BRICS Summit Of Emerging Economies Begins In South Africa

The BRICS nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa represent a quarter of the global economy, and interest in joining the group surged ahead of its three-day summit in Johannesburg.

The BRICS leaders at the summit in Johannesburg

Johannesburg: The BRICS summit opened in South Africa on Tuesday as the loosely-defined club of large emerging economies seeks to assert its voice as a counterweight to the Western-led international order.

The BRICS nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa represent a quarter of the global economy, and interest in joining the group surged ahead of its three-day summit in Johannesburg.

Security has been bolstered across the city where South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is hosting China's President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and some 50 other leaders.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is the target of an international arrest warrant over alleged war crimes in Ukraine, did not attend in person and addressed the summit via pre-recorded video.

Russia will be represented in Johannesburg by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

China is the BRICS most powerful economy and Xi's state visit to South Africa, just his second international trip this year, comes as Beijing pushes to rapidly expand the group's membership.

"Now as friends and BRICS partners, we stand together in our shared objective and quest for a better and more egalitarian world," said Ramaphosa in Pretoria at the opening of Xi's visit.

Spotlight on Ukraine

Representing 40 percent of the world's population, and democratic and authoritarian states at varying levels of economic growth, the BRICS nations share a common desire for a global order they see as better reflecting their interests and rising clout.

BRICS is also championing its own development bank as an alternative to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and proposals to reduce the use of the US dollar in global trade.

"We are only saying that we exist, we are organising ourselves, and we want to sit at the negotiating table on an equal footing with the European Union, the United States or any other country," Lula said in a social media post on Tuesday.

The theme of its 15th summit is "BRICS and Africa" and comes as the continent emerges as a renewed diplomatic battleground with the United States, Russia and China jostling for influence.

The summit has underscored divisions over the war in Ukraine and the support Russia enjoys from its other BRICS partners at a time of global isolation.

South Africa, China and India have not condemned Russia's invasion while Brazil has refused to join Western nations in sending arms to Ukraine or imposing sanctions on Moscow.

Ahead of the summit, Ramaphosa said his country would "not be drawn into a contest between global powers".

In a park near the summit venue, two dozen protesters held up blue and yellow Ukrainian flags and placards reading "Go home Lavrov".

'Importance, stature, influence'

The bloc began as four nations in 2009 but expanded the following year with the addition of South Africa.

Officials say more than 40 countries have shown interest in joining from across the 'Global South', a broad term referring to nations outside the West.

Like the BRICS themselves, these countries run the gamut and include traditionally non-aligned nations like Indonesia and others that are openly hostile to the United States and its allies, like Iran.

"It goes to show that the BRICS family is growing in its importance, in its stature and also in its influence in the world," said Ramaphosa.

South Africa will present BRICS leaders with a proposal to expand its membership.

But the issue divides China and its regional rival India, which is wary of Beijing shaping the forum to suit its own geopolitical agenda as it competes for global influence against the United States.

Russia and South Africa back expansion while Brazil's Lula said on Tuesday he supported the entry of "several countries" including Argentina.

Analysts say when considering new members, South Africa, India and Brazil must balance a desire for warm ties with China and Russia against the risk of estranging a major trading partner in the United States.

Two die as Kallada Travels luxury bus overturns in Kerala's Palakkad

Local residents who witnessed the accident said the driver seemed to have lost control over the wheel and had tried to steer the vehicle back to the road.

The Kallada bus that overturned at Thiruvazhiyode junction on the Palakkad—Cherpulassery stretch on August 23, 2023.

PALAKKAD: Two persons were killed as a private bus, which was on its way from Chennai to Kozhikode, overturned at the Thiruvazhiyode junction in Palakkad district on Wednesday. There were 38 passengers in the bus at the time of the accident.

According to the police, the luxury bus of Kallada Travels veered off the road and overturned at around 7.45 a.m.

The deceased were identified as Ishaan, 19, a native of Kuttiyadi, and Sainaba Beevi, 39, of Ponnani. Both of them were thrown off and got caught underneath the bus.

Ishaan and Sainaba died while undergoing treatment at the district hospital.

13 passengers with minor wounds were admitted to the district hospital in Palakkad.

The others - Sufaid, Diya M Nair, Nishanth, Sivani, Rimshana, and Mohammed Marhan - were admitted to Al Shifa hospital in Perinthalmanna.

Aira and Binu who sustained minor injuries were given first aid at the Katampazhipuram primary health centre and later discharged.

Two persons who sustained grievous injuries were shifted to a private hospital in Coimbatore.

Local residents who witnessed the accident said the driver seemed to have lost control over the wheel and had tried to steer the vehicle back to the road. However, the police said the reason for the accident was yet to be ascertained.

The accident occurred at a sharp curve and the bus overturned to the right side of the road.

The bodies of the deceased have been shifted to the District Hospital mortuary in Palakkad.

