Macron discusses MidEast crisis with Israel’s Netanyahu, Egypt’s El-Sisi
Macron discusses MidEast crisis with Israel’s Netanyahu, Egypt’s El-Sisi/node/2497331/world
Macron discusses MidEast crisis with Israel’s Netanyahu, Egypt’s El-Sisi
French President Emmanuel Macron waits for the arrival of Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (not seen) before a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, April 19, 2024. (Reuters)
Macron discusses MidEast crisis with Israel’s Netanyahu, Egypt’s El-Sisi
Macron had also reiterated to Netanyahu that France wanted an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza
Updated 22 April 2024
Arab News
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron held phone calls on Monday with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to discuss ways of avoiding an escalation in the Middle East crisis, said France and Egypt.
The French presidency said Macron, in his call with Netanyahu, had reaffirmed Paris’s desire to avoid an escalation in the Middle East and to stand up to what it said were Iran’s efforts to destabilize the region.
The French presidency added that Macron had also reiterated to Netanyahu that France wanted an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza and said Paris was working to ease tensions arising from clashes on the border between Israel and Lebanon.
In a separate statement, Egyptian presidential spokesperson Ahmed Fahmy said Macron had also discussed the Middle East crisis with the Egyptian leader and that both Macron and El-Sisi had agreed on the need to avoid further regional escalation.
There is an mpox jab. Why is it taking so long to reach Africa?
Nigeria is the only African country with doses
New variant fairly lethal, experts say
Updated 21 sec ago
LAGOS/JOHANNESBURG: Mpox is nothing new to Africa yet there is no vaccine available on the continent, exposing rank inequity in global distribution as tens of richer nations inoculate people facing far less risk. Experts say that inequality — alongside competing health problems and slow regulation — is putting millions of Africans in jeopardy, after scientists found the virus was now mutating fast, leaping from person to person and stealing over borders. “The lack in the distribution of mpox vaccines in Africa is due to challenges in supply, funding, and infrastructure, and because the disease is less prevalent compared to other health priorities,” Duduzile Ndwandwe, a scientist at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMARA), said in emailed comments. Mpox had been circulating in the Democratic Republic of Congo since January last year but only became a grave concern this January when scientists spotted the worrying, new mutation. Two mpox vaccines made by Denmark’s Bavarian Nordic and Japan’s KM Biologics used to combat a 2022 outbreak have been widely available in at least 70 countries outside Africa — even administered for free in some US and European clinics. But before Nigeria received 10,000 doses from the United States this week, no mpox vaccine was available — in any country — in Africa, and the variant now circling vulnerable, displaced populations in DRC is even more virulent than previous strains. ’A serious epidemic’ Mpox, formerly known as monkey pox, has been a public health problem in parts of Africa since 1970, but received little global attention until an international outbreak in 2022. It typically causes flu-like symptoms, pus-filled lesions and can kill. Protection costs about $100 a person. Jimmy Whitworth, professor of epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, described the new variant, clade 1b pox, as “fairly lethal.” “This appears to be from sexual contact that it’s spreading, and this time it is going from person to person,” Whitworth said. “There’s now a need to raise it to the priority list because this is a serious epidemic.” Since January 2023, there have been more than 27,000 suspected cases and 1,100 deaths in Congo, according to government figures, mainly among children. The viral infection has spread from DRC to 12 neighboring countries, leading the World Health Organization (WHO) to designate the outbreak a public health emergency. Many African nations are struggling to meet the challenge. Whitworth said the $100 needed to distribute a dose of the vaccine is prohibitive for governments who must quash multiple threats — measles, malaria, cholera — with limited budgets. “It is a huge expense to vaccinate just DRC. If you asked people in DRC last year what the higher priority was, ‘was it the measles or mpox vaccine?’ They would have said ‘measles vaccine’. And so would anybody else in public health because that was a bigger threat then,” the epidemiologist said. National regulations are also a problem. Despite the severity of the mpox crisis and the risk of it spreading across DRC’s borders, local regulators only approved a vaccine in June with no date yet set for distribution. Why the delay? In 2022, two mpox vaccines, along with public health campaigns against risky behavior, effectively controlled an outbreak that had hit 100 countries globally. But African countries have so far remained underserved, with efforts only now ramping up to bolster their protection. Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said it had been granted 9.34 million euros ($10.43 million) in emergency funding from the Africa Union for its mpox response and it said it would need 10 million doses of vaccines. Bavarian Nordic said it can make 10 million doses of its vaccine by end-2025 and offered 2 million doses this year. The WHO gave its partner agencies, including global vaccine organization Gavi and UNICEF, the go-ahead to buy mpox vaccines pre-approval to speed their delivery to Africa. DRC had expected to receive its first vaccines in the week of Aug. 26 after the United States and Japan both promised deliveries, but has since said it would take longer. European Union countries have also pledged donations to help Africa fight the current outbreak. Whitworth said regulators in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Kenya, all countries where cases have been detected, should approve vaccines urgently without waiting for a full outbreak. “The vaccine isn’t even licensed in those countries,” said Whitworth. “Those countries … need to speed up the process.” Weak health system Even pre-mpox, Congo’s health system was at breaking point — weighed down by epidemics of measles and Ebola and years of conflict — and campaigners say short-term fixes won’t work. Katharina Schroeder from Save the Children said long-term investment in social welfare and health care infrastructure were vital to prevent future outbreaks, with many remote health centers lacking basic testing kits or trained staff. “The health centers outside the city need to be equipped to triage patients … because often they’re looking for things like gloves and masks,” Schroeder said. Save the Children has been training staff on the disease, but even when diagnoses are successfully sped through, few sick patients can then afford to isolate for the mandated four weeks. “They understand this is mpox, they understand this is dangerous for their family. But they still don’t go into isolation because they live day by day. They don’t have enough to eat,” Schroeder said.
Germany confirms it has resumed deportations to Afghanistan
The coalition government has come under pressure to take a tougher stance on migration
Berlin had stopped returning people to Afghanistan on human rights concerns after the Taliban took power in 2021
Updated 11 min 30 sec ago
Reuters
FRANKFURT: Germany said it resumed flying convicted criminals of Afghan nationality to their home country on Friday, as Berlin reverses a policy to hold off on deportations to the Taliban-ruled country.
The coalition government has come under pressure to take a tougher stance on migration after a deadly stabbing linked to Daesh at a city festival a week ago and after an Afghan man stabbed a German policeman to death in a knife attack in June.
Spiegel magazine reported that a Kabul-bound flight took off from Leipzig early on Friday with 28 convicted criminals onboard after months of secret negotiations with mediator Qatar.
The government said in a statement it thanked “key regional partners” for their support and added that more such deportations were being worked on.
Berlin had stopped returning people to Afghanistan on human rights concerns after the Taliban took power in 2021.
Two eastern regional states, where the anti-immigration AfD party is topping polls, will hold elections on Sunday.
Germany said in June it was again considering deporting Afghan migrants who pose a security threat, following the police officer’s killing in the city of Mannheim.
Negotiating directly with the Taliban, some of whose officials are under international sanctions, is widely seen as problematic.
UN’s Guterres says East Timor’s independence a gift to the world
The nation has evolved from a host country for peacekeeping forces to one that contributes personnel to UN peacekeeping missions
The tiny-half island nation of East Timor officially gained independence in 2002 after a landmark ballot overseen by the UN in 1999
Updated 30 August 2024
Reuters
East Timor’s independence was a gift to the world because it showed conflict could be resolved through negotiation, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday, the 25th anniversary of its vote to separate from Indonesia.
The milestone will be marked later on Friday with a minute’s silence for those who died during the campaign for nationhood, a march through the seaside capital of Dili, and speeches by Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao and President Jose Ramos-Horta, two heroes of the independence movement.
“We can never forget the courage of the Timorese resistance. By people who risked everything to see independence realized,” Guterres told the Timorese parliament in Dili on Friday morning, in remarks provided by the UN.
