Abdi Barre tells UN General Assembly
Somalia will be a member of the UN Security Council for 2025-2026
Updated 28 September 2024
ALI YOUNES
WASHINGTON: Somalia’s prime minister told the UN General Assembly on Friday that his country is facing a serious threat to its territorial integrity from Ethiopia that must not be overlooked by the international community.
Hamza Abdi Barre said Ethiopia’s collaboration with a Somali separatist group is a “flagrant violation” of his country’s territorial integrity.
Ethiopia’s attempts “to annex parts of Somalia under the guise of securing sea access are both unlawful and unnecessary,” he said.
“Somali ports have always been accessible for Ethiopia’s legitimate commercial activities as part of Somalia’s commitment to enhance regional trade.
“However, Ethiopia’s aggressive maneuvers, including its illegal MoU (memorandum of understanding) with a separatist group in northern Somalia undermines Somalia’s sovereignty and emboldens secessionist movements and is a threat to our national unity.”
He said Somalia has the sovereign right to defend its territorial integrity, and called on Ethiopia to cease its provocations and adhere to international law.
Speaking about the civil war in Sudan, he called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities and the protection of civilians.”
He said Israel’s war against the Palestinians has “reached catastrophic levels” and “has created one of the most severe humanitarian disasters of our time.”
Due to Israel’s blockade, he described Gaza as “an open-air prison, where access to basic services and medical care is severely restricted.”
He urged the international community to push for a political settlement to end the suffering of generations of Palestinians, and to give them hope to live in dignity and security in their own state.
He said Somalia is looking forward to playing an active and responsible role as an incoming member of the UN Security Council in 2025-2026.
“We’re fully committed to working alongside all nations to confront the world’s most pressing challenges,” he said, adding that his country is committed to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and creating better economic conditions for Somalis.
NEW YORK CITY: As world leaders gather in New York for the UN General Assembly, any residual optimism about the prospect of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by the end of the decade looks fainter than ever before.
Mark Suzman, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, believes the world had already been falling behind with regard to the SDGs even prior to this latest crisis. Speaking to Arab News, he issued a stark warning on the consequences for humanity if the aims go unmet.
Following the publication of the foundation’s annual Goalkeepers report, Suzman appealed for a renewed global commitment to achieving the 2030 goals — 15 years after the ambitious targets, ranging from eradicating poverty to combating climate change, were set.
The theme of this year’s report is focused on what Suzman described as the “blight of malnutrition” — a scourge that has ravaged parts of the Middle East and North Africa owing to conflicts in Gaza, Yemen, and Sudan, inflationary pressures, and the impact of climate change.
Coletta Kemboi selling her milk at a market in Eldoret City, Kenya. (Gates Archive)
Despite recording significant progress across key indicators since the start of the new millennium, recent data has revealed a slowdown in development across the board, presenting what Suzman called a “broad picture of stagnation.”
The Gates Foundation, launched in 2000, is the second-largest charitable body in the world.
Suzman said the world had reason to feel optimistic in the wake of the new millennium. Buoyed by successful global health and vaccination campaigns, a halving of preventable child mortality took place between 2000 and 2020 — from 10 million deaths per year to fewer than five million.
Acute malnutrition measurement 2. (UNICEF)
“A lot of that was on the back of massively increased vaccination rates and the scale up of vaccines through the GAVI Vaccine Alliance,” he said, referring to the global public-private health partnership devoted to increasing access to immunization in poor countries.
“During the first 15 years of the 21st century and the first five years of the SDGs, we had rapid progress, especially in the areas of global health that the foundation focuses most deeply on.”
Amid faltering SDG progress, however, “we are now at a stage, where, in 2024, the world has not gone back and has yet to achieve its 2019 vaccination rates.”
The distribution of WFP-provided aid resumes after its suspension since the killing on July 21 of the head of the UN agency's office in Taez in a shooting in a nearby city. (File/AFP)
And it is not only vaccination campaigns that have stagnated. Progress on beating hunger has also lagged — something the Goalkeepers report says could result in unimaginable human suffering if the world fails to act.
A lack of immediate global action on malnutrition linked to climate change is expected to condemn an additional 40 million children to stunting and 28 million more to wasting between 2024 and 2050, the report found.
A slowdown in foreign aid to the African continent — despite more than half of all child deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa — threatens to leave hundreds of millions of children at serious risk of dying or suffering from preventable diseases.
Malnutrition has receded from global awareness as other needs — like the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and the European migration crisis — have gained prominence.
