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“Will Talk To Congress, Others”: Sharad Pawar On Disputes Within INDIA

Sharad Pawar stressed that elections are due in states is more important for them.

Pune:

The INDIA bloc will take precautions to ensure that there are no disputes among its alliance partners in states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh where elections are due in a few months, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said on Friday.

He was speaking to reporters in Baramati.

More than two dozen opposition parties have formed the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) to take on the BJP in next year’s general elections.

Replying to a question about apparent friction in West Bengal as the Congress has staked claim to some seats, the veteran politician said there are no elections there in the immediate future.

“When elections near, the possibility of differences (among INDIA bloc partners) cannot be ruled out. However, we will sort the issues by sending neutral leaders from the alliance,” he said.

Mr Pawar stressed that elections are due in a few months in four to five states and that is more important for them.

“INDIA bloc will see how all the alliance partners come on one page in states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. After returning to Mumbai, I will hold discussions with Congress and other party leaders and we will take precautions to ensure that there are no disputes among the alliance partners (in these states),” he said.

This process will start in the next eight to ten days, the NCP chief said.

Assembly elections are due in a few months in Chattisgarh, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana.

Conservatives pitch McCarthy alternatives as ouster talk heats up

McCarthy has faced public threats to his gavel for weeks as he navigates a looming government shutdown. Yet the private discussions — including in closed-door House Freedom Caucus meetings this week — about a potential successor indicate his detractors have hit a more serious phase in their plans.

The main problem in finding a new speaker isn’t a lack of interest, but rather a consensus that no one else could bring in McCarthy’s level of support in a fractured GOP conference. And even if McCarthy were ousted and sat out a future ballot, members generally agree an open speaker’s race would become a bloodbath, potentially leaving them with no clear successor.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), the former Freedom Caucus chair, has privately raised Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) as a potential choice, according to two Republicans familiar with the discussions. Biggs, however, denied claims that he had mentioned Emmer as untrue, while slamming any claims of the conservative group coalescing around the whip as “completely false.”

But still, there’s hardly consensus around his name at this point. Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) was also raised as an option, but now his ongoing health issues have been cited as an issue, according to three House conservatives.

“I fully support Speaker McCarthy. He knows that and I know that. I have zero interest in palace intrigue. End of discussion,” Emmer said in a statement to POLITICO.

The Washington Post first reported hardliners’ discussions about Emmer as a McCarthy replacement.

It’s deja vu for House Republicans, who slogged through a historic 15-round speakership fight in January while McCarthy allies frequently challenged his critics by asking: “Who else?”

Still, conservative hardliners largely say they aren’t actively pushing an ejection effort, at least not yet. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), they say, is leading the push. And the group of rabble rousers is divided on that front; a theme that has persisted through much of this year.

Many of the House Freedom Caucus’ most high-profile members — including Chair Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Policy Chair Chip Roy (R-Texas) — have kept their distance from a potential ouster fight. Another Freedom Caucus member, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, suggested that the lack of a clear alternative is keeping other Republicans from moving forward with any plan to boot McCarthy.

And even some Freedom Caucus members have a blunt message for their colleagues: No one besides McCarthy can get the votes to be speaker.

“The problem is — and this is the same problem we saw with the 15 ballots at the beginning of the year — it is my belief that there is nobody at this point in time that has the majority votes in order to become speaker other than Kevin McCarthy,” said Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), a Freedom Caucus member.

“If you know somebody, name them. I don’t know somebody that has that kind of a following or that kind of a commitment from a vast majority from the members of the Republican conference,” he added.

Conservatives pitch McCarthy alternatives as ouster talk heats up

Conservative hardliners are privately strategizing who could replace Kevin McCarthy if there is an ouster effort against the speaker.

But they’re hitting a familiar dead end: They can’t land on a feasible alternative.

“You hear all kinds of names thrown out,” said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the ultra-conservative caucus, adding that McCarthy “has done some good things. He needs a chance. … He’s got to deliver on these spending bills.”

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), the former Freedom Caucus chair, has privately raised Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) as a potential choice, according to two Republicans familiar with the discussions. But still, there’s hardly consensus around his name at this point. Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) was also raised as an option, but now his ongoing health issues have been cited as an issue, according to three House conservatives.

“I fully support Speaker McCarthy. He knows that and I know that. I have zero interest in palace intrigue. End of discussion,” Emmer said in a statement to POLITICO.

