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WASHINGTON, Tue May 19, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday will propose the most aggressive increase in US auto fuel efficiency ever in a policy initiative that would also directly regulate emissions for the first time and resolve a dispute with California over cleaner cars. A senior administration official, speaking to reporters late on Monday on the condition of anonymity, said average fuel standards for all new passenger vehicles -- cars and light trucks -- would rise by 10 miles a gallon over today's performance to 35.5 miles per gallon between 2012-16. Climate-warming carbon emissions would fall by 900 million metric tons, or more than 30 percent over the life of the program, the official said. "All companies will be required to make more efficient and cleaner cars," the official said, saying the government estimates the program will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil. U.S. and key overseas automakers, including General Motors Corp, which is on the verge of probable bankruptcy, and efficiency leader Toyota Motor Corp of Japan, support the plan, an industry trade group said. "GM and the auto industry benefit by having more consistency and certainty to guide our product plans," GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said in a statement. Toyota Motor Sales USA President James Lentz said the single national standard will enhance vehicle choice for consumers. The new program, according to the administration, will add about $600 to the price of producing a vehicle compared to current law, which requires automakers to achieve a fleet average of 35 mpg by 2020, a 40 percent increase over today's performance. US auto companies fought significant increases in fuel standards for decades before Congress and the Bush administration agreed to stricter targets in 2007. Some vehicles, most made by overseas manufacturers, already meet or exceed the standards set to be proposed. CALIFORNIA TO DEFER TO NATIONAL STANDARD California also supports the Obama proposal, the official said. California had sought a waiver from federal environmental law to impose its own regulations to cut auto emissions but Bush administration would not permit it. Also, auto companies sued to stop California on grounds the initiative would create a patchwork of rules if other states followed suit instead of a single national fuel efficiency standard. "California has agreed that they will defer to the proposed national standard," the official said, if it is finalized. Senator Barbara Boxer, chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, called the development "good news for all of us who have fought long and hard" to reduce global warming and reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil. The 30 percent reduction in emissions is more aggressive than what California and other states that have supported its bid for a waiver have sought. The administration in April opened the way to regulating emissions by declaring climate-warming pollution a danger to human health and welfare, in a sharp policy shift from the Bush administration. The new policy would give automakers flexibility to meet the standards and would weigh the impact on the environment of carbon-based fuels and other vehicle systems that emit emissions, like air conditioners. "This could be the breakthrough we've been looking for on clean cars," said David Friedman, research director of the clean vehicle program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. The plan assumes average gas prices of $3.50 per gallon by 2016, which administration officials hope will help push consumers into more fuel-efficient cars and trucks. Automakers are aggressively pursuing better hybrids and electric cars. But more recent declines in gas prices in the later half of 2008 and so far this year due to a recession-induced demand falloff have revived sales, in some cases, of less efficient pickups and SUVs. To help lift the industry out of its sharp sales slump, Congress is considering legislation that would offer consumers up to $4,500 to trade in older, less fuel-efficient models for vehicles that get sharply higher gas mileage. Separately, a key committee in the US Congress on Monday kicked off what promises to be a week-long climate change debate as Democrats aimed to advance a bill to slow global warming and Republicans maneuvered to kill a central part the plan they say will hurt the US economy. | null |
Images shared on social media show cars being swept down streets, buildings and businesses filled with mud, and mudslides that left boulders strewn across roads. Merida Governor Ramon Guevara said 11 people were killed in the municipality of Tovar and two children were killed in the municipality of Antonio Pinto Salinas. "The situation that we're living through is very unfortunate," Guevara said in comments to local media that were filmed and posted on Twitter. "Power is cut off because the waters reached the transformers, which caused them to halt." The area in question is an agricultural zone that provides food to other parts of the country. | null |
The buildup of Russian troops on the border of Ukraine, through which Russian gas flows to the West, also has added to concerns about whether gas will run out. Already, low volumes of gas from Russia, Europe’s main source of imports of the fuel, have helped raise prices in recent months. “There is a risk of supply shortages that could erode economic growth and trigger public discord,” said Henning Gloystein, a director for energy and climate at Eurasia Group, a political risk firm, adding that blackouts are possible in a worst-case scenario. Gloystein said that should the situation worsen, governments might order factories to cut gas use to ensure that households have enough to keep warm. On Tuesday, gas on the TTF trading hub in the Netherlands hit record levels of about $60 per million British thermal units on reports that flows in a pipeline that brings Russian gas to Germany were being switched back toward the East. (European gas prices have doubled this month and are roughly 15 times what gas is selling for in the United States.) Gloystein said this change of direction might reflect opportunistic trading activity rather than sinister maneuvering on the part of Moscow, but the fact remains that natural gas markets in Europe are ready to soar at the slightest provocation. Tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine make it very unlikely that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany will open anytime soon and bring relief. On a call with reporters Tuesday, Karen Donfried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said Washington considers Nord Stream 2 “a Russian geopolitical project that undermines the energy security and the national security of a significant part of the Euro-Atlantic community.” Donfried said the United States was working closely with the new German government to strengthen Europe’s energy security. Attracted by high prices, energy companies are instructing ships carrying liquefied natural gas to change their destinations from Asia to Europe, but even that switching may not be enough to replace Russian gas or significantly ease the crunch. “The market knows there is more LNG coming,” said Laura Page, an analyst at Kpler, a research firm. “But it doesn’t seem to be having any impact on sentiment.” Because gas is a key fuel for generating electricity, electric power prices also are soaring across Europe. In Britain, for instance, steady power was trading Tuesday for about 340 pounds (about $450) per megawatt-hour, a wholesale metric, on the Epex Spot exchange. That is about three times the average price of electricity over the year. The high gas prices of recent months will eventually lead to rises in energy costs for households in Britain and other countries. Martin Young, an analyst at Investec, a securities firm, forecast in a recent note to clients that British consumers, who have been protected by price ceilings, could see their energy bills rise more than 50% when adjustments are announced early next year. In recent days, the closure of three French nuclear plants to check for faults has further stoked the power market. “It’s becoming the new normal for this winter,” Mark Devine, a trader at Sembcorp, an energy firm, said of the elevated prices. © 2021 The New York Times Company | null |
The reversal of protocol struck Daschle, who was new in the job, as gracious. “I said, ‘Bob, I’m really humbled that you insist on coming to my office; I’m the junior guy, so I should come to your office,’ ” Daschle recalled Sunday after learning that Dole, 98, had died. “And he said, ‘No, when I come to your office, I can always decide when the meeting is over.’ ” The remark was classic Bob Dole — witty and straight to the point. And the story is a reminder of Bob Dole’s Washington. Dole, a Kansas Republican who overcame the poverty of the Great Depression and grievous injuries suffered during World War II, brought his prairie values and no-nonsense manner when he arrived in Washington in 1961. Over the next 35 years — through eight years in the House, 27 in the Senate and three failed attempts to win the presidency — he operated in a city that was conducive to his instincts as a deal maker. It is perhaps trite to reminisce about and romanticise a “bygone era” in Washington, when politicians of opposing parties fought by day and socialised with one another at night. There was plenty of partisanship — some of it every bit as bitter as what exists today — during Dole’s time in the Capitol. But there also is no denying that the climate was different, and the facts speak for themselves: Both as a senator and as the Republican leader, a job he held from 1985 until 1996, Dole reached across the aisle to help push through a string of bipartisan legislation, such as a bill to rescue Social Security, the Americans with Disabilities Act and a measure to overhaul the welfare system. Among his proudest accomplishments was teaming up with George McGovern, the liberal Democrat from South Dakota, to revamp the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called food stamps. They continued to work together on nutrition issues after they both left the Senate. “People believed in working with each other, and they kept their word,” Sen Patrick J Leahy, who counted Dole as a friend, said Sunday. He recalled the close ties between George J Mitchell Jr, the Maine senator who preceded Daschle as the Democratic leader, and Dole. “When George Mitchell was leader, he’d go down to Dole’s office two and three times a day and vice versa,” Leahy said. “And I recall they both said the same thing about the other: ‘He never surprised me.’ You don’t see that happen today.” Not only that, Mitchell and Dole had dedicated phone lines on their desks that let them communicate directly with the touch of a button, one aide recalled. The button came in handy in November 1994, when Republicans won back the majority. Mitchell, who had not sought reelection, asked that Dole be alerted that he was coming to his office to congratulate him. Dole sent a quick message back that he didn’t want Mitchell to make the humbling trek and that Dole would instead go to his office, a gesture that Mitchell and his team regarded as decent and thoughtful. “He operated in a different era, when the idea of bipartisanship was very much in vogue and politicians understood that in a democracy you simply have to work, not just with your fellow party members, but with people from the opposite side or the other side of the aisle,” said Robert Dallek, the presidential historian. “He was masterful at that.” That is not to say that Dole lacked sharp elbows or conservative ideology. Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House who is widely credited with ushering in Washington’s era of partisan warfare, said he worked closely with Dole to push through tax cuts and to defeat President Bill Clinton’s plan for universal health care. In an interview Sunday, Gingrich likened Dole to the current Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, an object of loathing for Democrats. “I think there’s a lot of parallels between Dole and McConnell,” Gingrich said. “They’re both creatures of the Senate; they’re both very, very good tactically. They both understand how to stop things, and they understand how to get things done.” Despite their partnership, Dole could not embrace Gingrich’s bomb-throwing style. When Gingrich and House Republicans refused to pass federal spending bills, forcing the government to shut down in 1995, Dole took to the Senate floor to declare that he had had enough. “We ought to end this,” Dole said at the time. “I mean, it’s gotten to the point where it’s a little ridiculous as far as this senator is concerned.” In Washington, Dole and his wife, Elizabeth Dole — who later became a senator and ran for president herself — were seen as a power couple, the embodiment of the city’s institutions. Robert Dole came to stand for World War II and the Greatest Generation, and an earlier era of dignity and honour. He was the driving force behind the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, and could often be found greeting veterans there. “He was in a sense Mr America,” said Dallek, the historian. “He came from the heartland, and he stood for a kind of shared values.” In 1996, Dole left the Senate — an institution in which he had served for more than a quarter century — to run for president. Washington was changing. Gingrich was at the height of his power. Clinton would later be impeached over his affair with an intern, Monica Lewinsky, exacerbating the growing partisan tensions. But when Dole, who at that point was the Senate’s longest-serving Republican leader, went to the chamber to deliver a speech announcing his departure, the old ways of the Capitol were still intact. “That day he announced he was leaving the Senate, almost every Democratic senator was on the floor,” Leahy said. “Now, he was going to go out to run against Bill Clinton. And when he finished speaking, we all stood and applauded and applauded.” © 2021 The New York Times Company | null |
SINGAPORE, Thu Jun 25, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Want the good life despite the dire economy? Head east, according to a survey showing some of the world's highest-paid expatriates live in Asia and the Middle East. A third of all expats in Russia -- the highest proportion in the world -- earn more than $250,000 a year, followed closely by expats in Japan and Qatar, according to the 2009 Expat Explorer survey, commissioned by HSBC Bank International, the offshore financial services arm of HSBC Holdings. Between a third and a quarter of foreigners working in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand and India earned annual wages of more than $200,000, while countries such as Malaysia, China and India, were ranked among the cheapest for accommodation. "Asia is home to the highest paid expats in the world, with one in four expats earning more than $200,000 per year," said the survey (here). Russia was ranked the number one country overall for expats in terms of wealth. The rest of the top nine were all in Asia and the Middle East. Building a nest egg is one of the perks of expat life for many people, and the survey showed that Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar, India and the United Arab Emirates were the top five countries where people have increased their savings. But the global economic crisis has taken a heavy toll on expats in Britain and the United States, where close to a quarter are considering returning home, compared to just 15 percent overall, due to the high cost of living, lack of savings and lower wages. Generous salaries are also relatively scarce in Australia and Belgium, the survey showed. More than 60 percent of expats in both countries earn under $100,000, making them the poorest expats wage-wise when compared to a global average of 35 percent. LARGEST SURVEY "We have seen some interesting trends in terms of how expats are reacting to the credit crunch, but what is also interesting to see is that they remain a wealthy group of individuals," Paul Say, head of marketing and communications for HSBC Bank International, said in a statement. "Over half the expats surveyed are actually earning $100,000 and over -- no mean feat particularly in the current climate." Expat Explorer, now in its second year, surveyed more than 3,100 expats from various nationalities living in 26 countries. HSBC said it was the largest survey of its kind. More than two-thirds of expatriates worldwide said the credit crisis had changed the way they spend their money, with luxuries and day-to-day spending the most affected. Nearly 40 percent said they were saving more for a rainy day. Over half of the expats in Japan -- the highest globally at 53 percent -- said they were cutting back on holidays and other perks, while almost one in two expats in Thailand and Hong Kong -- the second and third globally, were also scaling back. In contrast, two-thirds of expats living in Qatar said the global financial crisis would not change their spending attitudes at all, followed by more than half of those living in Bahrain, which HSBC said indicated that some oil-rich Gulf Arab states have not been hit as hard by the downturn. Expats in Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Russia were also the least likely to cut back on luxuries, the survey showed. Those polled in the survey were chosen by four main criteria: annual income in excess of $200,000; a monthly disposable income in excess of $3,000; an increase in saving while working abroad and having at least two luxury items in the country they live in. The survey was conducted between February and April 2009. | null |
