DAVOS: The United Nations human rights chief expressed alarm after a speech by US President Donald Trump in Davos on Friday, saying Trump’s call for countries to pursue their own self-interest would take the world back to the eve of World War One.
“It’s the script of the 20th century,” Zeid Raad Al-Hussein said. “He (Trump) urged all countries to pursue their own interest, almost without reference to the fact that if you do all of that, if each country is narrowly pursuing its agenda, it will clash with the agendas of others and we will take the world back to 1913 once again.”
Prince Zeid, a former Jordanian diplomat and member of the deposed royal family of Iraq, has repeatedly criticized Trump in the past in his role as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the global body’s top spokesman on human rights issues.
The Trump administration, for its part, has threatened to quit the UN Human Rights Council, which is separate from Zeid’s office but works closely with it, and which Washington considers structurally hostile to its ally Israel.
Trump became the first sitting US president in 18 years to address the annual summit of the world’s political and business elite in the Swiss ski resort of Davos on Friday. In his speech, he courted foreign investment, saying the United States was “open for business,” while also promising to take action against what he described as unfair trade deals.
Repeating his “America first” slogan, Trump said he would expect all world leaders to put the interests of their own countries first.
Prince Zeid said such a policy would lead to “it all coming apart at some stage, and people suffering grievously.”
“Ethnic nationalisms, chauvinistic nationalisms, a sense that there is a supremacy within communities determined on the basis of color or ethnicity, and that others are somehow lesser people, or that certain countries are somehow morally superior to others. That’s what always seems to get us into trouble.”
Zeid also said he was concerned about a new coalition government in Austria, which includes the far right Freedom Party.
“I have to say I read the document between the two parties, and it’s worrisome, because it has within it — xenophobia is clearly there,” Zeid told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “There is a sense that Austria now may start to tack, following Hungary and Poland, in its anti-European stance.”
UN’s rights chief rejects Trump speech as ‘script of the 20th century’
UN’s rights chief rejects Trump speech as ‘script of the 20th century’
No place for racism, hate in France, says Macron after Muslim killed in mosque
“Racism and hatred based on religion can have no place in France. Freedom of worship cannot be violated,” Macron wrote on X in his first comments on Friday’s killing, extending his support to “our fellow Muslim citizens.”
The attacker, who is on the run, stabbed the worshipper dozens of times and then filmed him with a mobile phone while shouting insults at Islam in Friday’s attack in the village of La Grand-Combe in the Gard region.
French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou had already denounced what he described an “Islamophobic atrocity.”
The alleged perpetrator sent the video he had filmed with his phone — showing the victim writhing in agony — to another person, who then shared it on a social media platform before deleting it.
A source close to the case, who asked not to be named, said the suspected perpetrator, while not apprehended, has been identified as a French citizen of Bosnian origin who is not a Muslim.
The victim, a young Malian man in his 20s, and the attacker were alone inside the mosque at the time of the incident.
After initially praying alongside the man, the attacker then stabbed the victim up to 50 times before fleeing the scene.
The body of the victim was only discovered later in the morning when other worshippers arrived at the mosque for Friday prayers.
A protest “against Islamophobia” was due to take place Sunday evening in Paris in the wake of the killing.
The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) said it was “horrified” by the “anti-Muslim terrorist attack” and urged Muslims in France to be “extremely vigilant.”
“The murder of a worshipper in a mosque is a despicable crime that must revolt the hearts of all French people,” added the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF).
The attacker — who has been named only as Olivier, born in France in 2004 and unemployed without a criminal record — is “potentially extremely dangerous” and it is “essential” to arrest him before he claims more victims, according to regional prosecutor Abdelkrim Grini.
Indonesia joins BRICS foreign ministers meeting as member
- BRICS accounts for about 48% of world’s population, over 37% of global economy
- Ministerial meeting comes amid Trump’s trade tariffs on nearly all goods imported to US
JAKARTA: Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Sugiono will attend a meeting with his counterparts of the BRICS bloc of emerging economies in Rio de Janeiro on Monday, the country’s first ministerial participation since becoming a full member of the geopolitical forum earlier this year.
Initially comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the group has expanded with the accession of Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia and the UAE last year, and Indonesia in January.
Morphing into the most powerful geopolitical forum outside the Western world, BRICS now accounts for about 48 percent of the world’s population and more than 37 percent of the global economy.
“The Indonesian foreign minister will encourage BRICS to play a more constructive role in maintaining peace and upholding global norms that have been mutually agreed upon,” Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“(He) will also emphasize the importance of reforming various multilateral institutions to be more inclusive, transparent, and responsive in facing various challenges in the world.”
Brazil holds the BRICS presidency this year under the theme “Enhancing Global South Cooperation for a More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance.”
