Raphael Stevens

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    Live international debate on female leadership to take place today

    A live debate across nine countries is taking place today by leading women across business and politics on whether more women leadership would help the world move faster out of the pandemic crisis.The founder and CEO of Athena40’s global conversation Elizabeth Filippouli leads the discussion by saying “we cannot ignore the fact that women have been affected disproportionately and in multiple ways:  financially, mentally, physically, professionally”.The former television journalist told those joining the debates today: “Paving the way for more women into leadership positions is our only chance to recover fast from social and financial setbacks and it is also critically important for the emotional and psychological balance of our societies.”HRH Princess Sumaya Bint El Hassan, president of the Royal Scientific Society, will open the global conversation.The speakers covering five continents include: Margery Kraus, Founder & Executive Chairman of APCO Worldwide; Mary Carlin Yates, former ambassador of the US Department of State; Ivana Gažić, President of the Management Board of Zagreb Stock Exchange; Tsitsi Mutendi, Co-founder of African Family Firms, May Chidiac Former Minister & President of May Chidiac Foundation; Tram Anh Nguyen, Co-founder of the Centre for Finance, Technology & Entrepreneurship (CFTE); Leonor Stjepic, CEO of the Montessori Group; Diana Moukalled, Editor of Daraj Media, Hajara Kabeer, Founder of the Girl in STEM Initiative.BBC’s news journalist and presenter Tim Wilcox will introduce and compere the global conversation.Mary Carlin Yates, Ambassador (ret.) of the US Department of State, said:“During my experience of 30 plus years as a diplomat, I witnessed civil wars and crises from Burundi to Liberia, Sudan to Somalia just to name a few. I can unequivocally testify that the contributions and leadership of women during such times was undeniably critical.”Catherine Bolzendahl, Director of the School of Public Policy, Oregon State University, said:“Women’s empowerment benefits everyone in society and continuing progress on gender equality cannot be abandoned in times of crisis.” More

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    The Hong Kong exodus is coming

    Ted Hui recalls the moment he announced he would flee Hong Kong for the UK. “I burst into tears when I told my loved ones I was going into exile,” he says. In the closing months of 2020, the Democratic Party politician was issued with nine charges based on “totally fake stories” for his involvement in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. One charge was for “perverting the course of justice” and carried a maximum life sentence; another offence was ludicrously labelled “administering drugs and harmful substances” for dropping a stink bomb during a meeting of the city’s Legislative Council, and carried a four-year term. He also faced the prospect of a private trial with no jury. The Kafkaesque manner of the judiciary made him realise “there was no way to rely on this legal system for justice”. After months of sleepless nights, fearing dawn raids by armed police officers and being “stalked by intelligence agents”, he decided to leave Hong Kong, sparking the exodus of many others to the pandemic-stricken shores of Britain. Hui tells me: “There will definitely be a massive number of people arriving, and cities like London and Manchester could end up with the largest Hong Kong diasporas in the world.”On 30 June 2020 Beijing imposed its “national security law” on embattled Hong Kong to silence the pro-democracy demonstrations. State media outlet China Daily heralded it as the only way to stop “the overreactions of those rioters and their foreign backers”. The ranks of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement have varied aims, from those who want more autonomy to those who espouse full independence from China. The national security law prohibits freedom of expression and can be crookedly manipulated to silence dissent. What exactly infringes the new law is purposely vague so that it can be widely applied. Secession from China, subverting state authority and collusion with foreign powers are its main elements, all aimed at crushing democratic sentiment in the financial hub. More

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    Former Russian PM describes Trump’s presidency as ‘period of disappointment’