Children react following an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Falluja near the Jabalia refugee camp in the norther Gaza Strip. (File/AFP)
“But our view is that these are all important priorities and they should not be at the expense of these critical long-term investments in global health,” said Suzman.
“And that’s one of the reasons why we picked nutrition this year. Because we highlight that as an area which has both been underinvested in historically, but actually has, we believe, the potential for some relatively low-cost, high-impact interventions now.”
One solution being deployed in Africa is food fortification, which, at relatively miniscule cost, has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives each year, according to the Goalkeepers report.
By adding nutrients to common ingredients like bouillon cubes and iodized salt, about 16.6 million cases of anemia could be prevented in Nigeria and 5,000 preventable deaths avoided in Ethiopia.
Goalkeeper, Sushama Das, (in red on the right) enjoys lunch with her family in Astaranga Village, Odisha State, India. (Gates Archive)
New technologies in the dairy industry to increase the amount of milk produced in Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania could prevent millions of cases of childhood stunting over the next 30 years, the report found.
The low-cost, high-stakes equation is at the heart of Suzman’s message in arguing for immediate intervention to end malnutrition.
“This is a true global crisis,” he said. “We’re talking about one in four children who do not get enough to eat and the effects are permanent. When you’ve suffered from stunting or wasting, your body and brain will never develop to its full potential.
“We have some data in the report that shows it’s not just about resilience and health. These children are less likely to stay in school.
IN NUMBERS
* 16.6m Anemia preventable in Nigeria with addition of nutrients to food.
* $3tn Estimated productivity loss globally owing to malnutrition.
* 50% Reduction in child mortality between 2000 and 2020.
“If you don’t stay in school, you’re less likely to have strong educational outcomes, you’re less likely to get a job and you’re more likely to live in poverty.
“And if you aggregate that up across societies, this is a long-term drag on economic and social prosperity, and we should not be allowing this to happen as a world.”
One method that the foundation is employing in its appeal to leaders and policy makers is constructing a macro view on malnutrition and other global health issues.
The Goalkeepers report underlines one statistic in particular that is likely to alarm policy makers — every year, more than $3 trillion in productivity is lost because of malnutrition, due to the combined loss in physical and cognitive abilities across human populations.
For low-income countries, the cost can be even greater, at 3-16 percent of gross domestic product. The result is that some of the world’s poorest countries must confront the equivalent of a permanent 2008-level recession every year, the report warned.
9-month-old Hafsat Abubakar is held by her mother, Safiya Ibrahim, at their home in the Sarkin Adar Gidan Igwai neighbourhood of Sokoto. (UNICEF)
By highlighting the economic toll of failing to act, Suzman has found a means to engage with government ministers and policy makers around the world. The numbers behind this human suffering “become more concrete if you’re trying to talk to a finance minister,” he said.
“The additional healthcare burden, for those who are malnourished — it’s a 20 year cycle. The returns on investing in a healthy child come through 20 years later when they become healthy, productive members of an economy. And that’s not something that politicians, if they’re focusing on the next year or two, will necessarily pay attention to.
“We’re really trying to highlight that because also it makes sense from an international aid perspective. You want to invest in long-term health and resilience of populations, because they’re more likely to then provide productive opportunities for their own citizens and build an all-round healthier world.
“Trying to highlight those numbers and that impact is exactly what this report is intended to do for policy makers and funders.”
A nurse registers women for prenatal consultations at the health center in Gisenyi, Rwanda on April 30, 2019. (Gates Archive)
Conflicts and humanitarian disasters often overlap with cases of malnutrition, said Suzman, highlighting the examples of famine-struck Gaza and Sudan. But the long-term building of development structures and health systems can help build resilience.
“The number of mothers and children facing malnutrition (in Gaza and Sudan) is just much higher than it should be and needs to be addressed urgently,” he said.
Suzman believes national and multilateral initiatives to provide urgent cash can offer a ray of hope amid persistent funding gaps. He said the Gulf states had been able to “play a true leadership role” through prudent and precise humanitarian investment.
Dr. Nsanzimana Sabin, the Minister of Health, personally administers the inaugural doses of Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation to a pregnant woman, symbolizing the commencement of a transformative healthcare initiative. (UNICEF)
In particular he highlighted the Lives and Livelihoods Fund, an initiative that provides affordable financing to the poorest 30 member countries of the Islamic Development Bank.
