GENEVA: Three years since the Covid pandemic began, nearly 200 prominent world figures called on Saturday for the vaccine inequity seen during the crisis to be relegated to history.
“We ask world leaders to pledge ‘never again’,” the current and former dignitaries said an open letter.
It was published to mark the three-year anniversary since the World Health Organization first described the Covid-19 crisis as a pandemic.
The letter, coordinated by the NGO coalition People’s Vaccine Alliance, was signed by Timor-Leste President Jose Manuel Ramos-Horta, who won the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, alongside the former leaders of more than 40 countries.
Several other Nobel laureates, faith leaders, and former United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon were among the signatories, alongside a range of current and former UN agency heads.
With the end of the pandemic in sight, “the world is at a critical juncture,” they wrote.
“Decisions made now will determine how the world prepares for and responds to future global health crises. World leaders must reflect on mistakes made in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic so that they are never repeated.”
The letter criticized the glaring inequity that characterised the response to the pandemic, which has officially killed nearly seven million people worldwide, although the true toll is believed to be far higher.
While a number of highly effective vaccines against Covid-19 were developed at record speed, wealthy nations were quick to snap up most of the initial doses, leaving vulnerable people in many poorer nations waiting in vain for jabs.
Still today, fewer than a third of people in low-income countries have received at least one vaccine dose, while three quarters of people have in high-income countries, according to UN data.
“There are decades of publicly funded research behind Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and tests,” the letter said.
“Governments have poured taxpayer money by the billions into research, development and advance orders, reducing the risks for pharmaceutical companies,” it said.
“These are the people’s vaccines, the people’s tests and the people’s treatments,” it insisted.
But “instead of rolling out vaccines, tests and treatments based on need, pharmaceutical companies maximized their profits by selling doses first to the richest countries with the deepest pockets,” it said.
The letter pointed to a study last year in the science journal Nature estimating that 1.3 million fewer people would have died of Covid if the jabs had been distributed equitably in 2021, amounting to “one preventable death every 24 seconds” that year.
The letter urged leaders to support the tricky, ongoing international negotiations toward a pandemic accord, to ensure that equity is a key feature in the final agreement.
This, it stressed, would require governments to agree on the thorny issue of waiving intellectual property rules automatically if international public health emergencies arise, to ensure the sharing of medical technology and knowhow.
It also called for large-scale investments to develop scientific innovation and manufacturing capacity in the global south, to ensure that vaccines and treatments can be quickly developed and rolled out in all regions.
With such actions “world leaders can begin to fix the structural problems in global health that have held back the response to Covid-19, HIV and AIDS and other diseases,” it said.
“It is time to embed justice, equity and human rights in pandemic preparedness and response.”
Leaders say ‘never again’ to vaccine inequity
https://arab.news/gva28
Leaders say ‘never again’ to vaccine inequity
- While a number of highly effective vaccines against Covid-19 were developed at record speed, wealthy nations were quick to snap up most of the initial doses, leaving vulnerable people in many poorer nations waiting in vain for jabs
Trump slams Israel's prosecutors over Netanyahu corruption trial
- Trump suggested that given the billions of dollars worth of military aid Washington was providing to Israel, it was not going to “stand for this”
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Saturday criticized Israel’s prosecutors over an ongoing corruption trial against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying it was interfering with his ability to conduct talks with both Hamas and Iran.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump also suggested that given the billions of dollars worth of military aid Washington was providing to Israel, it was not going to “stand for this.”
India rejects statement by Pakistan seeking to blame it for Waziristan attack
- Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and termed it a “cowardly act,” a statement from his office said
NEW DELHI: India’s ministry of external affairs said on Sunday it rejects a statement by the Pakistan Army seeking to blame India for Saturday’s attack in Waziristan.
A suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden car into a Pakistani military convoy in a town near the Afghan border, killing at least 13 soldiers, the Pakistan army said on Saturday. The convoy was attacked in Mir Ali area of North Waziristan district, the army said in a statement. “In this tragic and barbaric incident, three innocent civilians including two children and a woman also got severely injured,” it said.
Fourteen militants were killed by the army in an operation launched after the attack in the region, it said.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and termed it a “cowardly act,” a statement from his office said.
Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir said in a statement any attempt to undermine Pakistan’s internal stability would be met with swift and decisive retribution.
“It was huge, a big bang,” a local administrator told Reuters, adding that residents of the town could see a large amount of smoke billowing from the scene from a great distance.
