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For Immediate Release
July, 20 2016, 12:15pm EDT
Contact:
Email:,coord(at)jubileeusa.org
Negotiators Struggle for Agreement on Debt and Tax Issues at UN Development Summit
Vatican Highlights Trade and "Vulture Fund" Impact at Nairobi Meetings
WASHINGTON
A United Nations global development summit begins its fourth day of difficult negotiations in Nairobi, Kenya. The member countries of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) define the institution's purpose and economic and development focuses every four years. The more than 10,000 attendees include UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the Vatican's Cardinal Peter Turkson, heads of state and finance ministers. As delegates tire of round the clock negotiations, less than 48 hours remain to reach a deal that renews the UN agency's mandate.
"We are facing a real battle on debt and tax policies," stated Eric LeCompte, who serves on various UN debt and tax expert groups. "We are running out of time to reach an agreement. Amazingly, the world's poorest people, the World Bank and the G20 all rely on the work of this institution." LeCompte is the executive director of the religious development coalition Jubilee USA.
On Tuesday, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, the Pope's chief emissary to the United Nations in Geneva, charged the delegates gathered in Nairobi to "help developing countries to attain long-term debt sustainability." He asked the summit to "aim at a high level of ambition" and seek to support developing countries. Jurkovic also reminded all delegates of the UN mandate to address the predatory behavior of so-called "vulture funds." The Vatican leader also made some of the strongest statements on trade policy noting, "Most importantly any development and growth strategy needs to be centered on the human person and on the primacy of human work. The Holy See believes that in order to achieve this result it is of primary importance to integrate the different social and economic dimensions of development, so as to create an international system balanced on an idea of development that would be truly sustainable, inclusive and equitable at all levels."
"The Vatican delegation is the moral compass of this summit and they are bringing sides together to ensure we have a deal that lifts people and promotes the common good." noted LeCompte. "Their presence and their words remind us that people's lives are at stake."
One of the highest ranking Vatican officials landed in Nairobi on Tuesday night to bring the message of Pope Francis to the UNCTAD meetings. Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, will headline a high-level session on Wednesday afternoon.
The Nairobi summit comes amid increasing debt crises across Africa, including significant crises in countries like Mozambique and Ghana. Thirty of the 38 countries that received international debt relief over the past twenty years are African.
"UNCTAD built the consensus for billions of dollars in international debt relief that benefited the world's poorest countries," stated LeCompte. "This year's summit can continue that legacy by promoting improved debt restructuring and responsible lending and borrowing."
Read more about the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
Read the draft outcomes document for the UNCTAD summit
Read the intervention from Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic at the XIV Ministerial Conference of UNCTAD
Read about a Ministerial Round Table on sovereign debt: Re-Assessing Debt Sustainability in the Contemporary Economy
Jubilee USA Network is an interfaith, non-profit alliance of religious, development and advocacy organizations. We are 75 U.S. institutions and more than 750 faith groups working across the United States and around the globe. We address the structural causes of poverty and inequality in our communities and countries around the world.
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'Genocide Has No Place in This World': Activists Sabotage Israeli-Owned Elbit Weapons Factory in UK
"We are fucking sick and tired of our government's collaboration in this genocide," said one activist who participated in the direct action.
Apr 24, 2026
In the early hours of Friday morning, members of the anti-war group People Against Genocide in the United Kingdom gained access to the roof of a drone manufacturing facility in the city of Leicester and began sabotaging a so-called "clean room" to hamper the building of weapons used in the ongoing Israeli military assault on Gaza that experts from around the world characterize as genocide and a crime against humanity.
The UAV Tactical Systems facility, owned by the Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems Ltd., has been the target of protest in recent years for its role in providing the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) with unmanned aerial drones, combat vehicles, surveillance equipment, and other military hardware.
"We are fucking sick and tired of our government's collaboration in this genocide that Israel is committing against the Palestinian people," said one unnamed activist, sitting on the facility's roof early Friday. "We are tired of waiting for them to uphold international law."
Activists from ‘People Against Genocide’ have occupied a Leicester factory owned by Elbit Systems UK this morning, drilling a hole through its roof in order to abseil into the building.
The team of activists evaded security and used ladders to climb over razor-wire fencing at… pic.twitter.com/uWJ0r6s2av
— Novara Media (@novaramedia) April 24, 2026
Footage posted online by The Aftershock, a media outlet focused on the pro-Palestinian movement, showed members of the People Against Genocide on the roof of the facility in Leicester and then making their way down toward the manufacturing rooms inside.
"They're breaking the ceiling of the clean room used to make key parts for Israeli military drones," the outlet noted. "Contaminating the clean room can knock it out of use for several months."
BREAKING: 'People Against Genocide' have abseiled through the roof of Elbit's arms factory in Leicester.
They're breaking the ceiling of the clean room used to make key parts for Israeli military drones.
Contaminating the clean room can knock it out of use for several months. pic.twitter.com/BplVIb33bF
— The Aftershock (@The_Aftershock_) April 24, 2026
According to The Canary, a UK-based news outlet:
At approximately 10am, an action taker from the group occupying the roof abseiled into the factory through a hole made with power tools. Whilst abseiling into the weapons factory, the action taker proceeded to damage the ceiling and air supply to the clean room.
The clean room is used to make essential components for Israeli military drones and, once contaminated, it could be out of use for several months.
The action involved four people from direct action group People Against Genocide. They successfully evaded recently-increased security patrols at the plant, and used 10m extension ladders to ascend over razor-wire fencing, gaining access to the factory roof. The team next began to use high-grade power tools to cut their way through the roof, to damage weaponry inside.
