Show only key events Please enable JavaScript to use this feature Pope Francis said on Sunday that the war in Ukraine has distracted from the problem of world hunger and called for urgent food aid to avert an impending famine in Somalia. “The people of this region, already living in very precarious conditions, are now in mortal danger because of the drought,” he said in his weekly address in St Peter’s Square, referring to the Horn of Africa. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said this month it could officially declare famine in eight regions of Somalia next month if livestock continue to die, commodity prices rise further and humanitarian aid does not reach more vulnerable. Francis told pilgrims and tourists in the square that he wanted to draw attention to “the serious humanitarian crisis that has hit Somalia and some areas of neighboring countries.” UNHCR and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said last week that around one million people have been internally displaced in Somalia since January, Reuters reports. The country is one of the most vulnerable in the world to climate vulnerability. “I hope that international solidarity can respond effectively to this emergency,” Francis said. “Unfortunately the war [in Ukraine] it has diverted attention and resources, but these are the goals that require the most commitment – fighting hunger, health care, education,” he said. Pope Francis leaves the window of the apostolic palace at the end of the weekly Angelus prayer on August 14, 2022 in the Vatican. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images The Razoni, the first ship to leave Ukraine two weeks ago since grain exports from Black Sea ports resumed under a UN-brokered deal, was approaching the Syrian port of Tartus on Sunday after it was refused cargo from its original Lebanese buyer, two shipping sources told Reuters. Ukraine severed diplomatic relations with Syria in June after Damascus recognized the independence of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Earlier this week the ship was reported to have docked in Turkey and was due to unload 1,500 tonnes of its 26,527 tonnes of maize in the country, before proceeding to Egypt with the rest of its cargo. Updated at 12.48 BST Oil giant Saudi Aramco on Sunday posted a record profit of $48.4 billion in the second quarter of 2022, after Russia’s war in Ukraine and a surge in post-pandemic demand sent crude prices soaring. The world’s largest oil producer saw its net profit rise 90% year-on-year and posted its second straight quarterly record in “strong market conditions” – up 22.7% from the first quarter of 2022, for which the company had announced net income of $39.5 billion. Almost entirely state-owned Aramco is just the latest oil giant to rake in impressive sums after ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, TotalEnergies and Eni also revealed multibillion-dollar second-quarter profits, Reuters reports. “While global market volatility and economic uncertainty remain, events in the first half of this year support our view that continued investment in our industry is necessary,” said Aramco Chairman and CEO Amin H Nasser. “In fact, we expect oil demand to continue to grow for the rest of the decade,” he added. Amin H Nasser, Chairman and CEO of Saudi Aramco. Photo: Daniel Kramer/Reuters Half-year profit was $87.9 billion, up from $47.2 billion for the same period in 2021. Aramco will pay a dividend of $18.8 billion in the third quarter, the same as what it paid in the second quarter. “It continues to work to increase its maximum sustainable crude oil capacity from 12 million barrels per day to 13 million by 2027,” its earnings release said. Aramco shares are up 25% this year. The company is the “crown jewel” and top source of income for the conservative kingdom and temporarily overtook Apple as the world’s most valuable company in March. It is now in second place with a market value of $2.4 trillion. Updated at 12.49 BST People in the eastern Ukrainian town of Rubizhne have begun exhuming bodies hastily buried in yards at the height of the battle, eager to lay them to rest with dignity. Rubizhne is part of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, where Russian forces took full control in early July, more than four months after President Vladimir Putin launched what he called a “special military operation” in Ukraine. Men with sticks removed dirt Friday from outside a damaged apartment building in the city of 50,000. View of the ruined city of Rubizhne on July 12. Photo: Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images Lilia Ay-Talatini, 48, watched as workers removed a blanket covering her mother, who had been hastily buried after the attacks that began in March split the city in two, Reuters reports. Ai-Talatini said the fighting at the time prevented her from reaching her parents’ apartment for 10 days. She said her mother was unwell and when she died, she and her husband