Hurrah, it’s time for the “UNGA games” – the week when world leaders converge on New York to praise themselves and lecture others at the United Nations General Assembly. The air will be thick with lies and hypocrisy as the world’s biggest political forum struggles to prove it still has relevance in a conflict-ridden world.
This year’s talking shop comes at the end of a year when the post Second World War “rules-based international order” was declared dead. Donald Trump has not only decapitated governments in Venezuela and Iran but also turned on his own allies as well, notably Canada and Denmark/Greenland.
In truth, its demise was mourned only by those who clearly benefited from it, namely the US and its allies. Much of the rest of the world had long ago perceived that the only real rule in the rules-based order was the one that gave America and its friends the right to do whatever they wanted, while the rest did whatever they were told.
Analysis reveals why Kent meningitis outbreak was so severe
Scientists have revealed what made the bacteria behind a deadly meningitis B outbreak in Kent in March particularly dangerous.
The context
Twenty-one people were diagnosed with invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in a week, in the outbreak which was linked to a nightclub in Canterbury.
Two teenagers died and nine required intensive care.
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Why it was so dangerous
Experts from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and University of Oxford found that the bacteria underwent a process called horizontal gene transfer – where it picked up small pieces of DNA from other bacteria.
This means the bacteria can borrow genetic traits without reproducing and changes how it interacts with human cells. The change made it particularly effective at causing severe illness and may have affected how the immune system recognised it.
How the UK is trying to prevent future outbreaks
Following the Kent outbreak, a one-off menB vaccination programme was launched as universities start again.
What else is being done?
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has also recommended that teenagers be offered the jab on the NHS at the age of 15.
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How PIP claims for ADHD are rising for teens in richer areas
The number of 16- to 17-year-olds claiming personal independence payment (PIP) for ADHD and autism has more than tripled in richer areas over six years, according to analysis by the Nuffield Trust.
What is PIP for?
PIP is the main benefit paid to people who have a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability and is intended to help with everyday tasks and living costs.
According to government statistics from July, there were 4.1 million claimants entitled to PIP in England and Wales.
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A closer look at the figures
While the amount of teenagers claiming PIP in deprived areas is higher, the number has grown at a slower rate, from 2.1 per cent in 2019 to 5.1 per cent last year.
This compares to a rise from 0.8 per cent to 2.5 per cent for teenagers from the least-deprived neighbourhoods.
- The think-tank also found that PIP recipient rates for ADHD and autism for white people were higher overall than those of other ethnicities.
The new claims about Lucy Letby – and what it means for appeal
Lucy Letby has failed – twice – to get judges to overturn her convictions for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more. However, fresh claims that her prosecution is a major miscarriage of justice have been made in the new documentary, Lucy Letby – Scapegoat?, a collaboration between and Channel 5.
A doctor who worked alongside Letby at the Countess of Chester Hospital says he believes the evidence used to convict her is “extremely poor” and that there was no killer on the neonatal unit, saying instead she was a “scapegoat” used by hospital bosses to cover up the unit’s poor performance.
- Individual failings and sub-optimal care at the hospital were discussed at length during both of Letby’s trials, but prosecutors insisted they did not explain the deaths.
Some details ‘not shared with jury’
The documentary claims there was a set of results relating to a baby who was poisoned by Letby that were not shared with the jury.
- Letby was convicted of attempting to murder two babies by secretly injecting insulin into IV bags which were being used to treat them.
- During the trial, jurors were told how a blood result for Baby F pointed to insulin coming from an external source rather than being produced by the body.
- now claims that there were a further 14 glucose readings which were “normal” at the time Baby F was poisoned but that this evidence was not shown to the jury.
- Retired detective Stuart Clifton, who investigated killer nurse Beverley Allitt, said the result should offer “clear grounds for appeal”.
Baby died ‘after Letby left the unit’
A mother has said her baby suddenly collapsed at the hospital and later died, six months after Letby was taken off the unit.
The statistics around the unusual number of collapses and deaths at the Countess of Chester between 2015 and 2016 were a key part of the prosecution case.
There were a total of 12 deaths from 2010-14 and then eight in 2015. Since Letby left the unit in July 2016, there has only been one.
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Expert questions method of alleged murders
One of the methods by which Letby was said to have murdered babies was injecting them with air to cause an air embolism.
However, vascular surgeon Dr Colin Ferguson told : “The fact that in no case was air found in the heart at post-mortem means that this is just not true.”
Following her retrial, Letby was convicted of attempting to murder a baby by removing her breathing tube.
- Senior doctor Ravi Jayaram claimed that he walked in to find Baby K having collapsed with Letby standing over her cot doing nothing.
- However the documentary obtained a contemporaneous email written by Jayaram which said that Letby called him for help.
- The discrepancy over whether Jayaram went in because he was worried or because Letby called him for help was highlighted in the Thirlwall public inquiry into her case.
What happens now?
Letby remains in prison and her only avenue to clear her name is an application to the miscarriages of justice watchdog the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).
The CCRC is currently considering her application but there is no timeline as to when it will decide whether it believes Letby’s case should be referred back to the Court of Appeal or not. Only a fraction of all applications submitted are successful.
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This meant that human rights abuses in a Nato member such as Turkey were conveniently overlooked, while similar abuses in places like Russia prompted outrage and sanctions.
Earlier this century, the rules-based order allowed the US and UK to launch a massive illegal invasion against Iraq without the two countries’ leaders facing any reprisals. Yet, when Vladimir Putin thought he could pull off a similar stunt in Ukraine, he discovered the rules didn’t apply to him. It was sanctions and international arrest warrants, while George W Bush lives comfortably as an elder statesman and Tony Blair has a whole institute from which to lecture the world on how it should behave.
Putin deserves all the criticism he gets, of course, for his unjustified attack on Ukraine. But do his accusers, some of them fresh-faced from their own exploits, not even blush at the irony?
No wonder the majority of the leaders gathering in New York this week regard that kind of Western-dominated world order with a healthy dose of scepticism.
Many also feel the UN’s supreme body, the Security Council, is a paper tiger, since its five permanent members – the original nuclear powers of France, Britain, China, Russia and the USA – regularly veto any resolution that goes against their own interests, allowing them and their allies to effectively do what they like with impunity.
The US regularly vetoes any resolution that is critical of itself or of Israel. China and Russia do the same for their own actions. In the past, Andrei Gromyko, a Soviet foreign minister during the Cold War, issued so many vetoes he became known as Mr Nyet.
Many wonder why countries like the UK and France have such an elevated and powerful status, when the world’s rising economic powers, such as Brazil and India, not to mention Japan or Korea, have to sit in the cheap seats politely applauding the old crumbling order.
The hypocrisy and double standards will be on full view this week when Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a speech directly to delegates in the General Assembly hall, while the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, will give his speech by video link – because the US refused to grant him a visa.
Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, on the other hand, despite his country being at war with America, will be there in person. Can anyone explain the rules here, please?
At least the escalators inside the UN building will definitely be working this year. The UN’s general secretary Antonio Guterres said “additional measures” have been taken to ensure that nobody will “interact negatively” with the moving staircases, after Trump accused the UN of sabotaging him last year when he was briefly left stranded on one.
At least that’s one accomplishment that will come out of this year’s event.