On 24 September, the annual UN General Assembly will begin its work. Most Italian readers will take the news as routine, imagining hundreds of state leaders in formal suits or exotic national costumes delivering traditional speeches on local or global issues. It seems like just another ritual event in the grand hall of the UN, one that will have little impact on life in Rome, Brussels, or Berlin.
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The seventh president of the government after the restoration of democracy, Pedro Sánchez, surrounded himself with a large majority female team: he has 13 to 17 portfolios, including 11 women in the heaviest areas. A group of “personalities” who have “parked” successful careers to serve Spain, according to Sánchez on Wednesday. Progressivism, Europeanism and the commitment to equality were the characteristics that stood out, even if a look at the center is also deduced from the composition of the Cabinet. A team that with its specialization can immediately start doing politics. Sánchez appoints a progressive government. Almost all the elected representatives of the government are specialists in the subject that Sanchez has entrusted to them, so that they can start working immediately, after swearing or promising their positions and taking possession of their portfolios.
There is specialization, European experience, territorial distribution and, ideologically, various genuinely social-democratic faces – in health, education and employment; among these, first of all, Carmen Calvo in the vice-presidency, which also embodies the feminist potential and defense of equality that the head of government claims to pursue. Economic rigor borders with the liberal doctrine of the new Economy Minister, Nadia Calviño, and the Treasury owner, María Jesús Montero, does not leave orthodoxy. The vast party trajectory accumulates the Minister of Labor, Migration and Social Security, Magdalena Valerio, a member of the PSOE Executive in the areas of social security and the Toledo Pact, although she has maintained her job as an Inem official.
The official media of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) today called on the international community, in particular the countries which share responsibility for peace on the Korean Peninsula, to back peace-building efforts there. The official Minju Joson daily said that the May 24 dismantling of the DPRK’s northern nuclear test ground “testified in practice, not in words, to the firm will of the DPRK to join the international efforts for the total ban on nuclear tests.” DPRK top leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump are scheduled to meet on June 12 in Singapore, the first such summit to be held since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
“The present situation urgently requires countries responsible for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula to take practical steps for peace on the peninsula from a responsible and serious stand and attitude,” said the daily. “Invariable is the stand of the DPRK to ensure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and make active contributions to world peace and stability,” it said.
China and Kyrgyzstan today agreed to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership. The agreement was reached during the talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and visiting Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov in Beijing. “It is another landmark event in the history of bilateral ties that China and Kyrgyzstan will establish a comprehensive strategic partnership, which will inject new impetus into the development of bilateral ties,” Xi told Jeenbekov. Standing at a new starting point, China is willing to work with Kyrgyzstan to carry forward the traditional friendship and conduct all-round cooperation so as to achieve national development and better benefit the two peoples, said Xi.
Noting that Kyrgyzstan was one of the first countries to support and participate into the Belt and Road Initiative and related construction, Xi said China would like to make joint efforts with Kyrgyzstan to open minds and explore potentials to lift bilateral cooperation to a new level.
After days of touting success in managing to bring the leader of the rogue nuclear regime to the table for negotiations over the end of his nuclear weapons program, now the U.S. President Donald Trump has hinted at the possibility that the planned summit may fall through. The historic summit between the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the U.S. President was scheduled to take place in Singapore on June 12. However, in recent weeks, the diplomatic overture took a turn for the worse after North Korea cancelled planned talks with South Korea and even threatened to cancel the meeting with Trump over Seoul’s military drills with the U.S. North Korea officially criticized the joint war games by U.S. and South Korean forces, throwing the Singapore summit in doubt.
U.S. meanwhile insisted that the summit would lead to unilateral North Korean surrender of its nuclear weapons programme. Trump earlier warned Kim Jong Un that if he refuses to make a deal he could face the same fate as the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, who was toppled and killed after a NATO-backed insurrection. North Korea said that it supports the “complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” but interprets it as a gradual, phased and mutual disarmament process.
