Headline, February 23 2021/ ''' '' [U.S.+ G7] -HONOURS- USHERS '' '''

''' '' [U.S.+ G7] -

HONOURS - USHERS '' '''

JERUSALEM : SOME OF ISRAEL'S ULTRA-ORTHODOX JEWS avoid restriction and some end up paying a very high price. How many more funerals?

THE SCENE : The crowd surged and swirled, like the eddies of an ocean. Crushed against one another, hundreds of men stretched their arms towards the rabbi's body trying to touch the bier in a display of religious devotion.

It was the height of Israel's third lockdown, in an ultra-Orthodox district near the heart of Jerusalem. Gatherings were banned. Masks were mandatory infection rates were spiking, particularly among ultra-Orthodox groups like this one.

YET here were hundreds of mourners, most with mouths uncovered, attending an illegal funeral procession for a revered rabbi who had himself died of the coronavirus.

For those deeply devout Jews, attendance was a religious and personal duty. To briefly grip the rabbi's bier, symbolically assisting his passage from this world, was a profound respect for the dead.

But for secular Israeli society, and even for some within the ultra-Orthodox world, this kind of mass gathering suggested a disrespect for the living. And for all that The World Students Society thanks author Patrick Kingsley.

LONDON : Wealthy G7 powers on Friday ramped up health funding for poorer nations after accusations they are hoarding coronavirus vaccines, as US President Joe Biden and the rest of the leaders declared a ''turning point'' from the psychodramas of the Trump era.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, this year's chair of the G7, vowed to free up any surplus UK vaccines for poorer countries at a future date at a future date, and underlined the need for collective action to recover from the pandemic.

''We've got to make sure the whole world is vaccinated because this is a global pandemic and it's no use one country being far ahead of another, we've got to move together,'' he said in opening remarks at the online summit, the G7 first since last April when the Group was rent apart then president Donald Trump.

At the G7, Biden brought a pledge of $4 billion in US aid to the UN's Covid fund to buy vaccines for global distribution.

Germany said it was giving an extra 1.5 billion euros for the global rollout, and the European union doubled its own Covax funding to one billion euros.

The total in G7 commitments stands at 7.5 billion euros, the group said in a joint statement following the talks.

''Drawing on our strengths and values as democratic, open economies and societies, we will work together and with others to make 2021 a turning point for multilateralism and to shape a recovery that promotes a health and prosperity of our people and planet,'' the leaders added.

But ahead of the gathering, French President Emmanuel Macron had demanded richer nations go further by transferring 3-5 percent of their existing stock to Africa.

''it's an unprecedented acceleration of global inequality and it's political unsustainable too because it's paving the way for a war on influence over vaccines,'' he told the financial Times, as Russia and China set up free or low-cost distribution of their own jabs.

The ONE Campaign, a global organisation co-founded by U2 singer Bono, said the G7 members plus Australia had collectively bought nearly 1.25 billion more doses than they needed to inoculate every member of their populations against Covid-19.

Later Friday, Biden, Johnson and EU leaders in the G& joined another gathering online, the annual Munich Security Conference, to discuss ''renewing transatlantic cooperation''.

Biden became the first US president to address the Munich meeting, underlining a decisive shift after cooperation was all but broken under his go-it-alone predecessor.

The struggle worldwide between democracy and autocracy is at an ''inflection point'', Biden told the Munich conference.

''And I believe with every ounce of my being that democracy must prevail.''

German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed President Biden's arrival on the stage.

''Multiculturalism is boosted through the change in the US government - the Biden administration has already demonstrated this with its first decisions'' on returning to the Paris climate accord and rejoining the World Health Organization [WHO], she said.

The Honor and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Covid recovery and the World operations, continues. The World Students Society thanks AFP.

With respectful dedication to the Leaders of the World, Grandparents, Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers. See Ya all prepare and register for  Great Global Elections on The World Students Society :  wssciw.blogspot.com and  Twitter !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

''' Power - Parks '''

Good Night and God Bless

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