Labour’s Lammy aims for UK foreign policy reset, Reeves tasked with fixing economy

Rachel Reeves (L), David Lammy (top R) and Ed Miliband (bottom R) were among the new cabinet appointments on Friday. (Reuters/AFP/AP)
Rachel Reeves (L), David Lammy (top R) and Ed Miliband (bottom R) were among the new cabinet appointments on Friday. (Reuters/AFP/AP)
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Updated 05 July 2024
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Labour’s Lammy aims for UK foreign policy reset, Reeves tasked with fixing economy

Labour’s Lammy aims for UK foreign policy reset, Reeves tasked with fixing economy
  • The center-left Labour Party won a landslide victory in Thursday’s UK parliamentary election

LONDON: Labour’s David Lammy becomes Britain’s next foreign secretary pledging to reset relations with the European Union and push for a ceasefire in Gaza, while seeking to build ties with Donald Trump’s Republican Party.

The center-left Labour Party won a landslide victory in Thursday’s parliamentary election, ending 14 years of Conservative government and vowing to bring change to Britain.

While the six initial priorities promised in its election manifesto focussed on domestic matters, a long list of international issues awaits Lammy in his in-tray.

Labour has said long-term peace and security in the Middle East would be an immediate focus. It has committed to recognizing a Palestinian state as a contribution to a renewed peace process which results in a two-state solution.

Lammy, 51, traveled widely before the election, particularly to the United States, where he has been working to build ties with Republicans, after once writing in Time magazine that Trump was a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi sociopath.”

He has met Republican figures seen as candidates for roles in a Trump cabinet, including Mike Pompeo.

Lammy has strong links with leading Democrats and is a close friend of former President Barack Obama, a fellow Harvard Law School alumni.

COMMON CAUSE
In a speech during a visit there in May, Lammy said Labour would always work with the United States “whatever the weather and whoever wins” and he would seek to find “common cause” with Trump.

“I do not believe that he is arguing that the US should abandon Europe. He wants Europeans to do more to ensure a better defended Europe,” he said.

“Were his words in office shocking? Yes, they were. Would we have used them? No. But US spending on European defense actually grew under President Trump, as did the defense spending of the wider alliance, during his tenure.”

Lammy, the son of Guyanese immigrants, represents an inner-London constituency and has spent much of his political career campaigning for social and racial justice.

He supported Britain remaining in the European Union in the 2016 referendum. While Labour has promised Britain will stay outside the bloc, it wants to reset the relationship and seek to deepen ties, including through a new UK-EU security pact.

Lammy has previously described Marine Le Pen, a leading figure in France’s far-right National Rally (NR), as xenophobic and malevolent. Polls show her party is on course to win the most seats in the French parliamentary election but fall short of an absolute majority.

“France is one of Britain’s closest allies and we will work with whoever is elected. It is a democracy and it is up to the French people who governs them,” Lammy told reporters earlier this week. “We will wait to see what happens in the second round on July 7.”

FIRST FEMALE CHANCELLOR

Rachel Reeves became Britain's first female finance minister on Friday, and the one-time junior chess champion's opening gambit will be to try to spur growth without sacrificing the party's newly minted image of fiscal responsibility.

A former Bank of England economist, Reeves, 45, was tasked in opposition with mending relations with the business community that were strained under left-wing former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and pitching to voters that the party could be trusted with their money.

Appointed as Labour's finance policy chief in 2021 after a tricky start to new prime minister Keir Starmer's leadership, she has become synonymous with his approach of putting pragmatism ahead of ideology, and facing down those on the left who want a fiscally looser approach.

With Labour's dominant election victory confirmed on Friday, she will now have to navigate a tricky fiscal picture and boost growth quickly if promised increases in investment are to be delivered without tax rises.

She said it was the “honor of my life” and a “historic responsibility” to be the first woman to be appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, as Britain's top economics and finance policymaker is titled.

“We've waited a long time to have the chance to serve our country. We have got a credible plan now to deliver the change the country needs. Growing our economy is at the heart of doing that," Reeves told reporters on the sidelines of the party's manifesto launch in Manchester.

“The opportunity to be Britain's first female chancellor of the exchequer - that would give me immense pride, but also give me a huge responsibility: to pass on, to our daughters and our granddaughters, a fairer society. That's what I'm determined to do.”

Yvette Cooper becomes interior minister, known as home secretary, overseeing domestic security and policing.

Ed Miliband, who becomes Energy Security and Net Zero minister, led Labour into the 2015 election, which the party lost by an unexpectedly large margin that triggered his resignation.

He has since rebuilt his political career around environmental and climate-related issues.

Miliband will play a central role in delivering Labour's plan to make Britain a “clean energy superpower” through the creation of a publicly owned energy company with powers to invest in new green projects alongside the private sector.

Angela Rayner, who Starmer appointed as his deputy prime minister, will also serve as secretary for levelling up, housing and communities.