“We helped set it up with the governments of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait,” he said. “The fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced an additional $100 million contribution earlier this year, which we’re matching.
“That’s supporting efforts like rice resilience across West Africa or child mortality, maternal mortality investments also in some of these crisis situations.
“So, we hope that that type of partnership can actually help address crises both in the region and more broadly, while also using our voice to support the very important humanitarian efforts that are underway in the crisis situations.”
Displaced Sudanese who have returned from Ethiopia gather in a camp run by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan's border town of Gallabat. (File/AFP)
Earlier this year, Gaza reported its first case of polio in 25 years. Its reemergence alarmed health officials and policy makers, coming decades after a global campaign to eradicate the virus saw significant success.
Suzman described the polio case as a “completely avoidable tragedy” that was precipitated by Israel’s ongoing military operation in the Palestinian enclave.
The conflict, as well as ongoing violence in Syria, Yemen and Sudan, are further examples of the ability of short-term crises to undermine long-term development efforts, he said.
“The Global Polio Eradication Initiative has stepped in to launch and now complete a critical vaccination campaign (in Gaza). We’ve actually seen that in other crises. The GPEI has also worked in Syria and Yemen. This is a challenge.”
The war which has raged since April 2023 between Sudan's regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has left tens of thousands dead and displaced more than ten million people, according to the United Nations. (File/AFP)
Suzman has particular praise for Saudi Arabia’s commitment of $500 million to the GPEI earlier this year, describing the donation as “really profoundly important.”
“We’re the largest global funders of polio campaigns, but Saudi Arabia is now very much one of the top funders and I think it’s an appreciation of the fact that we need to tackle these issues in all crisis situations, because you still have to vaccinate every child globally long as there are any cases circulating in any country,” he said.
“It’s a very good example of the broader challenges of health financing and the risks that stay with you if you take your eye off the ball. If you allow these things to happen, the consequences can be profound.”
The scale of the problem, as revealed by the Gates Foundation’s annual report, is both immense and intimidating, with far-reaching global consequences.
A young Palestinian man sits next to a mural that he painted on the rooftop of a destroyed house in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, to show his solidarity with the people of Gaza and Lebanon. (File/AFP)
Suzman, however, remains convinced that eradicating malnutrition, boosting health indicators and building climate resilience are not Sisyphean tasks, but achievable targets that can be realized through cheap, targeted investment.
“We want this report to be read by government leaders, policymakers, philanthropists and private sector leaders who work in this space,” he said.
“We want them both to understand the magnitude of the challenge and why malnutrition, actually, does affect them — understand connections, not just the humanitarian tragedy.”
What is his message to people with the power to effect change?
Portrait of Elena Swain, daughter of Goalkeeper, Sushama Das, with her son, Sraboni, in Astaranga Village, Odisha State, India. (Supplied)
“The scale of funding we’re talking about is very doable and achievable.”
The return on investment would not only save the lives of children in some of the world’s poorest and most conflict-ridden countries, but will, over the next two decades, build a “healthier and more resilient world,” he said.
“That’s the message we hope will come out. And we hope policymakers will listen to it.”
Blinken questions China peace push over Russia help
China's statement that it wants to see an end to the Russian-Ukraine conflict but allows companies to help Putin continue the aggression doesn’t add up, Blinken said
America's top diplomat met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the UN General Assemploy on Friday
Updated 28 September 2024
AFP
NEW YORK: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday questioned China’s sincerity in seeking peace in Ukraine as he directly pressed his counterpart over exports that boost Russia’s military.
Blinken met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the latest talks as the two powers look to dial down once-soaring tensions.
While crediting the diplomacy with bringing progress, Blinken warned that the United States would not back down on concerns over China’s exports to Russia and made clear that Washington could impose more sanctions.
Blinken said that China is fueling the “war machine” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“When Beijing says that, on the one hand, that it wants peace, it wants to see an end to the conflict, but on the other hand is allowing its companies to take actions that are actually helping Putin continue the aggression, that doesn’t add up,” Blinken told a news conference.
“Our intent is not to decouple Russia from China. Their relationship is their business,” he said.
“But insofar as that relationship involves providing Russia what it needs to continue this war, that’s a problem for us, and it’s a problem for many other countries, notably in Europe,” Blinken added.
The top US diplomat said that China has provided 70 percent of machine tools and 90 percent of microelectronics needed by Russia for military production that includes rockets and armored vehicles.
