Wars, looming Trump reign set to dominate G20 summit

Wars, looming Trump reign set to dominate G20 summit
G20 leaders gather in Brazil on Monday for a G20 summit set to be dominated by differences over wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. (REUTERS)
Updated 15 November 2024
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Wars, looming Trump reign set to dominate G20 summit

Wars, looming Trump reign set to dominate G20 summit
  • G20 leaders gather in Brazil on Monday for a G20 summit set to be dominated by differences over wars in the Middle East and UkrainE

RIO DE JANEIRO:G20 leaders gather in Brazil on Monday for a G20 summit set to be dominated by differences over wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, and implications of Donald Trump’s White House return.
Security considerations — always high at such meetings — were elevated further after a failed bomb attack late Wednesday outside Brazil’s Supreme Court in Brasilia.
Police were probing the two blasts as a possible “terrorist act” committed by a Brazilian perpetrator, whose death was the sole casualty.
The summit venue is in Rio de Janeiro, in the city’s stunning bayside museum of modern art, which is the epicenter of a massive police deployment designed to keep the public well away.
Brazil’s leftwing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be using the opportunity to highlight his position as a leader championing Global South issues while also being courted by the West.
That role will be tested in the months and years ahead as Latin America and other regions navigate “America First” policies promised by Donald Trump when he becomes US president in January.
At this G20, it will be outgoing President Joe Biden who will represent the world’s biggest economy, but as a lame duck the other leaders will be looking beyond.
Just before the Rio summit, on Sunday, Biden will make a stop in Brazil’s Amazon to underline the fight against climate change — another issue that Trump is hostile toward.


The G20 meet is happening at the same time as the UN’s COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan — and as the world experiences dramatic climate phenomena, including in Brazil where flooding, drought and forest fires have taken heavy tolls.
At the last G20, in India, the leaders called for a tripling of renewable energy sources by the end of the decade, but without explicitly calling for an end to the use of fossil fuels.
One invited leader who declined to come to Rio is Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said his presence could “wreck” the gathering.
Putin denied an International Criminal Court warrant out against him, for Russia’s actions in Ukraine, was a factor in his decision. His foreign minister will represent Russia in Rio.
China’s President Xi Jinping, however, will be attending, and will even extend his stay after the summit to make an official visit to Brasilia on Wednesday.
China is Brazil’s biggest trading partner, and the two countries have been touting themselves as mediators to help end Russia’s war in Ukraine, so far without success.
That conflict, along with Israel’s offensives in Gaza and Lebanon, will loom large at the summit.
“We are negotiating with all the countries on the final declaration’s passages about geopolitics... so that we can reach consensual language on those two issues,” Brazil’s chief diplomatic official for the G20, Mauricio Lyrio, said.
Those conflicts will be “the elephant in the room,” Flavia Loss, international relations specialist at the School of Sociology and Politics of Sao Paulo (FESPSP), told AFP.
But that should not prevent Brazil from finding consensus on issues that it has made priorities under its G20 presidency, she said, such as the fight against hunger or taxing the world’s super-rich.
Lula, heading up Latin America’s biggest economy, set out his line in May when he said: “A lot of people insist on dividing the world between friends and enemies. But the more vulnerable are not interested in simplist dichotomies.”
The Rio G20 summit will open on Monday with Lula officially launching a “Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty.”
The initiative aims to rally nations and international bodies to free up financing for that campaign, or to replicate programs that have previously had success.
And on the issue of taxing billionaires, the G20 countries already declared a desire to cooperate to bring that about, as set out by their finance ministers who met in Rio in June.
It remained to be seen, though, whether the leaders at the summit would pursue that goal, and on what terms.
Following the summit, Brazil hands over the G20 presidency to South Africa.


Denmark says to summon US ambassador over potential Greenland spying

Updated 35 sec ago
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Denmark says to summon US ambassador over potential Greenland spying

Denmark says to summon US ambassador over potential Greenland spying
The article “raised a lot of concern, because friends don’t spy on each other,” Rasmussen said
Trump has insisted he wants to seize the autonomous Danish territory

COPENHAGEN: Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said Wednesday he would summon the US ambassador to Denmark after The Wall Street Journal reported that Washington would intensify spying on Greenland, the territory coveted by President Donald Trump.
The article “raised a lot of concern, because friends don’t spy on each other,” Rasmussen said in Warsaw. “This is very serious, so we will summon the ambassador for a meeting at the foreign ministry.”
The Journal report cited two people as saying the United States was stepping up its intelligence gathering on Greenland.
Trump has insisted he wants to seize the autonomous Danish territory, saying Washington needs control of the mineral-rich Arctic island for security reasons.
Rasmussen said he hoped, “obviously, that this can be refuted” during the meeting with the US envoy, and “in any case the aim is to make clear Denmark’s position on this issue.”

