UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations chief warned Monday that the world is facing a convergence of challenges “unlike any in our lifetimes” and expressed fear of a wider war as the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said experts who surveyed the state of the world in 2023 set the Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight — the closest ever to “total global catastrophe,”
He pointed to the war in Ukraine, “runaway climate catastrophe, rising nuclear threats,” the widening gulf between the world’s haves and have-nots, and the “epic geopolitical divisions” undermining “global solidarity and trust.”
In a wide-ranging address Guterres urged the General Assembly’s 193 member nations to change their mindset on decision-making from near-term thinking, which he called “irresponsible” and “immoral,” to looking “at what will happen to all of us tomorrow — and act.”
He said this year’s 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should serve as a reminder that the foundation of the inalienable rights of all people is “freedom, justice and peace.”
Guterres said the transformation needed today must start with peace, beginning in Ukraine — where unfortunately, he said, peace prospects “keep diminishing” and “the chances of further escalation and bloodshed keep growing.”
“I fear the world is not sleepwalking into a wider war. It is doing so with its eyes wide open,” he said.
The world must work harder for peace, Guterres said, not only in Ukraine but in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict “where the two-state solution is growing more distant by the day,” in Afghanistan where the rights of women and girls “are being trampled and deadly terrorist attacks continue” and in Africa’s Sahel region where security is deteriorating “at an alarming rate.”
He also called for stepped up peace efforts in military-ruled Myanmar which is facing new violence and repression, in Haiti where gangs are holding the country hostage, “and elsewhere around the world for the two billion people who live in countries affected by conflict and humanitarian crises.”
The secretary-general said it is time for all countries to recommit to the UN Charter, which calls for peaceful settlement of disputes, and for a new focus on conflict prevention and reconciliation.
The proposed new UN Agenda for Peace, he said, calls for “a new generation of peace enforcement missions and counter-terrorist operations, led by regional forces,” with a UN Security Council mandate that can be enforced militarily and guaranteed funding. “The African Union is an obvious partner in this regard,” he added.
Guterres also said it is time for nuclear-armed countries to renounce the first use of all nuclear weapons, including tactical nuclear weapons, a possible use that Russia has raised in Ukraine.
“The so-called `tactical’ use of nuclear weapons is absurd,” he said. “We are at the highest risk in decades of a nuclear war that could start by accident or design. We need to end the threat posed by 13,000 nuclear weapons held in arsenals around the world.”
As for the global financial system, Guterres called for “radical transformation” to put the needs of developing countries at the center of every decision.
He pointed to rising poverty and hunger around the world, developing countries forced to pay five times more to borrow money than advanced economies, vulnerable middle-income countries denied concessional funding and debt relief, and the richest 1 percent of the world’s people capturing “almost half of all new wealth over the past decade.”
Multilateral development banks must change their business model, Guterres said.
Guterres told diplomats that 2023 must also be “a year of game-changing climate action,” not of excuses or baby steps — and there must be “no more bottomless greed of the fossil fuel industry and its enablers.”
The world must focus on cutting global-warming greenhouse gas emissions by half this decade, which means far more ambitious action to cut carbon pollution by speeding the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, especially in the world’s 20 richest global economies, he said.
It also means cutting emissions from the highest emitting industrial sectors — steel, cement, shipping and aviation, he said.
Guterres had a special message for fossil fuel producers who he said are scrambling to expand production “and raking in monster profits.”
“If you cannot set a credible course for net-zero, with 2025 and 2040 targets covering all your operations, you should not be in business,” he said.
The secretary-general invited any leader in government, business or civil society to the Climate Ambition Summit he is convening in September — with a condition.
“Show us accelerated action in this decade and renewed ambitious net zero plans — or please don’t show up,” Guterres said.
UN chief fears world is heading toward a wider war
https://arab.news/nhqsv
UN chief fears world is heading toward a wider war
- Guterres fears likelihood of further escalation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict means the world is heading towards a "wider war”
- World must work harder for peace not only in Ukraine but in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, UN chief says
Indian FM begins week-long EU trip in new cooperation push
- Jaishankar will inaugurate first edition of the Mediterranean Raisina Dialogue in Marseille
- India, EU negotiating free trade deal, which is expected to be finalized this year
NEW DELHI: India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar set out on Sunday to begin a week of talks with leading diplomats of the EU, France, and Belgium in a new push for cooperation with Europe.
Jaishankar is due to meet his French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot, and Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot during the trip. He will also hold “a strategic dialogue with the EU High Representative and Vice President Ms. Kaja Kallas, and will engage with the senior leadership from the European Commission and the European Parliament,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
The visit is expected to “further deepen India’s friendly relations with the EU, France, and Belgium and give renewed momentum to ongoing cooperation in diverse areas,” the ministry added.
Jaishankar will also inaugurate the first edition of the Mediterranean Raisina Dialogue in Marseille.