The two-day meeting of the group’s foreign ministers in Rio de Janeiro will also cover preparations for the upcoming annual leaders’ summit, which Brazil will host in July.
The ministerial-level meeting comes amid the US’ 90-day pause on sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs, while it has raised tariffs on Chinese imports to an effective rate of 145 percent. Beijing has responded with retaliatory hikes on US exports.
The Trump administration has imposed a 47 percent tariff on Indonesian imports, raising concerns about its billions of dollars-worth exports to the US.
The intensifying trade war with the US and the impacts of Washington’s tariffs around the world will be high on the agenda of the BRICS meeting, said Dinna Prapto Raharja, founder of Jakarta-based think-tank Synergy Policies.
“It will be a big part of the agenda, how BRICS countries will respond to the US tariffs,” Raharja told Arab News on Sunday.
Alternative payment methods in international trade and the role of the New Development Bank — a multilateral bank developed by BRICS member nations — are also likely to be discussed.
She noted that the BRICS meeting is taking place as China urges a unified response in Southeast Asia, following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s tour to the region earlier this month.
“Indonesia must be able to choose and talk about extremely strategic matters in these negotiation processes,” Raharja said.
Jakarta must decide on which aspects it is willing to work with the US and in which areas it is open to create alternatives with BRICS countries.
She added: “This must be decided, so that in the case of China coming into the forums with offers or even a little push for BRICS member countries to choose a certain path, Indonesia is ready.”
South Korea’s main opposition party taps former party chief as presidential candidate
- Lee, 60, lost the 2022 election to Yoon in the narrowest margin recorded in the country’s presidential elections
SEOUL: South Korea’s main liberal opposition party tapped Sunday its former leader Lee Jae-myung as presidential candidate in the upcoming June 3 vote.
The Democratic Party said Lee has won nearly 90 percent of the votes cast during the party’s primary that ended Sunday, defeating two competitors.
Lee, a liberal who wants greater economic parity in South Korea and warmer ties with North Korea, has solidified his position as front-runner to succeed recently ousted conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Lee had led the opposition-controlled parliament’s impeachment of Yoon over his imposition of martial law before the Constitutional Court formally dismissed him in early April. Yoon’s ouster prompted a snap election set for June 3 to find a new president, who’ll be given a full, single five-year term.
Lee, 60, lost the 2022 election to Yoon in the narrowest margin recorded in the country’s presidential elections.
He is the clear favorite to win the election.
In a Gallup Korea poll released Friday, 38 percent of respondents chose Lee as their preferred new president, while all other aspirants obtained single-digit support ratings. The main conservative People Power Party is to nominate its candidate next weekend, and its four presidential hopefuls competing to win the party ticket won combined 23 percent of support ratings in the Gallup survey.
Lee, who served as the governor of South Korea’s most populous Gyeonggi province and a mayor of Seongnam city, has long established an image as an anti-establishment figure who can eliminate deep-rooted unfairness, inequality and corruption in South Korea. But his critics view him as a populist who relies on stoking divisions and demonizing opponents and worry his rule would likely end up intensifying a domestic division.
Russia launches nearly 150 drones against Ukraine as Trump doubts Putin’s desire for peace
- Kyiv denied that its forces had been expelled from Kursk
KYIV: Russia launched a sweeping drone assault across Ukraine overnight into Sunday, targeting multiple regions, officials said, after US President Donald Trump cast doubt over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to end the war.
One person was killed and a 14-year-old girl wounded in the city of Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which was hit for the third consecutive night, regional Gov. Serhii Lysak said.
The attacks came hours after Russia claimed to have regained control over the remaining parts of the Kursk region, which Ukrainian forces seized in a surprise incursion last August. Ukrainian officials said the fighting in Kursk was still ongoing.
Trump said Saturday that he doubts Putin wants to end the more than three-year war in Ukraine, expressing new skepticism that a peace deal can be reached soon. Only a day earlier, Trump had said Ukraine and Russia were ” very close to a deal.”
“There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” Trump wrote in a social media post as he flew back to the United States after attending Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican, where he met briefly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump also hinted at further sanctions against Russia.
The Trump-Zelensky conversation on the sidelines of the pope’s funeral was the first face-to-face encounter between the two leaders since they argued during a heated Oval Office meeting at the White House in late February.
Russia fired 149 exploding drones and decoys in the latest wave of attacks, the Ukrainian air force said, adding that 57 were intercepted and another 67 jammed.
One person was wounded in drone attacks on the Odesa region and one other in the city of Zhytomyr. Four people were also wounded in a Russian airstrike on the city of Kherson on Sunday morning, according to local officials.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that air defenses shot down five Ukrainian drones in the border region of Bryansk, as well as three drones over the Crimean peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Five people were wounded when Ukrainian forces shelled the city of Horlivka in the partially occupied Donetsk region, the city’s Russian-installed Mayor Ivan Prikhodko said.