It’s deja vu for House Republicans, who slogged through a historic 15-round speakership fight in January while McCarthy allies frequently challenged his critics by asking: “Who else?”

Still, conservative hardliners largely say they aren’t actively pushing an ejection effort, at least not yet Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), they say, is leading the push. And the group of rabble rousers is divided on that front; a theme that has persisted through much of this year.

And even some Freedom Caucus members have a blunt message for their colleagues: No one besides McCarthy can get the votes to be speaker.

Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers Reveal That Lorne Michaels Helped Them Get Their Talk Shows

NBC didn’t want Jimmy Fallon to host Late Night at first.

The Saturday Night Live alum revealed during a recent Strike Force Five podcast episode that Lorne Michaels helped him land the job, which he held from from 2009 until 2014,

Fallon was exploring a film career when Michaels threw out the prospects of hosting a late-night show.

“I was leaving SNL and so [Michaels] goes, ‘Would you ever want to do it? A talk show?’ I go, ‘I don’t think so,’” Fallon told podcast cohosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver. “And so I said, ‘Well, in six years, ask m,e and if I, you know, if I’m around, I’ll think about it.’”

Six years later, Michaels returned.

Fallon said his wife encouraged him to take the gig.”‘You have to take this job. You’re one of three human beings to ever do this: David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, and you. And, if anything, you’re on a great list of people. Like, this is insane.’”

He continued, “So, I call Lorne, and I go, ‘I’m in. I’d love to do it.’ He goes, ‘Great. NBC doesn’t really want you. But we have to talk to them.’ I’m not even on their list, by the way.”

Fallon, the network felt at the time, no longer had sizzle after two film flops

“I think Lorne said, ‘Look, I’ve worked with Jimmy. He’s a hard worker. He’s going to be great at this. Either you do this with Jimmy or I’m not involved,’” he said. “Or something like that. He actually went to bat for me and changed my life.”

Meyers also related how Michaels’ blessing was a key to him getting his talk gig. He said a New York Post article claimed he was up for the gig, which prompted a Michaels call.

“When you talk to Lorne, it often feels like a follow-up call to a conversation that never happened… He literally just started saying, ‘You know, I think you’ll do it and it’ll be good and it’ll take time, but you’ll, you know, you’ll have Jimmy as a lead in,’” Meyers said. “So there was again no moment when anyone ever said to me, Would you like to do this.”

Psychologists having to talk to young offenders through cell doors

Traumatised children in a young offender institution are talking to psychologists through the hatch in their cell doors as there are not enough guards to unlock them for therapy sessions, the Guardian has learned.

“Our ability to have children unlocked for sessions has decreased massively,” said Dr Radha Kothari, the principal clinical psychologist at Feltham young offender institution in west London, which holds boys aged 15 to 18 who have committed the most serious crimes, including rape and murder.

Many of the teenagers have suffered childhood trauma, with an overrepresentation of autism, ADHD and other neurological disorders.

She said there were about double the number of children in Feltham since she started work there a year ago, and frequently not enough officers to unlock their cells safely. The MoJ would not comment on the number of children in the institution.

“Often we are only able to speak to the children through cell doors,” said Kothari, who is employed by the local health trust rather than the Ministry of Justice. Alternatively, she and colleagues try to snatch conversations with the teenagers during their exercise time, in lieu of private sessions in dedicated consultation rooms.

“We are not delivering therapy through the cell doors or on the yard,” she stressed. “Rather, when we are unable to have a full session in a contained and confidential space, we are attempting to have therapeutic conversations to check in, risk-assess and try and support.”

She added: “I feel frustrated about being unable to … provide the young person the kind of support that they need in a safe contained environment. It’s very difficult to have conversations that are really open and honest, because there isn’t confidentiality and other people on the unit would be able to hear.”

She underlined that it is “absolutely not the fault of the prison staff” but a “broader systemic issue”.

Feltham young offender institution in west London. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

She added: “They will try very hard to accommodate us. We operate a trauma-informed approach, which means that prison staff are trained in early attachment theory and trained in trauma. Everybody is really working together to try and enable that access to activities to therapeutic work, etc. But we are limited by the security guidelines of how many people are needed on a unit to be able to unlock safely.”

