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The journalists of Ukraine were also
awarded a special citation for coverage of the Russian invasion, as the
Pulitzer board paid homage to the 12 journalists who have been killed covering
the Ukraine war this year. The annual Pulitzers are the most
prestigious awards in US journalism, with special attention often paid to the
public service award. This year that award went to the Washington
Post for its coverage of the siege of the US Capitol by supporters of former
President Donald Trump, when a violent mob disrupted the congressional count of
electoral votes that unseated Trump and officially made Joe Biden president. The Washington Post won "for its
compellingly told and vividly presented account of the assault on Washington on
January 6, 2021, providing the public with a thorough and unflinching
understanding of one of the nation's darkest days," Pulitzer Prize
Administrator Marjorie Miller announced. The events of that day also resulted in a
breaking news photography Pulitzer for a team of photographers from Getty
Images. In feature photography, a team of Reuters
photographers including the late Danish Siddiqui, who was killed last July
while on assignment covering the war in Afghanistan, won the Pulitzer for
coverage of the coronavirus pandemic's toll in India. Reuters, which was also named as a feature
photography finalist for images of climate change around the world, won for
"images of COVID's toll in India that balanced intimacy and
devastation," Miller said. Besides Siddiqui, the Reuters photographers
honoured were Adnan Abidi, Sanna Irshad Mattoo and Amit Dave. "A world largely preoccupied with its
own suffering was jolted awake to the scale of India's outbreak after Reuters
photographers documented it," Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni
said in a statement. "To have Danish's incredible work
honored in this way is a tribute to the enduring mark he has left on the world
of photojournalism," Galloni said of Siddiqui, who was also part of the
Reuters photography team to win the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography
for documenting the Rohingya refugee crisis. The Pulitzer was the 10th for Reuters, a
unit of Thomson Reuters, and the seventh in the last five years. With three more Pulitzers this year, the
New York Times has won 135 since the awards were first presented in 1917. The Times took one for national reporting
for its coverage of fatal traffic stops by police; another for international
reporting for its examination of the failures of the US air war in the Middle
East; and a third for criticism for Salamishah Tillet, a contributing critic at
large, for her writing on race in arts and culture. Besides winning the international reporting
award, the Times was named as a finalist in the category twice more: for the
fall of Afghanistan and the assassination of Haiti's president. In addition, New York Times reporter Andrea
Elliott won a Pulitzer Prize in the general nonfiction category for her book
"Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City,"
which started with a 2013 series published by the newspaper. The Pulitzer board made note of the
"challenging and dangerous times for journalists around the world,"
noting 12 journalists killed covering the Ukraine war, eight Mexican
journalists murdered this year, and other cases of assault and intimidation
against journalists in Afghanistan and Myanmar. The special citation for journalists of
Ukraine applauded their "courage, endurance and commitment to truthful
reporting during Vladimir Putin's ruthless invasion of their country and his propaganda
war in Russia." The prizes, awarded since 1917, were
established in the will of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, who died in
1911 and left money to help start a journalism school at Columbia University
and establish the prizes. They began with four awards in journalism,
four in letters and drama, one for education, and five travelling scholarships.
Today they typically honour 15 categories in media reporting, writing and
photography plus seven awards in books, drama and music. A board of mostly senior editors at leading
US media and academics presides over the judging process that determines the
winners. | 2 |
Britain is not doing enough to prepare for the impacts of climate change, raising costs for homes and businesses, two separate bodies said this week. "The UK must start acting now to prepare for climate change. If we wait, it will be too late," said John Krebs, chair of the Adaptation Sub-Committee on Climate Change, an independent body which advises the government on climate adaptation. "If no action is taken, there will be very significant costs on households and businesses and the UK will miss out on some business opportunities as well," Krebs told reporters at a briefing. The report was a "wake-up call," and every part of society must think about the UK's resilience to climate change, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said on Thursday. "The transition to a low carbon, well-adapted global economy could create hundreds of thousands of sustainable green jobs. But we must -- all of us -- take steps now to recognise the problem, analyse the risk and plan ahead," she said. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels is essential but the UK also needs to adapt to ensure it is prepared for temperature increases, more intense rainfall and rising sea levels, the report said. Temperatures are already 1 degree centigrade higher than they were in the 1970s. Insured losses from weather-related events cost around 1.5 billion pounds a year. "By planning ahead and taking timely adaptation action, the UK could halve the costs and damages from moderate amounts of warming," the report said. The government needs to make sure adaptation is factored into land use planning, ensure national infrastructure and buildings can cope with rising temperatures, use water more efficiently and have an effective emergency planning strategy in place to cope with severe weather. SOLUTIONS "My advice to the government is to look at incentives such as water metering," Krebs said. The government could also modify the objectives of regulators like Ofgem and Ofwat to ensure the sustainability of electricity and water use and supply, he added. "We talked to Ofwat and they are aware of the issue but I still think their priority is to ensure the price remains low," Krebs said. Insurance can also serve as a price signal to drive action. However, insurance companies could go further to support property owners to improve the resilience of their homes, the report said. "Some time in the next couple of years there will be a re-assessment by the insurance industry on the level of risk they are prepared to cover. If they change the assessment of what is an acceptable risk to them, that will drive people to take action (in a different way)" Krebs said. UK businesses also need to include climate change in their risk assessments and, if necessary, in their corporate reporting, a separate report by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said. They should also be sharing non-commercially sensitive information so different sectors are consistent in their approach and can deliver cost savings. | 0 |
Dismayed by ice and storms, British explorer Captain James Cook had no regrets when he abandoned a voyage searching for a fabled southern continent in 1773. Finding only icebergs after he was the first to cross the Antarctic Circle, he wrote ruefully that if anyone ventured further and found a "land doomed by nature...to lie for ever buried under everlasting ice and snow": "I shall not envy him the honor of discovery, but I will be bold to say that the world will not be benefited by it." Things may be worse than he thought. Climate change is turning Antarctica's ice into one of the biggest risks for coming centuries. Even a tiny melt could drive up sea levels, affecting cities from New York to Beijing, or nations from Bangladesh to the Cook Islands -- named after the mariner -- in the Pacific. Scientists are now trying to design ever more high tech experiments -- with satellite radars, lasers, robot submarines, or even deep drilling through perhaps 3 kilometers of ice -- to plug huge gaps in understanding the risks. "If you're going to have even a few metres it will change the geography of the planet," Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said of the more extreme scenarios of fast ocean rise. "Greenland and Antarctica are two huge bodies of ice sitting on land that could really have very serious implications for the levels of the seas," Pachauri told Reuters. Eventually discovered in 1820, Antarctica locks up enough water to raise sea levels by 57 metres (187 ft). Greenland stores the equivalent of 7 metres. Worries about sea level rise are among the drivers of 190-nation talks on a new UN deal to combat climate change, mainly by a shift away from fossil fuels, due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December. COLLAPSE Scientists are concentrating on the fringes, where the ice meets a warming Southern Ocean. "It's the underside of the ice sheets that's crucial," said David Carlson, a scientist who headed the International Polar Year from 2007-08. Warmer seas may be thawing ice sheets around the edges, he said, and allow ice to slide off the land into the sea more quickly, adding water to sea levels. But it is hard to be sure because of a lack of long-term observations. "The same things that defeated Cook -- ice and bad weather -- are still problems," Carlson said. About 10 ice shelves, extensions of ice sheets that float on the ocean and can be hundreds of metres thick, have collapsed on the Antarctic Peninsula in the past 50 years. Part of the Wilkins Ice Shelf snapped in April. And recent studies indicate a slight warming trend in Antarctica, teased out from computer studies of temperature records. Still, most of Antarctica is not going to thaw -- the average year-round temperature is -50 Celsius (-58.00F). One possibility is to look far back into history. Studies indicate that in the Eemian about 125,000 years ago, for instance, temperatures were slightly higher than now, hippopotamuses bathed in the Rhine -- and seas were 4 metres higher. "We need to know where the extra four metres came from," said David Vaughan, a glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), adding that one possibility was that West Antarctica's ice had collapsed. He said that an operation to drill through ice -- about 3 km thick -- to bedrock could help find out. West Antarctica is vulnerable because its ice rests on rocks below sea level and holds enough ice to raise sea levels by 3-6 metres. A sample of rocks beneath the ice would reveal if and when they had last been exposed to cosmic rays -- which cause chemical changes that can be read like a clock. There could also be fossils or ancient sediments under the ice to fix dates. If the ice had collapsed in the Eemian or during other warm periods between Ice Ages, it would set off global alarm bells about risks of a fast rise in sea levels, Vaughan said. A finding that the ice had been stable would be a huge relief. In early September, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said world sea levels could rise by between 0.5 and 2 metres this century, far higher than most experts have forecast. Pachauri's IPCC spoke of a rise of 18-59 cms by 2100, excluding a possible acceleration of a thaw of Antarctica or Greenland. Seas rose 17 cms in the past century. And another complicating issue is that experts have found lakes under ice sheets in recent decades -- but no one understands whether they might lubricate the slide. Lakes, such as Vostok where Russian scientists are close to drilling through to the water entombed deep under the ice, might even be a place where life has evolved in isolation. Unknown types of life in Lake Vostok might hint at chances of life in space, for instance on Jupiter's moon Europa -- an icy ball which might have liquid water near its warmer core. RIGHT OR WRONG? "Was Cook right? Of course not. The Antarctic has been a treasure trove of scientific information," Jane Lubchenco, head of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told Reuters. She said the Antarctic Treaty, signed in 1959, had been a model for world cooperation even during the Cold War between Moscow and Washington. Nations put territorial claims on hold and set the continent aside for peace and science. And the hole in the ozone layer -- which shields the planet from damaging ultra-violet rays -- was discovered over Antarctica in the 1980s, adding to urgency of the 1987 Montreal Protocol to limit emissions of ozone-damaging gases. On a smaller scale, some whalers and seal hunters made their fortunes in Antarctica after the first sighting of the continent in 1820 by Fabian von Bellingshausen, an Estonian captain in the Russian navy. In a reversal of Cook's assessment, glaciologist Vaughan said Antarctica itself is getting no benefit from people. "Until the beginning of the 20th century there were no human footprints in Antarctica. Now the footprint of all humankind is firmly on the entire continent because of climate change," he said. | 0 |
President Barack Obama's climate envoy said on Thursday world powers shouldn't get bogged down on a deadline for greenhouse gas emission cuts at the upcoming global climate talks, but instead should take small steps that could lead to a broader agreement. "I don't personally think so," Todd Stern, the top US climate negotiator, told reporters after a two-day meeting of the Major Economies Forum, when asked if there should be a deadline. "I think it should get done when it's ripe." It was the last meeting of the group of 17 economies, including China, India, Russia and countries in the European Union, that debate ways to fight emissions before annual United Nations climate talks that run from Nov 29. to Dec. 10 in Cancun, Mexico. With the 2012 expiration looming for the UN's Kyoto Protocol, some countries have pressed for a pact on binding emissions cuts by next year's climate talks in South Africa. If that goal is out of reach, they say a deadline on agreeing to a binding pact should be set to to help speed negotiations. "I would rather have the concrete stuff done while we are trying to get the legal treaty than say we are not going to do anything before we get the legal agreement," Stern said. Rich and developing countries can take steps in Cancun to help build trust on fighting emissions, he said. These include agreeing on a global system to monitor, report, and verify emissions and the architecture of a fund to help developing countries deal with the worst effects of climate change. TECHNOLOGY TRANSFERS Agreeing on systems to ensure technology transfers between rich and poor nations to mitigate and adapt to global warming and to fight deforestation are also areas where progress could be made in Cancun, he said. The United States is not a member of the Kyoto pact that binds other developed countries to cut emissions of gases that cause global warming, which could lead to more floods and droughts. Still, Obama pledged at last year's UN climate talks in Copenhagen that the United States would cut emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. That is about a 3 percent reduction from 1990 levels, the baseline used by many other countries, including those in the EU that have agreed to stronger cuts. Stern reiterated that Washington would stick to that pledge despite the US Congress' failure to pass a bill to deal with climate change. With Republicans winning control of the House of Representatives in this month's elections, chances are now even more remote a climate change bill will be considered. The Obama administration is taking steps to cut emissions from vehicles and from smokestack industries like power plants and cement manufacturers. An increase in the number of climate change deniers in Congress after this month's elections is something the US will have to get through, Stern said. Since binding cuts are off the table for the Cancun talks and the two biggest emitters -- China and the United States -- remain at odds on how to fight emissions, some analysts have said the coming talks will serve as a referendum on whether the UN process has been a failure. Stern allowed that the UN talks must make more progress. "The process can't continually stalemate," he said. "If we can't make any progress this year or next year there will be a point it won't work." | 0 |
Thriving only in near-freezing waters, creatures such as Antarctic sea spiders, limpets or sea urchins may be among the most vulnerable on the planet to global warming, as the Southern Ocean heats up. Isolated for millions of years by the chill currents, exotic animals on the seabed around Antarctica -- including giant marine woodlice and sea lemons, a sort of bright yellow slug -- are among the least studied in the world. Now scientists on the Antarctic Peninsula are finding worrying signs that they can only tolerate a very narrow temperature band -- and the waters have already warmed by about 1 Celsius (1.6 Fahrenheit) in the past 50 years. "Because this is one of the most rapidly warming areas on the planet and because the animals are so temperature sensitive...this marine ecosystem is at higher risk than almost anywhere else on the planet," said Simon Morley, a marine biologist at the British Antarctic Survey at Rothera. "A temperature rise of only 2-3 degrees (Celsius) above current temperatures could cause these animals to lose vital functions," he said. In warmer waters, laboratory studies show that clams and limpets lose the ability to right themselves if they land upside down. Such a skill is vital in Antarctica's shallows, where icebergs regularly scrape across rocks on the seabed. "Will they be here in 100 years' time?" Morley said, standing by blue tanks of sea cucumbers, worms and others. "I think that we will see changes in the ecosystems, more in some species and less in other species. "It does look as if these mechanisms are truly applicable worldwide," he said. Studies of clams in Singapore also show that they find it hard to burrow if temperatures rise, he said. Coral reefs can also suffer damage if temperatures rise even slightly. The UN Climate Panel has a best estimate that air temperatures may rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 Celsius this century, due to a build-up of greenhouse gases. Rothera's waters range from about minus 2 Celsius in winter, kept from freezing by saltiness, to 1 Celsius in summer. DIVERS, ICEBERGS, INVADERS On a recent trip into Rothera's bay, Ali Massey and Terri Souster, dressed in thick black dive-suits, disappeared into the water from a red inflatable speedboat and re-emerged 20 minutes later with a haul of the little-understood creatures. "It is a fascinating place to dive," said Souster, a 24-year-old South African. The inshore habitat is largely separate from the open ocean, where penguins and whales feed on krill that in turn consume algae. Big predators in the shallows are starfish and fish such as Antarctic cod. In Antarctica, another linked threat is from icebergs that now scour each part of the shallow seabed on average once a year -- smashing many of the creatures. Divers off Rothera are extending a 5-year study of iceberg scours by placing small white concrete blocks on the seabed. They are later retrieved to see how many are cracked by icebergs. And iceberg poundings could become more frequent since warming could bring a decline in sea ice. Winter sea ice locks icebergs into position -- when it melts they can get moved around by winds and tides and swept into the shallows. Another worry is that non-native species will arrive off Antarctica if the oceans warm, perhaps organisms floating on a piece of plastic or stuck on the hull of a ship. Invasive species, usually transported by humans, can oust local species. "It's something we are really concerned about," Morley said, noting that at current rates of warming the danger was about 50 years away. | 0 |
Certain countries and companies feel threatened by growing efforts against climate change, the UN climate chief said on Thursday, after other officials spoke of a campaign to undermine a consensus on global warming. Yvo de Boer spoke amid a controversy over an incorrect projection on glacial melting by the United Nations climate panel, which drew into focus the panel's credibility and led to personal attacks on its chief, Rajendra Pachauri. Pachauri has said he will not resign over a forecast that Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035. "I wish I knew if there is a concerted attack on the scientific community and where it's coming from," de Boer told reporters. "I don't know if there is a campaign. I know that there are companies and countries that are very seriously concerned that ambitious action to address climate change will harm them economically," he added. Pachauri told the Financial Times newspaper on Wednesday that attacks on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and on him were "carefully orchestrated" by climate sceptics and corporate interests. De Boer said the erroneous projection made in a 2007 report could be used as ammunition by climate sceptics. But he defended Pachauri's record and said the mistake did not undermine the broad international consensus on climate change. "Tall trees collect a lot of wind. Dr. Pachauri is a tall tree," he said, when asked about the attacks on Pachauri. Flaws in reports by the IPCC can be damaging since the findings are a guide for government policy. The Indian government and some climate researchers have criticised the IPCC for overstating the shrinking of the Himalayan glaciers. Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh separately said on Thursday the government had set up a homegrown climate change panel, which will submit its first assessment in November. "It's something of an Indian IPCC, it's not a rival to IPCC," Ramesh told the Indian news channel Times Now. "We can't depend only on IPCC." "We've had goof ups on the glaciers, we've had goof ups on the Amazon, we've had goof ups on the snow peaks, some of the mountains, but the IPCC is a responsible body," he added. The controversy erupted after the UN Copenhagen summit on climate change in December, which produced only a muted outcome. More than fifty countries accounting for almost 80 percent of global emissions have since pledged goals to fighting climate change. The next annual UN meeting will be in Mexico at the end of the year. The failure of the UN negotiations to achieve a deal despite a deadline set for the end of 2009 after two years of talks launched in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007 has cast doubt on the UN's future role. Smaller meetings between various country groupings are set to take place in meantime, but De Boer said these would not undermine the UN's ability to orchestrate a meatier agreement. "It's not an either/or situation," he said. | 0 |
“It’s coming fast; it’s coming strong,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell warned residents. She acknowledged that several storms had New Orleans in their projected paths this season only to shift before landfall, but this time, she said, the city would take a hit. “This is not a drill,” she said. Zeta, which was responsible for at least one death, is the fifth major storm to hit Louisiana this year, coming as yet another blow late in a long and punishing hurricane season that has wrought billions of dollars in devastation in the state and left many residents worn out. Officials urged residents not to let their guard down as the storm gained strength before landfall and stood to barrage the coast with life-threatening storm surge and strafe the region with dangerous winds. After making landfall near the fishing village of Cocodrie, Louisiana, around 4 pm local time, the storm quickly moved northeast through New Orleans and along the Mississippi coast, knocking out power to more than 500,000 people in Louisiana alone. High winds had ripped the roofs off some homes, and local news outlets showed videos of power lines toppled across the region. Cantrell said during a Wednesday night news conference that a man had been electrocuted by touching a live wire. Kevin Gilmore, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Louisiana, said the service had received “many reports” of tree damage and structural damage, although the extent of the impact remained unclear. The storm was projected to move northeast through New Orleans, and a second landfall was expected late Wednesday in Mississippi, according to a National Hurricane Centre forecast. A hurricane warning was in effect for a stretch of coast from Morgan City, Louisiana, to the Mississippi-Alabama border. Forecasters predicted that the storm surge could reach as high as 8 feet in some places and that Zeta could dump as much as 6 inches of rain. But the dominant concern raised by officials and forecasters was the wind, which was whipping through as fast as 110 mph as the storm progressed toward New Orleans. “We think this is going to be a pretty gusty storm,” said Robbie Berg, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Centre in Miami. Forecasters said that Zeta was sweeping through at a brisk pace, advancing at 20 mph or faster. “It’s going to be quick, but it’s going to be brutal,” said Collin Arnold, director of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, noting the likelihood of widespread power outages and physical damage. Still, the swift pace did bring a small consolation. Researchers have found that climate change has made hurricanes wetter and potentially slower, and many in the region are familiar with the effect of a sluggish storm parking itself and unloading torrents of rain. “It’s not going to sit there and pound for hour after hour,” Gov John Bel Edwards of Louisiana said in a briefing Wednesday. “It should move through the area relatively quickly.” Zeta, which hit the northern Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico on Monday and Tuesday, is the 27th named storm in an Atlantic cyclone season so busy that forecasters have run through the alphabet of names and are now working their way through Greek letters. (After Zeta comes Eta, Iota and Kappa.) Louisiana has been subjected to the some of the worst of the season. The state has been hobbled by a series of storms, including Cristobal in June, Marco in August, Sally and Beta in September, and Delta this month. Hurricane Laura, which made landfall in the southwest corner of the state in August, was one of the most powerful storms to ever hit Louisiana. Some places, like communities in and around Lake Charles and in Cameron Parish, were still in the early stages of their recovery from Laura when Delta made landfall just weeks later. More than 3,600 people remain in shelters after those two storms, officials said, with many of them staying in hotels in New Orleans or Baton Rouge and now finding themselves once again contending with a hurricane. Zeta is breaking records because of where it is happening. Matt Lanza, a meteorologist and managing editor of Space City Weather, said it was the strongest storm on record so far west in the Gulf this late in the season. “I’ve been kind of flabbergasted watching this today,” he said. “This feels really weird.” There had been some worry that it would be tough to mobilise residents beleaguered by a brutal season or, particularly in New Orleans, complacent after repeated threats from storms that never quite materialised. But as Zeta strengthened in the final hours before landfall, the warnings started to resonate. In New Orleans especially, memories of past devastation remained seared in the minds of many. Virginia Felton could not help but drift back to Hurricane Katrina 15 years ago. “It’s scary, way scary,” Felton, 39, said as she shopped in a packed supermarket near the French Quarter where checkout lines spanned the length of the building and snaked into the produce section in the front of the store. The city of New Orleans sent regular warnings to residents via text message Wednesday. And officials took a variety of precautions in anticipation of a deluge. The Lower Mississippi River was closed to vessels at 2 am Wednesday; the Port of New Orleans was also closed. Flood-protection crews were closing the gates that prevent storm surge from entering the city’s network of drainage canals. City buses stopped running at noon. Many residents who live near the coast in areas unprotected by levees fled to higher ground; other stalwarts living in raised houses were weathering the storm at home, already aware that the storm surge would push several feet of water into their streets and communities before receding. On every freeway entering New Orleans, bucket trucks from utility companies were swarming in, carrying line workers who will start restoring power lines as soon as the storm passes. And the city’s grassy street medians, called neutral grounds, were suddenly empty after being packed in recent weeks with clusters of colourful campaign signs in the final days before the presidential election. In many places, they had been taken over by cars parked by owners looking to spare their vehicles from potential street flooding. Some residents were still taking the storm in stride. Whitecaps were visible on Lake Pontchartrain under gray skies Wednesday, but Henry Gordon, 41, was putting shrimp on a fishing hook and casting his line. “The fish are going to run with the currents,” he said, and those currents, he contended, were going to push saltwater and trout, redfish, croaker and drum in large numbers from the Gulf of Mexico into Lake Pontchartrain — and onto his line. “We’re going to be all right,” he said. “Everybody’s got natural disasters to deal with. If we were somewhere else, we might have tornadoes or nor’easters or earthquakes. We’re in the South, so we have hurricanes.” As a light rain fell, Zé da Luz, 65, stood outside her neighbour’s house in New Orleans’ 9th Ward. She worried that the fast-moving storm could be too much for the city’s drainage system. “We’ll have street flooding for sure,” da Luz said. But she was still planning to ride out Zeta at home, cooking a big batch of stewed okra and shrimp on a gas stove that will work even if power fails. © 2020 New York Times News Service | 0 |
In a phone conversation last week (a kind of bookend to an interview I did with him during his last week in the White House in January 2017), Obama spoke about the experience of writing his new book and the formative role that reading has played, since his teenage years, in shaping his thinking, his views on politics and history, and his own writing. He discussed authors he’s admired and learned from, the process of finding his own voice as a writer, and the role that storytelling can play as a tool of radical empathy to remind people of what they have in common — the shared dreams, frustrations and losses of daily life that exist beneath the political divisions. Obama speaks slowly and thoughtfully but with the conversational ease that distinguishes his books, moving freely between the personal and the political, the anecdotal and the philosophical. Whether he’s talking about literature, recent political events or policies implemented by his administration, his observations, like his prose, are animated by an ability to connect social, cultural and historical dots, and a gift — honed during his years as a community organiser and professor of constitutional law — for lending complex ideas immediacy and context. ‘We come from everywhere, and we contain multitudes. And that has always been both the promise of America, and also what makes America sometimes so contentious.’ Talking about his favourite American writers, Obama points out that they share certain hallmarks: “Whether it’s Whitman or Emerson or Ellison or Kerouac, there is this sense of self-invention and embrace of contradiction. I think it’s in our DNA, from the start, because we come from everywhere, and we contain multitudes. And that has always been both the promise of America, and also what makes America sometimes so contentious.” Obama’s thoughts on literature, politics and history are rooted in the avid reading he began in his youth. As a teenager growing up in Hawaii, he read African American writers like James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Malcolm X, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston and WEB DuBois in an effort “to raise myself to be a Black man in America.” And when he became a student at Columbia University in the early 1980s, he made a concerted effort to push aside the more desultory habits of his youth — sports, parties, hanging out — to try to become “a serious person.” He puts “serious person” in quotes, he explains, “because I was very sombre about this whole process and basically became a little bit of a recluse for a couple of years, and just was going to classes, wandering the city, mostly by myself, and reading and writing in my journals. And just trying to figure out what did I believe, and how should I think about my life.” Obama says he “was very much the list keeper at that time.” He would “hear about a book, and then I’d read that book, and if it referenced another book, I’d track that one down.” And, sometimes, “It was just what was in the used-book bin because I was on a pretty tight budget.” He read everything from classics by Hemingway, Dostoyevsky, Cervantes, to novels like “Under the Volcano” by Malcolm Lowry, Doris Lessing’s “The Golden Notebook,” and works by Robert Stone. He read philosophy, poetry, history, biographies, memoirs and books like “Gandhi’s Truth” by Erik Erikson. Not only did he read books voraciously, but he inhaled and synthesized the ideas he found in them, assimilating ones that resonated with his personal experiences and values. In those years, Obama recalls, “everything was just fraught with existential weight,” and he did not really regain his sense of humour until he moved to Chicago and began work as a community organiser. “I got outside myself, right? You know, the self-indulgence of young people who take themselves too seriously, who have the luxury — because they don’t really have responsibilities — of wondering who they are and should I eat this peach? And suddenly, I was in neighbourhoods where people are trying to pay the bills and keep their kids safe and make sure that neighbourhoods don’t fall apart and they’ve been laid off. And my job was to help, and the wisdom, the strength, the fortitude, the common sense of the folks I was working with — who were all my mother’s age or older — reminded me that work wasn’t about me.” While in Chicago, Obama began writing short stories — melancholy, reflective tales inspired by some of the people he met as a community organiser. Those stories and the journals he was keeping would nurture the literary qualities that fuel “A Promised Land”: a keen sense of place and mood; searching efforts at self-assessment (like wondering whether his decision to run for president stemmed, in part, from a need “to prove myself worthy to a father who had abandoned me, live up to my mother’s starry-eyed expectations”); and a flair for creating sharply observed, Dickensian portraits of advisers, politicians and foreign leaders. He describes then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as a leader whose voice evinced a “practiced disinterest,” indicating “someone accustomed to being surrounded by subordinates and supplicants,” and, at the same time, a man who curated his photo ops “with the fastidiousness of a teenager on Instagram.” The reading Obama did in his 20s and 30s, combined with his love of Shakespeare and the Bible and his ardent study of Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and Reinhold Niebuhr, would shape his long view of history — a vision of America as a country in the constant process of becoming, in which, to use the words of the 19th-century abolitionist Theodore Parker, frequently quoted by King, that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” By looking back at history — at the great sin of slavery and its continuing fallout — while at the same time calling for continued efforts to bring the country closer to a promised land, King and John Lewis situated the civil rights struggle within a historical continuum, while invoking the larger journey in Scripture from suffering and exile toward redemption. From his studies of these thinkers and activists, Obama took what he called the “Niebuhrian” lesson that we can have “a cleareyed view of the world and the realities of cruelty and sin and greed and violence, and yet, still maintain a sense of hope and possibility, as an act of will and leap of faith.” It’s a deeply held conviction that animates Obama’s most powerful speeches, like his commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Selma march and his 2015 “Amazing Grace” speech, delivered in the wake of the massacre at the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. That determination to find “hope in the face of uncertainty” also sustains his optimism today — he's been buoyed by the engagement of a new generation of young people, demonstrated so powerfully during last summer’s George Floyd protests. The personal and the political are intimately entwined in African American literature — from the early slave narratives to autobiographies by Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X — and while the young Obama was constructing the philosophical tentpoles of his beliefs, he was also writing a lot in his journal, sorting through the crosscurrents of race and class and family in his own life. ‘When I think about how I learned to write, who I mimicked, the voice that always comes to mind the most is James Baldwin.’
