About: the world this week, 10 September to 16 September 2023; G20 and Sherpas; Morocco’s Earthquake; Libya’s floods; Bravehearts in the Indian Army and Police; a virus Outbreak; US Open Tennis, and Asian Cup Cricket.

Everywhere

G20

This week, the Group of Twenty Nations (G20) Summit 2023, under the presidency of India, concluded in New Delhi on 10th September, with significant outcomes. India pulled-off a stunning diplomatic consensus and delivered a signed Declaration, in keeping with the motto of ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’, of this year’s summit.

The African Union was admitted into the G20. Prior to this, the only African member was South Africa. Now the African Union, which represents the 55 countries in the African continent, was given full membership, like how the European Union (EU) is represented.

A commitment was made to develop a new, India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) that will bridge ports across two continents, making it easier to trade, export clean energy, and expand access to reliable clean electricity.

The IMEC will consist of two separate corridors, the east corridor connecting India to the Arabian Gulf and the northern corridor connecting the Arabian Gulf to Europe. It will include a railway, which will provide a reliable and cost-effective cross-border ship-to-rail transit network. And supplement existing maritime and road transport routes-enabling goods and services to transit to, from, and between India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and Europe. Along the railway route, participants will enable laying cables for electricity and digital connectivity, as well as pipes for clean hydrogen export. This corridor will secure regional supply chains, increase trade accessibility, improve trade facilitation, and support an increased emphasis on environmental social, and government impacts. And unlock sustainable and inclusive economic growth in the region.

This IMEC project falls under the umbrella of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII), an initiative led by Western nations to support infrastructure projects worldwide.

The IMEC corridor could become a viable alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which has steadily established global connectivity linkages with the Chinese market through extensive shipping, rail, and road networks, since its conception 10 years ago.

The G20 leaders agreed to pursue tripling renewable energy capacity globally by 2030, and accepted the need to phase-down unabated coal power, but stopped short of setting major climate goals. And did not provide any plan to amend existing policies and targets in order to achieve the target of ramping-up of renewables.

On the Russian-Ukraine War, G20 nations agreed that states cannot grab territory by force and highlighted the suffering of the people of Ukraine, but avoided direct criticism of Russia.

How does such a consensus happen? Who works to get the diverse nations to agree? They are brought about by ‘Sherpas’.

A Sherpa is the personal representative of a Head of Government, who prepares an international summit. They are quite influential, but without the authority to make a final decision about any given agreement. Typically, each member nation at a summit-say the G20-is represented by one Sherpa chosen by the head of the respective participating nation.

The name is derived from the Sherpa people, a Nepalese ethnic group, who serve as mountaineering guides and porters in the Himalayas: they do all the heavy lifting so that the person they assist may ‘reach the summit’.

India’s G20 Sherpa was Amitab Kant who divulged that the most complex part of the entire G20 was to bring consensus on the Russia-Ukraine War. This was done over 200 hours of non-stop negotiations, 300 bilateral meetings and 15 drafts.

That’s a lot of toil and ‘carrying work on the back’.

Earthquake in Morocco

Last week, on Friday, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Marrakesh – a city of world heritage status- in Morocco. In remote mountain areas, entire villages were flattened.

The epicentre was in the High Atlas Mountains, 71 kilometres (km) south-west of Marrakesh. But the tremors were also felt in the capital Rabat, some 350 km away, as well as Casablanca, Agadir and Essaouira.

It was the North African country’s deadliest earthquake since 1960 and its most powerful in more than a century.

This week, the death toll soared to more than 2900, while the number of people injured climbed to over 5400.

Help and relief is pouring-in from countries around the world.

Floods in Libya

Libya has been mired in conflict and chaos since the year 2011 when longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in an uprising that broke the North African state and spawned myriad rival militias competing for power.

This week, a catastrophic flood killed thousands of people in the eastern Libyan city of Derna, sweeping away entire neighbourhoods with their residents, and washing many bodies out to sea. Thousands of people are missing. Officials believe that there could be 18000 to 20000 dead, based on the number of districts hit.

The reason is said to be the powerful Storm Daniel that swept into Libya last weekend, unleashing record amounts of rain as it made landfall. The rain dumped by the storm filled a normally dry riverbed, or wadi, in the hills south of Derna. The pressure was too much for two dams built to protect the city from floods. They collapsed, unleashing a torrent that ran through the city.

Bravehearts

This week, in a devastating encounter with Pakistan backed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) Terrorists, three Officers, including two from the Indian Army and a Policeman were killed in action. The Army and Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) Police had launched a joint search operation for terrorists hiding in the Garol Forest, Kokernag in Anantnag District, when they came under heavy fire in the rugged terrain and dense forest. In the gun-fight during the fierce encounter, Bravehearts Colonel Manpreet Singh and Major Aashish Dhonchak of the 19 Rashtriya Rifles along with J&K Police Deputy Superintendent Himanyun Muzamil Bhat suffered gun-shot wounds, and later succumbed to their injuries.

There will be a ‘return of fire’, for sure, by the Army and the Police.