    “The period of the previous administration’s work is the period of disappointment,” Mr Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council,  said according to Tass, a Russian news agency.”Donald Trump, already a former president of the United States, was indeed a friendly person and demonstrated in every possible way his intention to, as he put it, get along with the Russians – but failed,” Mr Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council,  said according to Tass, a Russian news agency.”The period of the previous administration’s work is the period of disappointment.”The official said that certain members of the US political establishment on both ends of the spectrum were “throwing a spanner in Mr Trump’s works” during that period.The official said that the former president was “drove into a corner” by political adversaries, who he said saw him as an “agent” of the country.
    Mr Medvedev, who served as Prime Minister to Vladimir Putin from 2012 to 2020, said that Mr Trump’s efforts with Russia “failed to produce any result,” and that this was the outcome that Mr Trump intended.“Naturally, they drove him to a corner, and it was very hard for him to find a way out. That is why it all ended up with a continuous series of additional sanctions,” Mr Medvedev said.Mr Medvedev reportedly told Russian media that a stalemate occurred between the two countries because the former president simultaneously insisted he had a good relationship with Russia while also boasting of his tough attitude towards the country.
    Last week, a former KGB spy claimed that Russia cultivated former President Donald Trump as an asset for over 40 years.KGB agents flattered Mr Trump, fed him talking points, and told him he should go into politics when he visited Moscow for the first time in 1987, Yuri Shvets, who worked in Washington DC for the Soviet Union in the 80s, told The Guardian.During his presidency, Mr Trump was subjected to a special counsel probe into Russian election meddling.Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report failed to state clearly if he committed any crimes and explicitly stated it would have exonerated him if Mr Mueller had concluded no crimes were committed. More

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    Nobel Peace Prize: Trump, Navalny, Thunberg and WHO among candidates as nominations close

    Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, the World Health Organisation and climate campaigner Greta Thunberg have joined Donald Trump among a list of expected nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, according to a survey of Norwegian MPs who are eligible to propose candidates and who have a track record of successfully guessing the winner.Ms Thunberg, Mr Navalny, and the WHO – for its Covax programme to secure fair access to Covid vaccines for poor countries – are likely frontrunners, research carried out by Reuters found. Nominations for the prestigious award close on Sunday.The climate activist, Russian opposition leader and global health body are backed by Norwegian lawmakers, who have nominated the eventual laureate every year since 2014, with the exception of 2019.Thousands of people, from members of parliaments worldwide to former winners, are eligible to propose candidates. A host of other figures including university professors and members of select international organisations can also put names forward.The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which decides who wins the award, does not comment on nominations, keeping secret for 50 years the names of nominators and unsuccessful nominees, while nominations do not imply an endorsement from the committee.But nominators can choose to reveal their picks. He said the now former president had “done more trying to create peace between nations than most other peace prize nominees”, citing Mr Trump’s role in brokering a peace deal between Israel and Middle Eastern nations. More

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    How hope is vanishing 10 years after the Arab Spring

    Much of the Arab world erupted in jubilant revolt 10 years ago against the dictatorial regimes whose corruption, cruelty and mismanagement had mired the Middle East in poverty and backwardness for decades.Now, the hopes awakened by the protests have vanished but the underlying conditions that drove the unrest are as acute as ever.Autocrats rule with an even tighter grip. Wars unleashed by leaders whose control was threatened have killed hundreds of thousands of people. The rise of the Islamic State amid the resulting wreckage ravaged large parts of Syria and Iraq and drew the United States into another costly Middle East war.Millions of people were driven from their homes to become refugees, many converging on the shores of Europe and beyond. The influx fuelled a tide of nativism and anti-immigrant sentiment that brought populist leaders to power in Europe and the US as fears of terrorism eclipsed concerns for human rights as a Western priority.Even in those countries that did not descend into war, more Arabs are now living in poverty, more are unemployed and more are imprisoned for their political beliefs than a decade ago.Only in Tunisia, where the protests began, did anything resembling a democracy emerge from the upheaval. The fall of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the Tunisian President,  after a month of street protests in Tunis inspired demonstrations across the Middle East, including the mass protest on 25 January 2011 in Cairo’s Tahrir Square that fixated world attention on what was prematurely labelled the Arab Spring.On its face, the Arab Spring failed, and spectacularly so – not only by failing to deliver political freedom but by further entrenching the rule of corrupt leaders more intent on their own survival than delivering help.“It’s been a lost decade,” said Tarik Yousef, director of the Brookings Doha Centre in Qatar, recalling the euphoria he initially felt when the fall of Libya’s Moammar Gaddafi in August 2011 enabled him to return home for the first time in years. “Now we have the return of fear and intimidation. The region has experienced setbacks at every turn.”For many of those who participated in the uprisings, the costs have been immeasurable. Esraa Eltaweel, 28, was partially paralysed after a bullet fired by security forces sliced through her abdomen and chipped her spine during a protest in Cairo in 2014. Some of her friends were killed. Others were imprisoned, including her husband, who is still incarcerated. Ms Eltaweel, who spent seven months in detention, has struggled to find work because of the stigma attached to political prisoners.“We didn’t achieve anything we aimed for. Things got worse,” she said. “We believed we could change the system. But it is so rotten that it can’t be changed.”Yet as long as the conditions that provoked the original uprisings persist, the possibility of more unrest cannot be ruled out, analysts say. More