President Barack Obama and Rep John Lewis embrace on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala, on the 50th anniversary of the "Bloody Sunday" march, Mar 7, 2015. Obama invited authors and historians to the White House and had already published a best-selling memoir — that didn’t make writing his latest book, “A Promised Land,” any less of a grind. (Doug Mills/The New York Times
His belief that Americans are invested in common dreams and can reach beyond their differences — a conviction that would later be articulated in his 2004 Democratic convention keynote speech, which introduced him to the country at large — not only echoes the ending of Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” (in which the narrator concludes that “America is woven of many strands,” that “our fate is to become one, and yet many”), but is also an intrinsic part of his family history, with a mother who was born in Kansas and a father who grew up Kenya. President Barack Obama and Rep John Lewis embrace on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala, on the 50th anniversary of the "Bloody Sunday" march, Mar 7, 2015. Obama invited authors and historians to the White House and had already published a best-selling memoir — that didn’t make writing his latest book, “A Promised Land,” any less of a grind. (Doug Mills/The New York Times In high school, Obama says, he and a “roving pack of friends” — many of whom felt like outsiders — discovered that “storytelling was a way for us to kind of explain ourselves and the world around us, and where we belonged and how we fit in or didn’t fit in.” Later, trying to get his stories down on paper and find a voice that approximated the internal dialogue in his head, Obama studied authors he admired. “As much as anybody,” he says, “when I think about how I learned to write, who I mimicked, the voice that always comes to mind the most is James Baldwin. I didn’t have his talent, but the sort of searing honesty and generosity of spirit, and that ironic sense of being able to look at things, squarely, and yet still have compassion for even people whom he obviously disdained, or distrusted, or was angry with. His books all had a big impact on me.” Obama also learned from writers whose political views differed from his own, like VS Naipaul. Though frustrated by Naipaul’s “curmudgeonly sort of defence of colonialism,” the former president says he was fascinated by the way Naipaul constructed arguments and, “with a few strokes, could paint a portrait of someone and take an individual story or mishap or event, and connect it to larger themes and larger historical currents.” So, Obama adds, “there’d be pieces of folks that you’d kind of copy — you steal, you paste, and you know, over time, you get enough practice that you then can trust your own voice.” The scholar Fred Kaplan, the author of “Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer,” has drawn parallels between Abraham Lincoln and Obama, pointing out that they share a mastery of language and “a first class temperament” for a president — “stoic, flexible, willing to listen to different points of view.” Like Lincoln’s, Obama’s voice — in person and on the page — is an elastic one, by turns colloquial and eloquent, humorous and pensive, and accommodating both common-sense arguments and melancholy meditations (Niagara Falls made Lincoln think of the transience of all life; a drawing in an Egyptian pyramid makes Obama think how time eventually turns all human endeavours to dust). The two presidents, both trained lawyers with poetic sensibilities, forged their identities and their careers in what Kaplan calls “the crucible of language.” When Obama was growing up, he remembers, “the very strangeness” of his heritage and the worlds he straddled could make him feel like “a platypus or some imaginary beast,” unsure of where he belonged. But the process of writing, he says, helped him to “integrate all these pieces of myself into something relatively whole” and eventually gave him “a pretty good sense” of who he was — a self-awareness that projected an air of calmness and composure, and would enable him to emerge from the pressure cooker of the White House very much the same nuanced, self-critical writer he was when he wrote “Dreams From My Father” in his early 30s. Although Obama says he didn’t have time as president to keep a regular journal, he would jot down accounts of important moments as they transpired. Like the time at a climate summit in Copenhagen, when he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton crashed a meeting of the leaders of China, Brazil, India and South Africa because they were “avoiding me and a deal we were trying to broker that would, ultimately, many years later, lead to the Paris Accords.” After the meeting, he wrote down what had been said and what the scene felt like — he knew it was a good story. ‘You just have to get started. You just put something down. Because nothing is more terrifying than the blank page.’ Whereas 20 years ago, Obama says, he would have needed an army of researchers to help him with a presidential memoir, the internet meant he could simply “tap in ‘Obama’ and then the date or the issue, and pull up every contemporaneous article — or my own speeches, or my own schedule, or my own appearances — in an instant.” The actual writing remained a painful process, requiring him to really “work at it” and “grind it out.” “This is a really important piece of business that I’ve tried to transmit to my girls and anybody who asks me about writing,” he says. “You just have to get started. You just put something down. Because nothing is more terrifying than the blank page.” Obama wrote “A Promised Land” — the first of two volumes about his presidency — much the same way he’s worked on speeches and earlier books. Because he thinks the computer can lend “half-baked thoughts the mask of tidiness,” he writes his first drafts longhand on yellow legal pads; the act of typing it into the computer essentially becomes a first edit. He says he is “very particular” about his pens, always using black Uni-ball Vision Elite rollerball pens with a micro-point, and adds that he tends to do his best writing between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.: “I find that the world narrows, and that is good for my imagination. It’s almost as if there is a darkness all around and there’s a metaphorical beam of light down on the desk, onto the page.” While he was writing “A Promised Land,” Obama did not read a lot of books — maybe because he was “worried about finding excuses to procrastinate,” maybe because he gets swept up in books he particularly enjoys and can hear those authors’ voices in his head. But when he finished writing “A Promised Land,” he eagerly turned to his friend Marilynne Robinson’s new novel “Jack,” the latest in her Gilead series, and Ayad Akhtar’s “Homeland Elegies,” which he describes as “a powerful and searching examination of contemporary American politics and attitudes.” What literature would he recommend to someone who just arrived in America and wanted to understand this complex, sometimes confounding country? Off the top of his head, says Obama, he’d suggest Whitman’s poetry, Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” Ellison’s “Invisible Man,” Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath,” Morrison’s “Song of Solomon,” “just about anything by Hemingway or Faulkner” and Philip Roth, whose novels capture that “sense of the tension around ethnic groups trying to assimilate, what does it mean to be American, what does it mean to be on the outside looking in?” As for nonfiction: autobiographies of Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X, Thoreau’s “Walden,” Emerson’s “Self-Reliance,” Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” And Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America,” which makes us remember, Obama said, “that America really was a break from the Old World. It’s something we now take for granted or lose sight of, in part because a lot of modern culture so embodies certain elements of America.” ‘I think whether you’re talking about art or politics or just getting up in the morning and trying to live your life, it’s useful to be able to seek out that joy where you can find it and operate on the basis of hope rather than despair.’ The last several years, Obama says, have made it clear that “the normative glue that holds us together — a lot of those common expectations and values have weakened, have frayed in ways that de Tocqueville anticipated” and that “atomisation and loneliness and the loss of community” have made our democracy vulnerable. “You don’t have to be glued to the news broadcasts to sometimes feel as if we’re just locked in this Tower of Babel and can’t even hear the voices of the people next to us,” he says. “But if literature and art are good at “reminding us of our own folly and our own presumptions and of our own selfishness and shortsightedness,” he adds, “what books and art and stories can also do is remind you of the joys and hope and beauty that we share.” “I think whether you’re talking about art or politics or just getting up in the morning and trying to live your life, it’s useful to be able to seek out that joy where you can find it and operate on the basis of hope rather than despair. We all have different ways of coping, but I think that the sense of optimism that I have relied on is generally the result of appreciating other people, first and foremost, my own children and my family and my friends. But also the voices that I hear through books and that you hear through song and that tell you you’re not alone.” © 2020 New York Times News Service | 0 |
The number of Atlantic hurricanes in an average season has doubled in the last century due in part to warmer seas and changing wind patterns caused by global warming, according to a study released on Sunday. Hurricane researchers have debated for years whether climate change caused by greenhouse gases from cars, factories and other human activity is resulting in more, and more intense, tropical storms and hurricanes. The new study, published online in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, said the increased numbers of tropical storms and hurricanes in the last 100 years is closely related to a 1.3-degree Fahrenheit rise in sea surface temperatures. The influential UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in a report this year warning that humans contribute to global warming, said it was "more likely than not" that people also contribute to a trend of increasingly intense hurricanes. In the new study, conducted by Greg Holland of the National Center for Atmospheric Research and Peter Webster of Georgia Institute of Technology, researchers found three periods since 1900 when the average number of Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes increased sharply, and then leveled off and remained steady. From 1900 to 1930, Atlantic hurricane seasons saw six storms on average, with four hurricanes and two tropical storms. From 1930 to 1940, the annual average rose to ten, including five hurricanes. From 1995 to 2005, the average rose to 15, with eight hurricanes and seven tropical storms, the researchers said. Changes in sea surface temperatures occurred before the periods of increased cyclones, with a rise of 0.7 degrees Fahrenheit before the 1930 period and a similar increase before the 1995 period, they said. "These numbers are a strong indication that climate change is a major factor in the increasing number of Atlantic hurricanes," Holland said in a statement. Skeptics say hurricane data from the early decades of the 20th century are not reliable because cyclones likely formed and died in mid-ocean, where no one knew they existed. More reliable data became available in 1944 when researchers had airplane observations, and from 1970 when satellites came into use. But Holland and Webster said the improved data from the last half of the century cannot be solely responsible for the increase. "We are led to the confident conclusion that the recent upsurge in the tropical cyclone frequency is due in part to greenhouse warming, and this is most likely the dominant effect," the authors wrote. In 2004, four powerful hurricanes, Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, hit Florida. All four placed in the top ten costliest storms in US history. The record-shattering 2005 season produced 28 storms, 15 of which became hurricanes including Katrina, which caused $80 billion damage and killed 1,500 people. The 2006 season was relatively mild, with ten storms. | 0 |
STOCKHOLM, Oct 23, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - US President Barack Obama should do much more to ensure Congress passes a greenhouse emissions bill, giving global climate talks a major boost, the head of the UN Climate Change Panel said on Thursday. Rajendra Pachauri, whose panel shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former US vice president Al Gore, said legislation clarifying US emissions targets would make all the difference to a climate conference in Copenhagen in December. "I personally feel that he ought to be doing a lot more," Pachauri told reporters on the sidelines of a conference, when asked about Obama's commitment to combating climate change. "I think that President Obama really needs to assert himself to see that the US passes legislation -- it will make all the difference to negotiations," he said, referring to the Copenhagen talks on Dec. 7-18. Pressure is growing before the Copenhagen conference for officials from 190 nations to agree a UN climate pact replacing the Kyoto Protocol, which runs out in 2012. The European Union has already agreed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, but the United States has yet to pass similar legislation on its emissions targets. While the House of Representatives has approved a 2020 target to cut emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels, Congress as a whole has not approved any legislation, and analysts doubt that Obama will sign a bill by December. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said earlier this month that he was very worried time was running out before the Copenhagen conference. The EU has pressured the United States to do more to secure a deal, and senior officials from the bloc will meet Obama in Washington early next month to discuss climate change, among other issues. | 0 |
- The European Union threatened on Thursday to boycott U.S. talks among top greenhouse gas emitting nations, accusing Washington of blocking goals for fighting climate change at U.N. talks in Bali. "If we would have a failure in Bali it would be meaningless to have a major economies' meeting" in the United States, Humberto Rosa, Portugal's Secretary of State for Environment, said on the penultimate day of the two-week talks. "We're not blackmailing," he said, ratcheting up a war of words with Washington at the 190-nation talks. "If no Bali, no MEM" (major emitters' meeting). Portugal holds the rotating EU presidency and Rosa is the EU's top negotiator in Bali. "We don't feel that comments like that are very constructive when we are working so hard to find common ground on a way forward," said Kristin Hellmer, a White House spokeswoman in Bali. The December 3-14 Bali talks are split over the guidelines for starting two years of formal negotiations on a deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, a U.N. pact capping greenhouse gas emissions of all industrial nations except the United States until 2012. Washington, long at odds with many of its Western allies on climate policies, has called a meeting of 17 of the world's top emitters, including China, Russia and India, in Hawaii late next month to discuss long-term cuts. President George W. Bush intends the Honolulu meeting to be part of a series of talks to feed into the U.N. process. Washington hosted a similar meeting in September, which attracted few top officials and achieved little. The EU wants Bali's final text to agree a non-binding goal of cuts in emissions of 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 for industrial economies as a "roadmap" for the talks. The United States, Japan, Canada and Australia are opposed, saying any figures would prejudge the outcome. BLOCKING "Those who are suggesting that you can magically find agreement on a metric when you are just starting negotiations, that in itself is a blocking element," said James Connaughton, Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Despite opposition to Kyoto, the United States plans to join a new treaty, meant to be agreed in Copenhagen in late 2009 with participation of developing nations led by China and India. "We will lead, we will continue to lead. But leadership also requires others to fall in line and follow," Connaughton said. U.S. climate policy is to invest heavily in new technologies such as hydrogen and "clean coal", without Kyoto-style caps. Rosa said: "Whatever comes out of Bali must rely on science. This link is fundamental and for us that means figures." The range of 25-40 percent cuts for rich nations was given in studies by the U.N. Climate Panel this year, which blamed mankind for stoking warming and urged quick action to avert ever more floods, droughts, melting glaciers and rising seas. On the sidelines, climate campaigner and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, fresh from collecting the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo with the U.N. Climate Panel, arrived in Bali to give a speech to delegates about the risks of warming. On other issues, the Bali talks made progress. They agreed a deal in principle to share technology -- such as wind turbines or solar panels -- meeting a key demand of poor nations who feel the rich have a responsibility to make up for emissions of greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution. "I am fairly hopeful," said Yvo de Boer, the U.N.'s top Climate Change official, of the technology deal. In the past two weeks, the talks have also agreed the workings of a fund to help poor nations adapt to climate change and are near a plan to help slow tropical deforestation. Kyoto binds 37 industrialized nations to cut emissions by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. Poorer nations, led by China and India, are exempt from curbs. Washington pulled out in 2001, saying Kyoto would harm the U.S. economy and wrongly excluded goals for developing countries. The United Nations says a Kyoto successor has to be in place by 2009 to give governments time to ratify the new deal by the end of 2012 and to give markets clear guidelines on how to make investments in clean energy technology. | 0 |
The protests, led by British climate group Extinction Rebellion, brought parts of central London to a standstill on Monday and some stayed overnight for a second day of protest on Tuesday. Extinction Rebellion, which generated headlines with a semi-nude protest in the House of Commons earlier this month, is demanding the government declare a climate and ecological emergency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025. “There have been 113 arrests in total, the majority of which are for breach of Section 14 Notice of the Public Order Act 1986 and obstruction of the highway,” London police said. Tents littered the roads at Oxford Circus with some activists huddled beneath a pink boat with the words “Tell the Truth” across its side. One placard read: “Rebel for Life”. Police said five of those arrested had been detained after the Shell building near the River Thames was targeted. Two protesters on Monday scaled up scaffolding writing ‘Shell Knows!’ in red paint on the front of the building and three protesters glued their hands to the revolving doors at the entrance. | 0 |
It could produce the ultimate "hot chick flick", or it may erupt as a boiling international rant against the threat of global warming. But whichever way it goes, producers of an all-women directed interactive mobile phone film say it will be a "cinematic symphony of women's voices from around the world". The project -- entitled "Overheated Symphony -- is part of the Birds Eye View film festival taking place in London next month which showcases the work of female film-makers. Women across the world are being asked to make a short film -- a "quick flick" -- between 40 seconds and four minutes long on a mobile phone and then send it via the internet to a London-based film director who will pull them all together. Apart from the the overall theme "Overheated", there is no restriction on content or subject matter. "If it's hot, we'd like to see it," the project's Web site declares: "Ladies, wherever you are, whoever you are, we want you to join in." According to Sarah Turner, the British film director whose task it will be to create a final edit from the mobile phone contributions, the inspiration for "Overheated Symphony" was the 1927 film by German filmmaker Walter Ruttmann called "Berlin - Symphony of a Great City", which used a montage of still pictures from many sources to document city life. Like that work, Overheated Symphony will be "very abstract", says Turner. It will give those who contribute the chance to engage in a "dialogue of ideas" with women across the world. "Because they are films made by women, women's themes and issues are bound to be an integral part of the finished piece," she told Reuters. "I expect some of them to be quite intense, because this is quite an intense thing to respond to. We all have overheated moments, when we are angry about something, or upset, or when we are sexually hot. We might even end up having some menopause films, you never know." Turner is gathering the mobile films ahead of the March 2 deadline and will then produce a live edit of the symphony to be aired on March 9 at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts. Rachel Millward, director of the Birds Eye View festival, which is now in its third year, says the film is as much about new technology as it is about women and heat. "The way film and media are going is very much towards interactivity and multi-platform projects," she said. "We wanted to develop a project along those lines, and also one that had a kind of gamey feel to it -- the sense that everyone can join in and have a play." "Making a film from all these female voices around the world is quite a beautiful thing, but also it's about shooting down the idea that women are not up to date with technology." Contributors are being asked on www.birds-eye-view.co.uk to upload their cinematic efforts onto the festival's own youtube channel to be edited. And while Millward admits the end result is as yet unknown, she is confident it will be far more than the sum of its parts. "The great thing about this film is that you can't predict what it will be," she says. "It could be about climate change, or it could be about passion. I imagine it will be all of those things and more." | 0 |
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Amid a fresh outbreak of political violence in Kenya, the United States on Thursday alerted Americans to the risk of traveling to the troubled East African nation. Political and ethnic violence has killed 850 people in Kenya since the disputed Dec. 27 re-election of President Mwai Kibaki. The killing of an opposition legislator on Thursday sparked new protests and fatal clashes. The State Department said the situation in Kenya was volatile and subject to change on short notice, adding that some U.S. officials had been temporarily moved from the western port city of Kisumu to the capital, Nairobi. "A recent outbreak of protests in Nairobi and violent civil unrest in Kisumu, Nakuru, and Naivasha demonstrates the potential for spontaneous violence in the current political climate," the State Department said in a travel alert. The alert urged US citizens to avoid travel to those cities and other areas outside Nairobi. It also warned American travelers to be prepared for a sudden outbreak of clashes between police and demonstrators or rival groups of demonstrators. "Even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can become violent," the alert warned. "Americans should therefore avoid all demonstrations, protests and large public gatherings." | 1 |
Britain's new leader Gordon Brown stamped on talk of cooler relations with Washington on Saturday, saying before his first meeting with President George W. Bush that the bond between the countries remained strong. Brown flies to the United States on Sunday for his first meeting with Bush since he succeeded Tony Blair as British prime minister a month ago. Some of Brown's ministerial appointments and a comment by one of Brown's ministers that Brown and Bush were unlikely to be "joined together at the hip" have fuelled speculation that the cozy relationship Bush had with Blair would change under Brown. Blair was Bush's closest ally in the invasion of Iraq, but Brown is well aware that the war's unpopularity in Britain was one of the factors that forced Blair to step down early in June after a decade in power. Brown, who was Blair's finance minister, said in a statement released before his trip that ties with the United States should be Britain's "single most important bilateral relationship". "It is a relationship that is founded on our common values of liberty, opportunity and the dignity of the individual. And because of the values we share, the relationship with the United States is not only strong but can become stronger in the years ahead," he said. None of the world's major problems could be solved without the active engagement of the United States, Brown said. "We will continue to work very closely together as friends to tackle the great global challenges of the future," he said, adding that the relationship between a US president and a British prime minister would always be strong. UNITED NATIONS Brown will hold talks with Bush at Camp David before traveling to New York for a meeting with United Nations' Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Brown will also give a speech at the United Nations. Brown's office said talks with Bush would cover the Middle East peace process, the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, climate change and how to reinvigorate global trade liberalization talks. While Brown and Bush will stress London and Washington's "special relationship" is alive and well, political analysts say the reserved, sometimes awkward Brown is unlikely to enjoy the same close relationship with the US president that Blair had. Brown will want to avoid the "Bush's poodle" tag that Blair was sometimes labeled with by the British press, particularly after the US president greeted him with "Yo, Blair" at an international conference last year. Brown regularly holidays in the United States and is a keen reader of books on US politics and economics. He has said Britain will abide by its U.N. obligations in Iraq and there will be no immediate withdrawal of British troops, as some in the ruling Labor Party want. On Iran, Brown said this week he would not rule out military action but believed sanctions could still persuade Tehran to drop its disputed nuclear program. | 0 |
Agriculture needs revolutionary change to confront threats such as global warming and end hunger in developing nations without adding to the ranks of the obese, an international study showed on Thursday. The report said South Asia and Africa were "battlegrounds for poverty reduction" as the world population rose to a peak in 2050. Prospects for quick advances in curbing hunger are better for India and Bangladesh than sub-Saharan Africa, it said. Funded by groups including the World Bank and the European Commission, the report said agricultural research needed reforms "as radical as those that occurred during industrial and agricultural revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries". Research needs to be increased, and a fragmented "seed-to-table" food production system needs to be overhauled to improve cooperation between small-scale farmers, governments, companies, scientists, civil society groups and others. The report noted estimates that net investments of $83 billion a year, at 2009 prices, were needed in developing countries to meet U.N. projections of 2050 food demand. "That is an increase of almost 50 percent over current levels," it said. The world population is projected to rise to 9 billion by 2050 from 6.8 billion now. Between 1.0 and 1.5 billion people now live in poverty. ENVIRONMENT "There have been great advances in agricultural development in the past 50 years with remarkable increases in productivity," said Jules Pretty, professor of Environment & Society at Essex University in England who was among the authors. "But there are still a billion people hungry and a lot of the progress has been made at the expense of the environment," he told Reuters of the study, to be presented at a March 28-31 meeting of 1,000 farm experts in Montpellier, France. "Just around the corner are a number of serious threats which may already be playing out -- climate change, an energy crunch, economic uncertainty in the current model and rapidly changing consumption patterns," he said. One risk is that poor nations may imitate the tastes of rich countries, where rates of obesity are rising. In developing nations including Peru, Ghana and Tunisia "there are now more overweight people than hungry people," Pretty said. "Diets in developing countries will shift from low- to high-value cereals, poultry, meat, fruit and vegetables," the report said. That "is also likely to be accompanied by hunger and poverty in the countries with the poorest populations, while obesity rates as high as those now seen in wealthy countries will occur in others," it said. Other changes include the shift to a bigger urban population. "Addressing food security issues in urban areas is completely different than doing so in rural areas," wrote Eduardo Trigo, one of the authors. "The focus will have to shift to producing food by the poor for the poor." Pretty said the report's recommendation of broader cooperation, from farmers to governments, could unlock innovation. "That doesn't mean that everybody has to work with everybody all the time, which leads to paralysis," he said. Among farming success stories, Malawi has become a major producer of maize since the government decided to subsidise farmers' fertiliser supplies, he said. | 0 |
Speaking just hours before leaders of the group of 20 major economies start a two-day meeting in Italy, Johnson said future generations risked hunger, conflict and mass migration if progress was not made to tackle climate change. "There is absolutely no question that this is a reality we must face up to," he told reporters as he flew into Rome for the G20 summit, warning that living conditions could rapidly deteriorate without a collective change of course. "You saw that with the decline and fall of the Roman Empire and I’m afraid to say it’s true today." It is the first time in two years that most leaders of the G20 have felt able to hold face-to-face discussions as the COVID-19 pandemic starts to recede in many countries. The health crisis and economic recovery feature strongly on the agenda, but the most vital and difficult debate will centre on how far the leaders want to go in cutting greenhouse gases and in helping poorer nations confront global warming. The G20 bloc, which includes Brazil, China, India, Germany and the United States, accounts for more than 80 percent of the world's gross domestic product, 60 percent of its population and an estimated 80 percent of carbon emissions. Many of the leaders in Rome, including US President Joe Biden, will fly immediately afterwards to Scotland for a United Nation's climate summit. Known as COP26, it is seen as vital to addressing the threat of rising temperatures and consequences like rising sea levels, more powerful storms, worse flooding in some regions and worse droughts in others. "On the eve of COP26 in Glasgow, all roads to success go through Rome," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters on Friday. MISSING LEADERS However, expectations of major progress have been dimmed by the decision of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin to stay at home, unlike the vast majority of their counterparts, and attend only via video link. Biden's own hopes of showing that his country is now at the forefront of the fight against global warming took a knock after he failed to convince fellow Democrats this week to unify behind a $1.85 trillion economic and environmental spending package. A draft of the final communique seen by Reuters said G20 leaders would pledge to take urgent steps to reach the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), without making legally binding commitments. The first day of discussions, which are being held in a futuristic convention centre called 'The Cloud', will focus on the global economy and pandemic response. Fears over rising energy prices and stretched supply chains will be addressed. Leaders were expected to endorse plans to vaccinate 70% of the world's population against COVID-19 by mid-2022 and create a task force to fight future pandemics. "We hope that we can lay the groundwork for more countries to ensure a broader distribution of vaccines," German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz told reporters on Friday after a joint meeting between G20 health and finance ministers. "This is a global crisis that demands global solutions." There was also expected to be a lot of diplomacy on the sidelines, with numerous bilateral meetings planned, while the leaders of the United States, Britain, Germany and France were due to hold four-way talks on Iran. Rome has been put on high-security alert, with up to 6,000 police and around 500 soldiers deployed to maintain order. Two protest rallies have been authorised during the day, but demonstrators will be kept far from the summit centre, located in a suburb built by the 20th Century fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. | 0 |
Major industrialised countries are expected to create a multibillion-dollar fund later this year to help developing countries cut greenhouse gas emissions, World Bank president Robert Zoellick was quoted as saying. In an interview with Japan's Asahi newspaper published on Thursday, Zoellick said the fund would likely be finalised at the Group of Eight summit to be held on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on July 7-9. "(The fund) will be an important contribution because the climate change issue is one where we need to support UN negotiations (on a framework to succeed the Kyoto Protocol)," Zoellick said. Quoting unspecified sources, Asahi said more than 10 countries were expected to set aside about $5.5 billion for the fund. Environment ministers from the G8 rich nations agreed earlier this week that ensuring funds to help developing countries adapt to climate change and cut greenhouse gas emissions was vital. Tokyo and Washington called on other donor countries to join a fund they want to set up. Apart from the United States, Britain and Japan, Zoellick was quoted as saying that he would expect Australia, Canada and some European countries to take part in the scheme. "I can't say today exact sums or exact countries, but the signs are getting positive," Zoellick was quoted as saying. The United States and Britain pledged to contribute $2 billion and 800 million pounds ($1.58 billion) respectively, Asahi reported. Tokyo was expected to contribute more than 100 billion yen ($955 million), it added. The United States, Britain and Japan expect the new financing mechanism to encourage developing countries such as India and China to take part in UN negotiations on the post-Kyoto Protocol framework, Asahi reported. About 190 nations have agreed to negotiate by the end of 2009 a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol, which binds 37 advanced nations to cut emissions by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. But wide gaps exist inside the G8 and between rich and poorer nations over how to share the burden for fighting the climate change that causes droughts, rising seas and more severe storms. | 0 |
Shehabuddin Kislu writes from New York New York, Sept 27 (bdnews24.com)—Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has tabled a five-pronged set of recommendations to raise a hunger-free world. She put out the recommendations at a seminar on a hunger-free world and global approach to food security on Saturday afternoon at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The member countries expect the UN to provide more effective assistance while they combat floods, droughts and other natural calamities, Hasina said at the seminar hosted by the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and US secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Hasina demanded that the UN provide its associate nations with necessary support in coping with the recurrent natural disasters as well as strengthening their health and education services. She acknowledged her full support to the food security proposal developed by the UN Task Force. The prime minister's food autarky recommendations include carrying out operations based on integrated planning,
raising multinational funds, keeping financial commitments, ensuring equitable food distribution at national and international levels. She also suggested launching and running food security activities involving different organisations including the private sector and civil society. Bangladesh had attained food autarky in 1996 when the Awami League was running the government, she said and the goal of her government remains the same this time too. Hasina reiterated that it was a high priority of her administration to ensure food security for all. Recurrent droughts, tidal surges, tropical storms caused by the gradually changing climate regime hinder the achievement of our food security goal again and again, she said. The government, she said, however, is doing its best to ensure food security through providing a number of subsidies. Bangladesh has already earned the UN medal for attaining food autarky, she reminded the assembly. Ban in his welcome address said a thousand million people are hungry in today's world, while distribution of food across the globe remains skewed. "Now is the time to demonstrate to food-insecure nations and communities that we want to build on these principles, develop a roadmap for action and secure tangible results." said Ban. The UN chief said this situation is highly deplorable and expressed the hope that the task force will address the issue effectively. Clinton welcomed the gathering at the UN as an opportunity to exchange ideas and join forces against one of today's major challenges, stating that "this is an issue that affects all of us." She said the efforts by the US, which has pledged a minimum of $3.5 billion over the next three years to strengthen agriculture worldwide, will be guided by five principles, among which are addressing the underlying causes of hunger and improving coordination at the country, regional and global levels. She underscored that the issues of global food security and peace keeping are inseparably linked. | 1 |
But as publication approached, something nagged at them. Their findings illustrated two drastically different outcomes for ocean life over the next three centuries depending on whether greenhouse gas emissions were sharply curbed or continued apace. Somehow it seemed the study’s name conjured only doom. “We were about to send it in and I thought, ‘Gee, it sounds like a title that only has the dark side of the result,’” said Curtis Deutsch, a professor of geosciences at Princeton University who studies how climate change affects the ocean. “Not the bright side.” So he and his co-author, Justin L Penn, added an important word they hoped would highlight their finding that the grim scenario outlined by their results could still be, well, avoided. On Thursday they published “Avoiding Ocean Mass Extinction From Climate Warming” in Science. It is the latest research that crystallises the powerful yet paralyzed moment in which humanity finds itself. The choices made today regarding greenhouse gas emissions stand to affect the very future of life on Earth, even though the worst effects may still feel far away. Under the high emissions scenario that the scientists modelled, in which pollution from the burning of fossil fuels continues to climb, warming would trigger ocean species loss by 2300 that was on par with the five mass extinctions in Earth’s past. The last of those wiped out the dinosaurs. “It wasn’t an ‘aha’ moment per se,” said Penn, a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton, recalling the first time he looked at a graph comparing those past extinctions with their grim forecast. “It was more of an ‘oh, my God’ moment.” On the other hand, reining in emissions to keep within the upper limit of the Paris climate agreement would reduce ocean extinction risks by more than 70%, the scientists found. In that scenario, climate change would claim about 4% of species by the end of this century, at which point warming would stop. “Our choices have huge impacts,” Deutsch said. While there is broad consensus that a shift away from coal and toward expanded wind and solar energy make the worst-case scenario unlikely, oil and gas use continues to increase, and the world is not on track to meet the lower-emissions scenario modelled by the scientists. The new study builds on Deutsch and Penn’s earlier work: creating a computer simulation that detailed the worst extinction in Earth’s history some 252 million years ago. Often called “the Great Dying,” it claimed more than 90% of species in the oceans. The cause was global warming, triggered by volcanic eruptions. The oceans lost oxygen, and fish succumbed to heat stress, asphyxiation or both. The computer model found more extinctions at the poles compared with the tropics, and the fossil record confirmed it. To forecast the effects from global warming that is now driven by human activity, the scientists used the same model, with its intricate interplay among sunlight, clouds, ocean and air currents, and other forces like the chemical dances among heat and oxygen, water and air. They also took into account how much fish habitats could shift, estimating thresholds for survivability. “It’s a lot of time spent on the computer,” Penn said. While the study focused on the effects of warming and oxygen loss, ocean acidification and other snowball effects could worsen the species loss it predicted. The ocean has long acted as a quiet safeguard against climate change, absorbing vast amounts of the carbon dioxide and trapped heat as people burned fossil fuels and razed forests. But that service has come at a cost. Last year, the ocean reached its highest temperature and lowest oxygen content since humans started keeping track. Changes to the ocean’s chemistry are already threatening fish. Coral reefs are in steep decline. “‘How screwed are we?’ I get that all the time,” Deutsch said. “If we don’t do anything, we’re screwed.” Nations are still far from taking the necessary steps to prevent catastrophic climate change. Last month, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that a critical goal — restricting average global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since preindustrial times — was “on life support.” The International Energy Agency, a group created to ensure a stable worldwide energy market, said last year that countries must immediately stop approving new fossil fuel projects. They have not stopped, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has added to calls for more drilling in the name of energy security. Deutsch and Penn said they feel like the ignored scientists in “Don’t Look Up,” a recent movie in which a comet hurtling toward Earth is a metaphor for climate change. As in the film, the planet is at a pivotal moment, giving people living today outsized power in determining the future. “Great power brings great responsibility,” Deutsch said. “And we’re learning about our power, but not about our responsibility — to future generations of people, but also to all the other life that we’ve shared the planet with for millions of years.” Pippa Moore, a professor of marine science at Newcastle University in England who studies the effects of climate change on the ocean and was not involved with the study, called it comprehensive. “This paper adds to the huge body of evidence that unless more is done to curb our greenhouse gas emissions, our marine systems are on course to see a massive shift in where marine species live and, as shown in this paper, significant extinction events that could rival previous mass extinction events,” she said. Brad Plumer contributed reporting. ©2022 The New York Times Company | 6 |
Leaders of the Group of Eight industrialised nations meeting in Germany have agreed to pursue
"substantial" cuts in the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Here are the details of what they agreed. - leaders acknowledged that "resolute and concerted international action" was urgently needed to reduce emissions and increase energy security. - rises in greenhouse gases must halt and be reversed, the G8 said. - the leaders agreed to work towards a global framework for a new deal on cutting greenhouse gases by the end of next year, which would be finalized by the United Nations in 2009. - the group did not commit directly to a target for reducing emissions but in considering a goal in the future it said it would be mindful of the EU, Canada and Japan's target of halving global emissions by 2050. The statement did not make clear what the starting point for the cuts would be, an important point since emissions have increased dramatically in recent years. - developed economies have to take the lead, the G8 said, but less developed countries must participate. The G8 called on emerging economies to reduce the carbon intensity of their economic development to address the increase in their emissions. The United States has insisted that big, poorer polluters like China and India, who have no obligations under the Kyoto treaty currently, must start to share the burden of emissions cuts. - the G8 welcomed a US offer to host a meeting this year with major emitters. - While offering "strong leadership" the group noted different approaches to tackling climate change existed. But it backed the United Nations Climate Change conference in Bali, Indonesia in December and said the US efforts to involve emerging economies would feed into the UN-led process of finding a successor to Kyoto. There were concerns that US-led initiatives would undermine United Nations efforts. - promoting the diversification of energy supplies, increasing energy efficiency, tackling deforestation and setting up emissions-trading systems were all useful means of mitigating climate change, the G8 said. - the G8 said even with vigorous action climate change would have an impact, especially in developing countries. It offered support for such countries to become more resilient to change. | 0 |
As they prepare to welcome President Joe Biden, the simple fact that he regards Europe as an ally and NATO as a vital element of Western security is almost a revelation. Yet the wrenching experience of the last presidential administration has left scars that some experts say will not soon heal. “Don’t underestimate the Trump years as a shock to the [European Union],” said Rosa Balfour, director of Carnegie Europe. “There is the shadow of his return and the EU will be left in the cold again. So the EU is more cautious in embracing US demands.” And there are serious issues to discuss, ranging from the Afghanistan pullout to military spending, Russia and China, from trade disputes and tariff issues to climate and vaccine diplomacy. Yet as much as the Europeans appreciate Biden’s vows of constancy and affection, they have just witnessed how 75 years of US foreign policy can vanish overnight with a change in the presidency. And they fear that it can happen again — that America has changed, and that Biden is “an intermezzo” between more populist, nationalist presidents, said Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, vice president of the German Marshall Fund. They know that Biden’s policies will have price tags discreetly attached. They are not sure, for example, how his commitment to a “foreign policy for the middle class” differs from Trump’s “America first.” They also know that the electoral clock is ticking, with Germany set to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel in September, May’s French presidential election and the US midterms only 17 months away, which could limit Biden’s room to maneuver. Still, Biden’s visits to NATO on June 14 and then the EU for brief summits, after his attendance at the Group of 7 in Britain, will be more than symbolic. The meetings are synchronised so that he can arrive in Geneva on June 16 with allied consultation and support for his first meeting as president with Russia's president, Vladimir Putin. “The hopeful, optimistic view is that Biden is kicking off a new relationship, showing faith in Brussels and NATO, saying the right words and kicking off the key strategic process” of renovating the alliance for the next decade, said Jana Puglierin, Berlin director of the European Council on Foreign Relations. “But Biden also wants to see bang for the buck, and we need to show tangible results. This is not unconditional love, but friends with benefits.” François Heisbourg, a French defense analyst, sees only positives from the Biden trip. “The US is back, Biden’s back; there’s nothing cynical here,” said Heisbourg, a special adviser to the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris. “Biden has some strong views, and he is determined to implement them. International affairs are not his priority, but his basic positioning is ‘Let’s be friends again, to reestablish comity and civility with allies.’” But eventually, Heisbourg said, “policy reviews have to become policy.” Ivo Daalder, who was US ambassador to NATO under President Barack Obama, sees the whole trip as “part of ‘We’re back,’ and important to show that alliances and partners matter, that we want to work with other countries and be nice to our friends. Even the G-7 will be like that.” But he and others note that Biden has not yet named ambassadors to either NATO or the EU — or to most European countries, for that matter — let alone had them confirmed. For now, officials insist, that absence is not vital, and many of the most likely candidates are well known. Daalder said allies, at some point, need ambassadors who they know can get on the phone immediately with the secretaries of state and defense and, if necessary, Biden. The NATO summit meeting of 30 leaders will be short, with one 2 1/2-hour session after an opening ceremony, which would leave just five minutes for each leader to speak. The leaders will agree on a communique now being negotiated, discuss the Afghanistan withdrawal and sign off on an important yearlong study on how to remodel NATO’s strategic concept to meet new challenges in cyberwarfare, artificial intelligence, antimissile defense, disinformation, “emerging disruptive technologies” and numerous other issues. In 2010, when the strategic concept was last revised, NATO assumed that Russia could be a partner and China was barely mentioned. The new one will begin with very different assumptions. NATO officials and ambassadors say there is much to discuss down the road, questions such as how much and where a regional trans-Atlantic alliance should try to counter China, and what capabilities NATO needs and how many of them should come from common funding or remain the responsibility of member countries. How to adapt to the EU’s still vague desire for “strategic autonomy” while encouraging European military spending and efficiency and avoiding duplication with NATO is another concern. So is the question of how to make NATO a more politically savvy institution, as French President Emmanuel Macron has demanded, perhaps by establishing new meetings of member states' key officials, including state national security advisers and political directors. More quietly, leaders will begin to talk in bilateral sessions about replacing NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, whose term was extended for two years to keep matters calm during the Trump presidency. His term ends in September 2022. The other main issues for this brief NATO summit meeting will be topical: how to manage Afghanistan during and after withdrawal, Putin’s Russia, Xi Jinping’s China and Aleksandr Lukashenko’s Belarus. Anyone interested in trains running on time will find the NATO summit compelling, said the ambassador of a NATO country. Those who are more interested in trains that collide will be disappointed. The same will be true of Biden’s June 15 meeting, which is grandly called a summit with the European Union. Biden is scheduled to meet with two of the EU's presidents, Charles Michel of the European Council, who represents the leaders of the 27-member states, and Ursula von der Leyen, who runs the European Commission, the bloc’s powerful bureaucracy. Biden will have met 21 of the 27 EU leaders the previous day at NATO, since there is considerable overlap in the two organizations. Key exceptions are Turkey, a NATO member that is troublesome in its effort to balance relations with Russia and its enmity toward Greece, and Cyprus, an EU member that blocks most coordination with NATO because of its enmity toward Turkey. The bloc has a wide range of issues to discuss, including tariff and trade disputes stemming from Airbus and Boeing, and steel and aluminium; and new issues such as how to enforce a new a minimum global corporate tax rate under an important agreement reached Saturday by the G-7 finance ministers. Other issues include data transfer; military spending and procurement; military mobility; transition to a carbon-neutral economy, including carbon pricing; how to regulate global technology giants and social media companies; how to reform key multilateral institutions such as the World Trade Organisation and the World Health Organisation; and, of course, how best to deal with a rising China and an aggressive Russia. There is wariness, too, and not just about the possibility that another Trump-like president could follow Biden. Despite warm words of consultation, German officials in particular believe that Biden’s decision to pull all US troops out of Afghanistan by Sept 11 was made unilaterally in the old pattern, with Washington deciding and the allies following along, Puglierin said. Similarly, European leaders were angered and embarrassed by Biden’s decision to support the waiver of intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines. That move, after mounting domestic criticism, was done without warning to allies, let alone consultation. Europeans do not see China as the peer rival that Washington does and remain more dependent than the United States on both China and Russia for trade and energy. And some worry that Biden’s effort to define the world as a competition between democracy and authoritarianism is too black-and-white. “Touching base with allies before the Putin summit is important and goes beyond symbolism,” said Nathalie Tocci, director of Italy’s International Affairs Institute. “But Europeans are deluding themselves that things can go back the way they were.” Europeans need to step up, she said, and work with Biden to get agreements on key issues such as climate, vaccines and trade “that can create a Western critical mass that spills into a broader, global multilateral agreement.” That is the best way, she said, to show that “democracy delivers.” © 2021 The New York Times Company | 2 |
The decision came less than a month after an independent inquiry commissioned by the World Bank concluded that she played a central role in meddling with its 2018 Doing Business survey. The findings raised questions about her judgment and ability to continue leading the IMF. But ultimately its executive board decided that the investigation into Georgieva’s actions “did not conclusively demonstrate” that she had acted improperly. “Having looked at all the evidence presented, the executive board reaffirms its full confidence in the managing director’s leadership and ability to continue to effectively carry out her duties,” the IMF’s executive board said in a statement. “The board trusts in the managing director’s commitment to maintaining the highest standards of governance and integrity in the IMF.” Georgieva, a Bulgarian economist, maintained strong support from many of the IMF’s shareholders, including France, which had lobbied hard for her to get the job in 2019. The United States, which is the fund’s largest shareholder, declined to express public support for her following the allegations but ultimately did not call for her removal. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen spoke with Georgieva on Monday and told her that the World Bank investigation into her actions “raised legitimate issues and concerns,” the Treasury Department said. Yellen said, however, that absent “further direct evidence” regarding Georgieva’s role in data manipulation at the World Bank, there was no basis for a change in leadership at the fund, according to a readout of the call. The outcome could lead to political blowback for the Biden administration. Republicans and Democrats in Congress had urged Yellen to insist on “full accountability” after it emerged that Georgieva had instructed staff to find a way to ensure that China’s ranking did not fall in its annual report on national business climates. The Biden administration and lawmakers from both parties have been concerned about China’s growing economic clout and influence in multilateral institutions. Treasury Department officials debated the gravity of the revelations for weeks, insisting publicly that the process of reviewing Georgieva’s actions at the World Bank should be allowed to play out. The World Bank’s Doing Business report assessed the business climate in countries around the world. Developing countries, in particular, cared deeply about their rankings, which they used to lure foreign investment. At the time of the reported manipulation, World Bank officials were concerned about negotiations with members over a capital increase and were under pressure not to anger China, which was ranked 78th on the list of countries in 2017 and was set to decline in the 2018 report. According to the investigation, the staff of Jim Yong Kim, then the bank’s president, held meetings to find ways to improve China’s ranking. Georgieva also got involved, working with a top aide to develop a way to make China look better without affecting the rankings of other countries. The investigation found that Georgieva was “directly involved” in efforts to improve China’s ranking and at one point chastised the bank’s China director for mismanaging the bank’s relationship with the country. Last week, the IMF’s executive board spent hours interviewing officials from the law firm of WilmerHale, which conducted the World Bank’s investigation. They also interviewed Georgieva, who criticized the process of that investigation and insisted that she had acted appropriately. “The WilmerHale Report does not accurately characterise my actions with respect to Doing Business 2018, nor does it accurately portray my character or the way that I have conducted myself over a long professional career,” Georgieva said in a statement to the board; it was obtained by The New York Times. Georgieva was a longtime World Bank employee who rose through the ranks to become its chief executive. She previously served on the European Commission — the European Union’s executive body — and she has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria, where she also taught. Georgieva said in a statement Monday night that the episode had been difficult for her personally and that she was grateful the IMF board had expressed confidence in her leadership. “I am pleased that after a comprehensive, impartial review of the facts, the IMF board agrees that the allegations were unfounded,” Georgieva said. “Trust and integrity are the cornerstones of the multinational organizations that I have faithfully served for more than four decades.” © 2021 The New York Times Company | 1 |
The result, said current and former officials and people briefed on the decision, will empower Russia and Iran and leave unfinished the goal of erasing the risk that Islamic State, or ISIS, which has lost all but a sliver territory, could rebuild. Trump was moving toward his dramatic decision in recent weeks even as top aides tried to talk him out of it, determined to fulfill a campaign promise of limiting US involvement militarily abroad, two senior officials said. The move, which carries echoes of Trump’s repudiation of the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate change accord, is in keeping with his America First philosophy and the pledge he made to end US military involvement. A former senior Trump administration official said the president’s decision basically was made two years ago, and that Trump finally stared down what he considered unpersuasive advice to stay in. “The president won. His inclination was always not to be there,” said the former official who is close to the White House, saying a variety of senior advisers had all argued against pulling out. In meetings with top advisers, Trump would ask: “What are we doing there? I know we’re there to fight ISIS, but we did it. Now what?” said the former official. Trump understood, but rejected, arguments by senior advisers that US troops were not on the front lines, numbered only 2,000 and markedly strengthened anti-Islamic State local forces, saying he wanted to get out once Raqqa and other ISIS strongholds fell. QUALMS IN THE PENTAGON A US defense official said Trump’s decision was widely seen in the Pentagon as benefiting Russia as well as Iran, both of which have used their support for the Syrian government to bolster their regional influence. Iran also has improved its ability to ship arms to Lebanese Hezbollah for use against Israel. Asked who gained from the withdrawal, the defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, replied: “Geopolitically Russia, regionally Iran.” Another US defense official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said US military commanders had expressed concerns with the administration about what a rapid withdrawal would mean for US-backed local forces fighting Islamic State. The official said the plan to withdraw had caught the commanders by surprise. Trump “destroyed ISIS safe haven in Syria & will lose the peace by withdrawing,” tweeted retired Army Vice Chief of Staff Jack Keane, who has been seen as a possible successor to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. “ISIS will re-emerge, Iran a greater threat, will own all of Syria, Israel more in danger.” Like other experts, Keane, who is also a Fox News analyst, said that by pulling out, Trump will surrender Washington’s ability to play a major role in framing a settlement of the Syrian civil war. Charles Lister, an expert with the Middle East Institute thinktank, agreed. “It completely takes apart America’s broader strategy in Syria,” he said, “but perhaps more importantly, the centerpiece of the Trump administration policy, which is containing Iran. “Syria is the jewel in the crown of Iran’s regional strategy,” he said. The Trump administration dismissed that argument. “These troops that we had in Syria were never there to counter Iran. They were always there to destroy the territorial caliphate of ISIS,” said a senior administration official. “And so I think the president was perfectly justified when he judged that mission was at an end.” FRUSTRATION AMONG REPUBLICANS, ALLIES Lawmakers from both parties complained that they were not briefed in advance of the decision. Republican Senator Jeff Flake, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Reuters that GOP senators expressed their frustration “in spades” during a lunch with Vice President Mike Pence. French officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were scrambling to find out exactly what the announcement meant and how it will affect their participation in US-led coalition operations against Islamic State. “If this turns out to be as bad as it sounds, then it’s a serious problem for us and the British because operationally the coalition doesn’t work without the US,” said one French diplomat. Syria’s civil war, which began in 2011, has killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced around half the country’s pre-war 22 million population and defied all efforts at diplomatic resolution. The pull-out may be an especially bitter pill for Jim Jeffrey, the US special representative for Syria, who was the US ambassador in Baghdad when former President Barack Obama decided to withdraw US forces, undercutting his leverage. As recently as in September, Jeffrey told reporters, “We are not in a hurry to pull out.” | 0 |
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he would take part remotely, but the no-show by the leader of the world's fourth-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases is the latest setback, with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also uncertain to attend. Britain, which hosts the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, or COP26, in Glasgow from Oct 31 to Nov 12, is seeking support from major powers for a more radical plan to tackle global warming. The Kremlin had previously announced that Putin would not attend a Group of 20 summit in Rome in person this month due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic. "He will also not fly to Glasgow, unfortunately," Peskov told reporters, saying other Russian representatives would go. "We need to work out in what format it will be possible (for Putin) to speak via video conference, at what moment," Peskov said. "The issues that will be discussed in Glasgow right now form one of the priorities of our foreign policy." Russia is warming 2.8 times faster than the global average, with the melting of Siberia's permafrost, which covers 65 percent of Russian landmass, releasing significant amounts of greenhouse gases. Putin said last week Russia would strive to be carbon neutral no later than 2060. He said hydrogen, ammonia and natural gas were likely to play a larger role in the energy mix in coming years and that Russia was ready for dialogue on ways to tackle climate change. Before the Kremlin's announcement, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told investors on Tuesday there would be a good attendance at COP26. "It looks like a lot of people are going to be able to come in person," he said. | 0 |
It is an illustration of the kind of bargain long made by
some employees of the Kremlin propaganda machine — people who valued the steady
work and the creative challenge, even if they did not agree with the mission of
their workplace. It was only this month, after President Vladimir Putin
invaded Ukraine, that Likin resigned as the longtime art director for Channel
1, the Russian state television network that is a major player in the Kremlin’s
sprawling propaganda apparatus. He insisted that he was “not a politician,” but
that the invasion meant he was now part of an operation with a
“life-exterminating” agenda. “In Russia, television is made for people who for one reason
or another are too lazy to use alternative sources of information,” Likin said
in a phone interview, reflecting on his audience. “These are simply people who
lack education or who lack the habit of analysis.” Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has led some Russians who long
worked for the government to cut ties with it, a sign of how the Kremlin is
struggling to keep society fully unified behind the war. Thousands have been
arrested protesting the invasion of Ukraine, tens of thousands have fled the
country, and on Wednesday, Putin’s climate envoy, Anatoly Chubais, became the
first senior government official reported to have quit since the invasion began
Feb 24. There have been at least four high-profile resignations at
Russia’s state television channels, a crucial pillar of Putin’s dominance over
the country’s domestic politics. Marina Ovsyannikova, a Channel 1 staff member
who interrupted a live news broadcast last week to unfurl an anti-war poster
that said “They’re lying to you here,” offered the most striking act of
protest. Others, including Likin, have gone more quietly, providing a glimpse
of the ferment inside Putin’s system — and a reminder of the immense power of
television in shaping how most Russians see the war. “People are just depressed — clinically depressed,” Zhanna
Agalakova, a Channel 1 correspondent who resigned this month, said of some of
her colleagues left behind. “Many thinking people are sensing their own guilt.
