Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Unicef, the UN children’s fund, will have a new executive director 1 May: Anthony Lake, a US citizen, who replaces Anne Veneman, also a US citizen. Lake, 70, is professor of Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, USA. He has held several top US diplomatic positions, working under Henry Kissinger, President Jimmy Carter and for President Bill Clinton as his national security advisor. He also served as Barack Obama’s foreign policy advisor during his presidential campaign.
He has served on the board of Unicef USA. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment Tuesday 16 March in New York.
”The head of UNICEF has always been an American, largely because the United States is the largest contributor to the agency, which is active in 190 countries,” according to the New York Times.
Links to other sites: New York Times, People’s Daily, Unicef announcement
US President Barack Obama’s announcement 21 January that he intends to limit the size of some lucrative activities by American banks was cheered by France, but Asian markets have reacted negatively and the dollar lost gains it made earlier in the week. France’s Finance Minister Christine Lagarde told French media that the US was finally following her country’s lead and regulating markets for greater stability. Asian stock markets fell for a fifth straight day, with fears that China will raise interest rates coupled with concern that US banking curbs will weaken that country’s economic recovery.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg, Market Watch, NPR, Reuters,
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government is not likely to introduce a special tax on Swiss banks, the Swiss Federal Department of Finance (FDF) says. It has taken note of US President Barack Obama’s intention to introduce a special levy on the 50 largest financial institutions in the USA in order to recover some $90 billion over 10 years, but it says that Switzerland’s financial system bore up well during the crisis and no public funds were lost.
Suicide bombers and commando-style Taliban militants have attacked several targets in the centre of Kabul, Afghanistan, leaving at least five dead and dozens wounded. The militants targeted government buildings and banks in the centre of the city 18 January, and Afghan security forces initially struggled to respond and restore order. Two central shopping centres are reported to be on fire, and Taliban militants have sought refuge in a cinema complex from which gunfire can still be heard.
A Taliban spokesman said that a suicide bomber had detonated a bomb near the entrance to the presidential palace, as President Hamid Karzai was swearing in new members of his government.
The US administration condemned the attacks as “desperate and ruthless”. Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama’s special envoy to the region spoke to reporters in New Dehli, India, hours after leaving Kabul earlier, saying “the people doing this certainly will not survive the attack, nor will they succeed. But we can expect this sort of thing on a regular basis,” reports Reuters.
Karzai was expected to announce a plan to integrate Taliban fighters into normal life at an aid conference in London, UK later this month.
Search-engine giant Google has said it is considering withdrawing from the lucrative Chinese market, citing concerns over its controversial acceptance of strict Chinese censorship rules in the past and a sophisticated hacking attempt on its computers that the company says originated in China itself.
The cyber attacks took place last week on several Google companies and aimed at the gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents. The US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said “We have been briefed by Google on these allegations, which raise very serious concerns and questions. We look to the Chinese government for an explanation”. US President Barack Obama said last November on a visit to Shanghai that the USA was committed to freedom of information on the Internet.
Google opened shop in China in 2006, hoping to cash in on an online population that exceeds the entire population of the USA, some 330 million users. It agreed to restrict its search results to material acceptable to the Chinese government.
Geneva Writers' Conference
Lift 2009
Update 7 January 06:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva’s winter and spring schedule of conferences which are open to the public is getting underway, and it includes two favourites with the international population: the February Geneva Writers Workshop and Lift10, which moves from its previous February dates to May this year.
The Geneva Writers’ Conference, 5-7 February 2010 at Webster University, had only 10 places left, out of 180, by 6 January.
US Senate Democrats united early Monday 21 December to pass the first of three planned votes on a massive $871 billion health care bill. The vote was 60-40 with all Republican senators voting against the bill. The vote was necessary to overcome a threatened Republican filibuster.
The Senate votes 22 December on whether to include compromise language in the bill, and it votes 23 December on closing debate on the bill itself. Each of these votes must be passed with a 60-vote majority before the vote takes place on the health bill itself: it needs a simple majority vote to pass and can take place before Christmas.
