UK Arms companies warned they could face prosecution if they continue selling arms to Israel    

JUNE 20, 2024

London, 20th June 2024- Letters have been sent by four organisations to the directors of UK arms companies warning them they could face criminal liability if they continue selling military equipment to Israel.

Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), War on Want, Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) signed the letter that gives the companies notice of potential criminal liability for atrocity crimes currently taking place in Gaza. These letters are addressed to directors of twenty arms companies, whose UK operations are known to contribute to the F-35 Lightning II fighter jet programme; the F-35 has been heavily used by Israel in its current assault on Gaza.

The letter sets out in detail the legal frameworks governing the provision of material assistance to a party accused of war crimes, supported by reference to extensive evidence of the grave violations of international law that Israel has committed in Gaza. The legal frameworks which expose these directors to criminal liability include the provisions of the Rome Statute (1998), incorporated into UK domestic law through the International Criminal Court Act (2001), under which unequivocal criminal consequences exist for complicity in such war crimes and crimes against humanity.

GLAN and Al-Haq are already taking legal action against the UK government over its refusal to suspend arms exports to Israel despite overwhelming evidence that it is violating international humanitarian law in its onslaught in Gaza. However, as the letter points out, it’s not only the government that could face legal action as companies themselves also have a legal duty to comply with international law. 

UK rules demand that where there is a clear risk weapons could be used in unlawful attacks exports must be stopped. Israel has so far killed over 15,000 children, with potential use of British made weapons; these letters make it clear that we will be pursuing criminal accountability for companies complicit in the ongoing atrocity crimes in Gaza.

GLAN Senior lawyer, Dearbhla Minogue said, “Individuals transferring weapons to Israel are exposed to criminal liability, plain and simple. The fact that they are hiding behind a licensing system which is unfit for purpose will not protect them if and when they face a jury of their peers, because ordinary people can see through politicians’ obfuscation.”

War on Want’s Senior Campaigner, Neil Sammonds, said, “There is nowhere to hide for a company director choosing to provide weaponry to a state whose leaders have made clear their intent not to comply with international law and whose armed forces commit atrocity after atrocity. There was already apartheid, forced transfer and collective punishment. Now there is starvation, extermination and plausible genocide. The directors have enabled and profited from this. They are complicit and must be held accountable.”

CAAT’s Media Coordinator Emily Apple said, “The arms companies targeted with these letters are complicit in genocide and are profiting from the horrific war crimes Israel is committing in Gaza. As this letter makes it clear, they cannot hide behind the government’s woeful response, and there will be consequences if they fail to take action”.

ENDS

Notes to editors: 

A copy of the letter is available on request. Spokespeople are available from GLAN, CAAT and ICJP for further comment.

Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) is a UK-based organisation working to end the international arms trade. The arms business has a devastating impact on human rights and security, and damages economic development. In seeking to end the arms trade, CAAT’s priorities are to stop the procurement or export of arms where they might exacerbate conflict or support an oppressive regime, and to promote progressive demilitarisation within arms-producing countries. caat.org.uk Contact: Emily Apple emily@caat.org.uk.

Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) is a U.K.-based legal non-profit organisation with offices in the U.K. and Ireland. GLAN works with affected communities to pursue innovative legal actions across borders to challenge powerful actors involved in human rights violations and systemic injustice. glanlaw.org  Contact: Abbi Casey acasey@glanlaw.org .

The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) is an independent organisation of lawyers, politicians and academics who support the rights of Palestinians and aim to protect their rights through the law. The ICJP’s principal objective is to coordinate and support legal work which supports the rights of Palestinians in Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the wider diaspora. icjpalestine.com Contact: Jonathan Purcell jonathan@icjpalestine.com.

War on Want is a charitable membership organisation of people who are committed to social justice. Our vision is a world free from poverty and oppression, based on social justice, equality and human rights for all. War on Want works in partnership with grassroots social movements, trade unions and workers’ organisations to empower people to fight for their rights. We run hard-hitting popular campaigns against the root causes of poverty and human rights violations.www.waronwant.org.

