Month: October 2024

Paris — A Lebanon donors’ conference in Paris on Thursday has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for the war-battered country — but ending the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah that has devastated the country seems unlikely anytime soon. The pledges rolled in at the Paris conference. Early on, both Germany and France earmarked around $100 million apiece for Lebanon. The funds will support humanitarian aid in the country, where fighting sparked by Hezbollah’s rocket attacks on Israel has killed hundreds and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.   Conference host, French President Emmanuel Macron, said families need …

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NEW DELHI — While U.S. officials express the view that the BRICS grouping meeting in the Russian city of Kazan is not evolving into a geopolitical rival, analysts say BRICS members are working on issues that could further decouple them from Western influences. Among the topics discussed between members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are ways to establish an alternative payment system that would not be dependent on the U.S. dollar, a BRICS digital currency and an alternative to Western financial institutions like the International Monetary fund.  China, Russia and Iran – countries that face severe trade restrictions imposed …

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Strasbourg, France — The EU parliament awarded the bloc’s top rights Sakharov prize on Thursday to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and her ally, former presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia. They won the prestigious award for their fight for democracy under President Nicolas Maduro’s iron-fisted rule. Machado, 57, played a key role in Venezuela’s presidential election in July. Although the authorities proclaimed Maduro the winner, the opposition believes its candidate Gonzalez Urrutia won. Gonzalez Urrutia, 75, went into exile in Spain in September. European Parliament chief Roberta Metsola said the two figures represented “all Venezuelans inside and outside the country …

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APIA, SAMOA — The leaders of the Commonwealth group of nations will meet at a welcome banquet in Samoa in the South Pacific on Thursday, with climate change and reparations for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade on the agenda of summit discussions. Leaders and officials from 56 countries with roots in Britain’s empire, as well as Britain’s King Charles, are in the small island nation and attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which began Monday. The countries’ foreign ministers also began a day of discussions on Thursday. More than half of the Commonwealth’s members are small states, many …

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Officials in Ukraine’s capital said Thursday that Russia attacked the region with about a dozen aerial drones overnight. Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said Ukraine’s air defenses shot down all of the drones and that there were no reports of casualties or damage. In the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine, Governor Vitalii Kim said on Telegram the military shot down three Russian drones. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday it destroyed seven Ukrainian aerial drones, including four over the Kursk region and three over the Black Sea. Officials in Russia’s Bryansk region also reported several drones were …

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WASHINGTON — Gathered Wednesday at a summit in the Russian city of Kazan, the members of BRICS adopted a joint declaration calling for the creation of an independent payment system based on their national currencies, a move in response to what they regard as illegal sanctions that are damaging the global economy. BRICS member countries, which account for about 35% of the global economy, issued the Kazan Declaration, which calls for the “elimination” of “unilateral economic sanctions and secondary sanctions that are contrary to international law.” The BRICS membership includes the initial five — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa …

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WASHINGTON — U.S. officials are becoming increasingly concerned about the emerging partnership among China, Russia, Iran and North Korea – a bloc being talked about by some in Washington as a new “axis of evil.” Those worries got a major boost on Wednesday with confirmation by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a trip to Rome that North Korean troops are now present in Russia, presumably preparing to participate in Moscow’s war on Ukraine. Just days earlier, Russia was a participant in naval drills hosted by Iran.  China, North Korea and Iran all have supported Russia’s war machine in different ways …

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