Wang told Blinken during the meeting that China’s position on the Ukraine conflict was “open and aboveboard, always advocating for peace and dialogue, and working toward a political solution,” Beijing’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
“The US should stop smearing and sanctioning China and refrain from using the issue to create divisions and provoke bloc confrontations,” Wang added.
China says it has not directly provided weapons to Russia and draws a contrast with the United States, which has shipped billions of dollars in weapons to Ukraine since the 2022 invasion by Russia.
Wang told a Security Council session on Tuesday that China was “not a creator of the Ukraine crisis, nor are we a party to it. China has all along stood on the side of peace.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a UN address criticized China and Brazil for promoting negotiations to end the war, saying that forcing Ukraine to accept a peace deal was akin to colonialism.
The two countries kept up the drive on Friday, leading a statement with other emerging powers that calls for a “comprehensive and lasting settlement” through diplomacy.
But in a thinly veiled criticism of Putin’s recent saber-rattling, the emerging powers called on all sides to refrain “from the use or the threat of weapons of mass destruction.”
South Africa and Turkiye were among the powers that also signed the statement.
Putin this week threatened to use nuclear weapons in the event of a major attack on Russian soil as Ukraine, looking to hit back against the invasion, seeks Western weapons to strike deeper across the border.
Since Blinken and Wang last met in July at a regional conference in Laos, China has pleased the United States by releasing an American pastor imprisoned for years, although other Americans are detained.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, during a summit in November 2023 with counterpart Joe Biden, agreed to key US demands of restoring military communication between the two powers.
He also agreed to take action against producers of ingredients in fentanyl, the painkiller behind an overdose epidemic in the United States.
But a wide range of disagreements remain.
Blinken said he warned Wang against Beijing’s “dangerous, destabilizing actions” on the South China Sea, where tensions have risen sharply between China and US ally the Philippines.
On the disputed waterway, Wang urged the US to “stop stirring up trouble...and undermining the efforts of regional countries to maintain peace and stability.”
Wang also slammed US “suppression” of China’s trade, technology, and economy and told Blinken that Washington should pursue “dialogue with respect.”
“Since the US has repeatedly expressed that it does not intend to confront China, it should establish a rational understanding of China at its core, create a proper way of coexistence, (and) engage in dialogue with respect,” Wang told Blinken.
The latest meeting came ahead of the November 5 election in which Republican candidate Donald Trump has vowed to take a harder line on China.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running against Trump, have said that they seek dialogue to avoid conflict between the two powers, although their administration has also taken a hard line.
Blinken’s deputy, Kurt Campbell, recently told a congressional hearing that China posed a broader challenge to the United States than the Soviet Union did during the Cold War.
Top EU diplomat regrets failure to ‘stop’ Netanyahu
Borrell said Netanyahu has made clear that the Israelis “don’t stop until Hezbollah is destroyed,” much as in its nearly year-old campaign in Gaza against fellow Iranian-backed militant group Hamas
Updated 28 September 2024
AFP
UNITED NATIONS, United States: EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell voiced regret Friday that no power, including the United States, can “stop” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he appears determined to crush militants in Gaza and Lebanon.
“What we do is to put all diplomatic pressure to a ceasefire, but nobody seems to be able to stop Netanyahu, neither in Gaza nor in the West Bank,” Borrell told a small group of journalists as he attended the UN General Assembly.
Borrell backed an initiative by France and the United States for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon, which Israel has brushed aside as it steps up strikes on Hezbollah targets, in a days-old campaign that has killed hundreds.
Borrell said Netanyahu has made clear that the Israelis “don’t stop until Hezbollah is destroyed,” much as in its nearly year-old campaign in Gaza against fellow Iranian-backed militant group Hamas.
“If the interpretation of being destroyed is the same as with Hamas, then we are going to go for a long war,” Borrell said in English.
The outgoing EU foreign affairs chief again called for diversifying diplomacy from the United States, which has tried for months unsuccessfully to seal a truce in Gaza that would include the release of hostages.
“We cannot rely just on the US. The US tried several times; they didn’t succeed,” he said.
“I don’t see them ready to start again a negotiation process that could lead to another Camp David,” he said, referring to the 2000 talks at the US presidential retreat in which Bill Clinton unsuccessfully sought to broker a landmark deal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Netanyahu in a defiant speech to the United Nations on Friday vowed to achieve Israel’s objectives against Hezbollah, which has sporadically attacked Israel with rockets since Hamas carried out its massive October 7 attack on Israel, which has responded with a relentless military campaign.