Outbreak

The State of Kerala is racing to contain a new outbreak of the deadly Nipah virus, in the district of Kozhikode, which has killed two people and infected at least six. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has its tails-up, visiting the areas, to review the status, conduct a scientific study on the source of the virus and detail the measures to be adopted to contain its spread.

Kerala has seen four outbreaks of Nipah since 2018, the last of which occurred in 2021.

Originally, the Nipah virus was discovered during an outbreak among pig farmers in Malaysia in 1999, who might have contracted the virus through infected livestock and their secretions. In India the first Nipah virus disease outbreak was reported in Siliguri town in 2001, followed by a second outbreak in Nadia district in 2007 – both in the State of West Bengal. The next incidence was in 2018 in Kerala’s Kozhikode District.

Fruit Bats, known as Flying Foxes, are the natural host of the Nipah Virus, which can be transmitted from animals to humans – primarily from bats or pigs – or through human-to-human contact.

Transmission can occur from direct contact with infected animals, consuming contaminated food or through close contact with infected people.

Prevention can be by avoiding consumption of fruits partially eaten by bats, and avoiding drinking raw date palm sap, toddy, or juice. Risk of infection from fruits contaminated with urine or saliva from infected fruit bats can be prevented by thoroughly washing the fruits and peeling them before consumption.

Mild symptoms of the disease include fever and headaches, vomiting, sore throat, and muscle aches. In severe cases, it can be an acute infection of encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), respiratory issues, seizures leading to personality changes or a coma.

The mortality rate is high, at 40 – 70% in Nipah virus cases, compared to Covid19 cases.

A study found that Kerala is particularly vulnerable to spill over of diseases from bats to humans. And it is the home of more than 40 species of bats.

There is no cure for the Nipah Virus caused infection and there is no vaccine to prevent infection. The treatment consists of simply managing the symptoms and ensuring those infected have as much rest as possible and stay hydrated.

US Open

The United States Open Tennis Championships – the US Open – is a hardcourt tennis tournament held annually in Flushing Meadows -Corona Park, Queens, New York City. Chronologically, it is the fourth and final Grand Slam Tournament of the year – after the Australian Open, the French Open, and Wimbledon.

Nineteen years old American teenager Coco Gauff, the world No.10 women’s singles player, defeated Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in a dramatic comeback, to win the Women’s Singles US Open final. This is her first career Grand Slam title.

Gauff, seeded sixth, started slowly in front of an expectant home crowd, but grew in confidence to wear down second seed Sabalenka in the Arthur Ashe Stadium.

In her run to the final, the Gauff twice lost the first set of a match, once in the first round against Laura Siegemund and again in the third round against Elise Mertens.

The star-studded crowd erupted with applause after Gauff’s home-turf victory which makes her the youngest and first American teenager to win the US Open since Serena Williams took the title in 1999. Fans jumped to their feet in unison, as Gauff collapsed to the floor. Celebrations stretched all-across the US as celebrities, fellow tennis players, and several ex-Presidents gave the Coco Gauff their seal of approval as she fulfilled the potential she had first displayed as a 15-year-old defeating Venus Williams at Wimbledon.

With the victory, Gauff becomes the third American teenager to win the US Open title, joining Williams and Tracy Austin. She is set to move up to No. 3 in the WTA singles rankings, and co-No. 1 in doubles along with compatriot Jessica Pegula.

Gauff has won three WTA titles this season, including the biggest of her career in Cincinnati just before the US Open. The competition was the second Grand Slam final of Gauff’s career after reaching the French Open final in 2022, where she was swiftly defeated by Poland’s Iga Natalia Swiatek.

In the men’s singles Serbia’s Novak Djokovic defeated Russia’s Daniel Medvedev in straight sets to capture his fourth US Open title and his 24th Grand Slam title tying with Australia’s Margaret Court for the most in the history of tennis. He is one Grand Slam away from reaching a new pinnacle, which will be hard to beat.

Djokovic holds 10 Australian Open Titles, 3 French Open Titles, 7 Wimbledon Titles and 4 US Open Titles.

Asia Cup Cricket

The 2023 Asia Cup is the 16th edition of the men’s Cricket Tournament. The matches are played as One Day Internationals (ODIs) – 50 overs per innings – with Pakistan as the official host. It is the first Asia Cup to be held in multiple countries: with four matches to be played in Pakistan and the remaining nine matches to be played in Sri Lanka between 30 August and 17 September 2023. In the total of 13 matches, six are league matches, six are super-four matches and then the one final.

The tournament is being contested by 6 teams, with Sri Lanka entering the field as the defending champions.

This Sunday, in the Super-Four stage match, India walloped Pakistan winning by 228 runs in the highest ever margin, in terms of runs, between the countries. India made 356/2 in 50 overs and Pakistan 128 in 32 overs. Virat Kholi and KL Rahul scored unbeaten centuries, creating pre-Diwali fireworks in the Premadasa Stadium.

Pakistan had won the toss and decided to bowl, but the Indian fire was something they could not handle.

More infectious stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Stay updated and calm with World Inthavaaram.