"We cannot stand idly by while Elbit continues to manufacture death and destruction here in Leicester," a spokesperson for People Against Genocide said in a statement.
"Petitions, protests and lobbying decision makers who are actively involved in the Gaza genocide, has unsurprisingly, failed to create necessary change," the spokesperson explained. "Therefore, rather than appeal to politicians or the government, we’re bypassing the complicit decision makers and are taking direct action to shut Elbit down and disrupt the murderous Israeli war machine ourselves."
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A coalition of free speech organizations, progressive lawmakers, and antitrust advocates gathered outside the US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC on Thursday to protest a private dinner hosted inside the building by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, who is seeking regulatory approval from the Trump administration for a megamerger of his company and Warner Bros. Discovery.
The invite-only dinner was billed as an "intimate gathering in celebration of the First Amendment honoring the Trump White House"—which has waged war on press freedom—"and CBS White House correspondents." Norm Eisen, co-founder of Democracy Defenders Action, said during Thursday's protest that the dinner "resembles the First Amendment in the same way that a book burning is a celebration of the written word." President Donald Trump attended the dinner, which critics dubbed the "Paramount Corruption Gala."
Organizers of Thursday's demonstration warned that the proposed merger of Paramount and Warner Bros., the parent company of CNN, would be catastrophic for media and free expression. If the merger is approved, David Ellison—the son of Trump megadonor Larry Ellison—would control CBS, CNN, HBO, and other major media properties.
"Tonight’s dinner appears to be nothing more than a transparent bid to flatter the Trump administration into rubber-stamping David Ellison’s proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, which would be a disaster for American news media and media consumers," said Robert Weissman, co-president of the watchdog group Public Citizen. "This proposed acquisition perfectly illustrates the domino effect of corporate and wealth concentration: David Ellison is only positioned to propose this merger because his father, Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, has become richer than any person should be allowed to be."
"This event should be an embarrassment to everyone involved," Weissman added, "including the attendees who have chosen to participate in this offensive charade."
Craig Aaron, co-CEO of the advocacy group Free Press, said that "no company should have this much media power, but especially not this company."
"We're here tonight to defend free speech. We're here tonight to defend press freedom," said Aaron. "We're here to stop government censorship. We're here to stop corruption and stop the Ellisons from trashing even more of our media."
Aaron called on those gathered to say it "loud so that state attorneys general" across the country can hear the message clearly.
"Stop the merger!" they shouted. "Stop the merger!"
Watch the full protest:
The dinner was held hours after Warner Bros. shareholders approved the proposed merger with Paramount, a company that just last summer received approval from the Trump administration to merge with Skydance—a decision that was widely viewed as corrupt. The proposed merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. has drawn vocal opposition from Hollywood actors, directors, and producers, who released an open letter earlier this month warning that the combination would "threaten the sustainability of the entire creative community."
Two members of Congress, Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Becca Balint (D-Vt.), spoke at Thursday's protest, decrying what they called Ellison and Trump's "corrupt merger scheme."
"We're here to say, 'Hell no,'" said Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. The Maryland lawmaker called Ellison's private event "a lavish oligarch’s dinner for Donald Trump."
Ballint told protesters that as she spoke, Ellison was probably "raising a glass to his friend, his supporter, his patron, Donald Trump."
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One House Democrat said the soldier charged with placing successful bets using classified information was "probably just copying what he's seeing elsewhere."
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The US Justice Department announced Thursday that an American special forces soldier has been arrested and charged for pocketing over $400,000 by betting, on the basis of classified information, on the timing of the Trump administration's illegal abduction of Nicolás Maduro earlier this year.
Gannon Ken Van Dyke, an active-duty soldier in the US Army who was involved in planning and executing the operation to kidnap Maduro in early January, was charged with "unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction," the Justice Department said in a statement.
Van Dyke placed a total of 13 bets worth roughly $33,000 on the prediction platform Polymarket. All of his bets took the "yes" position on questions pertaining to whether US forces would invade Venezuela and remove Maduro before the end of January.
The unsealing of the Van Dyke indictment came amid mounting concerns that insiders at the Trump administration—which experts and watchdogs have deemed the most brazenly corrupt administration in US history—are profiting off nonpublic knowledge.
"This soldier was probably just copying what he’s seeing elsewhere," said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.). "The culture of insider trading and corruption starts at the top and is permeating everywhere and everything. This is what people hate about our government now."
One expert gestured at the absurdity of a soldier who placed bets on the Venezuela operation being arrested—but not those in charge of ordering the operation itself, which was a flagrant violation of international law.
"I hear someone was arrested in connection with the patently illegal invasion of Venezuela," wrote Brian Finucane, senior adviser to the US Program at the International Crisis Group. "Can't wait to see who is going to be held accountable for this lawless use of military force..."
President Donald Trump, who has profited massively from his second term in the White House, told reporters on Thursday that he wasn't aware of the charges against Van Dyke. The president then asked, "Was he betting that they would get [Maduro] or they wouldn't get him?"
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Reporter: There was a special forces soldier involved in the capture of Maduro who was arrested on suspicion of insider trading. Are you concerned that federal employees are betting on these reduction markets and potentially getting rich?
Trump: Well, I don't know about it. Was… pic.twitter.com/zmPNGuVL1s
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 23, 2026
Suspiciously timed bets on both the Maduro abduction and the US military assault on Iran have sparked alarm about potentially widespread, lucrative insider trading at the Trump administration and among those in the president's orbit.
Last month, The Financial Times reported that Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth's broker tried to make a multimillion-dollar investment in weapons stocks in the weeks leading up to the US-Israeli attack on Iran.
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