Israel has turned a refugee camp into a ghost town


Khuloud Rabah Sulaiman The Electronic Intifada 20 June 2024

Massive destruction in Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza. Khaled DaoudAPA images

It took Walid Ribhi a long time to find the place where his parents used to live. Everything around it had been obliterated.

Walid needed help from neighbors sitting in the rubble of their former homes to locate what he was looking for.

The sight was shocking. There was no trace of his parent’s two-story building.

All the other houses in the area were gone, too.

“It was as if a hurricane hit the area and swallowed up all the buildings,” Walid said.

Leaving the area where his parents had their home, Walid searched for a school in which he had taken shelter during the current war.

He recognized the school only from a sign at its gate. The school and five others nearby had all been destroyed or badly damaged.

The scene at the market in the heart of Jabaliya was particularly eerie.

Walid used to run a clothes shop in the market. When he realized that it and so much else was in ruins, Walid started to weep.

It was not the first time that he had been put out of business.

Walid previously had a store in al-Rimal, a Gaza City district. It was located in the Shorouq tower, which Israel bombed during the May 2021 attack on Gaza.

Before the current war, Walid had an apartment in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza. As it was destroyed during the first few weeks of the war, Walid moved to his parents’ home in Jabaliya.

His parents had evacuated their home and moved southwards.

Walid, his wife and their three children remained in Jabaliya throughout Israel’s ground invasion of the camp during November. Although Israeli troops had come very close to the house, the building stayed intact.

Israeli troops eventually withdrew from Jabaliya following that invasion. They re-entered the camp last month.

For Walid and his family, the May invasion was worse than anything they had ever experienced.

About a week after the May invasion began, Israel bombarded nearby houses. The violence seemed far more intense than it had been in November.

Fearing they would die, Walid and his family embraced each other and recited the shahada – a Muslim’s final testament before God.

“When the bombardment stopped, we opened our eyes and thanked God we were still alive,” Walid said.

Bloodbath

A day later, the Israeli military shelled the neighborhood. The military approached the area in which Walid was living, driving tanks and bulldozers.

Under attack from both the air and the ground, the family fled to a school run by the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA).

It was not safe at all.

A few days later, the Israeli military penetrated the heart of the camp, inflicting massive destruction.

Walid and his family decided to leave the school. Before they could get out, the Israelis shelled it.

The family hid until they found an exit.

As they fled, Walid saw makeshift tents being attacked with people still inside them.

“Their voices are still stuck inside my head,” he said. “Those voices chase me all the time, whether I am awake or asleep.”

“I am still shocked that an UNRWA school, which is supposed to be protected by international law, turned into a bloodbath.”

The family did not know where to go.

Before their eyes, a group of people was shot by a missile fired from a drone. The three people who rushed to aid the victims were themselves shelled.

Two of the three managed to survive. One was left to bleed.

The family kept walking, with the children becoming distressed by the numerous dead bodies they saw on the ground.

Eventually, the family found themselves near a school in the south of Jabaliya. After a week of sheltering there, they were woken up at night.

The sound they heard was that of the school being shelled.

Once again, they fled to another school – this one in the west of Gaza. It was the last place they took shelter before the Israeli troops withdrew from Jabaliya.

Once the withdrawal was confirmed by the authorities in Gaza, the family opted to come back and see Jabaliya.

Nothing could prepare Walid for the terrible scene that awaited him.

Despite being stunned, Walid pitched a tent and pledged to stay in Jabaliya.

“I know the wells and the solar panels were destroyed,” he said.

“But we are working to get water and electricity. We will find a solution.”

Khuloud Rabah Sulaiman is a journalist living in Gaza.

COMMENTARY

Gloom about the ‘day after’ the Gaza war pervasive among Mideast scholars

Marc Lynch and Shibley Telhami
June 20, 2024

Palestinians ride bicycles past the ruins of houses and buildings destroyed during Israel’ military offensive, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip 

Even before a lasting ceasefire in the Gaza Strip could be attained, the Biden administration has avowed the need to return to the eventual goal of a two-state solution as the foundation of a durable Israeli-Palestinian settlement. But a new survey of Middle East scholars who study the issue suggests that finding such a solution out of the horrific devastation of Gaza is highly unlikely.