The Raisina Dialogue is a multilateral conference on geopolitics and geo-economics held annually in New Delhi and organized by the Observer Research Foundation in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs.
The dialogue in Marseille “is a new initiative involving both government and nongovernment officials from both from India and various parts of the world to converge and talk about issues pertaining to the Mediterranean,” Prof. Harsh V. Pant, vice president of the Observer Research Foundation, told Arab News.
During EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s New Delhi visit in February, India and the EU agreed to finalize negotiations on a comprehensive free trade agreement in December.
Talks in Paris last week resulted in agreement on almost half the agenda, covering areas such as customs, trade facilitation, rules of origin, and intellectual property.
Tens of thousands join anti-government protest in Madrid
MADRID: Tens of thousands of people rallied Sunday in an opposition-organized demonstration in Madrid accusing the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of corruption.
Protesters, many waving red and yellow Spanish flags, massed in the Plaza de Espana, a large square in the center of the Spanish capital, and chanted “Perdo Sanchez, resign!.”
The Popular Party (PP) called the rally after leaked audio recordings allegedly documented a member of the Socialist party, Leire Diez, waging a smear campaign against a police unit that investigated graft allegations against Sanchez’s wife, brother, and his former right-hand man.
Diez has denied the allegations, telling reporters on Wednesday that she was conducting research for a book and was not working on behalf of the party or Sanchez. She also resigned from Sanchez’s Socialist party.
PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo has accused the government of “mafia practices” over the affair, and said Sanchez is “at the center” of multiple corruption scandals.
“This government has stained everything — politics, state institutions, the separation of powers,” he told the rally, going on to urge Sanchez to call early elections.
The PP estimated that more than 100,000 people attended the rally, held under the slogan “Mafia or Democracy.”
The central government’s representative in Madrid put the turnout between 45,000 and 50,000.
“The expiry date on this government passed a long time ago. It’s getting tiring,” Blanca Requejo, a 46-year-old store manager who wore a Spanish flag drapped over her back, told AFP at the rally.
Sanchez has dismissed the probes against members of his inner circle as part of a “smear campaign” carried out by the right wing to undermine his government.
He came to power in June 2018 after ousting his PP predecessor, Mariano Rajoy, in a no-confidence vote over a corruption scandal affecting involving the conservative party.
Recent polls show the PP holding only a slim lead over the Socialists. The next general election is expected in 2027.
Russia continues to accuse Ukraine of delaying planned exchange of dead fighters
- Russia and Ukraine each accused the other on Saturday of endangering plans to swap 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action
Russian officials said Sunday that Moscow is still awaiting official confirmation from Kyiv that a planned exchange of 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action will take place, reiterating allegations that Ukraine had postponed the swap.
Russian state media quoted Lt. Gen. Alexander Zorin, a representative of the Russian negotiating group, as saying that Russia delivered the first batch of 1,212 bodies of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers to the exchange site at the border and is waiting for confirmation from the Ukrainian side, but that there are “signals” that the process of transferring the bodies will be postponed until next week.
Russia and Ukraine each accused the other on Saturday of endangering plans to swap 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action, which was agreed upon during direct talks in Istanbul on Monday that otherwise made no progress toward ending the war.
Vladimir Medinsky, a Putin aide who led the Russian delegation, said that Kyiv called a last-minute halt to an imminent swap. In a Telegram post on Saturday, Medinsky said that refrigerated trucks carrying more than 1,200 bodies of Ukrainian troops from Russia had already reached the agreed exchange site at the border when the news came.
In response, Ukraine said Russia was playing “dirty games” and manipulating facts.
According to the main Ukrainian authority dealing with such swaps, no date had been set for repatriating the bodies. In a statement on Saturday, the agency also accused Russia of submitting lists of prisoners of war for repatriation that didn’t correspond to agreements reached on Monday.
It wasn’t immediately possible to reconcile the conflicting claims.
In other developments, one person was killed and another seriously wounded in Russian aerial strikes on the eastern Ukrainian Kharkiv region. These strikes came after Russian attacks targeted the regional capital, also called Kharkiv, on Saturday. Regional police in Kharkiv said on Sunday that the death toll from Saturday’s attacks had increased to six people. More than two dozen others were wounded.
Russia fired a total of 49 exploding drones and decoys and three missiles overnight, Ukraine’s air force said Sunday. Forty drones were shot down or electronically jammed.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defense ministry said that its forces shot down 61 Ukrainian drones overnight, including near the capital.
Two people were wounded when a Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at a chemical plant in the Tula region.
Against traditional norms, more Filipinas opt out of motherhood
- Percentage of childfree women in Philippines increased from 6% in 2013 to 11% in 2022, study shows
- Parenthood is seen as part of identity, with Constitution recognizing family as ‘foundation of the nation’
MANILA: When Jarrah Brillantes first realized she did not want children, the decision stemmed from her community development work — a mission she was unwilling to set aside. Over the years that choice only strengthened, shaped by the lifestyle she chose for herself.