And there is no exit, you understand? Simply asking for forgiveness is not enough.” All of Russia’s national television networks are controlled
by the Kremlin, and although their influence has declined with the rise of
YouTube and social media, they remain the public’s single main source of news.
About two-thirds of Russians relied on state television last year to get their
news, down from 90% in 2014, according to surveys by the Levada Center, an
independent Moscow pollster. During the war, the state television channels have delivered
to Russians a picture of the conflict that is the polar opposite of what people
see in the West: The Russians are the good guys, as they were when fighting
Nazi Germany in World War II, bringing liberation to Ukrainian lands seized by
neo-Nazis funded by the hegemonic West. Pictures of dead civilians and
destroyed homes are falsely branded either fake or the consequence of the
Ukrainians shelling themselves. “Local residents are saying that the Ukrainian military is
deliberately shooting at residential buildings,” a Channel 1 reporter said in a
segment broadcast Wednesday from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the target of
some of the fiercest Russian bombardment of the war. “Others are saying the
nationalists were ordered to destroy the city as much as possible before
retreating.” Most Russians, pollsters say, buy into the message beamed
into their living rooms — especially since the war is being presented as a
logical extension to the narrative of enmity and grievance toward the West that
Russian television has been promoting for years. And most state television
journalists have, for now, stayed in their jobs, amping up to a fever pitch the
message of Russia struggling for its right to exist. Liliya Gildeyeva, an
anchor who quit the state-run channel NTV, told the Russian outlet The Insider
this week that she could not judge her colleagues who had stayed behind — and
acknowledged that she herself had made compromise after compromise, realising
only when the war started how far she had gone. “When you gradually give in to yourself, you do not notice
the depth of the fall,” she said. The shock of the war appears to be what pushed tens of
thousands of Russians into a historic exodus in recent weeks, packing planes to
destinations that were still accepting flights from Russia, including Turkey
and Armenia. Although some were journalists and activists fleeing possible
arrest, many others were tech workers and other young professionals who
suddenly no longer saw a future for themselves in Russia. Some members of Russia’s elite, too, have headed for the
exits. News of the most high-profile departure so far came on Wednesday when
Bloomberg News reported that Chubais, the Kremlin’s climate envoy, had quit
over the war in Ukraine and left the country. The Kremlin confirmed that
Chubais had stepped down. He was seen as one of the few liberal-minded
officials remaining in Putin’s government, and his leading role in Moscow’s
1990s economic reforms made him unpopular in much of Russian society. It is far from clear if the grumblings among some of the
elite could in any way destabilise Putin’s government. Likin, the former
Channel 1 art director, said he believed that people like him who were willing
to resign over their principles made up a “tiny minority” of Russia’s populace. “A lot of people don’t work for an idea,” Agalakova, the
former Channel 1 correspondent, said of her ex-colleagues who stayed behind.
“People have a family, have loans and have some kind of need to survive.” Those who quit state television jobs, and especially those
who speak out, face an uncertain future. Agalakova spoke by phone from Paris,
where she had been based as a correspondent, and said some of her acquaintances
stopped communicating with her after she quit. Likin said he planned to stay in
Russia and continue his parallel career as an architect. He said he could
imagine returning to television if it “changes its agenda from a
life-exterminating one to a life-affirming one.” Government-sponsored polls claim that most Russians support
Putin’s invasion, although analysts caution that people are even less likely to
answer surveys truthfully at a time of war. Years of propaganda on Russian
television, Agalakova now recognises, prepared the ground for war, in
particular by subverting Russians’ remembrance of their country’s World War II
sacrifice into support for the Kremlin’s current policies. “Of course, when the concept of Nazism is thrown into
society, as though it is literally in our backyard in Ukraine, everyone reacts
instantly,” Agalakova said, referring to the Kremlin’s false claims that Russia
is fighting Nazis in Ukraine. “This is a shameless game. This is a fraudulent
game.” Amid the propaganda barrage, Russians who distrust
television have found ever fewer places to turn for more accurate news. Since
the start of the war, the liberal Echo of Moscow radio station has been shut
down, the TV Rain independent television channel has gone off the air for the
security of its staff, and access to Facebook and Instagram has been blocked by
the government. On Tuesday, Russian authorities announced that a popular
journalist, Alexander Nevzorov, was under criminal investigation for posting
about the Russian bombing of Mariupol on his Instagram page. It was the latest
effort to sow fear among critics of the war by trumpeting the enforcement of a
new law that hands out as many as 15 years in prison for any deviation from the
official narrative about what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation”
in Ukraine. Denis Volkov, director of the Levada polling centre, said
the real test for Russian public opinion is still to come as the economic
hardships touched off by Western sanctions filter through society. Still, he
said he thought the Kremlin’s narrative of a West subverting Ukraine in order
to destroy Russia and of Russia’s waging a noble fight to protect its people
abroad has become so strongly ingrained in the television-viewing public that
it was unlikely to be dislodged anytime soon. “What seems to fit is accepted, what doesn’t fit is simply
rejected,” Volkov said of how many Russians perceive the news to agree with the
television narrative. “What is true or not true doesn’t matter.” © 2022 The New York Times Company | 5 |
The government will put forward a motion to declare the emergency next Wednesday, the government said as parliament reconvened after a general election won by Ardern’s party. “We’ve always considered climate change to be a huge threat to our region, and it is something we must take immediate action on,” Ardern said, according to state broadcaster TVNZ. “Unfortunately, we were unable to progress a motion around a climate emergency in parliament in the last term, but now we’re able to.” Ardern returned to power last month delivering the biggest election victory for her centre-left Labour Party in half a century as voters rewarded her for a decisive response to the novel coronavirus. The resounding win allows Ardern’s party to govern alone although she has joined forces with the Green Party for the next three-year term. The newly elected members of parliament were sworn in on Tuesday and resumed work on Wednesday in New Zealand’s most diverse parliament ever. It has several people of colour, members of rainbow communities and a large number of women. In her last term, Ardern’s government passed a Zero Carbon Bill, which sets the framework for net zero emissions by 2050, with cross-party support in parliament. If a climate emergency is passed, New Zealand would join countries like Canada, France and Britain that have taken the same course to focus efforts on tackling climate change. Last week, Japanese lawmakers declared a climate emergency and committed to a firm timetable for net-zero emissions. | 0 |
It is an illustration of the kind of bargain long made by
some employees of the Kremlin propaganda machine — people who valued the steady
work and the creative challenge, even if they did not agree with the mission of
their workplace. It was only this month, after President Vladimir Putin
invaded Ukraine, that Likin resigned as the longtime art director for Channel
1, the Russian state television network that is a major player in the Kremlin’s
sprawling propaganda apparatus. He insisted that he was “not a politician,” but
that the invasion meant he was now part of an operation with a
“life-exterminating” agenda. “In Russia, television is made for people who for one reason
or another are too lazy to use alternative sources of information,” Likin said
in a phone interview, reflecting on his audience. “These are simply people who
lack education or who lack the habit of analysis.” Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has led some Russians who long
worked for the government to cut ties with it, a sign of how the Kremlin is
struggling to keep society fully unified behind the war. Thousands have been
arrested protesting the invasion of Ukraine, tens of thousands have fled the
country, and on Wednesday, Putin’s climate envoy, Anatoly Chubais, became the
first senior government official reported to have quit since the invasion began
Feb 24. There have been at least four high-profile resignations at
Russia’s state television channels, a crucial pillar of Putin’s dominance over
the country’s domestic politics. Marina Ovsyannikova, a Channel 1 staff member
who interrupted a live news broadcast last week to unfurl an anti-war poster
that said “They’re lying to you here,” offered the most striking act of
protest. Others, including Likin, have gone more quietly, providing a glimpse
of the ferment inside Putin’s system — and a reminder of the immense power of
television in shaping how most Russians see the war. “People are just depressed — clinically depressed,” Zhanna
Agalakova, a Channel 1 correspondent who resigned this month, said of some of
her colleagues left behind. “Many thinking people are sensing their own guilt.
And there is no exit, you understand? Simply asking for forgiveness is not enough.” All of Russia’s national television networks are controlled
by the Kremlin, and although their influence has declined with the rise of
YouTube and social media, they remain the public’s single main source of news.
About two-thirds of Russians relied on state television last year to get their
news, down from 90% in 2014, according to surveys by the Levada Center, an
independent Moscow pollster. During the war, the state television channels have delivered
to Russians a picture of the conflict that is the polar opposite of what people
see in the West: The Russians are the good guys, as they were when fighting
Nazi Germany in World War II, bringing liberation to Ukrainian lands seized by
neo-Nazis funded by the hegemonic West. Pictures of dead civilians and
destroyed homes are falsely branded either fake or the consequence of the
Ukrainians shelling themselves. “Local residents are saying that the Ukrainian military is
deliberately shooting at residential buildings,” a Channel 1 reporter said in a
segment broadcast Wednesday from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the target of
some of the fiercest Russian bombardment of the war. “Others are saying the
nationalists were ordered to destroy the city as much as possible before
retreating.” Most Russians, pollsters say, buy into the message beamed
into their living rooms — especially since the war is being presented as a
logical extension to the narrative of enmity and grievance toward the West that
Russian television has been promoting for years. And most state television
journalists have, for now, stayed in their jobs, amping up to a fever pitch the
message of Russia struggling for its right to exist. Liliya Gildeyeva, an
anchor who quit the state-run channel NTV, told the Russian outlet The Insider
this week that she could not judge her colleagues who had stayed behind — and
acknowledged that she herself had made compromise after compromise, realising
only when the war started how far she had gone. “When you gradually give in to yourself, you do not notice
the depth of the fall,” she said. The shock of the war appears to be what pushed tens of
thousands of Russians into a historic exodus in recent weeks, packing planes to
destinations that were still accepting flights from Russia, including Turkey
and Armenia. Although some were journalists and activists fleeing possible
arrest, many others were tech workers and other young professionals who
suddenly no longer saw a future for themselves in Russia. Some members of Russia’s elite, too, have headed for the
exits. News of the most high-profile departure so far came on Wednesday when
Bloomberg News reported that Chubais, the Kremlin’s climate envoy, had quit
over the war in Ukraine and left the country. The Kremlin confirmed that
Chubais had stepped down. He was seen as one of the few liberal-minded
officials remaining in Putin’s government, and his leading role in Moscow’s
1990s economic reforms made him unpopular in much of Russian society. It is far from clear if the grumblings among some of the
elite could in any way destabilise Putin’s government. Likin, the former
Channel 1 art director, said he believed that people like him who were willing
to resign over their principles made up a “tiny minority” of Russia’s populace. “A lot of people don’t work for an idea,” Agalakova, the
former Channel 1 correspondent, said of her ex-colleagues who stayed behind.
“People have a family, have loans and have some kind of need to survive.” Those who quit state television jobs, and especially those
who speak out, face an uncertain future. Agalakova spoke by phone from Paris,
where she had been based as a correspondent, and said some of her acquaintances
stopped communicating with her after she quit. Likin said he planned to stay in
Russia and continue his parallel career as an architect. He said he could
imagine returning to television if it “changes its agenda from a
life-exterminating one to a life-affirming one.” Government-sponsored polls claim that most Russians support
Putin’s invasion, although analysts caution that people are even less likely to
answer surveys truthfully at a time of war. Years of propaganda on Russian
television, Agalakova now recognises, prepared the ground for war, in
particular by subverting Russians’ remembrance of their country’s World War II
sacrifice into support for the Kremlin’s current policies. “Of course, when the concept of Nazism is thrown into
society, as though it is literally in our backyard in Ukraine, everyone reacts
instantly,” Agalakova said, referring to the Kremlin’s false claims that Russia
is fighting Nazis in Ukraine. “This is a shameless game. This is a fraudulent
game.” Amid the propaganda barrage, Russians who distrust
television have found ever fewer places to turn for more accurate news. Since
the start of the war, the liberal Echo of Moscow radio station has been shut
down, the TV Rain independent television channel has gone off the air for the
security of its staff, and access to Facebook and Instagram has been blocked by
the government. On Tuesday, Russian authorities announced that a popular
journalist, Alexander Nevzorov, was under criminal investigation for posting
about the Russian bombing of Mariupol on his Instagram page. It was the latest
effort to sow fear among critics of the war by trumpeting the enforcement of a
new law that hands out as many as 15 years in prison for any deviation from the
official narrative about what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation”
in Ukraine. Denis Volkov, director of the Levada polling centre, said
the real test for Russian public opinion is still to come as the economic
hardships touched off by Western sanctions filter through society. Still, he
said he thought the Kremlin’s narrative of a West subverting Ukraine in order
to destroy Russia and of Russia’s waging a noble fight to protect its people
abroad has become so strongly ingrained in the television-viewing public that
it was unlikely to be dislodged anytime soon. “What seems to fit is accepted, what doesn’t fit is simply
rejected,” Volkov said of how many Russians perceive the news to agree with the
television narrative. “What is true or not true doesn’t matter.” © 2022 The New York Times Company | 2 |
Energy storage is an unglamorous pillar of an expected revolution to clean up the world's energy supply but will soon vie for investors attention with more alluring sources of energy like solar panels, manufacturers say. "It's been in the background until now. It's not sexy. It's the enabler, not a source of energy," said Tim Hennessy, chief executive of Canadian battery makers VRB Power, speaking on the sidelines of a "CleanEquity" technologies conference in Monaco. VRB will start mass production this year of a longer-lasting rival to the lead acid battery currently used to store energy for example produced by solar panel, Hennessy said. Low carbon-emitting renewable energy is in vogue, driven by fears over climate change, spiraling oil prices and fears over energy supply and security. While the supply of the wind and sun far exceeds humanity's needs it doesn't necessarily match the time when people need it: the sun may not be shining nor the wind blowing when we need to cook dinner or have a shower. Soaring production of solar panel and wind turbines is now spurring a race to develop the winning energy storage technologies which will drive the electric cars and appliances of the future. The race is heating up as manufacturers with entirely different solutions near the moment of commercial production. For example, UK-based ITM Power sees the future of energy storage in the explosive gas hydrogen. The company is developing a piece of kit called an electrolyzer which uses solar or wind power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is then stored in a pressurized container until it is needed, whether to drive a car, produce electricity or for cooking. "With batteries you're taking enormous quantities of basic raw materials," said Chief Executive Jim Heathcote, referring to cadmium in nickel cadmium varieties. His company won an award for research at the Monaco conference, organized by corporate finance advisers Innovator Capital. "Two things we're confident of is the supply of renewable energy and water," he said. ITM Power aims to start production later this year of electrolyzers and next year of hydrogen fuel cells which generate electricity. "The one problem everyone's had is how to store. The ability to take (surplus) renewable energy and make useful fuel out of it is almost priceless," Heathcote said. RICH The economic opportunities are highlighted by a third company, U.S.-based EnerDel, which aims to supply batteries for the "Th!nk City" electric vehicle, manufactured by Norway's Think Global. In the case of electric cars, cheap, lightweight batteries are needed to power motors, and will eliminate carbon emissions if the batteries are charged using renewable power sources. EnerDel has patented a lithium-ion battery which it says is lighter and cheaper than the nickel metal hydride batteries currently used in hybrid electric cars such as the Toyota Prius. "I think energy storage is the next frontier," said Charles Gassenheimer, chairman of EnerDel's owners Ener1 Inc. The "Th!nk" car could be the world's first mass production electric vehicle, starting in earnest in 2009. It will go from 0 to 60 miles an hour in about 8 seconds and have a range of up to 100 miles, said Gassenheimer. Investors have given their thumbs up to Ener1, which now has a market capitalization of around $700 million, a ten-fold increase over two years ago. | 0 |
Xi provided no details, but depending on how the policy is implemented, the move could significantly limit the financing of coal plants in the developing world. China has been under heavy diplomatic pressure to put an end to its coal financing overseas because it could make it easier for the world to stay on course to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement to reduce carbon emissions. Xi's announcement followed similar moves by South Korea and Japan earlier this year, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and US climate envoy John Kerry have urged China to follow the lead of its Asian counterparts. "China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy, and will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad," Xi said in his pre-recorded video address at the annual UN gathering, in which he stressed China's peaceful intentions in international relations. Kerry quickly welcomed Xi's announcement, calling it a "great contribution" and a good beginning to efforts needed to achieve success at the Oct 31-Nov 12 COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland. "We’ve been talking to China for quite some period of time about this. And I’m absolutely delighted to hear that President Xi has made this important decision," Kerry said in a statement. Alok Sharma, the head of COP26, also hailed the announcement. "It is clear the writing is on the wall for coal power. I welcome President Xi’s commitment to stop building new coal projects abroad - a key topic of my discussions during my visit to China," he said on Twitter. Xi spoke after US President Joe Biden gave his first United Nations address. Biden mapped out a new era of vigorous competition without a new Cold War despite China's ascendance. In a measured speech, Xi made no direct mention of China's often bitter rivalry with the United States, where the Biden administration has made policies on climate change mitigation a top priority and sought to cooperate with Beijing. Xi repeated pledges from last year that China would achieve a peak in carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060. Some experts have criticised those targets as not ambitious enough, though it allowed Beijing to claim moral high ground on the issue after then-US President Donald Trump, who had called climate change a "hoax", had withdrawn from the Paris climate agreement. China, the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, is still heavily reliant on coal for it's domestic energy needs. One of Biden's first moves after assuming office in January was to reassert US leadership on climate change and return the United States to the Paris agreement. "China was the last man standing. If there's no public finance of coal from China, there's little to no global coal expansion," Justin Guay, director of global climate strategy at the Sunrise Project, a group advocating for a global transition from coal and fossil fuels, said of Xi's promise. Guterres welcomed both Xi's move on coal and Biden's pledge to work with the US Congress to double funds by 2024 to $11.4 billion per year to help developing nations deal with climate change. "Accelerating the global phase out of coal is the single most important step to keep the 1.5-degree goal of the Paris Agreement within reach, he said in a statement. 'BREATHE FREE' Hours earlier, without mentioning China by name, Biden said democracy would not be defeated by authoritarianism. "The future will belong to those who give their people the ability to breathe free, not those who seek to suffocate their people with an iron hand," Biden said. "We all must call out and condemn the targeting and oppression of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, whether it occurs in Xinjiang or northern Ethiopia, or anywhere in the world," he said, referring to the western Chinese region where authorities have created a network of internment camps for Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. China denies allegations of abuses in Xinjiang. Ties between the world's two biggest economies have been languishing at their lowest point in decades over issues ranging from human rights to transparency over the origins of COVID-19. Xi said there was a need to "reject the practice of forming small circles or zero-sum games," a possible reference to the US-led Quad forum of Australia, India, Japan and the United States seen as a means of pushing back against China's rise, which is due to meet at leader level in Washington on Friday. China last week warned of an intensified arms race in the region after the United States, Britain and Australia announced a new Indo-Pacific security alliance, dubbed AUKUS, which will provide Australia with the technology and capability to deploy nuclear-powered submarines. Biden's image has taken a battering over the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, but he has said the end to America's longest war will allow the United States to refocus resources and attention to the Indo-Pacific. "Military intervention from the outside and so-called democratic transformation entail nothing but harm," Xi said, in an apparent swipe at the United States. | 0 |
The UN climate agency called on Wednesday for a special summit to spur a fight against climate change but said high-level ministerial talks could fit the bill if world leaders resist. Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn, said that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon agreed at talks in New York on Tuesday to send envoys to probe government willingness for a high-level meeting about global warming. "The Secretary-General is exploring ways and means ... to facilitate global efforts for dealing with climate change," de Boer told Reuters by telephone after flying back to Europe. Ban's envoys would "explore the possibility of a high-level meeting ... possibly on the margins of the UN General Assembly" in New York in September, de Boer said. "It doesn't necessarily have to be heads of state," he added. "It could be a different level, such as foreign affairs or energy ministers." On March 1, Ban said global warming posed a threat as great as war and urged the United States to play a leading role in combating climate change. But Ban's spokeswoman said at the time that there were no plans to arrange a summit despite pleas from UN environment agencies. "I don't think it's a change of heart. What's being explored is ... a high-level meeting to engage a broader constituency -- foreign affairs, energy, trade, economy, transport," de Boer said. "It needs a broader push and broader support," irrespective of whether leaders meet, he said. World talks on expanding a fight against global warming, widely blamed on burning fossil fuels, are stalled. UN scientific reports this year say that mankind's emissions of greenhouse gas are "very likely" to be causing global warming that could bring more hunger, droughts, floods, heatwaves, melt glaciers and raise sea levels. De Boer says the world needs to speed up talks on widening the UN Kyoto Protocol, which sets cuts on emissions by 35 industrialised nations until 2012. The United States and Australia pulled out in 2001, reckoning Kyoto too costly. Kyoto nations make up only about a third of world emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. Only Russia is bound to a Kyoto target of the top four emitters -- the United States, China, Russia and India. De Boer said that a new meeting could build on, rather than duplicate, a Group of Eight summit in June at which German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to focus on climate change. The G8 summit will be joined by heads of China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa. Together the G8 and the five make up the bulk of world emissions of carbon dioxide. De Boer said that the G8 summit omits groups such as small island states, threatened by rising seas, the poorest nations such as in sub-Saharan Africa, and Australia. Environment ministers will meet for a next round of formal UN climate negotiations in Bali, Indonesia, in December. | 0 |
UN talks in Bali headed for a deal on Saturday to launch negotiations on a global pact by 2009 to fight climate change after the EU and the United States ended a dispute over greenhouse gas curbs. After talks lasting beyond a planned Friday deadline, disputes lingered about how far a final "road map" for a climate pact to succeed the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol should demand action by China, India and other developing nations. "We support this," Humberto Rosa, Portugal's Secretary of State for Environment, told a session of weary delegates called to debate a compromise among almost 190 nations after two weeks of negotiations in Bali, Indonesia. But the meeting broke off after objections from China, saying that many delegation leaders were still in side talks outside the plenary. If approved, a draft decision would launch two years of talks on a sweeping new long-term treaty to involve all nations. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Bali on Saturday morning for an unscheduled return to the talks from East Timor. He was due to hold a news conference later in the morning. The talks had been bogged down by a row between the United States, which opposes a guideline that rich countries should cut emissions by 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and the European Union, which favoured the target. A draft compromise, reached after days of acrimony at a beach resort on the Indonesian island, relegated the range to a footnote from a more prominent position in the preamble. "Deep cuts in global emissions will be required" to avoid dangerous climate change, the preamble says. The United States, the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases and the only industrialised nation not party to Kyoto, said it was satisfied with the compromise. "We can live with the preamble," U.S. negotiator Harlan Watson told Reuters. BAN HOPEFUL "I think it is encouraging that the Bali conference has agreed on a decision to launch negotiations with a timebound negotiation by the end of 2009," Ban told Reuters. "Reaching agreement requires a delicate balance to be struck," said Rachmat Witoelar, Indonesia's Environment Minister who was presiding over the talks, imploring delegates not to come up with new objections to a draft text worked out overnight. Washington opposed mention of firm 2020 guidelines for cutting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, saying it would prejudge the outcome of negotiations on a new treaty meant to slow ever more droughts, heatwaves, storms and rising seas. Most nations favour starting two years of negotiations ending with a broad new pact in 2009 to succeed Kyoto, which obliges 37 industrialised nations to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. The United Nations says a new deal, mainly on braking fossil fuel use, must be in place by the end of 2009 to give parliaments time to ratify and to reassure carbon markets and investors looking beyond 2012. U.N. officials said one section of text still undecided was how far developing nations should be required to take "actions" or make less demanding "contributions" to fight global warming. The main negotiating bloc of developing countries, the G77, said it was not ready to make new efforts to fight climate change by cutting emissions from fossil fuels. It fears curbs would cramp economic growth aimed at lifting millions out of poverty. "People are negotiating, they are posturing, and not rising above entrenched national positions," said Angus Friday, Grenada's Ambassador to the U.N. and chair of the Alliance of Small Island states. "We are just very disappointed at this stage. We are ending up with something so watered down there was no need for 12,000 people to gather here in Bali to have a watered down text. We could have done that by email," he said. The preamble includes a reference to findings by the Nobel Prize-winning U.N. Climate Panel, which said emissions by rich nations would have to be cut by 25 to 40 percent by 2020 to avert the worst effects of warming. | 0 |
A portion of the revenue from any US system capping carbon emissions must go toward softening the impact of higher energy prices on consumers, a White House official said on Wednesday. Joseph Aldy, special assistant to the president for energy and the environment, said building a clean energy economy will not be easy. "There will be those who are going to be vulnerable as we make this transition and ... we need to actually target the allowance value and revenues to those households, communities, and businesses," Aldy said at an Energy Information Administration forum. President Barack Obama's budget proposal called on Congress to pass a cap-and-trade bill that would auction 100 percent of carbon permits, essentially forcing companies to pay quickly for their emissions. But a White House spokesman on Wednesday said Obama is "flexible" on the amount of permits sold to industry. Obama's proposal would use most of the revenue generated from the sell of carbon permits for tax breaks, offsetting costs for consumers. Some industrial state lawmakers have raised concerns that a cap-and-trade system will burden big polluters such as coal-burning power plants with substantial additional costs. Aldy said the White House was reaching out to moderate U.S. Senators to seek support for climate change legislation in the chamber, where passage will likely be difficult. Separately, Aldy and other Democratic congressional aides on EIA panel also expressed support for development of a cap-and-trade system over placing a tax on carbon emissions. "Tax bills pass every year," said Greg Dotson, the chief environment and energy counsel for the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "I think the question is whether that is durable over time." Dotson said a cap-and-trade system would provide more certainty for businesses and for other countries trying to gauge U.S. commitment to addressing climate change. Andrea Spring, a Republican aide for the Energy and Commerce committee, disagreed with Dotson's assertion. Raising concerns about climate change legislation in general, Spring said a carbon tax was a more transparent option. "At least with a carbon tax you're kind of admitting what you're doing: you're raising energy prices," Spring said. "With a cap-and-trade program, you're doing the same thing." | 0 |
Fears that switching to genetically modified (GMO) crops could harm the habitat of wild birds, insects and other plants may be overblown, British scientists who have developed a forecasting model say. The model developed by Reading University's Centre for Agri-Environmental Research also suggested government policy to promote a recovery in farmland bird populations may fail to deliver its goal. There have been concerns that GMO crops which are herbicide tolerant would hurt biodiversity as fewer weeds could threaten spiders and insects as well as the birds which feed on them. Thirty-nine farmland birds could be threatened by a switch to GMO herbicide-tolerant sugar beet and rapeseed but with only one species, the meadow pipit, is the change likely to move it into a more threatened category, the scientists concluded. "It appears that replacing equivalent conventional crops in the current agricultural landscape with GMO herbicide tolerant crops would only have a limited effect (on farm birds)," the scientists said in a paper published by Science magazine. The paper also concluded that a major UK environmental scheme aimed at reversing a decline in farmland birds may not deliver its objectives as its focus was on hedgerows and land at the edge of farms rather than cropped areas. The scientists argued the main driver for the decline in farmland birds had been the loss of food and nesting habitats in the cropped areas of the agricultural landscape. Farmland bird populations have almost halved since 1970 with agricultural intensification seen as the main reason. The British government has set a goal of reversing the long-term decline by 2020. Reading University scientists believe their forecasting model can help governments protect biodiversity with agriculture set to undergo major changes over the next few years. European Union agricultural reforms, an anticipated growth in biofuels, the prospect of more genetically modified crops and an increasing impact from climate change are among the factors likely to pose new threats to birds, insects and plants. | 0 |
Bloomberg, 76, a billionaire media executive and former New York City mayor, has already aligned himself with Democrats in the midterm elections, approving a plan to spend $80 million to flip control of the House of Representatives. A political group he controls will soon begin spending heavily in three Republican-held districts in Southern California, attacking conservative candidates for their stances on abortion, guns and the environment. At events across the West Coast and Nevada in recent days, Bloomberg, who was elected mayor as a Republican and an independent, denounced his former party in sharp terms. He urged audiences in Seattle and San Francisco to punish Republicans who oppose gun control or reject climate science. And in Las Vegas on Sunday he called on Democrats to seize command of the political centre and win over Americans “who voted Republican in 2016.” But Bloomberg’s aspirations appear to run well beyond dismantling Republicans’ House majority, and he is taking steps that advisers acknowledge are aimed in part at testing his options for 2020. After a gun control-themed event in a Seattle community centre Friday, Bloomberg, who has repeatedly explored running for president as an independent in the past, said in an interview that he now firmly believes only a major-party nominee can win the White House. If he were to run, Bloomberg said it would be as a Democrat, and he left open the door to changing his party registration in the coming months. “It’s impossible to conceive that I could run as a Republican — things like choice, so many of the issues, I’m just way away from where the Republican Party is today,” Bloomberg said. “That’s not to say I’m with the Democratic Party on everything, but I don’t see how you could possibly run as a Republican. So if you ran, yeah, you’d have to run as a Democrat.” Bloomberg said he had no specific timeline for deciding on a presidential run: “I’m working on this Nov. 6 election and after that I’ll take a look at it.” There is considerable scepticism among Democratic leaders, and even some of Bloomberg’s close allies, that he will actually pursue the presidency, because he has entertained the idea fruitlessly several times before, and shown little appetite for the rough-and-tumble tactics of traditional partisan politics. A campaign would require him to yield his imperial stature as a donor and philanthropist, and enter a tumultuous political and cultural climate that could make him a highly incongruous candidate for the Democratic nomination. Though he has received a hero’s welcome from Democrats for his role in the midterms, Bloomberg is plainly an uncomfortable match for a progressive coalition passionately animated by concern for economic inequality and the civil rights of women and minorities.
Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire and former mayor of New York, speaks at a fundraising brunch for Steve Sisolak, left, the Democratic nominee for governor of Nevada, in Las Vegas on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2018. Bloomberg is actively considering a campaign for president as a Democrat in 2020, concluding that it would be his only path to the White House even as he voices stark disagreements with progressives on defining issues including bank regulation, stop-and-frisk police tactics and the #MeToo movement. (Bridget Bennett/The New York Times)
In the interview Friday — his first extended comments on his thinking about a 2020 presidential run — Bloomberg expressed stubbornly contrary views on those fronts. He criticised liberal Democrats’ attitude toward big business, endorsing certain financial regulations but singling out a proposal by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to break up Wall Street banks as wrongheaded. He also defended his mayoral administration’s policy of stopping people on the street to search them for guns, a police tactic that predominantly affected black and Latino men, as a necessary expedient against crime. Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire and former mayor of New York, speaks at a fundraising brunch for Steve Sisolak, left, the Democratic nominee for governor of Nevada, in Las Vegas on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2018. Bloomberg is actively considering a campaign for president as a Democrat in 2020, concluding that it would be his only path to the White House even as he voices stark disagreements with progressives on defining issues including bank regulation, stop-and-frisk police tactics and the #MeToo movement. (Bridget Bennett/The New York Times) And while Bloomberg expressed concern about allegations of sexual misconduct that have arisen in the last year, he also voiced doubt about some of them and said only a court could determine their veracity. He gave as an example Charlie Rose, the disgraced television anchor who for years broadcast his eponymous talk show from the offices of Bloomberg’s company. “The stuff I read about is disgraceful — I don’t know how true all of it is,” Bloomberg said of the #MeToo movement. Raising Rose unprompted, he said: “We never had a complaint, whatsoever, and when I read some of the stuff, I was surprised, I will say. But I never saw anything and we have no record, we’ve checked very carefully.” Bloomberg said the media industry was guilty of not “standing up” against sexual misconduct sooner, but declined to say whether he believed the allegations against Rose. “Let the court system decide,” he said, while acknowledging that the claims involving Rose might never be adjudicated in a legal proceeding. Rose, 76, has been accused by numerous women of unwanted and coercive sexual behaviour, including claims that he groped female subordinates and exposed himself to them. He was fired by both CBS, where he hosted a morning show, and PBS, which broadcast the program “Charlie Rose,” which Rose recorded in the Bloomberg office. Bloomberg TV also terminated an arrangement that allowed it to rebroadcast Rose’s show. “You know, is it true?” Bloomberg said of the allegations. “You look at people that say it is, but we have a system where you have — presumption of innocence is the basis of it.” On policing, Bloomberg said that there had been “outrageous” cases of police abuse and unjustified shootings around the country. But he said stop-and-frisk searches had helped lower New York City’s murder rate and insisted that the policy had not violated anyone’s civil rights.
Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire and former mayor of New York, poses for photos with supporters of stricter gun control in Las Vegas on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2018. Bloomberg is actively considering a campaign for president as a Democrat in 2020, concluding that it would be his only path to the White House even as he voices stark disagreements with progressives on defining issues including bank regulation, stop-and-frisk police tactics and the #MeToo movement. (Bridget Bennett/The New York Times)
He dismissed a court ruling to the contrary as the opinion of a single judge that could have been overturned on appeal. Bloomberg suggested many Democrats would agree with him on policing. Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire and former mayor of New York, poses for photos with supporters of stricter gun control in Las Vegas on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2018. Bloomberg is actively considering a campaign for president as a Democrat in 2020, concluding that it would be his only path to the White House even as he voices stark disagreements with progressives on defining issues including bank regulation, stop-and-frisk police tactics and the #MeToo movement. (Bridget Bennett/The New York Times) “I think people, the voters, want low crime,” Bloomberg said. “They don’t want kids to kill each other.” Asked whether, in retrospect, he saw any civil rights problems with stop-and-frisk tactics, Bloomberg replied: “The courts found that there were not. That’s the definition.” In 2013, a federal district judge, Shira A Scheindlin, ruled that the stop-and-frisk policy had been carried out in an unconstitutional way. Bloomberg’s administration assailed the decision and vowed to appeal it, but his successor, Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, declined to do so. Despite his obvious divergence from the Democratic Party on some key issues, advisers to Bloomberg believe he would have a plausible route to its presidential nomination if he stood out as a lonely moderate in a field of conventional liberals challenging President Donald Trump. Bloomberg has mapped an energetic travel schedule for the midterms that will also take him to battleground states that would be crucial in a presidential race. He will make stops in Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania and address influential liberal groups, including the League of Conservation Voters and Emily’s List, aides said. And he is weighing a visit to the early primary state of South Carolina. Bloomberg is also preparing to reissue a revised edition of his autobiography, “Bloomberg by Bloomberg,” aides confirmed. Democratic leaders have so far embraced Bloomberg, giving him a regal reception aimed at ushering him securely into the party. At a climate conference in San Francisco, he stood beside Gov. Jerry Brown of California, a popular Democrat, to show support for the Paris climate agreement. And in an embrace laden with political symbolism, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the House Democratic leader, introduced Bloomberg at two events as a herculean champion of the environment and a master of business and government. “His name is synonymous with excellence,” Pelosi said, at a dinner atop the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. “And he knows how to get the job done.” In a private conversation at the dinner, Bloomberg pressed Pelosi to govern the House in a bipartisan way if Democrats take power, he said — a message he also trumpeted publicly in Las Vegas as he pleaded with Democrats to pursue the centre. “Candidates who listen to voters in the middle are more likely to reach across the aisle and to get things done,” Bloomberg argued there. Beyond the most rarefied political precincts, however, Bloomberg and his White House hopes have stirred a mixture of curiosity and consternation. In Nevada, Barbara Buckley, a former speaker of the state Assembly, expressed surprise at the notion of a presidential campaign. “He’s still a Republican, isn’t he?” Buckley said at a fundraising dinner hosted by the Women’s Democratic Club of Clark County. Of Bloomberg running as a Democrat, she said, “I think people would question why he’s changing at this point in his career.” Tick Segerblom, a progressive lawmaker in Nevada, said he appreciated Bloomberg as an ally of the Democratic Party and would keep an open mind about him as a candidate. Segerblom, who hosted Warren at an event over the summer, volunteered to welcome Bloomberg at his home. “He’s been so fantastic on the environment and so fantastic on guns,” Segerblom said. “I don’t know, when you get into some of the economic issues, how progressive he is.”
Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire and former mayor of New York, prepares to speak to supporters of stricter gun control in Las Vegas on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2018. Bloomberg is actively considering a campaign for president as a Democrat in 2020, concluding that it would be his only path to the White House even as he voices stark disagreements with progressives on defining issues including bank regulation, stop-and-frisk police tactics and the #MeToo movement. (Bridget Bennett/The New York Times)
Bloomberg’s advertising for House Democrats is expected to begin in the coming days, with his spending trained on a few clusters of races in expensive television markets, including in California and Pennsylvania. His first three targets are Los Angeles-area seats held by Reps. Steve Knight and Dana Rohrabacher, Republicans running for re-election, and an open seat near San Diego held by Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican who is retiring. Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire and former mayor of New York, prepares to speak to supporters of stricter gun control in Las Vegas on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2018. Bloomberg is actively considering a campaign for president as a Democrat in 2020, concluding that it would be his only path to the White House even as he voices stark disagreements with progressives on defining issues including bank regulation, stop-and-frisk police tactics and the #MeToo movement. (Bridget Bennett/The New York Times) The advertising blitz includes $4 million in the final 10 days of the election in the Los Angeles media market alone, aides said. But underscoring Bloomberg’s discomfort with important elements of the Democratic Party, it is not expected to include California’s 45th Congressional District, where Katie Porter, a liberal law professor who is a protégée of Warren, is challenging Rep. Mimi Walters, a conservative Republican. Close allies of Bloomberg are divided as to whether it would be wise for him to run for president in 2020, and at least one longtime associate has predicted that he will never seek the White House. Bradley Tusk, Bloomberg’s former campaign manager who helped him explore an independent candidacy in 2016, declared at a recent dinner in Washington, D.C., that he expected Bloomberg to toy with running before opting out yet again, multiple people who attended the event confirmed. Asked about that prediction, Tusk said in a text message, “No one is better suited to be president than Mike Bloomberg.” “Running for president and being president aren’t always the same thing,” Tusk continued. “So we’ll see what he decides, but he’s the best option by far.” © 2018 New York Times News Service | 0 |
The former employees, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, said in a statement that Amazon would be required to pay their back wages and “post a notice to all of its tech and warehouse workers nationwide that Amazon can’t fire workers for organising and exercising their rights.” They called the settlement “a win for protecting workers rights.” The pair have said they were fired last year because they publicly pushed the company to reduce its effect on climate change and address concerns about its warehouse workers. Amazon has maintained that the former employees repeatedly broke internal policies. An Amazon spokesperson, Jose Negrete, said Wednesday, “We have reached a mutual agreement that resolves the legal issues in this case and welcome the resolution of this matter.” The settlement was reached at a high-wire moment for Amazon, which has pledged to be “Earth’s best employer” and is looking, in a tight labour market, to hire 40,000 corporate and tech workers and 125,000 warehouse workers in the United States. In 2018, Costa and Cunningham, who worked as designers at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, were part of a small group of employees who publicly pushed the company to do more to address its climate impact. They turned their efforts into an organisation, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, and helped get more than 8,700 Amazon colleagues to support its efforts. Over time, Cunningham and Costa broadened their protests. After Amazon told them that they had violated its external-communications policy by speaking publicly about the business, their group organised 400 employees to also speak out, purposely violating the policy to make a point. At the start of the pandemic, they announced an internal event for warehouse workers to speak to tech employees about their workplace safety conditions. Soon after, Amazon fired both women. Sen Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, wrote Amazon expressing concerns over potential retaliation, and Tim Bray, an internet pioneer and a former vice president at Amazon’s cloud computing group, resigned in protest. This spring, lawyers with the National Labour Relations Board said they had found merit in Costa and Cunningham’s accusations that they were fired in retaliation for their organising. The agency’s Seattle office then brought a case against Amazon, saying the company “enforced its facially neutral External Communications and Solicitation policies selectively and disparately in order to restrict employees from engaging in protected, concerted activities.” The hearing was scheduled to start Tuesday morning, but was delayed as the parties worked on a settlement. The case is one of many tangles the company has had with the labour board since the start of the pandemic. Most visibly, in August, a hearing officer of the NLRB recommended that the agency throw out a union election at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, finding that Amazon’s “conduct interfered with the laboratory conditions necessary to conduct a fair election.” Amazon denies any interference and has vowed to appeal if the regional office of the labour board agrees with the recommendation and formally overturns the election, which rejected the union. © 2021 The New York Times Company | 0 |
They had been slowly ripening in the desert heat for months. But the young tree on which they grew had a much more ancient history — sprouting from a 2,000-year-old seed retrieved from an archaeological site in the Judean wilderness. “They are beautiful!” exclaimed Dr. Sarah Sallon with the elation of a new mother, as each date, its skin slightly wrinkled, was plucked gently off its stem at a sunbaked kibbutz in southern Israel. They were tasty, too, with a fresh flavor that gave no hint of their two-millenium incubation period. The honey-blonde, semi-dry flesh had a fibrous, chewy texture and a subtle sweetness. These were the much-extolled, but long-lost Judean dates, and the harvest this month was hailed as a modern miracle of science. Sallon, who researches natural medicine, had joined up with Elaine Solowey, an expert on arid agriculture, to find and germinate the ancient seeds. This harvesting of the fruit, celebrated in a small ceremony earlier this month at Kibbutz Ketura, was the culmination of their 15-year quest. “In these troubled times of climate change, pollution and species dying out at alarming rates, to bring something back to life from dormancy is so symbolic,” Sallon said. “To pollinate and produce these incredible dates is like a beam of light in a dark time.” Date palms were praised in the Bible and the Quran, and became symbols of beauty, precious shade and succulent plenty. In antiquity, the Judean palms, prized for their quality, appeared as motifs in synagogues. A Roman coin minted around AD 70 to celebrate the conquest of Judea depicted the Jewish defeat as a woman weeping under a date palm. But by the Middle Ages, the famed Judean plantations had died out. Wars and upheaval likely made their cultivation impractical, as did their need for copious amounts of water in summer. So Sallon went on a hunt. A pediatric gastroenterologist who directs the Louis L Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, Sallon was on a mission to revive old knowledge for use in modern medicine. She had learned from a dusty archive in Jerusalem that dates were not only good for digestion but were thought by traditional healers to improve blood production and memory, and to have aphrodisiac properties. She obtained a few of the date seeds that had been found in the 1960s during an excavation of Masada, the desert fortress near the Dead Sea where Jewish zealots, besieged by the Romans in AD 73, famously died by their own hand rather than fall into slavery. She immediately turned to Solowey, who runs the Center for Sustainable Agriculture at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Kibbutz Ketura. The institute, established in 1996 after the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo peace accords, is dedicated to advancing cross-border environmental cooperation in the face of political conflict, and offers academic programs to Jordanians, Palestinians and Israelis as well as international students. Solowey planted the seeds in quarantined pots in January 2005, not expecting much, but nevertheless employing a few “horticultural tricks,” she said, to try to coax them out of their long slumber, involving warming, careful hydration, a plant hormone and enzymatic fertilizer. Weeks later, she said, she was “utterly astonished” to see the earth had cracked and a tiny shoot had emerged. Named Methuselah after the biblical patriarch known for his longevity, that shoot has since grown into a sturdy tree outside her office. But Methuselah turned out to be a male, and male palm trees are not good for much on their own. (Gender can be confirmed once the trees flower or by genetic testing.) So Sallon went searching again and chose more than 30 seeds from another stash from archaeological sites in the Judean desert, including Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Planted at Ketura between 2011 and 2014, six of the seeds sprouted. They were given the names of biblical figures when they germinated, but as their genders became clear over time, Judah became Judith, Eve became Adam, and Jeremiah became Hannah. Hannah’s seed, which came from an ancient burial cave in Wadi el-Makkukh near Jericho, now in the West Bank, was carbon dated to between the first and fourth centuries BC, becoming one of the oldest known seeds to have ever been germinated. The research was peer reviewed and detailed in a paper published in February in Science Advances, a leading scientific journal. A month later, there was another surprise. After growing for six years, Hannah flowered in a nearby plot. Now, it was time to play matchmaker. Solowey painstakingly collected pollen from Methuselah and brushed it onto Hannah’s flowers, “because I wanted Methuselah to be the father,” she said. The night before the picking of Hannah’s dates, there was some discussion of what the proper Hebrew blessing would be at the ceremony — the usual one for the fruit of the tree or the “shehecheyanu,” a blessing of thanks for new and unusual experiences. The next morning, both were recited, to a resounding Amen. Hannah’s fruit most reminded connoisseurs of the zahidi, an Iraqi variety known for its mildly sweet and nutty flavour. Genetic experts from the University of Montpellier in France said the genotyping for the germinated plants indicated that the older seeds, including Methuselah and Hannah, were closer to eastern varieties that flourished from Mesopotamia to Arabia and all the way to Pakistan. Date palm cultivation is thought to be up to 6,500 years old. The younger the seeds, the more they resembled the varieties that flourished west of Egypt, like the moist, treacly sweet Moroccan medjoul date that is popular today and is commercially cultivated in plantations along the Jordan Rift Valley, including at Ketura. It all made perfect sense to Sallon. Ancient Judea was ideally placed between North Africa and Asia, along major trade routes, and the Romans, who traded all over the Mediterranean, could have brought western varieties with them to pollinate the older varieties from the east. “Putting it simply, what do we find?” Sallon said. “The story of ancient Israel and the Jewish people, of diasporas, trade routes and commerce throughout the Middle East.” After the dates were harvested, there was little chance to savor the moment in the ensuing flurry of activity. Minutes after the picking and tasting, the dates were whisked away to be measured and weighed. About a dozen of the hundred or so from the bunch were individually wrapped in aluminum foil, packed on ice and sent to the Ministry of Agriculture’s research institute. Even the pips of those that had been eaten were collected for further study. Aside from Sallon’s interest in their medicinal properties, there was some banter among the institute staff about mass producing the old-new fruit, with an eye to marketing the fruit as “the dates that Jesus ate,” and using the funds for research. “Lucky, it tasted good,” Solowey said. “If it had been awful what would I have said? That in the old days they didn’t know what a good date was? There’s a lot of literature about how they were the best dates in the world.” © 2020 New York Times News Service | 0 |
Its embassy in Dhaka in a statement said they would also increase aid to the Palestinians following the recognition on Thursday.The decision drew praise from the Palestinian president and criticism from Israel, according to Reuters.Sweden is the first long-term EU state to recognise the State of Palestine.The move came nearly a month after the newly elected Prime Minister Stefan Lofven’s announcement that his government wanted to bolster a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Announcing the decision, Sweden said it considered that “the international law criteria for the recognition of Palestine have been satisfied” and that its recognition would facilitate the peace talks.“The purpose of Sweden’s recognition is to contribute to a future in which Israel and Palestine can live side by side in peace and security,” read the statement.“Sweden hopes that its decision will facilitate a peace agreement by making the parties less unequal, supporting the moderate Palestinian forces and contributing to hope at a time when tensions are increasing and no peace talks are taking place.”The Palestinians have long sought to establish an independent, sovereign state in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem as its capital, and the Gaza Strip - occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War.The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 1988 declared a Palestinian state within the pre-June 1967 lines.This won recognition from about 100 countries, mainly Arab, Communist, and non-aligned states including Bangladesh.Decades of peace talks, however, have failed to produce a permanent settlement.In 2012, the UN General Assembly voted to upgrade the status of the Palestinians to that of a "non-member observer state".“Our decision comes at a critical time because over the last year we have seen how the peace talks have stalled, how decisions over new settlements on occupied Palestinian land have complicated a two-state solution and how violence has returned to Gaza," Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom told reporters in Stockholm.“By making our decision we want to bring a new dynamic to the stalled peace process,” she said, according to Reuters, rejecting accusations that Sweden was taking sides.She hoped other EU countries would follow Sweden's lead.Seven EU members in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean have already recognised a Palestinian state, namely Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Romania.But they recognised it before joining the EU bloc, according to media reports.The foreign minister Wallström of the Social Democratic Party said their move was also aimed at giving hope to young people on both sides.The Swedish government also adopted a five-year aid strategy including substantially increased support to Palestinian state-building.Bilateral aid to Palestine will increase by Swedish krona 500 million to 1.5 billion over the next five-year period, in addition to Sweden’s substantial humanitarian assistance.“Sweden’s contribution aims among other things to make it easier for Palestinians to support themselves and to continue living where they are, to strengthen women’s empowerment and strengthen resilience to environmental and climate changes.“This increased assistance means support to all moderate and non-violent forces in Palestine promoting democracy, human rights and gender equality,” Minister for International Development Cooperation Isabella Lövin of the Green Party said. | 1 |
Citing the need to stay engaged with the administration, business leaders said they would remain in their advisory roles to continue working to influence White House policies. Trump, a Republican, on Thursday said he would pull the United States from the landmark 2015 global agreement to fight climate change, drawing anger and condemnation from world leaders and heads of industry. Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and Walt Disney Co CEO Robert Iger reacted by leaving White House advisory councils after Trump's move. "Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world," Musk said in a Twitter post on Thursday. He was a member of the business advisory group, known as the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum. He also belonged to Trump's manufacturing jobs council. Asked about CEOs' criticism of the US withdrawal, White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Friday said some companies that expressed support for remaining in the agreement raised concerns about the emissions reduction targets. Spicer, speaking to reporters at a daily news conference, added he does not know if Trump will replace Musk and Iger on the business council. A spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the largest US retailer, said on Friday that Chief Executive Doug McMillon will remain on the business council. McMillon said in a Facebook post late on Thursday he was "disappointed in today's news about the Paris Agreement. We think it's important for countries to work together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions." IBM CEO Ginni Rometty will remain on the council, the company said on Friday as it reaffirmed its support for the Paris accord. "IBM believes we can make a constructive contribution by having a direct dialogue with the administration -- as we do with governments around the world," a company spokeswoman said. Cleveland Clinic Chief Executive Toby Cosgrove will also remain on the council, a spokeswoman said. Another prominent chief executive, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase & Co, criticised Trump's decision. The company acknowledged Friday that he would not step down from Trump's business group. "I absolutely disagree with the administration on this issue, but we have a responsibility to engage our elected officials to work constructively and advocate for policies that improve people's lives and protect our environment," Dimon said in a statement. PepsiCo Inc Chief Executive Indra Nooyi is expected to remain on the council. The company said in a statement on Friday that while it is "disappointed with the announcement, we hope there is a way for the accord to move forward with the US at the table." Other chief executives also issued statements criticising the decision to withdraw from the accord, including the heads of Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc and Goldman Sachs. General Electric Co CEO Jeff Immelt, who is on Trump's manufacturing council, said on Thursday he was disappointed in the decision and added: "Industry must now lead and not depend on government." Immelt will remain on the council, a company spokeswoman said on Friday. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who is also on Trump's manufacturing council, called the withdrawal "a failure of American leadership." A union spokesman said on Friday that Trumka intends to remain on the council to serve "as a voice for working people." Boeing Co Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg also will remain on the manufacturing council, the company said. Trump administration officials pushed back against company criticisms in television interviews on Friday. National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn dismissed concerns about potential economic fallout from the climate deal withdrawal, such as the potential of other countries slapping tariffs on American manufacturers. In an interview on CNBC on Friday, Cohn said the move was part of the administration's efforts to boost US economic growth and help companies by increasing demand for US goods, along with other efforts targeting regulations, taxes and infrastructure. "If we can grow our economy, we're going to consume more and more products," he said. "We're going to need more manufacturing in the United States just to deal with domestic consumption." The issue could resurface later this month when, according to an administration spokesman, the White House plans to hold a June 19 meeting with technology leaders. Kellyanne Conway, a White House senior adviser, said on Fox News the deal would have "a statistically insignificant impact on the environment." "If you really cared about that piece, and you're one of these CEOs crowing today, then you would say 'let's get a better deal,'" she said in the interview on Friday, adding that Trump had said he was open to future negotiations. Trump created the business advisory group in December before taking office to assist him in making policy decisions. The council is led by Stephen Schwarzman, chief executive of Blackstone Group LP. Blackrock Inc Chief Executive Larry Fink said on Thursday he would continue to serve on Trump's business forum, despite reservations about the White House climate decision because he believes he can add to policy discussions and be a voice for investors. General Motors Co said Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra also would remain on the presidential advisory panel, while it remained unclear whether Ford Motor Co's new chief executive, James Hackett, would join the group. In February, Uber Technologies Inc CEO Travis Kalanick quit the business advisory council amid internal pressure over Trump's immigration policies. | 0 |
Nearly 2 billion people in Asia, from coastal city dwellers to yak-herding nomads, will begin suffering water shortages in coming decades as global warming shrinks glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau, experts said. The plateau has more than 45,000 glaciers that build up during the snowy season and then drain to the major rivers in Asia, including the Yangtze, Yellow, Brahmaputra and Mekong. Temperatures in the plateau, which some scientists call the "Third Pole" for its massive glacial ice sheets, are rising twice as fast as other parts of the world, said Lonnie Thompson, a glaciologist at Ohio State University, who has collected ice cores from glaciers around the world for decades. As glaciers melt at faster rates from the higher temperatures, a false sense of security about water supplies has developed across Asia, Thompson said on Friday. If melting continues at current levels, two-thirds of the plateau's glaciers will likely be gone by 2050, he said at a meeting on climate change at the Asia Society in Manhattan. Well before then, a threshold will have been hit in which people who depend on the water will start to start to see supplies dwindle. "The scary thing is that a lot of structures, cities and lifestyles that have been developed in the region over the last 100 years were based on an abundance of water," Thompson said, Nearly 2 billion people in China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan would be hit by water shortages as the rivers slow, Geoff Dabelko, director of the environment and security program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, said by telephone. Nomads in the Himalayas are at risk as deserts have already encroached on grasslands for yaks, on which they depend for most of their food, said Michael Zhao, a filmmaker who has worked in the region. Shortages could also hit coastal cities in eastern China that would be affected by rising seas from the melt. At worst, the shortages could lead to new wars in the region over scarce resources, Robert Barnett, a professor of Tibetan studies at Columbia University, said at the meeting. Dams to contain the melted water can help in certain cases, but are generally a poor solution because they often face opposition from local residents and people in countries and regions downstream from the structures, Thompson said. A global agreement to cut greenhouse gases emitted by smokestacks and tailpipes as well as the burning of forests could eventually help slow the melting, the experts said. | 0 |
Uganda has agreed to scrap an unpopular plan to give a swath of protected rainforest to a sugar planter, the independent Daily Monitor said on Wednesday. Government officials were not immediately available for comment on what the newspaper said was a final decision not to allow Mabira forest to be destroyed and replaced with sugarcane. "We have committed ourselves to conserving Mabira Forest," Finance Minister Ezra Suruma was quoted by the paper as saying at a Commonwealth meeting on climate change in Guyana. "There is other land in Uganda suitable for sugarcane growing," he added. Uganda's cabinet suspended the plan by President Yoweri Museveni to give 7,100 hectares (17,540 acres), or nearly a third of Mabira Forest to the privately owned Mehta Group's sugar estate in May, following a public outcry. Three people died in violent protests against the move, including an Indian man who was stoned to death by rioters. Mehta is owned by an ethnic Indian family. Critics say razing part of Mabira would threaten rare species, lose a watershed for streams that feed Lake Victoria and remove a buffer against pollution from two industrial towns. Scientists estimate some 20 percent of net global emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas blamed for climate change, are caused by deforestation, because trees suck carbon from the atmosphere. Experts say Mabira sinks millions of tonnes of carbon. A spokesman for Museveni, Tamale Mirundi, told Reuters new land must be found for the sugarcane. "If the government finds an alternative, I don't think the president has any special interest in pursuing this," he said. The government is trying to draw up maps of land available to investors in Uganda for sectors such as coffee, sugar, manufacturing or tourism that do not encroach on forests. | 0 |
Tibet is warming up faster than anywhere else in the world, Xinhua news agency said on Sunday. The average annual temperature in Tibet, the roof of the world, was rising at a speed of 0.3 degrees Celsius every 10 years, Xinhua said. Chinese scientists have long warned that rising temperatures on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau will melt glaciers, dry up major Chinese rivers and trigger more droughts, sandstorms and desertification. The Tibet Meteorological Bureau said the temperature rise was most obvious in the west of the region. Tibet, with its glaciers and high altitude, has been regarded as sensitive to the effects of global warming. Currently, China's average temperature is rising at 0.4 degree Celsius every 100 years, while a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change showed the average surface temperature of the globe had risen 0.74 degree Celsius in the past 100 years, Xinhua said. China is rapidly overtaking the United States to become the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases. It is under rising international pressure to accept mandatory caps on carbon dioxide emissions from its factories and vehicles. China has refused to comply, but the government has shown greater efforts in addressing energy and environment issues. | 0 |
The Senate completed votes on more than two dozen motions addressing a range of issues, including Iran policy. Although the motions are not binding, they convey a sense of what senators would like to see in the final bill and what could keep it from getting enough votes to become law. House and Senate lawmakers will now begin formal negotiations through a process known as a conference committee to hammer out a bill that can pass both chambers. Talks could last for months, congressional aides say. With Democrats narrowly controlling the House of Representatives and Senate, Republicans used some motions to weigh in on President Joe Biden's efforts to return to the international nuclear deal with Iran and winning approval with support from some Democrats. Republicans unanimously opposed the 2015 nuclear deal. Late Wednesday, the Senate completed action on more than two dozen "Motions to Instruct." Senators voted 78 to 17 against a proposal by Senator Bernie Sanders that sought to delete language that would authorize the $10 billion development of a new lunar lander for NASA, a move seen as part of the senator's effort to nix federal funds that could go to billionaire Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. Senators voted 62-33 in favour of another motion that seeks to bar the Biden administration from lifting the terrorist designation for Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, an obstacle to reviving the nuclear pact. The Senate also voted 86-12 on a motion arguing terrorism-related sanctions on Iran are necessary to limit cooperation between China and Iran. Such provisions could complicate delicate negotiations on the nuclear deal, although western officials have largely lost hope that the pact can be resurrected after then-Republican President Donald Trump abandoned it in 2018. They also could make it more difficult to pass the chips and China competition bill, which has been working its way through Congress for nearly a year. Another Republican-sponsored motion was approved on a 49-47 vote that would seek language to bar President Joe Biden from using climate change to declare an emergency to expand executive branch powers. The Senate first passed a version of the semiconductor chips and China competition bill in June, with strong bipartisan support. That $250 billion bill was hailed as potentially the most significant government intervention in manufacturing in decades, but stalled in the House. The House passed a version in February 2022 that had $52 billion in chips funding but significant differences on other provisions. | 0 |
US and Russian greenhouse gas emissions fell in 2009, according to data submitted to the United Nations, as economic decline cut the use of fossil fuels. Other rich countries including Australia, Italy, Spain and France have also reported falls in emissions to the UN Climate Change Secretariat, in final data on Friday that is used to judge compliance with UN treaties. "A large driver of these declines is the recession. It has made a lot of climate targets easier to achieve," said Shane Tomlinson of the E3G think-tank in London. Many industrialized nations have yet to issue emissions data for 2009 but the signs are of a bigger overall slide than a 2.2 percent decline in 2008. US emissions fell by 6.1 percent in 2009 year-on-year to the equivalent of 6.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, the biggest yearly US change since the UN baseline year for rating emissions of 1990, the data showed. And greenhouse gas emissions by Russia, the No. 2 industrialized emitter behind the United States, fell by 3.2 percent in 2009 to 2.2 billion tonnes. Tomlinson said revived economic growth was likely to drive up emissions in many nations. Emissions, however, were probably lagging gross domestic product (GDP) growth, meaning a lingering benefit for fighting climate change. OBAMA The U.S. decline makes a goal set by President Barack Obama, but not approved by a hostile Senate, of cutting emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 easier to reach. From 2009, that planned cut now works out at 9.7 percent by 2020. The US fall was due to "a decrease in economic output resulting in a decrease in energy consumption across all sectors," according to a related statement by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It also linked the decline to a "decrease in the carbon intensity of fuels used to generate electricity due to fuel switching as the price of coal increased, and the price of natural gas decreased significantly." US GDP contracted by 2.6 percent in 2009 before growing 2.9 percent in 2010. Russia's GDP fell 7.8 percent in 2009. Its emissions that year were 35.5 percent below the baseline year of 1990, before the collapse of smokestack Soviet industries. The United Nations says that promised cuts in greenhouse gases so far are too weak to meet UN targets for averting the projected effects of climate change such as heatwaves, floods, droughts, mudslides and rising sea levels. In November, research groups in the Global Carbon Project estimated that world emissions, also comprising poor nations led by China and India which do not report annual emissions, fell by 1.3 percent in 2009 but would rebound in 2010. | 0 |
China wants next month's international talks on global warming to focus on future greenhouse gas cuts by rich countries and moving more "clean" technology to poor countries, an official said on Thursday. China is emerging as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from factories, farms and vehicles that traps more heat in the atmosphere, threatening to bring dangerous, even catastrophic, climate change. Next month in Bali, countries will start what are sure to be tough negotiations over how to fight global warming. The United Nations hopes to launch two years of talks to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, whose initial phase ends in 2012. The United States, the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has refused to ratify the protocol, which the Bush administration has called unfair and ineffective. With China's greenhouse gas output set to soar, many Western politicians want Beijing to spell out its goals for limiting emissions growth -- something developing countries are not obliged to do under Kyoto. But Song Dong, an official in the Chinese Foreign Ministry's section preparing for the Bali talks, said negotiations should focus on developed countries' responsibilities, not China. "Now I think the most crucial task is to complete negotiations for emissions reductions by developed countries after 2012," Song told a news conference. He said rich countries also needed to "do better in transferring (emissions reducing) technology so developing countries can afford it. That's one of our fundamental claims in the climate change sphere." Song spoke at a briefing on China's response to a U.N. panel report summing up forecasts for global warming. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao repeated China's position that developing countries should not be required to adhere to specific targets on emissions. "The critical principle is that developed countries and developing countries should have common but differentiated responsibilities," Liu told a news conference. "We don't believe developed countries should impose compulsory objectives on developing countries." TURBULENCE Chinese experts say climate change could badly damage the country's coastlines, water resources and farms. The country's pattern of abundant rains in the south and drought in the north could be reversed, bringing turbulent changes to farming, said Luo Yong, a deputy director of the national meteorological centre. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Wednesday that Beijing would hold a meeting next year for Asian countries to discuss climate change. But China also remains committed to rapid economic growth that will lift greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come. China's contribution to global carbon emissions by 2030 would rise to more than a quarter from a fifth now, while its per-capita contribution would still be less than half the United States, the International Energy Agency said this month. Song said the Bali talks had to focus on adapting to inevitable climate change as well as cutting rich countries' emissions. "Because developing countries are extremely vulnerable in the face of climate change, so for them the issue of adaptation is more prominent," he said. | 0 |
A drastic cooling of the climate in western Europe happened exactly 12,679 years ago, apparently after a shift to icy winds over the Atlantic, scientists have reported, giving a hint of how abruptly the climate can change. The study, of pollens, minerals and other matter deposited in annual layers at the bottom of Lake Meerfelder Maar in Germany, pinpointed an abrupt change in sediments consistent with a sudden chill over just one year. "Our data indicate an abrupt increase in storminess during the autumn to spring seasons, occurring from one year to the next at 12,679 years before the present, broadly coincident with other changes in this region," they wrote in the journal Nature Geoscience. Scientists have long known about the sharp chill towards the end of the last Ice Age, known as the Younger Dryas cooling. The study by researchers in Germany, Switzerland and the United States may help clear up the causes and exact duration. "We suggest that this shift in wind strength represents an abrupt change in the North Atlantic westerlies towards a stronger and more zonal jet," they wrote. The wind shift might in turn have been triggered by factors such as a slight southwards shift of sea ice in the North Atlantic caused by some other natural factors, they said. Previously, scientists have speculated that the sudden cooling might have been caused by a meteorite that kicked up dust and dimmed sunlight. Other theories have been a weakening of the warm Gulf Stream current, perhaps caused by a vast inflow to the Atlantic of fresh water from melting glaciers over North America or Europe. The findings adds to evidence about conditions needed for abrupt climate shifts. Some modern scientists fear such wrenching changes may be caused by global warming widely blamed on human emissions of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels. Some have suggested that a melting of Greenland ice, for instance, could lead to a flow of fresh water into the Atlantic that could also slow down the Gulf Stream current and bring an abrupt chill despite an overall warming trend. | 0 |
Italian police on Tuesday arrested dozens of Mafia suspects in Sicily, the latest in a series of roundups that the government said were crippling the organised crime group. "We're exerting a state presence in Sicily that is changing the climate there and eradicating the clans," said Interior Minister Giuliano Amato. Police said they were executing 70 arrest orders, including one for Enzo Santapaola, the son of an infamous mob boss in the Sicilian city of Catania, Benedetto "Nitto" Santapaola. The suspects are accused of extortion, drug trafficking and other crimes. The operation follows a series of high-profile sweeps targeting the Sicilian Mafia, including last month's arrest of "boss of bosses" Salvatore Lo Piccolo after nearly a quarter century on the run. Magistrates believe Lo Piccolo assumed command of the Cosa Nostra following the capture in 2006 of Bernardo Provenzano. Another important Mafia leader, who was one of Italy's 30-most wanted men, was shot and killed by police on Monday as he tried to escape arrest. | 1 |
Trade wars, migration, energy supplies, climate change and the eradication of poverty underpin the basic themes of the 193-member General Assembly agenda. But the actions of the Trump administration, which has sometimes expressed disdain for international institutions like the United Nations, have created a common denominator. “All of the major topics that I think people will be talking about in the corridors are related to: What is US policy?” said Jeffrey D Feltman, a veteran US diplomat and former UN undersecretary-general for political affairs. Some leaders are not coming, notably Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia, as well as Benjamin Netanyahu, the embattled prime minister of Israel. Also not expected is President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, regarded by the Trump administration and about 50 other governments as an illegitimate leader. But one prominent figure, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine, will attend. The Ukrainian leader plans to meet with President Donald Trump amid growing concerns that Trump had pressured him over US domestic political issues. Some of the biggest moments and confrontations could happen early in the week. Here is what to expect: LIKE-MINDED LEADERS: BOLSONARO, TRUMP, EL-SISSI, ERDOGAN Trump, whose penchant for bombast, scaremongering and diplomatic bombshells are well known, will be surrounded by like-minded company on Tuesday when the speeches begin. Trump will be preceded by President Jair M Bolsonaro of Brazil, sometimes called the mini-Trump, a polarising figure at home who, like Trump, dismisses fears about climate change and ridicules critics on Twitter. After Trump comes President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt, the former general who has come to symbolise the repression of the Arab Spring revolutions — although his appearance was thrown into doubt this past weekend as protests erupted at home. Then comes President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, an autocrat who has bullied critics and whose government is a leading jailer of journalists. US AND SAUDI ARABIA WILL PRESS THEIR CASE AGAINST IRAN Until recently, speculation abounded that Trump would make history by meeting with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran. But the Sept 14 attack on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, which US and Saudi officials blame on Iran, has made such a meeting unlikely at best. US officials are expected to present what they have described as evidence that Iran carried out the attack with drones and cruise missiles. Iran has denied the accusation. Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who are supported by Iran in their fight against a Saudi-led coalition that has been bombing their country for more than four years, have claimed responsibility. Rouhani speaks on Wednesday, and he will almost certainly assert that Trump ignited the cycle of conflict by withdrawing last year from the 2015 nuclear agreement with major powers and reimposing onerous sanctions that are crippling its economy. The United States is trying to build a coalition to deter Iran, even if it is unclear what form such deterrence would take. The General Assembly gives the administration an opportunity to “continue to slow walk a military response in favor of more coalition-building and political and economic pressure,” said Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. AT A CLIMATE CHANGE MEETING, WASHINGTON WILL BE ABSENT The climate crisis is at the top of the General Assembly’s agenda. About 60 heads of state plan to speak at the Climate Action Summit on Monday, and officials aim to announce initiatives that include net-zero carbon emissions in buildings. The United States has no such plans — Trump announced in 2017 that he was withdrawing the country from the Paris Agreement on climate change. But some state governors who have formed the US Climate Alliance said they would attend the summit and meet with other delegations. US AND CHINA WILL TALK Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was expected to meet with his Chinese counterparts on the sidelines, suggesting that the administration was seeking to create a more productive atmosphere for resumed trade negotiations after weeks of acrimony. The two governments recently paused their escalating tariff battle. But some administration officials are pushing for Trump to address other issues considered sensitive by China, including the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, the repression of Tibetans and the detentions of more than 1 million Muslims, mostly ethnic Uighurs. One official said Trump should at least criticise China for trying to intimidate Uighur-American activists. Trump has never spoken strongly about human rights, and he has openly expressed admiration for Xi and other authoritarian leaders. But lawmakers in both parties of Congress are pressuring Trump to act. Bills on the Uighurs, Tibet and Hong Kong are aimed at compelling Trump and the administration to take harder stands. LEADERS OF JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA ARE NOT ON SPEAKING TERMS A protracted feud between Japan and South Korea, rooted in the legacy of Japan’s wartime occupation, has led to downgraded trade relations and the end of an intelligence-sharing agreement. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea are not expected to meet with each other. Whether Trump can induce them into a three-way conversation remains unclear. And an objective shared by all three — North Korea’s nuclear disarmament — may see little or no progress. While Moon is expected to urge Trump to renew his push for diplomacy with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, no senior North Korean official plans to attend the General Assembly. EUROPE WILL BE PRESSURED TO PENALISE VENEZUELA’S GOVERNMENT Foreign ministers from 18 nations in the Western Hemisphere, including the United States, planned to meet on Monday to discuss what can be done regarding Maduro, who has presided over the biggest economic collapse in Venezuela’s history and a regional crisis caused by the exodus of millions of his people. The push will focus on convincing the European Union to expand economic sanctions against Maduro’s loyalists, including freezing assets they have in Europe. The Europeans may also be pressed to penalise smugglers of Venezuelan gold into Europe. Maduro, who claimed victory in disputed elections last fall, has retained power despite nine months of demands to resign by a stubborn opposition movement led by the president of Venezuela’s Parliament, Juan Guaidó. Negotiations between the Venezuelan rivals collapsed last week. FRICTIONS VEX AMERICA AND TURKEY Trump and Erdogan are expected to meet on the sidelines, but the outcome is unclear at best. A range of difficult issues has pit their governments against each other. The Trump administration is considering sanctions to punish Turkey, a fellow NATO member, for buying a Russian S-400 missile defense system instead of US-made Patriots. And Erdogan has expressed growing anger at the United States over their joint operations in the northern part of war-ravaged Syria that borders Turkey. He says the Americans have failed to establish a safe zone large enough to keep Kurdish fighters out of Turkey, which regards them as terrorist insurgents. On Saturday, Erdogan warned that his forces would take “unilateral actions” along the border if the United States did not act by the end of the month. LAST, BUT NOT LEAST — AFGHANISTAN Someone has to speak last in the list of national delegations addressing the General Assembly. This year, that place falls to Afghanistan, just a few weeks after the collapse of talks between the Taliban and the United States that were aimed at ending the 18-year-old war. With national elections slated for next Saturday, President Ashraf Ghani was not expected to attend. Instead, Afghanistan’s delegation will be led by Hamdullah Mohib, Ashraf’s national security adviser. Mohib infuriated the Trump administration in March, when he predicted the peace talks would not end in peace. ©2019 The New York Times Company | 1 |
A global satellite system should come on line next decade, potentially saving billions of dollars and thousands of lives by boosting preparedness for natural disasters, a top scientist said on Wednesday. Monitoring changes in climate, the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) should also help health officials prevent epidemics and guard against man-made environmental damage, said Jose Achache, head of the group behind the project. "I'm an optimistic guy. So, I think in ten years from now we'll have a fully operational and fairly complete GEOSS," Achache, director of the Geneva-based intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations, told Reuters. He spoke as ministers and officials from 70 countries assessed progress on the Internet-like monitoring system, which links ocean buoys and satellites to reduce vulnerability to disasters and environmental change. He said technology had already significantly reduced death tolls from disasters, and GEOSS would take that further. "We've come a long way. The best example we can give today is this tragic hurricane in Bangladesh two weeks ago, where we had to count the victims by thousands," he said. "But, if you think about it, 15 years ago the same hurricane killed 140,000 people and 15 years before the number was 500,000." Achache said the fewer deaths from Hurricane Sidr was directly due to better preparedness, heightened global observation and sharper modelling, which allowed authorities to track the hurricane and better forecast its intensity. He said GEOSS could also help authorities control outbreaks of contagious diseases like cholera and meningitis by monitoring environmental conditions where they occured. It will be able to gauge human environmental impact amid global concerns of accelerating climate change, such as that potentially caused by an Indian proposal to divert river flows to irrigate arid land, he said. But Achache said a "huge task" remained ensuring the complex GEOSS system, officially only two years old, will work. Securing funding remained a challenge as well, he said. "I guess we'll have to demonstrate (that) it's useful, that it is providing benefits to society," he said. | 0 |
The US-India Business Council (USIBC) said Thursday it commended several of the reforms put forth in the budget, especially lifting the FDI cap in insurance, as well as policy reforms to reduce transfer pricing challenges and encourage infrastructure investment.USIBC is the largest bilateral trade association in the US comprising 300 of the top-tier US and Indian companies."We commend the finance minister for his leadership and welcome these pragmatic, business-friendly policies," said Diane Farrell, acting president of the USIBC. "US companies remain committed to being a long-term partner in India's growth story."USIBC said it hailed the announcement of the insurance composite FDI cap being lifted to 49 percent without any voting rights restrictions as a "sea change" indicator to the global business community of the new government's resolve to improve the investment climate and create jobs.Maintaining that any retrospective taxation is harmful to India's business climate, USIBC said the industry was eager for further positive clarifications on this matter to provide imperative tax certainty for investors.USIBC also welcomed India's decision to lift the FDI cap in defence from 26 to 49 percent as an incremental step forward in bolstering India's defence manufacturing capability while leveraging international industrial cooperation.On infrastructure, USIBC applauded the announcements "made on bolstering Smart City development and public-private partnerships in airports -- both of which American businesses stand ready to support with capital and expertise".Meanwhile, the US-India Political Action Committee (USINPAC), described as the political voice of Indian-Americans, also welcomed the increase in FDI cap in defence and insurance sectors."Increased FDI in defence means not only more equity investments coming into India, but more importantly the technology transfer that will accompany such investments," Sanjay Puri, USINPAC chairman,said."Both of these developments are indeed commendable and global investors, including from the Indian diasporas, will now be encouraged to participate in the development of the defence and insurance industries of India," he said. | 2 |
Below are possible consequences for Britain and the EU of a Brexit. Economy Britain would no longer be subject to EU budget rules, which limit a government's budget deficit to 3 percent of gross domestic product and public debt to 60 percent of GDP. It could therefore run whatever budget shortfall it wants without admonishment from the European Commission and other EU ministers. It would also be free from the Commission's monitoring and advice on future actions. Finance Financial services firms based in Britain, from banks to clearing houses and funds, could lose their money-spinning EU "passports", which allows them to sell services across the 28-nation bloc with low costs and a single set of rules. The passporting system has contributed to making London one of the world's most important financial centres. Some American, Japanese and other non-European banks that have European headquarters in London have said they would consider moving parts of their business inside the European Union, in the event of a Brexit.
