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The prime minister of Barbados is somewhat of a rockstar at these climate talks, if there can be such a thing.

Yesterday at COP27, Mia Mottley was greeted at an event by a media swarm and packed youth audience, with one member from Trinidad and Tobago proudly exclaiming: “I’m here because I want Mia Mottley to run the Caribbean.”

That’s not just down to the searing attack she directed at the rich world on Monday – leaders lack “the simple political will” to “make a definable difference in the lives of the people who we have a responsibility to serve”, she said.

It also because she is trying to radically overhaul the global financial system, which she says was designed after the Second World War but is not fit for today’s number one challenge: the climate crisis.

Extreme weather events such as hurricanes, droughts and floods, which disproportionately hit vulnerable countries such as island nation Barbados, turn into bigger debt burdens for those who are already least able to afford them.

“If we have to borrow for climate, then it crowds out the borrowing we must do for education, for health care, for clean water,” Ms Mottley said in response to a question from Sky News on Tuesday.

“The system is broken,” she said, citing borrowing rates in the G7 costing between 1-4%, but in most of the Global South hitting some 12-14%.

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“So you begin to see the disparity,” she added.

A key part of the plan is to reform the IMF and multilateral development banks to provide debt relief and allow members to borrow cheaply from each other’s reserves, freeing up cash to help them to cope with climate change. It also lowers risk for lenders if countries are less likely to go bankrupt.

“How is it possible that we have these enormous international financial institutions in place,” asked Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the Pakistani foreign minister, and yet still “when we come to face historic flooding, like we did in Pakistan, that we end up not only drowning in the floodwater, we also end up drowning in the debt as a result of having to rebuild?”

Pakistan, facing $40bn clear-up costs, is one country lobbying for “debt swaps”, championed by United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, where creditors allow poorer countries to redirect interest payments towards climate measures when disasters strike.

“People of Pakistan are literally paying in the form of their lives and their livelihoods for a crisis that they didn’t create,” the minister told Sky News in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Developing nations are ‘angry at the failure’

Part of the reason countries are so desperate is that rich polluting nations have broken a promise to fund $100bn a year of climate measures in poorer nations.

“Developing countries are angry at this failure… $100bn was only ever a fraction of the amount needed, a symbol of goodwill and of recognition of historical responsibility,” said Sarah Colenbrander, director of the climate programme at ODI, a global affairs think tank.

“So they have stepped forward with a number of responses and solutions themselves,” added Ms Colenbrander, who is observing thorny finance negotiations.

Read more:
Summit hinges on taboo issue of whether developed nations will pay climate compensation

The issue on everyone’s lips at the conference in Egypt is the idea that rich, polluting countries should pay compensation for the climate breakdowns battering their poorer, far less polluting counterparts.

The group of 20 (G20) major economies is responsible for a whopping 80% of climate-heating gases, while the whole of African is responsible for just 4%, but is suffering disproportionately.

In an historic moment, the concept of compensation made it on to the agenda of a United Nations conference for the first time, after years of lobbying by small island nations in particular. But rich countries such as the United States resist the idea, and the cash may not ever flow.

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Pakistan PM gives emotive speech at COP27

With no time to lose, the V20, a group of finance ministers from 58 vulnerable nations, are designing plans to supercharge green industries, and therefore their economies, by detaching the risk of the project from the perceived risk of investing in their country.

“The vulnerable nations bear the brunt of the crisis. However, we did the least to cause it and are least equipped to solve it,” the group’s chair, Ghana’s Ken Ofori-Atta, told Sky News.

African countries are on course to suffer a 20% hit to their GDP within 30 years if the world warms as predicted, according to a report released on “finance day” at the COP27 talks today, hammering home the risks for poor countries.

“So yes, to a certain degree, [countries are] being a lot more proactive about [finance] and insisting on one’s right for this right not to occur.”

“Developing countries are not the only ones who see that the system is broken,” added Ms Colenbrander. Developed nations are also seeking reforms to unlock money to fund climate measures.

“Obviously you’ve got a real opportunity for change, if you have everyone from Barbados to Pakistan to the US to Germany rallying behind demands for that multilateral system to do better. So I think we can expect quite a bold vision coming out” next year, she said.