One resident said that the explosion rattled the windowpanes of nearby houses, and caused some roofs to collapse.
No one has so far claimed responsibility.
The lawless district, which sits next to Afghanistan, has long served as a safe haven for different militant groups, who operate on both sides of the border.
Islamabad says the militants run training camps in Afghanistan to launch attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Kabul denies, saying the militancy is Pakistan’s domestic issue.
Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella group of several Islamist militant groups, has long been waging a war against Pakistan in a bid to overthrow the government and replace it with its own Islamic system of governance.
The Pakistani military, which has launched several offensives against the militants, has mostly been their prime target.
G7 agrees to exempt US multinationals from global minimum tax
- The deal will see US companies benefit from a “side-by-side” solution under which they will only be taxed at home
OTTAWA: The Group of Seven nations said Saturday they have agreed to exempt US multinational companies from a global minimum tax imposed by other countries — a win for President Donald Trump’s government, which pushed hard for the compromise.
The deal will see US companies benefit from a “side-by-side” solution under which they will only be taxed at home, on both domestic and foreign profits, the G7 said in a statement released by Canada, which holds the group’s rotating presidency.
The agreement was reached in part due to “recently proposed changes to the US international tax system” included in Trump’s signature domestic policy bill, which is still being debated in Congress, the statement said.
The side-by-side system could “provide greater stability and certainty in the international tax system moving forward,” it added.
Nearly 140 countries struck a deal in 2021 to tax multinational companies, an agreement negotiated under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
That agreement, deeply criticized by Trump, includes two “pillars,” the second of which sets a minimum global tax rate of 15 percent.
The OECD must ultimately decide to exempt the US companies from that tax — or not.
The G7 said it looked forward to “expeditiously reaching a solution that is acceptable and implementable to all.”
On Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had signaled that a “joint understanding among G7 countries that defends American interests” was in the works.
He also asked US lawmakers to “to remove the Section 899 protective measure from consideration in the One, Big, Beautiful Bill” — Trump’s policy mega-bill.
Section 899 has been dubbed a “revenge tax,” allowing the government to impose levies on firms with foreign owners and on investors from countries deemed to impose unfair taxes on US businesses.
The clause sparked concern that it would inhibit foreign companies from investing in the United States.
Tens of thousands rally in Serbia’s capital to back up their demand for an early vote
- The protest was held after nearly eight months of persistent demonstrations led by Serbia’s university students
- The huge crowd chanted “We want elections!” as they filled the capital’s central Slavija Square
BELGRADE: Tens of thousands of opponents of Serbia’s populist president, Aleksandar Vucic, rallied on Saturday in Belgrade, backing up a demand for an early parliamentary election and declaring the government “illegitimate.”
The protest was held after nearly eight months of persistent demonstrations led by Serbia’s university students that have rattled Vucic’s firm grip on power in the Balkan country.
The huge crowd chanted “We want elections!” as they filled the capital’s central Slavija Square and several blocks around it, with many unable to reach the venue.
Tensions were high before and during the gathering. Riot police deployed around government buildings and close to a camp of Vucic’s loyalists in central Belgrade.
“Elections are a clear way out of the social crisis caused by the deeds of the government, which is undoubtedly against the interests of their own people,” said one of the students, who didn’t give her name while giving a speech on a stage to the crowd. “Today, on June 28, 2025, we declare the current authorities illegitimate.”
At the end of the official part of the rally, students told the crowd to “take freedom into your own hands.”
University students have been a key force behind nationwide anti-corruption demonstrations that started after a renovated rail station canopy collapsed, killing 16 people on Nov. 1.
Many blamed the concrete roof crash on rampant government corruption and negligence in state infrastructure projects, leading to recurring mass protests.
“We are here today because we cannot take it any more,” Darko Kovacevic said. “This has been going on for too long. We are mired in corruption.”
Vucic and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party have repeatedly refused the demand for an early vote and accused protesters of planning to spur violence on orders from abroad, which they didn’t specify.
Vucic’s authorities have launched a crackdown on Serbia’s striking universities and other opponents, while increasing pressure on independent media as they tried to curb the demonstrations.
While numbers have shrunk in recent weeks, the massive showing for Saturday’s anti-Vucic rally suggested that the resolve persists, despite relentless pressure and after nearly eight months of almost daily protests.
