WORLD NEWS FLASH by KS
UNITED STATES: David Dinkins (1927-2020)
A trailblazer in the world of politics has joined many of the icons who have passed away in 2020.
Former New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins died Nov. 23 at the age of 93 due to natural causes. In 1990, Dinkins was sworn into that position as the city’s 106th mayor. What made his election to that office historic was his status as NYC’s first – and to this day only – African American Mayor.
Among Dinkins’s accomplishments was a major reduction in crime. He also negotiated a lease deal with the USTA National Tennis Center, which yields more money toward the city than NY mainstays like the Yankees, Mets, Knicks and Rangers combined. However, the progress was not good enough for the majority of New Yorkers. In 1993, Rudy Giuliani was elected to replace him.
Dinkins’ death came just weeks after the passing of his wife Joyce, who died on Oct. 11 at the age of 89. They had two children.
EUROPE: Twin Brothers Wanted in Bank Hit
At the request of German authorities, INTERPOL has issued Red Notices for twin brothers suspected of involvement in the Dresden Green Vault robbery.
International wanted persons alerts for Mohamed and Abdul Majed Remmo, who are believed to be part of a criminal family network, have now been circulated to all 194 members countries.
The 21-year-olds are wanted for aggravated gang robbery and arson following the heist in the early hours of Nov. 25, 2019 when more than a dozen diamond-encrusted items were stolen.
Thieves broke into the museum after setting a fire at a nearby electrical junction box, causing a power outage. Two suspects were caught on CCTV footage smashing the display case that housed the jewels, with the robbers fleeing in a car which was later found burnt out.
The INTERPOL notices were issued following a series of raids in Berlin on Nov. 17, 2020 in which three people suspected of involvement in the jewel theft were taken into custody.
Shortly after the robbery, INTERPOL published a special poster to highlight the theft of the 18th-century jewels, details of which were also added to the INTERPOL Stolen Works of Art Database.
Anyone with information about the location of these individuals, or the stolen items, is advised to contact the Bundeskriminalamt (German Federal Criminal Police) or INTERPOL’s Fugitives unit.
AFRICA: A Swarm of Locusts
The Desert Locust crisis which struck the greater Horn of Africa region earlier this year threatening food supplies for millions, could re-escalate as recent strong winds carried mature swarmlets from southern Somalia into eastern and northeastern Kenya, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Nov. 24.
Although some of the swarmlets that reached Kenya may have already laid eggs before their arrival, there remains a risk of further egg-laying in sandy areas that saw recent rainfalls, according to FAO.
“In this case, hatching and hopper band formation can be expected in early December,” said the agency.
Breeding also continues in central Somalia and eastern Ethiopia where bands of hoppers – non-flying, nymphal stage locust – are present, and a new generation of immature swarms could start forming by the end of November.
Swarm formation is expected to continue throughout December due to widespread hatching and band formation that occurred mid-November. From the second week of December, several waves of numerous swarms can be expected to move south in Somalia and Ethiopia, reaching northern Kenya, FAO added.
A resurgence of the swarms could aggravate food security in the region, where almost 25 million people are already suffering from severe acute food insecurity. Desert Locusts are considered the most destructive migratory pest in the world, devouring large areas of crops and grasses meant for people and livestock.
FAO is supporting authorities in Somalia to scale up anti-locust measures, focusing on areas at high risk.
“Survey and control operations, by ground and by air, have been scaled-up and are on-going,” said Etienne Peterschmitt, FAO Representative in Somalia.
“These resources include aircrafts, vehicles, equipment, biopesticides, insect growth regulators and staff that have been strategically been positioned in various parts of the country,” he added.
In addition to the measures to reduce breeding and swarms, FAO and partners are also supporting farmers in the affected areas. Supplies have been delivered and pre-positioned to assist food-insecure households that are at risk of locust invasion, including planting and replanting packages, supplementary feed and integrated cash assistance and livelihood support.
ASIA: New Trade Alliance Set to Make Moves
A new trade bloc covering a huge swathe of the Asia-Pacific region will play an important role in developing poorer economies and in post-pandemic stimulus, according to a report published on Monday by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement (RCEP) was signed on Sunday by 15 countries including China, Japan, Australia, Vietnam and South Korea, jointly covering a total population of more than 2.3 billion people – five times the size of the European Union.
“The agreement could help revive post-COVID economic growth, boost intra-regional trade and investment links at a time of global trade tensions, and provide a framework for further regional cooperation,” the report said.
Asia is already a major destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) and it has fared relatively well as an investment target during the global pandemic, but RCEP could give its members extra support and a stimulus as the pandemic subsides, the report said.
There is significant scope for RCEP members to invest more in each other, especially in the ASEAN group of countries, it notes. After the pandemic, investors would be looking for infrastructure, clean energy and healthcare projects, while multinational companies might seek to build more resilient supply chains by buying and developing assets within the RCEP bloc.
“RCEP could stimulate investment for development,” the UNCTAD report said.
The RCEP bloc includes three least developed countries: Cambodia, Myanmar and Lao People’s Democratic Republic. They already get the bulk of their FDI from other RCEP members, but the creation of the trade agreement could lead to them play a stronger role in global value chains (GVC) that supply markets around the world.
The birth of RCEP could also encourage firms to start up new projects within the bloc as they switch away from producing in China – an ongoing trend thanks to rising costs and the trade tensions of the past four years, noted the trade body analysis.