Trade The rest of the EU has a trade surplus in goods of about 100 billion euros ($110 billion) with Britain, while Britain exports some 20 billion euros in services than it imports, principally due to financial services. Brexit campaigners say if would be in the EU's interest to agree a free trade deal with Britain even if it leaves the bloc. However, there tends to be more of a focus on goods than services in free trade deals. Switzerland, where financial services are a larger share of GDP than in Britain, has no general access to EU financial service markets and runs a financial services trade deficit with the bloc. Competition British companies acquiring EU peers would still need approval from the UK competition watchdog and the European Commission, resulting in more legal costs and the risk that each delivers a different ruling. Britain will have a free hand to aid ailing companies or industries without fear of EU action but it will also not be able to oppose subsidies granted by EU governments to their own national champions. Energy Leaving the EU could make UK energy infrastructure investment costlier and delay new projects at a time when the country needs to plug a looming electricity supply gap. The uncertainty after Brexit could make energy investors demand higher returns for the risk of less favourable conditions. Oil and gas majors BP and Shell are among energy companies who warned about the potential downside. Climate Britain is the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in Europe and its utilities are among the largest buyers of carbon permits in the EU Emission Trading System (ETS). Although most analysts believe Britain will remain in the cap-and-trade scheme, the vote is viewed as bearish for the market as Britain would no longer be able to drive tough reforms to drive up the price. Brexit would also disrupt the bloc's plans to share out the burden of its Paris climate change pledge. The environmentally minded also worry that EU climate targets would be less ambitious without British leadership to balance against more reluctant member states such as coal-dependent Poland.
Aviation A Brexit could call into question EU agreements on open airspace that have granted the region's airlines unlimited access to the skies of fellow member states, benefiting both UK and EU airlines. It would also affect transatlantic routes because of the EU-U.S. Open Skies agreement, which gives British airlines unlimited flying rights to the United States. Foreign policy Along with France, Britain is the leading foreign policy power in the European Union, boasting a large military and close ties with the United States. After a Brexit, Washington has made clear it will be less interested in London as an ally because of a perceived loss of influence. Britain would no longer be bound by joint EU positions, for instance on economic sanctions against Russia. Britain would remain a member of NATO. Justice and home affairs Britain has multiple exemptions from justice and home affairs policies, notably not being part of bloc's Schengen zone of free travel. It is not clear what restrictions Britain might place on foreign arrivals. The EU has vowed to respond in kind. Britain currently recognises other EU members' arrest warrants, exchanges police information, including personal data, and is a member of the bloc's police agency Europol. Its future involvement, including access to EU databases, could diminish, meaning less cooperation on policing and fighting crime. ($1 = 0.9075 euros) | 0 |
With his hand on an heirloom Bible that has been in his family for more than a century, Biden took the presidential oath of office administered by US Chief Justice John Roberts just after noon (1700 GMT), vowing to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Biden, 78, became the oldest US president in history at a scaled-back ceremony in Washington that was largely stripped of its usual pomp and circumstance, due both to the coronavirus and security concerns following the Jan. 6 assault on the US Capitol by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump. The norm-defying Trump flouted one last convention on his way out of the White House when he refused to meet with Biden or attend his successor's inauguration, breaking with a political tradition seen as affirming the peaceful transfer of power. Trump, who never conceded the Nov. 3 election, did not mention Biden by name in his final remarks as president on Wednesday morning, when he touted his administration's record and promised to be back "in some form." He boarded Air Force One for the last time and headed to his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida. Top Republicans, including Vice President Mike Pence and the party's congressional leaders, attended Biden's inauguration, along with former US Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Biden's running mate, Kamala Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, became the first Black person, first woman and first Asian American to serve as vice president after she was sworn in by US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court's first Latina member. Harris used two Bibles, including one owned by Thurgood Marshall, the first Black US Supreme Court Justice. Biden takes office at a time of deep national unease, with the country facing what his advisers have described as four compounding crises: the pandemic, the economic downtown, climate change and racial inequality. He has promised immediate action, including a raft of executive orders on his first day in office. The ceremony on Wednesday unfolded in front of a heavily fortified US Capitol, where a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building two weeks ago, enraged by his false claims that the election was stolen with millions of fraudulent votes. The violence prompted the Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives to impeach Trump last week for an unprecedented second time. Thousands of National Guard troops were called into the city after the siege, which left five people dead and briefly forced lawmakers into hiding. Instead of a throng of supporters, the National Mall on Wednesday was covered by nearly 200,000 flags and 56 pillars of light meant to represent people from US states and territories. 'SOUL OF AMERICA' Biden, who has vowed to "restore the soul of America," will call for American unity at a time of crisis in his inaugural address, according to advisers. His inauguration is the zenith of a five-decade career in public service that included more than three decades in the US Senate and two terms as vice president under former President Barack Obama. But he faces calamities that would challenge even the most experienced politician. The pandemic in the United States reached a pair of grim milestones on Trump's final full day in office on Tuesday, reaching 400,000 US deaths and 24 million infections - the highest of any country. Millions of Americans are out of work because of pandemic-related shutdowns and restrictions. Biden has vowed to bring the full weight of the federal government to bear on the crisis. His top priority is a $1.9 trillion plan that would enhance jobless benefits and provide direct cash payments to households. But it will require approval from a deeply divided Congress, where Democrats hold slim advantages in both the House and Senate. Harris was scheduled to swear in three new Democratic senators late on Wednesday, creating a 50-50 split in the chamber with herself as the tie-breaking vote. Biden will waste little time trying to turn the page on the Trump era, advisers said, signing 15 executive actions on Wednesday on issues ranging from the pandemic to the economy to climate change. The orders will include mandating masks on federal property, rejoining the Paris climate accord and ending Trump's travel ban on some Muslim-majority countries. Although Biden has laid out a packed agenda for his first 100 days, including delivering 100 million COVID-19 vaccinations, the Senate could be consumed by Trump's upcoming impeachment trial, which will move ahead even though he has left office. The trial could serve as an early test of Biden's promise to foster a renewed sense of bipartisanship in Washington. Trump issued more than 140 pardons and commutations in his final hours in office, including a pardon for his former political adviser, Steve Bannon, who has pleaded not guilty to charges that he swindled Trump supporters as part of an effort to raise private funds for a Mexico border wall. But Trump did not issue preemptive pardons for himself or members of his family, after speculation that he might do so. | 1 |
TEHRAN,Oct 28 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Iran wants major amendments within the framework of a UN nuclear fuel deal which it broadly accepts, state media said, a move that could unravel the plan and expose Tehran to the threat of harsher sanctions. The European Union's foreign policy chief said on Tuesday there was no need to rework the UN draft and he and France's foreign minister suggested Tehran would rekindle demands for tougher international sanctions if it tried to undo the plan. Among the central planks of the plan opposed by Iran -- but requested by the West to cut the risk of an Iranian atom bomb -- was for it to send most of its low-enriched uranium reserve abroad for processing all in one go, state television said. Iran says it is enriching uranium only for power plant fuel, not for nuclear warheads. But its history of nuclear secrecy and continued restrictions on UN inspections have raised Western suspicions Iran is latently pursuing nuclear weapons capability. Citing an unnamed official, the Iranian state Arabic-language satellite television station al Alam said on Tuesday Iran would present its response to the proposed agreement within 48 hours, a week after a deadline set by its author, UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei. Al Alam said Iran would "agree to the general framework of the draft proposal but will request some important amendments." It did not elaborate on the changes Tehran would seek to the draft agreement ElBaradei hammered out in consultations with Iran, Russia, France and the United States in Vienna last week. But senior lawmakers have said Iran should import foreign fuel rather than send abroad by the end of this year much of its own low-enriched uranium (LEU) stock -- a crucial strategic asset in talks with world powers -- as the proposal stipulates. Iran's foreign minister said on Monday it may want to do both under the deal, hinting Tehran could ship out much less LEU than the amount big powers want to delay by at least a year the possibility of Iran "weaponizing" enrichment. The draft pact calls for Iran to transfer around 75 percent of its known 1.5 tonnes of LEU to Russia for further enrichment by the end of this year, then to France for conversion into fuel plates. These would be returned to Tehran to power a research reactor that produces radio-isotopes for cancer treatment. HIGH-LEVEL UNDERSTANDINGS IN GENEVA Understandings on the fuel plan and U.N. monitoring of a newly-disclosed enrichment site under construction were forged at Geneva talks on October 1 between Iran and six world powers -- the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain. A team of U.N. inspectors arrived in Iran early on Sunday to visit the new site 160 km south of Tehran. Western diplomats said Iran was forced to reveal the plant to the IAEA last month after learning that Western spy services had detected it. Iran's pledges in Geneva won itself a reprieve from sanctions targeting its oil sector but Western powers stressed they would not wait indefinitely for Tehran to follow through. They see the two deals as litmus tests of Iran's stated intent to use refined uranium only for civilian energy, and a basis for more ambitious negotiations on curbing enrichment by Tehran to resolve a standoff over its nuclear aspirations. The parties tentatively agreed in Geneva to reconvene toward the end of October but the hold-up in the fuel proposal and the ongoing inspector trip seemed to rule out fresh talks this week. "It's not a good sign ... it is a bad indication," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters at an EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg, referring to the latest, ambiguous Iranian statements. "Time is running out for the Iranians... This (Middle East) region is inflammable. It's an explosive circle and I do not think that in such a context the Iranians can play for time. That is very dangerous," he said. "If there is the necessity -- but we might not see it until the end of the year -- we would start work on new sanctions," Kouchner added. Diplomats said the EU ministers had already asked the EU executive to look into further sanctions that could be imposed. ElBaradei said Iran could not evade shifting most of its LEU abroad if it expected to allay mistrust. "That's important, absolutely. Our objective is to reduce tension and create a climate of confidence. Removing this material would provide a year for negotiating in peace and quiet," he told the French weekly l'Express. "This would allow the Iranians to show that they are speaking the truth, if this is the case, that they are indeed enriching uranium for peaceful purposes," he said. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Monday Iran would announce its decision on the pact in the next few days. Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of parliament's Foreign Affairs and National Security committee, said that if any LEU went abroad, it should be only in small, staggered batches. That is a non-starter for Western and UN officials since there would be no net drawdown of Iran's LEU stockpile. | 1 |
Unchecked climate change could drive up to 72 per cent of the world's bird species into extinction but the world still has a chance to limit the losses, conservation group WWF said in a report on Tuesday. From migratory insect-eaters to tropical honeycreepers and cold water penguins, birds are highly sensitive to changing weather conditions and many are already being affected badly by global warming, the new study said. "Birds are the quintessential 'canaries in the coal mine' and are already responding to current levels of climate change," said the report, launched at a United Nations conference in Kenya on ways to slow warming. "Birds now indicate that global warming has set in motion a powerful chain of effects in ecosystems worldwide," WWF said. "Robust evidence demonstrates that climate change is affecting birds' behavior -- with some migratory birds even failing to migrate at all." In the future, it said, unchecked warming could put large numbers of species at risk, with estimates of extinction rates as high as 72 per cent, "depending on the region, climate scenario and potential for birds to shift to new habitats". It said the "more extreme scenarios" of extinctions could be prevented if tough climate protection targets were enforced and greenhouse gas emissions cut to keep global warming increases to less than 2 degrees C (1.6 F) above pre-industrial levels. Already in decline in Europe and the United States, many migratory birds were now missing out on vital food stocks that are appearing earlier and earlier due to global warming, widely blamed by scientists on emissions from burning fossil fuels.
In Canada's northern Hudson Bay, the report said, mosquitoes were hatching and reaching peak numbers earlier in the spring, but seabirds breeding there had not adjusted their behavior. In the Netherlands, it added, a similar mismatch had led to the decline of up to 90 per cent in some populations of pied flycatchers over the last two decades. Predicted rising temperatures could see Europe's Mediterranean coastal wetlands -- critical habitats for migratory birds -- completely destroyed by the 2080s, it said. Rising temperatures were also seen having disastrous impacts on non-migratory species, as their habitat ranges shifted. "Many centers of species richness for birds are currently located in protected areas, from which birds may be forced by climatic changes into unprotected zones," the report said. "Island and mountain birds may simply have nowhere to go." In the U.S., unabated warming was seen cutting bird species by nearly a third in the eastern Midwest and Great Lakes, while almost three-quarters of rainforest birds in Australia's northeastern Wet Tropics were at risk of being wiped out. "In Europe, the endangered Spanish imperial eagle, currently found mainly in natural reserves and parks, is expected to lose its entire current range," WWF's report said. Also at high risk were eight species of brightly colored Hawaiian honeycreeper, Galapagos Islands penguins and the Scottish capercaillie -- the world's biggest grouse -- which WWF said could lose 99 per cent of its habitat because of warming. | 0 |
Eight people were reported dead in Wuhan, in Hubei province, with 280 injured after Friday's tornado ripped through the district of Caidian at 8:39 p.m., the agency said. The tornado toppled 27 houses and damaged 130 more, as well as two tower cranes and 8,000 sq. m. (86,111 sq. ft) of sheds at construction sites, it added. "I've grown up in Wuhan and I've never seen anything like it," one resident of the city posted on China's Weibo app. "There's been so much extreme weather recently." Another tornado struck the town of Shengze, in the Suzhou area of tornado-prone Jiangsu province, killing four people and injuring 149, Xinhua said. Fire officials said the winds damaged electricity facilities and toppled several factory buildings, it added. Tornadoes often hit Jiangsu in the late spring and early summer. China's commercial hub of Shanghai, 100 km (62 miles) from Suzhou, was also hit by powerful thunderstorms, prompting weather officials to declare an alert. More heavy storms were expected in Shanghai and other parts of the Yangtze river delta region later on Saturday, the state weather forecaster said. China faces more extreme weather as a result of climate change, Jia Xiaolong, an official of the forecaster, told reporters late in April, adding that the risk of disasters such as heat waves and floods was expected to rise in coming years. | 0 |
Polling booths opened on Australia's eastern seaboard on Saturday in national elections which will decide whether conservative Prime Minister John Howard is re-elected for a fifth term. Howard, in office for more than 11 years, trails in opinion polls, with some forecasting a landslide victory for opposition Labor leader Kevin Rudd and others a narrow Howard win. Labor needs to win an extra 16 seats to form government. Howard is a staunch US ally and if re-elected has committed to maintaining Australian troops in Iraq. He has offered voters A$34 billion (US$29 billion) in tax cuts, but few new policies. In contrast Rudd has pledged to withdraw combat troops from Iraq and sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which would further isolate Washington on both. A total of 1,421 candidates will contest 150 seats, from the smallest and wealthiest electorate which covers Bondi Beach to the world's largest electorate, Kalgoorlie, the outback seat the combined size of France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Poland and Britain. Voting is compulsory for 13.6 million Australians, aged over 18. ($1=A$1.15) | 0 |
Of the 530 million children in the flood-prone zones, some 300
million live in countries where more than half the population lives in poverty
— on less than $3.10 a day, Xinhua cited the UNICEF report on Tuesday. The report pointed out that "of those living in high
drought severity areas, 50 million are in countries where more than half the
population lives in poverty". "The sheer numbers underline the urgency of acting
now," UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said. "Today's children are the least responsible for climate
change, but they, and their children, are the ones who will live with its
consequences. And, as is so often the case, disadvantaged communities face the
gravest threat," he said. Climate change means more droughts, floods, heatwaves and
other severe weather conditions. These events can cause death and devastation, and can also
contribute to the increased spread of major killers of children, such as
malnutrition, malaria and diarrhoea, according to the report. The vast majority of the children living in areas at
extremely high risk of floods are in Asia, and the majority of those in areas
at risk of drought are in Africa, said the report. In the upcoming 21st UN climate change conference, known as
COP21, world leaders gathering in Paris from November 30 to December 11 will
seek to reach agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, which is critical
to limiting potentially catastrophic rises in temperature. "We know what has to be done to prevent the devastation
climate change can inflict. Failing to act would be unconscionable," said
Lake. "We owe it to our children — and to the planet — to
make the right decisions at COP21." | 0 |
"Hydrological modelling was carried out in the upstream areas of the Brahmaputra, which indicate the glaciers are likely to reduce by 20 to 55 percent by 2050," Nand Kishor Agrawal, programme coordinator for the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), told IANS.He said there were chances of increase in total water flow in the Brahmaputra."By 2050, the total runoff is likely to increase from zero to 13 percent due to fast melting of glaciers and increased precipitation," said Agrawal, who travelled to Tibet to study impacts of climate change on the ecosystem and the communities.About 60 percent of the inflow in the Brahmaputra is from rains. The remaining is from the glaciers, base flow and snow melt.The feedback gathered by the ICIMOD from the pastoral communities settled in Tibetan plateau has indicated that the climate has changed a lot, resulting in uneven flow in the river."They say sometimes the flow increases suddenly and sometime decreases drastically, which simply indicates the governments have to be prepared for the unexpected floods and draughts," said Agrawal, who was in India for the workshop on climate change adaptation in the western Himalayas.Studies conducted by the Tibetan administration in exile, which is based in this northern Indian hill town, say the Tibetan plateau is staring at ecological destruction."Human activities are mainly responsible for the destruction of Tibet's ecological balance," said in its report titled "A synthesis of recent science and Tibetan research on climate change".It said the temperature increase on the Tibetan plateau was twice the global average, resulting in quicker degradation of permafrost, drastic change on climate pattern and desertification of vast grassland.To protect the Tibetan plateau from certain destruction, the report said there was a need for a water sharing treaty among the countries of the region and of making the Tibetan plateau an exploitation-free international observatory zone.Climate researchers at the University of East Anglia and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in an online paper in US academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences say the wettest individual year reconstructed in 3,500 years in northeastern Tibet is 2010.They say precipitation during the past 50 years in the plateau has been historically high. They have reconstructed precipitation records by using sub-fossil, archaeological and living juniper tree samples from the plateau.Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel laureate the Dalai Lama has been saying his homeland Tibet is currently vulnerable to climate change."Many of the rivers which flow through large areas of Asia, through Pakistan, India, China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, rivers such as the Yellow river, Brahmaputra, Yangtse, Salween and Mekong, all originate in Tibet."It's at the places of origin of these rivers that large-scale deforestation and mining are taking place. The pollution of these rivers has a drastic effect on the downstream countries," a post on his official website quoting the Dalai Lama said.ICIMOD researcher Agrawal warned: "The current data indicates more flood risks in the future. If the Brahmaputra is not managed in Tibet, it will affect India and Bangladesh more."Currently, he said, the flooding in the river is not directly affecting the grasslands in Tibet, but may be this will never happen in the future."But its flooding can affect more in the downstream areas mainly in the floodplains of Assam," he added.The ICIMOD has been carrying out studies in Tibet and India's Arunachal Pradesh and Assam districts under the Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Programme in collaboration with scientists from China and India. | 0 |
Quickening climate change in the Arctic including a thaw of Greenland's ice could raise world sea levels by up to 1.6 meters by 2100, an international report showed on Tuesday. Such a rise -- above most past scientific estimates -- would add to threats to coasts from Bangladesh to Florida, low-lying Pacific islands and cities from London to Shanghai. It would also, for instance, raise costs of building tsunami barriers in Japan. "The past six years (until 2010) have been the warmest period ever recorded in the Arctic," according to the Oslo-based Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), which is backed by the eight-nation Arctic Council. "In the future, global sea level is projected to rise by 0.9 meters (2ft 11in) to 1.6 meters (5ft 3in) by 2100 and the loss of ice from Arctic glaciers, ice caps and the Greenland ice sheet will make a substantial contribution," it said. The rises were projected from 1990 levels. "Arctic glaciers, ice caps and the Greenland ice sheet contributed over 40 percent of the global sea level rise of around 3 mm per year observed between 2003 and 2008," it said. Foreign ministers from Arctic Council nations -- the United States, Russia, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland -- are due to meet in Greenland on May 12. Warming in the Arctic is happening at about twice the world average. WORRYING The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in its last major report in 2007 that world sea levels were likely to rise by between 18 and 59 cm by 2100. Those numbers did not include a possible acceleration of a thaw in polar regions. "It is worrying that the most recent science points to much higher sea level rise than we have been expecting until now," European Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard told Reuters. "The study is yet another reminder of how pressing it has become to tackle climate change, although this urgency is not always evident neither in the public debate nor from the pace in the international negotiations," she said. UN talks on a global pact to combat climate change are making sluggish progress. The United Nations says national promises to limit greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, are insufficient to avoid dangerous changes. The AMAP study, drawing on work by hundreds of experts, said there were signs that warming was accelerating. It said the Arctic Ocean could be nearly ice free in summers within 30 to 40 years, earlier than projected by the IPCC. As reflective ice and snow shrink, they expose ever bigger areas of darker water or soil. Those dark regions soak up ever more heat from the sun, in turn stoking a melt of the remaining ice and snow. "There is evidence that two components of the Arctic cryosphere -- snow and sea ice -- are interacting with the climate system to accelerate warming," it said. The AMAP report was due for release on Wednesday but AMAP officials released it a day early after advance media leaks. | 0 |
The terrorist attack prompted the
Swedish government to investigate how digital technology could be used to
prevent these kinds of incidents. It began a four-year research program to test
one type, geofencing, in urban environments. Geofencing is a virtual tool in which
software uses GPS or similar technology to trigger a preprogrammed or real-time
action in vehicles to control their movements within a geographical area. It
can regulate a vehicle’s speed within the zone, determine whether the vehicle
belongs there and automatically switch hybrid vehicles to electric driving
mode. Johannes Berg, senior adviser for
digitalisation at the Swedish Transport Administration, said the technology can
improve traffic safety and lower emissions. It also has the potential to adjust
speed based on road and weather conditions, and to ensure compliance with
regulations, like stopping a vehicle if a driver doesn’t have a permit to enter
a geofenced area, he added. In simple uses — like when a map with
restrictions is downloaded to a vehicle before the start of a trip to reduce
speed automatically when it enters a low-speed zone — vehicles do not need to
be connected to an outside source, Berg said. But in more advanced applications —
real-time use, for example — vehicles must be connected. Rules and regulations are
in a tech cloud and could be changed based on the actual position of the
vehicles, he said. “The cloud service can access the engine
of the vehicle using the telematics connection of the vehicle,” Berg said. Sweden, which began a series of
geofencing trials in 2019, has long been an innovator in vehicle-related
safety. In the 1990s, it introduced Vision Zero, an approach to safety that
takes human error into account. The goal is to eliminate all traffic deaths and
serious injuries by creating multiple layers of protection; if one fails,
others will create a safety net. Sweden now has one of the lowest crash
death rates in the world, and many cities globally have implemented the
approach. Earlier this year the US Department of Transportation officially
adopted the strategy to address a dramatic spike in the US death toll. In Stockholm, geofencing pilot programs
have focused on commercial traffic in the city centre, assessing such things as
whether deliveries to businesses could occur at lower speeds at night when
streets typically have fewer people. “Switching to electric drive, in
combination with lower speed, can make nighttime truck deliveries almost
silent,” Berg said. “Increasing night deliveries could lessen congestion during
daytime rush hours and create a more even traffic flow around the clock,”
improving an area’s quality of life. In another trial, sensors added to
pavements monitor pedestrian flow, which have been able to trigger speed
reduction in pilot vehicles. “The trucks are actually decreasing
their speed automatically,” Berg said. Gothenburg has taken a lead in testing
geofencing on public transportation. Since 2015, the city, collaborating with
ElectriCity, a regional private-public partnership, including the Volvo Group,
has been evaluating the technology on two bus routes. The assessment focused on
busy areas like shopping streets and intersections. The city now has the
capability to adjust geofenced zones based on real-time conditions, with bus
operators getting information about the changes automatically. During the trial, which was recently
completed, buses operated at safe and fuel-efficient speeds in electric drive
mode in designated areas. “We see geofencing as a tool to create a
safer city with better air quality and less noise,” said Malin Stoldt, a
project manager for Gothenburg’s Urban Transport Administration. Other pilot projects, some ongoing,
include enhancing traffic safety around schools and creating smart urban
traffic zones to protect cyclists. Geofence technology that prioritises public
transport vehicles at complex intersections is already in use for everyday
traffic in Gothenburg. Geofencing can also contribute to city
spaces being used more dynamically, Stoldt said. “Areas can easily be changed and used
for different purposes depending on the time of the day or the season,” she
said. The trials have been well received,
Stoldt said. At least one more bus line plans to incorporate the technology.
Operators also approve of geofencing, she said, not only for safety reasons
“but also the wear of the vehicles.” Rodrigue Al Fahel, lead coordinator for
the Swedish national geofencing program, said geofencing technology has been
developing for a while and is being used to target messages to mobile phones
based on the phone’s location; manage commercial fleets; set maximum speeds and
control parking of e-scooters; and to enhance some advanced driver-assistance
systems, like intelligent speed assistance (ISA), which will be mandatory in
all new vehicles in the European Union beginning in July. Sweden is one of the most active
countries experimenting with geofencing for general traffic, Al Fahel said,
crediting that to “a great collaboration environment.” Still, collecting, standardising and
digitising data on the scale needed to widely implement geofencing remains a
challenge. First, developers must come up with a way to make traffic rules
machine readable and decide on communications standards. “This is something that has not been
developed fully yet,” Al Fahel said. However, collaborations in Europe have
developed through projects like GeoSence and NordicWay to aid advancement. A recent market analysis and a
state-of-the art report concluded that geofencing is on the cusp of more
widespread use. “It’s a tool for cities,” Al Fahel said.