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Ukraine on Friday that the door to joining NATO remained open even though its new leadership has abandoned alliance membership as a long-term goal. But she made clear that Washington did not seek to disrupt Ukraine's new closer ties with Moscow. Those who pushed Ukraine to choose between Russia and the West were offering a "false choice," she said. At the same time, she urged President Viktor Yanukovich to stick to a democratic course and obliquely expressed concern over reports that media freedoms were being infringed. "We would urge the Ukrainian government to safeguard these critical liberties," she told a news conference with Yanukovich. She also backed Ukraine's push to win a new International Monetary Fund programme of up to $19 billion and encouraged the country to strengthen its investment climate through economic reform, fighting corruption and upholding the rule of law. Clinton's discreet avoidance of any open criticism of pro-Russian moves by the newly-elected Yanukovich was in line with the Obama administration's policy of "resetting" ties with Moscow. Apart from downgrading contacts with the U.S.-led military alliance, Yanukovich has tilted Ukraine firmly towards Moscow by stepping up commercial contacts and by extending the stay of the Russian navy in a Ukrainian Black Sea port by 25 years. "Regarding NATO, let me say very clearly: Ukraine is a sovereign and independent country that has the right to choose your own alliances," Clinton told Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko. "NATO'S door remains open but it is up to Ukraine to decide whether or not you wish to pursue that or any other course for your own security interests," she added. Yanukovich has dropped NATO membership as a goal, to the delight of Moscow, saying his country will remain outside military blocs. On Friday, he said Kiev would keep cooperating with the Western alliance on defence reform and peace-keeping. Far from faulting his approach, Clinton later told students at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute "what Ukraine is doing in trying to balance its relationships between the United States, the European Union and Russia make a a lot of sense." Yanukovich was sure to be pleased by Washington's blessing for what he says is a pragmatic policy that looks both to Russia and the West, and for Ukraine's efforts to stabilise its economy with help from global financial lenders. Clinton fulsomely praised Yanukovich's election in February as a "major step in consolidating Ukraine's democracy." She later met his arch-rival former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, now in opposition, who may have a different view. Tymoshenko, who faces possible prosecution for alleged misdemeanours in office, disputed Yanukovich's election but then dropped a legal attempt to block his inauguration. MEDIA FREEDOMS THREATENED? The one area where Clinton came close to criticising Yanukovich was over media freedoms and democratic liberties. Last week, US Ambassador to Kiev John Tefft expressed concern about reports of pressure on journalists since Yanukovich came to power. "Freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom to petition governments, to assemble, to participate in the political sphere -- these are not just afterthoughts," she said. "These are absolutely the right and the property of each individual." Clinton said she had raised these issues with Yanukovich and she noted that he has previously committed to uphold democracy, strengthen rule of law and respect human rights. "We recognize that rhetoric alone does not change behavior," Clinton said. "These statements need to be followed up with concrete actions." Clinton is at the start of a five-country regional tour and was stopping in Krakow, Poland, on Saturday for a gathering of the Community of Democracies, a group that promotes democratic norms. She will also visit Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. | null |
Michael Szabo Copenhagen, Dec 20 (bdnews24.com/Reuters)—The enormous white globe that hung in Copenhagen's Bella Centre, the site of the world's largest ever summit on climate change, could be an unintended yet chilling sign of things to come. An observant attendee made it clear by scribbling on the giant model of the earth that its designers forgot to paint on small, low-lying Pacific island nations like Tuvalu and the Cook Islands. Antarctica was also missing from the colossal sphere. Scientists say rising global temperatures are melting the world's polar icecaps and this will lead to higher sea levels by the end of the century. Still, as island nations pleaded for major economies like China and the United States to agree a new climate agreement over the 12-day talks, was this an embarrassing mistake on the part of the organisers? The UN climate talks ended with a bare-minimum agreement on Saturday when delegates "noted" an accord struck by the United States, China and other emerging powers that falls so short of the conference's original goals that many observers have termed the talks a failure. A long road lies ahead. The accord -- weaker than a legally binding treaty and weaker even than the 'political' deal many had foreseen -- left much to the imagination. It set a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times -- seen as a threshold for dangerous changes such as more floods, droughts, mudslides, sandstorms and rising seas. But it failed to say how this would be achieved. It held out the prospect of $100 billion (62 billion pounds) in annual aid from 2020 for developing nations but did not specify precisely where this money would come from. And it pushed key decisions such as emissions cuts into the future. Another round of climate talks is scheduled for November 2010 in Mexico. Negotiators are hoping to nail down then what they failed to achieve in Copenhagen -- a new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. But there are no guarantees. | null |
Dhaka, Oct 30 (bdnews24.com)--A three-member delegation of the European Parliament's Committee on Development will visit Bangladesh from Sunday to Tuesday, a press release said on Friday. The members are Al Svensson (EPP, Sweden), Franziska Keller (Verts, Germany) and Niccob Rinaldi (ALDE, Italy). The delegation will especially examine the impact of climate change and the problem of food security, the statement said. They will call on prime minister Sheikh Hasina, speaker Abdul Hamid and the ministers in charge of food and risk management; environment and forests, women and children affairs, it also said. They will visit various climate change and disaster management projects. | null |
The government has initiated a programme to provide input assistance to some 50,000 small and marginal farmers for boosting maize cultivation. Agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury announced the assistance, which includes providing seeds and fertilisers worth Tk 65 million free of cost, at a press conference at the ministry's conference room on Wednesday. Under the programme, the government will provide the seeds and fertilisers to the farmers for cultivating maize over 16,500 acres of land in 62 upazilas under 11 districts. The programme starts from the current winter season. A farmer will get 3 kilograms of hybrid maize seeds and 50 kgs of fertilisers, including 25kgs of diamonium phosphate (DAP) and muriate of potash (MoP), as incentives for maize cultivation on each bigha [0.33 acre] of land, the minister said. The programme will help increase maize production by 31,000 tonnes, said the minister, adding that the market price of the additional maize would be at least Tk 62 crore. The programme will be implemented at Nilphamari, Kurigram, Rangpur, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Pirojpur, Barisal, Barguna, Patuakhali, Bhola and Jhalokhati districts. Narrating objectives of the incentive programme, the agriculture minister said: "We're trying to motivate the farmers to grow maize because of its high demand and less irrigation and other cost for its cultivation than that of other crops like rice and wheat." She mentioned that the overall production of wheat had already declined in the northern region due to climate changes. The minister said maize cultivation is now generating interest among the farmers as there is huge demand for the produce both for human and poultry consumption. The country's annual maize production is around 1.55 million tonnes and it needs to import another 422,000 tonnes a year. | null |
In 2020, a year marked by the triple forces of the coronavirus pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, and a social justice movement protesting police violence and racism, the FBI reported a surge in hate crimes targeting African Americans. About 64.9% of the 8,052 reported hate crime incidents that year were based on race, ethnicity or ancestry bias, according to the FBI. Within that category, Black Americans made up more than half the victims. The number of reported hate crimes against African Americans in 2020 was 2,871, up from 1,972 in 2019. That spike drove a nearly 9.1% increase in hate crimes overall. In the five years before 2019, African Americans were victims in about half of all the race, ethnicity or ancestry bias cases, according to FBI data. Experts who track data caution that federal numbers are incomplete, and that some of that spike might be the result of increased awareness and more willingness to report such crimes. Yet they say the attention to social justice might itself have spurred more violence targeting Black Americans. “The year 2020 changed the trajectory of prejudice in some ways to refocus on American Blacks, in part because of the social justice protests following the murder of George Floyd,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. While national hate crime statistics for 2021 have not yet been released, hate crime experts say the assault on Black Americans and institutions has continued: About one-third of the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities were targeted with bomb threats this year, along with more than a dozen houses of worship and other faith-based and academic institutions, according to the FBI. Racially motivated violence took centre stage again in February when three white Georgia men were convicted of federal hate crimes for chasing down and killing Ahmaud Arbery because he was African American. The trial stood out for its unvarnished examination of racism. The FBI releases a report of hate crimes annually, but the federal tracking system does not require police agencies to submit data, and a significant number of victims may not report bias crimes to the police. The underreporting creates an imprecise portrait of the scale of hate crimes nationally, but the report still offers a useful snapshot of broad trends. In recent years, the Justice Department has encouraged victims to report bias and made prosecuting the crimes a priority. The FBI report released last year, based on data collected in 2020 from more than 15,000 law enforcement agencies, showed the highest spike in hate crimes in a dozen years, numbers driven largely by increases in incidents against Black and Asian Americans. The FBI defines a hate crime as a crime against a person or property motivated by bias. That can include everything from bomb threats and vandalism to physical violence and murder. The federal data shows that in the past decade, hate crimes against Black Americans, who make up 12.1% of the population, have far exceeded those reported against any other group, including biases based on a victim’s religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation. According to the data, 20,084 instances of anti-Black crimes were reported over the past decade. The next largest category in that time period, anti-Jewish crimes, included 7,688 reports — though the Jewish population is only about 2.4% of the US adult population, according to Pew Research Center. The man accused of the attack in Buffalo, a white 18-year-old armed with a semi-automatic rifle and a white supremacist ideology embraced during the idle hours of the pandemic, opened fire at a supermarket in a mostly Black neighbourhood several hours away from where he lived. Authorities say he killed 10 people and injured three others, almost all of them African American. In a screed the suspect posted online detailing his plans, he made clear they were driven by hate, scrawling a racist slur on his weapon and referring to replacement theory, a far-right belief that the white population is at risk of being replaced by people of colour and immigrants. The mass shooting, which the Justice Department is investigating as a potential hate crime, parallels other racial violence born from white supremacy, such as the massacres in a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, a Pittsburgh synagogue and a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, where the shooting suspect complained of Hispanic “invasion.” The contemporary universe of hate crimes against African Americans is a combination of old and new strains of bigotry, those who study it say. It includes the enduring fear of demographic shifts and “replacement” brewing in pockets of the internet and often stoked by racist political rhetoric. “It’s an old theme in white supremacists dating back decades, many decades,” said Jeannine Bell, a professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law and an expert on hate crimes. “They’ve long been worried about white replacement,” she said. “And I imagine when times get tough as they are now, there are more worries about it.” Bell also attributed the recent rise in anti-Black hate crimes in part to a backlash against the protests following the murder of Floyd in Minneapolis. “Those protests brought out a lot of anger about African Americans. A lot of support, but also a lot of anger,” she said. “Black victimisation was in the news. And if it’s anything that angers white supremacists, it’s seeing African Americans being seen sympathetically.” Bell said it was not easy to trace the source of an increase in hate crimes. But major events like the protests in the summer of 2020 provide a helpful touchstone. “It’s easy to say that there’s probably been an increase in anti-Asian hate crimes,” Bell said. “What happened? There was an event, a pandemic, and large numbers of anti-Asian hate crimes associated with the pandemic started happening.” Hate crimes against African Americans are particularly difficult to count accurately, Bell said, because of a lack of groups dedicated to specifically tracking such crimes. On Sunday, a group of national civil rights and social justice organisations called on President Joe Biden to convene a summit this week to address hate crimes and right-wing extremism. The Rev Al Sharpton said on Twitter that he had spoken to two members of Biden’s Cabinet and stressed the need for a summit: “This needs a National response to rising crimes immediately.” © 2022 The New York Times Company | null |
China and India's explosion of trade with Africa and greater investment and tolerance by traditional partners have boosted the continent's development climate, Ethiopia's prime minister said on Monday. "The external environment has been more conducive for African development. We have more latitude to be authors of our own destiny," Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told a meeting of finance and economy ministers in the Ethiopian capital. China's trade with Africa grew to $40 billion in 2005 compared with $364 million in 1978, while India's rose to $11 billion from $613 million in the same period, according to UN and African Union figures. Analysts say that the influx of money, combined with the no-strings-attached trade and aid policies of both nations, has helped make Western donors who traditionally dictated the terms in Africa ease restrictions on its funding. "There has been a significant change in attitudes in our traditional developmental partners. There has also been more willingness to tolerate alternative paths of development on the continent," Meles said. Meles said that India's and China's interest "has created a new source for investment and technology for Africa's economy and a significant jump to foreign direct investment, hence Africa's rapid growth." The continent grew by an average 5.8 percent in 2007, according to United Nations figures. But trade among African nations has remained low, accounting for only a tenth of total trade on the continent, the African Union said. Meles was speaking at an African Union-UN Economic Commission for Africa conference to tackle development issues like rising food and energy prices and the impact of climate change on the continent's economies. But Meles said China and India's growing appetite for food, raw materials and commodities was a mixed blessing for Africa. "These developments have contributed to a steep rise in commodity prices and the associated risks to African economies," he said. The African Union and United Nations in a statement released on Monday warned: "The rising price of staples has been blamed for social disburbances in at least four African countries in 2008." It listed Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Senegal and Mauritania. Abdoulie Janneh, U.N. under-secretary general and executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, said the global problem of high food and oil prices would force the continent to strike a balance between its role as a producer and a consumer. "The challenge that we face is to ensure that these essential goods are affordable while not stifling the signaling role of prices for increased production," Janneh said. | null |