Feltham became the first children’s prison to be put into special measures in 2019 after inspectors found an “extraordinary decline in standards”. A follow-up inspection last year found marked improvements, but warned it remained a “fragile place”.

The Guardian has learned that gang rivalries are starting to cause problems again in Feltham, with an increase in the number of children on “keep apart” lists designed to prevent certain groups from mixing.

This is partly blamed on transfers from Cookham Wood, a young offender institution in Rochester, Kent, which was put into special measures in July after inspectors found a dirty, unsafe environment.

Inspectors found 90% of boys in Cookham Wood were being segregated from other prisoners, with staff managing 583 individual conflicts in a population of 77 children. As a result many children were only allowed out of their cells for half an hour a day. They came across two boys requiring protection from their peers who had been subjected to conditions amounting to solitary confinement for more than 100 days.

In Feltham, “there’s definitely more reports from the children that they are not being let out every day for the things that they should be let out for, such as education, exercise, gym, etc”, said Kothari.

She worries about the psychological damage caused to children by the lack of social interaction at a key point in their development. “They are in a developmental period that is very much focused on socialising, understanding your place in the world, understanding your identity amongst others, learning how to interact socially. And not having the space to sit with someone one to one in a confidential space can really limit all of these things,” she said.

The Guardian asked the Ministry of Justice about staffing levels at Feltham but the department did not respond to the question. Instead, a Youth Custody Service spokesperson said: “We are taking decisive action to deliver improvements at HMP and YOI Feltham and providing extra support to the governor.

“While assaults across youth custody have fallen by 12%, the number of children in custody has fallen by 77% and we have recruited and trained 4,000 youth justice workers since 2017, we know there is still work to do to support the most complex and vulnerable children in the justice system.

“The first-ever secure school will open next year and create a modern and safe environment that gives young offenders the skills and support they need to turn away from crime.”

Deadline’s Doc Talk Podcast: Actress Kasia Smutniak Leaves Safety Of Soundstage To Make A Border Crisis Documentary

There’s a crisis at the border: migrants stranded in desperate conditions, steel and barbed wire barriers thrown in their path.

We’re not talking about the U.S.-Mexico border, but the one separating Poland and Belarus. Poland has spent over $400 million erecting a wall stretching more than a hundred miles, designed to repel migrants mostly from Iraq and other parts of the Middle East. Belarus, meanwhile, has been accused of luring asylum-seekers to its country with a false promise of easy passage into European Union countries like Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, in a cynical attempt to destabilize the EU.

Into this calamitous humanitarian situation steps filmmaker Kasia Smutniak with her documentary Walls, which premiered this month at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival. The actress-turned-director is our guest on Episode 3 of Doc Talk, the new podcast hosted by Oscar-winning writer-director John Ridley and Deadline’s Documentary Editor Matt Carey. Doc Talk is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios, presented in association with National Geographic Documentary Films.

Smutniak, who was born in Poland and became a star of Italian cinema (including Paolo Sorrentino’s Loro), explains why she returned to her native country to expose conditions at the Belarusian border. The project put Smutniak and her filmmaking team in peril and subject to arrest – Poland prohibits approaching the border wall. “The zone is off-limits to the public, including aid workers and journalists,” notes Al Jazeera.

“Smutniak’s film harnesses the pacing of a thriller,” TIFF says, “to reveal that some walls are invisible, insurmountable, and built to arbitrarily divide humans into those worthy of sympathy and those who aren’t.”

That’s on Episode 3 of Doc Talk, a podcast exploring the art of documentary film.

“Lots To Say, But…”: Supreme Court’s Tough Talk On Judges’ Appointments

Supreme Court has flagged the delay in appointment of judges

New Delhi:

In what could turn into another face-off between the Executive and Judiciary over judges’ appointments, the Supreme Court today questioned why the centre has not sent recommendations of high courts to the Collegium yet.

Hearing petitions alleging delay by the centre in clearing names, a bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia said they are closely monitoring the matter. “Eighty names from high court have been pending for a period of 10 months. There is only a basic process that takes place. Your view has to be known so that the collegium can take a call,” said Justice Kaul, addressing the centre.

The bench said the transfer of 26 judges and the appointment of a Chief Justice in a “sensitive high court” is pending.

“I have the information of how many names have been pending which have been recommended by the high court but haven’t been received by the Collegium,” Justice Kaul said.