Serbian police, which is firmly controlled by Vucic’s government, said that 36,000 people were present at the start of the protest on Saturday.
Saturday marks St. Vitus Day, a religious holiday and the date when Serbs mark a 14th-century battle against Ottoman Turks in Kosovo that was the start of hundreds of years of Turkish rule, holding symbolic importance.
In their speeches, some of the speakers at the student rally on Saturday evoked the theme, which was also used to fuel Serbian nationalism in the 1990s that later led to the incitement of ethnic wars following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
Hours before the student-led rally, Vucic’s party bused in scores of its own supporters to Belgrade from other parts of the country, many wearing T-shirts reading: “We won’t give up Serbia.” They were joining a camp of Vucic’s loyalists in central Belgrade where they have been staying in tents since mid-March.
In a show of business as usual, Vucic handed out presidential awards in the capital to people he deemed worthy, including artists and journalists.
“People need not worry — the state will be defended and thugs brought to justice,” Vucic told reporters on Saturday.
Serbian presidential and parliamentary elections are due in 2027.
Earlier this week, police arrested several people accused of allegedly plotting to overthrow the government and banned entry into the country, without explanation, to several people from Croatia and a theater director from Montenegro.
Serbia’s railway company halted train service over an alleged bomb threat in what critics said was an apparent bid to prevent people from traveling to Belgrade for the rally.
Authorities made similar moves back in March, before what was the biggest ever anti-government protest in the Balkan country, which drew hundreds of thousands of people.
Vucic’s loyalists then set up a camp in a park outside his office, which still stands. The otherwise peaceful gathering on March 15 came to an abrupt end when part of the crowd suddenly scattered in panic, triggering allegations that authorities used a sonic weapon against peaceful protesters — an accusation officials have denied.
Vucic, a former extreme nationalist, has become increasingly authoritarian since coming to power more than a decade ago. Though he formally says he wants Serbia to join the European Union, critics say Vucic has stifled democratic freedoms as he strengthened ties with Russia and China.
Senior official says Home Office staff alarmed by ‘absurd’ Palestine Action ban
- A senior Home Office official, speaking anonymously, said concern over the decision was widespread within the department
LONDON: A senior British civil servant has described a “tense atmosphere” inside the Home Office department following Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s recent announcement that the protest group Palestine Action is to be banned under anti-terror laws, it was reported on Saturday.
Cooper on Monday confirmed plans to proscribe the group under the Terrorism Act, a move that would make membership or support a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
It would mark the first time a non-violent protest movement is classified alongside banned terrorist organizations such as Daesh and Al-Qaeda and some far-right groups.
A senior Home Office official, speaking anonymously, said concern over the decision was widespread within the department, The Guardian newspaper reported.
“My colleagues and I were shocked by the announcement,” they said.
“All week, the office has been a very tense atmosphere, charged with concern about treating a non-violent protest group the same as actual terrorist organisations like Isis (Daesh), and the dangerous precedent this sets.
“From desk to desk, colleagues are exchanging concerned and bemused conversations about how absurd this is and how impossible it will be to enforce. Are they really going to prosecute as terrorists everyone who expresses support for Palestine Action’s work to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel as it commits war crimes?
“It’s ridiculous and it’s being widely condemned in anxious conversations internally as a blatant misuse of anti-terror laws for political purposes to clamp down on protests which are affecting the profits of arms companies,” they added.
The decision to proscribe comes after four people were arrested following a break-in at RAF Brize Norton airbase, where Palestine Action activists sprayed red paint on two military aircraft.
The group said the protest was in response to Britain’s role in “sending military cargo, flying spy planes over Gaza and refuelling US and Israeli fighter jets.”
In a statement, Cooper said the protest was part of a “long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action.”
Palestine Action responded by saying: “Proscription is not about enabling prosecutions under terrorism laws — it’s about cracking down on non-violent protests which disrupt the flow of arms to Israel during its genocide in Palestine.”
The move comes amid wider civil service unrest over UK policy on Gaza.
Earlier this month, more than 300 Foreign Office officials signed a letter warning the government risked complicity in Israeli war crimes.
In response, the department’s top civil servants told signatories: “If your disagreement with any aspect of government policy or action is profound, your ultimate recourse is to resign from the civil service. This is an honourable course.”
The proscription order will be laid before Parliament on Monday and could come into effect by the end of the week.
When asked for comment by The Guardian, the Home Office referred to Cooper’s original statement.
