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In Trump era UN debates relevance of multilateralism

Agencies
December 30, 2018

United Nations, Dec 30: In the Trump era of surging unilateralism and nationalism, world leaders at the United Nations this year expressed their support to multilateralism arguing that global institutions and platforms like the UN are more than relevant in the 21st century.

"Multilateralism is under fire precisely when we need it most,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had asserted in his opening address to the 73rd session of the General Assembly in September.

Over the next several months since September till the end of this year, several world leaders came out in support of Guterres cautioning that doing away with multilateralism is not in the best interest of the world.

Laying the foundation of the debate of multilateralism vs unilateralism, Guterres urged world leaders to renew their commitment to a rules-based order, with the UN at its centre.

"In the face of massive existential threats to people and planet — but, equally, at a time of compelling opportunities for shared prosperity — there is no way forward but collective, common-sense action for the common good. This is how we rebuild trust,” he said, adding despite chaos and confusion in the world, there are winds of hope.

But US President Donald Trump believes that multilateralism is no longer working for the US. As such he has been pushing for bilateral engagement with countries. Trump in his address to the UN Trump said that the United Nations can work better together when they respect their neighbours and defend their people’s interests.

"America's policy of principled realism means we will not be held hostage to old dogmas, discredited ideologies and so-called experts who have been proven wrong over the years, time and time again," Trump had said his speech to the UN General Assembly.

But at least at the UN headquarters in New York, the US did not receive much support to its renewed emphasis on unilateralism.

Multilateralism stands alone as the only viable response to the problems facing the international community, said UN General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces. "No one can be indifferent to human suffering. Wars, conflicts, economic crises and environmental degradation affect us all equally,” she said.

Addressing the UN General Assembly, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani alleged that the Trump administration is determined to render all international institutions ineffectual.

“Unlawful unilateral sanctions in themselves constitute a form of ‘economic terrorism’,” said the Iranian president. He expressed "objections to bullying" on the part of the United States.

According to a UN analysis of the General Assembly debates and speeches, several African leaders in their remarks highlighted efforts towards greater democracy and sustainable development. They called for expanded multilateral cooperation as well as reform of the Security Council.

The world leaders, it said, united under the theme of making the United Nations relevant to all people, and stressed that only through a multilateral rules-based order can the international community meet emerging challenges.

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Agencies
April 2,2020
Thailand's controversial king has created a category of his own with his idea of self-isolation.
 
According to reports, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, also known as Rama X, has hired out an entire luxury hotel in Germany, where he has been 'self-isolating' with 20 women.
 
The luxury hotel, the Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl, is in the Alpine resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
 
The 67-year-old king is self-isolating with his entourage that includes a 'harem' of 20 concubines and several servants, reported Bild.
 
However, it is unclear if his four wives are currently living in the same hotel.

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Agencies
March 31,2020

Months after the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan city of central China, families of those deceased, who contracted the contagious infection, stood in long queues at funeral homes demanding to receive the cremated ashes of their loved ones.

Now this has spurred questions about the actual tally of COVID-19 related casualties in Wuhan, in a renewed pressure on the Chinese government that is already struggling to control its containment narrative of the pandemic spread.

Chinese media outlet Caixin showed how trucks carrying 2,500 urns with the ashes of the deceased COVID-19 cases were being shipped in a funeral home last week. Another picture published revealed how 3,500 urns were stacked within these funeral homes. It is therefore unclear how many urns have been filled in.

According to media reports, workers at several funeral parlors declined to provide any details as to how many urns were waiting to be collected, saying they either did not know or were not authorised to share the number.

Some families said they had been forced to wait for several hours to pick up the ashes. The photos circulated as mass deaths from the virus spiked in cities across the west, including Milan, Madrid and New York, where hospitals were erecting tents to handle the overflow as global infections soar past 500,000, with 24,000 dead.

According to Chinese government figures, 2,535 people in Wuhan have died of the virus. The announcement that a lockdown in place since January would be lifted came after the country said its tally of new cases had hit zero and stepped up diplomatic outreach to other countries hard hit by the virus, sending some of them medical supplies.

But some in China have been skeptical of the accuracy of the official tally, particularly given Wuhan's overwhelmed medical system, authorities' attempts to cover up the outbreak in its initial stages, and multiple revisions to the way official cases are counted.

Residents on social media have demanded disciplinary action against top Wuhan officials.

Many people who died had Covid-19 symptoms, but weren't tested and excluded from the official case tally, Caixin said. There were also patients who died of other diseases due to a lack of proper treatment when hospitals were overwhelmed dealing with those who had the coronavirus.

There were 56,007 cremations in Wuhan in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to data from the city's civil affairs agency. The number of cremations was 1,583 higher than those in the fourth quarter of 2018 and 2,231 higher than the fourth quarter of 2017.

Two locals in Wuhan who have lost family members to the virus said online that they were informed they had to be accompanied by their employers or officials from neighborhood committees when picking up the urns, likely as a measure against public gatherings.

COVID-19 is affecting 199 countries and territories around the world. Over 664,000 coronavirus cases have been registered globally out of which 30,890 have succumbed to the infection.

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News Network
July 27,2020

Chengdu, China, Jul 27: The American flag was lowered at the United States consulate in Chengdu on Monday, days after Beijing ordered it to close in retaliation for the shuttering of the Chinese consulate in Houston.

Footage on state broadcaster CCTV from outside the consulate showed the flag being slowly lowered early Monday morning, after diplomatic tensions soared between the two powers with both alleging the other had endangered national security.

Relations deteriorated in recent weeks in a Cold War-style standoff, with the Chengdu mission Friday ordered to shut in retaliation for the forced closure of Beijing's consulate in Houston, Texas.

The deadline for the Americans to exit Chengdu has been unclear, but the Chinese consulate in Houston was given 72 hours to close after the original order was made.

On Saturday news agency reporters saw workers removing the US insignia from the front of the consulate.

Over the weekend, removals trucks entered the US consulate and cleaners were seen carting large black rubbish bags from the building.

Beijing says closing the Chengdu consulate was a "legitimate and necessary response to the unreasonable measures by the United States", and has alleged that staff at the diplomatic mission endangered China's security and interests.

Washington officials, meanwhile, said there had been unacceptable efforts by the Chinese consulate in Houston to steal US corporate secrets.

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