UN says only 18% of SDG targets are on track to be achieved by 2030
The UN on Monday released the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025. The campaign calls for achieving a set of goals by 2030, including ending poverty and hunger, and ensuring healthy lives and quality education.
The report says that only 18 percent of those targets are "on track" to be achieved by 2030, and 17 percent made "moderate progress."
On another front, it said that 17 percent had made "no progress at all" and 18 percent of the targets have "regressed below 2015 baseline levels."
The UN warns that global hunger has risen sharply since 2019 and remains persistently high, despite its goal of ending hunger.
Speaking at UN Headquarters in New York, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, "We are in a global development emergency, an emergency measured in the over 800 billion people still living in extreme poverty, in intensifying climate impacts." He called on international community to act swiftly and move forward together towards achieving the goals in the remaining five years.
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Japan Times
2 hours ago
- Japan Times
European leaders to join Zelenskyy for key meeting with Trump
European leaders will join Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his high-stakes meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday in Washington as they seek to pin down security guarantees for Ukraine to ensure that any peace deal reached with Russia holds. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron have confirmed their participation in the delegation. The move comes as European nations shift their focus toward providing Ukraine with robust security guarantees as Trump pushes for a quick peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv. Officials from the so-called coalition-of-the-willing countries were set to hold a video call on Sunday afternoon to work on their plan. They're skeptical that a peace agreement can be rapidly reached, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin even wants one. Von der Leyen said in a post on X that she'll host Zelenskyy in Brussels on Sunday afternoon before joining him, Trump and other European leaders at the White House meeting. The talks will include, among other things, security guarantees, territorial issues, and continued support for Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression, according to a German statement. It will be Zelenskyy's first visit in the White House since February, when his Oval Office encounter with Trump turned into a public shouting match and led to U.S. briefly pausing military aid to Ukraine. U.S. President Donald Trump berates Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington in February. | Doug Mills / The New York Times While the two leaders patched up their relationship since then, the show of support from European leaders aims to help the Ukrainian president as he comes under growing pressure to cede some of the land in return for a vague promise of peace. Trump told European leaders on a call Saturday, following his talks with Putin in Alaska, that he was prepared to contribute to security guarantees with Europe so long as it didn't involve NATO. The U.S. president suggested Putin would be OK with such an arrangement, people familiar with the matter said. He also indicated he could be looking to organize a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders as early as within a week, the people said. Zelenskyy has said repeatedly that he's willing to meet Putin. The Kremlin has yet to provide a similar commitment, and many European officials doubt he wants to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which is halfway through its fourth year. The topic of a trilateral summit wasn't raised during the meetings in Alaska, Russia's state TV channel Vesti reported on Saturday, citing Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov. The specifics of a U.S. contribution to any security guarantees for Ukraine are unclear. The discussions have touched upon the possibility of granting Kyiv assurances from some allies — similar to those of NATO's Article 5 collective defense clause — which commits members to defend each other if attacked, said the people. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations, and cautioned that a NATO-like mechanism would be difficult. An alternative would be bolstering, through U.S. commitments, earlier plans coordinated by the U.K. and France, which included reassurance forces, monitoring and air-cover, the people said. Ahead of his meeting with Putin, the U.S. president told allies that a ceasefire would be his key demand. He also threatened to walk out of the talks and impose tough new punitive measures on Moscow and countries buying its oil if it wasn't met. Yet Trump signaled on Friday that he wasn't in a rush to implement fresh penalties on Russia's trading partners. Russian leader Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump pose on a podium on the tarmac after they arrived to attend a meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday. | Sputnik / Pool / via REUTERS Following his calls with Zelenskyy and European leaders early Saturday, Trump said in a Truth Social post that "it was determined by all' that the best way to end the war was to achieve a peace agreement and "not a mere Ceasefire Agreement.' Most statements issued by European leaders on Saturday made no mention of a ceasefire. Trump told Zelenskyy and European leaders that Putin wants Ukraine to cede control of the entire Donbas region in Ukraine's east, renewing earlier demands. Zelenskyy has repeatedly ruled out giving up all of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, which comprise Donbas. Moscow's forces only partially control the region and have failed to take it militarily after more than a decade of fighting. Russia would also halt advancing its claims over the parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions it doesn't now control, effectively freezing the battle lines there. The Kremlin could also potentially withdraw troops from other regions such as Sumy and Kharkiv in Ukraine's northeast, areas near the Russian border where Kremlin forces control only small pockets of land. According to an assessment by the U.K. Defense Ministry, it would take Russia more than four years to fully occupy the four Ukrainian regions it laid claim to in 2022. That would come at a cost of nearly 2 million additional Russian casualties based on current battlefield advances, the ministry said on X. While maintaining that any territorial decisions are for Zelenskyy to make, Trump has repeatedly signaled that a peace agreement would include land swaps, and has urged the Ukrainian president to make a deal. Many European officials are skeptical that a detailed agreement can be reached quickly. Russia's rejection of repeated calls for a ceasefire "complicates the situation,' Zelenskyy said in a social media post late Saturday. "If they lack the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater — peaceful coexistence with its neighbors for decades.'
