Paul Biya, at 92 the world’s oldest head of state, was named winner of last month’s election in Cameroon with 53.66% of the vote against 35.19% for Tchiroma

International News via Reuters:

Gambia said it was temporarily hosting Cameroonian opposition leader Issa Tchiroma Bakary on humanitarian grounds following a contested presidential election in Cameroon last month that led to deadly protests.

Paul Biya, at 92 the world’s oldest head of state, was named winner of last month’s election in Cameroon with 53.66% of the vote against 35.19% for Tchiroma.

Tchiroma had declared himself the winner before the official results were announced, and protests erupted in various locations as early results showed Biya, in power since 1982, would secure an eighth term.

Cameroon’s security forces killed 48 civilians as they responded to the protests, U.N. sources told Reuters this month. Tchiroma’s whereabouts had not been known for weeks.

In a statement issued late on Sunday, Gambia’s information ministry said the country was sheltering Tchiroma “purely on humanitarian grounds, in the spirit of African solidarity” to ensure his safety amid efforts to resolve “post-electoral tensions”.

Banjul is consulting with regional partners, including Nigeria, to support a negotiated outcome to the crisis in Cameroon, the statement said.

The statement also reaffirmed Gambia’s commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all African Union member states and said its territory would not be used as a base for subversive activities against any country.

In a separate statement on Sunday, Gambia’s main opposition United Democratic Party accused the government of a lack of transparency over Tchiroma’s “quiet arrival” but added it was in full solidarity with Tchiroma and welcomed the humanitarian gesture. 

Reporting by Pap Saine and Diadie Ba; Writing by Ayen Deng Bior; Editing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Gareth Jones

Prime Minister Mark Carney met with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a bilateral discussion on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg, South Africa

International News via Reuters:

Canada and India have agreed to restart stalled talks for a new trade deal, the Indian government said on Sunday, after discussions between the two countries paused following a diplomatic spat two years ago. 

Prime Minister Mark Carney met with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a bilateral discussion on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“The leaders agreed to begin negotiations on a high-ambition Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), aimed at doubling bilateral trade to USD 50 billion by 2030,” the statement from India’s Prime Minister’s Office said.

“Prime Minister @narendramodi and I met at the G20 Summit today, and launched negotiations for a trade deal that could more than double our trade to more than (C) $70 billion,” Carney said in a post on X. “India is the world’s fifth largest economy, and that means big new opportunities for Canadian workers and businesses.”

Both sides reaffirmed their longstanding civil nuclear cooperation and noted the ongoing discussions on expanding collaboration, including through long-term uranium supply arrangements, it added.

The restart of talks highlights thawing relations between the two countries as Carney pushes to expand trade ties beyond the U.S., its biggest trading partner. 

Carney has vowed to double Canada’s non-U.S. exports over the next decade.

Canada paused negotiations for a broad trade pact in 2023 after relations soured when Ottawa accused the Indian government of involvement in the killing of a Canadian Sikh separatist. New Delhi has denied involvement.

Despite the diplomatic row, trade between Canada and India has grown but trade experts say it is quite small relative to the size of India’s economy. 

Two-way goods and services trade touched about C$31 billion ($21.98 billion) in 2024, largely in Canada’s favor due to its C$16 billion in services exports. In contrast, Canada’s total bilateral trade with China was almost four times bigger in 2024.

Relations between Canada and India began to improve following Modi’s meeting with Carney on the sidelines of the G7 summit in June. 

Earlier on Sunday, Carney said he considers India a reliable trading partner, although he acknowledged there could be some “source of friction.”

He said Canada and India have a strong commercial relationship and he would be keen to scale that up. 

“What we’re looking to do is to put that (commercial relationship) on a sound footing through a potential trade agreement between the two countries, which gives protections to our businesses, protections to Indian businesses, a clear set of rules, dispute mechanisms, and others, and build on those opportunities.” 