Watch the Daily Climate Show at 3.30pm Monday to Friday, and The Climate Show with Tom Heap on Saturday and Sunday at 3.30pm and 7.30pm.

All on Sky News, on the Sky News website and app, on YouTube and Twitter.

The show investigates how global warming is changing our landscape and highlights solutions to the crisis.

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IDF admits mistakenly identifying Gaza aid workers as threat – after video of attack showed ambulances were marked

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IDF admits mistakenly identifying Gaza aid workers as threat - after video of attack showed ambulances were marked

The IDF has admitted to mistakenly identifying a convoy of aid workers as a threat – following the emergence of a video which proved their ambulances were clearly marked when Israeli troops opened fire on them.

The bodies of 15 aid workers – including eight medics working for the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) – were found in a “mass grave” after the incident, according to the head of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Jonathan Whittall.

The Israeli military originally claimed an investigation found the vehicles did not have any headlights or emergency signals and were therefore targeted as they looked “suspicious”.

But video footage obtained by the PRCS, and verified by Sky News, showed the ambulances and a fire vehicle clearly marked with flashing red lights.

In a briefing from the IDF, they said the ambulances arrived in the Tel Sultan neighbourhood in Rafah shortly after a Hamas police vehicle drove through.

Palestinians mourn medics, who came under Israeli fire while on a rescue mission, after their bodies were recovered, according to the Red Crescent, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip March 31, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo
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Palestinians mourning the medics after their bodies were recovered. Pic: Reuters

An IDF surveillance aircraft was watching the movement of the ambulances and notified troops on the ground. The IDF said it will not be releasing that footage.

When the ambulances arrived, the soldiers opened fire, thinking the medics were a threat, according to the IDF.

The soldiers were surprised by the convoy stopping on the road and several people getting out quickly and running, the IDF claimed, adding the soldiers were unaware the suspects were in fact unarmed medics.

An Israeli military official would not say how far away troops were when they fired on the vehicles.

The IDF acknowledged that its statement claiming that the ambulances had their lights off was incorrect, and was based on the testimony from the soldiers in the incident.

The newly emerged video footage showed that the ambulances were clearly identifiable and had their lights on, the IDF said.

The IDF added that there will be a re-investigation to look into this discrepancy.

The clip is filmed through a vehicle windscreen - with three red light vehicles visible in front
Image:
The clip is filmed through a vehicle windscreen – with three red light vehicles visible in front

Addressing the fact the aid workers’ bodies were buried in a mass grave, the IDF said in its briefing this is an approved and regular practice to prevent wild dogs and other animals from eating the corpses.

The IDF could not explain why the ambulances were also buried.

The IDF said six of the 15 people killed were linked to Hamas, but revealed no detail to support the claim.

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Bodies of aid workers found in Gaza

The newly emerged footage of the incident was discovered on a phone belonging to one of the workers who was killed, PRCS president Dr Younis Al Khatib said.

“His phone was found with his body and he recorded the whole event,” he said. “His last words before being shot, ‘Forgive me, mom. I just wanted to help people. I wanted to save lives’.”

Sky News used an aftermath video and satellite imagery to verify the location and timing of the newly emerged footage of the incident.

More from Sky News:
Israeli troops expand Gaza ‘security zone’
What happened to the ceasefire?

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Aid worker attacks increasing

It was filmed on 23 March north of Rafah and shows a convoy of marked ambulances and a fire-fighting vehicle travelling south along a road towards the city centre. All the vehicles visible in the convoy have their flashing lights on.

The footage was filmed early in the morning, with a satellite image seen by Sky News taken at 9.48am local time on the same day showing a group of vehicles bunched together off the road.

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy takes swipe at US over ‘weak’ comment on Russian attack – as Ukrainian drones strike factory

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy takes swipe at US over 'weak' comment on Russian attack - as Ukrainian drones strike factory

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hit out at the US over its “weak” response to lethal Russian attacks on his hometown on Friday.

President Zelenskyy posted a lengthy and emotional statement on X about Russia’s strikes on Kryvyi Rih, which killed 19 people.

Meanwhile Ukrainian drones hit an explosives factory in Russia’s Samara region in an overnight strike, a member of Ukraine’s SBU security service told Reuters.

In his post, President Zelenskyy accused the United States of being “afraid” to name-check Russia in its comment on the attack.