'I won't leave my kids in a hospital again': Heartbroken parents of babies murdered by British nurse

The father of two brothers killed by the nurse, who were part of a set of triplets, sobbed uncontrollably as he made his victim statement to the court. Others were left in tears listening to him.

Lucy Letby, former neonatal nurse convicted of murdering seven babies in her care and trying to kill six others at a hospital in northern England.

The parents of the babies British nurse Lucy Letby murdered made their victim statements in court on Monday. "You thought it was your right to play God with our children's lives," the mother of a twin boy and girl - Baby A and Baby B - who were attacked in June 2015 said in an emotional statement read to the Manchester Crown Court. The baby boy was murdered while his elder sister survived.

Lucy Letby, 33, was convicted of killing five baby boys and two baby girls, making her the UK's most prolific child serial killer in modern history.

She was arrested following a string of baby deaths at the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England between June 2015 and June 2016. She was sentenced Monday to life in prison with no chance of release.

Letby sickened babies by injecting intravenous lines with air, poisoning some with insulin and force-feeding others milk, often during night shifts. After killing them, she sometimes sobbed in grief, made keepsakes for parents and bathed the little bodies and dressed them for burial.

Some of the affected families suffered multiple tragedies since Letby targeted three sets of twins and a set of triplets.

BBC reported that the mother of Baby D held a toy rabbit while speaking from the witness box on Monday. She said her marriage suffered since the murder of her child.

The mother of Baby C said she started wearing her deceased child's hand and footprints around her neck. She reportedly felt "conflicted" as it was the nurse who had taken those prints.

Letby refused to attend the hearing on Monday. This meant she did not hear the families' victim impact statements. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it was "cowardly that people who commit such horrendous crimes do not face their victims".

Judge James Goss said, addressing Letby in her absence, said there was "premeditation, calculation and cunning" in her actions, with a "deep malevolence bordering on sadism".

“During the course of this trial, you have coldly denied any responsibility for your wrongdoing. You have no remorse. There are no mitigating factors.”

He also said that no one but Letby knows what drove her, though some parents ventured theories: she wanted to play god; she needed attention, drama and sympathy in her life; or she wanted to be remembered.

"We struggled with trust"

The mother of Baby I said she had to take medication over the past six years to cope with her daughter's death, BBC reported. "We have been in some very dark places mentally."

The mother said she gave birth to another daughter after the loss of her first one. She was born prematurely and with sepsis and had to be in a neonatal unit for a while. The mother said that she stayed by her side the whole time as she had trust issues now. "We struggle with trust. I won't leave my kids in a hospital. We will never give anyone that type of trust with our kids again."

"Lucy has destroyed our lives"

The father of two brothers - Baby O and Baby P - killed by the nurse, who were part of a set of triplets, sobbed uncontrollably. Others were left in tears listening to him.

He said watching Baby O deteriorate and die "is an image that I'll never forget."

"The anger and the hatred I have towards Lucy Letby will never go away," he said in a pre-recorded video statement.

He said he had suffered alcohol issues and suicidal feelings and is "long-term sick."

The mother of the triplets, as quoted by BBC, said in her statement that she had initially blamed herself for the deaths of Baby O and Baby P. "I thought I'd passed on an illness to all three of the boys - an infection."

Children who survived nurse's attacks have disabilities

Some of the surviving babies have disabilities caused by the attacks on them, their parents told the court.

The father of Baby G said she is now blind, has cerebral palsy and progressive scoliosis. The nurse was found guilty of attempting to murder Baby G twice, in September 2015.

Her father in his statement, as reported by BBC, said God saved his child "but the devil found her."

Baby F's mother said he "has been left with complex needs" after Letby attacked him. He now has learning deficiencies which his mother attributes to insulin poisoning. His twin brother Baby E was murdered by her on 4 August 2015.

She had conceived her twin boys through in vitro fertilization said there were “no children in the world more wanted than them” and didn’t know if she would have others.

After the death of the two triplets in June 2016, Letby was removed from the neonatal unit and placed on clerical duties.

She was arrested for the first time in July 2018. On her third arrest in November 2020, Letby was formally charged and placed in custody.

During the trial, the prosecution said Letby "gaslighted" her colleagues into believing the rise in baby deaths was "just a run of bad luck".

Police found records she had taken home from the hospital on babies who had collapsed. Investigators learned Letby had performed thousands of searches online for information about the parents after the killings.

Letby also sent a sympathy card to the grieving parents of a child she was later found guilty of murdering.

Handwritten notes found during police searches at Letby's home were among the evidence seen by the court, one of which had "I am evil I did this" written in capital letters.

The government has announced an independent inquiry into the case and will look at how the concerns of clinicians were dealt with by hospital management.

The hospital's executives have come under fire for failing to act sooner on concerns about Letby, which were reportedly raised by senior doctors as early as 2015.

Dr Stephen Brearey, the head consultant at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit, told the Guardian that deaths could arguably have been avoided as early as February 2016 if executives had “responded appropriately” to an urgent meeting request from concerned doctors.