Foreign News, edition of 5 June 2024

We talk about the Mediterranean, European elections and panda diplomacy

MIGRANTS. MOHEMED (SOS MEDITERRANEE): EUROPE MUST HELP

“Rescue at sea must not be a political choice but a right to life”. This was underlined by Abdelfetah Mohamed, of Eritrean origins, formerly a migrant at sea, now president of the SOS Mediterranee organisation. His reflection is shared a few days before the elections for the European Parliament. To ask for a change in the policies of EU countries on migration, SOS Mediterranee activists sailed paper boats with the words “Let’s not stand by and watch” in the fountains of Rome and along the Tiber.

EUROPEAN. GIOVANNINI (ASVIS): THE NEW EU ENGAGES WITH AFRICA

The new European legislature looks at the world by focusing on sustainability and development, with attention to the most fragile countries and Africa: this is the appeal made by the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (Asvis) in view of the elections for the EU Parliament. The new legislature should last until 2029 and be decisive in terms of achieving the 17 objectives of the UN Agenda 2030. “Create common European debt, as happened with NextGenerationEu, to finance an extraordinary plan for Africa”. This is the proposal and the horizon of Asvis, explains Enrico Giovannini, scientific director of the Alliance. “To also compete with China and Russia, which have flooded some African countries with funds, thus also expanding their political influence.”

DIGITAL. NEW UNDERWATER CABLE FOR AFRICA: IT WILL BE CALLED UNIT

It will be called Umoja, “unit” in Swahili, the first submarine fiber optic cable that will directly connect Africa and Australia. Google is working on the project, aimed at guaranteeing digital connectivity to various countries in the sub-Saharan area. About 8 thousand kilometers long, after crossing the Indian Ocean from east to west, the cable will be anchored in Kenya and will also reach Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Umoja will enrich the continent’s infrastructure following the completion of Equiano, a cable that will connect South Africa to Europe from 2022, skirting the western side of the African continent.

ANIMALS. FROM CHINA TO THE USA ZOO: IT’S THE ‘PANDA DIPLOMACY’

Call it “panda diplomacy.” It is that dialogue, always invoked, not always practiced, that can unite the mammals of this world. The latest example concerns China and the United States, superpowers that are often but not always at odds. It happens that the American first lady, Jill Biden, stars in a video made for the occasion celebrating as “a historic moment” the upcoming arrival of a pair of giant pandas at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington. They are Bao Li, a two-year-old male, and Qing Bao, a female of the same age: they will be in the federal capital by the end of the year.