The latest round of the Middle East Scholar Barometer that we co-direct, with over 750 mostly U.S.-based respondents, reveals that few scholars believe that advancing a two-state solution in the foreseeable future is a realistic option, and a large majority believe that war in Israel and Gaza is likely to lead to new large-scale, long-term displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and/or the West Bank. The Biden administration’s policy gets failing grades from the scholars: More than three-quarters say President Joe Biden’s policy negatively impacts the prospects of peace in Israel and Palestine, U.S. interests in the Middle East, and America’s standing in the world.

This unique survey probes opinions on timely issues of Middle East experts from the American Political Science Association, the Project on Middle East Political Science, the American Historical Association, and the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), which we have been conducting on a biannual basis for more than three years. Most of our list and our respondents are political scientists, as are the two of us and the six-member advisory committee. The latest round was conducted from May 23 to June 6. Notably, we found few significant differences between MESA members and those who are not, and between political scientists and other scholars, suggesting that the scholars’ views are not on the whole dependent on their academic discipline or their organizational membership. As we have recently reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education, over 80% of U.S. based scholars say they self-censor when discussing the Israeli-Palestinian issue professionally, mostly speech critical of Israel.
The nature of the war in Gaza and Israeli aims

Nearly three-quarters of the scholars surveyed, about 72%, expect the war to result in new mass displacements of Palestinians outside of Gaza and the West Bank. This expectation seems partly based on the scholars’ gloomy assessment of Israel’s motives: A majority, about 57%, see making Gaza uninhabitable in order to force Palestinian removal as a primary Israeli objective of the war. About 15% each see Israel’s primary objective to be keeping the current Israeli government in office or destroying Hamas. Few (about 4%) say Israel’s operation is justified by the right of self-defense.

FIGURE 1

A majority of Middle East scholars see Israeli motives in Gaza to be about forcing Palestinians out

Q: What you think is Israel's PRIMARY goal in Gaza?
Make Gaza uninhabitable so as to force Palestinians out

57%
Destroy Hamas

15%
To keep the Israeli government in power

15%
Sustain occupation of Gaza and its population

6%
Deter attacks by its enemies

3%
Other

2%
I don't know

1%
Create conditions for a two-state solution

0%
Source: Middle East Scholar Barometer
Note: Fielded May 23-June 6, 2024 online using the University of Maryland's Qualtrics platform with 758 responses.

Download image

Their assessment of the resultant reality is equally dark: Respondents describe Israeli actions in damning terms, with 41% saying they constitute major war crimes akin to genocide, nearly 34% saying they constitute genocide, and 16% saying they are not akin to genocide, but are still major war crimes. While these views may seem surprising, they are not markedly different from the views of some segments of the American public, especially Democrats, with one recent poll showing a majority of Democrats saying Israeli actions amounted to genocide.

FIGURE 2
A third of scholars see Israel's military actions in Gaza as ‘genocide’

Q: How would you define Israel's current military actions in Gaza?
Major war crimes akin to genocide

41%
Genocide

34%
Major war crimes but not akin to genocide

16%
Unjustified actions but not major war crimes

4%
Justified actions under the right to self-defense

4%
I don’t know

2%
Source: Middle East Scholar Barometer
Note: Fielded May 23-June 6, 2024 online using the University of Maryland's Qualtrics platform with 758 responses.
Download image



As was the case before the current war, few respondents (2%) describe what now exists in Israel and Palestine as a state of temporary Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, with about two-thirds seeing the reality as that of “a one-state reality akin to Apartheid.” This starting point sets the dark mood for expectations about the present and the future.

It’s therefore not surprising that the scholars are pessimistic about any prospect of a two-state solution in the foreseeable future, even as the Biden administration and much of the international community hope it could become a reality in the aftermath of the horrific war. Scholars are divided between those (about 45%) saying a two-state solution was no longer possible, and those (about 43%) saying it is possible, but improbable in the next decade, with few (about 7%) saying it’s both possible and probable in the coming decade.
An indictment of Biden’s policy

The Biden administration has strongly backed Israel since October 7, 2023, defending its military campaign against critics at home and abroad, criticizing the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice for war crimes investigations, and maintaining a steady flow of military assistance despite clear electoral political costs. Has it been worth it? Middle East scholars say Biden’s Gaza war policy has been detrimental at home and abroad. Fewer than 10% say Biden’s policy positively impacted U.S. standing in the world and American interests in the Middle East.

