G20 summit calls for more aid to Gaza, end to war in Ukraine

Leaders attending the launch of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty pose for a group photo after the first session of the G20 Leaders' Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on November 18, 2024. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 19 November 2024
Follow

G20 summit calls for more aid to Gaza, end to war in Ukraine

  • Declaration refers to “catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza and the escalation in Lebanon”
  • Affirms Palestinian right to self-determination, reiterates “unwavering commitment” to two-state solution

RIO DE JANEIRO: Leaders of the world’s 20 major economies called for a global pact to combat hunger, more aid for war-torn Gaza and an end to hostilities in the Mideast and Ukraine, issuing a joint declaration Monday that was heavy on generalities but short of details on how to accomplish those goals.

The joint statement was endorsed by group members but fell short of complete unanimity. It also called for a future global tax on billionaires and for reforms allowing the eventual expansion of the United Nation Security Council beyond its five current permanent members.

At the start of the three-day meeting which formally ends Wednesday, experts doubted Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva could convince the assembled leaders to hammer out any agreement at all in a gathering rife with uncertainty over the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump, and heightened global tensions over wars in the Mideast and Ukraine.

Argentina challenged some of the language in initial drafts and was the one country that did not endorse the complete document.

“Although generic, it is a positive surprise for Brazil,” said Thomas Traumann, an independent political consultant and former Brazilian minister. “There was a moment when there was a risk of no declaration at all. Despite the caveats, it is a good result for Lula.”

Taking place just over a year after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the declaration referred to the “catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza and the escalation in Lebanon,” stressing the urgent need to expand humanitarian assistance and better protect civilians.

“Affirming the Palestinian right to self-determination, we reiterate our unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-State solution where Israel and a Palestinian State live side by side in peace,” it said.

It did not mention Israel’s suffering or of the 100 or so hostages still held by Hamas. Israel isn’t a G20 member. The war has so far killed more than 43,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials, and more than 3,500 people in Lebanon following Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

The omitted acknowledgment of Israel’s distress appeared to run contrary to US President Joe Biden’s consistent backing of Israel’s right to defend itself. It’s something Biden always notes in public, even when speaking about the deprivation of Palestinians. 

During a meeting with G20 leaders before the declaration was hammered home, Biden expressed his view that Hamas is solely to blame for the war and called on fellow leaders to “increase the pressure on Hamas” to accept a ceasefire deal.

Biden’s decision to ease restrictions on Ukraine’s use of longer-range US missiles to allow that country to strike more deeply inside Russia also played into the meetings,
“The United States strongly supports Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Everyone around this table in my view should, as well,” Biden said during the summit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend the meeting , and instead sent his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov. Putin has avoided such summits after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant that obliges member states to arrest him.

The G20 declaration highlighted the human suffering in Ukraine while calling for peace, without naming Russia.

“The declaration avoids pointing the finger at the culprits,” said Paulo Velasco, an international relations professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. “That is, it doesn’t make any critical mention of Israel or Russia, but it highlights the dramatic humanitarian situations in both cases.”

The entire declaration lacks specificity, Velasco added.

“It is very much in line with what Brazil hoped for ... but if we really analyze it carefully, it is very much a declaration of intent. It is a declaration of good will on various issues, but we have very few concrete, tangible measures.”

Fraught push to tax global billionaires

The declaration did call for a possible tax on global billionaires, which Lula supports. Such a tax would affect about 3,000 people around the world, including about 100 in Latin América.

The clause was included despite opposition from Argentina. So was another promoting gender equality, said Brazilian and other officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

Argentina signed the G20 declaration, bit also had issues with references to the UN’s 2030 sustainable development agenda. Its right-wing president, Javier Milei, has referred to the agenda as “a supranational program of a socialist nature.” It also objected to calls for regulating hate speech on social media, which Milei says infringes on national sovereignty, and to the idea that governments should do more to fight hunger.

Milei has often adopted a Trump-like role as a spoiler in multilateral talks hosted by his outspoken critic, Lula.

Concrete steps for fighting global hunger

Much of the declaration focuses on eradicating hunger — a priority for Lula.

Brazil’s government stressed that Lula’s launch of the global alliance against hunger and poverty on Monday was as important as the final G20 declaration. As of Monday, 82 nations had signed onto the plan, Brazil’s government said. It is also backed by organizations including the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

A demonstration Sunday on Rio’s Copacabana beach featured 733 empty plates spread across the sand to represent the 733 million people who went hungry in 2023, according to United Nations data.

Viviana Santiago, a director at the anti-poverty nonprofit Oxfam, praised Brazil for using its G20 presidency “to respond to people’s demands worldwide to tackle extreme inequality, hunger and climate breakdown, and particularly for rallying action on taxing the super-rich.”

“Brazil has lit a path toward a more just and resilient world, challenging others to meet them at this critical juncture,” she said in a statement.

Long-awaited reform of the United Nations

Leaders pledged to work for “transformative reform” of the UN Security Council so that it aligns “with the realities and demands of the 21st century, makes it more representative, inclusive, efficient, effective, democratic and accountable.”