"He's a great guy", Trump told the German chancellor, according to sources familiar with the exchange. Merkel listened politely before pointing out that Erdogan had been lobbing vitriol at Germany and its European allies for weeks, denouncing them as the descendents of Nazis. Trump was surprised, the sources said. He appeared unaware that Ankara and Berlin were in the midst of a fierce diplomatic row over whether Turkish ministers should be allowed to campaign in Germany for a referendum on boosting Erdogan's powers. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The German government declined comment, citing the confidential nature of the call. The exchange, weeks after Merkel paid her first visit to Trump in Washington, underscored the challenge the German leader faces as she tries to forge a relationship with a president that half a dozen European officials who spoke to Reuters described as erratic, ill prepared and prone to rhetorical excess. Six months after Trump's election and a little more than a week before he makes his first trip to Europe as president, officials in Berlin and other European capitals are still unsure about where the Trump administration stands on many of the big issues that concern them. Coupled with this confusion is relief that he has not turned US foreign policy on its head, as some feared, during his first months in office. Trump is no longer calling NATO obsolete. And he has kept Russia's Vladimir Putin at arm's length. Apart from his suggestion last month that an attack on policemen in Paris would help far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the French election, Trump has not intervened in European politics or sought to undermine the European Union. His controversial National Security Adviser Mike Flynn has been fired, replaced by H.R. McMaster, who is seen as a smart, steady hand. And the influence of Steve Bannon, the White House adviser Europeans fear most, may be on the wane. "We feel there is now a productive working relationship," said Peter Wittig, the German ambassador to Washington. But beneath the veneer are lingering questions about the president's character and his policies on a range of issues. German officials remain worried about a shift to protectionism under Trump, despite his less confrontational rhetoric toward China and his decision to drop controversial plans for a border adjustment tax. Several European diplomats expressed concern about what they view as the lack of a coherent U.S. strategy on Syria. Some of them said the abrupt firing of FBI director James Comey showed Trump was capable of taking rash decisions on issues of major importance. Reports that he revealed highly classified information to Russia's foreign minister at a meeting in the Oval Office last week seem likely to aggravate the level of distrust in European capitals. "The doubts about the professionalism of Trump's team, at least in foreign and security policy, have receded," one veteran German diplomat said. "But the doubts about Trump himself, his character, maturity and trustworthiness, have only grown." A second German official said: "You shouldn't underestimate the influence of Trump on the Trump administration." UNIQUE CHALLENGE Few foreign leaders have as much riding on the relationship as Merkel. Germany relies heavily on the United States for its security. And a tit-for-tat protectionist spiral could threaten its export-reliant economy. In July, just two months before Germany holds an election, Merkel will host a tricky G20 summit in Hamburg, where Trump is expected to meet Putin for the first time. Turkish President Erdogan and China's Xi Jinping will also be there. Merkel has been sparring with Putin and Erdogan for over a decade and worked with two U.S. presidents before Trump. She formed a close relationship with George W. Bush in his Europe-friendly second term. And although she got off to a tricky start with Barack Obama after denying him a chance to speak at the Brandenburg Gate during his 2008 campaign, the two ended up forming a close bond. Before traveling to Brussels to meet Trump on May 25, she will appear with Obama at the landmark in central Berlin. Trump, her aides acknowledge, presents a unique challenge because of his unpredictability and ambivalent attitude toward Europe. He is deeply unpopular in Germany, making it politically awkward for her to get too close in an election year. Nevertheless, there is satisfaction in Berlin that Merkel and Trump have gotten off to a relatively smooth start, after he accused her of "ruining" Germany with her open-door refugee policies and she responded to his victory by signaling she would only cooperate with him on the basis of common values. The two leaders have spoken four times on the phone since her visit in mid-March. Both sides have played down the incident that dominated coverage of that visit: Trump's failure to shake Merkel's hand in the Oval Office. Last month, Trump, the brash former real estate mogul from New York, told the Associated Press that he had "unbelievable chemistry" with Merkel, the reserved former physicist from communist East Germany. German officials speak of a systematic effort by the chancellor to minimize tensions with Trump, pointing to the invitation she extended to his daughter Ivanka to attend a G20 women's summit in Berlin in April. They note that Trump has not pulled out of the Paris climate deal, NAFTA or the nuclear deal between western powers and Iran, as he had threatened during his campaign for the presidency. Trump has said he will not make a decision on the climate deal until after a G7 summit in late May, where Merkel and other European leaders are expected to lobby him hard to stay in. "There are signs that this administration is capable of being influenced," said a senior French official. "You can talk to the people around Trump and give input. They are perhaps more malleable and open to outside views than many people thought." During Merkel's visit in March, she spent a long time explaining to Trump and his team how the European Union worked, according to participants. By the end of four hours of meetings - including a half hour one-on-one between the two leaders, a meeting with business executives, and a lunch - Trump had dropped his push for a bilateral trade deal with Germany and accepted that only an agreement with the EU was possible. Although German officials acknowledge that the prospect of reviving TTIP - the transatlantic trade deal Europe tried to clinch with Obama - seems remote, they were pleased that Trump seemed open to the idea of negotiating with the EU. They were also reassured that Trump proved to be a good listener. At the end of the two hour lunch, when aides to the president reminded him it was time to head off to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for the weekend, he demurred, saying the discussion was going well and his departure would have to wait. Officials in the German chancellery were pleasantly surprised when, 10 days after the visit, Trump called Merkel to congratulate her on a surprise win for her party in the tiny state of Saarland - even if he used the call, one source said, to harp about "fake polls". The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The German government declined comment. Over the past months, German officials have made a concerted effort to reach out to a wide range of officials in Washington, including people in the White House and Congress. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble met with Trump's economic adviser Gary Cohn during the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank last month. His deputy Jens Spahn visited the White House, seeing Bannon and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. This outreach is especially important, German officials say, because top policy positions in the State Department remain unfilled more than three months since Trump took office. But it is also a form of hedging. No one knows for sure who Trump is listening to today and whether that might change tomorrow. "You simply can't afford to put all your eggs in one basket with this administration," said Robin Niblett, director of the London-based think tank Chatham House. "Trump is on one day and off the other. One day you have a deal and the next day you don't. You have to hedge. And you have to cover yourself at home because he can dump you in it at any moment." | null |
Edison Research, which made the call, also projected that North Carolina, the only other battleground state with an outstanding vote count, would go to Trump, finalising the electoral vote tally at 306 for Biden to 232 for Trump. The numbers gave Biden, a Democrat, a resounding victory over Trump in the Electoral College, equal to the 306 votes Trump, a Republican, won to defeat Hillary Clinton, a 2016 victory that Trump called a "landslide." While Trump had yet to concede, Biden officials reiterated they were moving ahead with transition efforts regardless. Although the national popular vote does not determine the election outcome, Biden was ahead by more than 5.3 million votes, or 3.4 percentage points. His share of the popular vote, at 50.8%, was slightly higher than Ronald Reagan's share of the vote in 1980 when he defeated Jimmy Carter. Trump, a Republican, has claimed without evidence that he was cheated by widespread election fraud and has refused to concede. State election officials report no serious irregularities, and several of his legal challenges have failed in court. To win a second term, Trump would need to overturn Biden's lead in at least three states, but he has so far failed to produce evidence that he could do so in any of them. States face a Dec. 8 "safe harbor" deadline to certify their elections and choose electors for the Electoral College, which will officially select the new president on Dec. 14. A Michigan state court rejected on Friday a request by Trump to block the certification of votes in Detroit, which went heavily in favor of Biden. And lawyers for Trump's campaign dropped a lawsuit in Arizona after the final vote count rendered it moot. Federal election security officials have found no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, "or was in any way compromised," two security groups said in a statement released on Thursday by the lead US cybersecurity agency. Trump was set on Friday afternoon to make his first public remarks since Biden was projected as the election's winner on Nov. 7. The White House said he would address the nation on the efforts by the government and drugmakers to develop effective treatments for the coronavirus pandemic. TRANSITION TALK Biden officials said on Friday they would press forward with the transition, identifying legislative priorities, reviewing federal agency policies and preparing to fill thousands of jobs in the new administration. "We're charging ahead with the transition," Jen Psaki, a senior adviser to Biden's transition team, said on a conference call on Friday, while stressing that Biden still needs "real-time information" from the Trump administration to deal with the resurgent pandemic and national security threats. Psaki urged Trump's White House to allow Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to receive daily intelligence briefings on potential threats around the world. “With every day that passes on, it becomes more concerning that our national security team and the president-elect and the vice president-elect don't have access to those threat assessments, intelligence briefings, real-time information about our engagements around the world," Psaki said. "Because, you know, you don’t know what you don’t know." Biden will be briefed by his own group of national-security experts next week, she said. He met with transition advisers again on Friday at his Delaware beach house where he is mapping out his approach to the pandemic and prepares to name his top appointees, including Cabinet members. Trump's refusal to accept defeat has stalled the official transition. The federal agency that releases funding to an incoming president-elect, the General Services Administration, has yet to recognise Biden's victory, denying him access to federal office space and resources. Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera, a Trump confidant, said he had spoken to the president by phone on Friday and that Trump had given him the impression that he would follow the US Constitution and surrender his office after every vote was counted. "He told me he's a realist. He told me he would do the right thing," Rivera said in an interview with Fox. "I got no impression that he was plotting the overthrow of the elected government. He just wants a fair fight." | null |
"The Embassy believes Tarique is guilty of egregious political corruption that has had a serious adverse effect on US national interests mentioned in Section 4 of the proclamation, namely the stability of democratic institutions and US foreign assistance goals," the cable marked 'confidential' said.The Embassy however made it clear they did not wish to place a similar ban on Tarique Rahman's wife, Dr Zubaida Rahman, their daughter, Zaima, or Tarique's mother Khaleda Zia, a former Prime Minister of Bangladesh.The cable provided a detailed background to justify what it was recommending."Bangladesh is a developing nation in which systemic corruption has permeated all aspects of public life. Through 2006, the nation topped Transparency International's ranking of the world's most corrupt governments four years in a row."The current Caretaker Government, which assumed power in January 2007 after months of political unrest, pledged to root out corruption and rid the nation of the kleptocratic scourge that has so long plagued this poverty-stricken nation. In fact, corruption has lowered Bangladesh's growth rate by two percent per year, according to experts."Cynicism about the Government's willingness or ability to hold corrupt leaders accountable remains high. Concerns about corruption continue to create a vacuum of trust that limits private sector investment and undermines public confidence in a democratic future."The cable described Tarique Rahman as "the notorious and widely feared son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia”.It talks of his release on bail and departure from Bangladesh to seek medical treatment in the UK on September 11, 2008.And then what the cable said about Tarique was a damning indictment of the former prime minister's son."Notorious for flagrantly and frequently demanding bribes in connection with government procurement actions and appointments to political office, Tarique is a symbol of kleptocratic government and violent politics in Bangladesh."His release occurred despite multiple pending cases against him on charges of, inter alia, corruption, extortion, bribery, embezzlement and tax evasion. With deep political ties that reach the highest court in the land, Tarique managed to manipulate the judicial process and overcome a concerted effort by the Caretaker Government to block his bail."We believe Tarique has several passports, including a new one in which the UK issued him a visa in September. Another passport contains a five year multiple-entry B1/B2 visa (issued May 11, 2005). We suspect that passport is being held by the government. "Tarique reportedly has accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit wealth. There are multiple extortion cases pending against him, founded on the testimony of numerous prominent business owners who he victimized and exploited."In one case, Tarique allegedly threatened Al Amin Construction owner Amin Ahmed with closure of the company unless he received a payment of 150,000 USD. Other local business leaders, including Mohammad Aftab Uddin Khan of Reza Construction, Ltd, Mir Zahir Hossain of Mir Akhter Hossain Ltd., and Harun Ferdousi have each filed accusations detailing a systematic pattern of extortion on a multi-million dollar scale. The ACC has also filed charges of concealing ill-gotten wealth, and the National Board of Revenue has brought tax evasion charges against Tarique."Tarique's corrupt activities were not limited to extortion of local companies. The ACC has also uncovered evidence in several bribery cases involving both foreign and local firms and individuals:A. Siemens: According to a witness who funneled bribes from Siemens to Tarique and his brother Koko, Tarique received a bribe of approximately two percent on all Siemens deals in Bangladesh (paid in US dollars). This case is currently being pursued by DOJ Asset Forfeiture (POC: Deputy Chief Linda Samuels) and by the FBI (POC: Debra Laprevotte).B. Harbin Company: ACC sources report that the Harbin Company, a Chinese construction company, paid 750,000 USD to Tarique to open a plant. According to the ACC, one of Tarique's cronies received the bribe and transported it to Singapore for deposit with Citibank.C. Monem Construction: An ACC investigator advised Embassy officials that Monem Construction paid a bribe worth 450,000 USD to Tarique to secure contracts.D. Kabir Murder Case: The ACC has evidence that Tarique accepted a 210 million taka (3.1 million USD) bribe to thwart the prosecution of a murder case against Sanvir Sobhan. Sanvir is the son of the chairman of the Bashundura Group, one of the nation's most prominent industrial conglomerates. Sanvir was accused in the killing of Humayun Kabir, a Bashundura Group director. An investigation by the ACC confirmed Tarique had solicited the payment, promising to clear Sanvir of all charges."Beyond bribery and extortion, the ACC reports Tarique also became involved in an elaborate and lucrative embezzlement scheme. With the help of several accomplices, Tarique succeeded in looting 20 million taka (300,000 USD) from the Zia Orphanage Trust fund. According to an ACC source, Tarique, who is a co-signer on the trust fund account, used funds from the trust for a land purchase in his hometown. He also provided signed checks drawn from the orphanage fund accounts to BNP party members for their 2006 election campaigns.
