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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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