Lula has been calling for reform of Security Council since his first two terms in power, from 2003 to 2010, without gaining much traction. Charged with maintaining international peace and security, its original 1945 structure has not changed. Five dominant powers at the end of World War II have veto power — the US, Russia, China, Britain and France — while 10 countries from different regions serve rotating two-year terms.

Virtually all countries agree that nearly eight decades after the United Nations was established, the Security Council should be expanded to reflect the 21st century world and include more voices. The central quandary and biggest disagreement remains how to do that. The G20 declaration doesn’t answer that question.

“We call for an enlarged Security Council composition that improves the representation of the underrepresented and unrepresented regions and groups, such as Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean,” the declaration said.

The United States announced shortly before a UN summit in September that it supports two new permanent seats for African countries, without veto power, and a first-ever non-permanent seat for a small island developing nation. But the Group of Four – Brazil, Germany, India and Japan – support each other’s bids for permanent seats. And the larger

Uniting for Consensus group of a dozen countries including Pakistan, Italy, Turkiye and Mexico wants additional non-permanent seats with longer terms.


Argentina to try 10 in absentia over 1994 bombing of Jewish center

Updated 53 min 4 sec ago
Follow

Argentina to try 10 in absentia over 1994 bombing of Jewish center

  • Argentina and Israel have long suspected Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah group of carrying it out at Iran’s request
  • Judge Daniel Rafecas acknowledged the “exceptional” nature of the decision to send the case to court, over three decades after the bombing and with the suspects all still at large

BUENOS AIRES: Argentina will try in absentia ten Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people, a ruling seen by AFP on Thursday said.

The attack, which caused devastation in Latin America’s biggest Jewish community, has never been claimed or solved, but Argentina and Israel have long suspected Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah group of carrying it out at Iran’s request.

Judge Daniel Rafecas acknowledged the “exceptional” nature of the decision to send the case to court, over three decades after the bombing and with the suspects all still at large.

Trying them in absentia, he said, allowed to “at least try to uncover the truth and reconstruct what happened.”

On July 18, 1994, a truck laden with explosives was driven into the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) and detonated.

The deadliest attack in Argentina’s history injured more than 300 people

No-one has ever been arrested over the attack.

The ten suspects facing trial are former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats for whom Argentina has issued international arrest warrants.

Since 2006 Argentina had sought the arrest of eight Iranians, including then-president Ali Akbar Hashemi Bahramaie Rafsanjani, who died in 2017.

Iran has always denied any involvement and refused to arrest and hand over suspects.

Thursday’s ruling on trying them in absentia is the first of its kind in the South American country.

Until March this year, the country’s laws did not allow for suspects to be tried unless they were physically present.

It comes amid a new push in recent years for justice to be served over the attack, backed by President Javier Milei, a staunch ally of Israel.

Rafecas said a trial in absentia was justified given the “material impossibility of securing the presence of the defendants and the nature of the crime against humanity under investigation.”

In April 2024, an Argentine court blamed Hezbollah for the attack, which it called a “crime against humanity.”

It found that the attack and another on the Israeli embassy in 1992 that killed 29 people were likely triggered by the Argentine government under then-president Carlos Menem canceling three contracts with Iran for the supply of nuclear equipment and technology.

The court did not however manage to produce evidence of Iran’s involvement.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica last year found the Argentine state responsible for not preventing, nor properly investigating, the attack.

It also blamed the state for efforts to “cover up and obstruct the investigation.”

Former president Cristina Kirchner has been ordered to stand trial over a memorandum she signed with Iran in 2013 to investigate the bombing.

The memorandum, which was later annulled, allowed for suspects to be interrogated in Iran rather than Argentina, leading Kirchner to be accused of conspiring with Tehran in a cover-up.

She has denied the allegations.


Germany scraps funding for sea rescues of migrants

Updated 26 June 2025
Follow

Germany scraps funding for sea rescues of migrants

  • “I don’t think it’s the foreign office’s job to finance this kind of sea rescue,” Wadephul said
  • “We need to be active where the need is greatest“

BERLIN: Germany is cutting financial support for charities that rescue migrants at risk of drowning in the Mediterranean, saying it will redirect resources to addressing conditions in source countries that spur people to leave.

For decades, migrants driven by war and poverty have made perilous crossings to reach Europe’s southern borders, with thousands estimated to die every year in their bid to reach a continent grown increasingly hostile to migration.

“Germany is committed to being humane and will help where people suffer but I don’t think it’s the foreign office’s job to finance this kind of sea rescue,” Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told a news conference.

“We need to be active where the need is greatest,” he added, mentioning the humanitarian emergency in war-shattered Sudan.

Under the previous left-leaning government, Germany began paying around 2 million euros ($2.34 million) annually to non-governmental organizations carrying out rescues of migrant-laden boats in trouble at sea.

For them, it has been a key source of funds: Germany’s Sea-Eye, which said rescue charities have saved 175,000 lives since 2015, received around 10 percent of its total income of around 3.2 million euros from the German government.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives won February’s national election after a campaign promising to curb irregular migration, which some voters in Europe’s largest economy see as being out of control.