File Photo
File Photo "Tarique's corrupt practices have had deleterious effects on the US interests specified in the Proclamation. His antics have weakened public confidence in government and eroded the stability of democratic institutions. Tarique's well-established reputation for flouting the rule of law directly threatens US financial assistance goals directed toward reforming legal codes, strengthening good governance and halting judicial abuses."The bribery, embezzlement, and culture of corruption that Tarique has helped create and maintain in Bangladesh has directly and irreparably undermined US businesses, resulting in many lost opportunities. His theft of millions of dollars in public money has undermined political stability in this moderate, Muslim-majority nation and subverted US attempts to foster a stable democratic government, a key objective in this strategically important region."Tarique's flagrant corruption has also seriously threatened specific US Mission goals. Embassy Dhaka has three key priorities for Bangladesh: democratization, development, and denial of space to terrorists. Tarique's audaciously corrupt activities jeopardize all three. His history of embezzlement, extortion, and interference in the judicial process undermines the rule of law and threatens the US goal of a stable, democratic Bangladesh."The climate of corrupt business practices and bribe solicitation that Tarique fostered derailed US efforts to promote economic development by discouraging much needed foreign investment and complicating the international operations of US companies."Finally, his flagrant disregard for the rule of law has provided potent ground for terrorists to gain a foothold in Bangladesh while also exacerbating poverty and weakening democratic institutions. In short, much of what is wrong in Bangladesh can be blamed on Tarique and his cronies."Applying a 212(f) finding to Tarique Rahman supports the US's strong stand against corruption in Bangladesh. Embassy recommends that Tarique Rahman be found subject to Presidential Proclamation 7750 for participating in public official corruption as defined by Section 1, Paragraph (c) of the Proclamation," is how the cable ends.Six years later, much has evidently changed. | null |
As wheat and rice prices surge, the humble potato is being rediscovered as a nutritious crop that could cheaply feed an increasingly hungry world. India has told food experts it wants to double potato production in the next five to 10 years. China, a huge rice consumer that historically has suffered devastating famines, has become the world's top potato grower. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the potato is expanding more than any other crop right now. Potatoes, which are native to Peru, can be grown at almost any elevation or climate: from the barren, frigid slopes of the Andes Mountains to the tropical flatlands of Asia. They require very little water, mature in as little as 50 days, and can yield between two and four times more food per hectare than wheat or rice. "The shocks to the food supply are very real and that means we could potentially be moving into a reality where there is not enough food to feed the world," said Pamela Anderson, director of the International Potato Center in Lima (CIP), a non-profit scientific group researching the potato family to promote food security. Like others, she says the potato is part of the solution. The potato has potential as an antidote to hunger caused by higher food prices, a population that is growing by one billion people each decade, climbing costs for fertilizer and diesel, and more cropland being sown for biofuel production. To focus attention on this, the United Nations named 2008 the International Year of the Potato, calling the vegetable a "hidden treasure". Governments are also turning to the tuber. Peru's leaders, frustrated by a doubling of wheat prices in the past year, have started a program encouraging bakers to use potato flour to make bread. Potato bread is being given to school children, prisoners and the military, in the hope the trend will catch on. Supporters say it tastes just as good as wheat bread, but not enough mills are set up to make potato flour. "We have to change people's eating habits," said Ismael Benavides, Peru's agriculture minister. "People got addicted to wheat when it was cheap." Even though the potato emerged in Peru 8,000 years ago near Lake Titicaca, Peruvians eat fewer potatoes than people in Europe. Belarus leads the world in potato consumption, with each inhabitant of the eastern European state devouring an average of 376 pounds (171 kg) a year. Some consumers are switching to potatoes. In the Baltic country of Latvia, sharp price rises caused bread sales to drop by 10-15 percent in January and February, as consumers bought 20 percent more potatoes, food producers have said. The developing world is where most new potato crops are being planted, and as consumption rises poor farmers have a chance to earn more money. "The countries themselves are looking at the potato as a good option for both food security and also income generation," Anderson said. AFFORDABLE RAINBOW OF COLORS The potato is already the world's third most-important food crop after wheat and rice. Corn, which is widely planted, is mainly used for animal feed. Though most Americans associate potatoes with the bland Idaho variety, they actually come in some 5,000 types. Peru is sending thousands of seeds this year to the Doomsday Vault near the Arctic Circle, contributing to a gene bank for food crops that was set up in case of a global disaster. With colors ranging from alabaster-white to bright yellow and deep purple and countless shapes, textures, and sizes, potatoes offer inventive chefs a chance to create new, eye-catching plates. "They taste great," said Juan Carlos Mescco, 17, a potato farmer in Peru's Andes who says he frequently eats them sliced, boiled, or mashed from breakfast through dinner. Potatoes are a great source of complex carbohydrates, which release their energy slowly, and -- so long as they are not smothered with butter -- have only five percent of the fat content of wheat. They also have one-fourth of the calories of bread and, when boiled, have more protein than corn and nearly twice the calcium, according to the Potato Center. They contain vitamin C, iron, potassium and zinc. SPECULATORS AREN'T TEMPTED One factor helping the potato remain affordable is the fact that unlike wheat, it is not a global commodity, so has not attracted speculative professional investment. Each year, farmers around the globe produce about 600 million metric tonnes of wheat, and about 17 percent of that flows into foreign trade. Wheat production is almost double that of potato output. Analysts estimate less than 5 percent of potatoes are traded internationally, and prices are mainly driven by local tastes, instead of international demand. Raw potatoes are heavy and can rot in transit, so global trade in them has been slow to take off. They are also susceptible to infection with pathogens, hampering export to avoid spreading plant diseases. The downside to that is that prices in some countries aren't attractive enough to persuade farmers to grow them. People in Peruvian markets say the government needs to help lift demand. "Prices are low. It doesn't pay to work with potatoes," said Juana Villavicencio, who spent 15 years planting potatoes and now sells them for pennies a kilo in a market in Cusco, in Peru's southern Andes. But science is moving fast. Genetically modified potatoes that resist "late blight" are being developed by German chemicals group BASF. The disease led to famine in Ireland during the 19th century and still causes about 20 percent of potato harvest losses in the world, the company says. Scientists say farmers who use clean, virus-free seeds can boost yields by 30 percent and be cleared for export. That would generate more income for farmers and encourage more production as companies could sell specialty potatoes abroad, instead of just as frozen french fries or potato chips. | null |
A survey of some of Britain's biggest pension schemes published on Saturday said only a small share of them disclosed investment views on controversies such as climate change and company governance. A survey of the 20 largest occupational pension funds, together worth more than 250 billion pounds ($479 billion), showed only five of them disclosed policies for engaging firms on environmental, social and governance issues, according to FairPensions, an investment campaigning group. Big investors such as pension plans, insurance funds and asset managers have been encouraged by environmental lobbyists and other campaigners to use their economic muscle to change the practices of the firms they invest in. Among the survey's findings, it said organisations like the BBC and the Royal Mail gave little transparency on their investments. Only the pension scheme of BT Group disclosed how votes had been cast on its members' behalf, while the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) and pension fund of the UK rail industry gave partial voting data, the report said. The survey showed that 15 of the respondents disclosed their biggest shareholdings. "Pension scheme members will have concerns about how their pensions will be affected by issues such as climate change, but most are not given reassuring information on such issues," Alex van der Velden, Executive Director of FairPensions, said. | null |
The countries were divided into four regions: North and South America, northern and western Europe, southern and eastern Europe, and Non-Americas and non-Europe.No data was available from India or China."Despite country-specific particularities, we found a similarly strong association between unemployment and suicide rates in all four regions," said lead author Carlos Nordt from the University of Zurich.A changing unemployment rate affected both sex as well as different age groups equally, the findings showed."After the crisis year in 2008, the number of suicides increased short-term by 5,000 cases," Nordt pointed out.Other studies had already estimated this figure. What was not known, however, was that around 46,000 suicides overall were associated with unemployment that year."Therefore, suicides associated with unemployment totalled a nine-fold higher number of deaths than excess suicides attributed to the most recent economic crisis," Nordt explained.The impact of a change in unemployment on suicide was stronger in countries with a lower rather than with a higher pre-crisis unemployment rate.Therefore, according to the researchers, investments in programmes that integrate people in the job market and promote a healthy work climate are also essential in countries with comparably lower unemployment rates.These striking findings suggest that suicide prevention strategies need to target the negative health effects of unemployment in times of economic stability as well as during recession.The study was published in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry. | null |
The meeting in downtown Omaha, Nebraska was
Berkshire's first welcoming shareholders since 2019, before COVID-19 derailed
America's largest corporate gathering for two years. It allowed shareholders to ask five hours
of questions directly to Buffett and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, and some
questions to Vice Chairmen Greg Abel, who would become chief executive if
Buffett could not serve, and Ajit Jain. Buffett said Berkshire, long faulted for
holding too much cash, boosted its combined stakes in oil company Chevron Corp
and "Call of Duty" game maker Activision Blizzard Inc nearly six-fold
to more than $31 billion. Berkshire also said first-quarter operating
profit was little changed at $7.04 billion, as many of its dozens of businesses
withstood supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19 variants, the Ukraine
invasion and rising costs from inflation. Buffett, 91, said it "really feels
good" to address shareholders in person, after holding the last two
meetings without them. Attendees included JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief
Executive Jamie Dimon and the actor Bill Murray. 'I THINK WE'RE SANE Buffett had in his annual shareholder
letter in February bemoaned the lack of investment opportunities. That prompted a shareholder to ask what
changed in March, when Berkshire bought 14.6% of Occidental Petroleum Corp and
agreed to buy insurer Alleghany Corp for $11.6 billion. Buffett said it was simple: he turned to
Occidental after reading an analyst report, and to Alleghany after its chief
executive, who once led Berkshire's General Re business, wrote to him. "Markets do crazy things, and
occasionally Berkshire gets a chance to do something," he said. "It's
not because we're smart.... I think we're sane." Berkshire spent $51 billion on equities in
the quarter, and its cash stake sank more than $40 billion to $106 billion. But the conglomerate has many cash-generating
resources, including its insurance operations, and Buffett assured that
reserves won't run dry. "We will always have a lot of
cash," he said. "It's like oxygen, it's there all the time but if it
disappears for a few minutes, it's all over." 'FLIPPING A COIN' Buffett and Jain stumbled for answers when
asked about whether the Ukraine conflict could degenerate into nuclear war. Jain, who has drawn Buffett's praise for
decades, said he had a "lack of ability" to estimate Berkshire's
insurance exposure. Buffett added that there was a "very,
very, very low" risk of a nuclear attack, though the world had "come
close" during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. "The world is flipping a coin every
day," Buffett said. "Berkshire does not have an answer." Buffett also picked on a favoured target in
saying stock markets sometimes resembled a casino or gambling partner. "That existed to an extraordinary
degree in the last couple of years, encouraged by Wall Street," he said. For his part, Munger, 98, echoed Nancy
Reagan in criticizing bitcoin, saying that if an advisor suggested you put your
retirement account there, "just say no." Munger also criticised
trading firm Robinhood Markets Inc. He and Buffett munched their familiar
candies from See's, which Berkshire owns, and drank soda from Coca-Cola, a big
Berkshire investment, at the meeting. Abel defended Berkshire's BNSF railroad,
saying there was "more to be done" to improve operations and customer
service, and compete against rival Union Pacific Corp. Buffett also said Berkshire is designed to
assure shareholders that the company and its business culture will survive his
and Munger's departures. "Berkshire is built forever," he
said. EARLY WAKE-UPS Shareholders also rejected proposals
requiring Berkshire to disclose more about how its businesses promote diversity
and address climate risks, and install an independent chairman to replace
Buffett in that role. Read full story Buffett has run Berkshire since 1965, and
Mario Gabelli, chairman of Gamco Advisors and a prominent Berkshire investor,
opposed ending his chairmanship. "It's not inappropriate for companies
to look at separating the chair and CEO," he said. "It doesn't make
sense in the case of Berkshire Hathaway because this guy has done a fantastic
job for 50 years. We like the idea, but not here." Thousands of people massed outside the
downtown arena housing the meeting before doors opened at 7 am. Berkshire had projected lower attendance
than in 2019, and about 10% to 15% of seats in the normally-full arena were
empty. As at other Berkshire-sponsored events this
weekend, nearly all attendees did not wear masks, though all needed proof of
COVID-19 vaccination. CNBC.com webcast the meeting. "I bought a chair from Walmart so I
could sit down," said Tom Spain, founder of Henry Spain Investment
Services in Market Harborough, England, who arrived at 3:15 a.m. for his third
meeting. "Everyone has been using it. Next year I might bring a massive