“Unfortunately, the reaction of the American Embassy is unpleasantly surprising: such a strong country, such a strong people – and such a weak reaction,” he wrote on X.

“They are even afraid to say the word “Russian” when talking about the missile that killed children.”

America’s ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink had written on X: “Horrified that tonight a ballistic missile struck near a playground and restaurant in Kryvyi Rih.

“More than 50 people injured and 16 killed, including 6 children. This is why the war must end.”

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Strike on Zelenskyy’s home city

President Zelenskyy went on in his post to say: “Yes, the war must end. But in order to end it, we must not be afraid to call a spade a spade.

“We must not be afraid to put pressure on the only one who continues this war and ignores all the world’s proposals to end it. We must put pressure on Russia, which chooses to kill children instead of a ceasefire.”

Grandmother ‘burned to death in her home’

Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s defense council, said the missile attack, followed by a drone attack, had killed 19 people, including nine children.

“The Iskander-M missile strike with cluster munitions at the children’s playground in the residential area, to make the shrapnel fly further apart, killed 18 people.

“One grandmother was burnt to death in her house after Shahed’s direct hit.”

Russia’s defence ministry said it had struck a military gathering in a restaurant – an assertion rebutted by the Ukrainian military as misinformation.

“The missile hit right on the street – around ordinary houses, a playground, shops, a restaurant,” President Zelenskyy wrote.

Mr Zelenskyy also detailed the child victims of the attack including “Konstantin, who will be 16 forever” and “Arina, who will also be 7 forever”.

The UK’s chief of the defence staff Sir Tony Radakin said he had met the Ukrainian leader on Friday, along with French armed forces leader General Thierry Burkhard.

“Britain and France are coming together & Europe is stepping up in a way that is real & substantial, with 200 planners from 30 nations working to strengthen Ukraine’s long term security,” Sir Tony wrote.

The UK and France have spearheaded a so-called “coalition of the willing” – a group of countries that have pledged to help Ukraine secure if a ceasefire deal is reached with Russia.

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Global markets have given Trump a clear no-confidence vote – and his fickleness is making the problem worse

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Global markets have given Trump a clear no-confidence vote - and his fickleness is making the problem worse

Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.

The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.

The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.

Tariffs latest: FTSE 100 suffers biggest daily drop since COVID

Financial investors had been gradually re-calibrating their expectations of Donald Trump over the past few months.

Hopes that his actions may not match his rhetoric were dashed on Wednesday as he imposed sweeping tariffs on the US’ trading partners, ratcheting up protectionism to a level not seen in more than a century.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump holds a "Foreign Trade Barriers" document as he delivers remarks on tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 2, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
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On Wednesday, Donald Trump announced global tariffs, ratcheting up protectionism. Pic: Reuters

04 April 2025, Hesse, Frankfurt/Main: Stock exchange traders watch their monitors on the trading floor of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange while the display board with the Dax curve shows falling prices. US President Trump had issued a huge tariff package against trading partners around the world. The European Union and China have already announced countermeasures. Photo by: Arne Dedert/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
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Traders at the Frankfurt stock exchange watched the DAX plummet on Friday. Pic: Picture-alliance/dpa/AP

Markets were always going to respond to that but they are also battling with another problem: the lack of certainty when it comes to Trump.

More on Donald Trump

He is a capricious figure and we can only guess his next move. Will he row back? How far is he willing to negotiate and offer concessions?

Read more:
No winners from Trump’s tariff gameshow
Trade war sparks ‘$2.2trn’ global sell-off

These are massive unknowns, which are piled on to uncertainty about how countries will respond.

China has already retaliated and Europe has indicated it will go further.

Aerial view of a ro-ro terminal for vehicle shipment in Yantai in eastern China's Shandong province, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (Chinatopix Via AP) CHINA OUT
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Vehicles destined for export, like these in Yantai in eastern China, face massive US tariffs. Pic: Chinatopix/AP

Cargo containers line a shipping terminal at the Port of Oakland on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
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Container ports like Oakland in California might expect activity to fall. Pic: AP

That will compound the problems for the global economy and undoubtedly send shivers through the markets.

Much is yet to be determined, but if there’s one thing markets hate, it’s uncertainty.

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