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Donald Trump throws his hat into Mideast peace process ring

[email protected] (Agencies)
May 4, 2017

Washington, May 4: Walking in the footsteps of many of his predecessors who delved into Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking — but ultimately failed — US President Donald Trump launched Wednesday his own “process which hopefully will lead to peace.”

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Trump, striking an optimistic note during his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, pledged that “we will get this done.”

The Trump-Abbas meeting concluded a series of consultations the new US president held with regional leaders since assuming office. He hopes to resume Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that have been stalled since March 2014.

An analyst, however, pointed to an ever widening gap between the two sides, lowering the chance of any final agreement in the short term.

In statements from the Roosevelt room at the White House flanked by both the American and the Palestinian flags, Trump gave a much-needed boost to Abbas ahead of a working lunch with the delegation. “I want to support you in being the Palestinian leader who signs his name to the final and most important peace agreement that brings safety, stability, and prosperity to both peoples and to the region,” Trump said.

Abbas has been marginalized following the breakdown of talks three years ago. His meeting with Trump, according to former White House official and peace envoy Dennis Ross, gives him “relevance and a boost” on both the Palestinian front and the regional arena.

Ross, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told reporters that “the gap between the parties has probably never been greater” but not impossible for Trump to overcome with a gradual trust-building approach.

Trump, while sounding hopeful about a peace deal, warned that “any agreement cannot be imposed by the United States... Palestinians and Israelis must work together to reach an agreement.”

The former real estate mogul promised to “do whatever is necessary to facilitate the agreement — to mediate, to arbitrate anything they'd like to do.”

Trump even extended another possible invite to Abbas in “welcoming him back as a great marker of progress and, ultimately, toward the signing of a document with the Israelis and with Israel toward peace.”

Abbas lavished Trump with praise for his leadership on the issue. “I believe that we are capable under your leadership and your stewardship — your courageous stewardship and your wisdom, as well as your great negotiating ability — that we can be partners, true partners, to you to bring about a historic peace treaty,” Abbas said.

Abbas who has been in office since 2005 and was part of two failed US attempts to negotiate peace under George W. Bush and Barack Obama, reiterated the Palestinian principles for peace.

“Our strategic option, our strategic choice is to bring about peace based on the vision of the two-state — a Palestinian state with its capital of East Jerusalem that lives in peace and stability with the state of Israel based on the borders of 1967,” Abbas said.

US Vice President Mike Pence contended ahead of the meeting that the White House is “seriously considering” moving the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Abbas decried the Israeli occupation, saying “it's about time for Israel to end its occupation of our people and of our land after 50 years.”

Both leaders avoided mentioning any specifics on the way forward beyond a US push to counter incitement and hate rhetoric from the Palestinian side. Trump concluded his statement challenging the naysayers, and said “let's see if we can prove them wrong.”

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Agencies
July 28,2020

Sydney, Jul 28: Nearly 3 billion koalas, kangaroos and other native Australian animals were killed or displaced by bushfires in 2019 and 2020, a study by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Tuesday, triple the group's earlier estimates.

Some 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds and 51 million frogs were impacted by the country's worst bushfires in decades, the WWF said.

When the fires were still blazing, the WWF estimated the number of affected animals at 1.25 billion. The fires destroyed more than 11 million hectares (37 million acres) across the Australian southeast, equal to about half the area of the United Kingdom.

"This ranks as one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history," said WWF-Australia Chief Executive Officer Dermot O'Gorman in a statement.

The project leader Lily Van Eeden, from the University of Sydney, said the research was the first continent-wide analysis of animals impacted by the bushfires, and "other nations can build upon this research to improve understanding of bushfire impacts everywhere".

The total number included animals which were displaced because of destroyed habitats and now faced lack of food and shelter or the prospect of moving to habitat that was already occupied.

The main reason for raising the number of animal casualties was that researchers had now assessed the total affected area, rather than focusing on the most affected states, they said.

After years of drought made the Australian bush unusually dry, the country battled one of its worst bushfire seasons ever from September 2019 to March 2020, resulting in 34 human deaths and nearly 3,000 homes lost.

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News Network
July 4,2020

Geneva, Jul 4: The World Health Organization has updated its account of the early stages of the COVID crisis to say it was alerted by its own office in China, and not by China itself, to the first pneumonia cases in Wuhan.

The UN health body has been accused by US President Donald Trump of failing to provide the information needed to stem the pandemic and of being complacent towards Beijing, charges it denies.

On April 9, WHO published an initial timeline of its communications, partly in response to criticism of its early response to the outbreak that has now claimed more than 521,000 lives worldwide.

In that chronology, WHO had said only that the Wuhan municipal health commission in the province of Hubei had on December 31 reported cases of pneumonia. The UN health agency did not however specify who had notified it.

WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference on April 20 the first report had come from China, without specifying whether the report had been sent by Chinese authorities or another source.

But a new chronology, published this week by the Geneva-based institution, offers a more detailed version of events.

It indicates that it was the WHO office in China that on December 31 notified its regional point of contact of a case of "viral pneumonia" after having found a declaration for the media on a Wuhan health commission website on the issue.

The same day, WHO's epidemic information service picked up another news report transmitted by the international epidemiological surveillance network ProMed -- based in the United States -- about the same group of cases of pneumonia from unknown causes in Wuhan.

After which, WHO asked the Chinese authorities on two occasions, on January 1 and January 2, for information about these cases, which they provided on January 3.

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a press conference on Friday that countries have 24-48 hours to officially verify an event and provide the agency with additional information about the nature or cause of an event.

Ryan added that the Chinese authorities immediately contacted WHO's as soon as the agency asked to verify the report.

US President Donald Trump has announced that his country, the main financial contributor to WHO, will cut its bridges with the institution, which he accuses of being too close to China and of having poorly managed the pandemic.

The WHO denies any complacency toward China.

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News Network
June 11,2020

Beijing, Jun 11: Floods and mudslides in south China have uprooted hundreds of thousands of people and left dozens dead or missing, state media reported Thursday.

The bad weather has wreaked havoc on popular tourist areas that had already been battered by months of travel restrictions during the coronavirus outbreak.

Torrential downpours unleashed floods and mudslides that caused nearly 230,000 people to be relocated and destroyed more than 1,300 houses, official state news agency Xinhua reported, citing the Ministry of Emergency Management.

In southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, six people were reported dead and one missing, Xinhua said.

Streets were waterlogged in popular tourist destination Yangshuo, forcing residents and visitors to evacuate on bamboo rafts.

The local government said more than 1,000 hotels had been flooded and more than 30 tourist sites damaged.

One owner of a family-run hotel told Xinhua that the guest rooms were submerged in one metre (three feet) of rainwater.

The extreme weather has dealt a hefty blow to the region's tourism sector, which is still reeling from the COVID-19 epidemic.

The emergency management ministry said there were direct economic losses of over 4 billion yuan (more than $550 million) from the flooding, Xinhua reported.

In Hunan Province, at least 13 people were killed in rain-triggered disasters, and another eight people are missing or killed in southwestern Guizhou province, according to the local emergency response departments, Xinhua said.

The heavy downpours began at the beginning of June and have led to "dangerously high water levels" in 110 rivers, Xinhua reported.

Further rainstorms are expected in the next few days across the south.

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