container of coffee and give it out." Lauritz Fenselau, a 23-year-old owner of a
software startup from Frankfurt, Germany, showed up at 4 a.m. for his first
meeting. "It's like a pilgrimage," he said. Also sleep-deprived was Andres Avila, who
arrived in Omaha from Boston just five hours before getting in line at 4:45 am,
carrying an umbrella to fend off the rain. "I have a bunch of my idols
here," he said. | null |
Indonesia can achieve a similar growth rate to Asia's economic powerhouses, China and India, provided it fixes its ailing infrastructure and attracts more foreign investment, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Wednesday. Southeast Asia's biggest economy is set to expand 6.3 percent this year, its fastest growth in 11 years, but still lags far behind China, which is set to grow 11.5 percent this year, and India, which is heading for 9 percent growth in its fiscal year. "We can achieve that" kind of growth rate, Kalla told Reuters in an interview, as Indonesia plans to improve infrastructure such as roads, ports, and transportation, and provide "good regulation for investors". President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was elected in 2004 on the back of promises to tackle corruption, boost growth, and create jobs. Kalla said the government was tackling impediments to growth such as corruption and investor-unfriendly labour laws. "This is a transition period," said the wealthy businessman, who comes from Indonesia's Sulawesi island. With a presidential election due in 2009, Kalla is already seen as a potential opponent to Yudhoyono rather than his running mate. When asked whether he would run with or against Yudhoyono, Kalla said: "this question will be answered in 2009. It is not my personal decision only but this is a party decision." But Kalla, who heads the dominant Golkar party in parliament, did not rule out standing for president. "Anything is possible." Kalla gave an upbeat assessment of the economy, shrugging off recent weakness in the rupiah currency which has been partly blamed on concerns about the impact of high oil prices on the economy and the high cost of government fuel subsidies. The rupiah fell as low as 9,422 per dollar on Wednesday, from around 9,100 at the beginning of November. "The central bank will take care of it," he said. "Between 9,300 and 9,500 they usually intervene." WORLD RESPONSIBLE FOR FORESTS Kalla, who expressed confidence the economy could meet a government growth target of 6.8 percent next year, said there was no plan to cut or reduce fuel subsidies, politically sensitive in Indonesia. Cuts in the level of subsidy have led to riots in the past, and analysts say that with elections slated for 2009, it is unlikely the government will cut subsidies. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on Tuesday that energy subsidies could hit 88.2 trillion rupiah ($9.37 billion) this year, well above the 55.6 trillion rupiah allocated in the 2007 budget. On nuclear energy, Kalla it was not a "not a big issue for us", citing a lack of budget, safety worries, and Indonesia's preference for other energy sources such as geothermal and hydropower. Indonesia has said it wants to build its first nuclear plant by 2016, drawing ire from environmentalists worried about a nuclear accident given the country's frequent earthquakes. Kalla said that it was right for Indonesia, which has about 10 percent of the world's tropical rain forests, to press richer nations to help pay to retain forests to reduce global warming. Indonesia, which will host a UN climate change meeting in Bali next month of about 190 nations, is backing a scheme that aims to make emission cuts from forests eligible for carbon trading. Experts estimate Indonesia could earn more than $13 billion by preserving its forests if the plan gets support in Bali. "All the people of the world should be responsible," said Kalla, referring to the exploitation of Indonesian timber by richer countries around the world. | null |
Beginning with the inauguration of US President Donald
Trump, who swiftly moved to restrict abortions around the world, 2017 brought a
reminder to many that women's rights have a long road ahead. But the trials ushered in a new era of resistance in the
United States and elsewhere, while countries in the Middle East, Africa, and
Latin America made strides toward ending gender discrimination, campaigners
said. "It was a year for tackling discriminatory laws,"
UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka told the Thomson Reuters
Foundation.
A woman wears an outfit with the names of all the men in Hollywood who sexually harassed her during a protest march for survivors of sexual assault and their supporters in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California US, Nov 12, 2017. Reuters
Lebanon, Tunisia and Jordan all scrapped laws this year that
allowed rapists to escape punishment if they married their victims, a move
activists hope will spread to other Arab states. A woman wears an outfit with the names of all the men in Hollywood who sexually harassed her during a protest march for survivors of sexual assault and their supporters in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California US, Nov 12, 2017. Reuters In a string of victories against child marriage, Malawi,
Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago, El Salvador and Guatemala all amended national
laws to ban the practice, Mlambo-Ngcuka said. And in India, where child marriage is illegal but common,
lawmakers ruled that having sex with a wife aged 15 to 18 is punishable as
rape. Trump's expansion of the global gag rule - which withholds US
funding from foreign clinics or groups that provide information about abortion
- dealt a blow to family planning services and women's health worldwide,
charities said.
Reuters
But in a victory for campaigners, Chile ruled to legalise
abortion in certain circumstances, leaving only a handful of countries in the
world where it is banned outright. Reuters "We continue to see progress in advancing reproductive
human rights in a hostile global climate," said Lilian Sepulveda of the
global legal program at the Center for Reproductive Rights. Other women's rights leaders said it was the resistance to
sexism that made 2017 noteworthy. "This year has also been about changing the narrative –
from one that blames, disbelieves and stigmatises victims, to one that holds
abusers to account," said the UN's Mlambo-Ngcuka.
Time magazine has named the #MeToo social movement as the most influential "person" in 2017. Reuters file photo
Millions of women around the world marched in protest to
Trump the day after his inauguration, many wearing pink "pussyhats"
in reference to his boast in a 2005 video about grabbing women's genitals. Time magazine has named the #MeToo social movement as the most influential "person" in 2017. Reuters file photo Months later, millions again joined a popular protest
movement by sharing stories of sexual abuse and harassment on social media
using the hashtag #MeToo, or in France, #balancetonporc ("expose your
pig"). "I think this is just the beginning of a new awakening
for women," said Bob Bland, one of the national co-chairs of the Women's
March on Washington. "Going into 2018, we are galvanised for the fight
ahead," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. | null |
Overall, governments' pledges for curbs on greenhouse gas emissions are not enough to limit a rise in temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), seen as a threshold for damaging heat waves, downpours and rising sea levels, it said. "The ambition of all major developed countries falls well short of their fair shares," according to the report by groups including Christian Aid, Oxfam, the International Trade Union Confederation and WWF International. The study coincides with the start of Oct 19-23 talks among almost 200 nations in Bonn, Germany, the final UN session to prepare a deal due at a summit in December in Paris to limit climate change beyond 2020. About 150 nations have so far submitted national plans for fighting climate change, as building blocks of a Paris accord. But there is no agreed system to compare each nation's level of ambition. Monday's report said the rich could afford to shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energies, while helping others, and have more responsibility because they have benefited from burning coal, oil and natural gas since the Industrial Revolution. By those yardsticks, it estimated that the United States and the European Union had promised about a fifth of their "fair shares" and Japan about a tenth. By contrast, it found that emerging economies' plans "exceed or broadly meet" their fair share. China was doing more than its fair share, for instance, counting its emissions since 1950, while Brazil was contributing two-thirds. "Across the board, rich countries are failing to bring the two most important ingredients to the negotiating table – emission cuts and money,” said Brandon Wu of ActionAid. Tasneem Essop, of WWF International, said Paris should set up "mechanisms to allow actions to get stronger and stronger through regular science and equity reviews". Top emitters Beijing and Washington both say their plans are ambitious. China plans to peak greenhouse gas emissions around 2030 while the United States aims to cut greenhouse emission by 26-28 percent by 2025, from 2005 levels. On current trends, Monday's report said temperatures were on track to rise by 3 degrees C (5.4F) or more above pre-industrial levels by 2100, well above the agreed maximum of 2C. | null |
International airline bookings to Southeast Asia reached 38% of pre-pandemic levels by late March, according to travel firm ForwardKeys. They were at less than 10% of 2019 levels at the start of the year. Singapore and the Philippines led to a sharp uptick in bookings. "We are the first to cut all the red tape," said Philippines tourism minister Bernadette Romulo-Puyat. "Tourists are quite happy because upon arrival, they are free to go." These countries now require vaccinated travellers to only perform a rapid antigen test before arrival, whereas more complicated requirements in Thailand have knocked the former tourist favourite out of the top league. The ForwardKeys data showed Singapore and Philippines bookings were at 72% and 65% of 2019 levels, respectively, while Thailand was at just 24%. "The on-arrivals PCR can cost 2,000-2,500 baht ($60-$75) and can cost a lot especially for groups, (making) people hesitant to travel," said Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi, president of the Thai Hotels Association. "If another country does not have entry requirements, people would rather go there … less hassle." Bookings are a forward-looking indicator, and arrival figures also include returning locals. Singapore and the Philippines have large outbound markets compared to Thailand, said Brendan Sobie, an independent aviation analyst. Asia, though, is lagging a recovery in other regions including Europe, which eased restrictions months ago. Domestic and international traffic within the Asia Pacific this year will only reach 68% of 2019 levels and hit pre-pandemic traffic by 2025, a year behind the rest of the world, the International Air Transport Association said. For example, visitors to Singapore surged nearly four times in February from a year earlier, when the city-state had restricted entry. But that was just 9% of arrivals in February 2020 and included an influx of holders of work visas from Malaysia and India. Thailand will take until 2026 to make a full recovery, the governor of its central bank said on Monday. In 2019, tourism accounted for about 12% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). Travel and tourism in Southeast Asia - known for its white sand beaches, historical architecture and warm climate - contributed $380.6 billion to the region's GDP in 2019, or 11.8% of the total, according to World Travel & Tourism Council. NO CHINESE TOURISTS The profile of international travellers to Southeast Asia also has shifted. Once making up Asia's largest group of travellers, Chinese tourists are stuck at home due to strict lockdowns. More than a quarter of the 40 million tourists who had visited Thailand in 2019 were Chinese. This year, the country expects between 5 million and 10 million international arrivals from places like Malaysia and other Southeast Asian neighbours. Japan, which remains shut to tourists itself, has seen only small numbers of travellers to Southeast Asia, while Russia's invasion of Ukraine has kept away the typically large number of Russian tourists in the region. A third of the travellers to Southeast Asia so far this year were from Europe, up from 22% in 2019, while those from North America have more than doubled to 21% from 9% in 2019, according to ForwardKeys. Travellers from Asia made up just 24% so far this year, versus 57% in 2019. POPULAR EUROPE "Things changed a lot for the better over the last month. We are seeing a boom in bookings," said Rabil Lian, a tour guide with a top Singaporean travel agency, who recently got his job back after filling a temporary government job through the pandemic. Lian, 51, led five tour groups to Europe in the past four months, and said Australia was becoming a popular destination as well. But he said many were waiting for Japan and Taiwan to ease rules. In Vietnam, foreign tourists nearly doubled in the first quarter this year from a year earlier. But the country, which lifted nearly all curbs only last month, expects just over a quarter of the international arrivals it saw in 2019. "I saw all the famous food stores were still there as they have domestic demand and didn't feel like there was a huge gap left by (the lack of) tourism over the last two years," said Justin Ong, a Singaporean journalist who visited Vietnam last month, his first trip since the pandemic hit. | null |
Four associations on climate change initiatives, which represent over 100 insurers, have urged world leaders and governments to use insurance-linked products to protect developing countries against the impact of climate change. As the world wrangles over how to fight climate change, insurance think tank the Geneva Association, along with insurance industry lobby groups ClimateWise, the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII) and the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), called for global governments to use better risk management and insurance-type approaches to reduce the vulnerability of developing countries from natural disasters. The insurance industry, including reinsurers, who distribute risk around the sector, has traditionally been the main way to hedge against hurricanes, floods and other national disasters. Insurers have also looked to transfer risks associated with natural disasters to capital markets investors - such as catastrophe bonds. Last year, Swiss Re teamed up with the World Bank to issue a $290 million cat bond to cover against earthquakes and hurricanes in the city. The risks of developing world will become the risks of developed world if we do not engage, Vanessa Otto-Mentz, head of the strategy unit at Santam, a member of ClimateWise told a news conference in London on Monday. The associations, which represent insurers such as Munich Re and Allianz Insurance, want global government's to use the knowledge and expertise from the insurance industry to encourage national risk management processes in developing countries, particularly those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In addition, the group urged the development of new insurance products, which cover risks affected by climate and weather events, such as human health, crop yields and animal diseases. "We have an opportunity to reduce significant human and economic suffering through loss prevention and risk transformations," said Walter Stahel, the deputy secretary general at the Geneva Association. He called on governments to invest in systemic, systematic and reliable risk data, which is lacking in developing countries and to engage in public/private partnerships to provide cover for catastrophe risk and micro insurance. "The insurance industry has the tools and knowledge - now we need the heads of government to provide the framework and conditions in order for these instruments to function," he added. Over the past three decades, direct global economic losses for all types of natural catastrophes have averaged $90 billion per year, with 78 percent of those natural catastrophes being weather-related, according to the world's biggest reinsurer, Munich Re. Meanwhile, 85 percent of deaths associated with all natural catastrophes over that timescale have occurred in developing countries, said the reinsurer. The four associations will lobby world leaders and negotiators of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. | null |
