Europe won’t pose next to Russia’s foreign minister in Atlanta, so the G20 skips its group photo. Washington clears 500 Patriot interceptors for Kyiv while hundreds of people get out of occupied Oleshky. Oman pulls 25 sailors off a burning tanker in Hormuz. Riot police guard Poland’s top court, Congo’s Ebola toll passes 5,000, and Canada edges toward the EU. Plus Brazil versus Argentina over the Bolsonaro escape, a nature deal in Yerevan, sturdier ice in East Antarctica, and a historic night for Samoa. Ten stories as of Friday evening, October 30.
1. Atlanta / United States. The G20 foreign ministers’ meeting opened Friday without its usual “family photo.” European diplomats refused to stand next to Russia’s Sergei Lavrov, so the American hosts dropped the picture. A US official said it was cancelled “after it became clear some of the delegations were unwilling to participate in a joint photo,” the BBC reports. In the room, UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told Lavrov: “We all know who the aggressor in this war is.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is hosting. He opened by asking members to work together on threats to trade, energy, food supplies and freedom of navigation. No joint statement is expected. Washington plans to issue a chair’s summary instead, Al Jazeera reports. Ukraine wasn’t invited, China sent Executive Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu instead of Wang Yi, and South Africa is shut out. The talks run through Saturday. G20 leaders meet next in Miami, December 14–15.
2. Washington / United States; Kyiv and Oleshky / Ukraine. The State Department approved the sale of 500 PAC-3 Patriot interceptors to Ukraine, worth $2.1bn. Canada, Germany and Norway are paying, along with EU loan money, and “no US funds are involved,” the BBC reports. The catch is time. Patriots are slow to build, only about 600 a year according to the Pentagon, and Zelensky warned deliveries could take “several years.” He says Ukraine needs them “right now,” after more than 30 Russian strikes on its power grid in two weeks.
Down south, the Kherson-front ceasefire held long enough for hundreds of people to leave Russian-occupied Oleshky. Russia’s rights ombudsman said “everything unfolded without any incidents.” Evacuees heading to Ukraine are taking the long way round, via Anapa in southern Russia and Gomel in Belarus. Several hundred residents chose to stay, with no gas, power or running water, according to the BBC.
3. Strait of Hormuz / Oman and Iran. Oman’s Maritime Security Centre says it rescued 25 crew from the RITI, a Panama-flagged crude tanker on fire in the strait. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, meanwhile, say tankers using “unauthorised routes” were brought to a halt after “incidents” or mines. One of them, they say, was a supertanker carrying more than two million barrels that “exploded and caught fire,” Al Jazeera reports. It isn’t clear whether the RITI is one of the ships Iran means.
The US disputes Iran’s mine claims. On Friday, CENTCOM chief Brad Cooper said the strait’s “internationally recognised primary transit routes” had been cleared of Iranian mines. Iran has kept the strait largely blocked since US-Israeli strikes began in late February, and all this lands while Qatari mediators are in Tehran trying to revive a ceasefire (AP).
4. Warsaw / Poland. Riot police were posted at Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal on Friday. Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek moved to strip the court’s president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy of immunity so they can be charged. A government-backed judge, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, was put in temporary charge. The court called it “the crime of a coup d’etat,” the BBC reports. Prime Minister Donald Tusk says restoring the rule of law “requires decisive action.”
President Karol Nawrocki, who is backed by Law and Justice, turned his plane around mid-flight to Senegal and went into the court building. Crowds of Law and Justice supporters gathered at the gates, and police said three people were detained after projectiles were thrown (AP; Al Jazeera). Not all the criticism comes from the right. Law professor Marcin Matczak, no fan of the old Law and Justice reforms, said armed police at a court will cause “a powerful, anti-rule of law backlash for years to come.”
5. Democratic Republic of Congo. Government data show more than 5,000 people have now died in Congo’s Ebola outbreak. That makes it the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record, behind West Africa’s 2014–16 epidemic. More than 10,000 people have been infected since May. The strain is Bundibugyo, which has no approved vaccine or treatment, and eight of Congo’s 26 provinces are affected, according to Reuters (via Arab News). Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda have all reported cases too.
6. Montreal / Canada. Prime Minister Mark Carney hosted EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa and launched an “Alliance for the Future.” The two sides signed a digital trade deal, agreed on European Investment Bank money for Canadian critical minerals, and opened talks on Erasmus+ student exchanges. Carney says the goal is to make Canada the EU’s “first associate member,” though that label has no legal basis and some EU states dispute it, Al Jazeera reports. Canada is also putting an initial €500m into the EU’s €90bn loan for Ukraine.
7. Brasília / Brazil; Buenos Aires / Argentina. Brazil’s Foreign Ministry called in Argentina’s chargé d’affaires over Flávio Bolsonaro’s exit. After losing Sunday’s runoff, he crossed into northern Argentina, then flew by charter via Ecuador to Miami, where he declared himself the “legitimate president-elect.” He had been ordered to surrender his passports and stay in the country during the Banco Master money-laundering probe. Argentina’s foreign minister denies getting any formal request for explanations. President Milei’s spokesperson called the trip a “rescue,” Al Jazeera reports (AP).
8. Yerevan / Armenia. After nearly two weeks of talks and some overtime, nearly 200 countries approved the key texts at the COP17 biodiversity summit. The aim is to get the faltering 2022 pledge to halt nature loss by 2030 back on track. “And that’s it. Perfect,” said summit president Hambardzum Matevosyan as he gavelled it through, France 24 reports. Money is still the sore spot. Just over $1bn was pledged, about half from philanthropists, against a gap the UN puts at about $700bn a year, the BBC says.
9. East Antarctica. Here’s some (qualified) good news from the ice. A modeling study in Nature Climate Change finds the East Antarctic Ice Sheet holds up far better than expected, even with 10°C or more of warming. The reason: wetter air brings more snow to the high interior, and extra cloud blocks the sun. When the researchers took those effects out, Antarctica lost about 70% of its ice volume under the strongest warming, compared with about 20% when they were left in, according to the IBS Center for Climate Physics in South Korea (EurekAlert). The bad news is unchanged. West Antarctica still breaks up once warming passes 2°C, and these are 100,000-year simulations, not forecasts for this century.
10. Wollongong / Australia; Samoa. Fetu Samoa beat England 24–6 on Friday night and reached their first Women’s Rugby League World Cup semi-final. That ended England’s run of two straight semi-finals. Eighteen-year-old winger Freedom Crichton Ropati scored three first-half tries, and Samoa now play New Zealand in the last four, RNZ reports. Captain Evania Isa’ako called it “pretty cool” and said the job isn’t done yet. A good way to end the week.
Coming Up
Oct 31: G20 foreign ministers wrap up in Atlanta, and the Youth Olympic Games open in Dakar, the first Olympic event held in Africa. Nov 1: Bulgaria’s presidential runoff (Iotova vs Gyurov). Nov 3: U.S. midterms. Nov 4: Israel’s certified results due. Nov 6: Pope Leo XIV begins his Uruguay–Argentina–Peru trip. Nov 7: New Zealand votes. Nov 9: COP31 opens in Antalya. The full board is on The Watch.
