global aid

Trade, facilitated by Beijing's deep public pockets, reciprocal visits by dignitaries, including Xi Jinping, and the estimated one million Chinese citizens who have made Africa home since 2001, soared to $200 billion last year, making China the continent's biggest trading partner. All of which has set off alarm bells in some Western quarters, with dark warnings about a new Scramble for Africa. Critics fret the United States - focused on the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific, the European Union and Russia - has made a strategic mistake.

Nepal's increasing willingness to take such steps shows China's growing influence in the country, an influence that some see as posing a threat to India, which has traditionally held sway over its small northern neighbour. And while scholars disagree on whether Delhi or Beijing currently has the upper hand, there is certainly growing pressure on India's new prime minister, Narendra Modi, to redress the balance.

Lorries from a Russian convoy carrying aid to eastern Ukraine have reached a border post controlled by separatists. But they seem unlikely to cross into Ukraine immediately as the Red Cross said it had still not received security guarantees for the convoy to continue. Earlier Ukraine's military said that separatists had shot down a government fighter jet near the rebel-held city of Luhansk in the east of the country.

As an array of international organizations, wealthy countries and charitable groups gear up to provide desperately needed resources to fight the outbreak, the absent doctors and volunteers are a reminder of the daunting practical obstacles. Many African health workers battling Ebola are contracting it themselves. At least 170 workers have gotten the disease, according to the World Health Organization, and more than 80 have died.

August 17, 2014

China and the United States are not alone in the game of summit diplomacy: The European Union has been hosting summit meetings with African leaders for nearly 10 years, while France and Japan have been at it for even longer; India joined the fray about five years ago. While it would be naïve to conclude that the burgeoning of Chinese engagements across Africa have not influenced the US response...

Australia will reserve more than 2,000 places in its refugee program for Syrians, at the same time as it tries to return Syrians held in offshore detention to the country the immigration minister describes as “in the midst of a terrible conflict”. Syrian refugees will have 2,200 places set aside within the Special Humanitarian Program (SHP), which takes in refugees who can prove they already have a connection to Australia.

European Union foreign ministers met in a emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Iraq. EU leaders welcomed the resignation of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, saying it paved the way for a potential political solution in that country. The Czech Republic and the Netherlands joined France in agreeing to send military equipment to aid Kurdish forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that he will give $19bn in financial aid, for job creation and infrastructure, to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine earlier this year.  He was speaking during a visit to the region in front of members of Russian parliament who called out from their vacation in Moscow and asked to assemble in Crimean city of Yalta.

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