Comprehensive health care reform has been President Barack Obama’s declared goal as president.
Links to other sites: CNN, Los Angeles Times
Climate Summit © Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The world climate summit opens in Copenhagen, Denmark Monday 7 December, with leaders from 192 nations attending. The goal: to find a global agreement on climate change, especially global warming.
Obama changes Copenhagen visit for greater impact
US President Barack Obama will visit the summit 18 December rather than 9 December as earlier planned, reflecting his desire to be there at what looks like a critical moment, the White House announced 5 December.
Update 2 18:55 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev late Friday 4 December issued this joint statement after a week of high-level negotiations in Geneva:
”Recognizing our mutual determination to support strategic stability between the United States of America and the Russian Federation, we express our commitment, as a matter of principle, to continue to work together in the spirit of the Start Treaty following its expiration, as well as our firm intention to ensure that a new treaty on strategic arms enter into force at the earliest possible date.”
The treaty officially expires Saturday 5 December 2009. The two countries have said in recent weeks that while they were working towards completing a draft for a new treaty by the time the old one ends, it would more likely be the end of 2009 before a draft could be ready. The new statement avoids setting a deadline, but reinforces the commitment of both sides.
A spokesperson for the US Mission in Geneva said that “The US and Russia are continuing to work hard to complete the new Start Treaty and our delegations are making significant progress toward that end, nonetheless, some difficult issues remain.”
Update 2 25 November Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and Russian officials have been meeting in Geneva since Sunday according to Michael Parmly, spokesperson for the US Mission in Geneva. The Russian Permament Mission would not comment on the talks but confirmed that they had taken place. Mullen’s office says he met Tuesday with Russian armed forces chief of staff General Nikolai Makarov, AP reports.
Geneva is the site of negotiations between the US and Russia to replace the 1990s-era Start treaty on cuts to both countries’ nuclear arsenals, which expires 5 December. A major obstacle has been the verification process. The Start talks have been the subject of high-level meetings between US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev over the course of 2009.
Mullen also met with the head of the Swiss army, André Blattmann, for a working lunch in Geneva Tuesday.
Background: “Start treaty talks may take longer, Obama says“, 16 November 2009, GenevaLunch
Links to other sites: Adm Mike Mullen on Facebook, US Mission in Geneva, Permanent Russian Mission in Geneva and ABC News, AP/WGN-TV, Chicago
The US Senate majority leader, Sen. Harry Reid, unveiled the upper house version of the health care reform bill that is US President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority for 2009. The bill would extend health coverage to 31 million Americans who do not now have health insurance, or fine those that do not wish to participate. It introduces a “public plan”, a state-run health insurance, to compete with private insurers. The health care plan would be paid for by taxing the wealthy and a tax on “Cadillac” plans with expensive, all-inclusive coverage.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the plan’s $849 billion cost over 10 years would be offset by budget savings of $130b over the same time period.
The bill must still be voted on in the Senate. If passed by the Senate, the House version passed 7 November must be reconciled with the Senate version to be ready for signature by Obama.
Links to other sites: ABC, CNN, Economist, San Francisco Chronicle
US President Barack Obama’s tour of Asia ends in Beijing today, 17 November, on an upbeat note as he and Chinese President Hu Jintao announced together that they have had positive, frank talks and that they should work more closelyto improve international cooperation. Their statements could mark a turning point, at least in terms of dialogue, which has often been negative on both sides, for several years, but Western observers are skeptical that the talks will lead to substantive changes, and the Wall Street Journal points out that this visit was the most tightly controlled of the three most recent US presidential visits. Hu and Obama say they have reached a consensus on many issues, notably the need to avoid protectionism and further global financial crises. Future cooperation will include healthcare research, especially stem cell and pandemics research. Obama invited Hu to visit the US in 2010 and Hu accepted.