“You can plan the city in a different way.” “We are trying to look into the
potential and effects it will have on the traffic and transport system. It is
not only about technology development,” Al Fahel said, but rather about creating
a system that works and is accepted by all involved. The pilot program, in its final year,
has yielded enough promising results that the Swedish government is considering
legislation amending traffic and other rules so municipalities are able to use
geofencing for traffic management, said Berg, of the Swedish Transport
Administration. New uses of technology can bring up
privacy issues. But one reason the Swedish program focused on professional
drivers rather than private ones, Berg said, is “we believe it is different
when the vehicle is a tool provided by the employer,” comparing it to
employers’ ability to regulate company computers. However, one of the reasons the European
Union is considered to have the safest road system in the world, experts said,
is that member countries emphasise community responsibility, along with
individual rights. “We realised that this technology might
not be bulletproof for stopping terrorists, but when you can make technology
smart and make the transport system more dynamic, then you can truly create a
sustainable transport system,” Berg said. “It makes everything more efficient. “The higher purpose is safety and
sustainability,” he said. “They go together.” © 2022 The New York Times Company | 0 |
Ukraine's Viktor Yanukovich was sworn in as president on Thursday and immediately pledged to fight corruption and poverty, and restore political stability to win back foreign support for the struggling economy. Yanukovich took the oath of office in a low-key ceremony which reflected a bitterly-contested election -- still disputed by his rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko -- and which highlighted deep divisions in the country. All the same, his inauguration marked a comeback from humiliation in 2004 when mass protests, called the Orange Revolution, overturned an election that had been rigged in his favour. Speaking to a gathering of officials, lawmakers and foreign dignitaries after accepting the traditional trappings of office, the 59-year-old Yanukovich said the country faced "colossal debts", poverty, corruption and economic collapse. "Ukraine needs a strategy of innovative movement forward and such a strategy has been worked out by our team," he said. Turning to the paucity of foreign investment in the ex-Soviet republic of 46 million, and its notoriously unpredictable business climate, he said he sought to restore political stability, end corruption and set out rules governing links between the state and business. These were all "necessary conditions for investors and international financial institutions to establish trust in Ukraine," he said. Ukraine's economy has been hit hard by the global downturn which hurt its vital exports of steel and chemicals and halved the hryvnia's value to the dollar over the past 18 months. The country is dependent on a $16.4 billion International Monetary Fund bail-out programme, but lending was suspended late last year and is only likely to resume when stability returns. The finance ministry said on Thursday that an IMF technical mission would visit on April 7. This usually leads to full-blown visit from IMF officials who may later decide whether to restart the programme. TIES WITH RUSSIA A burly former mechanic backed by wealthy industrialists, Yanukovich had a deprived childhood in eastern Ukraine and as a young man was convicted twice for petty crime including assault. He is expected to improve ties with Russia, Ukraine's former Soviet master, after five years of estrangement under the pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko. He has hinted at possible concessions to Moscow over the future of Russia's Black Sea fleet forces in Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and has proposed the creation of a consortium including Russia to run the country's gas pipelines. However, he says he wants to change a 10-year-old agreement on supplies of Russian gas to Ukraine which was negotiated by Tymoshenko and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. He also says he will pursue a balanced foreign policy and has vowed to push for closer ties with the European Union. In his speech on Thursday, he kept all his options open, saying his foreign policy would be one of "equal and mutually-advantageous ties" with Russia, the EU and the United States which would reap "maximum results" for Ukraine. His web site later quoted him as confirming he would go to Brussels next week, a visit which EU officials say will take place on Monday. He is also intending to visit Moscow in the first 10 days of March, his Regions Party said. Yanukovich beat Prime Minister Tymoshenko by 3.5 percentage points but won the support of only a third of the 37 million-strong electorate. The voting pattern highlighted a sharp split between Russian-speaking voters in the industrial east and south who backed him, and Ukrainian-speakers in the west and centre who voted for Tymoshenko. Tymoshenko dropped her legal challenge to Yanukovich's election only last Saturday. But she maintains he was not legitimately-elected and she and most of her bloc in parliament stayed away on Thursday, giving the ceremony a hollow ring. Despite Yanukovich's call for the establishment of a "competent executive power", Tymoshenko is still resisting attempts to oust her as prime minister, signalling continued political tension at least in the short-term. She is trying to persuade her allies to close ranks round her in parliament, while his party and its powerful backers are seeking to draw deputies away from her coalition and forge a new one. Forging a coalition requires some tricky horse-trading and could be a lengthy process. If Yanukovich fails to secure a new coalition, he will reluctantly have to call new parliamentary elections, further prolonging uncertainty. | 5 |
Chinese President Hu Jintao lauded closer cooperation with Japan when he arrived on Tuesday for a state visit intended to nurture trust between the Asian powers despite rifts over energy resources and security. Hu was greeted in Tokyo by senior Japanese officials and flag-waving, mostly Chinese well-wishers. Downtown, some 7,000 police were deployed ahead of threatened protests by hundreds of right-wing activists who see China as a danger. But China is promoting itself as a friendly neighbor after years of feuding over Japan's handling of its wartime aggression, and Hu has stressed forward-looking goals for his five days of ceremony, speeches and deals, as well as table tennis and perhaps pandas. China's second ever state visit to Japan comes as it seeks to calm international tensions over Tibetan unrest, which has threatened to mar Beijing's Olympic Games, a showcase of national pride. With the two economies increasingly intertwined, Hu said better ties were important to both countries' prosperity. "I sincerely hope for generations of friendship between the people of China and Japan," Hu wrote in a message to Japanese readers of a Chinese magazine, Xinhua news agency reported. Cooperation has "brought real benefits to the people of both countries and spurred the growth and development of each," Hu said. "These achievements are worth treasuring by the people of China and Japan." The Beijing Games were "Asia's Olympics and the world's Olympics", Hu added. Certainly much is at stake in ties between Asia's two biggest economies. China replaced the United States as Japan's top trade partner last year, with two-way trade worth $236.6 billion, up 12 percent from 2006. OPPORTUNITIES, ANXIETIES But while China's fast growth offers opportunities, Beijing's accompanying expansion in diplomatic and military reach has stirred deeper anxieties in Japan -- over disputed energy resources, military power and the safety standards of Chinese exports. "Although the iceberg between China and Japan has melted, fully warming relations require further efforts from both sides," a commentator wrote in China's People's Daily on Tuesday. The political climax of Hu's visit is set to be a summit on Wednesday with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, when they hope to unveil a joint blueprint for managing ties in coming years. But it was unclear whether the avowals of friendship would narrow disagreements or merely bathe them in warm words. Japanese media reports said touchy references in the document to Taiwan, human rights, and Japan's hopes for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council were still under negotiation. The two country's are also quarrelling over the rights to gas beds beneath the East China Sea, while a row over Chinese-made dumplings laced with pesticide that made several people sick has become, analysts say, a symbol of Japanese alarm at China's rise. PING-PONG AND PANDAS Officials from both sides had earlier raised hopes of a breakthrough in the gas dispute before Hu's visit, but a swift compromise seems unlikely. Japan also wants greater transparency about China's surging defense spending, set at 418 billion yuan ($60 billion) for 2008, up 17.6 percent on 2007 and outstripping Japan's defense budget. Foreign critics say China's real military budget is much higher. Tokyo wants Chinese backing for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, an issue that in 2005 fuelled anti-Japanese protests in China, where there is deep rancor over Japan's harsh 1931-1945 occupation of much of the country. A mainland China-run Hong Kong paper, the Ta Kung Pao, indicated that Hu was unlikely to meet Japanese hopes. "There are several touchy issues that it will be very difficult for this trip to settle," said the paper, citing the gas dispute and the Security Council issue. "At the least, the time isn't ripe...But reaching some vague understandings may be possible." For its part, China has pressed Japan to spell out again its stance on Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing says must accept reunification. Tokyo has said it supports "one China" that includes Taiwan, which was a Japanese colony for fifty years until 1945 and keeps close ties to Japan. Still, the two sides are keen to stress forward-looking goodwill and are to issue a joint document on fighting climate change, a key topic for Japan as host of the July G8 summit. Hu will give a speech to university students in Tokyo, he may play table tennis with Fukuda and he might also offer Japan a panda to replace one that died in a Tokyo zoo in April. ($1=6.988 Yuan) | 0 |
Germans should buy more fuel-efficient cars, Chancellor Angela Merkel said, even though her government is fighting European Union efforts to force down carbon dioxide emissions. Merkel, who regularly defends Germany's powerful luxury car industry against European Commission plans to clamp down on CO2 emissions, said more efficient cars could provide an answer for two problems: higher energy prices and climate change. "We've got to use every chance available to save energy," Merkel told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper published on Sunday, when asked about rising energy and food prices. "We can do more to insulate buildings, to use renewable energy and when we make purchases we can buy appliances that use less power and cars that use less fuel. It's good for the climate and it's good for our wallet." German leaders are invariably strong advocates of the car industry, one of the country's biggest employers and bulwark of the economy. Merkel, like her predecessors, opposes calls for a speed limit on motorways -- which the car industry rejects. Imports from France, Italy and Japan are considered more fuel efficient than high-speed German cars. Merkel also said Germans should get used to spending more of their income on food after decades spending less. Germany's influential car lobby and lawmakers have sharply criticised the European Commission's CO2 proposals, which they see as discriminating against the German car industry. In a country with an enduring love affair with high-powered cars and no overall motorway speed limit, brands such as BMW, Mercedes, Audi and Porsche are symbols of national pride. Merkel's government is waging a rearguard campaign to delay implementation of EU rules on CO2 emissions, reduce penalties and ease the burden on Germany's luxury automobile industry. Germany accepts the need for legal curbs on car emissions of 120 grammes per km on average from 2012, with fines for non-compliance rising gradually over three years, officials say. But it wants all categories of cars to cut their emissions -- including smaller, less polluting vehicles produced by France and Italy that already meet the EU goal. It also wants the mandatory system to be phased in. | 0 |
Finance ministers met in Bali on Tuesday to debate how to fund the fight against climate change, the first such meeting on the fringes of annual UN climate talks. The ministers, from about 20 nations, would debate issues ranging from the potential for carbon markets to help cut industrial emissions of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels to incentives for people to put solar panels on the roof at home. At the main talks, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was to arrive in his debut on the world stage a week after his new Labor government ratified the UN's Kyoto Protocol, isolating the United States as the only developed nation outside the pact. And Kyoto marks its 10th birthday on Tuesday -- it was agreed in the Japanese city of the same name on Dec. 11, 1997. UN backers of the pact plan to celebrate with a birthday cake. Rudd is expected to formally hand over documents ratifying the Kyoto Protocol to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday. The United States called on the meeting on Monday to drop any reference to scientific evidence that rich nations need to axe greenhouse gas emissions by 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. That goal was part of a report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which collected the Nobel Peace Prize on Monday with former US Vice President Al Gore in Oslo. Gore said it was "time to make peace with the planet". The United Nations hopes the climate talks will agree to launch two years of negotiations on a new global pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which binds 36 industrial nations to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. Under that plan, the United States would join in, along with developing nations led by China and India which have no 2008-12 goals under Kyoto. A deal would be agreed in Copenhagen in 2009. But some developing countries are wary of committing to curb their rising emissions, reckoning they need to burn more energy to lift millions out of poverty. -- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/ | 0 |
As his global teleconference broke up in disarray on Sept 11, 2001, a top economist at a US investment bank began to ponder what the attacks on the United States might tell him about the future shape of the world. His conclusions had little to do with Al Qaeda. Jim O'Neill of Goldman Sachs had been at a meeting in the World Trade Center only two days before, and flew home to London just hours before airliners slammed into New York's twin towers. About to become head of the bank's global economics team, he was looking for a "big idea" to put a stamp on his leadership. Soon, he had it: the decade after September 11 would be defined not by the world's sole superpower or the war on terror but by the rise of the four biggest emerging market economies - China, Russia, India and Brazil. O'Neill nicknamed them the "BRICs" after the first letter of their names. "I'll never forget that day," O'Neill told Reuters. "It was right at the core of how I dreamt up the whole thing... Something clicked in my head that the lasting consequence of 9/11 had to be the end of American dominance of globalisation... that seems to be exactly what happened." O'Neill, who now heads Goldman's global asset management business, launched the BRIC phrase in a pamphlet published in November 2001. The numbers from the past decade suggest the trend he identified will resonate more in world history than the strikes and their aftermath. When O'Neill dreamed up the BRIC acronym, the four big emerging powers made up eight percent of the world economy. The top five world economies were, in order, the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain and France. Ten years later, the BRICs have grown faster than even O'Neill expected to constitute nearly 20 percent of the global economy. China is the world's number two economic power, while Britain - the closest ally of the US in the decade-long war on terror -- has dropped out of the top five, overtaken by Brazil. India and Russia are not far behind. Within days of the attacks on New York and Washington, the US had launched a costly and attention-sapping global "war on terror" and was plotting retaliation against not just Al Qaeda but also other members of what it saw as a wider "axis of evil", including Saddam Hussein's Iraq. At first sight, the US and its allies appear to have won their war. The Al-Qaeda network is badly damaged, Osama Bin Laden and other key leaders are dead and the group has not pulled off a major terror strike in the West for years. What is less obvious is the cost of that apparent victory, both financially and diplomatically. "For most of the first decade of the century, as the world economy gradually shifted its centre of gravity towards Asia, the United States was preoccupied with a mistaken war of choice in the Middle East," said Joseph Nye, a former US under-secretary of state and defence as well as ex-chair of the National Intelligence Council and now a Harvard professor of international relations. US actions, he says, critically undermined its "soft power" in diplomacy, values and culture, while diverting and ultimately weakening its military and economic "hard power". COSTLY OVERREACTION? The day before the attacks, the US national debt stood at a sliver under $5.8 trillion. A decade on, it has skyrocketed to $14.7 trillion. Unfunded tax cuts, post-financial crisis stimulus and other increased domestic spending account for much of that. But America's post-9/11 conflicts added heavily to the burden. One recent estimate, from Brown University in the US, put the cost of America's wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan at up to $4.4 trillion - nearly a third of the total. "It was pretty immediately obvious that the Americans were going to lash out and probably going to overreact," says Nigel Inkster, a former deputy head of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and now head of transnational threats and political risk at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). "In the overall scheme of things, I suspect the impact of 9/11 and rise of Al Qaeda is going to be seen as not much more than a blip". The United States was not the only Western power to take drastic measures. Like then-US president George W Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair saw the September 11 attacks as a defining moment. "I was very, very clear from the outset that this was not just a terrorist attack of extraordinary magnitude but one that had to change global politics" says Blair in a television interview to be published this weekend on www.reuters.com. "... I don't think we were clear on what exactly had to be done but I do think we were clear that the calculus of risk had changed." That belief helped send Blair and his country to war in Iraq and later Afghanistan, costly military adventures that ultimately may have made far less difference to Britain than the threats it faced from a fast-changing world economic order -- as well as its own internal financial problems. The Iraq war ended up seriously tarnishing Blair's premiership and his reputation, after it emerged Britain went to war based on a faulty assessment of the risks posed by weapons of mass destruction. Wolfgang Ischinger, a former German deputy foreign minister appointed ambassador to the US in 2001, says September 11 "burst the bubble" of any illusion that one superpower could rule the world. "But in terms of importance for the global power situation, for global governance, I think the rise of the BRICs will have the more enduring effect. 9/11 created such a lot of confusion that it took us the better part of a decade to figure out what conclusions we should draw from it and the wrong turns some countries took." LESS A TURNING POINT THAN FINANCIAL CRISIS? On a flight into Houston, Texas for a meeting between Jordan's King Abdullah and Bush when Al Qaeda struck, Jordan's ambassador to Washington Marwan Muasher's initial worries were over an anti-Muslim backlash in the United States. He believes Washington did well to avoid that, but misjudged its broader reaction and should never have launched the Iraq war. "But there have been other developments since then such as the financial crisis that in some ways, overshadow much of 9/11," says Muasher, who later became foreign minister and is now a vice president at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a US think-tank. "It is not a matter just of US decline, it is a matter of the emergence of other powers. The age of the unipolar power of the United States was very short in part because it was ultimately never sustainable." Ian Bremmer, president of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, says the world has already moved on from September 11. "With hindsight, 2008 was the seminal moment," Bremmer told Reuters. "Not only did we have the financial crisis, we also had the Beijing Olympics. Before that, China was seen simply as an emerging market, a backwater. Suddenly we saw them coming into their own." China paraded brash self-confidence at the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony, showing off spectacular new buildings in its capital and brushing aside Western concerns at human rights abuses. The country's growing financial and economic weight - it now holds $1.2 trillion of US government debt, by far the biggest foreign investor in these securities - means the West can ill afford to question it. When a government debt crisis hit Europe this year as buyers shunned the most indebted countries, leaders begged China to come to their help by buying up euro-zone securities - a scenario unimaginable in the 20th century. August 2008 also saw fellow BRIC Russia swiftly win a war with US-backed neighbour Georgia, the first time Moscow had sent troops outside its borders since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. That more muscular approach from emerging powers -- particularly in their own backyard - could in future be adopted by the likes of China or India. HASTENING THE WEST'S (RELATIVE) DECLINE? Reflecting broader changes to investment patterns, Stephen Jennings, the CEO of Moscow-based investment bank Renaissance Capital, says he sees more and more big "south-south" business deals now struck in developing nations, funded by BRIC banks on behalf of emerging market investors - and at which there is not a single face from London or New York. "The traditional financial centres and Western economic model are losing their pre-eminence," Jennings said in a speech to investors in Moscow in June. "There is a gravitational shift of business, capital and ideas towards emerging market economies fast-growing economies, including Russia, are becoming the leaders of the new economic order". The diplomatic order has also changed. When it came to salvaging a deal at the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009, US President Barack Obama went into a room not with the other G8 developed states but with the leaders of the emerging world: China, India, Brazil and South Africa, the latter increasingly keen to position itself as part of a wider "BRICS" grouping to counterweight older powers. The uprisings of the so-called "Arab Spring" across the Middle East and North Africa -- which blindsided not only regional leaders but also Western intelligence agencies and apparently Al Qaeda -- were seen by some as a wake-up call for more authoritarian BRICs like China. But critics said the uprisings also pointed to double standards on the part of the US and its allies. The West, they charged, backed authoritarian Arab rulers when they needed their business or support in the "war on terror", then abandoned them when their positions became untenable. Now, Britain and the United States have been embarrassed by documents found in Libya suggesting that their intelligence services were cooperating closely with Col Muammar Gaddafi's regime. "In many ways, it shows the whole hypocrisy of the approach that said you had to embrace the dark side to defeat terror," says Jan Egeland, Europe head of Human Rights Watch and United Nations global humanitarian chief between 2003 and 2006, a role in which he became a frequent critic of US Policy. "It was devastating for the reputation of the West -- and it happened at the same time as the emerging economies were already closing the gap in other ways." A CHANGED WORLD In many ways, much of what has happened since September 11, 2001 was precisely the opposite of what conventional opinion expected. Whilst the US and allies spent much of the following decade at war in the Middle East, in much of the rest of the globe the number of conflicts fell sharply. Whilst development economists such as Jeffrey Sachs say the billions spent on Western wars represent a lost opportunity to tackle poverty and hardship in the poorest countries, BRIC economic growth in particular has lifted millions from poverty - despite a growing internal wealth gap in many states. Now, following a long-standing historical pattern, the growing economic power of the BRICs is starting to translate into greater military strength - and the West's financial decline is mirrored in ever more drastic cuts to its defence spending. London's International Institute for Strategic Studies highlighted in its annual survey of global military power this year a key theme: while Western military budgets are being pruned, those in Asia and the Middle East are growing sometimes by double digits every year. "There is persuasive evidence that a global redistribution of military power is under way," it said. This year, Britain replaced China as the only member of the UN Security Council without an aircraft carrier, scrapping the Royal Navy's flagship "Ark Royal" just as China launched its first such vessel. Goldman's O'Neill believes the dramatic economic growth of the BRICs will dwarf the long-term impact of September 11. His bank is now touting the merits of what they term the "N-11" - the next 11 big emerging market economies after the BRICs, including such powers as Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey. He also believes the attack and its aftermath may have played a part in shaping the BRICs' newly assertive approach in the world. "What it may have done at the margin was to sow the seeds of doubt about the power of America and therefore the need for them to stand more on their own two feet," he says. With the West's single-minded focus on the Middle East, Al Qaeda and its allies, some worry that the old powers missed their chance to help shape the new world order that is emerging. But even had they been paying more attention, perhaps it would have made little difference. "The focus on the Islamic world meant that shift (to emerging powers) took us by surprise," says former British spy Inkster. "But it probably would have done so in any case." | 2 |
Wells have run dry across the semi-arid region, with scant rains forcing some villagers to walk miles for water and pushing others to migrate to cities in search of work, as harvests fall. But the drought also has more pernicious consequences. In towns and villages across sparsely populated Bundelkhand, home to 20 million people, parents of would-be brides are dismissing the overtures of hopeful suitors, fearing a betrothal could land them in financial ruin. "The parents usually tell me 'no water, no daughter'," said Hetu, 42, a farm labourer who earns 4,000 rupees ($58) a month. "In January, one father said 'maybe' and immediately I started daydreaming about my wedding." But calls to his would-be father-in-law went unanswered. "Parents fear their girls will spend the rest of their days fetching water," Hetu said in his village of Baragaon, known for growing wheat, barley and chickpea. His story is echoed by other men from Bundelkhand who told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that years of drought had ruined their crops and trapped them in bachelorhood. It is just one of many social impacts linked to climate change in a country increasingly hit by extreme heat, rising sea levels, frequent floods and powerful cyclones. "The effects of climate change are dangerous," said Sanjay Singh, secretary of Parmarth Samaj Sevi Sansthan, a group working to empower rural communities. "If efforts aren't made while we still have time, then existing problems of unemployment, starvation (and) malnutrition will only become more severe," he added. India's northern areas were lashed by monsoon rains and fatal floods in recent weeks but dry spells have gripped other parts, including the city of Chennai which was plunged into crisis in June when its four main water reservoirs ran dry. Normally Bundelkhand, blighted by 13 episodes of drought in the last two decades, receives 52 days of rainfall a year. But the number of days has more than halved since 2014, according to Skymet Weather, a private weather forecasting agency. "Water is everything. It is a currency. If you have it, you have everything, including a wife. If not, you have nothing," said Dhaniram Aherwal, head of Bangaon village's water council. URBAN MIGRATION Small, rain-dependent farms growing wheat, millet and pulses are the mainstay of Bundelkhand's cash-based economy. When rains fail and crops perish, incomes and marriage prospects suffer, prompting waves of migration to nearby cities. Two in five people in rural Bundelkhand have become urban migrants over the last decade, according to Keshav Singh, an environmentalist at the India Water Portal website. Bad water management and poor policies are to blame, said Singh, who is also part of the Bundelkhand Water Forum, a coalition of local organisations. "If things continue this way, Bundelkhand will be known as a land of bachelors," he said. Empty homes with metal locks on front doors are a common sight. At least 100 people have left Baragaon - Hetu's village of about 8,000 people - so far this year, said Ramadhar Nishad, a local administrative chief. Villagers said nearly 200 pack up and leave each year, either temporarily or permanently. "There have been no weddings here for at least two years," said Nishad, standing outside a derelict wedding hall strewn with cow dung. TRAFFICKERS Not everyone heads to the city. Farmer suicides over failed crops and crippling debt have left "drought orphans" and widows, who often fall prey to traffickers looking to push them into prostitution, said Singh. And with so many men desperately seeking wives, traffickers find opportunities to lure prospective brides into the region from other states, he and other activists said. In water-scarce Chhatarpur district, scores of men have married women from nearby Odisha state. Three women told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that a "tout" found them and promised a perfect match - a man with land and a concrete house with an adequate water supply. "But that wasn't the case. Back home, water came from taps. Here it is all hand pumps. Water tankers don't come ... No one had told me that things were so bad," said Rina Pal, 30, who came to Chaukheda village 12 years ago. Child marriage is also rife, according to locals. Many young girls never go to school because of costly tuition fees, they said. Instead, parents send them to fetch water. Viewed as a financial burden, they are married off as young as 12. Seema Aherwal, a bride at 18, said men failed to understand how unattractive Bundelkhand villages could be for women. "You can't blame women. It's terrible here. Water dictates life - when to eat, sleep, bathe - everything," said Aherwal, now 28 and planning to move her family to Delhi after living in Bangaon for a decade. WATER HARVESTING Rocks are one major problem, according to Saurav Kumar Suman, administrative head of Tikamgarh district, who said Bundelkhand's rocky terrain stops rain water from percolating into aquifers and recharging groundwater supplies. Others say humans are at fault. With increasing demand for water, unregulated exploitation has emptied natural reservoirs. Determined to stem the exodus and repair confidence in the region, civil society groups and government agencies are trying to revive water bodies, de-silt ponds and build dams for irrigation and rainwater harvesting. "Locals now claim that some of the men who had migrated (for work) have started to return because of the availability of water," said Farrukh Rahman Khan, WaterAid India's manager for the northern region. But for Rajendra Litoria, 48, who cares for his elderly parents, moving away was never an option. Instead he has shelled out hundreds of dollars' worth of fees to marriage brokers over the past decade to scout for a bride. "Who will take care of me when I'm old? ... Who will I leave my land to? ... Who will perform my last rites?" he asked. "I worry all the time but I haven't lost hope. I still believe I will get married." | 0 |
No non-government organisation (NGO) has been awarded allocation from the Climate Change Trust Fund, the environment state minister says. "For the disbursement, 53 NGOs have been given nod in principle by the technical committee, but it's not finalised yet," Hassan Mahmood said on Wednesday. His comments came following a report in a national daily on Wednesday, which said 53 NGOs would get Tk 213.4 million from the fund. He said that the technical committee's decision would be scrutinised. After an inter-ministerial meeting at his ministry, the junior minister told reporters that so far Tk 5.48 billion were disbursed from the fund in 48 projects. "The remaining Tk 2 billion will be allocated within the year," he added. From the fund, 1.2 percent would be allocated to the NGOs, he said, adding that "most of the 4,000 NGOs applying for the fund have no experience in climate change mitigation". | 1 |
Now, he is just back from a Hanoi summit with North Korea that collapsed and the cloud has grown darker. While Trump’s much-hyped meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un broke up in disagreement over sanctions linked to Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, testimony from his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who accused him of breaking the law while in office, represented a potentially damaging development for the president at home. Trump faced challenges on other fronts: sensitive talks with China over a trade deal, a slow-rolling crisis in Venezuela, tensions between India and Pakistan and an attempt in Congress to kill his emergency declaration aimed at securing funding for a wall on the border with Mexico. U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller may also end his probe into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election in a matter of days - ensuring that speculation about the role of Trump and his campaign will keep making headlines. Before Trump left for Vietnam, he privately complained that Democrats would go ahead with the Cohen testimony, violating an unwritten rule against attacking the president while he is overseas. He also wished the Mueller report was finished. “He was very unhappy that they were holding the hearings while he was overseas,” said one person who was present and asked to remain unnamed. “He was also very unhappy that the Mueller investigation had not been concluded before he left. He felt that there was a cloud hanging over him.” While at the summit, Trump cut the talks about North Korea’s denuclearization short and the two sides gave conflicting accounts of what happened, raising doubts about the future of one of Trump’s signature initiatives. The White House had included a signing ceremony for a deal on Trump’s public schedule in Hanoi - and then abruptly canceled it. Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo complained about reporters being obsessed with what he tried to dismiss as “process” and said they were “radically uninformed.” “Y’all shouldn’t get hung up on things like that,” Pompeo told reporters traveling with him. As the summit unfolded, Trump kept up to date with Cohen’s testimony from his suite at a Hanoi hotel despite the 12-hour time difference. The conclusion among Trump’s inner circle was that the president came out of the week okay, feeling there was not much new in Cohen’s testimony and that Trump was getting credit for walking away from a potentially bad deal with the North Koreans. “There were no surprises this week,” said Christopher Ruddy, a conservative media mogul and a close friend of the president. “We knew North Korea was a tough nut to crack and that Michael Cohen was going to say a lot of nasty stuff. At the end of the day I don’t think it changes the political climate for President Trump,” Ruddy told Reuters. But the Cohen testimony raised questions among Trump allies about his re-election campaign’s ability to organize a proper response. “Where’s the defense of the president?” former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Trump friend, told ABC’s “This Week” program on Wednesday. Trump will have a friendly audience on Saturday when he addresses the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference in a Maryland suburb of Washington. At the CPAC event on Thursday, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel was quick to defend Trump’s handling of the Vietnam summit. “He walked away rightly because he said we’re not going to take away the sanctions if you not going to de-nuclearize,” she said to applause. | 2 |
Standing in the House of Representatives chamber before lawmakers, Supreme Court justices and VIP guests, Obama declared his independence from Congress by unveiling a series of executive orders and decisions - moves likely to inflame already tense relations between the Democratic president and Republicans. While his rhetoric was high flying, Obama's actions were relatively modest, collectively amounting to an outpouring of frustration at the pace of legislative action with Republicans in control of the House of Representatives and able to slow the president's agenda. "I'm eager to work with all of you," Obama told the lawmakers gathered for the annual speech. "But America does not stand still - and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that's what I'm going to do." Obama's orders included a wage hike for federal contract workers, creation of a "starter savings account" to help millions of people save for retirement, and plans to establish new fuel efficiency standards for trucks. He said he was driven to act by the widening gap between rich and poor and the fact that while the stock market has soared, average wages have barely budged. "Inequality has deepened," Obama said. "Upward mobility has stalled. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by, let alone get ahead. And too many still aren't working at all." SALUTE TO WOUNDED SOLDIER In an emotional, flag-waving finish to his speech, Obama drew a standing ovation from people of all political stripes by saluting the heroism of Sergeant First Class Cory Remsburg. The Army Ranger survived a roadside blast in Afghanistan and has recovered to the point where he attended the speech, seated next to first lady Michelle Obama. "Like the America he serves, Sergeant First Class Cory Remsburg never gives up, and he does not quit," Obama said. In a nod to bipartisanship, Obama drew applause with a brief tribute to John Boehner, "the son of a barkeeper" who rose to become speaker of the House of Representatives and the top Republican in Congress. Boehner gave Obama a thumbs-up. Obama's political objective in the address was to create a narrative for Democrats to use as they seek to head off Republicans eager to wrest control of the Senate from Democrats in November elections and build on their majority in the House. The party in control of the White House typically loses seats in these so-called mid-term elections, but Democrats feel they stand a chance of limiting their losses or even making some gains. To that end, Obama drew loud applause by underscoring in particular the economic plight of women, who he noted make up about half the U.S. workforce but still earn 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. Women voters helped re-elect Obama in 2012. "This year, let's all come together - Congress, the White House and businesses from Wall Street to Main Street - to give every woman the opportunity she deserves, because I firmly believe when women succeed, America succeeds," he said. Obama's governing strategy means he has scaled back ambitions for large legislative actions and wants to focus more on smaller-scale initiatives that can reduce income inequality and create more opportunities for middle-class workers. The wage hike for federal contract workers to $10.10 per hour, for example, will mean a pay raise for only about 560,000 federal contract workers. That's only a tiny fraction of the number who would see bigger paychecks under stalled legislation to increase the minimum wage. Some 3.6 million workers were paid the federal minimum wage in 2012. Obama spent a sizable part of his speech hammering away at issues that have long been debated but remain stalled, like closing the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He renewed an appeal for Congress to give him the authority to speedily negotiate international trade agreements, a proposal held up by Democratic opposition. And on one of his biggest priorities, immigration reform, Obama urged Congress to work together on an overhaul. He tempered his criticism of Republicans who have held up the legislation, with signs of possible progress emerging in recent days among House Republicans. Obama stopped short of taking a step that immigration reform advocates have called on him to take. He did not take executive action to freeze the deportations of parents of children brought to the United States illegally. "Let's get immigration reform done this year," he said. 'REFIGHTING OLD BATTLES' On healthcare, the issue that rocked his presidency and caused many Americans to lose confidence in him, Obama defended the overhaul law he signed in 2010 but did not make it a centerpiece, urging Americans to sign up for medical insurance coverage by a March 31 deadline. He challenged Republicans to come up with a viable alternative instead of repeating past failed attempts to repeal the law. "Now, I don't expect to convince my Republican friends on the merits of this law. But I know that the American people aren't interested in refighting old battles. So again, if you have specific plans to cut costs, cover more people, and increase choice - tell America what you'd do differently," he said. Bill Galston, a Brookings Institution scholar, found Obama's speech overall to be rather restrained compared to the usual partisan rhetoric in Washington. "His language was mostly devoid of overt partisan provocation. On policy, he gave little ground to the Republicans, but he did little to confront them either," said Galston, who had worked for Democratic President Bill Clinton. Obama said nothing about whether he would approve the long-delayed Keystone XL Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that environmentalists oppose. Instead, Obama spoke passionately about the need to tackle climate change, a statement that could foreshadow more executive actions to reduce carbon emissions this year. Obama said, "The shift to a cleaner energy economy won't happen overnight, and it will require some tough choices along the way. But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact." Republicans clambered for some of the same rhetorical ground as Obama in pledging to narrow the gap between rich and poor but staked out a different vision for doing so. US Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chairwoman of the House Republican Caucus, said in her party's official response to Obama's speech that Republicans want to rely on free markets and trust people to make their own decisions, not have the government make decisions for them. "The president talks a lot about income inequality, but the real gap we face today is one of opportunity inequality," she said, videotaped seated on a couch in a living room setting. With three years left in office, Obama is trying to recover from a difficult past year in office, when immigration and gun control legislation failed to advance in Congress and the rollout of the key provisions of his healthcare law stumbled. Polls reflect a dissatisfied and gloomy country. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Tuesday showed 68 percent of Americans saying the country is either stagnant or worse off since Obama took office. People used words like "divided," "troubled" and "deteriorating" to describe the state of the country, the poll showed. Obama dwelled mostly on domestic issues in his hour-long address, but warned Congress he would veto any effort to increase economic sanctions on Iran as he tries to reach a comprehensive deal with Tehran to ensure it does not obtain a nuclear weapons capability. A CNN poll found that 44 percent of respondents viewed Obama's address very positively while 32 percent felt somewhat positively about it and 22 percent were negative toward it. Obama will talk up the economic themes from the speech in a two-day road trip starting on Wednesday that will include stops in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Tennessee. | 0 |
UN talks billed as a "turning point" in a bid to slow global warming open on Monday seeking to agree curbs on greenhouse gas emissions and raise billions of dollars for the poor in aid and clean technology. The two-week talks, ending with a summit of 105 world leaders including US President Barack Obama on Dec. 18, will have to overcome deep distrust between rich and poor nations about sharing out the burden of costly curbs on emissions. The planned attendance of the leaders and pledges to curb emissions by all the top emitters -- led by China, the United States, Russia and India -- have raised hopes for an accord after sluggish negotiations in the past two years. "Copenhagen is already a turning point in the international response to climate change," said Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat. South Africa added new impetus on the eve of the event, saying on Sunday it would cut its carbon emissions to 34 percent below expected levels by 2020, if rich countries furnished financial and technological help. World leaders did not attend the last time the world's environment ministers agreed the existing UN climate pact, the Kyoto Protocol, in 1997. Copenhagen will be the biggest climate meeting in history with 15,000 participants from 192 nations. In a conference hall with wind turbines outside generating clean energy, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN's panel of climate experts, will be among speakers at Monday's opening session. Plans by world leaders to attend have brightened hopes since Rasmussen said last month that time had run out to agree a full legal treaty in 2009. The aim for Copenhagen is a politically binding deal and a new deadline in 2010 for legal details. Some 56 newspapers from 45 countries including The Guardian, Le Monde, El Pais and Toronto Star published on Monday a joint editorial urging rich and poor to unite in Copenhagen. "At the deal's heart must be a settlement between the rich world and the developing world," it said. "Social justice demands that the industrialised world digs deep into its pockets. Many of us, particularly in the developed world, will have to change our lifestyles." KYOTO The existing Kyoto pact obliges binds industrialised nations to cut emissions until 2012 and even its supporters admit is is only a pinprick in rising world temperatures, especially since Washington did not join its allies in ratifying the pact. This time, the idea is to get action from all major emitters including China and India to help avert more droughts, desertification, wildfires, species extinctions and rising seas. The meeting will test how far developing nations will stick to entrenched positions, for example that rich nations must cut their greenhouse gases by at least 40 percent by 2020 -- far deeper than targets on offer. De Boer wants developed nations to agree deep cuts in greenhouse emissions by 2020 and come up with immediate, $10 billion a year in new funds to help the poor cope. And he wants developing nations to start slowing their rising emissions. "It needs to be new money, real and significant," he said. De Boer said that Pachauri on Monday would address a scandal about leaked e-mails from a British university that sceptics say show that some researchers exaggarated evidence for warming. But he said the UN process of reviewing climate science was well insulated against manipulation. "I do not believe there is any process anywhere out there that is that systematic, that thorough and that transparent," he said. | 0 |
OSLO, Wed Sep 24,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Eating less meat can help rich nations to combat global warming but may not work for poor countries where people depend on livestock for survival, a leading expert said on Wednesday. UN reports show that the livestock sector accounts for about 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming -- more than the transport industry. Eating less beef, pork or chicken is often advocated as a way to cut emissions. "We agree that the world as a whole could eat less meat," said Carlos Sere, head of the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute, which is backed by governments around the world. "But we are concerned that the message is too generic. You do not want to get governments and development agencies to forget about livestock in Asia and Africa," he told Reuters in a telephone interview. More than 600 million people in developing nations depend on livestock to some extent, he said. In India, for instance, milk is a key source of protein and calcium for a huge vegetarian population. Raising livestock "is a key survival instrument...you are allowing poor people to make an income," Sere said. bdnews24.com/lq/1828 hrs. Other benefits include meat, hides, use of animals for transport and dung for fertilizers. Meat consumption is far lower in developing nations than in rich countries. Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the U.N. Climate Panel, suggested this month that people should have a meat-free day every week to help slow global warming that could bring more floods, droughts and rising seas. VEGETARIAN Others have also advocated a shift away from meat. "The biggest change anyone could make in their own lifestyle would be to become vegetarian," former Beatle Paul McCartney said earlier this year of ways to fight global warming. Sere said the messages should be focused on rich nations, where livestock are often fattened on food that could otherwise be used for human consumption. Farm animals emit large amounts of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from their digestive tracts. Use of fossil fuels for everything from fertilizers to harvesting feed for animals also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. In developing nations, smallholders with a few buffaloes or cows often fed them waste from crops such as sorghum, rice or millet, "turning resources humans can't eat into something of value," he said. In the longer term, rising incomes in developing nations are spurring a surge in demand for meat. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization has projected that world meat production will more than double to 465 million tons in 2050, from 229 million in 1990-91. | 0 |
By Simon Shuster MOSCOW June 21 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Russia plans to release 30 percent more greenhouse gases by 2020 under an emissions target scheme announced on Friday by President Dmitry Medvedev. The plan would reduce emissions by 10-15 percent from Russia's emissions in 1990 when it was part of the Soviet Union and its emissions were far higher than they are today. This angered environmentalists, and the target also is likely to fall short of expectations from developing countries. "It's not enough, it's very low," said Alexey Kokorin, the Russia spokesman for environmental protection group WWF. Medvedev's announcement was interpreted as an opening shot in United Nations negotiations meant to seal a new climate treaty in December to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Under those talks, rich nations are meant to propose mid-term emissions targets. Russia is the last major country to do so. Green groups and developing countries want industrialized countries to trim their emissions by 25-40 percent below 1990 levels, referring to a range of cuts suggested by a U.N. panel of climate scientists. "Based on the current situation by 2020 we could cut emissions by about 10-15 percent," Medvedev told Russian state television, according to a copy of his comments supplied by the Kremlin. Arkady Dvorkovich, the Kremlin's chief economic adviser, later clarified to Interfax news agency that the reduction would be from 1990 levels, before the Soviet Union fell and Russia's heavy industry collapsed. Since then, its carbon emissions have returned to an upward curve along with its industrial revival, preserving Russia's place as the world's third largest polluter behind China and the United States. The target laid out on Friday meant cumulative cuts of 30 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases from 1990 to 2020, Medvedev said. This implies Russia will emit about 3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas in 2020 compared with 2.2 billion tonnes in 2007. "We will not cut off our development potential," Medvedev said. Under Kyoto, Russia has to return its emissions to 1990 levels by 2008-12. Green groups and developing countries were disappointed last week by Japan's proposals for a 2020 target barely stiffer than its Kyoto Protocol goal, and were again downbeat on Friday after Russia's announcement. FIRST STEP IN NEGOTIATIONS Medvedev said Russia would take a responsible approach to greenhouse gas emissions but expected other countries to follow suit. "We expect our partners to take reciprocal steps. That is why I have said many times -- the problem of climate change has to be addressed by everyone or not at all," he said. Dvorkovich later added that Russia must find "the right balance" between addressing climate change and reaching Russia's goals for economic growth, Interfax reported. Experts saw the goal laid out on Friday as a first shot in six months of intense talks meant to culminate in a new climate pact in Copenhagen this year. "It's a good first step ... but I expect other countries will require bigger reductions from Russia and that will promote further negotiations," said Nina Korobova, head of the Russian operations of Global Carbon, a clean energy project developer. "I think Russia can easily go to 20 percent (by 2020) ... even in the most pessimistic situations," she added. During the previous presidency of Vladimir Putin, Russia's top Kyoto officials insisted they would not take on mandatory emissions cuts for fear of hindering the comfort of Russia's middle class and the development of its industries. | 0 |
The partnership will be formally launched later on Tuesday. Methane is the main greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. It has a higher heat-trapping potential than CO2 but breaks down in the atmosphere faster - meaning that cutting methane emissions can have a rapid impact on reining in global warming. The Global Methane Pledge, which was first announced in September, now includes half of the top 30 methane emitters accounting for two-thirds of the global economy, according to the Biden administration official. Among the new signatories that will be announced on Tuesday is Brazil - one of the world's five biggest emitters of methane. China, Russia and India, also top-five methane emitters, have not signed on to the pledge. Those countries were all included on a list identified as targets to join the pledge, previously reported. Since it was first announced in September with a handful of signatories, the United States and European Union have worked to get the world's biggest methane emitters to join the partnership. There were roughly 60 countries signed up only last week, after a final diplomatic push from the United States and EU ahead of the COP26 summit. While it is not part of the formal UN negotiations, the methane pledge could rank among the most significant outcomes from the COP26 conference, given its potential impact in holding off disastrous climate change. A UN report in May said steep cuts in methane emissions this decade could avoid nearly 0.3 degree Celsius of global warming by the 2040s. Failing to tackle methane, however, would push out of reach the Paris Agreement's aim to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 C above preindustrial levels and avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The 30 percent methane cut would be jointly achieved by the signatories, and cover all sectors. Key sources of methane emissions include leaky oil and gas infrastructure, old coal mines, agriculture and landfill sites. If fulfilled, the pledge is likely to have the biggest impact on the energy sector, since analysts say fixing leaky oil and gas infrastructure is the fastest and cheapest way to curb methane emissions. The United States is the world's biggest oil and gas producer, while the EU is the biggest importer of gas. The United States is due to release oil and gas methane regulations this week. The EU and Canada both plan to unveil methane legislation addressing the energy sector later this year. | 1 |
BRUSSELS, Fri Dec 12,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Eastern European member states could receive two levels of funding to secure their support for an EU plan to cut carbon in the fight against climate change, according to a final draft text prepared for leaders on Friday. The nine former communist nations are seen as the final main blockage to agreeing a package of measures aimed at tackling climate change but which will ramp up costs for their highly polluting coal-fired power sectors. Ten percent of revenues from the EU's flagship emissions trading scheme (ETS) would be distributed to them via the so-called "solidarity and growth" fund, according to the text seen by Reuters and which is yet to be approved by leaders. That would be followed by a further two percentage points for the nine countries that reduced emissions when industry collapsed in the wake of communism. Their power sectors were also partially exempted from paying for emissions permits from the ETS, with the level they must buy set at 30 percent in 2013, rising to 100 percent in 2020. Diplomats said Hungary had raised particular concerns about the package and it was not clear whether it would agree to the measures set out in the final draft. Measures were proposed to reduce the risk that carbon curbs would force up costs for European industry and reduce its ability to compete against less regulated rivals overseas -- an issue that had worried Germany and Italy. At-risk industries will receive free emissions permits if they will see an increase in costs of 5 percent or more and are over 10 percent exposed to international competition. The measure is viewed as covering over 90 percent of EU industry. Such an approach has been criticised for removing the main incentive to cut emissions, but benchmarks have been introduced to exclude the worst performers from the exemption. The fraction of industry that is not deemed at risk from international competition will have to pay for 20 percent of emissions permits in 2013, rising to 70 percent in 2020. Measures were also proposed to fund put billions of euros of public funds behind cutting-edge technology to trap and bury global warming gases underground -- but funds were only worth two fifths of that proposed by the European Parliament. | 0 |
He has also called for “transformation” of the seven-nation grouping that unites Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka from South Asia with Myanmar and Thailand, in Southeast Asia into a dynamic body. He made the appeal at the 16th BIMSTEC Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Kathmandu on Wednesday ahead of the fourth summit beginning on Thursday. Nepalese Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali chaired the meeting.
