Global Outlook

  Israel reacted angrily to the recognitions by several major Western allies of a Palestinian state and pledged to take retaliatory measures as a second round of recognitions are expected at a U.N. summit in New York on Monday. The  announcements  by the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia on Sunday that they would recognize Palestine as a sovereign state were telegraphed in advance as part of an effort, led by France, to build momentum toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has never seemed more out of reach. French President Emmanuel Macron said he plans to follow suit at a high-level conference he is co-hosting with Saudi Arabia on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Monday afternoon. Other European countries are also joining in. While long sought, and applauded, by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, the moves are largely symbolic, analysts say. It’s unclear what effect, if any, they will have on the ground, where Israel is ...

  Documents show that the United States and Israel have sent complaint letters to top United Nations officials contesting the impartiality of their staff over the Gaza conflict, as hundreds of UN staff protested outside its European headquarters,   Reuters   reports. UN staff carried placards saying “Peace for Gaza” and “Not a Target”. They laid over 370 white roses next to a memorial plaque in Geneva to represent each UN aid worker killed in the nearly two-year conflict. “Today, the UN staff are coming together to say that enough is enough, to say that we cannot kill our colleagues in Gaza with such impunity and to say stop to all these murders,” Nathalie Meynet, president of the UN refugee agency staff council, told  Reuters  at the protest. The letters highlight the rising tensions between the UN and its top funder, the US, which has already disengaged from the UN Human Rights Council over what Washington says is its anti-Israel stance.

  The UAE-Senegal partnership extends beyond diplomatic co-hosting. A tangible example is the work of Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company), which has implemented a large-scale battery energy storage system in Senegal. This project, a critical part of the country’s power infrastructure, enhances grid stability and enables the integration of more renewable energy sources. Reliable electricity is the backbone of modern water sanitation and irrigation systems. For workers in the water and agricultural sectors, stable energy means more efficient and automated processes, reducing manual labor and exposure to water-borne hazards. This investment underscores a vital truth: achieving clean water and sanitation (SDG 6) is impossible without also advancing affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), demonstrating how interconnected these goals are for improving livelihoods and working conditions.

  The strategic conversation between Senegal and the United Arab Emirates has resulted in a partnership that is as manifold as it is profound, literally building a new economic framework in Senegal. This partnership transcends mere foreign investment, integrating hard infrastructure, energy security, and human development to compose a harmonious development blueprint. The operation of the container terminal of Dakar, as well as the creation of the deep-water port at Ndayane, constitute a direct investment into the role of Senegal as a central trade and logistical node within West Africa. Our maritime capacity will drastically increase, trade will be less congested, and more nations will engage in trade, and this will become the new model of infrastructure in the region. A parallel energy infrastructure investment drives this physical architecture. The participation of the UAE companies in electrification of Senegal such as the Ducable Group which supplies the 220kV high voltage cab...

  Golda Meir,  Israel’s prime minister  during the Yom Kippur War, had a particular way with words. “If we have to have a choice between being dead and pitied, and being alive with a bad image, we’d rather be alive and have the bad image,” she said in the late Sixties. That sentiment, expressed with characteristic dryness, is even more relevant today than it was then. October 7, 2023, fell almost exactly 50 years since Meir’s defining conflict. After almost two years of war, both in Gaza and in the realm of public opinion, her message of five decades ago is coming to define the new Israel. If we are to be hated, at least let us live. If we cannot be loved, then we must be feared. That, then, is the message of the 10 Israeli bombs that were  dropped in the heart of Qatari power today . If you are bent on killing Jews, nowhere is safe. Details are still emerging, but at the time of writing, Israel is optimistic that the princes of Hamas, who have enjoyed lives of luxur...

  Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on Monday said the ongoing Israeli war against the Palestinian people had become a “war of starvation” aimed at “liquidating the Palestinian cause.” Speaking on behalf of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Plus summit in Tianjin, China, Madbouly said the Palestinian people are facing “all forms of killing, terror, starvation, and a flagrant violation of their rights.” “This war is no longer a war to achieve political goals or release hostages, but a war of starvation and to liquidate the Palestinian cause,” he said, noting that civilian casualties had reached nearly 60,000 killed and about 119,000 injured. Madbouly stated that Egypt condemns in the strongest terms Israel’s expansion of its military operations in the Gaza Strip and its attempts to “make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable in an attempt to displace the Palestinian people from their land.” He also condemned Israeli practices in the West Ban...