* With Reuters, AFP and AP


Saudi doctors provide free eye surgery to hundreds of Sri Lankan patients

Saudi doctors provide free eye surgery to hundreds of Sri Lankan patients
Updated 9 sec ago
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Saudi doctors provide free eye surgery to hundreds of Sri Lankan patients

Saudi doctors provide free eye surgery to hundreds of Sri Lankan patients
  • Doctors conduct 500 cataract removal procedures in Walasmulla on the southeastern coast of Sri Lanka
  • Campaign will then move to the eastern city of Kattankudy, where another 500 patients will be treated

COLOMBO: Hundreds of Sri Lankan patients are set to receive eye surgery and specialist care this week under a blindness prevention program launched by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center.

The Saudi Noor Volunteer Program, running between Nov. 4 and 9, is organized by KSrelief in the town of Walasmulla on the southeastern coast of Sri Lanka, hundreds of kilometers away from the capital Colombo. On Nov. 10-17, the campaign will move to the city of Kattakundy, further east.

Cataracts are the most common cause of blindness in Sri Lanka. Patients often have to wait for years to have them removed under government programs. At private clinics, the cheapest lens replacement procedure is too expensive for many patients in poorer parts of the country.

“There is big demand since poor people can’t afford surgery privately, which costs 100,000 rupees ($340) per person. There are many cataract patients in Sri Lanka but the facilities are few. There are long waiting lists for surgery,” M.S.M. Thassim, chairman of the Association of Muslim Youths — KSrelief’s local partner — told Arab News.

Patients wait for KSrelief-funded eye surgery in Kattankudy, Sri Lanka, on Nov. 5, 2024. (Association of Muslim Youths)

“We are doing it in two places; the first part is Walasmulla, which is finishing on Nov. 9, and we have already completed 400 surgeries and 100 more to go. Then at Kattankudy, which begins on Nov. 10, where another 500 will be performed.”

Some of the patients were already blind before the intervention of the KSrelief medical team, whose members have been praised for being “people friendly” and “committed” to their mission.

“The patients are full of gratitude to the Saudi government and the King Salman center for the noble intervention that restored their eyesight,” Thassim said.

The two-week eye care campaign in Walasmulla and Kattakundy is part of the Saudi government’s long-standing efforts to combat blindness in developing countries.

In Sri Lanka alone, 31,000 patients have undergone Saudi-sponsored surgery since 2001.


World must better adapt to ‘climate calamity’: UN chief Guterres

World must better adapt to ‘climate calamity’: UN chief Guterres
Updated 29 min 37 sec ago
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World must better adapt to ‘climate calamity’: UN chief Guterres

World must better adapt to ‘climate calamity’: UN chief Guterres
  • Global efforts to adapt to climate change have not kept pace as global warming accelerates the frequency and intensity of disasters
  • Antonio Guterres: ‘Climate calamity is the new reality. And we’re not keeping up’

PARIS: The world is nowhere near ready for the “calamity” being caused by climate change and must urgently prepare for even worse in the future, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Thursday.
Global efforts to adapt to climate change – from building defensive sea walls to planting drought-resistant crops – have not kept pace as global warming accelerates the frequency and intensity of disasters.
Floods, fires and other climate shocks have affected nearly every continent in a year the EU climate monitor says is almost certain to be the hottest ever recorded.
The amount of money going to poorer countries for adaptation measures was barely one-tenth of what they needed to disaster-proof their vulnerable economies, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a new assessment looking at 2022, the latest year for which data is available.
“Climate calamity is the new reality. And we’re not keeping up,” said Guterres at the launch of UNEP’s annual Adaptation Gap Report.
Rich nations are under pressure at this month’s UN COP29 summit to substantially increase the $100 billion they pledged for climate action in developing countries, including for adaptation.
But some donor governments are under fiscal and political pressure, and major new commitments of public money are not expected at the conference in Azerbaijan.
A UN biodiversity meeting this month failed to reach a funding agreement and the election of Donald Trump – who opposes global climate cooperation – hangs over COP29.
Most of the public money committed to climate change goes to reducing planet-warming emissions, not adapting to its long-term consequences.
Some $28 billion in public finance was paid to developing countries for climate adaptation in 2022.
This was an increase on the year prior, but still a drop in the ocean: UNEP estimates between $215 billion and $387 billion is needed annually for adaptation in developing countries.
Rich countries had pledged to double the amount by 2025 to roughly $40 billion a year but even this would leave an “extremely large” adaptation funding gap, UNEP said.
Climate disasters hit poorest communities hardest but the cost of inaction was no longer borne by them alone, said Patrick Verkooijen, CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation.
“From rising seas and extreme heat waves to relentless droughts and floods, the impacts of climate change now reach every corner of the globe. No nation, no community is immune,” he said in a statement.
Spanish authorities were accused of being inadequately prepared when a major storm brought flooding that killed over 200 people last month.
Climate scientists say that global warming is fueling more frequent and severe extreme weather.
“We can’t postpone protection. We must adapt – now,” Guterres said.