Attorney General R Venkatramani sought a week’s time to respond. The bench granted him two weeks and asked him to return with Centre’s submission. The matter will now be heard on October 9.

In strong remarks, Justice Kaul said, “I have a lot to say, but I am stopping myself. I am silent because the A-G has asked for a week to respond, but I won’t be quiet on the next date.”

The appointment of judges has been a key issue of contention between the Supreme Court and the Executive. Central ministers have argued that the government should have a role in the selection of judges.

The Supreme Court had in October 2015 struck down the National Judicial Appointments Act that gave the bigger role of Executive in judges appointments.

The tussle between the Executive and Judiciary was raked up last year by Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s remarks on how the Supreme Court ruling had “undone” the law.

Soon after, the court had said the Collegium system is the “law of the land” which should be “followed to the teeth”. Just because some sections of the society express a view against the Collegium system, it will not cease to be the law of the land, it said.

Under the Collegium system, the Chief Justice of India and seniormost judges recommend names of judges for appointment to high courts and the Supreme Court. The names are sent to the centre and following its clearance, appointments are made by the President.

NYPD cops talk man down from Williamsburg Bridge in daring rescue caught on bodycam

NYPD officers scaled the Williamsburg Bridge Sunday to talk down a suicidal New Yorker in a daring rescue captured on bodycam video.

Members of the department’s Emergency Service Unit climbed up the bridge at 5:23 p.m. after 911 callers reported spotting a man threatening to jump from atop the span.

The cops made their way to the man, who was hundreds of feet above the East River, through the stormy weather and were able to safely bring him back to ground level, the NYPD said.

“Suspended hundreds of feet above the water, they remained undeterred by the dangerous rainy conditions,” the department said in a statement.

The bodycam footage shows two officers calmly trying to convince the man to come back down the bridge with them.

“My man, talk to me,” one of the specialized officers said in the clip released by the NYPD. “I’m here to help you, man. Talk to me. What’s your name?”

Police received multiple calls from people reporting a man threatening to jump from the bridge Williamsburg Sunday.

Body camera footage from a cop shows ESU officers talk a man down from jumping off the Williamsburg Bridge.

Members from the department’s Emergency Service Unit climbed up the bridge at 5:23 p.m., where they spotted the man and successfully brung him down.

“Whatever you’re going through, it happens to all of us, man, ya know? But we gotta get you down from there,” he said. “But listen, we gotta do this carefully ’cause it’s raining. It’s super slippery so I care about your safety and my partner’s.”

The clip — which was edited to protect the man’s identity and for length — ends with the two harnessed officers helping the man down to additional ESU cops waiting below.

If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.

WGA Deal: How Quickly Will Sidelined Daytime Talk Shows Like ‘Drew Barrymore’, ‘Jennifer Hudson’ & ‘The Talk’ Return

The 2023-24 television season started without several of the most prominent daytime talk shows, the syndicated The Drew Barrymore Show, The Jennifer Hudson Show and The Kelly Clarkson Show and CBS’ The Talk. They are now expected to return for new seasons by the second week of October.

The Kelly Clarkson Show‘s delay was attributed to the program moving from Los Angeles to New York, which required the building of a new set. Meanwhile, The Drew Barrymore Show, The Jennifer Hudson Show and The Talk postponed their Sept. 18 season premieres amid backlash and picketing by the WGA as the three programs, along with The Kelly Clarkson Show, are guild signatories. (They each employ a couple of WGA writers, making them struck productions during a strike even after the shows said that they would return without writers.)

With the writers and the studios reaching a tentative agreement tonight, the delayed daytime talkers are expected to return when the new contract is ratified by the WGA membership, which is expected within two weeks. (That is if the membership vote “yes”, which historically has been overwhelmingly the case.)

It is possible for the shows to go back to production even sooner. In tonight’s announcement, the WGA told members that they could be able to return to work during the ratification vote, before the new contract has been ratified.

I hear that it would take about a week for the talk shows to be up and running after cleared to go back to production. Given the sensitivity of the issue and the wave of criticism earlier this month, the shows likely would wait for writers to return to work before they start gearing up to go back. That could be as early as late next week. It is unclear if any already filmed episodes of some of the talk shows would air.

The Kelly Clarkson Show is said to be in the final stages of pre-production and on a similar timeline for a Season 5 return.

