Joe Biden held an unusually long meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican and gifted him a 'command coin' sometimes awarded to soldiers and leaders. 'You are the most significant warrior for peace I've ever met,' the US president told the pope. Citing what he said was a tradition linked to the coin, he joked: 'Next time I see you, if you don't have it, you have to buy the drinks'
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Biden tells France the US was ‘clumsy’ in its handling of Aukus deal – video
Joe Biden tried to repair his personal and political relationship with Emmanuel Macron by acknowledging that the announcement of a security and technology pact that blindsided France was a 'clumsy' episode handled with a lack of grace. The US president and his French counterpart met at France’s Vatican embassy in Rome on Friday, before the G20 leaders’ summit this weekend, for their first in-person discussion since Macron was left feeling betrayed and humiliated by September’s security deal
Continue reading...Biden admits to Macron the US was ‘clumsy’ in Aukus submarine deal
American president moves to repair relationship after France was blindsided by security pact
Joe Biden has moved to repair his damaged personal and political relationship with Emmanuel Macron by acknowledging that the announcement of a security and technology pact that blindsided France was a “clumsy” episode handled with a lack of grace.
Continue reading...Global activists gather at Rome G20 to demand tougher action on China
Beijing must not be let off hook over human rights abuses in return for climate cooperation, say legislators
Legislators from around the world have gathered on the fringes of the G20 summit in Rome to protest against the presence of the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, and urge leaders not to let China off the hook over human rights abuses in return for Beijing’s cooperation on the climate crisis.
Many of those at the Rome counter-meeting have been banned from travelling to China as punishment for campaigning against Chinese repression in Xinjiang.
Continue reading...Gordon Brown urges rich countries to airlift surplus Covid vaccines to world’s poorest
Ex-UK PM and almost 200 global figures write to G20 summit host calling for 240m vaccines to be shared
Gordon Brown has called on the British government and other G20 countries to urgently arrange a military airlift of surplus Covid vaccines to poorer countries before they expire, saying it is their “moral responsibility” to do so.
The former prime minister has organised a letter from more than 160 former world leaders and global figures calling for richer countries to send 240m vaccines stored in the US, Europe and Canada to countries struggling to vaccinate their populations.
Continue reading...Wealthy nations urged to meet $100bn climate finance goal
Countries must close gap on funding target for developing countries says European Commission president
The European Commission president has urged wealthy countries to close the gap to meet a $100bn annual climate finance target for developing nations a year earlier than expected.
Speaking before crucial meetings on the climate emergency at the G20, and at the UN Cop26 talks, the president, Ursula von der Leyen, said rich countries had “to try harder” to close the shortfall in climate finance.
Continue reading...Call for action on TB as deaths rise for first time in decade
Tuberculosis campaigners tell G20 leaders $1bn is needed annually for vaccine research to reverse decades of underfunding
A group of tuberculosis survivors are calling for more funding and action to find new vaccines, after the numbers dying of the infection rose for the first time in 10 years.
In 2020, 1.5 million were killed by TB and 10 million infected, according to the World Health Organization. Campaigners want world leaders to invest $1bn (£730m) every year into vaccine research, spurred on by the momentum from the Covid jab development.
Continue reading...Gordon Brown urges emergency Covid vaccine airlift to Africa
Former UK prime minister says operation could be under way within days if world leaders signed off
More than 100,000 lives can be saved in Africa by undertaking the emergency airlift of 240m unused vaccines in the next fortnight, Gordon Brown has urged.
The former prime minister called on a group of rich nations to back “the biggest peacetime public policy decision” by supporting an October airlift that would see unused vaccines handed to parts of the global south struggling the most.
Continue reading...Afghanistan ‘at make-or-break point’ says UN as G20 ministers meet
Leaders will discuss UN proposal to channel funds to Afghanistan to ease growing humanitarian catastrophe
G20 leaders and ministers will meet by video conference on Tuesday to discuss a United Nations proposal to channel funds to Afghanistan to ease its worsening humanitarian catastrophe.
It will be the first time the world’s richest nations have met to discuss the consequences of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover on 15 August. Afghanistan was 75%-dependent on foreign aid before the takeover, and funds held overseas have been frozen by the US.
Continue reading...IMF to issue downbeat outlook as spectre of stagflation looms
Fund set for a gloomy annual meeting as supply chain issues and inflationary pressures hobble global recovery
Weaker global growth, vaccine protectionism and the spectre of 1970s-style inflation haunting large economies. As the International Monetary Fund prepares for its annual gathering this week, the contrast with the spring could not be more stark.
Back in April, at the Washington-based fund’s last virtual bash, there were sharp upgrades for global growth amid a sense of optimism for the road ahead, led by stronger-than-expected recoveries in the US, UK and other advanced economies. Vaccines would pave the way for the swift unlocking of pandemic restrictions, fuelling a rapid recovery from the worst global recession since the 1930s Great Depression.
Continue reading...Humans ‘pushing Earth close to tipping point’, say most in G20
Global survey finds 74% also want climate crises and protecting nature prioritised over jobs and profit
Three-quarters of people in the world’s wealthiest nations believe humanity is pushing the planet towards a dangerous tipping point and support a shift of priorities away from economic profit, according to a global survey.