Japan Times
11 hours ago
- Japan Times
U.S. suspends visas for Gazans after far-right influencer posts
The U.S. government said Saturday it is suspending visitor visas for Gazans after a far-right influencer with the ear of President Donald Trump complained that wounded Palestinians had been allowed to seek medical treatment in the United States. The announcement came one day after a series of furious social media posts by Laura Loomer, who is known for promoting racist conspiracy theories and claiming that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside job. "All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days," the State Department, which is led by Marco Rubio, wrote on X. In a series of posts on X Friday, Loomer called on the State Department to stop giving visas to Palestinians from Gaza who she said were "pro-HAMAS ... affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and funded by Qatar," without providing evidence. Loomer's target was the U.S.-based charity HEAL Palestine, which said last week it had helped 11 critically wounded Gazan children — as well as their caregivers and siblings — arrive safely in the U.S. for medical treatment. It was "the largest single medical evacuation of injured children from Gaza to the U.S.," the charity said on its website. "Truly unacceptable," Loomer wrote in another X post. "Someone needs to be fired at @StateDept when @marcorubio figures out who approved the visas." "Qatar transported these GAZANS into the U.S. via @qatarairways," she said. Qatar is "literally flooding our country with jihadis," she added. Loomer said she had spoken to the staff of Republican Tom Cotton, who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, adding that they were "also looking into how these GAZANS got visas to come into the U.S." Republican Rep. Randy Fine explicitly commended Loomer after the visa change was announced, in a sign of her sway over some U.S. policy. "Massive credit needs to be given to @LauraLoomer for uncovering this and making me and other officials aware. Well done, Laura," Fine wrote on X. The Palestine Children's Relief Fund, a U.S.-based charity, called on the Trump administration to "reverse this dangerous and inhumane decision." Over the last 30 years the charity has evacuated thousands of Palestinian children to the U.S. for medical care, it said a statement. "Medical evacuations are a lifeline for the children of Gaza who would otherwise face unimaginable suffering or death due to the collapse of medical infrastructure in Gaza." Though Loomer holds no official position, she wields significant power, and is reported to have successfully pushed for the dismissal of several senior U.S. security officials she deemed disloyal to Trump. In July, Loomer took aim at a job offer made to a highly qualified Biden-era official for a prestigious position at the West Point military academy. The Pentagon rescinded the offer one day later. Trump also fired the head of the highly sensitive National Security Agency, Timothy Haugh, and his deputy Wendy Noble in April at the apparent urging of Loomer, after she met with the president at the White House. "No other content creator or journalist has gotten as many Biden holdovers fired from the Trump admin!" Loomer posted on X on Saturday.
Japan Times
12 hours ago
- Japan Times
Three Republican-led states to deploy National Guard troops to U.S. capital
The Republican governors of three states are deploying hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., at the request of the administration of President Donald Trump, who has portrayed the city as awash in crime. The announcements on Saturday of troops from hundreds of kilometers away in West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio came a day after D.C. officials and the Trump administration negotiated a deal to keep Mayor Muriel Bowser's appointed police chief, Pamela Smith, in charge of the police department after D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit to block the federal takeover of the department. Trump, a Republican, said last week he was deploying hundreds of D.C. National Guard troops to Washington and temporarily taking over the Democratic-led city's police department to curb what he depicted as a crime and homelessness emergency. Justice Department data, however, showed violent crime in 2024 hit a 30-year low in Washington, a self-governing federal district under the jurisdiction of Congress. West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey's office said in a statement he was deploying 300 to 400 National Guard troops to D.C. in "a show of commitment to public safety and regional cooperation." The statement said he also was providing equipment and specialized training. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster responded to a Pentagon request by announcing that 200 of his state's National Guard troops would be sent. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said he would send 150 military police members in the coming days, adding none of them were "currently serving as law enforcement officers in the state." After the announcements, Mayor Bowser posted on X: "American soldiers and airmen policing American citizens on American soil is #UnAmerican." The National Guard serves as a militia that answers to the governors of the 50 states except when called into federal service. The D.C. National Guard reports directly to the president. Trump, who has suggested he could take similar actions in other Democratic-controlled cities, has sought to expand the powers of the presidency in his second term, inserting himself into the affairs of major banks, law firms and elite universities. In June, Trump ordered 700 Marines and 4,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles, against the wishes of California's Democratic governor, during protests over mass immigration raids by federal officials. A National Guard member stands as people demonstrate Saturday, after U.S. President Donald Trump deployed the guard and ordered an increased presence of federal law enforcement to assist in crime prevention, in Washington. | REUTERS South Carolina's McMaster said his troops would immediately return to South Carolina if needed to respond to a possible hurricane or other natural disaster. Hurricane Erin, now northeast of Puerto Rico, has become a catastrophic Category 5 storm that could bring ocean swells to the U.S. East Coast early this week, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Saturday. National Guard troops often respond to natural disasters and rarely police U.S. civilians. Drew Galang, a spokesperson for West Virginia's Morrisey, said the state's National Guard received the order to send equipment and personnel to D.C. late on Friday and was working to organize the deployment. A White House official said Saturday that more National Guard troops would be called in to Washington to "protect federal assets, create a safe environment for law enforcement officials to carry out their duties when required, and provide a visible presence to deter crime." A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said a formal order was expected to go out that would authorize National Guard troops in D.C. to carry firearms. The official said this order would affect mostly military police officers with sidearms. It was reported earlier that National Guard troops would have weapons nearby, such as in their vehicles. The White House said on Saturday that D.C. National Guard members have conducted patrols on foot and in vehicles around the National Mall and Union Station. The White House said the National Guard troops are not making arrests now and that they may be armed. It is not clear how the administration could deploy National Guard troops elsewhere. A federal judge in San Francisco is expected in the coming weeks to issue a ruling on whether Trump violated the law with the Los Angeles deployments.