A policy researcher from Iloilo City, Brillantes has been working with children in conflict zones, where she has seen how the environment affects a child’s development. Raising her own while continuing work, she felt, would not support their full potential.
“It would be unfair,” Brillantes, 38, told Arab News. “The change of residence. The change of career track. Studying again (in) my thirties. These would be challenging and probably selfish if I have a child.”
While Brillantes sometimes engages in babysitting for her family members, she never regrets her choice to be childfree.
“Having a typical Filipino family, children are raised as a tribe. Whenever I have to play the part of the temporary guardian to my niece and nephews, I see that is not the role I want to undertake,” she said.
“While some are (in) the parenting phase of their adult life, there are other things that we undertake too. We put in the work on our career, on our advocacies, our big goals. The most basic and affirming is, that my days go according to my needs and wants.”
Brillantes is one of the growing numbers of Filipino women who choose to have no children, marking a significant shift in a nation where motherhood is deeply tied to a woman’s identity.
A study published earlier this year by Dr. Anthony Luis B. Chua from the Cebu Institute of Medicine and two researchers from Michigan State University shows the prevalence of childfree women in the Philippines has increased dramatically over the past few years.
Childfree women are defined as those who “do not have children and do not want to have them in the future.”
The research, “Trends in the Prevalence of Childfree Women in the Philippines, 1993-2022,” indicates that the number of Filipinas making such a choice has jumped from nearly 4.2 percent in 2013 to 11.1 percent in 2022.
While the researchers linked the sharp rise with the passage of the 2012 Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act, and provided universal access to sexual education and contraception, women say it is in the first place a matter of personal choice.
“I do believe kids need both a father and a mother. When I decided not to marry, I knew I also preferred to remain childfree,” said Jeamma Claire Sabate, a 56-year-old government employee from Cainta, Rizal.
“In the 21st century, people recognize that women have the right to make choices that align with their preferences.”
In the deeply Catholic Philippines, the Constitution prohibits abortion and recognizes “the Filipino family as the foundation of the nation.”
Dr. Diana Veloso, associate professor at the Department of Sociology and Behavioral Sciences of De La Salle University, argues that this dominant cultural linking of womanhood to motherhood is a result of the colonial past that brought patriarchy to the Philippines.
“Precolonial culture was more egalitarian and gender inclusive. The increasing choice in favor of being childfree is a welcome change in that it is reversing the impact of such patriarchal gender norms that were brought about by colonialism. This is also a way of reclaiming our culture’s more inclusive gender norms in precolonial times,” she said.
“This also illustrates that parenthood is more intentional, rather than something that simply happens due to conformity to traditional gender norms.”
The visible social change does not mean, however, that women no longer face pressure to get married and have children.
“That is still the case in Philippine society. However, women have more options and people recognize that there are multiple avenues to fulfillment in this day and age — and that having children is not meant for everyone,” Veloso told Arab News.
Farah Decano, a law school dean from Pangasinan province, remembers experiencing pressure on motherhood from those around her.
“But I didn’t mind. I am cool about it,” she said, adding she prefers channeling her nurturing instincts elsewhere — looking after her nephews, nieces, and aging mother.
“It is fun because I can spoil them without having to worry about shaping their behavior,” she said. “And I get to enjoy a limited authority similar to a mother, too. I am already living the life. I cannot ask for more.”
Trump’s travel ban on 12 countries goes into effect early Monday
- The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s order banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States goes into effect at 12:01 am ET (0401 GMT) on Monday, a move the president promulgated to protect the country from “foreign terrorists.”
The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The entry of people from seven other countries — Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela — will be partially restricted.
Trump, a Republican, said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbor a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travelers’ identities, as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States.
He cited last Sunday’s incident in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national tossed a gasoline bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators as an example of why the new curbs are needed. But Egypt is not part of the travel ban.
The travel ban forms part of Trump’s policy to restrict immigration into the United States and is reminiscent of a similar move in his first term when he barred travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Officials and residents in countries whose citizens will soon be banned expressed dismay and disbelief.
Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said he had instructed his government to stop granting visas to US citizens in response to Trump’s action.
“Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride,” he said in a Facebook post, referring to countries such as Qatar, which gifted the US a luxury airplane for Trump’s use and promised to invest billions of dollars in the US
Afghans who worked for the US or US-funded projects and were hoping to resettle in the US expressed fear that the travel ban would force them to return to their country, where they could face reprisal from the Taliban.
Democratic US lawmakers also voiced concern about the policies.
“Trump’s travel ban on citizens from over 12 countries is draconian and unconstitutional,” said US Representative Ro Khanna on social media late on Thursday. “People have a right to seek asylum.”
