GERMANY
WHO pledges total US$1bn
The WHO said it received US$700 million in pledges for its 2025-2028 budget at an event in Berlin on Monday, in addition to US300 million already pledged by the EU and African Union. “The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that when health is at risk, everything is at risk,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the event. “Investments in WHO are therefore investments not only in protecting and promoting health, but also in more equitable, more stable and more secure societies and economies.” Berlin said it would provide at least 360 million euros (US$393 million). German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged more countries to share the responsibility, saying: “Every contribution counts — no matter how small.”
PAKISTAN
Li inaugurates new airport
Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) on Monday took part in a ceremony during his four-day visit to inaugurate a Beijing-funded airport, in a volatile region where Chinese interests are routinely targeted by separatists. While Li did not travel to Balochistan, he “virtually” inaugurated Gwadar Airport at a ceremony in Islamabad, about 2,000km away. The airport is next to Gwadar Port, the cornerstone project of the multibillion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor that connects China’s Xinjiang region to Pakistan’s coast. “China will continue to work with Pakistan to uphold the principle of planning together, building together and benefitting together,” Li said at the ceremony alongside Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. An aviation official said on condition of anonymity that the airport is yet to open for flights.
RUSSIA
Man rescued after 67 days
Authorities yesterday said they had rescued a man whose tiny boat had drifted for 67 days since August in waters edging the northwestern Pacific, but his brother and nephew died during the ordeal. Social media images showed a thin, bearded man wearing a hooded jacket and orange emergency vest in a catamaran-like sailboat flying a red flag from a small pole. “On Oct 14, a vessel was discovered in the waters of the Sea of ?Okhotsk,” legal authorities in the nation’s Far East said on the Telegram messaging app. “Two people died, one survived,” the regional prosecutors’ office charged with handling transport issues said. “He is receiving medical assistance.” The boat with the man and bodies aboard was finally sighted by fishers near the village of Ust-Khayruzovo, off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, the post added. Authorities did not immediately identify the voyagers.
FRANCE
Global wine output weak
Bad weather means global wine production this year would remain near a 60-year low according to preliminary estimates, the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) said on Monday. “Early indications suggest that 2024 will be another year of relatively low production, most likely below 250 million hectoliters a year,” director-general John Barker said at the opening of the OIV’s 45th congress in Dijon. Last year, global output was about 237 million hectoliters, the lowest since 1961, as the various effects of climate change, such as drought, heatwaves and flooding, affected grape harvests. The preliminary forecast is based on figures from major producing nations that account for about three-quarters of global production, OIV head of statistics Giorgio Delgrosso said. Output from Spain, Italy, Australia and Argentina has improved, but remain far from their average, he said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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