US media coverage of the meeting has been muted, although the meeting made European headlines: NPR barely mentions it, the Washington Post’s front page made it a secondary headline, while Sarah Palin, who ran for vice president in the November 2008 elections, grabs a larger space with the headline “Is there anything we don’t already know about Sarah Palin?”
Links to other sites: AP/Yahoo, BBC, New York Times, Xinhua (joint statement), Wall Street Journal
No end yet to Start talks in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – US President Barack Obama met Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev on the fringes of the Apec meeting in Singapore 14 November, to discuss the resumption of the Start talks on reducing both countries’ nuclear arsenals. Obama hailed the “excellent progress over the last few months”repors the Moscow Times. The Start talks resume in Geneva Monday 16 November.
The current treaty expires 5 December, and though hopeful that a new treaty will be hammered out before the end of the year, Obama’s team suggests a bridging agreement may be necessary because the treaty is unlikely to be signed and ratified in time, reports Fox News.
US President Barack Obama has arrived in Beijing, China after visiting Shanghai where he met with students and called for greater Internet freedom for the Chinese. Obama said in a town-hall style meeting with students that he believes the free flow of information strengthens societies. Obama will try to calm Chinese fears about Washington’s response to the global economic crisis. China is the world’s biggest owner of US Treasury bonds. Chinese leaders have said they fear that the US will try to devalue its way out of the massive obligations it has assumed to save the banking industry and to stimulate a faltering economy.
The government’s head of banking regulation, Liu Mingkang, Monday 16 November criticized the US Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy, saying it is having a “massive impact on global asset prices.” He said a weak dollar and low interest rates were endangering the economic recovery, especially in emerging econmies.
The US continues to call on China to revalue its currency, which it says is making Chinese exports cheaper and undermining other countries’ efforts to stimulate their economies. Economist, Financial Times, Reuters
Jose Manuel Zelaya, who was deposed as president of Honduras in a coup 28 June, says he will not participate in a presidential election slated for 29 November and that he has asked his supporters to renounce it. His announcement came in a published letter explaining his case to US President Barack Obama. His decision is a blow to hopes for a negotiated settlement that arose when he and Roberto Micheletti, who pushed him from power, signed a US-brokered agreement in October that called for a unity government until the election. It also called for Congress to decide if Zelaya should be returned to power, but Congress has opted to hand that decision to the country’s highest court. The elections are causing problems for Honduran citizens outside the country, who are unsure where and how to vote: in Florida the Honduran consulate says citizens should vote there, but the Honduran government says the consulate no longer has the authority to authorize this.
The dispute is the latest in a series of diplomatic tussles involving Hondurans. The Honduran ambassador to the UN was expelled from the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva 14 September after the group’s president, Alex van Meeuwen of Belgium, decided that Delmer Urbizo, the Honduran ambassador, was not the legitimate representative of the government of Honduras. Van Meeuwen made his decision after various points of order called by a group of Latin American countries who questioned the Honduran’s credentials and the legitimacy of the government he represents. Argentina, Brazil, Cuba and Mexico argued that the UN General Assembly had called on organizations not to recognize the interim government of Honduras. But Urbizo has told GenevaLunch there is no Honduran government in exile under former President Zelaya, and therefore the Honduran people is being deprived of its legitimate right to be represented in international forums.
Links to other sites: CNN, Miami Herald
© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
US President Barack Obama told his war council, a group of top Pentagon, Cabinet and administration officials, that the US commitment to Afghanistan is not open-ended, when the group met for more than two hours Wednesday 11 November. In a dramatic follow-on to the news, the US ambassador to Afghanistan, former military leader Karl Eikenberry, has sent a message to Obama, in a memo leaked to the press, that it would be a mistake to send more troops before corruption in the country is tackled. Obama asked for revisions to plans from the council members to increase troops, at the request of the top US commander in Afghanistan. The main sticking point for Obama is to clarify the point at which US troops will hand over to the Afghanistan government, a move linked to ending corruption in the government.