All eyes turn to conclave after Pope Francis’s funeral
- With Pope Francis laid to rest, all eyes turn now to the conclave, the secretive meeting of cardinals set to convene within days to elect a new head of the Catholic Church
VATICAN: With Pope Francis laid to rest, all eyes turn now to the conclave, the secretive meeting of cardinals set to convene within days to elect a new head of the Catholic Church.
Alongside world leaders and reigning monarchs, an estimated 400,000 people turned out on Saturday for the Argentine pontiff’s funeral at the Vatican and burial in Rome.
The crowds were a testament to the popularity of Francis, an energetic reformer who championed the poorest and most vulnerable.
Many of those mourning the late pope, who died on Monday aged 88, expressed anxiety about who would succeed him.
“He ended up transforming the Church into something more normal, more human,” said Romina Cacciatore, 48, an Argentinian translator living in Italy.
“I’m worried about what’s coming.”
On Monday morning, at 9:00 am (0700 GMT), cardinals will hold their fifth general meeting since the pope’s death, at which they are expected to pick a date for the conclave.
Held behind locked doors in the frescoed Sistine Chapel, the election of a pope has been a subject of public fascination for centuries.
Cardinal-electors will cast four votes per day until one candidate secures a two-thirds majority, a result broadcast to the waiting world by burning papers that emit white smoke.
Luxembourg Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich said last week he expected the conclave to take place on May 5 or 6 — shortly after the nine days of papal mourning, which ends on May 4.
German Cardinal Reinhard Marx told reporters on Saturday the conclave would last just “a few days.”
Francis’s funeral was held in St. Peter’s Square in bright spring sunshine, a mix of solemn ceremony and an outpouring of emotion for the Church’s first Latin American pope.
More crowds gathered on Sunday for the opening for public viewing of his simple marble tomb at the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, his favorite church in Rome.
Francis was buried in an alcove of the church, becoming the first pope in more than a century to be interred outside the Vatican.
“It was very emotional” to see his tomb, said 49-year-old Peruvian Tatiana Alva, who wiped away tears after joining hundreds of others filing past the burial place.
“He was very kind, humble. He used language young people could understand. I don’t think the next pope can be the same but I hope he will have an open mind and be realistic about the challenges in the world right now.”
A couple of hours after opening, the large basilica was packed, the crowds periodically shushed over speakers.
Among the mourners were pilgrims and Catholic youth groups who had planned to attend the Sunday canonization of Carlo Acutis, which was postponed after Francis died.
Raphael De Mas Latrie, 45, from France, had been bringing his nine-year-old son to the canonization but they attended the funeral instead, saying they “really appreciated” Francis’s defense of the environment.
“Today in this material world his message made a lot of sense, particularly to young people,” he said.
He added that Francis’s successor did not have to be his likeness, for “every pope has a message for the world today.”
In his homily at the funeral, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re highlighted the Jesuit pope’s defense of migrants, relentless calls for peace and belief that the Church was a “home for all.”
“I hope we get another pope as skilled as Francis at speaking to people’s hearts, at being close to every person, no matter who they are,” 53-year-old Maria Simoni from Rome said.
Many of the mourners expressed hope that the next pope would follow Francis’s example, at a time of widespread global conflict and growing hard-right populism.
Marx said the debate over the next pope was open, adding: “It’s not a question of being conservative or progressive... The new pope must have a universal vision.”
More than 220 of the Church’s 252 cardinals were at Saturday’s funeral. They will gather again on Sunday afternoon at Santa Maria Maggiore to pay their respects at Francis’s tomb.
There will also be a mass at St. Peter’s Basilica at 10:30 am (0830 GMT) on Sunday, led by Pietro Parolin, who was secretary of state under Francis and is a front-runner to become the next pope.
Only cardinals under the age of 80 are eligible to vote in the conclave. There are 135 currently eligible — most of whom Francis appointed himself.
But experts caution against assuming they will choose someone like him.
Francis, a former archbishop of Buenos Aires who loved being among his flock, was a very different character to his predecessor Benedict XVI, a German theologian better suited to books than kissing babies.
Benedict in turn was a marked change from his Polish predecessor, the charismatic, athletic and hugely popular John Paul II.
Francis’s changes triggered anger among many conservative Catholics and many of them are hoping the next pope will turn the focus back to doctrine.
Some cardinals have admitted the weight of the responsibility that faces them in choosing a new head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
“We feel very small,” Hollerich said last week. “We have to make decisions for the whole Church, so we really need to pray for ourselves.”
