It used to be that summits of the G7, a club of seven rich countries, were held in major cities, where the symbols of their cultural and economic might shone brightly. The 80s and 90s saw meetings in London, Venice, Tokyo and Paris. More recently, amid popular frustration with the uneven dividends of globalisation, G7 leaders have preferred to shift their discussions to more reclusive environs. In 2012, then US president Barack Obama moved a G7 summit set to be in Chicago to his country retreat at Camp David at the last minute to avoid protesters. Sleepy towns with a country club atmosphere are now the norm. This year’s summit, to be hosted this weekend by the UK, will take place at a seaside resort in Cornwall.
While the summit’s location scouts have maintained their taste for seclusion, its participants – the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and US, as well as representatives of the EU – are keen to send a message that rejuvenates faith in their leadership on the world stage. The major talking point ahead of this year’s gathering is an expected commitment to set a global minimum tax rate for multinational corporations of 15 per cent. Janet Yellen, the US Treasury Secretary, has called it an "historic" agreement to "end the race to the bottom in corporate taxation and ensure fairness for the middle class and working people in the US around the world".
G7 leaders are keen to rejuvenate faith in their leadership of the global economy
The US is central in leading the charge not only because it is the breeding ground for so many tax-avoiding corporate behemoths, but also because its new president, Joe Biden, has a broader message to send. Weeks after his inauguration this January, he declared loudly and proudly that “America is back”. What he meant was that a vision for the world that America pioneered – one of multilateralism, rules-based order, justice and human rights – is back.
Mr Biden’s statement has since garnered him a great deal of support from many of America’s traditional allies, many of whom were shellshocked by former president Donald Trump’s more fractious style. The G7’s outcomes will be a key moment for Mr Biden to make good on the promises that brought him all of that goodwill.
Doing so will require more than a new corporate tax regime – countries are racing to hoard more than just corporate profits. As many, particularly those in the developing world, continue to suffer the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, countries with more advanced vaccination programmes, like the US, will need to come up with an effective and deliverable way to start sharing.
Editorials from The National
Five of the G7 countries have already committed to donating a specific amount of vaccine doses to Covax, a global vaccine distribution scheme. But even if the remaining two – Canada and the UK – make similar commitments, it will not be enough. Donating a large number of leftover doses in one go would overload already-weak healthcare systems in poorer countries, Unicef has warned. The G7 and the rest of the developed world must instead ensure a steady supply of donations and support for vaccine delivery. The first shipments cannot be dispatched early enough.
A global minimum corporate tax rate is no small achievement for this year’s G7 summit. But it is not the greatest possible outcome. Carving a clearer path out of the Covid-19 pandemic for everyone would be a truer testament to G7 leadership, and to the restoration of a more equitable, multilateralist world.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
ELIO
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Director: Trevor Nunn
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Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.
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Live on beIN Sports HD
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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What is Reform?
Reform is a right-wing, populist party led by Nigel Farage, a former MEP who won a seat in the House of Commons last year at his eighth attempt and a prominent figure in the campaign for the UK to leave the European Union.
It was founded in 2018 and originally called the Brexit Party.
Many of its members previously belonged to UKIP or the mainstream Conservatives.
After Brexit took place, the party focused on the reformation of British democracy.
Former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson became its first MP after defecting in March 2024.
The party gained support from Elon Musk, and had hoped the tech billionaire would make a £100m donation. However, Mr Musk changed his mind and called for Mr Farage to step down as leader in a row involving the US tycoon's support for far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson who is in prison for contempt of court.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Most wanted allegations
- Benjamin Macann, 32: involvement in cocaine smuggling gang.
- Jack Mayle, 30: sold drugs from a phone line called the Flavour Quest.
- Callum Halpin, 27: over the 2018 murder of a rival drug dealer.
- Asim Naveed, 29: accused of being the leader of a gang that imported cocaine.
- Calvin Parris, 32: accused of buying cocaine from Naveed and selling it on.
- John James Jones, 31: allegedly stabbed two people causing serious injuries.
- Callum Michael Allan, 23: alleged drug dealing and assaulting an emergency worker.
- Dean Garforth, 29: part of a crime gang that sold drugs and guns.
- Joshua Dillon Hendry, 30: accused of trafficking heroin and crack cocain.
- Mark Francis Roberts, 28: grievous bodily harm after a bungled attempt to steal a £60,000 watch.
- James ‘Jamie’ Stevenson, 56: for arson and over the seizure of a tonne of cocaine.
- Nana Oppong, 41: shot a man eight times in a suspected gangland reprisal attack.