Vatican hopes for ‘wisdom’ from Trump

Vatican hopes for ‘wisdom’ from Trump
Updated 07 November 2024
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Vatican hopes for ‘wisdom’ from Trump

Vatican hopes for ‘wisdom’ from Trump
  • Parolin’s comments were the first diplomatic reaction from the Holy See to Trump’s win for the White House against Democrat Kamala Harris

VATICAN CITY: The Vatican’s secretary of state congratulated US president-elect Donald Trump Thursday, while expressing doubt that the Republican had a “magic wand” to end conflicts quickly as promised during the campaign.
“We wish him a lot of wisdom because that is the main virtue of leaders according to the Bible,” Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Rome.
Asked about Trump’s promise to end the war in Ukraine “within 24 hours,” Parolin replied: “Let’s hope, let’s hope. I believe that not even he has a magic wand.”
“To end wars, a lot of humility is needed, a lot of willingness is needed, it really is necessary to seek the general interests of humanity rather than concentrate on particular interests,” he said.
To overcome divisions in American society, Parolin said he hoped Trump would be “the president of the whole country.”
He also hoped he would be “a factor that reduces tension... in the current conflicts that are bloodying the world.”
Parolin’s comments were the first diplomatic reaction from the Holy See to Trump’s win for the White House against Democrat Kamala Harris.
Pope Francis has not reacted.
In September, the Argentine pope criticized both candidates, accusing them of being “against life” in different ways: for Harris’ support of abortion, and for Trump’s anti-migrant policies.
During his first term in the White House, in May 2017, Trump was received by the Pope at the Vatican for a half-hour meeting.


NATO chief hopes to tackle North Korea-Russia threat with Trump

NATO chief hopes to tackle North Korea-Russia threat with Trump
Updated 07 November 2024
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NATO chief hopes to tackle North Korea-Russia threat with Trump

NATO chief hopes to tackle North Korea-Russia threat with Trump
  • ‘What we see more and more is that North Korea, Iran, China, and of course Russia are working together, working together against Ukraine’

BUDAPEST: NATO chief Mark Rutte said Thursday he aimed to work jointly with returning US leader Donald Trump in confronting the “dangerous new developments” linked to North Korea’s entry into the Russian war on Ukraine.
“What we see more and more is that North Korea, Iran, China, and of course Russia are working together, working together against Ukraine,” Rutte told reporters at a European leaders’ meeting in Budapest.
“This is more and more a threat, not only to the European part of NATO, but also to the United States — because Russia is delivering the latest technology into North Korea,” he warned.
“I look forward to sit down with Donald Trump to discuss how we can face these threats collectively,” Rutte said.
North Korea has become one of the strongest backers of Russia’s full-scale offensive in Ukraine, and the West has long accused Pyongyang of supplying artillery shells and missiles to Moscow.
Based on intelligence reports, Western powers now believe Pyongyang has deployed around 10,000 troops to Russia, suggesting deeper involvement in the conflict.
Iran meanwhile stands accused of supplying Russia with missiles and drones, while China is suspected of helping Moscow to circumvent Western sanctions on technologies for use in the war against Ukraine.


Kyiv targeted in massive Russian drone barrage overnight

Kyiv targeted in massive Russian drone barrage overnight
Updated 07 November 2024
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Kyiv targeted in massive Russian drone barrage overnight

Kyiv targeted in massive Russian drone barrage overnight
  • Russia has systematically targeted the Ukrainian capital with drone and missile barrages
  • Kyiv was targeted by drone attacks on six days in the first week of November and 20 days in October

KYIV: Kyiv was targeted by another “massive” Russian drone attack that wounded two people, damaged buildings and sparked fires in several districts, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday.
Officials meanwhile in the south and east of the country said Russian attacks had killed two Ukrainian civilians in Kherson and Sumy.
Russia has systematically targeted the capital with drone and missile barrages since the first day of its invasion launched nearly three years ago on Febr. 24, 2022.
The capital was targeted by drone attacks on six days in the first week of November and 20 days in October, officials said.
“The attack took place in waves, from different directions, with drones entering the city at different altitudes — both very low and high,” the city administration said.
It added that more than 36 drones had been downed over the capital and the surrounding area and that falling debris had fallen on six districts of Kyiv and wounded two people.
AFP journalists heard air raid sirens ring out over the capital beginning shortly after midnight Kyiv time and the alert lasted some eight hours.
The reporters also heard drones buzzing over the city and air defense systems working to shoot down the drones.
The attack caused a fire in a 30-story residential building in the city center, and residents had to be evacuated, the mayor’s office said.
The head of the Kherson region meanwhile said the body of a deceased man was recovered from the rubble of a house destroyed by the attack in a Russian attack overnight.
In the eastern Sumy region, the body of another killed person was recovered following a Russian airstrike hours earlier, the interior ministry said.