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    World religious leaders unite to demand ban on gay conversion therapy

    Almost 400 religious leaders from each of the world’s leading faiths have called for national governments to end laws that discriminate against same sex relationships while also demanding an end to LGBT+ conversion therapies.Signatories — including anti-apartheid campaigner and former Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, and Bishop of Liverpool — call for “an end to violence and criminalisation against LGBT+ people and for a global ban on conversion therapy”.“We recognise that certain religious teachings have, throughout the ages, been misused to cause deep pain and offence to those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex”, the open letter, which was organised by the Ozanne Foundation charity and signed by figures from 35 nations, adds.Despite moves towards LGBT+ equality by governments in the 21st century, 69 of the UN’s 193 member states still outlaw gay sex, according to a report published by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World) on Tuesday.Meanwhile the only places to have introduced nation-wide bans on conversion therapy are Brazil, Ecuador, Malta and Germany. Boris Johnson has previously pledged to abolish the practice, which can include shock treatments and religious components including prayer and ‘exorcism’ style events – with the PM calling it “absolutely abhorrent”.The statement from faith leaders comes ahead of the Foreign Office sponsored Global Interfaith Commission on LGBT+ Lives .Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayWendy Morton, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for European Neighbourhood and the Americas, said the declaration was “an important step towards equality”.“We fully support its call to end violence, discrimination and the ongoing criminalisation of same-sex conduct in 69 countries”, adding that conversion therapy was “an abhorrent practice and should be stopped”.Former Irish President Mary McAleese, a prominent member of the Roman Catholic Church, said the statement marked “a small step towards countering (homophobia)”.“But it’s a necessary step to remind the faith systems of the world and people of faith that they have an obligation to their fellow citizens who are also entitled to the full dignity of their humanity and their full equal human rights,” she added.Imam Muhsin Hendricks, who founded one of the world’s few LGBT+ inclusive mosques in Cape Town, South Africa, said he believed the Muslim community “is ready for this conversation”“I’m currently training with six imams from different parts of Africa and the openness to look at this issue is incredible” he added.“I’m really amazed and excited because 10 years ago this kind of training with imams was not possible. So I do think the community is ready.” Meanwhile Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, former senior rabbi to Reform Judaism said the statement served to acknowledge that “our religions … still have a lot that we are culpable for”.“It would be lovely to say it has nothing to do with us, but our religious traditions have driven conversion therapy, particularly,” she added.Additional reporting by the Thomson Reuters Foundation More

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    Nine out of 10 in poorer countries set to miss out on Covid jabs as richer nations hoard vaccines

    Rich countries have hoarded enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations against Covid-19 nearly three times over, while nine in 10 people in poorer countries are set to miss jabs next year, campaigners have cautioned.As the UK begins to vaccinate its population against the coronavirus, a group of organisations has highlighted that rich nations representing just 14 per cent of the world’s population have ordered 53 per cent of all of the most promising vaccines.The organisations, including Oxfam, Amnesty International, Global Justice Now and Frontline AIDS, have formed an alliance to call for a People’s Vaccine and to demand governments and pharmaceutical corporations openly share their technology and intellectual property to allow billions more doses to be manufactured and made available to all who need them. More