Carney also met with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the G20 summit and the leaders agreed to intensify negotiations on a Canada-Mercosur free trade agreement. Mercosur includes Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

($1 = 1.4101 Canadian dollars)

Reporting by Promit Mukherjee and Nellie Peyton; editing by Diane Craft

Trump had also rejected South Africa’s agenda of helping developing nations transition to clean energy, cut their crippling debt costs and adapt to climate change-induced weather disasters

International News via Reuters:

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday that the declaration from this weekend’s Group of 20 summit reflected a “renewed commitment to multilateral cooperation”, concluding a meeting that pitted him against his U.S. counterpart.

Ramaphosa, host of the Johannesburg summit, pushed through the declaration addressing challenges like the climate crisis despite objections from the United States, which boycotted the event.

Addressing the closing ceremony, Ramaphosa said the declaration showed world leaders’ “shared goals outweigh our differences”.

U.S. President Donald Trump boycotted the November 22-23 summit on the grounds of allegations, which have been comprehensively falsified, that the host country’s Black majority government persecutes its white minority.

TENSIONS OVER UKRAINE, CLIMATE CRISIS

Trump had also rejected South Africa’s agenda of helping developing nations transition to clean energy, cut their crippling debt costs and adapt to climate change-induced weather disasters.

But Ramaphosa secured consensus from the leaders present, aside from Argentina, which did not object to a declaration being made without it. It was the first G20 summit in Africa and the joint declaration used the kind of language long disliked by the U.S. administration.

The document stressed the seriousness of climate change and the need for adaptation, praised ambitious renewable energy targets and decried hefty debt service charges suffered by poor countries.

The summit came as tensions over Russia’s war in Ukraine fracture the transatlantic alliance, and after unavailing climate talks at COP30 in Brazil, in which oil-producing and high-consuming nations prevented mention of fossil fuels driving the crisis going in the final declaration.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Sunday that both the G20 and COP30 summits showed multilateralism was very much alive.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the United States was mentioned only in passing at the G20 summit and that it played only a minor role as new connections are being forged and the world reorganises itself.

“It wasn’t a good decision for the American government to be absent. But that’s something the American government has to decide for itself,” he said.

SOUTH AFRICA’S SPAT WITH WHITE HOUSE

The U.S. takes over the rotating G20 presidency after Johannesburg, but South Africa rejected a U.S. proposal to send an embassy official for the handover in Trump’s place as a breach of protocol.

The White House has accused Ramaphosa of refusing to facilitate a smooth transition of the G20 presidency.

“We have not yet received any formal communication at this stage,” South Africa’s Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told media on Sunday. “But we remain open … It’s up to them.”

He counted it a great success that the declaration acknowledged the need for climate finance for developing countries.

Aside from the surprise agreement on the declaration, world leaders used the G20 to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war and Trump’s plan to end it, on the sidelines, the first of several meetings expected over the coming days.

Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov, Nellie Peyton, Anathi Madubela;Additional reporting by Julia Payne, Nqobile Dludla, Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo, Siyanda Mthethwa and Andreas Rinke;Writing by Tim Cocks and Alexander Winning;Editing by David Holmes and Christina Fincher

Gunmen in Nigeria kidnapped students and teachers from St. Mary’s school in the northwest of the country on Friday

International News via Reuters:

Pope Leo asked on Sunday for the immediate release of children and staff abducted this week from a Catholic school in Nigeria, one of the worst mass kidnappings ever recorded there. 

Gunmen in Nigeria kidnapped students and teachers from St. Mary’s school in the northwest of the country on Friday, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said, the latest in a spate of school attacks this week that has forced the government to shut 47 colleges.

CAN said on Saturday it had raised its estimate of those taken from the school to 315 from an earlier estimate of 227, following a “verification exercise”.

POPE MAKES HEARTFELT PLEA FOR RELEASE

“I was deeply saddened to learn of the kidnappings of priests, faithful, and students in Nigeria and Cameroon. I feel great pain, especially for the many young men and women who have been abducted and for their anguished families,” Pope Leo said at the end of a mass in St. Peter’s Square.

“I make a heartfelt appeal for the immediate release of the hostages and urge the competent authorities to take appropriate and timely decisions to ensure their release,” he added.