UK firms sent thousands of military munitions to Israel despite arms export ban, report finds

UK firms sent thousands of military munitions to Israel despite arms export ban, report finds
Updated 39 min 26 sec ago
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UK firms sent thousands of military munitions to Israel despite arms export ban, report finds

UK firms sent thousands of military munitions to Israel despite arms export ban, report finds
  • ‘8,630 separate munitions’ sent to Israel in the category of ‘bombs, grenades, torpedoes, mines, missiles’ since suspension of 30 arms-export licenses in September
  • Analysis by campaign groups of Israel Tax Authority data also finds deliveries of F-35 components as recently as March

LONDON: UK firms continued to send thousands of arms and other military items to Israel despite an announcement by the British government in September that it was suspending about 30 arms-export licenses for the country, according to a report published on Wednesday.

Campaign groups — including the Palestinian Youth Movement, Progressive International, and Workers for a Free Palestine — analyzed data from the Israel Tax Authority and found that UK businesses were still sending shipments of military items, including munitions, arms and aircraft parts.

Their report states that F-35 fighter jet components were delivered to Israel as recently as March, more than five months after the UK government suspended the 30 arms-export licenses, including a ban on aircraft parts. Fighter aircraft, including F-35s and combat drones, have been a critical element of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since the war began in October 2023, carrying out airstrikes across the territory.

The report said that 8,630 separate munitions had been sent since the license suspensions in September 2024 in the category of “bombs, grenades, torpedoes, mines, missiles and similar munitions of war and parts thereof.” UK firms also delivered four shipments of arms to Israel that included 146 items identified under a customs code as “tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, motorised, whether or not fitted with weapons, and parts of such vehicles.”

The authors of the report also found evidence that 150,000 bullets were shipped from the UK to Israel in October 2023, prior to the suspension of the licenses.

John McDonnell, a former Labour shadow chancellor, and MP Zarah Sultana have sent a letter to Foreign Secretary David Lammy calling for an investigation into the report’s findings.

Lammy told Parliament in October that much of the military equipment the UK sends to Israel “is defensive in nature. It is not what we describe routinely as arms.”

McDonnell and Sultana said it would be a resignation issue if it was discovered that he misled parliament and the public about the suspension of arms-export licenses to Israel.

They also called for an immediate halt to all arms exports to Israel and said the public “deserves to know the full scale of the UK’s complicity in crimes against humanity.”

Sultana said: “This explosive report shows the government has been lying to us about the arms it is supplying to Israel while it wages genocide in Gaza. Far from ‘helmets and goggles,’ the government has been sending thousands of arms and ammunition goods.”

McDonnell called on the government to “come clean in response to this extremely concerning evidence and halt all British arms exports to Israel to ensure no British-made weapons are used in Netanyahu’s new and terrifying plans to annex the Gaza Strip and ethnically cleanse the land.”

The Israeli military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians since the start of the war in October 2023, following the deadly attack by Hamas on southern Israel.

The Israeli government faces an ongoing case at the International Court of Justice over its military actions in Gaza, which have led to a humanitarian crisis and mass killings. In addition, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for crimes against humanity and war crimes related to the war in Gaza.

In a statement to The Guardian newspaper, a Foreign Office spokesperson said: “This government has suspended relevant licenses for the (Israeli army) that might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza.

“Of the remaining licenses for Israel, the vast majority are not for the Israeli Defense Forces but are for civilian purposes or reexport, and therefore are not used in the war in Gaza. The only exemption is the F-35 program due to its strategic role in NATO and wider implications for international peace and security.

“Any suggestion that the UK is licensing other weapons for use by Israel in the war in Gaza is misleading. The UK totally opposes an expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza. We urge all parties to return urgently to talks, implement the ceasefire agreement in full, secure the release of hostages taken by Hamas, and work towards a permanent peace.”


Serbian president’s flight halted in Baku en route to Moscow for WW2 parade

Serbian president’s flight halted in Baku en route to Moscow for WW2 parade
Updated 07 May 2025
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Serbian president’s flight halted in Baku en route to Moscow for WW2 parade

Serbian president’s flight halted in Baku en route to Moscow for WW2 parade
  • It was unclear whether Vucic would be able to continue his trip beyond Azerbaijan
  • Several regional states shut their airspace over Ukrainian drone strikes

BAKU: A plane carrying Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to Moscow for Russia’s parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany was halted in Baku on Wednesday due to ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Tanjug news agency reported.
It was unclear whether Vucic would be able to continue his trip beyond Azerbaijan after several regional states shut their airspace over a third day of Ukrainian drone strikes in Moscow, which forced most of the Russian capital’s airports to close.


Vucic was set to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 9, the day of the parade, the semi-official Serbian news agency reported, citing a Kremlin official.
European Union officials have urged presidents of nations aspiring to join the EU, including Vucic, to align their foreign policies with the bloc and avoid Moscow’s World War Two victory rites because of Russia’s three-year-old invasion of Ukraine.
Last weekend, Vucic abruptly returned from the United States where he had expected to meet with President Donald Trump, citing health reasons. But his physicians said his condition had improved and he could return to work in mid-week.