At 1034 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.9 percent, taking its gains for the year to 5.3 percent. The index's performance to date this year is anaemic compared to 14 percent gains at this time in 2006, but European shares have risen 9.5 percent from a low plumbed in August when fears over a crunch in credit markets were at their worst. Shares in France Telecom vaulted 6.5 percent after it posted strong results, also lifting Vodafone by 4 percent and making telecoms the best performing sector in Europe. Swiss engineering group ABB rose 3.7 percent after an 86 percent rise in quarterly earnings boosted by strong demand for power generation infrastructure, while French rival Alstom rose 5.6 percent as Lehman Brothers raised its target price for the stock. Earnings growth has widely been expected to slow this quarter after a strong run, but many companies have reported strong numbers. "The earnings season has the potential to reassure investors, and the results compared to what was feared have had a positive impact on sentiment," said Gerhard Schwarz, head of global equity strategy at Unicredit in Munich. "It's clear though that there's a trend of increased selectivity, and it's too early to conclude that earnings growth in Europe will decelerate less than in the United States." German auto group Daimler reported third-quarter earnings that were ahead of forecasts, sending its stock up 1.5 percent. On the macroeconomic front, U.S. durable goods orders and a reading on U.S. new home sales are due later in the day and financial markets are already pricing in a 100 percent chance of a cut in U.S. interest rates next week. Data earlier from the Ifo economic research institute showed its German business climate index dipped in October, in line with market expectations. Around European markets, London's FTSE 100, Frankfurt's DAX and Paris's CAC-40 all gained more than 1 percent.
SEVEN DOWN, SEVEN UP: A ROLLERCOASTER European stocks have staged a recovery after falling 13 percent in one month from mid-July, helped by cuts in the Federal Reserve's discount and main funds rates. But the recovery has been sensitive to any bad news on banks' exposure to the credit market problems, and the European benchmark has fallen one week for every week it has gained in the 14 weeks since mid-August. U.S. stocks recovered on Wednesday on talk of an imminent cut in the discount rate. "The Fed has remained tight-lipped over market speculation but with risk sentiment showing clear signs of stress after several downside earnings surprises and worries about credit market resurfacing, anticipation of another Fed easing move to provide some relief has grown significantly," UBS's forex strategists said in a note on Thursday. Merger and acquisitions, a key driver of a multi-year bull run, continued to boost stocks. Shares in French electrical supplier Rexel jumped 8.5 percent after the company said it was planning, along with privately held Sonepar, to carve up Dutch competitor Hagemeyer, whose shares fell 3.3 percent. Generali rose 5.7 percent, adding to Wednesday's 2.6 percent rise, after British fund Algebris attacked the Italian insurer's corporate governance and pushed for change. And Spanish bank Santander advanced 1.6 percent as the company's nine-month net profit came in ahead of market estimates. | null |
Egyptians vote on Saturday in a referendum on constitutional changes that are designed to allow free and fair elections but have splintered the reform movement that toppled Hosni Mubarak. The vote has divided Egypt between those who say much deeper constitutional change is needed and others who argue that the amendments will suffice for now. A high turnout is expected. The Muslim Brotherhood, a well organised Islamist group, has come out in favour of the amendments, setting it at odds with secular groups and prominent reform advocates including Mohamed ElBaradei and Amr Moussa, both candidates for the presidency. The military council to which Mubarak handed power on Feb. 11 is hoping the amendments will pass so it can move along the path it has set towards parliamentary and presidential elections that will allow it to cede power to an elected government. "This will be a watershed vote," said Ahmed Saleh, an activist now coordinating ElBaradei's presidential campaign. "People's appetite for voting is high now and change is in the air". The military council to which Mubarak handed power on Feb. 11 called for a strong turnout. "The goal of this referendum is to create an adequate climate for parliamentary and presidential elections but more important than the outcome is that Egyptians participate and give their voice," it said. The council asked a judicial committee to draft the amendments, which include a two-term limit on the presidency, restricting to eight years the time a leader can serve in the office Mubarak held for three decades. Rejection of the amendments will force the council to rethink its strategy and prolong a transitional period that it wants to keep as short as possible. But the reforms fall far short of the demands of reformists who want the constitution completely rewritten. Youth groups who organised the protests against Mubarak said the amendments were an attempt to "abort the revolution". TIGHT TIMETABLE More broadly, they are worried that a tight timetable set by the military for elections will not give enough time for parties to recover from years of oppression and give an advantage to the Muslim Brotherhood and remnants of Mubarak's administration. General Ismail Etman, a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, said this week that amending the constitution was "the best and not the most ideal solution". In an interview with Al Gomhuria newspaper published on Thursday, he said approval of the amendments would lead to new laws that would open up political life, including an end to restrictions of political party formation. Newspapers, television stations and social networking sites have been alive with debate over how to vote. The "No" camp pressed its campaign on Friday in a full-page advert in Al Masry Al Youm, a popular Egyptian newspaper. "How can I agree to a historic decision without time or adequate information?" was one of the objections listed alongside pictures of actors, politicians, religious figures and businessmen who are urging voters to reject the amendments. On the next page, a Muslim Brotherhood leader gave the opposing view: "Supporting the constitutional amendments is a step towards realising the demands of the revolution ... the ones who reject them have not offered a clear alternative." Up to 45 million of Egypt's population of 80 million are eligible to vote and a high turnout is expected from voters accustomed to elections marred by violence and vote-rigging under Mubarak. "Of course I will vote. I never felt my vote would count as much as it will on Saturday," said Ahmed Adel, 35, who added he would vote for the amendments to help get his country back on track. "We need a parliament and president as soon as possible". Activist Ziad el-Elemi disagreed: "We are holding workshops across the country to raise awareness among citizens that constitutional amendments are not enough." | null |
The arctic blast of frigid air has followed a January storm
that dumped more than a foot (30 cm) of snow and sleet across the Northeast,
which started melting Sunday. In a Chicago suburb, a 12-year-old girl died after a snow
fort she had built after church on Sunday collapsed on her, according to the
Arlington Heights Police Department. A 9-year-old girl she was playing with was
treated for hypothermia after being dug out of the snow and was expected to
survive, police said. Temperatures fell to single-digits Fahrenheit (about -20 C)
from New York City to Boston and through northern New England and froze melting
snow late on Sunday and early Monday, said Marc Chenard at the National Weather
Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. Winds up to 30
to 40 miles per hour (48-64 kph) added possibly deadly wind chill. “This is definitely dangerous, life-and-death kind of
weather happening,” Chenard said. “Minnesota and Wisconsin will see
temperatures in the negative 20s.” “Boston will be just 3 degrees (Fahrenheit) this morning,
with wind chills of minus 12 or more,” he said. “New York City and DC will be
in that same range, maybe hitting the teens later today. It’ll be record or
near-record cold.” The NWS issued wind-chill advisories and warnings for more
than 10 states, from North Dakota and to East Coast metropolitan centers. High temperatures for Monday are forecast at 17 Fahrenheit
(minus 8 Celsius) for New York City and 12 F (minus 11 C) for Boston. Many Americans had the day off work on Monday, either
because of the holiday or because they are among the furloughed federal
government workers who find themselves in the longest shutdown in US history,
caused by an impasse over funding US President Donald Trump’s plans to build
more barriers on the US-Mexico border. More than 7,500 flights were delayed, mostly in New York and
New England, according to FlightAware.com, down from more than 14,000 on
Sunday. Tuesday’s weather will be only slightly warmer, Chenard
said, with temperatures reaching the low 20s Fahrenheit in the Northeast. | null |
GOLD COAST, Thu Oct 30, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The world still has the funds and ability to fight climate change and nations should not use the financial crisis to delay policies on tackling global warming, a top carbon expert said on Thursday. James Cameron, vice-chairman of London-based Climate Change Capital, said the mobilisation of trillions of dollars over recent months had demonstrated the strength and scale of cooperation in tackling a global crisis. "We run the risk that governments will choose to focus on the near-term crisis and allow themselves the delusion that there is more time available to deal with a crisis coming slowly from afar," he told a major carbon conference in Australia. "So I accept that there is a danger that climate change could slip in the priority list for governments," he told delegates. "But we have learned that we are able to cooperate across borders to deal with the financial crisis, and beyond political boundaries, so we can mobilize capital very fast and that we do so in ways that support the continuation of our market systems." He said if governments combined that same capacity to cooperate with a matching urgency in tackling climate change, then the world could deal with both crises at the same time. There are concerns the financial crisis has already called on large reserves of public capital and that countries would be reluctant to make near-term climate change commitments that would cost their economies or threaten jobs. But Cameron, a senior member of one of the world's leading investors in clean-energy projects, said such a short-term focus was unwise. "If you are making investments that are designed to deliver public good in dealing with a crisis that will undeniably cost our economies substantial amounts over decades to come, it trivialises the issue to do a near-term cost-benefit analysis." "We are not, despite the recent drastic fall in the value of stock markets, without the capital to invest in solutions to this problem," he added. Climate Change Capital has more than $1.6 billion in funds under management and focuses on companies and institutions affected by the policy and capital market responses to climate change, the firm says on its website. | null |
The sixth annual Low Carbon Economy Index report from professional services firm PwC looked at the progress of major developed and emerging economies towards reducing their carbon intensity, or emissions per unit of gross domestic product. "The gap between what we are achieving and what we need to do is growing wider every year," PwC's Jonathan Grant said. He said governments were increasingly detached from reality in addressing the 2 degree goal. "Current pledges really put us on track for 3 degrees. This is a long way from what governments are talking about." Almost 200 countries agreed at United Nations climate talks to limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times to limit heat waves, floods, storms and rising seas from climate change. Temperatures have already risen by about 0.85 degrees Celsius. Carbon intensity will have to be cut by 6.2 percent a year to achieve that goal, the study said. That compares with an annual rate of 1.2 percent from 2012 to 2013. Grant said that to achieve the 6.2 percent annual cut would require changes of an even greater magnitude than those achieved by recent major shifts in energy production in some countries. France's shift to nuclear power in the 1980s delivered a 4 percent cut, Britain's "dash for gas" in the 1990s resulted in a 3 percent cut and the United States shale gas boom in 2012 led to a 3.5 percent cut. GLIMMER OF HOPE PwC said one glimmer of hope was that for the first time in six years emerging economies such as China, India and Mexico had cut their carbon intensity at a faster rate than industrialised countries such as the United States, Japan and the European Union. As the manufacturing hubs of the world, the seven biggest emerging nations have emissions 1.5-times larger than those of the seven biggest developed economies and the decoupling of economic growth from carbon emissions in those nations is seen as vital. Australia had the highest rate of decarbonisation for the second year in a row, cutting its carbon intensity by 7.2 percent over 2013. Coal producer Australia has one of the world's highest rates of emissions per person but its efforts to rein in the heat-trapping discharges have shown signs of stalling since the government in July repealed a tax on emissions. Britain, Italy and China each achieved a decarbonisation rate of 4-5 percent, while five countries increased their carbon intensity: France, the United States, India, Germany and Brazil. | null |
COPENHEGEN, (bdnews24.com)-- World leaders have been speaking at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen as it nears its climax. The summit's Danish hosts have sought to dampen hopes of a comprehensive agreement, although some leaders are still sounding optimistic. Reported BBC. Here is a selection of quotes from the conference centre. FRENCH PRESIDENT NICOLAS SARKOZY People want to keep
[the Kyoto protocol], okay, let's keep Kyoto. But let us agree on an overall political umbrella. Time is against us, let's stop posturing. A failure in Copenhagen would be a catastrophe for each and every one of us. We must shift into top gear in this conference or we will be heading straight for catastrophe. There is less than 24 hours. If we carry on like this it will be a failure. We are not here to convene a conference on global warming, we are here to make decisions. UK PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN In these few days in Copenhagen, which will be blessed or blamed for generations to come, we cannot permit the politics of narrow self-interest to prevent a policy for human survival. It is not enough for us to do the least we can get away with when history asks that we demand the most of ourselves. US SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON It would be hard to imagine, speaking for the United States, that there could be the