“But if Timor-Leste received a lot from the UN, the truth is that it also gave a lot to the UN and the world. The talks mediated by the UN showed the world that it is possible to resolve conflicts at the negotiating table...”
The nation has evolved from a host country for peacekeeping forces to one that contributes personnel to UN peacekeeping missions, as it is doing in South Sudan, he said.
The tiny-half island nation of East Timor, or Timor-Leste, officially gained independence in 2002 after a landmark ballot overseen by the UN in 1999. More than 78 percent of Timorese choose independence at the time.
Pro-Jakarta militiamen went on a violent rampage following the 1999 vote, destroying infrastructure and killing about 1,000 people, according to the UN
Neighboring Indonesia had invaded East Timor in 1975, occupying the country for more than two decades. Prior to the Indonesian occupation, the nation was ruled by colonial power Portugal.
Xanana, who served as East Timor’s first president after independence, led resistance against the brutal occupation and was imprisoned by Indonesia after he was captured in 1992.
Ramos-Horta, the country’s de-facto foreign minister in exile, was jointly awarded the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to secure his country’s independence.
“My presence in Timor-Leste, at the moment the country became independent, was undoubtedly one of the greatest privileges that my political life has given me,” said Guterres, who was Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002.
“That day, and today, I felt the enormous courage and relentless determination of the Timorese people.”
A quarter of a century after it gained freedom, the nation of 1.3 million faces significant development hurdles as it works to diversify an oil-and-gas-dependent economy, and foster a new generation of leaders.
First election in a decade is planned in Indian-administered Kashmir. Here’s what to know
Opposition Congress party has formed alliance with National Conference, the region’s largest pro-India Kashmiri political party
Modi’s BJP has a weak political base in the Kashmir Valley, the heartland of decades of anti-India rebellion, while it is strong in Jammu
Updated 30 August 2024
AP
SRINAGAR: Residents of Indian-administered Kashmir are gearing up for their first regional election in a decade that will allow them to have their own truncated government, also known as a local assembly, instead of remaining under New Delhi’s direct rule.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan and claimed in its entirety by both. The Indian-administered part has been on edge since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government ended its special status in 2019 and also scrapped its statehood.
The three-phased polls will take place amid a sharp rise in rebel attacks on government forces in parts of Hindu-dominated Jammu areas that have remained relatively peaceful in the three decades of armed rebellion against Indian rule.
With campaigning picking up in the runup to the election, India’s main opposition Congress party has formed an alliance to jointly seek the vote with the National Conference, the region’s largest pro-India Kashmiri political party. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has a weak political base in the Kashmir Valley, the heartland of decades of anti-India rebellion, while it is strong in Jammu.
Here is what you need to know about the coming election: The history of disputed Kashmir
Kashmir’s future was left unresolved at the end of British colonial rule in 1947 when the Indian subcontinent was divided into predominantly Hindu India and mainly Muslim Pakistan. Pakistan has long pushed for the right to self-determination under a UN resolution passed in 1948, which called for a referendum on whether Kashmiris wanted to merge with either country.
Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989, while India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, a charge Islamabad denies. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict which most Kashmiri Muslims consider a legitimate struggle for freedom.
In this file photograph, taken on May 31, 2019, Kashmiri protesters throw bricks and rocks at an armored vehicle of Indian police during a protest in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir. (AP/File)
What is the current status of the region?
Indian-administered Kashmir has been without a local government since 2018 when India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party ended its support to the local Kashmiri People’s Democratic Party, bringing down the coalition government and causing the assembly to dissolve. A year later, Modi’s government revoked the region’s semi-autonomy and downgraded it to a federally controlled territory.
As a result, Indian-held Kashmir lost its flag, criminal code, constitution and inherited protections on land and jobs. It was also divided into two federal territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir, ruled directly by New Delhi, allowing it to appoint an administrator to run it along unelected government officials.
Since then, a slew of legal and administrative changes have been installed without public input, much to the anger of the region’s people whose civil liberties have also been curbed and media intimidated.