China will launch another 11 BeiDou-3 satellites by the end of 2018, adding to its domestic BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), an official said at an academic conference Wednesday. The satellites will provide initial services for countries and regions along the Belt and Road by the end of the year, said Wang Li, chairman of China Satellite Navigation System Committee. China has already launched eight BeiDou-3 satellites. Addressing the Ninth China Satellite Navigation Conference in Harbin, capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, Wang said the BeiDou system is moving to become a global service provider after offering stable and reliable time and space information for clients in the Asia-Pacific region.
Compared to earlier generation satellites, the BeiDou-3 is able to send signals that are more compatible with other satellite navigation systems and provide satellite-based augmentation, as well as search and rescue services in accordance with international standards. Its positioning accuracy has reached 2.5 to 5 meters. The BeiDou system will coordinate with other technology, such as remote sensing, Internet, big data and cloud computing, in the future, said Wang.
The flow of unaccompanied migrant minors in Spain has increased by more than 60% in 2017. With the increase in landings along the Western Mediterranean route, 6,414 foreign minors arrived in Spain last year, 2,417 more than last year. According to government data, referring only to children housed in structures and reception centers in the various regions, one third of the total recorded in the last four years was hosted in Andalusia. The report ‘Los mas solos’, (The loneliest), by the NGO Save The Children, denounces the flaws in the system of reception, protection and integration of migrant children and adolescents who arrive alone in the country. The figures for unaccompanied minors include only those who have come into contact with public authorities and for whom the minority has been certified. It remains outside the statistics who, instead, decides to be passed as adults, not to end up in reception centers, and those who voluntarily abandoned the structures.
Despite the significant increase in landings in the last 4 years, only a hundred migrant minors have asked asylum and only 31 have obtained it, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior mentioned in the report. Which means that one in 3 requests is rejected. Originally, the Moroccans have always been the most numerous, followed by the Algerians, the Syrians only in 2014 were the second largest community. Without educational and employment policies, these very young are condemned to precariousness and social exclusion. And from the day they turn 18 and remain unprotected and no support from the administration, as stated by Save The Children.
German prosecutors are preparing the paperwork to extradite former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont back to Spain on charges of rebellion and disturbance of the peace. A German court ruled on 22.5.2018 that Puigdemont, who was detained by German police in March, cannot be rearrested because he does not pose a flight risk. However, the state’s prosecutors want to send the former regional president back to Spain in the light of new video evidence which they say shows “violence perpetrated against the Spanish police forces.”
Upholding multilateralism, improving global governance and creating a community of shared interests are in line with the trend of the times and the common interests of all nations, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Monday. Wang made the remarks while addressing the 2018 G20 Meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministers scheduled for Sunday through Monday. Welcoming the creation and development of the G20 as a new manifestation of multilateralism and an important advancement in the reform of global governance, Wang said that discussing issues concerning multilateralism and global governance is of great importance at a time when the G20 summit enters its 10th year. The G20 members, Wang added, should jointly build a community of shared future for mankind, and improve the global governance system under the guidance of reform.
After North Korea threatened to pull out of the high-level talks between Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, which are scheduled to be held on June 12 in Singapore – U.S. and South Korea huddled up to discuss the future course of action. Today, the South Korean President Moon Jae In and Trump reportedly held discussions to ensure that the North Korea-U.S. summit remains on track. South Korea’s presidential office said in a statement that Jae In and Trump spoke over the phone for about 20 minutes, reportedly exchanging their views on North Korea’s recent reactions. The presidential official said, “The two leaders will work closely and unwaveringly for the successful hosting of the North Korea-U.S. summit set on June 12, including the upcoming South Korea-U.S. summit.” On Tuesday, Jae In and Trump are set to meet in Washington – in a meeting that was planned to be a prelude to the historic summit that is scheduled to be held between North Korea and the U.S.North Korea has showed a dramatic change in tone. Putting weeks of Korean diplomacy in jeopardy, North Korea thrashed Seoul, calling it “ignorant and incompetent.”