in the absence of transparency from the second biggest emitter (China). There has to be a willingness to move toward transparency in whatever forum we finally determine is appropriate. So if there is not even a commitment to pursue transparency that is kind of a dealbreak for us. ISRAELI PRESIDENT SHIMON PERES I call upon our neighbours, even those with whom we have not yet reached diplomatic relations, to join hands in an effort to save our region. Political disagreements should not hinder environmental co-operation. Carbon molecules carry no passport. Rivers require no visa. Pollution travels with them. All of us - Jews, Muslims and Christians - pray that the Jordan River will flow, fresh and holy. My call is the call of the Bible upon Adam, to "cultivate and preserve the Garden of Eden". IRANIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD We have very clear viewpoints regarding the causes... behind the destruction of the environment as well as... solutions for controlling this destructive process which we are going to submit (to the summit). I hope that the most significant contributors to the destruction of the environment will accept international commitments and assist us in creating a fair framework, by minimising that destruction and by supporting programmes to control the consequences of it. All countries must gain access to new technologies to diversify their energy resources and be able to use clean and renewable energy such as wind, solar, sea tide, geothermal and nuclear energies. CHINESE CLIMATE CHANGE AMBASSADOR YU QINGTAI Copenhagen is too important to fail. China is not interested in becoming a party to the efforts by some people to try to blame other countries for "a failure" at Copenhagen. I believe what they are trying to do is to find excuses for their own obstructive role and very unconstructive attitude in the whole process. INDIAN ENVIRONMENT MINISTER JAIRAM RAMESH The biggest stumbling block in my view is the desire on the part of some parties to abandon the
unilaterally and I think there has been an absence of trust and I think the blame game has begun. EMANUEL MORI, PRESIDENT OF MICRONESIA I ask your help to save my people. I ask your help to save the people of small island countries like mine. I ask for your help so that together we can save this planet for our future generations. JAPANESE ENVIRONMENT MINISTER SAKIHITO OZAWA What I don't yet understand is whether it's really going to be acceptable to the developing nations for the US and China - and some others - not to join an agreement. These countries are the main problem now. VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ I have been reading some of the slogans in the streets. One said "don't change the climate, change the system", and I bring that on board for us. Let's not change the climate. Let's change the system. And as a consequence, we will begin to save the planet. Capitalism is a destructive model that is putting an end to life. Another notable slogan is, "if the climate was a bank, you would have already saved it", and I think that's true. If the climate was a big capitalist bank, you would have already saved it, you the rich governments. MARCUS STEPHEN, PRESIDENT OF NUARU (SOUTH PACIFIC) The Republic of Nuaru is a single island, just 21 sq km (8 sq miles) in size. How much of our island should we compromise? We are trapped with the Pacific Ocean surrounding us on all sides. Sea levels are rising and we have nowhere else to go. GEORGE PAPANDREOU, GREEK PRIME MINISTER So let us abandon any blame game. We cannot let down the world, we cannot let down our children. We are here, and we are responsible for the future of this world. Our voices here today must make this dream a concrete reality. AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER KEVIN RUDD I fear a triumph of form over substance. I fear a triumph of inaction over action. The truth is that unless we all act together - because we are all in this together - there will be limited prospects of development because the planet itself will no longer sustain it. I fear that at this conference we are at the verge of letting down all of the little children of the world. Everyone here will be judged as an individual for what we do or we fail to do. SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA It is a matter of life or death for the population of the globe. We should put our heads together and take very serious decisions. Our view is we are dealing with an issue that threatens the very survival of humanity. That must take precedence, not the issue of trying to benefit while others are going under. SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT LEE MYUNG-BAK We all agree on the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The decisions that we make here today will affect not only ourselves but our children and the future of this planet. If we wish to make any real difference, the only way is to take action together. Instead of saying "you first", we should start by saying "me first". UGANDAN ENVIRONMENT MINISTER MARIA MUTAGAMBA The biggest stumbling block is that we are not able to follow the normal procedure and secondly that we seem to be sidelining the I still have some hope that we will come around and have an agreement to the process. NORWEGIAN PRIME MINISTER JENS STOLTENBERG We are now at a very critical stage of this conference. We must all take responsibility for reaching an agreement tomorrow. An agreement must include ambitious emissions targets and it must build on the principle of common but different responsibilities. The richest countries must carry the main responsibilities. All countries have to contribute. Norway will take our responsibility. We will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020. In the case of an ambitious global climate agreement we will go even further and become carbon neutral by 2030. VANUATU PRIME MINISTER EDWARD NATAPEI As I speak, our brothers and sisters in Fiji are recovering from a category two cyclone which ripped through the country, causing widespread flooding and forcing over 4,000 people into emergency shelters. This is but a foretaste of what could become much worse in the absence of an ambitious climate agreement. | null |
LONDON/NEW YORK, Oct 22,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The world's worst financial crisis in 80 years hammered emerging markets on Wednesday, prompting emergency central bank moves and calls for international help to curb investor flight. There was more bad news in the United States too, where battered US bank Wachovia Corp, set to be taken over by Wells Fargo & Co, posted a $23.9 billion third-quarter loss, a record for any US lender in the global credit crisis. Emerging market stocks, sovereign debt and currencies all came under intense pressure as investors unwound funding positions amid worries about the deteriorating world economy. Fears of a global recession overshadowed signs that efforts by authorities across the world to bolster the financial system were beginning to bear fruit. Hungary ratcheted up interest rates by three full points to defend its forint currency. Belarus's central bank said it had requested credit from the International Monetary Fund, and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said she expected her country to receive substantial financial aid from the IMF next week. The IMF is also ready to help Pakistan, which needs funds to avoid a balance of payments crisis, and Iceland, driven close to bankruptcy as frozen credit markets caused its banks to fail. "It's not that the fundamentals for emerging markets have changed. Capital is now moving back from the emerging world to the developed world," said Neil Dougall, chief emerging markets economist at Dresdner Kleinwort. OPTIMISM? Those problems masked some otherwise optimistic noises from various officials about the financial crisis, which has prompted billions of dollars in rescue and liquidity packages from governments around the world. U.S. Treasury Undersecretary David McCormick, speaking in Hong Kong, said the U.S. economy was in for a challenging few quarters but could start to recover late next year. "The name of the game is to bring back confidence to the financial market," he said. Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England and a major player in Group of Seven nations' discussions on the crisis, said that the worst may have passed for the financial system. "We are far from the end of the road back to stability," he said late on Tuesday. "But the plan to recapitalize our banking system, both here and abroad, will I believe come to be seen as the moment in the banking crisis of the past year when we turned the corner." His comments were underlined by a further drop in U.S. dollar short-term funding costs in London and Asia, a sign banks are beginning to regain trust in each other. Emerging powerhouse Russia, whose markets have been battered during the crisis, also signaled improvements in bank lending. "The interbank (lending) has started working normally. The rates are high but coming down. Banks have started crediting sectors again. But we still need two or three weeks for the situation to start improving," the Financial Times quoted First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov as saying. RECESSION LOOMS The overarching fear, overshadowing the progress made in fighting financial collapse, was about the deteriorating global economic climate. Minutes from the Bank of England's last meeting, at which it joined a coordinated round of rate cuts, said the UK economy had deteriorated substantially and King, in his Tuesday comments, said it was probably entering its first recession in 16 years. Such worries swept financial markets. Wall Street looked set for a poor start -- Dow Jones industrial average futures were down 259 points, or nearly 3 percent. European shares were down more than 4.4 percent and Japan's Nikkei average ended down 6.8 percent. In emerging markets, MSCI's sector index was at its lowest since June 2005, and sovereign debt spreads widened beyond 700 basis points over Treasury yields for the first time since early 2003. Currencies other than the forint were also battered, with the Turkish lira falling to the lowest in more than two years and South Africa's rand at its lowest in more than 6 years against the dollar. "Now we are going to have to deal with the problems of a business cycle downturn, which in all likelihood will be a fairly intense one," said Sanjay Mathur, economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Singapore. A slew of other US company results on Wednesday gave a snapshot of conditions across an array of industries and sectors in the world's largest economy. Tobacco companies Philip Morris International and Reynolds American Inc posted quarterly profits that beat analysts' estimates, as did fast-food chain McDonald's Corp. But they were bright spots amid the gloom. | null |
China is hopeful of "positive results" in the UN climate talks in Cancun, its chief negotiator to climate change talks said in comments published by state news agency Xinhua on Sunday. There is widespread pessimism about the ongoing talks, as rich and developing nations have clashed over the future of the Kyoto Protocol for fighting global warming. "As long as all parties have sincere political wills, China thinks the talks will eventually achieve positive and meaningful results, and is confident that it will reflect what was laid out in the Bali road map," Chinese negotiator Su Wei told Xinhua. China has said that climate talks should be guided by UN texts worked out since a meeting in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007. Su said that the parties should compromise on the "small problems", but added that there is "no room for compromise on principles", for example, on the issue of whether the Kyoto Protocol should continue. China accused some developed nations on Friday of seeking to kill the Kyoto Protocol pact -- the United Nations' main weapon in the fight against climate change to curb global warming -- in a damaging standoff with Japan, Russia and Canada. China, the world's top carbon emitter, has long said it will not bow to pressure to rethink the Protocol. Kyoto's first phase, which binds about 40 rich nations to meet emissions targets, expires in 2012 and it is not clear on what happens after that, worrying investors who want long-term certainty on climate policies and financing. Nearly all wealthy countries have signed up to legally binding emissions goals under Kyoto, with the big exception of the United States, which refused to become a party. Developing nations, including China, are obliged to take voluntary steps to curb the growth of their emissions. The United States and other rich nations want a new global pact to do away with that either-or division to reflect the surge in emissions from the developing world, now accounting for more than half of mankind's annual greenhouse gas releases. But developing countries such as China and India have refused to agree to binding targets before they see more ambitious cuts by the industrialized nations. | null |
As global leaders and top scientists in Copenhagen debate how to deal with climate change, farmers in flood-prone areas of northern India are taking it into their own hands to adapt to shifts in the weather. For decades, people of Uttar Pradesh, whose population is more than half that of the United States, have been witnessing erratic weather, including increasingly intense rainfall over short periods of time. The rain, combined with heavy mountain run-off from nearby Nepal, which is also seeing heavier-than-usual rains, has inundated villages, towns and cities in the region. Such floods have destroyed homes, crops and livestock, highlighting the fact that the poorest in countries such as China and India are most at risk from climate change. While world leaders in Copenhagen argue over who should cut carbon emissions and who should pay, experts say low-cost adaptation methods, partly based on existing community knowledge, could be used to help vulnerable farmers. In the fields of Manoharchak village, where terms such as "global warming" are unknown, such experiments are bearing fruit, changing the lives of poor farmers who outsmart nature using simple but effective techniques to deal with rising climate variability. "For the last three years, we have been trying to change our ways to cope with the changing weather," said Hooblal Chauhan, a farmer whose efforts have included diversifying production from wheat and rice to incorporate a wide variety of vegetables. "I don't know what those big people in foreign countries can do about the weather, but we are doing what we can to help ourselves," said the 55-year-old from Manoharchak, situated 90 km (55 miles) north of the bustling city of Gorakhpur. IMPROVISATION Villagers here have raised the level of their roads, built homes with foundations up to 10 feet above ground, elevated community hand pumps and created new drainage channels. Supported by the Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group -- a research and advocacy group -- farmers are also planting more flood-tolerant rice, giving them two harvests a year where they once had one, and diversifying from traditional crops to vegetables such as peas, spinach, tomatoes, onions and potatoes. The diversity of crops, they say, is particularly beneficial when their wheat and rice fail. And the vegetables give them not only a more varied and nutritional diet, but also help in earning an income when excesses are sold. Increasingly, intense rain means farmers in the region also have to contend with silt deposition from long periods of water-logging in their farms. But 50-year-old widow Sumitra Chauhan, who grows about 15 different vegetables as