Foreign Minister Mahmood Ali said the meeting took stock of the progress made since the 3rd BIMSTEC held in Myanmar in 2014 and the BIMSTEC Leaders’ pledge made at Goa Retreat in October 2016 in India. He reiterated Bangladesh’s commitment to the BIMSTEC cooperation. He called upon BIMSTEC foreign ministers to review the structure of BIMSTEC, in particular in its areas of cooperation, strengthen the Secretariat. He urged for concluding BIMSTEC Free Trade Area and its constituent MoUs and protocols for its early implementation. Bangladesh stressed cooperation in certain key areas such as connectivity, energy, poverty alleviation, climate change, and people-to-people contact. The meeting also finalised the agenda for the summit. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will leave for Kathmandu on Thursday morning to attend the two-day summit. | 1 |
Group of Eight leaders meeting in Germany must tell the government of Sudan to end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur where thousands of refugees are dying, Geoffrey Dennis, head of CARE International, said on Wednesday. Dennis said he had seen for himself the plight of some of the millions who have been forced to take refuge in camps over the border in Chad. "This is a desperate situation," he told Reuters hours after returning from a visit to the Sudanese border. "We want the G8 to lead by example and push for a political settlement in Darfur. We also need more money. Aid funds are running low." Dennis said mortality rates in some of the camps were running at four per 10,000 per day whereas usually two per 10,000 is considered extremely serious, water was scarce and malnutrition rampant. "We also want the G8 to recognise that climate change -- which is causing some of the water scarcity problems and making matters even worse for the refugees -- is becoming a security issue," Dennis added. "Waterholes are drying up." The G8 summit in the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm is expected to discuss both the crisis in Darfur and global warming on Thursday in the only full day of meetings during the three-day event. The G8 leaders are expected to express a commitment to humanitarian aid in Darfur and urge the Khartoum government to accept a combined African Union-United Nations force there to try to bring peace. "We need the G8 to give leadership. We are struggling against a tide here," Dennis said by telephone. The UN Security Council has imposed an arms embargo on rebels and militia but not on the government, although it forbids offensive military flights by Khartoum over Darfur. More than 200,000 people are believed to have been killed by a combination of fighting and famine in the vast region and at least two million people have been uprooted since 2003. The United States and Britain have been working for weeks on an expanded UN sanctions resolution including an arms embargo over the entire country, a halt to all military flights over Darfur, monitors at Sudanese airports and an expansion of the list of people under sanctions. President George W. Bush said on Wednesday Washington might support enforcement of a no-fly zone over Darfur. "We would consider that," he told reporters on the sidelines of the summit when asked if a no-fly zone to stop the violence in Darfur was an option. But Russia and South Africa have questioned the timing and China -- which is expanding aggressively into Africa -- has opposed further penalties. | 0 |
With the reservoir at 15% of its capacity, details of a life
frozen in 1992, when the Aceredo village in Spain's northwestern Galicia region
was flooded to create the Alto Lindoso reservoir, are being revealed once more. "It's as if I'm watching a movie. I have a feeling of
sadness," said 65-year-old pensioner Maximino Perez Romero, from A Coruna.
"My feeling is that this is what will happen over the years due to drought
and all that, with climate change." Walking on the muddy ground cracked by the drought in some
spots, visitors found partially collapsed roofs, bricks and wooden debris that
once made up doors or beams, and even a drinking fountain with water still
streaming from a rusty pipe. Crates with empty beer bottles were stacked by what used to
be a cafe, and a semi-destroyed old car was rusting away by a stone wall. Drone
footage showed the derelict buildings. Maria del Carmen Yanez, mayor of the larger Lobios council,
of which Aceredo is part, blamed the situation on the lack of rain in recent
months, particularly in January, but also on what she said was "quite
aggressive exploitation" by Portugal's power utility EDP, which manages
the reservoir. On Feb 1, Portugal's government ordered six dams, including
Alto Lindoso, to nearly halt water use for electricity production and
irrigation, due to the worsening drought. EDP had no immediate comment when contacted by Reuters. Questions over the sustainability of reservoirs are not new.
Last year, several Spanish villages complained about how power utilities used
them after a rapid draw-down from a lake by Iberdrola in western Spain. The
company said it was following the rules. Environment Ministry data shows Spain's reservoirs are at
44% of their capacity, well below the average of about 61% over the last
decade, but still above levels registered in a 2018 drought. A ministry source
said drought indicators showed a potential worsening in the coming weeks, but
did not yet detect a generalised problem throughout the country. Jose Alvarez, a former construction worker from Lobios, felt
a mix of nostalgia and fatalism at he remembered his working days in Aceredo. "It's terrible, but it is what it is. That's life. Some
die and others live," he said. | 0 |
Moscow, Oct. 9 (BDNEWS)- A satellite designed to measure how fast the polar ice caps are melting crashed into the Arctic Ocean after its launch in northern Russia went wrong, the European Space Agency said on Saturday. The European Space Agency's (ESA) Cryosat satellite was launched from Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome on board a converted nuclear missile but a stage of the rocket's booster system failed to fire. The European Space Agency's Cryosat satellite launches in Plesetsk, Russia October 8, 2005, according to wire services. "The confirmation we have is that there has been a failure and that ... the satellite with part of the launcher has fallen into the sea," ESA spokesman Franco Bonacina told Reuters. The satellite was launched at about 1500 GMT on Saturday on board a Rokot launcher, which is a converted inter-continental ballistic missile. Equipment on board Cryosat is designed to allow it to take precise measurements of the polar ice caps, which some scientists believe are thinning as a result of global warming and could lead to higher sea levels. The satellite is reported to have cost $165 million and was to have stayed in orbit gathering data for 3 years. Russia's Space Troops, a division of the military that runs Plesetsk, confirmed Cryosat had crashed. "We believe the satellite ... fell where the second rocket stage is supposed to fall, that is in the Lincoln Sea, near the North Pole," Itar-Tass news agency quoted space troops official Oleg Gromov as saying. Existing date suggests that polar ice is melting, but scientists are seeking more definitive information to help them predict changes to the climate and they hoped Cryosat could provide that. The polar ice caps act as cold stores for massive volumes of water which, if released into the oceans, could leave low-lying cities like New Orleans or London permanently underwater, scientists say. The crash may deal a blow to Russia's lucrative commercial space launch industry, a spinoff from its nuclear weapons programme which is now responsible for putting a large proportion of the world's satellites in orbit. Russian space agency Roskosmos ordered a halt into all launches using the Rokot vehicle until an investigation is carried out into what went wrong, Interfax news reported. That may affect the Dec. 27 launch of the Compsat-2 communications satellite, due to go into orbit on board a Rokot launcher from Plesetsk, reports said. But Russia's state-owned Khrunichev plant that makes the rockets defended their performance. "This is the seventh launch using a converted Rokot and six of them have been successful," said Khrunichev general director Alexander Medvedev, Itar-Tass reported. Russia's space industry suffered another setback on Saturday when search crews were unable to find an experimental space parachute -- also developed jointly with the ESA -- that floated to earth in the remote Kamchatka region. | 0 |
A mounting US deficit could pose a much greater threat to the survival of President Barack Obama's healthcare reforms than either the Supreme Court or 2012 elections. Many health experts say innovations in delivering medical care and the creation of state health insurance exchanges for extending coverage to the uninsured are likely to continue in some form even if Obama's 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is struck down or repealed. But former top healthcare policymakers from Democratic and Republican administrations warn that some of the most promising measures for controlling costs, while improving quality and access to care, could run aground as early as 2013 if a new Congress and administration respond to the fiscal pressures with arbitrary spending cuts. "If the plan is what's on the table now, which is cut, cut, cut - shift the burden to poor people and taxpayers, take away benefits, take away Medicaid coverage - things will get worse," said Dr. Don Berwick, who left his temporary post as Obama's head of Medicare and Medicaid this month after Republicans blocked his Senate confirmation. The Affordable Care Act is designed mainly to extend healthcare coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans by expanding Medicaid for the poor and establishing state exchanges where people with low incomes who do not qualify for Medicaid can buy subsidized private insurance. It also calls for innovations that could guide America's $2.6 trillion healthcare system, the world's most expensive, toward incentives to contain costs. The law faces fierce Republican opposition and is heading into a period of unprecedented turmoil. Next spring the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the constitutionality of the individual mandate, the law's lynchpin provision that requires all Americans to buy insurance. Months later, voters will deliver another verdict by deciding whether Republicans or Democrats control the White House and Congress. Current and former healthcare officials have great hopes for changes that reward doctors and other providers for how well patients progress rather than compensating them according to the number of tests and procedures they perform. For a panel discussion on the subject moderated by Reuters at Harvard School of Public Health, go to: www.ForumHSPH.org "These reforms really have the potential for a longer term impact on healthcare costs," said Dr. Mark McClellan, who oversaw Medicare, Medicaid and the Food and Drug Administration under President George W. Bush. GAINING MOMENTUM Some innovations, like "bundled payments," set cost targets for specific conditions that teams of doctors must meet. Others reward healthcare providers for keeping patients healthy or for delivering successful outcomes while saving money. The innovations were already taking hold in the private market before Obama signed the healthcare bill into law in March 2010. Their momentum has gained pace sharply across the United States as a result of the law's efforts to apply them to Medicare and Medicaid, which combined spend about $900 billion annually to provide care to 100 million beneficiaries. The year-old Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation has about two dozen innovation models that it intends to develop with private partners over the next few years. Experts say innovations in delivering care are durable because they offer providers a way to cope with growing cost pressure from employers who sponsor health insurance and from government agencies forced to cut spending. "This is a response to market realities, not just reformist interests," said Don Moran, a Washington-based healthcare consultant who served in President Ronald Reagan's Office of Management and Budget. The climate for innovation could change dramatically after Election Day in November if Washington responds to deficits with across-the-board cuts to Medicare and Medicaid that reinforce the traditional fee-for-service approach to healthcare. Innovations are vulnerable because they have yet to established a cost-cutting track record to which the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office can assign tangible dollar values for deficit reduction. Gail Wilensky, who headed Medicare and Medicaid under President George H.W. Bush, worries that Congress will opt for the standard practice of cutting payments to doctors and other healthcare providers, who may react by dropping Medicare patients. "That's the only thing Congress will get credit for and so that's what they'll do. We know this is not our future if we want to do well by our seniors," she said at the Harvard School of Public Health forum on Friday. Some analysts say deficit pressures could encourage the Obama administration to delay segments of the healthcare law, including state health insurance exchanges and the requirement for each individual citizen to have health insurance. Such a move could save tens of billions of dollars in government spending, while giving state and federal officials more time to set up exchanges that have taken shape slowly amid uncertainties posed by the Supreme Court case and the election. An administration official said there are no plans to delay the law's implementation. "That idea has never been discussed and is not under consideration," the official said. The election also is unlikely to decide the law's fate unless Obama loses re-election, according to analysts who say Congress is unlikely to overcome partisan gridlock even if Republicans eke out a slim majority in the Senate. McClellan said sections of the law including state insurance exchanges could go forward even if the individual mandate were overturned in court, repealed after the election or weakened by political and budgetary pressures. Instead of a legal requirement for purchasing insurance, McClellan said the government could design effective voluntary rules that encourage people to participate in exchanges . He said an obvious model would be Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit that offers rewards for people who enroll early and penalties for those who show up late. McClellan acknowledged that state exchanges would not be as robust without the individual mandate but said that fact could result in deficit savings. The administration official said there are currently no plans or conversations taking place about using Part D enrollment restrictions in place of the individual mandate. | 2 |
An international forum this week on the fate of the world's whales barely addressed what scientists consider one of the most serious threats to marine life: global warming. A warming climate threatens food sources in Antarctic waters for the world's largest creature and has been linked to unusual migration patterns and the strange behavior of whales off Alaska's coast, scientists say. A proposed International Whaling Commission resolution expressing concerns about global warming and its impact on whales never came up for a vote. The group opted instead for a climate change conference at some point in the future. "In light of the massive impacts that stand to be made on whales and their habitat, we would have liked this body to take action on that and express their concern," said Patrick Ramage, whale program manager for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. "This forum is still kind of stuck in 1946, where they're debating whether whales should be harpooned or not." Delegates from pro- and anti-whaling countries also voiced concern the ideological division over commercial whaling was crippling the IWC's ability to address the many threats facing whales. "I thought that the commission might say something because this is certainly the biggest threat to all of us -- whales, aboriginal people, you, me," said Mark Simmonds, senior scientist at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and a member of the IWC's science committee. The difficulty in addressing the problem, according to scientists, is trying to isolate the factors combining to affect whale habitats, such as pollution or climate change. "The problem is we don't understand the ecosystem well enough," said Greg Donovan, the committee's chief of science, noting the conference on climate change may shed more light on the topic. Whales from the Arctic appear to have altered some of their migration patterns, while ice-dependent whales in Antarctica might be losing some of their primary food, krill, and their overall habitat, said Donovan. In addition, whales swimming in temperate climates might find the location of their prime habitats shifting due to warming water. Whales used to migrate to the Arctic for only the long-daylight days of summer, but they are arriving earlier and staying longer, said officials from Alaska's North Slope Borough, the government for the state's northernmost region. "We've even documented whale singing in the dead of winter, in January and February," said North Slope Borough Mayor Edward Itta. This past winter, borough officials detected some gray whales that instead of making normal migrations to the sunny south, apparently spent the winter in the waters northeast of Barrow, the northernmost US community. | 0 |
WASHINGTON, Thu Feb 19, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Barack Obama will seek to quell Canadian concerns about US protectionism when he makes his first foreign trip as president on Thursday to the United States' biggest trading partner and energy supplier. Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will discuss trade, clean energy technology, the global economic crisis and the war in Afghanistan, officials said, but the president's tight schedule on the one-day trip to Ottawa leaves little time for substantive talks. Trade will dominate the discussions, and Harper has said he will seek assurances that the "Buy American" clause in the $787 billion US economic recovery package signed by Obama this week will not discriminate against firms in Canada, which sends about 75 percent of its exports to the United States. US officials, in turn, have said Obama will seek to allay those fears. The president said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation this week that Canadians should not be concerned, noting that history showed that "beggar thy neighbor" protectionist policies could backfire. The "Buy American" provision imposes a requirement that any public works project funded by the stimulus package use only iron, steel and other goods made in the United States. While Obama has stressed that the United States will comply with its international free trade obligations, Harper said last week he was still concerned about the language in the clause. Canada is also alarmed by Obama's stated desire to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, to which Canada, the United States and Mexico are signatories, fearing that it could lead to new tariff barriers. Obama has said he wants to strengthen environmental and labor provisions. U.S. and Canadian labor unions called for changes in agriculture, energy, investment and other NAFTA provisions on the eve of Obama's meeting with Harper. "We need to address the worsening economic crisis in a coordinated manner, reopen and fix the flaws with the North American Free Trade Agreement and move on a range of complementary policies dealing with energy, climate change and green jobs, industrial policy, migration and development," the AFL-CIO labor federation and the Canadian Labour Congress said in a joint letter to the two leaders. Three-way trade between the United States, Mexico and Canada has tripled to nearly $1 trillion since NAFTA went into force in 1994, and together Canada and Mexico buy more than one-third of US exports. But the agreement is often blamed for US job losses, especially in big Midwestern manufacturing states. US administration officials this week sought to downplay the issue, saying that while Obama would raise it in his talks with Harper, the fragile state of the world economy meant he would not be pushing hard for NAFTA to be reviewed now. Obama foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough said the president would underscore his commitment to boosting trade between the neighbors, which amounts to $1.5 billion a day, the largest trading partnership in the world. CLEAN ENERGY Obama, who wants the United States to take the lead in the fight against climate change, will also discuss clean energy technology with Harper, US officials said, while stressing the importance of Canada as a key US energy supplier. Environmentalists want Obama to press Canada to clean up its "dirty" tar sands in the western province of Alberta, from which oil is extracted in a process that spews out vast amounts of greenhouse gases. In his CBC interview, Obama said he wanted to work with Canada on new technologies to capture greenhouse gases, a statement analysts interpreted as recognition that the United States cannot afford to adopt a tougher stance right now against its main energy supplier. Obama said he would also discuss Canada's role in Afghanistan, where it has 2,700 soldiers as part of a NATO-led force tackling a worsening insurgency. Obama ordered 17,000 more troops there this week to try to arrest the violence. But with Canada due to withdraw its troops in 2011, and Obama saying he was not going to Ottawa with an "ask in my pocket" for them to stay beyond that date, the talks are expected to focus on other ways the Canadians can help. US officials have billed Thursday's visit, which comes a month after Obama took office, as an opportunity for Obama to deepen a personal relationship with Harper, a conservative who had a natural affinity with former President George W. Bush. | 1 |
Wearing white boiler suits, the roughly 300 protesters sat on the red carpet where Hollywood stars such as Brad Pitt, Scarlett Johansson and Joaquin Phoenix have premiered their latest films during the 11-day event. Waving banners that read 'Our home is on fire' and 'No to cruise ships', the protesters sat outside the main festival venue and chanted slogans, surrounded by police. "We want to address the topic of the climate crisis, we think that it is more important than anything that we can see in the world now," said Chiara Buratti, a member of the Venice anti-cruise ship committee, adding the demonstrators wanted celebrity backing for their cause. The protesters arrived in the early morning but left peacefully several hours later, around 1200 GMT. Saturday is the last day of the festival, held on the Venice Lido, and the winner of the Golden Lion prize will be announced in the evening. Buratti said the demonstrators were also planning a march elsewhere on the Lido later in the day. The protesters, who belong to Italian and foreign groups, were taking part in a five-day Venice Climate Camp event. "The climate crisis has no borders, why should we stop at some border and just care about some local problems that we have back home," said demonstrator Sina Reisch from the German group Ende Gelande. "We must see that the struggles are connected." The demonstrators got the support of rocker Mick Jagger and veteran actor Donald Sutherland, who will walk that red carpet later to present their thriller "The Burnt Orange Heresy". "I am glad they're doing that because they’re the ones that are going to inherit the planet," Jagger said at a news conference to promote the movie. "We’re in a very difficult situation at the moment, especially in the US where all the environmental controls that were put in place, that perhaps were just about adequate say for the last 10 years, are being rolled back by the current administration, so much that they will be wiped out." "I am glad people feel so strongly about it they want to protest anywhere whether it's the red carpet or another place." Sutherland said environmental protesters had "to fight harder" and "get as much support as they can", adding those calling for the plight of migrants also needed backing. "When you're my age ... 85 years old and you have children and grandchildren, you will leave them nothing if we do not vote those people out of office in Brazil, in London and in Washington. They are ruining the world," he said. "We have contributed to the ruination of it but they are ensuring it." | 0 |
Late-arriving snow and rain ultimately gave Turkey's largest city a reprieve. But water and climate experts say the country's water worries are far from over – and more dams are part of the problem. "Instead of trying to reduce our water demand, or decrease the amount lost through broken pipes and leaks, we are just focused on creating more supply by building new dams," said Akgun Ilhan, a water management expert at the Istanbul Policy Center. Turkey has built more than a thousand new dams over the last 18 years, with 90 more expected to be completed this year, according to the country's General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (DSI). But "these big hydraulic projects have a large impact on ecosystems and societies" including by displacing communities and destroying forests and farmland, Ilhan told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Figures from the DSI show that available water in Turkey has been dropping steadily over the past two decades, from about 1,650 cubic meters per person in 2000 to less than 1,350 in 2020. The United Nations defines a country as water stressed if it falls below 1,700 cubic metres per person, and water scarce if it reaches 1,000 cubic metres. Population growth, urbanisation, climate change and – critics like Ilhan say – poor water management all are straining Turkey's water supplies. As that happens, shared water has become an increasing source of political tension between Turkey and its downstream neighbours Iraq and Syria. "There is no difference between protecting our water and protecting our homeland," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in March, at a ceremony inaugurating a new parliamentary Water Council. At the event, Erdogan promised 5.2 billion lira ($645 million) in water investments including new dams, water-treatment plants and improved irrigation. Agriculture - largely reliant on irrigation from dams and groundwater - accounts for nearly 75% of Turkey's annual water consumption, said Sara Marjani Zadeh, a regional water quality officer for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). So far, water-saving drip and sprinkler irrigation are used on less than a third of Turkey's 6.7 million hectares (16.5 million acres) of irrigated farmland, according to the FAO. Efforts to get farmers to shift to water-saving - but also energy-demanding - irrigation methods so far have yielded "no major change," said Gokhan Ozertan, a professor of economics at Istanbul's Bogazici University. "Farmers don't want to pay for the electricity and maintenance required," he said. "And because (farm) subsidies aren't targeted – farmers just receive the money no matter what they are growing or how – there's no incentive to switch." The lack of inducements to conserve water has left many farmers growing unsustainably thirsty crops like sugar beets and cotton in dry areas even in the face of declining water availability, he said. CLIMATE RISKS Turkey's water troubles are likely to intensify as the effects of climate change increase in frequency and severity, said Ilhan, the water management expert. "Turkey has been facing droughts every four or five years since the late 1980s, and climate projections show that precipitation levels will further diminish," she explained. The Turkish government has repeatedly pledged to fight climate change, announcing a new 14-point strategy in February which includes boosting solar and wind power capacity and reducing fossil fuel use in buildings by 25% by 2023. But climate impacts like drought and flooding are intensifying, and may cut yields of key Turkish export crops like hazelnuts, apricots and wheat by as much as 40% in the coming decades, according to Ozertan's projections. Many farmers who struggle to make a living end up relocating to big cities like Istanbul, the capital Ankara and the Aegean port city of Izmir, putting further pressure on water supplies there. "This continuous growth in population obliges urban municipalities to keep finding new sources of water," Ilhan said. Often that means more large infrastructure projects like dams and pipelines - and building these can require evacuating rural villages, often driving more urban migration. "And then the water consumption level in cities rises, so we build more dams," Ilhan said. "It's an absolute vicious cycle." NEW VISION The growing municipality of Izmir, in western Turkey, is trying to break that cycle for residents of the city and its surrounding areas. The river basins that provide water to the city have become strained in part by the growing production of water-intensive forage for cattle, said Guven Eken, an advisor to Izmir Mayor Tunc Soyer. So the municipality has begun using targeted subsidies, buying guarantees and marketing support to encourage farmers to take up less-thirsty crops and growing methods, he explained. That includes focusing on more high-value foods like olives and goat's cheese that were traditionally produced in the region and are better suited to its dry climate, as well as swapping to more efficient irrigation, Eken said. With support, "we are already seeing producers shifting back to the original agricultural ways that they had abandoned because they weren't making enough money", he added. Izmir officials also are shoring up infrastructure to reduce water waste in urban areas. Nationwide, nearly half of Turkey's drinking water is lost to leaks before it reaches the tap, according to a 2020 report published by the Water Policy Association, an Ankara-based non-governmental organisation. In March, Izmir hosted a summit for mayors and other officials from 22 cities led by Turkey's political opposition, representing about 65% of the country's population. The mayors signed a manifesto pledging to better manage water, in line with some of the strategies Izmir is now pursuing, and called on the national government to do the same. "Finally, we heard the mayors say things that academics and activists have been talking about for years," said Ilhan. "The manifesto has no legal obligations, but it's on the right track," she said. "Even putting 10% of it into practice would make a great change." | 0 |
The trip, the 35th abroad for Francis, who turns 85 later this month, reflects his determination to maintain a global focus on the plight of migrants and lands torn by strife, despite the world’s preoccupation this week with the omicron variant of the coronavirus. His journey will include other hallmarks of the Francis papacy, including encouraging tiny Catholic minorities and reaching out to other religious leaders, this time in the Greek Orthodox Church. He is expected to help relocate to Italy some migrants in Cyprus — and possibly Lesbos again — this time. “Europe cannot ignore the Mediterranean Sea that hosted the spread of the Gospel and the development of great civilizations,” Francis said in a video message before the trip. He lamented the sea becoming a “great cemetery” and said that in the age of the pandemic and climate change, it was imperative to “sail together, and not to split up by going our separate ways.” The trip is the third this year for the Pope, who is believed to have received a booster shot, though that has not been confirmed. He made a historic pilgrimage to Iraq in March and a politically symbolic trip to Hungary and Slovakia in September during which he appeared to speak out against nationalism. This trip, which refocuses attention on the priorities of his pontificate, including opening borders and welcoming the destitute, comes as migrants are again facing awful conditions and tragic deaths, including at the Belarus-Poland border and in the English Channel, where at least 27 people died last week. But it also comes at an unpredictable and deeply concerning phase of the pandemic as countries around the world shut their borders to try to protect their populations from a variant whose effects are still very much unknown. “The recommendation in general is prudence,” Matteo Bruni, the Vatican spokesperson, said when asked about coronavirus precautions and worries that the new variant would eclipse the main themes of the trip. Francis is the second pope, after his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, to visit Cyprus, and Thursday he will meet with local Catholic priests and the president and diplomats in Nicosia, the capital. On Friday, he will visit with the Orthodox archbishop and celebrate a holy Mass at an outdoor stadium. He will end the day with a prayer at a parish church with migrants, and the Vatican has arranged to have about 50 migrants relocated to Italy. Francis will stay at a Franciscan monastery in Nicosia — the divided capital of Cyprus. The medieval city is separated by a UN-protected buffer zone. He will then spend Saturday reaching out to Orthodox leaders and meeting with officials before traveling on Sunday to Lesbos, which Bruni said had “become a symbolic place.” Bruni said that the Cyprus visit would allow Francis to underline key themes of his pontificate, as it had over the centuries been “Europe’s outermost border to the Middle East, a laboratory of coexistence and a land of encounter with orthodoxy.” Still, Cyprus is far from a tranquil place. With Turkey to the north, Syria to the East, Israel to the South and Greece to the West, Cyprus is a small, stingray-shaped island between worlds and a crossroads for cultures and migrations. The country has effectively been partitioned since 1974, with its Greek and Turkish communities — and its capital, Nicosia — separated by a buffer zone known as the Green Line. The internationally recognized government of the Republic of Cyprus controls only the southern two-thirds of it, and the remaining third is the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by Turkey. Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, but the island is still divided along ethnic lines. Unification efforts start and stop periodically, most recently in 2017, but the talks broke down over Turkey’s refusal to remove its troops. They led to Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declaring, “Turkey will be in Cyprus forever,” and rejecting a unified federation. A recent uptick in migrant arrivals has intensified hard-right, nationalist sentiment and the resistance of the Republic of Cyprus government, which has appealed to the European Union for permission to stop processing asylum requests. But the spike in numbers, and suspicions that Turkey is funneling the migrants to the border, have deepened the animosity between the north and the south. Nearly 80 percent of the island’s population is Orthodox Christian, and about 20% is Sunni Muslim. There is only a tiny population of Catholics, about 38,000, who mostly fall under the jurisdiction of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and who trace their roots to the Crusades. That is less than the estimated number of Turkish troops based in the north. Rev Georgios Armand Houry, a Cypriot priest, said that many Catholics were hoping that the pope would help members of the faith “return home” to uninhabited towns after displacement earlier during the conflict. During Benedict’s 2010 trip, Archbishop Chrysostomos II, the leader of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, accused Turkey of an “obscure plan” to take over the entire island and called for the pope’s “active cooperation” in resolving the long-standing dispute. The north continues to use the Turkish lira and has an economy closely tied to the Turkish mainland. In recent years, tensions have risen after the discovery of rich natural gas deposits under the eastern Mediterranean. Greece, with its islands scattered in the area, claims that it has sole drilling rights. The potential for enormous wealth from the deposits has created a profit-sharing unity among surrounding nations, including Greece, Israel, Israel, Egypt, Italy and Jordan. But Turkey has used northern Cyprus as its toehold, sending drilling ships, accompanied by warships, to explore for gas off Cyprus; that, in turn, has prompted retribution by the European Union against Turkish companies. The prospect of a clash between Greece and Turkey, two NATO allies with centuries of bad blood, has proved worrying. “It’s a wound that has been open for some time,” Bruni said. “The Holy See undoubtedly supports every effort to strengthen bilateral talks, which are the only solution for the island and its people.” He suggested Francis would indirectly take those issues on, saying that he would touch on environmental themes by speaking of the horrible fires that burned Greece’s forests this summer but also “the exploitation of the seabed.” Cyprus is an ancient Christian land. Tradition holds that St. Paul arrived here around AD 46 to preach the Gospel with Barnabas, a Cypriot and a saint. Francis, in his video message, said he would come “in the footsteps of the first great missionaries,” and for the chance “to drink from the ancient wellsprings of Europe: Cyprus, the outpost of the Holy Land on the continent; Greece, the home of classical culture.” © 2021 The New York Times Company | 0 |
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The UN panel of climate scientists said on Friday that mistakes in a 2007 report should not eclipse its progress and detract from a valid body of work on the risks of global warming. Addressing a committee reviewing its work, the panel's chairman said the mistakes were down to human failure, adding its limited budget was partially responsible for the errors. "We have been less than adequate in informing the public that, all right, we made an error but this does not take away from the fact that the glaciers are melting," said Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In January, the IPCC said its latest report in 2007 exaggerated the pace of melt of Himalayan glaciers by saying they might all disappear by 2035. In February, it said it also over-stated how much of the Netherlands was below sea level. Some doubt that human activities are warming the planet and say that these errors fit a tendency to exaggerate evidence for global warming. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced the panel's review in March. Addressing the 12-member committee at its first meeting in Amsterdam, Pachauri said authors contributing to its reports had to follow a process of checks and balances and had to critically assess every source they wanted to include. "Our procedures are robust but we need to ensure that they are adhered to scrupulously," Pachauri said, telling the panel he would be "grateful for any suggestions to try to make this as foolproof as humanely possible." Pachauri said the IPCC secretariat was restricted by its budget, which he estimated at around $5 million-$7 million a year, and limited autonomy on how to spend it. That, he said, was partly why it was slow to react to recent criticism. "We need to ensure that there is proper supervision without tying people up in a bureaucratic framework," he said. "The one issue that is critically important is the motivation and morale of the scientific community." He said however that the panel would continue to draw at times on "grey literature" that has not gone through rigorous checks by other scientists. Such literature includes government reports or work by experts at environmental groups, he said. The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. The committee, led by Economist Harold Shapiro, 74, is due to report its findings by Aug. 30. Issues to be reviewed include data quality and control, the type of literature that may be cited in IPCC reports, expert and government review of IPCC materials, handling of the full range of scientific views, and the correction of errors. | 0 |
President Barack Obama on Monday projected the budget deficit would peak at a fresh record in 2010 before easing as he pushes for fiscal responsibility while battling double-digit unemployment. Dubbed an old-style liberal tax-and-spender by his Republican opponents, Obama is under pressure to convince investors and big creditors like China that he has a credible plan to control the country's deficit and debt over time. While maintaining policies this year aimed at protecting a still-fragile economic recovery, with $100 billion earmarked for measures to create jobs, Obama plans to save money from 2011 by curbing 120 projects, including a powerfully symbolic space mission to return to the moon, but will invest more in education and research. Initial market reaction was muted and analysts were surveying the numbers with a healthy dose of skepticism. "I don't think there is anything out there that is job creating and I don't have much confidence that some of the spending cuts will actually happen," said Peter Boockvar, an equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co. in New York. Polls show voters are worried by the weak condition of U.S. finances, and Obama plans to create a bipartisan fiscal commission to figure out options on taxes and spending. "I don't think anybody in the country thinks we have a problem because we tax too little. I think the problem is we spend too much," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement. Obama's budget for the fiscal year to September 30, 2011, which is subject to change by the U.S. Congress, forecast a deficit of $1.56 trillion in 2010, equal to 10.6 percent of the economy measured by gross domestic product (GDP). This rise was partly due to spending associated with a package of emergency stimulus measures Obama signed last year as the United States grappled with recession. The increase in the deficit compared with a $1.41 trillion shortfall in 2009 that amounted to 9.9 percent of GDP. But this funding gap was forecast to dip to $1.27 trillion in 2011 -- 8.3 percent of GDP and roughly a third of total government spending that year forecast at $3.8 trillion. However, the deficit was forecast to fall to roughly half that as a share of the economy in the final year of Obama's term in 2012, meeting a key pledge. NO CAP-AND-TRADE REVENUE SEEN The budget incorporates healthcare legislation currently before lawmakers. But an administration official told Reuters $646 billion in projected revenue from a controversial cap-and-trade climate change bill had been dropped from the budget, implying the White House is doubtful the measures will pass Congress. "To continue job creation and to continue economic growth over time, it is important to bring those out-year deficits down," White House budget chief Peter Orszag told reporters. U.S. economic growth jumped by 5.7 percent at an annual pace in the fourth quarter, but this has yet to translate into more hiring, and unemployment of 10 percent is near a 26-year high. Discontent over the jobless rate translated into political defeat for Obama's Democrats in an election last month for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, a huge blow that foreshadowed potentially significant losses for the party in midterm congressional elections in November. Democrats currently control both chambers of Congress but the Massachusetts defeat meant they lost the supermajority that they can use to overcome Republican procedural blocks in the Senate. To boost jobs, Obama is setting aside $100 billion in 2010 in tax credits aimed at small businesses as well as investments in clean energy and infrastructure, before starting to tighten the country's fiscal belt the following year. "We're trying to kind of accomplish a soft landing in terms of our fiscal trajectory to avoid the risk of 1937 where we do excessive deficit reduction too quickly," Orszag said ahead of the budget's formal 10:00 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) release. Economists say a premature withdrawal of policies aimed at boosting growth helped prolong the Great Depression in the 1930s and Obama is determined to avoid repeating that mistake. But he must also ensure that investors don't lose confidence in the U.S. ability to put its fiscal house in order. As a result, the budget outlines measures to cut over $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade, and almost twice this amount once the declining cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are taken into account, Orszag said. Obama previewed some of these steps in his State of the Union address last week, including letting tax cuts lapse for affluent Americans, a fee on big banks to recoup losses on a taxpayer bailout during the 2008 financial crisis, and a three-year freeze on some domestic spending outside national security. The White House says that allowing taxes to rise on families making above $250,000 a year will raise an estimated $678 billion over 10 years; the bank fee is projected to recoup $90 billion in that time; while the domestic spending freeze will trim $250 billion from the deficit. Obama expects to save $20 billion in 2011 from the spending clampdown by ending or paring back 120 programs, including the NASA space agency's project to return to the moon. However, these proposals will need congressional backing and that may be difficult to secure. Even if all of these measures are adopted, the deficit will remain above the goal of 3 percent of GDP that Obama seeks, and he plans to create a bipartisan fiscal commission to review spending cuts and tax increases to achieve this target. But Republicans are reluctant to serve on the panel, fearing this gives Obama cover to raise taxes, while some members of his own Democratic party oppose cuts in spending. The fiscal commission will be charged with balancing the budget excluding interest payments on the debt by 2015, or curbing it to 3 percent of GDP when these costs are included. Obama's emphasis on fiscal restraint could appeal to politically independent voters, who moved away from Democrats in the Massachusetts race. The president, whose own approval ratings have declined to about 50 percent, blames the surge in red ink on his predecessor, President George W. Bush. Obama argues the deficit was projected to top $1 trillion when he took office in January 2009 amid two wars and a recession that hit government revenues and led to an increase in spending for programs such as unemployment benefits. | 0 |
VENICE, La.May 23 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The top US environmental official was to visit the Gulf Coast on Sunday as energy giant BP Plc scrambled to contain a widening oil spill. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson planned to return to the Gulf to monitor the EPA's response, while Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was to travel to the BP Command Center in Houston to get an update from the federal science team working on the problem. The two Cabinet members' missions underscore the rising political and economic stakes for the Obama administration in dealing with the environmental disaster, which grows worse as oil gushes from a ruptured well on the sea floor. Salazar was also to address the media the day after U.S. President Barack Obama blamed the spill on "a breakdown of responsibility" at BP. Obama also unveiled a commission to investigate the disaster. The Democratic president, in his weekly radio and Internet address on Saturday, said offshore drilling could go forward only if there were assurances that such accidents would not happen again. The spill has raised major questions about Obama's earlier proposal to expand offshore drilling as part of strategy to win Republican support for climate change legislation. Analysts say mounting ecological and economic damage could also become a political liability for Obama before November's congressional elections. POLITICAL PRESSURE While also promising to hold Washington accountable for proper oversight of the industry, Obama ramped up pressure on companies linked to the spill: BP, Halliburton and Transocean Ltd "First and foremost, what led to this disaster was a breakdown of responsibility on the part of BP and perhaps others, including Transocean and Halliburton," Obama said in his toughest remarks yet on companies linked to the spill. "And we will continue to hold the relevant companies accountable," he said. BP stocks have taken a beating in the markets in the month since the well blowout and rig explosion that killed 11 workers and touched off the spill. Its share price shed another 4 percent on Friday in London, extending recent sharp losses. Sheets of rust-colored heavy oil are clogging fragile marshlands on the fringes of the Mississippi Delta, damaging fishing grounds and wildlife. Many believe it has already become the worst US oil spill, eclipsing the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska. In his executive order announcing former Democratic Senator Bob Graham and and former EPA chief William Reilly would co-chair the commission, Obama also made his first reference to the possibility of a criminal probe. BP made no immediate comment on Obama's suggestion that it was to blame for the deep-sea disaster. But the company's chief executive, Tony Hayward, said he welcomed the establishment of the commission and pledged to work with its co-chairmen. BP and the EPA are locking horns over the dispersants the company is using to try to contain the spill. The spill has hurt fishermen because federal authorities have closed a wide slew of Gulf waters to fishing. Wildlife and migrating birds have also suffered. So far, 86 birds, including brown pelicans, have been found dead across four states, and 34 are being treated for oil damage, said the US Fish and Wildlife Service. But this is probably a fraction of the total, since most birds affected by the spill would likely not be found, said Sharon Taylor, a vet and contaminant expert with the Service. "If you look at the vast ocean of where the spill has been and the time frame, most of us realize there are many wildlife affected that we will never know or get to," she said. BP on Friday revised downward an earlier estimate that one of its containment solutions, a 1-mile (1.6 km)-long siphon tube inserted into the larger of two seabed leaks, was catching 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons/795,000 litres) of oil per day. Its latest figures show 2,200 barrels a day. The company's next planned step is a "top kill" -- pumping heavy fluids and then cement into the gushing well to plug it. Many scientists dismiss an original 5,000 bpd estimate of the total leaking oil -- often defended by BP executives -- as ridiculously low and say it could be 70,000 barrels (2.9 million gallons/11 million litres) per day or more. | 0 |
"AZD1222 (AstraZeneca's vaccine candidate) contains the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein, and the changes to the genetic code seen in this new viral strain do not appear to change the structure of the spike protein," an AstraZeneca representative said in an email. Drugmakers are scrambling to test their COVID-19 vaccines against the new fast-spreading variant of the virus that is raging in Britain, the latest challenge in the breakneck race to curb the pandemic. "Through vaccination with AZD1222, the body's immune system is trained to recognise many different parts of the spike protein, so that it can eliminate the virus if it is later exposed," the AstraZeneca representative added. The mutation known as the B.1.1.7 lineage may be up to 70% more infectious and more of a concern for children. It has sown chaos in Britain, prompting a wave of travel bans that are disrupting trade with Europe and threatening to further isolate the island country. The AstraZeneca-Oxford shot is considered vital for lower-income countries and those in hot climates because it is cheaper, easier to transport and can be stored for long periods at normal refrigerator temperatures. Data from AstraZeneca's late-stage trials in the UK and Brazil released earlier this month showed the vaccine had efficacy of 62% for trial participants given two full doses, but 90% for a smaller sub-group given a half, then a full dose. Reuters reported late on Tuesday that India is likely to approve AstraZeneca's vaccine for emergency use by next week. | 3 |
The school strikes and city-stopping actions that pushed global warming to the top of the political priority list before the COVID-19 pandemic are also set to resume in coming weeks. The grassroots Extinction Rebellion group has said it will launch two weeks of actions against new fossil fuel investments in London next month. The Fridays For Future student movement, meanwhile, has called a global school strike for Sept 24, which falls during the UN General Assembly where leaders will discuss their responses to climate change. "Global citizens are at the beginning of an escalation of actions and activities that will be culminating at the COP (climate summit)," said Asad Rehman, a spokesman for the COP26 Coalition, an umbrella for unions, aid agencies, faith and green groups working on climate justice. A global day of protest for climate equity will take place on Nov 6 in the middle of the COP26 summit, added Rehman, who is also director of anti-poverty charity War on Want. However, coronavirus, cost and climate change concerns will prevent some activists from travelling to the main demonstration in Glasgow, where the conference will take place. This weekend, up to 3,000 activists from Germany's Ende Gelaende, a green civil disobedience movement, plan to blockade the Brunsbuttel liquefied natural gas terminal in a bid to stop operations. "It's going to be the biggest mass action since the lockdown began," said spokeswoman Ronja Weil. Campaigners will also take to the streets in a dozen countries including Argentina, Ireland, Bolivia and Canada. In a strategic shift, they are targeting gas rather than coal plants, and linking actions in the Global North and South. Their target, according to Esteban Servat, who co-initiated the Shale Must Fall group which called this weekend's protests, is European multinationals "that are doing abroad what they cannot do at home - namely fracking". Servat, an Argentinian scientist, says he fled his country for Germany because of "intense persecution and death threats" after leaking a government report that linked contaminated water tables to fracking. Another protest at Scotland's Mossmorran gas plant complex on Sunday aims to "amplify the struggle of local communities", which have to contend with pollution, noise and gas flaring, said Benji Brown, a spokesman for Climate Camp Scotland. "Even where I live in Edinburgh, which is 20 miles away, you can see (the plant) light up the sky at night," he said. The action also intends "to create space for the climate movement in Scotland to regroup and rebuild momentum in the run-up to COP26", he added. COP26 host Britain is putting pressure on other countries to commit to ending the use of, and funding for, coal power. But natural gas - a less carbon-intensive fossil fuel - is being supported by some governments as a "bridge" to a cleaner energy mix. ONLINE COLLABORATION Around the world, COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions have pushed much climate activism online since early 2020. But while governments have since made fresh promises to green their economies, climate-heating emissions are still rising. At the same time, headlines about heatwaves, floods and wildfires have flashed by with dizzying speed, as climate change impacts accelerate. "There is a growing frustration about the lack of adequate climate action, which has been hidden by the pandemic," said Wendel Trio, director of Climate Action Network Europe. Vaccine inequity and online link-ups during the pandemic have spurred greater coordination between activists in wealthy nations and developing countries, he added. "This global movement will use the COP26 momentum to bring climate action and equity back to the forefront, in whatever way necessary," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. But the pandemic is still shaping how protests happen. Ende Gelaende, for instance, insists on testing, face masks and social distancing for its actions. Extinction Rebellion spokeswoman Nuala Gathercole Lam said the pandemic had been "a big obstacle" - although the group has continued to mount actions like a blockade of print works used by Rupert Murdoch's News UK group in 2020. FOSSIL FUEL FINANCE As Britain's COVID-19 restrictions have eased, Gathercole Lam said "fresh waves of climate activists" were getting involved as the group prepares to take to the streets again in the week of Aug 23 to oppose fossil fuel finance. Despite a recent report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) calling for an end to new fossil fuel investments, about $600 billion has gone into new gas fields, pipelines and LNG facilities under development, according to analytics firm GlobalData. That is fuelling fears that the chances of pegging global warming to the Paris climate accord's most ambitious limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times may be dwindling. To meet the goal, emissions would need to fall by 7.6% every year until 2030, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. While greenhouse gas emissions did drop by about 6% in 2020 due to the global economic disruption caused by the pandemic, the IEA expects them to rise again to a record high in 2023. Since last year, gas has been responsible for more European emissions than lignite coal, according to an analysis of EU Emissions Trading System data by the Ember think-tank. Extinction Rebellion's Gathercole Lam said members would next month demand an end to "all new investment in fossil fuels immediately". "We'll be in the City of London where much of the money flows into the fossil fuel industry, taking action there," she added. | 0 |
Four years ago, the joint programme of her Christian
Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social
Union (CSU), referred to the United States as Germany's "most important friend"
outside of Europe. The 2013 programme also described the
"friendship" with Washington as a "cornerstone" of
Germany's international relations and talked about strengthening transatlantic
economic ties through the removal of trade barriers. But the words "friend" and
"friendship" are missing from the latest election programme -
entitled "For a Germany in which we live well and happily" - which
Merkel and CSU leader Horst Seehofer presented on Monday ahead of a Sep 24
election. Instead, the United States is described as Germany's
"most important partner" outside of Europe. CDU officials were not
immediately available to comment on the change in wording. The change in wording underscores how relations
between Berlin and Washington have deteriorated since US President Donald Trump
entered the White House in January. During his campaign for the presidency, Trump said
that Merkel was "ruining" Germany with migration policies he
described as "insane". He has repeatedly denounced Germany's trade surplus with
the United States, accused Berlin and other European partners of owing
"massive amounts of money" to NATO, and unsettled western partners
with his decision last month to pull out of the Paris climate accord. A survey by the Pew Research Centre last week showed
that just 35 percent of Germans have a favourable view of the United States,
down from 57 percent at the end of President Barack Obama's term. Merkel is due to host Trump and other leaders at a G20
summit in Hamburg later this week. In place of the 2013 passage about strengthening
economic ties, the 2017 programme refers to historical US support for Germany
after World War Two and in the run-up to German reunification. The new CDU/CSU election programme also repeats a line
that Merkel used in a speech in Munich in late May after a difficult summit of
G7 leaders, where Trump resisted pressure from six other nations to stay in the
Paris agreement. "The times in which we could fully rely on others
are, to a certain extent, in the past. We Europeans must take our fate into our
own hands more decisively than we have in the past," the program reads. While affirming Germany's commitment to the NATO
military alliance, the programme says that the EU must be in a position to
defend itself independently if it wants to survive in the long run. It also adds a special section entitled "Germany
and France as the Motor of Europe" which vows to "reinvigorate the
friendship" between the two countries. "We are ready, together with the new French
government, to further develop the euro zone step by step, for example through
the creation of its own monetary fund," it reads.