While the WGA strike is coming to an end, SAG-AFTRA will remain on strike until that guild reaches a new agreement with the AMPTP. While that will impact the kind of guests the talk shows can have — no actors unless they represent indie productions with interim agreements — production will not be affected.

As Deadline has reported extensively, daytime talk shows are covered by a different SAG-AFTRA deal, not the the film and TV agreement which expired June 30, launching the current strike. Working under the SAG-AFTRA Network Code agreement, daytime hosts are not in violation of strike rules and are required to go to work.

The new seasons of The Drew Barrymore Show, The Jennifer Hudson Show and The Kelly Clarkson Show are launching amid a challenging time for the syndicated daytime talk show business. These programs are far from being moneymakers for the studios the genre was at the time Oprah Winfrey ruled daytime. First-run syndication as a whole has diminished to a point that all major companies have folded the units into other areas, including news and reality. Daytime talk shows have some of the worst financial prospects, making it harder to break even or turn a profit.

As a result, the number of daytime syndicated talk shows is smaller than ever, with no major new entrants this year and a slew of long-running stalwarts ending over the last couple of years, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Dr. Phil, Maury, Racheal Ray and Dr. Oz. There are studios that are out of that business altogether; Sony got out if after two high-profile shows that lost money, The Queen Latifah Show and The Mel Robbins Show.

The agreement could put talk shows back on the air.

As the actors’ strike continues on, most television shows and movies will not be able to resume without them. But late-night and daytime talk shows could return after the resolution of the writers’ strike, potentially bringing relief to one corner of the industry.

There were no immediate announcements of shows returning to air.

But the end of the writers’ strike could relieve pressure on talk show hosts, some of whom were hotly criticized in recent weeks after announcing plans to return before the strikes were resolved.

“The Drew Barrymore Show,” “The Jennifer Hudson Show,” “Real Time With Bill Maher” and “The Talk” were among the shows to roll back previously announced plans to start broadcasting new episodes on Monday, responding to a fierce backlash online and pickets outside studios.

Some shows, including “The View,” have continued to air new episodes filmed without its unionized writers. Though the same was possible at other shows, many network hosts have opted to stay off the air, reluctant to be seen as not supporting the strikes.

‘Ex-Husbands’ Co-Stars Griffin Dunne & James Norton Talk Interim Agreements & Hopes For Fair Strike Resolution Soon – San Sebastian

Noah Pritzker’s bittersweet father and sons tale Ex-Husbands (aka Men Of Divorce) world premieres in Competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival on Sunday as one of the few U.S. productions to be accompanied by its cast this year thanks to its SAG-AFTRA interim agreement.

Griffin Dunne co-stars as a New York dentist who is reeling from his wife’s demand for a divorce after 35 years of marriage, opposite James Norton and Miles Heizer as his sons.

In search of some respite, he unwittingly travels to the Mexican resort of Tulum the same weekend as his oldest son’s bachelor party, where it emerges that he is not the only one suffering a life crisis.

The mainly Spanish press gave the warm-hearted picture – exploring family bonds and questions about love, life and death – an enthusiastic reception at a packed 8.30 am screening on Sunday morning ahead of a gala screening this evening.

Produced by Academy Award winner Bruce Cohen (American Beauty) under his Play Book Productions banner, Alexandra Byer at Rathaus Films and Nicolás Celis at Mexico City-based Pimienta Films (Birds of Passage), Ex-Husbands is among just under 500 independent feature productions to have qualified for a SAG-AFTRA Agreement since the beginning of the Actors’ Strike on July 14.

Pritzker said the interim agreement was a game-changer for an independent production like Ex-Husbands.

“It’s a small independent movie looking for distribution so to come without cast would have presented a whole other set of challenges,” he said.

Dunne, who takes an executive producer credit on the film, said he consulted with SAG before agreeing to join the festival tour.

“They recognise that this film did not have a distributor, was independently financed and wasn’t particularly relevant to the major issues that they were negotiating for. So, when I had their blessing, I’m thrilled to be here,” he said.

Norton suggested that while there had been initial confusion about whether actors should travel with films that had secured interim agreements, he was clear in his mind that it was the right thing to do.

“SAG has very openly said now that we should be encouraging independently financed movies more than ever. This is what we want. We want to be able to nourish that particular part of the industry,” he said.