Even though the overall numbers have been falling for several years, many Germans blame migration-related fears for the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), now the second largest party in parliament.

Many experts say that migration levels are mainly driven by economic and humanitarian emergencies in the source countries, with the official cold shoulder in destination countries having had little impact in deterring migrants.

Despite this, German officials suggest that sea rescues only incentivise people to risk the sometimes deadly crossings.

“The (government) support made possible extra missions and very concretely saved lives,” said Gorden Isler, Sea-Eye’s chairperson. “We might now have to stay in harbor despite emergencies.”

The opposition Greens, who controlled the foreign office when the subsidies were introduced, criticized the move.

“This will exacerbate the humanitarian crisis and deepen human suffering,” said joint floor leader Britta Hasselmann.


Mass shooting in gang-plagued Mexican state leaves 12 dead and more injured

Updated 26 June 2025
Follow

Mass shooting in gang-plagued Mexican state leaves 12 dead and more injured

  • The attorney general’s office in Guanajuato said some 20 others were hospitalized
  • Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the victims included children

MEXICO CITY: At least 12 people were killed, including a teenager, and more wounded in a Tuesday night shooting in the central Mexican city of Irapuato, authorities said on Wednesday.

The attorney general’s office in Guanajuato, the violence-plagued state where Irapuato is located, said some 20 others were hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said earlier on Wednesday that the victims included children, although the attorney general’s office later confirmed only one casualty was a minor, aged 17.

“It is very unfortunate what happened. An investigation is under way,” Sheinbaum said.

Local media reported the shooting happened during an evening party celebrating a Catholic holiday, the Nativity of John the Baptist.

A video circulating on social media showed people dancing in the patio of a housing complex while a band played in the background, before gunfire erupted. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the video.

Guanajuato has been for many years one of the most violent regions in the country.

On Tuesday, five other people were killed in other parts of the state, according to the attorney general’s office.


29 pupils taking high school exams killed in Central Africa crush

Updated 26 June 2025
Follow

29 pupils taking high school exams killed in Central Africa crush

  • In the ensuing panic, supervisors and students tried to flee, some jumping from the first floor of the school
  • “I would like to express my solidarity and compassion to the parents of the deceased candidates, to the educational staff, to the students,” Touadera said

BANGUI: Twenty-nine students taking their high school exams in the Central African Republic died in a stampede sparked by an exploding power transformer, the health ministry told AFP Thursday.

Just over 5,300 students were sitting the second day of the baccalaureate exams at the time of the explosion early Wednesday afternoon in Bangui, the capital of the deeply poor nation.

In the ensuing panic, supervisors and students tried to flee, some jumping from the first floor of the school.

The injured were transported by ambulance, on the back of pickup trucks or by motorbike taxi, AFP journalists saw.

“I would like to express my solidarity and compassion to the parents of the deceased candidates, to the educational staff, to the students,” President Faustin Archange Touadera said in a video published on his party’s Facebook page.

Touadera, who is attending a summit of the Gavi vaccine alliance in Brussels, also announced three days of national mourning.

According to a document circulating on social media and authenticated by the health ministry, 29 deaths were registered by hospitals in the city.

“The hospital was overwhelmed by people to the point of obstructing caregivers and ambulances, a health ministry source stated.

UN peacekeepers, police and other security were seen around the Barthelemy Boganda high school and hospitals.

Education Minister Aurelien-Simplice Kongbelet-Zingas said in a statement Wednesday that “measures will be taken quickly to shed light on the circumstances of this incident.”

The minister added that a further statement would follow regarding selection of a date for the students to resume their exams program.

The Republican Bloc for the Defense of the Constitution (BRDC), a coalition of opposition parties, condemned what it termed “the irresponsibility of the authorities in place, who have failed in their duty to ensure the safety of students and school infrastructure.”

The CAR is among the poorest countries in the world and, since independence from France in 1960, has endured a succession of coups, authoritarian rulers and civil wars.

The latest civil war started more than a decade ago. The government has secured the main cities and violence has subsided in recent years.

But fighting occasionally erupts in remote regions between rebels and the national army, which is backed by Wagner mercenaries and Rwandan troops.

Municipal, legislative, and presidential elections are scheduled for August and December of this year but UN experts are calling for urgent institutional reform of the electoral authority before the polls and for “transparent internal governance,” as tensions between the government and the opposition intensify.


Kremlin says no date yet for next round of Ukraine peace talks

Updated 26 June 2025
Follow

Kremlin says no date yet for next round of Ukraine peace talks

  • Peskov said Russia was in favor of continued US efforts to mediate
  • They have made no progress toward a ceasefire

MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Thursday there was no progress yet toward setting a date for the next round of peace talks with Ukraine, Interfax news agency reported.

Another agency, TASS, quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Russia was in favor of continued US efforts to mediate.

Resuming negotiations after a gap of more than three years, Russia and Ukraine held face-to-face talks in Istanbul on May 16 and June 2 that led to a series of prisoner exchanges and the return of the bodies of dead soldiers.

But they have made no progress toward a ceasefire which Ukraine, with Western backing, has been pressing for.