But it also rules out the mutualisation of debt
in Europe and says that "solidarity" will only be possible if EU
countries stick to the rules of the bloc's Growth and Stability Pact. | 2 |
Here are 10 celebrities who took a stand in the past year in efforts to make a positive impact on the world: 1. Meghan Markle: Since marrying into Britain's royal family in May, the US actress has vowed to shine a light on women's rights. She was also snapped wearing "slave-free" jeans from Outland Denim in Australia, which sparked a run to buy the trousers, and collaborated with survivors of London's Grenfell Tower fire to produce a community led cookbook. 2. Emma Watson: Best known as Hermione in the Harry Potter films, Watson used 2018 to campaign for the #MeToo movement, donating one million pounds ($1.3 million) to a fund that supports charities fighting sexual abuse. In October, Watson wrote an open letter to end restrictive abortion laws from India to Ireland, while she was also photographed wearing earrings fashioned from shrapnel and undetonated bombs from Laos. 3. David Attenborough: The nonagenarian broadcaster of nature documentaries used 2018 and the annual United Nations' climate talks in Poland to stand with young people and voice the need for urgent progress on climate action. 4. Amitabh Bachchan: Bollywood veteran Amitabh Bachchan cemented his popularity in India when he spent more than 40 million rupees ($560,000) to clear the loans of farmers after an agricultural crisis left many of them in extreme poverty. 5. Elton John: The British singer-songwriter, a long-time advocate for LGBT+ rights, called for more to be done to support those living in poverty to gain better access to HIV/AIDS medical treatment, describing the lack of access a "disgrace." 6. Millie Bobby Brown: The teen star of hit Netflix series "Stranger Things" became the United Nations children's agency UNICEF's youngest goodwill ambassador this year, vowing to raise issues around children's rights, education, poverty and work to end bullying. "It's a dream come true," Brown said. 7. Michelle Obama: The former US first lady has been promoting her memoir globally and speaking up for women's rights and girls' education. Obama, who grew up in a working class household in Chicago, said she wanted to empower women to seek hope in a difficult political and social climate. 8. David Beckham: The former English soccer captain joined a campaign to reinvigorate the global fight against malaria, launched by charity Malaria No More UK. The retired athlete starred in a short film in which he was swarmed by mosquitoes to highlight that malaria continues to kill about 445,000 people a year, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). 9. Cate Blanchett: Australian actress and United Nations' refugee goodwill ambassador spoke out about the Rohingya crisis, urging nations to do more to support refugees fleeing Myanmar for Bangladesh. Blanchett, who has won two Oscars, warned of a "race against time" to protect Rohingya refugees. 10. Princess Beatrice: The British princess, eighth in line to the throne, campaigned to tackle online abuse and cyber-bullying, especially against young women and girls. Beatrice is part of a wider anti-bullying movement promoted by celebrities such as Kendall Jenner and Cara Delevingne to "Be Cool Be Nice." | 2 |
"KKK Bitch” The racially charged graffiti appeared in mid-October on cars, homes and telephone poles in the small city of Kokomo, Indiana. Many victims, like Peters, were African American, though some were not. Many also had lawn signs for Democratic candidates in this week’s presidential election, and the signs at several homes were painted over with the Ku Klux Klan’s notorious initials. “I think it’s a political thing; it’s getting out of hand,” said Peters, who believes the heated tenor of the presidential campaign – and especially the aggressive, nativist rhetoric of Republican candidate Donald Trump – has emboldened extremists. “When you have (candidates) saying ignorant things, maybe other people think it’s ok to do this stuff, and that’s pretty doggone sad ... It seems like our country is going backwards.” Police have no suspects in the attacks. Democrats, including the mayor and local party officials, believe they were politically motivated. Local Republicans are sceptical, suggesting the damage is the work of ignorant hooligans with no place in the party. Across the United States, the inflammatory and confrontational tone of political rhetoric is creeping into public discourse and polarising the electorate. It’s hard to quantify the impact; there is no national data that tracks politically motivated crimes or incendiary speech. However, the percentage of voters who believe insulting political opponents is “sometimes fair game” has climbed over the campaign season, from 30 percent in March to 43 percent in October, according to surveys by the non-partisan Pew Research Center. A majority of voters for both parties have “very unfavorable” views of the other party – a first since Pew began asking the question in 1992 – and trust in government is hovering near all-time lows. “These indicators reflect inter-group tensions that can translate into everything from coarse discourse or low levels of aggression all the way up to extremist acts,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University. While much of the venom has been aimed at immigrants, African Americans and other groups typically aligned with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Republicans also have faced vitriol and hostility. Much of the debate over extremism has focused on the so-called Alt-Right, a loose-knit movement of white nationalists, anti-Semites and immigration foes that has emerged from the political shadows to align itself with the Trump campaign.
A supporter of the Ku Klux Klan is seen with his tattoos during a rally at the statehouse in Columbia, South Carolina Jul 18, 2015. Reuters.
Trump’s vows to build a wall on the Mexican border, deport millions of illegal immigrants and scrutinise Muslims for ties to terrorism have energised the Alt-Right community. A supporter of the Ku Klux Klan is seen with his tattoos during a rally at the statehouse in Columbia, South Carolina Jul 18, 2015. Reuters. Such rhetoric has helped legitimise the Alt-Right’s concerns about an erosion of the country’s white, Christian majority, said Michael Hill, a self-described white supremacist, anti-Semite and xenophobe who heads the League of the South, a “Southern Nationalist” group dedicated to creating an independent “white man’s land.” “The general political climate that sort of surrounds his campaign has been very fruitful, not only for us, but for other right-wing groups,” Hill said. Similar nationalist undercurrents have stirred other countries, from Russia to Japan to Britain. Last summer, as Britain’s debate over leaving the European Union reached a fever pitch, Jo Cox, a pro-EU lawmaker, was shot and stabbed in the street. Murder suspect Thomas Mair proclaimed “death to traitors, freedom for Britain.” In the United States, reports of hostile political displays, vandalism and violence are cropping up regularly. In Mississippi, a black church was burned and painted with “Vote Trump.” In North Carolina, a county Republican office was set ablaze last month and a nearby building spray painted with “Nazi Republicans leave town.” In Ohio, a truck load of manure was dumped at a Democratic campaign office. In Utah, a man displaying Trump yard signs found KKK graffiti on his car. In Wisconsin, a fan at a college football game wore a President Barack Obama mask with a noose on his neck. Neither the Trump nor the Clinton campaigns responded to requests for comment. Extremism goes mainstream Trump's positions are consistent with the Alt-Right goal of “slowing the dispossession of whites,” said Jared Taylor, a white nationalist whose website, American Renaissance, is a movement favourite. But the media is over-hyping his support within the Alt-Right “in an attempt to discredit him,” Taylor added. Trump has been criticised by both Democrats and some Republicans for being slow to condemn the more extreme elements of the political right. But when a leading KKK newspaper ran a pro-Trump story on its front page last week, his campaign immediately issued a statement rejecting the “repulsive” article. Taylor, Hill and other Alt-Right figures say they don’t advocate or condone vandalism or violence. They dismiss the notion that their rhetoric constitutes hate speech, arguing that their vilification by the left is far more hateful. Left-wing extremists do have a history of aggressive confrontation with people or groups seen as fascist or racist, says Heidi Beirich, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organisation that monitors extremist movements. “There’s usually more violence from the anti-racists than the racists,” she said. The free speech provisions of the US Constitution’s First Amendment grant broad protections for inflammatory rhetoric. But state and federal statutes do give law enforcement agencies authority to investigate and prosecute “hate crimes” motivated by bias against a race, ethnicity, religion, disability or sexual orientation. A 6 percent increase in hate crimes documented last year by the California State University researchers showed relatively little underlying change in attacks against most minority groups. But crimes against Muslims rose 86 percent. Some who study and work in the political arena believe there has been a general erosion in civility that began long before the start of the current presidential race. Craig Dunn, Republican party chairman for Howard County, Indiana, which includes Kokomo, says that a minority of extreme voices are being amplified over the Internet and social media, fueling “a general breakdown in civility.” Local officials worry about how their community is being affected. "The atmosphere is “more volatile, there’s more tension,” said Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight, a Democrat. The graffiti attacks were deeply troubling, he adds. “I don’t remember anything like this ever happening here.” Monica Fowler, 43, who had “KKK” sprayed on her Democratic yard signs, is struggling with the attacks. “It’s okay to disagree,” she says. “But if what you’re doing is going to scare or harm another person, how dare you.” | 2 |
The 2015 Paris Agreement was agreed last
December by almost 200 countries and has been described as the most complex
global treaty since the Marrakesh (trade) Agreement, signed in 1994. The Paris accord passed a threshold on Oct
5 of 55 nations accounting for more than 55 percent of greenhouse gas
emissions, allowing it to come into force 30 days later. Ratification was swift compared to other international
treaties, showing strong international support, but around 100 countries have
yet to ratify it. "This is a moment to celebrate. It is
also a moment to look ahead with sober assessment and renewed will over the
task ahead," United Nations' climate chief Patricia Espinosa said in a
statement. "In a short time – and certainly in
the next 15 years – we need to see unprecedented reductions in greenhouse gas
emissions and unequalled efforts to build societies that can resist rising
climate impacts," she said. The Paris Agreement seeks to wean the world
economy off fossil fuels in the second half of the century, limiting the rise
in average world temperatures to "well below" 2.0 degrees Celsius
above preindustrial times.
Street art at Paris during the COP 21. Reuters
Environmental campaign groups, as well as
some businesses, investors and academics said the meeting in Marrakesh must
keep up the spirit of international support for climate action. Street art at Paris during the COP 21. Reuters "Even with the commitments made in
Paris and encouraging action on the ground, we will not meet our aspiration of
limiting warming to 1.5 degrees unless we move faster and at the scale that is
needed," World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said. "As the world heads into (the meeting)
in Marrakesh, we must regain the sense of urgency we felt a year ago," he said. It also notes an ambition to limiting
temperature rise even further to 1.5 degrees. The pact kicked off a rolling start in the
Pacific region on Thursday, home to low-lying islands states which are in
danger of rising sea levels. On the same day, the annual report of UN
Environment analysed countries' current pledges for emission cuts and said they
were not sufficient. Even if emission-cutting pledges under the
Paris agreement are fully implemented, predicted 2030 emissions could put the
world on track for a temperature rise of 2.9 to 3.4 degrees Celsius this
century, the report said.
The latest round of UN climate talks begin on
Monday in Marrakesh, Morocco, where representatives from countries will try to
find ways to implement the agreement and work out the rules. | 0 |
At the
outset of the pandemic, the CDC moved at its accustomed pace. But this time,
with a novel virus moving so quickly, the country paid a price: Testing and
surveillance lagged as the agency tried to implement dated approaches with
creaky infrastructure. Officials were late to recommend masking, in part
because federal scientists took too long to recognize that the virus was
airborne. Now the
contagious omicron variant is pushing the CDC into uncharted territory. Because
decisions must be made at a breakneck pace, the agency has issued
recommendations based on what once would have been considered insufficient
evidence, amid growing public concern about how these guidelines affect the
economy and education. The agency’s
director, Dr Rochelle Walensky, has sometimes skipped much of the traditional
scientific review process, most recently in shortening the isolation period for
infected Americans. After the
Trump administration’s pattern of interference, President Joe Biden came to
office promising to restore the CDC’s reputation for independence and rigorous
science. The challenge now for Walensky is figuring out how to convey this
message to the public: The science is incomplete, and this is our best advice
for now. For a bureaucracy
staffed primarily by medical professionals, the change has not been easy. In recent
interviews, some officials at the CDC privately described the decisions as
demoralizing, and worried about Walensky’s increasing reliance on a small group
of advisers and what they saw as the White House’s heavy political influence on
her actions. Yet others
outside the agency commended Walensky for short-circuiting a laborious process
and taking a pragmatic approach to managing a national emergency, saying she was
right to move ahead even when the data was unclear and agency researchers
remained unsure. There are
policy considerations in a pandemic that are “not the sole purview of CDC,”
said Dr Richard Besser, who served as interim chief of the agency during the
H1N1 influenza virus outbreak of 2009. But, he added, “I think we need some
more clarity” when policy and economics drive agency recommendations. As of
Sunday, more than 800,000 Americans on average are infected daily, according to
data gathered by The New York Times. Many schools and businesses are struggling
to remain open; hospitals in nearly two dozen states are nearing capacity. At the end
of December, Walensky announced that infected Americans would need to isolate
for only five days, not 10, if they were no longer experiencing symptoms, and
that a negative test result would not be required to end the isolation period. Critics
complained that the virus might spread as contagious people were allowed to
return to offices and schools. Many pointed out that the research supporting a
shortened isolation period for omicron infections was scant. But the
recommendation had an important advantage: It could help keep hospitals,
businesses and schools afloat through the worst of the omicron surge. The recommendations
for isolation are “basically correct,” said Dr Thomas Frieden, who led the
agency under President Barack Obama. “The problem is, they were not explained.” Walensky and
the CDC declined requests for comment on new tensions in the agency’s decision-making.
But the director has frequently cited rapidly evolving science as justification
for recommendations that proved to be confusing or unpopular. Testifying
before the Senate on Tuesday, Walensky said the agency’s new recommendations
for shortened isolation periods represent “swift science-based action to
address the very real possibility of staffing shortages.” It is has
been something of a mantra for Walensky. In March,
the CDC said schoolchildren could safely sit 3 feet apart in classrooms, instead
of 6 feet, although there was virtually no research to back up the
recommendation. But the move did make it easier for administrators to consider
opening schools. In May,
Walensky cited scientific data when she told vaccinated people that they could
take off their masks and mingle freely, much to the consternation of experts
who said that the move ignored the possibility of breakthrough infections.
(Those arrived with the delta variant.) In August,
Walensky joined Biden in supporting booster shots for all Americans, well
before scientists at the Food and Drug Administration or at her own agency had
a chance to review the data on whether they were needed. The most
recent example — the isolation advice — left turmoil within the agency over the
way in which it was established and announced. On the
Sunday night after Christmas, Walensky called an emergency meeting of the
agency’s COVID response leaders. She told them the agency would shrink the
recommended isolation period and would drop a negative test result as a
requirement for leaving isolation, according to an official familiar with the
video call who spoke on condition of anonymity because the individual was not
authorized to speak on the matter. The new
guidance would be made public the next day, Walensky said, and officials were
not to discuss it until then. Stunned, the
scientists scrambled to gather the limited data to support the recommendations
and to rewrite the hundreds of pages on the agency’s website that touch on
quarantine and isolation. Before
publishing a new recommendation, federal researchers normally pore over data,
write a draft and fine-tune it based on comments from others. There was so
little evidence for shortened isolation — and even that was based mostly on the
delta variant — that the “science brief” that typically accompanies guidance
was downgraded to a “rationale” document. Some
researchers bristled at being left out of the decision-making process and were
enraged by the agency’s public statement the next day that the change was
“motivated by science.” Although
some believed the new five-day cutoff was arbitrary, they also knew of data
suggesting that rapid tests might miss some omicron infections, and so mostly
agreed with Walensky’s decision not to require a negative test result before
ending isolation. But when
Walensky informed staff of the new recommendations in the emergency meeting Dec
26, they were far from ready. Over the next week, CDC scientists struggled to
adjust hundreds of guidance documents on the agency’s website. About 2,000
health officials, public health lab directors and public health researchers at
the state and city levels join a weekly call with CDC officials. On the call
Dec 27, just hours before the CDC released its statement, state and local
officials peppered agency scientists with questions about the plans for
isolation guidance for the general public. Under strict
orders to not talk about the new recommendations, CDC staff members were
silent. “We would
have appreciated more opportunity for input and heads up,” said Scott Becker,
CEO of the Association of Public Health Laboratories. Walensky’s
supporters said the pivot by the CDC was inevitable and that she had made the
right calls. The agency is a behemoth, filled with researchers accustomed to
taking their time, and the pandemic needed more urgent solutions. “There are
people at CDC who really don’t get it,” Frieden said. During his
tenure, he said, he was frequently confronted with “in some ways charming, but
in some ways problematic, cluelessness on the part of CDC staff that their
recommendations, their guidance, their statements could have big implications.” Several
outside experts said Walensky had become a scapegoat for people who were weary
and frustrated by a virus that seemed repeatedly to have retreated only to
return in a horrific new form in short order. Leading the
CDC is challenging even at the best of times, they said. But Walensky took the
reins in the middle of a pandemic, in a politically charged climate and at a
low point in the agency’s credibility and staff morale. And agency
researchers are still working remotely — “almost an unthinkable hurdle to
overcome,” Besser said. “I am
concerned about CDC. I am concerned about the nation’s trust in public health,”
Besser said. “But I think it’s really unfair to put that on the shoulders of
Dr. Walensky.” Walensky has
explained the rationale for her decisions at news briefings held by the White
House. But last week, responding to wide criticism about muddled messaging, she
and other agency scientists held a briefing of their own, answering questions
from reporters about the isolation guidance, the rising rate of
hospitalizations among young children and the agency’s plans for a fourth shot
of the coronavirus vaccine. The briefing
was a welcome step toward rebuilding trust in the CDC and clarifying its
decisions, some experts said. “Separating
out public health considerations from political considerations is very
important,” Besser said. “And by doing briefings from CDC, she’ll be able to
lift up CDC scientists and experts.” Some of the
current conflict at the CDC predates the pandemic and Walensky’s leadership.
Tension between the agency and the National Institutes of Health, represented
by Dr Anthony Fauci, festered even during previous public health crises, some
health officials noted. In the most
recent instance, Fauci and Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy gave assurances on
television that the CDC would revisit its recommendations for isolation — when
the agency had no plans to do so — and irritated senior CDC scientists. Ideally,
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra should smooth things over,
said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at
Baylor College of Medicine. In a rare
appearance, Becerra last week defended Walensky in a CNN interview, saying she
had “a medical license and a degree in public health. She doesn’t have a degree
in marketing.” © 2022 The
New York Times Company | 4 |
Pakistan witnessed an extreme heatwave this month, with
temperatures in the south crossing 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).
The south Asian nation had jumped from winter to summer without experiencing a
spring, according to the country's Climate Change Ministry. More than a billion people are at risk from the effects of
heat in the region, scientists have warned, linking the early onset of an
intense summer to climate change. "The heatwave has affected it (the crop) greatly because
the temperature in March was 28, 29 degrees Celsius - but all of a sudden it
hit 42," said Waheed Ahmed, head of the Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable
Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association. He said the heat at the time of the flowering of mango trees
affected production greatly, adding that Pakistan was facing a 50% drop in
mango production this year as a result. Though the heat ripens the succulent yellow fruit, the
untimely early rise in temperatures, coupled with water shortages, have badly
affected the crop. "When the unripened fruit is ready it requires water
which helps the mango grow to a good size," said grower and contractor Gul
Hassan in Tando Allah Yar, in the southern province of Sindh. "There is no
water in Sindh." Pakistan is the world's fifth largest producer of mangoes
after India, China, Thailand and Indonesia, said Ahmed. Pakistan's average mango production is nearly 1.8 million
tonnes, but likely to be around half that this year, he said, adding the
association has cut is export target by 25,000 tonnes compared with last year
to 125,000 tonnes. | 0 |
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Saturday the United States and China can help pull the world out of economic crisis by working together and made clear this took precedence over US concerns about human rights in China. Making her first visit to China as secretary of state, Clinton took a softer line on Chinese political and religious freedoms than in a 1995 Beijing speech in which she openly criticized the Chinese government's human rights record. Speaking at a news conference with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Clinton said the two would have "frank discussions on issues where we have disagreements, including human rights, Tibet, religious freedom and freedom of expression." However, she suggested their joint efforts to spur growth in the face of the global financial crisis, to curb global climate change and to address security challenges like North Korea's nuclear weapons program came first. "World events have given us a full and formidable agenda," she said, saying she and Yang had wide-ranging talks "that started from a simple premise: it is essential that the United States and China have a positive, cooperative relationship." Making her final stop on a one-week Asian trip that has also taken her to Tokyo, Jakarta and Seoul, Clinton stressed how intertwined are the US and Chinese economies. The United States is one of the largest buyers of Chinese exports while China, with foreign exchange reserves of about $2 trillion, is the world's largest holder of US government debt. "I appreciate greatly the Chinese government's continuing confidence in United States Treasuries. I think that's a well grounded confidence," Clinton said. "We have every reason to believe that the United States and China will recover and that together we will help to lead the world recovery." Asked if China might someday rethink its purchases of US Treasuries, Yang provided little direction, saying only that China makes decisions on how to invest its foreign exchange reserves so as to ensure their safety, value and liquidity. DISSIDENTS BARRED FROM LEAVING HOMES Highlighting the US desire for China to curb greenhouse gas emissions, Clinton visited a low-emissions heat and power plant that runs with generators from General Electric Co. "The United States, and certainly the Obama administration, we want China to grow," she said after touring the plant. "What we hope is that you won't make the same mistakes we made ... When we were industrializing ... we didn't know any better." China and the United States are the world's leading emitters of greenhouse gases and their reaching an accord on limiting emissions is regarded as essential for a global deal. Clinton met President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao and, before leaving on Sunday, was to attend church and meet "civil society" activists, gestures designed to show interest in political and religious freedom without causing offense. Taking a markedly different stance from her 1995 Beijing speech, Clinton on Friday said Washington would press China on human rights but said this would not "interfere" with their work on the financial crisis, climate change and security. Human rights groups argued that Clinton's position undermined US leverage with China on rights. "Secretary Clinton's remarks point to a diplomatic strategy that has worked well for the Chinese government -- segregating human rights issues into a dead-end dialogue of the deaf," Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. Several Chinese dissidents, some of them signatories of a petition called "Charter 08" that demands democratic political reform, have been barred from leaving their homes, the Chinese Human Rights Defenders said in an e-mailed statement. "Because of Hillary's China visit, police are standing guard outside my home. I need their permission to go out tomorrow and the day after tomorrow," dissident writer Yu Jie wrote in a cell phone text message. The Charter 08 petition, issued in December, has pitted hundreds of dissidents and civil rights campaigners against the Communist Party. One of its organizers, Liu Xiaobo, has been taken into custody. Repeating a long-standing Chinese position, Yang said China was willing to talk to the United States about human rights on the basis of "non-interference" in each other's internal affairs. He also suggested US concerns were misplaced. "Though these days it's a bit chilly in Beijing ... I have confidence that you will see the biggest number of smiling faces here in China," he said. | 0 |
COPENHAGEN, Dec 18, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - A UN summit is considering a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius, backed by a new fund of $100 billion a year to aid developing nations, according to a draft text pulled together on Friday morning hours before world leaders met. "Deep cuts in global emissions are required," according to the draft, seen by Reuters. It had blanks still to be filled in for commitments by rich nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. This latest draft had not moved on significantly from a text produced during the night. "Recognising the scientific view that the increase in global temperatures ought not to exceed 2 degrees...parties commit to a vigorous response through immediate and enhanced national action based on strengthened international cooperation," it said. Many major economies have already adopted a goal of limiting warming to 2 Celsius over pre-industrial times, seen as a threshold for "dangerous" changes such as more floods, heatwaves, droughts and rising sea levels. "The parties support the goal of mobilising jointly $100 billion by 2020 to address the climate change needs of developing countries," it said. "This money will come from a wide variety of sources." The phrasing echoed U.S. Secrtary of State Hillary Clinton's speech to the Copenhagen meeting on Thursday. The text also outlined a goal of providing $10 billion a year in quick start funds for developing nations from 2010-12, rising until the $100 billion goal by 2020. The text said developing nations would agree to some monitoring of their promised emissions curbs, including reporting back to the UN Climate Change Secretariat every two years. The United States is insisting on international verification as part of a deal. Negotiations on full legal texts -- of one or more new climate treaties -- would have to be wrapped up by the end of 2010, the draft said. The text would not be legally binding. The text said nations would continue talks "with a view to adopting one or more legal instruments ... as soon as possible and no later than COP 16", the next UN meeting due in Mexico in November 2010. Many developing nations want two pacts -- an extended Kyoto Protocol that now obliges rich nations to cut emissions until 2012 and a new deal outlining actions by the poor. Developed nations prefer a single treaty. The overall text was titled the "Copenhagen X" -- reflecting disagreement about what to call it. "I'd call it the Copenhagen catastrophe," said one environmental activist, saying it was too weak. | 4 |
FRANKFURT, Fri Oct 17, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Indian physicist and environmental activist Vandana Shiva said the financial crisis showed it was high time for countries to rebuild local, diverse farms to become independent from global turmoil. "The lesson to be learned from the financial meltdown is that the world is at a tipping point," Shiva told Reuters at the Frankfurt Bookfair on Thursday, where she is promoting her new book "Soil not Oil". "When one thread rips somewhere its effect is felt around the world," said Shiva, a board member of the International Forum on Globalisation, which examines the effects of globalisation on local economies and communities. Shiva was also one of the first tree-huggers in the 1970s, participating in the Chipko movement of female peasants in the Uttaranchal region of India, which adopted the tactic of hugging trees to prevent their felling. Shiva said industrial farmers were running short on funds to buy pesticides and fertilisers amid reduced lending and borrowing worldwide but switching to small-scale, organic farming would eliminate the need to buy chemicals. Shiva, who received her Ph.D. in physics at the University of Western Ontario, argued that diverse, organic farming was the answer to climate change and world hunger. She said a quarter of greenhouse gases were emitted by industrially farmed crops and livestock, a figure that could be reduced to zero by switching to organic farming. "If you look at Great Britain, it has no food independence any more... at this point we are eating oil and that just doesn't taste good," Shiva said. "The world needs to shift from consumptive energy such as fossil fuels to regenerative energy," Shiva continued, adding that governments should allow and support "the rebuilding of local food sovereignty". The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has disagreed with the Indian activist. Its Director General Jacques Diouf said last December there was no reason to believe that organic agriculture could substitute conventional farming systems in ensuring the world's food security. But the FAO has said that people should reduce their consumption of meat to help tackle global warning. The organisation has estimated that meat production accounts for nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, which are generated during the production of animal feeds. Ruminants, particularly cows, also emit methane, which is 23 times more effective as a global warming agent than carbon dioxide, it has said. Shiva, 56, said she believed it was a mistake to bet on industrial farming to feed the world and said she was heartened by an increased interest in environmental issues globally. | 0 |
Leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada -- also known as "the three amigos" -- begin a summit on Sunday in Mexico to talk about simmering trade issues and the threat of drug gangs. President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon are gathering in Guadalajara for dinner Sunday night followed by three-way talks on Monday. At the top of their agenda is how to power their economies past a lingering downturn, keep trade flowing smoothly and grapple with Mexican gangs dominating the drug trade over the US border and up into Canada. Obama's national security adviser, Jim Jones, doubted the leaders would announce major agreements, predicting the annual summit "is going to be a step in the continuing dialogue from which agreements will undoubtedly come." Obama is expected to get some heat from Calderon to resolve a cross-border trucking dispute. Under the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexican trucks are supposed to be allowed to cross into the United States, but American trucking companies charge Mexican trucks are not safe. The issue has festered for years. Mexico imposed retaliatory tariffs of $2.4 billion in US goods in March after Obama signed a bill canceling a program allowing Mexican trucks to operate beyond the U.S. border zone. US business groups have been pressing the White House to resolve the dispute, saying the ban threatens to eliminate thousands of US jobs. "We would like to see a final closure and a final solution to the issue of trucking," said Mexico's ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan. He said he would like an agreement by year's end. A top White House official, Michael Froman, told reporters the Obama administration is "quite focused" on the issue and was working with the US Congress to resolve safety issues. CARTEL VIOLENCE Canadian officials are expected to raise their concerns about "Buy American" elements of a $787 billion economic stimulus bill that they fear could shut out Canadian companies from US construction contracts funded by the stimulus. Canada is the United States' largest trading partner. Froman said the Obama administration was talking to Canada and other nations "to try and implement the 'Buy American' provision in a way consistent with the law, consistent with our international obligations, while minimizing disruption to trade." Obama took a potential sore point off the table ahead of his trip: That he might be willing to unilaterally reopen the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) treaty as he had talked about on the campaign trail last year. Given the weakened economies of the three nations, he told Hispanic reporters on Friday, it is not the time to try to add enforceable labor and environmental protections to the treaty as some in his Democratic Party would prefer. "In terms of refining some of our agreements, that is not where everyone's focus is right now because we are in the middle of a very difficult economic situation," Obama said, although he added that he was still interested in learning how to improve the treaty. Another top issue at the summit is what to do about Mexican drug gangs who are killing rivals in record numbers, despite Calderon's three-year army assault on the cartels. The death rate this year from the violence is about a third higher than in 2008, and police in the United States and as far north as the western Canadian city of Vancouver have blamed the Mexican traffickers for crime. Obama is backing Calderon's efforts. "He is doing the right thing by going after them and he has done so with tremendous courage," Obama said. Obama promised full support to Calderon during a visit in April, but Mexico complains that anti-drug equipment and training are taking too long to arrive and hopes the summit will move things ahead. The leaders also promise a statement on H1N1 swine flu and will jointly address climate change as they prepare for major international talks in Copenhagen in December. | 1 |
The Dhaka City Corporation has around 250 dumpsters, overflowing with waste all over the capital, clearly not enough for a city of millions.So, as wastes pile up, a youth-based organisation is looking to offer help by ‘privatising transcans’.Footsteps, with its project ‘WECan’, plans to sell commercial trash cans to business organisations and set them up in front of corporate offices for use of pedestrians.“Corporate bodies have an image to maintain and do their bit as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility,” it said.The trash cans will account for a part of a company’s CSR responsibility.Footsteps said it would sell steel trash cans, 3.6 feet in height with 2 x 2 feet base, for Tk 5000.The lime-green cans will bear the company’s logo along with a ‘social, eye-catching message’ – such as ‘Our City Our Responsibility or ‘What’s trash to you is treasure to me.”Metal chains are to be included with every purchase, so that the cans can be fastened to office main gates and avoid being stolen.The trashcans, however, will need to be cleared by vehicles that usually collects waste from the offices.
Any additional revenue earned will be allocated to provide winter clothes to the poor and needy, says Footsteps.It also encourages that interested companies buy more than one can to ‘ensure effectiveness’.Maintenance of the cans will be the sole responsibility of the company.“The funding of a trashcan by a corporate body will not only benefit the environment but also the company itself,” it said.The companies, it said, will contribute to decreased littering around their office through what will be an ideal advertisement campaign.Footsteps started in 2012 with an aim to involve Bangladesh youth in issues such as development, pollution, education, poverty and climate change. Teams of volunteers have been pitted against one another to spur sales of cans, says Zahin Shuhrat Islam, 16, a volunteer."So I am asking just anyone I know in the corporate world," says Zahin. | 2 |
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