had no sticks and therefore, as shells were thrown, they were forced to drag the body into an open trench in the ground, burying her in what she described as “inhuman conditions”. . “Now it goes to the cemetery, we have a plot there,” he said. The breakaway Russian-backed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), one of Moscow’s proxies in eastern Ukraine, is coordinating the search for bodies. Anna Sorokina, an LPR official, said a team worked in Rubizhne for 10 days and exhumed 104 sets of remains. “It’s clear that shrapnel wounds predominate, but there are also bullet wounds,” he said, estimating that there were a total of 500 unofficial graves in the city. Boris Kovalev, 44, a medical examiner from the southern Russian region of Rostov, said samples of genetic material would be stored to help identify unidentified bodies. Updated at 11.51 BST The US expressed concern to India that it was used earlier this year to circumvent economic sanctions imposed on Russia during an offshore fuel transfer of Russian crude, according to a local central banker. A Russian tanker on the high seas allegedly delivered oil to an Indian ship, which was then processed in India and eventually exported to the United States, Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Michael Patra told a financial conference on Saturday. in the state of Odisha. “You know there are sanctions against people who buy Russian oil. Here’s what the US Treasury told us,” Patra told his government and finance industry audience. “An Indian ship rammed a Russian tanker on the high seas, taking on oil, which arrived at a port in the state of Gujarat. The oil was processed at this port and turned into a distillate used to make single-use plastic,” the central banker said. The Indian ship took over the cargo again, left port and was informed only of its destination, New York, on the high seas. “This is how war works,” Patra summed up. He did not name the ship. The US embassy had no comment, Reuters reported. Countries including Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Finland and the Czech Republic have asked the EU to limit or block short-term Schengen visas for Russian citizens in protest at their country’s invasion of Ukraine. Now, Poland is also considering restrictions on Russian tourist visas. “Poland is working on developing an idea that will make it possible to not issue visas to Russians,” Deputy Foreign Minister Piotr Wabrzik told the PAP news agency on Sunday, adding that a decision would be made in the coming weeks. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected calls for visa restrictions, saying a blanket visa ban for Russians was “hard to imagine,” my colleagues Andrew Roth and Pjotr Sauer report. EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the measure at an informal meeting this month, although universal approval from the bloc’s 27 members would be needed to implement any such policy. Two more ships carrying grain left Ukraine’s Black Sea ports on Saturday, Turkey’s defense ministry said, bringing the number of ships to depart the country to 16 since a UN-brokered deal was agreed and of Turkey in late July, partly aimed at easing a global food crisis. Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry said on Saturday that 16 ships carrying 450,000 tons of agricultural products had departed from Ukrainian seaports since early August under the agreement, which ensured safe passage for the ships, Reuters reports. The UN-chartered ship MV Brave Commander will leave Ukraine for Africa in the coming days after it finishes loading more than 23,000 tonnes of wheat at the port of Pivdennyi, a UN official said. The Lebanese-flagged bulk carrier Brave Commander arrives at the Pivdennyi seaport after resuming grain exports on August 12. Photo: Reuters The ship, bound for Ethiopia, will be the first shipment of humanitarian food aid to Africa since the start of the war, amid fears that the loss of Ukrainian grain stocks could lead to an outbreak of famine. The blockade of Ukrainian ports has trapped tens of millions of grains in the country. Zelensky said that in less than two weeks, Ukraine had managed to export the same amount of grain from three ports as it had done by road for all of July. Ukraine hopes to increase its seaborne exports to over 3 million tonnes of grain and other agricultural products per month in the near future. Updated at 11.52 BST Residents stand next to damaged buildings after a rocket attack in the city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region on August 13. Photo: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty Images Family members receive a Ukrainian national flag during the funeral of Ukrainian soldier Anton Savytskyi at the Bucha cemetery in the Kyiv region. Photo: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images Ukrainian soldiers prepare and launch a GRAD multiple launch missile system at Russian positions in the Kharkiv region. Photo: Anadolu…