Quizzed by a Spanish journalist on their hopes for an end to the strikes, Dunne said he had learned how to deal with periods of inactivity over the course of his career but that he was concerned for other members of the acting profession.

“I’ve been out of work for periods of time before so I’m familiar with that neurosis, but it’s been really tough for younger actors and actors who, you know, are more journeyman, who live from on one parts from one series to the next. A lot of actors are really hurting. So hopefully, it will get resolved soon.”

UK actor Norton said he had not been impacted as much as his U.S. counterparts due to the fact he is currently working in the theatre and that a handful of UK Equity Productions are still shooting.

“I’m very fortunate to be able to continue to work and I feel an immense gratitude obviously to those people who are making huge sacrifices on the other side of the pond for all of our sakes,” he said.

“It’s also worth mentioning, as Griffin said. that many actors are suffering. Many, many crew members are also suffering. So many people are affected by this, every single department, caterers, grips… it’s a huge, huge problem. And for them, not much is going to change so they’re making the ultimate sacrifice.”

Ex-Husbands is Pritzker’s second feature after 2015 drama Quitters.

He recounted how he had started working on the screenplay prior to the pandemic, taking inspiration from his own parents’ divorce as well as his father’s request to attend his bachelor party (which he turned down).

Griffin said he had fallen in love with his character.

“I’ve been acting for quite a long time. One year, you’re playing a lawyer, and then decades later you’re a Supreme Court judge, your somebody’s parent and then you’re somebody’s grandparent,” he said.

“To have a script with such a complex, interesting, funny character at my age, that is a central figure was so rare and a delight.”

Other cast members include Rosanna Arquette and Richard Benjamin.

“It’s my 11th or 12th shoot (with Rosanne Arquette),” said Dunne. “In 1980, we met in Poland for the shoot of a television movie called The Wall. Then I produced a movie called Baby It’s You (1983). Then we did After Hours… it’s been going on for quite while,” said Dunne.

“It just made perfect sense for Rosanna to be in this film. It was Noah’s call, but I was delighted. We just sort of picked up where we left off. We’re very close friends.”

Dunne revealed he was also huge fan of Benjamin’s work as an actor and director, particularly in the 1970s and 80s, and had even auditioned for his 1982 Oscar-nominated film My Favorite Year.

“I so wanted that movie. And here I was, now acting with hilm. I was just drilling him with questions about directing movies in the 70s and working with his wife (Paula Prentiss). I just took advantage of every moment I had with him.”

“India Walked The Talk In South-South Cooperation”: S Jaishankar On G20

New York:

Underlining the many aspects of India’s G20 presidency that the world might “find useful”, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said New Delhi has walked the talk when it comes to South-South cooperation. He also lauded the inclusion of the African Union as a permanent G20 member calling it one of the most important outcomes of the summit.

Addressing the ‘India-UN for Global South: Delivering for Development’ event in New York, the External Affairs Minister said, “While we are the G20 president till the end of this year, both before the G20 presidency and after it, we will remain very much a partner, a contributor, a collaborator, in our own way perhaps an inspiration to others on how to address developmental challenges. Our experiences and our challenges, we place before in a spirit of sharing.”

He added that the message that India sought to convey by making the African Union a full member of the G20 under its presidency would resonate not just within the grouping but also beyond it.

“…we know that there may be aspects of it which you may find useful from, as Ambassador Kamboj mentioned, that we are today active in almost 80 countries around the world. And what I can say is that when it has come to South-South cooperation, we have endeavoured to walk the talk,” Jaishankar said at the UN event.

He added that geopolitical calculations and contests today are affecting the very basic requirements of many nations, including their affordable access to food, fertilizers and energy.

“With each passing day, in fact, it has become clearer to us that today geopolitical calculations and geopolitical contests are impacting very basic requirements of many countries, including their affordable access to food, to fertilizers and to energy,” Jaishankar said.

“It was therefore, for us a particularly onerous responsibility to make sure that in collaboration with all our G20 members, we were able to refocus the G20 on the urgent depressing needs of the Global South and this was reflected in my mind in eight key outcomes of the New Delhi G20 Summit – the action plan for sustainable Development Goals, the reform of international financial institutions, a Green development Pact, the high principles for Life the Lifestyle for Environment Initiative, an understanding on debt management, a consensus on woman-led development, an acceptance of digital public infrastructure and an agreement to undertake global skills mapping,” he added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)