Category World News

In the Solomon Islands, where the Pacific Island leaders are scheduled to hold their annual summit, climate change and security are expected to take center stage as China and the United States battle for control of the area.

The group’s small island states meet for a meeting on Monday, which started the week-long gathering in Honiara.

On Thursday, the 18-member forum’s leaders, including Australia and New Zealand, will retreat to Munda, a coastal town.

After the Solomon Islands banned those observers due to a dispute over Taipei’s attendance, the summit will this year take place without the two dozen donor partners, including China, the US, and Taiwan.

Three of the 18 forum members have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, three have US defense agreements, and several are French-territorians. There are ties to China between 19 of the members.

The Pacific Islands Forum’s secretary-general, Divavesi Waqa, stated that this year’s meeting will address “regional priorities,” including “climate change, ocean governance, security, and] economic resilience.

These are more than just policy issues, they say. Waqa told reporters on Sunday that they are lived realities for the people of our country.

The meeting’s theme, “Lumi Tugeda: Act Now for an Integrated Blue Pacific Continent,” according to Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele, “reflects the urgent need for regional unity and action.”

According to a statement, Manele said, “If ever there was a time that required stronger Pacific regionalism and collective action, it is now.”

After being critical of his predecessor’s close ties with China by Western critics, the leader of the Solomon Islands has previously defended his decision to outlaw foreign observers.

As the forum updates its rules for non-member participation, Manele told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) last month.

According to reports that the decision was related to a decision not to include Taiwan in this year’s meeting, the Pacific region must always lead, drive, and own their own agenda, Manele said.

He claimed that “we are not under any external forces.”

Solomon Islands is a sovereign country, so let me be very clear. Our government serves the interests of our country and the region.

The Pacific Islands leaders are expected to sign the proposed “Ocean of Peace” Declaration at this year’s forum, which is being signed by Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, who said it comes as the region has experienced “catastrophic calamities caused by climate change” as well as “its rich resources exploited by many”.

According to him, the proposal includes guiding principles like “peaceful resolution of disputes” and “rejection of coercion,” as well as “protecting and recognising the Pacific’s stewardship of the environment.”

After visiting Vanuatu, Australia’s prime minister is expected to sign a landmark agreement to strengthen economic and security ties on Wednesday.

The United Nations’ top court recently ruled that states must immediately act urgently to address the “existential threat” of climate change by cooperating to reduce emissions, leading Vanuatu to lead an important case before the International Court of Justice.

In light of criticism of Canberra’s lackluster record on reducing its own emissions and fossil fuel exports, Australia will be on the agenda in Honiara to host the COP31 climate change meeting next year. This is a Pacific COP.

Australia has previously pledged to work closely with its island neighbors to raise awareness of the challenges that rising sea levels and storms pose to them.

Six of the injured were in “serious condition” and received gunshot wounds following the shooting at Ramot Junction, according to Israeli paramedics’ Magen David Adom, in addition to the 12 others who were injured in the attack on Monday morning. Several others were “lightly injured by glass” and treated at the scene, according to Magen David Adom.

The shooting was deemed a “terror attack,” according to Israeli police.

Soon after the shooting broke out, two attackers were “neutralized,” according to police. According to Israeli police, a security officer and a civilian shot and killed the attackers of the attack that claimed the lives of five people in occupied East Jerusalem.

According to the police, the bus station was opened to fire when the perpetrators arrived in a car.

Following an attack that left five people dead in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Israeli forces have closed all checkpoints, according to sources who spoke to Al Jazeera.

Israeli Army Radio reported that Israeli forces erected a military cordon on four Palestinian villages in the territory’s Qatana, Biddu, Beit Inan, and Beit Duqu governorates and are conducting raids there after police claimed the perpetrators had been from the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli military announced that it had expanded its forces in the greater Jerusalem region and was looking for what it called “accomplices” of the shooting’s perpetrators.

According to Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, who is based in Amman, Jordan, Israeli authorities claim that the two attackers are from a region west of occupied East Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank. They claim that the two gunmen both opened fire on the same day that two gunmen boarded a bus, one of whom witnesses claimed was a ticket inspector.

The Green Line actually bleeds into occupied East Jerusalem if you look at the location where it appears on a map, which is located close to the illegal settlement of Ramot, north of West Jerusalem. She continued, “These settlements are deemed illegal by international law, and they constitute structures and buildings that violate Palestinians’ rights and threaten the territorial stability of a future Palestinian state.”

According to Salhut, “Israeli officials are now trying to wrap their heads around how exactly this happened,” adding that they haven’t seen anything like it in a while and that the last time there was a shooting like this in greater Jerusalem occurred in November 2023.

doubts an attack was ordered by Hamas.

In addition, according to Israel Hayom newspaper, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed judges that security developments had prevented him from appearing for his scheduled Monday corruption trial.

The shooting’s location has been visited by both Netanyahu and Israel’s far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

According to Israeli political analyst Ori Goldberg, the shooting attack was most likely to have taken place in the West Bank rather than Hamas in Gaza.

Goldberg told Al Jazeera that he “seriously” doubted whether Hamas had ordered it when he spoke from Tel Aviv.

The military stated in a statement on Sunday that 45 soldiers are still “deprived of their liberty” by the guerrilla regime.

The National Army is “holding steady in the area, ensuring the return of the kidnapped personnel,” it continued.

A rebel group from the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), known as the Central General Staff, has been attacking military positions in the Micay Canyon in the Cauca Department, which is known for its coca crops.

The soldiers were participating in a military operation when about 600 people “obstructed the deployment of troops” in San Juan de Micay, according to the army.

The move was “intentionally facilitated control of routes used for illegal mining and drug trafficking,” according to the army.

Colombia has struggled to maintain security in some rural areas, where FARC-abandoned territory is being fought over by drug gangs and rebel groups.

President Gustavo Petro launched an offensive to regain control of the area last year, but he was met by strong local opposition.

Petro claimed in a post on X that the soldiers should be freed.

They might be your children, I say. Colombian children must be a part of each other’s lives and surpass their own. He wrote that the president’s word was that the dialogue commission was prepared.

In areas with little state presence, the government claims that armed groups frequently hold detentions in the neighborhood community.

However, a defunct FARC group has captured soldiers twice in less than a month.

After a gunfight that left 10 members of the former FARC group dead, villagers in the southern department of Guaviare last month took 33 soldiers from them at the rebel group’s direction.