Indian officials have repeatedly said that the move — to shape what it calls “Naya Kashmir,” or a “new Kashmir” — was necessary to tackle separatism, foster greater economic development and fully integrate the region into the country. Even after the election, India’s federal government will still make the decisions
The election will take place between Sept. 18 and Oct. 1, and votes are set to be counted on Oct. 4.
Ashok Bhat, left, a candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) talks to a voter, while campaigning door-to-door ahead of the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly elections, in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir on August 29, 2024. (AP)
In theory, the polls will see a transition of power from New Delhi to a newly elected local assembly with a chief minister serving as the region’s top elected official with a council of ministers, a similar setup to before 2018.
But the new polls will hardly give the new government any legislative powers as Indian-controlled Kashmir will continue to be a “Union Territory” — a region directly controlled by the federal government — with India’s parliament remaining as the region’s legislator. The elected assembly will only have nominal control over education and culture.
Kashmir’s statehood status has to be restored for the new government to have power. Even Kashmiri pro-India parties, like the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party, have vowed to politically and legally fight for the return of Kashmir’s semi-autonomy. How do Kashmir residents view the upcoming election?
Many are indifferent, while some believe their vote could be a way to express deep resentment of Modi’s party. Most Muslim residents of the region want independence from India or unification with Pakistan.
National Conference (NC) President Farooq Abdullah, center, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti, second right, and other leaders sit during an all parties meeting on restoration of the special status that was stripped last year from Indian-administered Kashmir, in Srinagar. (AP)
However, Kashmir’s pro-India political elite, many of whom have been jailed for allegedly disrupting peace and slapped with corruption cases in 2019, see an opportunity in these elections to politically oppose the changes by India’s ruling party.
Historically, elections in Indian-held Kashmir have remained a sensitive issue, with many believing that they have been rigged multiple times in favor of the region’s pro-India politicians.
Previous elections have seen Kashmiri Muslim separatist leaders who challenge India’s sovereignty over the region call for a boycott of the vote, calling it an illegitimate exercise under military occupation.
China says no scientific, factual basis for Philippines’ damage claims at Sabina Shoal
Survey report finds that key habitat index values in the reef area were within the suitable growth range of the coral reef system
Xianbin Reef, also known as Sabina Shoal, is in disputed waters of the South China Sea near the Spratly Islands, which China calls the Nansha Islands
Updated 30 August 2024
Reuters
BEIJING: China released on Friday its first survey report of the South China Sea’s disputed Sabina Shoal, saying there was no scientific or factual basis for reef damage claims made by the Philippines.
In the report by the natural resource ministry conducted from May to July, it found that key habitat index values in the reef area were within the suitable growth range of the coral reef system.
“As for the claim concocted by the Philippines that China’s artificial accumulation of coral debris at Xianbin Reef has caused a large number of coral bleaching and death in the region, there is no scientific or factual basis,” the report said.
Xianbin Reef, also known as Sabina Shoal, is in disputed waters of the South China Sea near the Spratly Islands, which China calls the Nansha Islands.
China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea. Both countries have had clashes over competing claims at several atolls in the sea, where $3 trillion worth of trade passes annually.
The Philippine coast guard has accused China of building an artificial island at Sabina Shoal, while China has said “illegal” beaching by Philippine warships at the Nansha Islands had “gravely damaged” the coral reef ecosystem in the area.
In the report, China said a Philippine coast guard ship that has “illegally” stayed at the shoal has had an adverse impact on the surrounding natural environment.
“Affected by waves and currents, anchors and anchor chains will cause continuous damage to the surrounding reefs, and (the Philippines) have also sent small boats to operate on the surrounding reefs many times,” said a senior engineer for China’s Ministry of Natural Resources.
On Sunday, near the Sabina Shoal, the Philippine South China Sea task force said Chinese vessels rammed and used water cannons against a Philippine Bureau of Fisheries ship transporting food, fuel and medical supplies for Filipino fishermen.