The Ipsos Mori survey for the Global Commons Alliance (GCA) also found a majority (58%) were very concerned or extremely concerned about the state of the planet.
Continue reading...If education is such a great investment, it deserves serious international backing
The World Bank and IMF should step in to finance a recovery of children’s learning chances devastated by the pandemic
“Education,” wrote Nelson Mandela, “is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” One wonders what he would have made of the response to the education crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. A crisis threatening to derail social and economic progress, trapping millions of children in poverty. The UN secretary general has warned of a “generational catastrophe”, yet the international response has been marked by staggering complacency.
That lack of concern was on public display at last week’s Global Education Summit in London. Fresh from cutting UK aid to education by 40%, Boris Johnson – a self-styled champion for universal girls’ education – opened proceedings by declaring that education was “the single best investment we can make in the future of humanity”.
Continue reading...Plans of four G20 states are threat to global climate pledge, warn scientists
‘Disastrous’ energy policies of China, Russia, Brazil and Australia could stoke 5C rise in temperatures if adopted by the rest of the world
A key group of leading G20 nations is committed to climate targets that would lead to disastrous global warming, scientists have warned. They say China, Russia, Brazil and Australia all have energy policies associated with 5C rises in atmospheric temperatures, a heating hike that would bring devastation to much of the planet.
The analysis, by the peer-reviewed group Paris Equity Check, raises serious worries about the prospects of key climate agreements being achieved at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow in three months. The conference – rated as one of the most important climate summits ever staged – will attempt to hammer out policies to hold global heating to 1.5C by agreeing on a global policy for ending net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.
Continue reading...G20 backs crackdown on multinationals’ use of tax havens
Finance chiefs endorse landmark move to prevent profits being shifted to low-tax countries
Finance chiefs of the G20 economies have endorsed a landmark move to stop multinationals shifting profits to tax havens and will also warn that Covid variants threaten the global economic recovery.
At talks on Saturday, they also acknowledged the need to ensure fair access to vaccines in poorer countries. But a draft communique to be rubber-stamped at the meeting in Venice did not contain specific proposals on how to achieve that.
Continue reading...Protesters call on banks to ‘drop African debt’ in wake of Covid
World’s poorest nations saddled with ‘imprisoning’ debt, hampering responses to the pandemic, say activists protesting HSBC meeting
Activists at a demonstration outside the annual general meeting of HSBC in London have demanded the bank and other financial giants provide debt relief to African countries hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
In an attempt to highlight the role of private creditors in the debt crises of the world’s poorest countries, campaigners with “drop the debt” banners gathered outside HSBC’s AGM at the Southbank Centre.
Continue reading...G20 takes step towards global minimum corporate tax rate
Meetings of finance ministers follow change in US stance, with consensus growing on tackling tax avoidance
G20 finance ministers are exploring a global minimum tax on corporate profits, amid growing international consensus on tackling avoidance after the pandemic.
The virtual meetings between the group of 20 major industrial nations come after the US made the case for an international base rate this week, in a move by the Biden administration to end US resistance to international tax reforms.
Continue reading...Covid ‘may leave 12 million children unable to read’
UN finds pandemic is widening education inequality with millions of girls unlikely to return to school
More than half of all children who turn 10 this year will reach their milestone birthday without being able to read a simple sentence, according to a new analysis of UN data.
Of those 70 million 10-year-olds, 11.5 million of them could be unable to read as a direct result of the impact on education of the Covid pandemic.
Continue reading...G20 leaders pledge to distribute Covid vaccines fairly around world
Virtual summit an awkward swan song for Trump who skipped some sessions to play golf
G20 leaders meeting remotely pledged on Sunday to “spare no effort” to ensure the fair distribution of coronavirus vaccines worldwide, but offered no specific new funding to meet that goal.
The virtual summit hosted by Saudi Arabia was an awkward swan song for Donald Trump, who skipped some sessions on Saturday to play golf, paid little attention to other leaders’ speeches and claimed the Paris climate agreement was designed not to save the planet but to the kill the US economy.
Continue reading...Trump tells G20 leaders he wants to work with them ‘for a long time’
US president delivers boasts and falsehoods while other members focus on dealing with the pandemic
Donald Trump has taken his campaign to deny the results of the US presidential election global, telling world leaders at the G20 summit that he looks forward to “working with you again for a long time”.
The gathering of leaders of major world economies is being held online this year, because of the pandemic, but could have been an occasion for Trump to bid his peers goodbye and pledge American support to the battle against Covid-19.
Continue reading...World poverty rising as rich nations call in debt amid Covid, warns Gordon Brown
Child mortality crisis is looming as nations struggle to make payments to west and China, says former prime minister
It is being called the “great reversal”. After decades of progress, the international goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030 is in jeopardy, Gordon Brown has warned, as developing countries battling the coronavirus sacrifice their health and education systems to pay western and Chinese creditors.
“We need a comprehensive new plan that recognises the need for some countries to restructure and reduce debt,” Brown told the Observer. Ahead of a key G20 meeting next weekend, the former prime minister is calling for a global solution if an imminent child mortality crisis is to be averted.
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