“Let us pray for these brothers and sisters of ours and that churches and schools may always and everywhere remain places of safety and hope.”

Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro; Editing by David Holmes

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had launched the summit calling for countries to agree on a “roadmap” for advancing a COP28 pledge to shift away from fossil fuels

International News via Reuters:

This year’s U.N. climate change summit ended with a tenuous compromise for a deal that skipped over most countries’ key demands but for one: committing wealthy countries to triple their spending to help others adapt to global warming. 

Here are some of the takeaways from the COP30 climate summit held in Brazil’s Amazon city of Belem:

HOOKED ON HYDROCARBONS

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had launched the summit calling for countries to agree on a “roadmap” for advancing a COP28 pledge to shift away from fossil fuels. 

But it was a road to nowhere at this summit, as oil-rich Arab nations and others dependent on fossil fuels blocked any mention of the issue. Instead, the COP30 presidency created a voluntary plan that countries could sign on to – or not.

The result was similar to Egypt’s COP27 and Azerbaijan’s COP29, where countries agreed to spend more money to address climate dangers while ignoring their primary cause.

Nearly three-fourths of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 2020 have come from coal, oil and gas. Demand for these fuels is likely to rise through 2050, the International Energy Agency said in a report midway through the COP30 summit that reversed expectations of a rapid shift to clean energy. 

GLOBAL CLIMATE UNITY ON THE BRINK

The need to show global unity in climate talks was the main thing countries agreed, along with the idea that long-polluting wealthy countries should do most to tackle the problem. 

But to get to a final deal, they ditched nearly all ambitions they’d brought – including mandatory tightening targets for reducing climate-warming emissions. 

Brazil’s COP30 presidency lamented the United States’ snubbing of the talks. The absence of the world’s biggest economy – and biggest historical polluter – emboldened countries with fossil fuel interests.

Rumbling concerns about a process that allows only a few to effectively veto collective deals grew louder, stoking calls for reform.

After Brazil had promised a ‘COP of Truth’ that would set countries on course for action, the omission of any agreed implementation plans was glaring. 

CHINA IN POLE POSITION 

China played a leading role at the summit – but from behind the scenes. 

President Xi Jinping skipped the talks as he typically does. But his delegation carried a strong message that China was prepared to deliver the clean energy technology the world needs to cut emissions. 

Executives from Chinese solar, battery and electric vehicle companies were featured at the country’s exhibit pavilion – one of the first things delegates saw on entering the sprawling venue.

China was not the only fast-developing nation in focus this year. The Indian delegation flexed more muscle in the negotiations, while South Africa rolled out a climate-linked agenda for its own November 22-23 G20 summit.

FRAUGHT FUTURE FOR FORESTS AND INDIGENOUS RIGHTS

Holding the summit in an Amazon forest city, Brazil touted the importance of the world’s remaining canopy for fighting climate change – along with the roughly half-billion Indigenous people seen as stewards of natural lands. 

Many who attended from across the Amazon and the world felt frustrated they weren’t being heard. They staged several protests, and even stormed the COP30 compound gates – clashing with security before being pushed back out. 

Countries announced about $9.5 billion in forest funding – including almost $7 billion for Brazil’s flagship tropical forest fund and another $2.5 billion for an initiative for Congo.

But the summit ended on a sour note for many, as negotiators dropped efforts for a roadmap to meet the 2030 zero-deforestation pledge and gave no recognition for the protection of their lands. 

ATTACKS ON CLIMATE SCIENCE

While Lula and other world leaders had railed against misinformation and denial, COP30 talks didn’t help much in countering this year’s U.S. government assault on climate science.

The summit also chipped away at global consensus around climate science by no longer recognizing the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as the “best available science” to guide policy on climate change and its impacts.

Instead, the final deal notes the importance of IPCC outputs along with “those produced in developing countries and relevant reports from regional groups and institutions.”

And by sidelining fossil fuels and emissions targets, COP30 ignored the alarm bells being rung by scientists. 

Reporting by Katy DaigleEditing by Ros Russell