FIGURE 3
Middle East scholars see Biden's response to the war as having negative implications

Q: How do you assess the implications of Biden's response to the war in Israel and Gaza for the following:
American interests in the Middle East
Negative
79%
Neither positive nor negative
12%
Positive
7%
I don't know
2%
American standing in the world
Negative
86%
Neither positive nor negative
10%
Positive
3%
I don't know
2%
Advancing peace in Israel/Palestine
Negative
80%
Neither positive nor negative
13%
Positive
4%
I don't know
3%
Source: Middle East Scholar Barometer
Note: Fielded May 23-June 6, 2024 online using the University of Maryland's Qualtrics platform with 758 responses.
Download image


These scholars’ views should not be dismissed as just another set of political opinions, even as they are not immune to professional biases. Many of them have spent years working on Israeli-Palestinian issues, have conducted research on the ground, and have large networks of contacts among Israelis and Palestinians. Their views are grounded in a far less mediated version of reality than is available to most Americans weighing in on the topic.

And it is that reality that may be leaving little room for optimism among scholars. As the two of us have noted elsewhere, their pessimism may be justified. In addition to the obvious horrors of tens of thousands of casualties, mostly women and children, according to United Nations estimates, the scale of devastation of homes and infrastructure is daunting. Regardless of who comes to govern the territory, Gaza has become uninhabitable and nearly its entire population has been displaced. By some U.N. estimates, it could take 14 years just to clear the rubble and about 80 years to rebuild Gaza to its prewar state, which was already a crowded territory often described by human rights organizations as an “open-air prison.” And, less noticed, the West Bank has witnessed escalating settler violence backed by Israel’s right-wing government which threatens what little remains of the Palestinian Authority. It is also notable that the surveyed scholars are particularly worried about an expanded conflict between Israel, on the one hand, and Iran and Lebanon, on the other, which could be an added obstacle to the pursuit of an Israeli-Palestinian deal: Over three-quarters of respondents say that the Gaza war has increased the chance of both, either “somewhat” or “substantially.”

The Biden administration has responded to the extraordinary violence in Israel and Palestine and the loss of hope in a sustained peaceful outcome by invoking a familiar formula: A promise of active diplomacy after the war toward a two-state solution, a goal that’s welcomed by many around the world. However, many scholars of the conflict have come to view the invocation of a two-state future as a smokescreen, whether intended as such or not, which American officials tout whenever they want to avoid dealing with the grim reality of Israel’s ever-more entrenched, deeply unjust domination of all the territories it controls.


AUTHORS
Marc LynchProfessor of Political Science and International Affairs, Elliott School of International Affairs - George Washington University

Shibley TelhamiNonresident Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy

Tory betting scandal will "lead to disaster" for Rishi Sunak | UK Election 2024 |

 The New Statesman

102-year-old Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer is Vogue Germany’s latest cover model

BY PHILISSA CRAMER 

JEWISH TELEGRAPH NEWS

JUNE 20, 2024

Margot Friedlander, 102, is on the cover of the July/August Vogue Germany edition. At right, she appears during an event at the Bundestag in January 2024. (Michele Tantussi/AFP via Getty Images

For its latest cover model, Vogue Germany selected a celebrity who regularly hobnobs with visiting dignitaries and walks the red carpet at film premieres: Margot Friedländer, 102, one of the oldest and most prominent Holocaust survivors in the world.

In addition to documenting Friedländer impeccable attire and indefatigable spirit, the Vogue article includes her public condemnation of the rise of the political far right in Germany.

About the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, known as AfD, and the spike in antisemitic incidents amid the Israel-Hamas War, Friedländer told the magazine, “I am appalled.”

Friedländer was born and raised in Berlin and hid there after the Nazis rose to power and began deporting and murdering Jews. She was apprehended in April 1944 and sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where she remained until its liberation a year later. Her entire family had been murdered.