US may soon deport migrants to Libya on military flight, sources say

US may soon deport migrants to Libya on military flight, sources say
Updated 07 May 2025
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US may soon deport migrants to Libya on military flight, sources say

US may soon deport migrants to Libya on military flight, sources say
  • Two of the officials said the US military could fly the migrants to the North African country as soon as Wednesday
  • Reuters could not determine how many migrants would be sent to Libya

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s administration may deport migrants to Libya for the first time this week, three US officials said on Tuesday, as part of his immigration crackdown and despite Washington’s past condemnation of Libya’s harsh treatment of detainees.
Two of the officials said the US military could fly the migrants to the North African country as soon as Wednesday, but stressed that plans could change.
The Pentagon referred queries to the White House. The White House and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A State Department spokesperson said: “We do not discuss the details of our diplomatic communications with other governments.”
Reuters could not determine how many migrants would be sent to Libya or the nationalities of the individuals that the administration is eyeing for deportation. Libya’s Government of National Unity said on Wednesday it rejected the use of Libyan territory as a destination for deporting migrants without its knowledge or consent. It also said there was no coordination with the United States regarding the reception of migrants.
Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army, which controls eastern Libya, also rejected in a statement the idea of the country taking migrants deported from the United States, saying it “violates the sovereignty of the homeland.”
Trump, who made immigration a major issue during his election campaign, has launched aggressive enforcement action since taking office, surging troops to the southern border and pledging to deport millions of immigrants in the United States illegally.
As of Monday, the Trump administration has deported 152,000 people, according to DHS.
The administration has tried to encourage migrants to leave voluntarily by threatening steep fines, trying to strip away legal status, and deporting migrants to notorious prisons in Guantanamo Bay and El Salvador.
LIFE-THREATENING
In its annual human rights report released last year, the US State Department criticized Libya’s “harsh and life-threatening prison conditions” and “arbitrary arrest or detention.”
In its travel advisory, the Department advises US citizens against visiting the country due to “crime, civil unrest, kidnapping and armed conflict.”
Libya’s west is overseen by the GNU under Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah, who was installed in Tripoli through a UN-backed process in 2021. Eastern Libya has a parallel administration and is controlled by commander Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army.
Major fighting ended with a truce in 2020 but the underlying political dispute between the sides remains and there are sporadic clashes between rival factions.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week said the United States was not satisfied only with sending migrants to El Salvador, and hinted that Washington was looking to expand the number of countries that it may deport people to.
“We are working with other countries to say: We want to send you some of the most despicable human beings, will you do this as a favor to us,” Rubio said at a cabinet meeting at the White House last Wednesday.
“And the further away from America, the better.”
A fourth US official said the administration has for several weeks been looking at a number of countries to send migrants to, including Libya.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the administration had struck an agreement with the Libyan authorities to accept deportees of other nationalities. On April 19 the Supreme Court justices temporarily barred the Trump administration from deporting a group of Venezuelan migrants it accused of being gang members. Trump’s administration, which has invoked a rarely used wartime law, has urged the justices to lift or narrow their order.
It is unclear what kind of due process might be underway ahead of any Libya deportations.
Libya has had little peace since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising, and it split in 2014 between eastern and western factions, with rival administrations governing in each area.
A Tripoli-based Government of National Unity under Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah was installed through a UN-backed process in 2021 but the Benghazi-based House of Representatives no longer recognizes its legitimacy.


Kabul warns India, Pakistan that escalation ‘not in interest of region’

Kabul warns India, Pakistan that escalation ‘not in interest of region’
Updated 07 May 2025
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Kabul warns India, Pakistan that escalation ‘not in interest of region’

Kabul warns India, Pakistan that escalation ‘not in interest of region’
  • The Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged both sides to exercise restraint
  • Relations between the Taliban government and neighboring Pakistan have been strained

KABUL: Afghanistan’s Taliban government warned India and Pakistan on Wednesday that further escalation was not “in the interest of the region” after they exchanged artillery fire along their contested frontier.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on the social media platform X that “it urges both sides to exercise restraint and resolve their issues through dialogue and diplomacy.”


Islamabad said 26 civilians were killed by the Indian strikes or gunfire along the border, while New Delhi reported at least 12 dead from Pakistani shelling.
Relations between the Taliban government and neighboring Pakistan have been strained over security concerns and Islamabad’s deportation campaign which has expelled tens of thousands of Afghans since the beginning of April.
The Taliban, who returned to power in Kabul in the summer of 2021, have in contrast developed closer ties with New Delhi, even though it does not recognize their government.
The violence between India and Pakistan was sparked after New Delhi accused Pakistan of backing the deadliest attack in years on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22, which killed 26 men. Islamabad rejects the charge.