Links to other sites: the Canadian Press agency, CNN
The US House of Representatives passed its version of a US health care reform Saturday 7 November and less than a day later President Barack Obama in a speech at the White House turned up pressure on the US Senate to quickly approve its own version of the bill. The House bill would cost $1.1 trillion and provide health care benefits to some 36 million Americans who are currently uninsured. If the Senate passes its bill, the two houses of Congress will then negotiate a final version of the bill, which will become law. The vote in the House was close and mostly along party lines: 220-215, with only one Republican voting yes. The Senate fight is expected to be even tougher, with two bills merged into one and the overall cost not yet clear.
Links to other sites: Financial Times, New York Times, NPR
Republican challengers in New Jersey and Virginia have bested their Democrat opponents in elections for governor, while in New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent, narrowly maintainted his job over Democrat challenger, Bill Thompson, in elections 3 November.
In Virginia, Bob McDonnel easily beat his Democrat opponent to become the first Republican governor there in 12 years. In New Jersey, Chris Christie edged out billionaire first-term governor Jon Corzine. Congressional elections in New York and California are not yet decided.
The elections are seen by many as a referendum on US President Barack Obama’s first eight months in office. BBC, CNN,NPR, Reuters
Update 17:05 Afghan election officials have announced that Hamid Karzai is the elected president of Afghanistan and cancelled the second round of the election, scheduled for 7 November. They expressed fears for security and the cost of going ahead with an election without a challenger, who withdrew.
Afghan election officials were to announce this week whether to hold the second round of presidential elections due Saturday 7 November, after challenger Abdullah Abdullah announced his decision to withdraw from the race Sunday, 1 Novmber. Abdullah had asked for the head of the election commission to resign as a condition for his participation. The first round of the election was widely seen to be compromised by massive fraud in favour of President Hamid Karzai.
Western countries had insisted on the run-off, in order to provide Karzai with a semblance of legitimacy, ahead of important decisions by the USA, Afghanistan’s main backer in the war against the Taliban militants and the remnants of al-Qaeda in the country. US President Barack Obama is to announce a major new US strategy in coming days, and the US administration has said it needed a “credible partner” in Kabul. BBC, CNN, New York Times
Viral Flu, © 2009 Novartis AG
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – US President Barack Obama declared swine flu a national emergency late Friday 23 October, in order to relax some Medicaid and Medicare (national health insurance for the elderly and the poor) rules ahead of a potential surge in cases that could swamp the country’s medical facilities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the epidemic has increased in the past weeks and is now widespread in 46 of the 50 states. Swine flu activity has reached levels that the seasonal flu variety normally reaches in late November to March, CDC reported 23 October.
People at particular risk are pregnant women, especially those in the latest stage of pregnancy, children under the age of two, and people with pre-existing pulmonary problems, like asthma. In these cases, patients can develop severe symptoms within 3-5 days. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that the disease can progress rapidly, leading to respiratory collapse and the urgent need for mechanical respiration.
© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
US President Barack Obama, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, 2009
Oslo, Norway (GenevaLunch) – US President Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” The announcement was made Friday morning 9 October by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The official statement from the committee praises his work to reduce nuclear weapons, in particular:
The only contender
Update 2 – video on Rio’s plans 19:23 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was chosen to host the 2016 Olympic Games in a vote that saw Chicago eliminated in the first round, and Tokyo in the second round of voting.
Copenhagen was the only contender for the pre-Olympics fun and games
Which of four cities would win the right to host the Olympic Games in 2016 kept the crowds guessing before a meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Copenhagen Friday 2 October. Following a precedent set by then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair who went to Singapore four years ago to pitch London’s bid for the 2012 Games, the heads of state or government of each of the countries whose cities are bidding for the Games in 2016 are in Copenhagen to make the case on their behalf.
Copenhageners lapped up the publicity. US President Obama took time off from reforming the country’s health care system and saving the world from Iranian nuclear bombs to help his wife Michelle sell their hometown, Chicago.