Friedländer and her husband, whom she met in Theresienstadt, moved to New York City, where they lived an unassuming life in Queens. But after her husband’s death in 1997, she began writing about her Holocaust experience, ultimately catching the eye of a filmmaker who brought her to Germany over the course of making a documentary about her.

The trip — which Friedländer had once sworn never to make — changed her life. She moved back permanently in 2010, at age 89, and quickly became a local celebrity, according to a Forward profile that appeared three years after her arrival. She has made hundreds if not thousands of appearances where she tells her story, and increasingly has taken center stage in a country haunted by its Holocaust history.

Last year, she met with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff during his visit to Berlin. She also presented a prize to Guy Nattiv and Helen Mirren, the director and star of “Golda,” the biopic about Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. Recently, according to the Vogue article, “she was invited to a member of the Bundestag’s party at Soho House and celebrated until the lights came back on.”

The Vogue reporter, Miriam Amro, met with Friedländer four times over several months, and a photographer took glamor shots of her in luxury clothing at the Botanical Garden of the Free University of Berlin.

“Margot Friedländer seems to become more energetic each time,” Amro writes about their conversations. “As if her mind were following a reversed time calculation. Every word she says is full of positive power. A woman who has experienced the worst speaks without being bitter. How is that possible?”

Drought decimates Zimbabwe’s corn crop

Year-on-year production expected to fall by nearly 60%

Credit: ©BENSCHONEWILLE – STOCK.ADOBE.COM

By Arvin Donley
20.6.2024
 World Grain


HARARE, ZIMBABWE — Corn production in Zimbabwe in the 2024-25 marketing year is forecast to fall by 60% due to extreme drought conditions associated with the El Niño weather phenomenon, according to a report from the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the US Department of Agriculture.

The massive year-on-year decline, which led Zimbabwean President Emmerson Dambudzo to declare a “state of disaster,” is the result of more than half of Zimbabwe’s planted area being destroyed by the drought, the report said. This year’s output is projected at 635,000 tonnes, compared with 1.5 million in 2023-24.

Domestic consumption is forecast at 1.9 million tonnes. Consequently, the FAS said Zimbabwe will have to import more than 1 million tonnes of corn to meet local demand.

“With other corn-producing countries in the region, including South Africa, Zambia and Malawi, also impacted by the drought, Zimbabwe will have to source some of its corn implants on the global market,” the FAS said.

The Zimbabwean government said it plans to obtain corn, with the support of private millers, from Brazil, Argentina, Russia and the United States.

Although Zimbabwe’s Grain Marketing Board is mandated to maintain a minimum strategic reserve of 500,000 tonnes of grain, which is mostly comprised of corn, the FAS foresees carry-over stocks declining to 150,000 tonnes in 2024-25.

Corn is the main staple food and the most important crop in Zimbabwe. More than 90% of the country’s corn production comes from smallholder farmers who are entirely dependent on rainfall to nourish the crop.

Post published in: Business

Putin Calls For 'New Security Architecture' For Asia On Visit To Vietnam

Vietnamese President To Lam shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hanoi on June 20.

June 20, 2024
By RFE/RL

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on June 20 that it is time for a "new security architecture" for Asia as he wrapped up a short visit to Vietnam.

Putin signed 11 public agreements and memorandums of understanding with Vietnamese President To Lam while in Hanoi. Lam said he and Putin made other deals that are not publicly available.

The agreements centered on energy, education, science, and technology -- sectors the United States and other countries have targeted when sanctioning Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

The two countries also agreed to work on a roadmap for a nuclear science and technology center in Vietnam.

Russia's TASS news agency quoted Putin as saying, "We are firmly committed to deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership with Vietnam, which remains among the priorities of Russia’s foreign policy."

Photo Gallery:
In Photos: Putin Visits North Korea To Boost Cooperation Amid Ukraine War

Lam said Putin has contributed to global "peace, stability, and development." Vietnam has remained neutral on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and this marked Putin's first trip to Vietnam since 2017.

In Vietnam, Putin also met with Communist Party General-Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, according to the official Vietnam News Agency.

The United States has been working to strengthen and build partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region, including with Vietnam.

Prior to Putin's visit, a U.S. Embassy spokesperson in Vietnam said "no country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities."

