World
World Bank board elects US nominee Ajay Banga as president
The World Bank's board of governors on Wednesday elected former Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga to a five-year term as president, ushering in an Indian-born finance and development expert to revamp the lender to tackle climate change and other global crises, Reuters reported.
Banga, 63, was nominated for the post by U.S. President Joe Biden in late February and was the sole contender to replace departing World Bank chief David Malpass, an economist and former U.S. Treasury official who served in the Trump administration. He starts the new job on June 2.
The election came after World Bank board members interviewed Banga for four hours on Monday. Malpass' last day at the bank will be June 1. The decision came in a vote by 24 of the board's members, with Russia abstaining, instead of the usual consensus-based process, a source familiar with the process said.
Biden congratulated Banga on his "resounding approval" to run the World Bank, which he described as "one of humanity’s most critical institutions to reduce poverty and expand prosperity around the globe."
"Ajay Banga will be a transformative leader, bringing expertise, experience, and innovation to the position of World Bank President," Biden said. "He will help steer the institution as it evolves and expands to address global challenges that directly affect its core mission of poverty reduction — including climate change."
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Banga brought the "right leadership and management skills" to the job, and would play a critical role in pushing forward with additional reforms, including by forging partnerships between the public and private sectors and nonprofit groups, read the report.
"Ajay understands that the challenges we face – from combatting climate change, pandemics, and fragility to eliminating extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity – are deeply intertwined. He has effectively built a broad global coalition around his vision for the Bank over the course of his candidacy," Yellen said in a statement.
Katie Malouf-Bous, interim head of Oxfam International’s Washington office, said the bank needed "serious reform" to tackle the widening gap between rich and poor, but that would require huge new public investments and "guardrails around private finance that has run riot for too long."
One senior U.S. official said Banga's election came at a critical moment marked by emerging debt distress in lower- and middle-income countries and ongoing problems in food and energy markets as a result of Russia's war in Ukraine, Reuters reported.
"It is a challenging moment, but it's a moment where the World Bank remains more vital than ever, and where getting the evolution of the World Bank is absolutely critical," the official said.
The bank already loans out hundreds of billions of dollars to developing countries but is working to increase its lending to help them address overlapping global challenges such as climate change, conflict and brace for future pandemics, read the report.
"The Board looks forward to working with Mr. Banga on the World Bank Group Evolution process ... on all the World Bank Group’s ambitions and efforts aimed at tackling the toughest development challenges facing developing countries," the bank said.
The World Bank has been led by an American since its founding at the end of World War Two, while the International Monetary Fund has been led by a European.
Banga, who was born in India and spent his early career there, has been a U.S. citizen since 2007, Reuters reported.
Banga has met with officials from 96 governments since his nomination, the source said. He visited eight countries during a three-week world tour to meet with government officials, business leaders and civil society groups, flying a total of 39,546 miles (63,643 km).
World
ICC issues arrest warrants for Israel’s Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas leader
Judges at the International Criminal Court have issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief, as well as a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, Reuters reported on Thursday afternoon.
The move comes after the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan announced on May 20, that he was seeking arrest warrants for alleged crimes connected to the Oct.7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas and the Israeli military response in Gaza.
The ICC said Israel's acceptance of the court's jurisdiction was not required.
Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza.
Israel has said it killed Al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, in an airstrike but Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied this.
World
US vetoes UN Security Council resolution on Gaza ceasefire
The United States on Wednesday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza, drawing criticism of the Biden administration for once again blocking international action aimed at halting Israel's war with Hamas.
The 15-member council voted on a resolution put forward by 10 non-permanent members that called for an "immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire" in the 13-month conflict and separately demanded the release of hostages, Reuters reported.
Only the U.S. voted against, using its veto as a permanent council member to block the resolution.
Robert Wood, deputy U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said Washington had made clear it would only support a resolution that explicitly calls for the immediate release of hostages as part of a ceasefire.
"A durable end to the war must come with the release of the hostages. These two urgent goals are inextricably linked. This resolution abandoned that necessity, and for that reason, the United States could not support it," he said.
Wood said the U.S. had sought compromise, but the text of the proposed resolution would have sent a "dangerous message" to Hamas that "there's no need to come back to the negotiating table."
Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 44,000 people and displaced nearly all the enclave's population at least once. It was launched in response to an attack by Hamas-led fighters who killed 1,200 people and captured more than 250 hostages in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Members roundly criticized the U.S. for blocking the resolution put forward by the council's 10 elected members: Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, South Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and Switzerland.
"It is deeply regretted that due to the use of the veto this council has once again failed to uphold its responsibility to maintain international peace and security," Malta's U.N. Ambassador Vanessa Frazier said after the vote failed, adding that the text of the resolution "was by no means a maximalist one."
"It represented the bare minimum of what is needed to begin to address the desperate situation on the ground," she said.
Food security experts have warned that famine is imminent among Gaza's 2.3 million people.
U.S. President Joe Biden, who leaves office on Jan. 20, has offered Israel strong diplomatic backing and continued to provide arms for the war, while trying unsuccessfully to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that would see hostages released in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel.
After blocking earlier resolutions on Gaza, Washington in March abstained from a vote that allowed a resolution to pass demanding an immediate ceasefire.
A senior U.S. official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity ahead of Wednesday's vote, said Britain had put forward new language that the U.S. would have supported as a compromise, but that was rejected by the elected members.
Some members were more interested in bringing about a U.S. veto than compromising on the resolution, the official said, accusing U.S. adversaries Russia and China of encouraging those members.
'GREEN LIGHT'
France's ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said the resolution rejected by the U.S. "very firmly" required the release of hostages.
"France still has two hostages in Gaza, and we deeply regret that the Security Council was not able to formulate this demand," he said.
China's U.N. ambassador, Fu Cong, said each time the United States had exercised its veto to protect Israel, the number of people killed in Gaza had steadily risen.
"How many more people have to die before they wake up from their pretend slumber?" he asked.
"Insistence on setting a precondition for ceasefire is tantamount to giving the green light to continue the war and condoning the continued killing."
Israel's U.N. ambassador Danny Danon said ahead of the vote the text was not a resolution for peace but was "a resolution for appeasement" of Hamas.
"History will remember who stood with the hostages and who abandoned them," Danon said.
World
US imposes sanctions on senior Hamas officials
“Treasury remains committed to disrupting Hamas’s efforts to secure additional revenue and holding those who facilitate the group’s terrorist activities to account.”
The U.S. on Tuesday imposed sanctions on six senior Hamas officials, the U.S. Treasury Department said, further action against the Palestinian militant group as Washington has sought to achieve a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza, Reuters reported.
The Treasury Department said in a statement the sanctions targeted the group's representatives abroad, a senior member of the Hamas military wing and those involved in supporting fundraising efforts for the group and weapons smuggling into Gaza.
"Hamas continues to rely on key officials who seemingly maintain legitimate, public-facing roles within the group, yet who facilitate their terrorist activities, represent their interests abroad, and coordinate the transfer of money and goods into Gaza," Treasury's Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley Smith, said in the statement.
"Treasury remains committed to disrupting Hamas's efforts to secure additional revenue and holding those who facilitate the group’s terrorist activities to account."
Hamas condemned the sanctions in a statement that called on the U.S. administration to "review this criminal policy and stop its blind bias towards the terrorist occupation entity."
Among those targeted was Abd al-Rahman Ismail abd al-Rahman Ghanimat, a longtime member of Hamas's military wing who is now based in Turkey, the Treasury said, accusing him of being involved in multiple attempted and successful terrorist attacks, read the report.
Two other officials based in Turkey, a member based in Gaza who has participated in Hamas's engagements with Russia and a leader authorized to speak publicly on behalf of the group and who previously oversaw border crossings at Gaza were also among those targeted, according to the Treasury.
The statement by Hamas said: "The Treasury Department's lists are based on misleading and false statements and foundations aimed at distorting the image of the movement's leaders ... while ignoring the imposition of sanctions on the occupation leaders who commit the most heinous war crimes."
The U.S. on Monday warned Turkey against hosting Hamas leadership, saying Washington does not believe leaders of a terrorist organization should be living comfortably.
Asked about reports that some Hamas leaders had moved to Turkey from Qatar, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller did not confirm the reports but said he was not in a position to dispute them. He said Washington will make clear to Turkey's government that there can be no more business as usual with Hamas, Reuters reported.
Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 43,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza over the past year, Palestinian health officials say, and Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland of wrecked buildings and piles of rubble, where more than two million Gazans are seeking shelter in makeshift tents and facing shortages of food and medicines.
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