The U.S. State Department announced on June 20 it will send Assistant Secretary of State and former ambassador to Vietnam Daniel Kritenbrink to Hanoi this week.

Putin kicked off his four-day trip to Asia in North Korea on June 17.

Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a robust defense pact in Pyongyang. The pact was described as a comprehensive strategic partnership and ensures mutual assistance in the event of an attack by a third country.

Speaking in Hanoi on June 20, Putin also said he "does not rule out" sending weapons to North Korea.

The White House said the North Korea-Russia pact is unsurprising and a sign of Russia's desperation.

South Korea responded with a statement that Seoul would consider sending weapons to Ukraine, which Putin said would be a "big mistake."

Putin also said Russia is thinking about changing its nuclear doctrine, which states Russia may use nuclear weapons in response to a nuclear attack or in the event of a conventional attack that poses an existential threat to the state.

But he said there was no need for Russia to carry out a preemptive nuclear strike.

Pentagon spokesman Air Force Major-General Pat Ryder, responding to Putin's comments on its nuclear doctrine, said, "It's certainly irresponsible for countries that maintain these capabilities to make those types of comments."

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

Moscow awaits US response to prisoner swap proposal

June 20, 2024
By VOA News

 Russia’s Foreign Ministry building is seen in Moscow, April 24, 2024.

About a week before American journalist Evan Gershkovich is set to stand trial in Russia on espionage charges he denies, Russia said Wednesday it had presented its ideas for a prisoner swap to the United States and was waiting for a reply.

“The ball is in the court of the United States. We are waiting for them to respond to the ideas that were presented to them,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian news agency TASS in an interview.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Novo-Ogaryovo State residence outside Moscow in Moscow, Oct. 16, 2023.

“They are well known to the relevant parts of the U.S. administration. I understand that, perhaps, something in these ideas does not suit the Americans. That’s their problem,” Ryabkov added.

“We consider our approaches to be fully justified, sensible, balanced. We expect that this is how they will view them,” he said.

Gershkovich, a Russian correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, has been jailed since March 2023 on spying accusations that he, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny. The U.S. State Department has also declared the 32-year-old wrongfully detained.

Gershkovich’s closed-door trial is set to begin on June 26 in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, where he was arrested more than a year ago. Press freedom experts have said the trial will almost certainly be a sham.

Yekaterinburg is about 1,400 kilometers east of Moscow.

SEE ALSO:
American journalist jailed in Russia to be tried behind closed doors

If convicted, Gershkovich faces up to 20 years behind bars. Russian authorities, however, have said a trial is required before a prisoner swap can take place.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously indicated that Moscow would be willing to exchange Gershkovich for a Russian man currently jailed in Germany for killing a Chechen dissident.

Gershkovich is one of two American journalists currently jailed in Russia.

Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian national who works at VOA’s sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, has been jailed since October 2023 on charges of failing to self-register as a “foreign agent” and spreading what Moscow views as false information about the Russian military.

Kurmasheva and her employer reject the charges against her, which carry a combined sentence of up to 15 years in prison. The U.S. government has also called for her immediate release.

Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse.

African leaders, French president seek vaccines for Africa

June 20, 2024 
By VOA News

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, welcomes Rwanda's President Paul Kagame to the Global Forum for Vaccine Sovereignty and Innovation at the French Foreign Ministry in Paris, June 20, 2024. Macron and African leaders are working to make vaccines more available in Africa.


African leaders and French President Emmanuel Macron have partnered on an approximately $1-billion project to make vaccines more available in Africa after the COVID-19 pandemic revealed global inequity in vaccine access.

The project, known as the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator, will provide financial incentives to vaccine manufacturers. The project comes after African leaders and advocates said the continent was overlooked in terms of treatments, testing materials and vaccines during the early months of COVID-19.

According to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — a public-private partnership that provides vaccines to developing countries — the project plans to accelerate Africa's manufacturing capacity, generate more activity in global vaccine markets, and enhance preparedness for pandemics.

According to Macron, about 75% of the funding will come from Europe. France will contribute $100 million. Other donors include Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Norway, Japan and the Gates Foundation.

"When the next pandemic hits, even if our leaders in the rich Western countries are angels, the pressure to hold onto your own vaccines for your own people is always going to be irresistible," British Foreign Secretary David Cameron told the summit.

Only 2% of vaccines in Africa are made on the continent. The African Union wants to raise that percentage to 60% by 2040.

Cholera has recently resurged in Africa, underscoring the need for local vaccine providers. Currently, only EuBiologics, a South Korean company, makes cost-efficient and effective vaccines for cholera. Cameron said South African firm Biovac would begin producing cholera vaccines.

The World Health Organization, along with others, also hopes to see Africa better prepared for the next pandemic. At the outset of the virus, South Africa was the only country in Africa able to develop vaccines.

The WHO recently attempted to develop a "pandemic treaty" designed to improve pandemic preparedness. The plan failed largely due to disagreements about disseminating information on the pathogens that cause epidemics and remedies for them.

Negotiators will continue to work for the next meeting in 2025.

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2024/06/as-big-pharma-exits-nigeria-asthma.html

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SPACE

'1st of its kind': NASA spots unusually light-colored boulder on Mars that may reveal clues of the planet's past

By Kristel Tjandra 

LIVE SCIENCE

published June 19, 2024

NASA's Perseverance rover spotted a bizarrely light-toned boulder on Mars, the likes of which have never been seen before.

An image taken by NASA's Perseverance on May 27 while surveying Mount Washburn caught sight of the pale boulder "Atoko Point". (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS)

NASA's Perseverance rover has spotted an unusually light-colored rock in Mars' Jezero Crater — the likes of which has never been seen on the Red Planet before. According to project researchers, the strange boulder may hint at new details about Mars' ancient past.

The rock, dubbed "Atoko Point" after a similarly light-colored feature of the Grand Canyon, is "in a league of its own," clearly standing out amidst all the darker boulders dotting the search area near the crater's Mount Washburn, the team wrote in a NASA statement. Scientists caught their first glimpse of the rock as part of an 18-image mosaic taken on May 27.

Atoko Point is estimated to measure 18 inches (45 centimeters) wide and 14 inches (35 centimeters) tall. Using the rover's camera instruments, SuperCam and Mastcam-Z, the scientists confirmed that the rock was made of pyroxene and feldspar. The team speculated that the pale rock may have been transported from a different part of the planet via an ancient river, or formed underground by a body of magma before ultimately being revealed through erosion.

"The diversity of textures and compositions at Mount Washburn was an exciting discovery for the team, as these rocks represent a grab bag of geologic gifts brought down from the crater rim and potentially beyond," Brad Garczynski of Western Washington University in Bellingham and co-lead of the current science campaign said in the statement.

The researchers added that while Atoko is "first of its kind" spotted on Mars, it almost certainly "won't be the last" as Perseverance continues its mission toward the rim of Jezero Crater.

Related: NASA's Perseverance rover may already have found signs of life on Mars, discovery of ancient lake sediments reveals

Perseverance landed on Mars in February 2021, and has been exploring Jezero Crater — a region thought to have once been an ancient lake — ever since. The rover's primary mission is to find signs of ancient life, and it has already collected 24 geological samples for future study.

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A map of Perseverance's mission route along the Neretva Vallis river channel, the path to Bright Angel. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)

The current trip through Jezero Crater is part of Perseverance's fourth science campaign to find carbonate and olivine minerals along the crater's rim. On Earth, carbonates are usually found on the shallow surfaces of freshwater lakes, forming when carbon dioxide reacts with water. By analyzing these minerals, scientists may catch a glimpse of the Mars' past carbon dioxide levels, an important indicator of its historical climate. Carbonates are also excellent minerals for preserving fossils, which may point to traces of ancient life, if they existed.

Recently, Perseverance has been doing a little detour from Mount Washburn to reach "Bright Angel", an area within the Neretva Vallis channel, an ancient river that once flowed to Jezero Crater. The team will decide whether to collect a rock core sample as they survey the new territory.


Kristel Tjandra
Staff Writer
Kristel is a science writer based in the U.S. with a doctorate in chemistry from the University of New South Wales, Australia. She holds a master's degree in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her work has appeared in Drug Discovery News, Science, Eos and Mongabay, among other outlets. She received the 2022 Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communications.