well as rice and wheat on her two-acre plot, says she has learned ways to overcome the problem. "We plant our (vegetable) seedlings in the nurseries and then when the water drains, we transfer them to the land so there are no delays," she said, standing in her lush green plot packed with vegetables including mustard, peas, spinach and tomatoes. CLIMATE REFUGEES Farmers have also started using "multi-tier cropping" where vegetables like bottle gourd and bitter gourd are grown on platforms raised about 5-6 feet above the ground and supported by a bamboo frame. Once the water-logged soil drains, farmers can plant the ground beneath the platforms with vegetables and herbs such as spinach, radish and coriander. Warmer temperatures and an unusual lack of rain during monsoon periods in eastern Uttar Pradesh have also led to dry spells. To cope, villagers have contributed to buying water pumps for irrigation, lowering their dependence on rain. According to Oxfam, which is supporting the action group's work in Uttar Pradesh, millions of people in India have been affected by climate-related problems. Some have been forced into debt. Others have migrated to towns and cities to search for manual labor or have had to sell assets such as livestock to cope. "It is true that developing countries need a lot of investment to adapt to the effects of climate change, but small and marginal farmers, who are some of India's poorest, can make a start by using simple, cheap techniques to help themselves," said Ekta Bartarya of the Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group. | null |
Among the top five teams, fourth-placed Arsenal
have the worst home record and disgruntled supporters have voiced their
frustrations over the club's failure to finish atop the league for a 12th
successive campaign. Fans from the Arsenal Supporters' Trust, the
Black Scarf Movement and Red Action intend to protest at Saturday's clash
against Norwich City under the banner of "Time for Change" in how the
club is run. "Some people question this team's
character but they have character and attitude and some people who question
them have less character than this team has," Wenger told reporters. "They should not question this team. We
have to stick together. We lost the championship at home against lower teams
but we played at home in a very difficult climate. We are top of the league in
the top teams; we want to add what is needed." Questions were raised over Arsenal's ambition
after they made only one senior signing - goalkeeper Petr Cech - during the
close season, and over whether Wenger was being given enough funds by majority
stakeholder Stan Kroenke to improve the squad. Wenger, however, insisted Kroenke has never
stopped him from dealing in the transfer market. "I don't want to go into personal comment
on my owners. Every club should work with the resources it generates and that
is what we do," Arsenal's longest serving manager said. "That is one
of the values I speak about...He has never stopped me in the transfer market,
he is very ambitious, we all are." Arsenal duo Santi Cazorla, out since November
with an Achilles and knee problem, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, sidelined for
two months with a knee injury, will both be available for selection against
relegation-threatened Norwich. "One of the two could be involved. Cazorla
has practiced for two weeks with the team, Alex for one week, so one of the two
could be," Wenger said. The north London side have a five-point cushion
over fifth-placed Manchester United, who have a game in hand, as they look to
take a step towards cementing their place in next season's Champions League
when they face Norwich on Saturday. | null |
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has already taken on an international role as a Middle East envoy, is now tackling climate change with a plan for the world to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Blair travelled to Tokyo on Friday to unveil a climate change initiative and said on his Web site he will go to China and India in the next week to discuss his proposals with the world's two largest developing economies. "There is a consensus now right across the world that we need a new global deal and at the heart of it there has got to be a substantial cut in emissions. The difficult thing is: what type of deal? That's the work that I'm working on," he said in a video clip on the website, www.tonyblairoffice.org. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, Blair said he will propose halving emissions by the middle of the century. "This is extremely urgent. A 50 percent cut by 2050 has to be a central component of this," Blair said. "We have to try this year to get that agreed. We need a true and proper global deal and that needs to include America and China." Blair's spokesman Matthew Doyle said the United States and European Union backed Blair's efforts, although they had not yet signed up to his proposed 50 percent cut. Blair had discussed the project with U.S. President George W. Bush, as well as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Doyle added. Blair told the Guardian the world needed an agreement on curbing greenhouse gases within two years. "The fact of the matter is if we do not take substantial action over the next two years, then by 2020 we will be thinking about adaptation rather than prevention," he said, adding that progress would not be made by telling people not to consume. "The Chinese and Indian governments are determined to grow their economies. They have hundreds of millions of very poor people -- they are going to industrialise, they are going to raise their living standards, and quite right too," he said. Since leaving office last year after 10 years as prime minister, Blair has taken on the role of envoy for the Quartet of the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia promoting economic development for Palestinians. He has also drawn criticism for accepting lucrative business, publishing and public speaking deals. Among his business deals, he was hired in January by insurer Zurich Financial Services to help it develop insurance products to mitigate the effects of global warming. | null |
The head of the UN climate panel expressed hope that climate talks in Bali will end on Friday with a clear timetable for fixing greenhouse gas emission cuts to help fend off dangerous global warming. The 190-nation talks aimed at launching two years of talks on a global pact to fight global warming have been deadlocked over emissions goals with the United States, Japan and Canada opposed to any reference to numerical goals for emissions. "If we have a very strong statement about reduction of emissions by 2020 and a clear timetable by which the numbers have to be decided on I would treat that as progress," Rajendra Pachauri told reporters after arriving from Oslo where he collected the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of his UN panel. He said that a deal about a timetable would could pave the way to firm targets for emissions goals by rich nations to be decided "maybe not here but maybe six months' later". "Certainly there is some merit in the clear mention of the targets by 2020," he said. The UN panel this year blamed mankind for causing warming and said it would bring more heatwaves, floods, droughts and rising seas. "If they don't arrive at that kind of number I think at the minimum we need a very strong statement that by 2050 we should have stringent mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and that perhaps the exact level of reductions should be decided in the next six months. We should lay down the timetable." The Dec. 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 UN pact capping greenhouse gas emissions of all industrial nations except the United States until 2012. The EU wants Bali's final text to agree a non-binding goal of cuts in emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, of 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 for industrial economies. The United States, Japan and Canada are opposed, saying any figures would prejudge the outcome. Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, refused to comment on U.S. opposition, saying he hoped the negotiations would be able to sort out all differences. "I hope we can resolve this difference of opinion," Pachauri said.
"The very fact that they are discussing fairly stringent targets of 25 to 40 percent is not bad at all and is an indication they accept the science that we brought out and they accept the inevitability of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases," he said. "Otherwise we'll certainly suffer the impacts of climate change which would be very serious." | null |
Leaders from the world's major industrialised nations will try to paper over deep divisions on global warming and a range of foreign policy issues when they meet on the Baltic coast this week for a G8 summit. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, host of the annual Group of Eight meeting at the elegant Kempinski Grand Hotel in Heiligendamm, has been working for months to lay the foundation for a summit breakthrough in the fight against climate change. But her drive looks doomed after US President George W. Bush announced his own climate strategy last week which rejects the approach to cutting greenhouse gases favoured by Merkel and other Europeans. Merkel at the weekend insisted that the United Nations, rather than individual countries or groups of countries, should take the lead in global efforts to combat climate change and acknowledged she was in for a tough summit. "We will wrestle with climate change until the very last minute," Merkel told Der Spiegel magazine. "You will see that there are differing opinions from the fact that some things might not be in the final document." In the absence of a climate consensus, the German hosts will be keen to shift the focus of the June 6-8 meeting to Africa. Hit by accusations they are not delivering on promises made at a summit in Scotland two years ago to help fight poverty on the continent, G8 countries are expected to reaffirm commitments to double development aid by 2010. The club -- made up of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- will also announce plans to increase funds for combating AIDS in Africa. But differences on major global issues may overshadow the areas of consensus, even if leaders avoid any public rows. Contentious foreign policy issues include US plans to deploy a missile shield in central Europe and a push by the United States and Europe to grant effective independence to Kosovo, the breakaway Serbian province. Russian President Vladimir Putin is dead-set against both and his combative Cold War-style rhetoric in recent weeks had the German hosts worried about an ugly confrontation with Bush. Now that seems unlikely. Bush referred to Putin as a "friend" last week and invited him to his family home in Maine next month -- moves clearly intended to ease tensions.
AGREE TO DISAGREE "On a lot of the big issues they will agree to disagree," said Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "We should get through it without major confrontation, but that is partly because the Europeans realise changes to US foreign and climate change policy won't come until there is a new president, so why rock the boat?" Bush, who made headlines at the 2006 summit in St. Petersburg by shocking Merkel with an impromptu backrub, is not due to leave office for another 1-1/2 years. But Heiligendamm will be the last G8 summit for Britain's Tony Blair and probably Putin, who has vowed to step down in the spring of next year. Newcomers include French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Informal meetings of the world's top industrial powers date back to 1975, when the G6 (Canada joined in 1976 and Russia in 1998) gathered in Rambouillet, France to coordinate economic policy following a global oil crisis and the collapse of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates. Now the club, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of the world's growth but only about one-eighth of its population, faces accusations of irrelevance and is under pressure to adapt to a shift in the global economic balance. In a nod to these concerns, Merkel has invited the leaders of Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa this year. The emergence of new economic powers is not all that has changed in the three decades since world leaders first met. As recently as 1999, when Germany hosted its last G8 summit, heads of government mixed with locals in the streets of Cologne. But the Sept. 11 attacks, clashes between anti-globalisation protesters and police at a 2001 summit in Genoa, and bombings in London during the 2005 summit changed all that. On Saturday, German police clashed with hundreds of protesters who set fire to cars, threw bottles and torched bins in the port of Rostock after a larger peaceful demonstration. Up to 16,000 German security personnel will be on duty for the three-day meeting and leaders will be sealed off from tens of thousands of demonstrators by a daunting 12-kilometre fence. | null |
If Barack Obama were a corporate chief executive, the incoming US president already would be winning high marks for his management style, experts say. The president-elect's steady hand and calm demeanor that have earned him the moniker "No Drama Obama" are traits business leaders could well learn from, according to management experts. "What he's doing is masterful," said Paul Reagan, a management consultant and senior lecturer at Wayne State University in Detroit. "His value system is clear, and he spends a tremendous amount of time reinforcing that he does what he says he will do. "His credibility right now is so high most people already see him as the corporate head," Reagan said. There's one particular aspect of Obama's style that business leaders likely do not share -- an acute awareness of his own strengths and weakness, said Paul Copcutt, a personal brand strategist based in Dundas, Ontario. That awareness is evident in his cabinet selections, in which Obama has chosen veterans to provide the expertise or experience he lacks, he said. "In corporate, we're brought up to look at our weaknesses and how can you improve those and what can you work on," Copcutt said. "Really good leaders should be focusing on what they're good at and either delegating or finding other ways to achieve what they're not good at." From Hillary Clinton, a former campaign rival, to Robert Gates, a holdover from the administration of Republican President George W. Bush, Obama's cabinet choices show an effort to build a coalition with voices that may disagree with his own, Reagan said. Chief executives, on the other hand, often build a "go-to team" of supportive advisors who "don't bring in all of the voices that they really need to lead all of the organization," he said. 'JURY IS STILL OUT' Obama's demonstration of skill is still in its early days, however. All he has done so far is pick some key cabinet members and urge Congress to act swiftly on an economic stimulus plan when it takes office in early January. "The jury is still out," said Nancy Koehn, a business historian and professor at Harvard Business School. The tougher tests come once Obama moves into the White House on January 20. On the downside, a management style that appeals to so many constituencies, such as Obama's, poses the risk of broad disappointment, Reagan said. "He may have oversold change," he said. "If there is a vulnerability, it will be in a lack of clarity or, because it was so general, an inability to make good on what everyone interpreted was something for them." Chief executives could borrow a page from Obama's responses to two hurdles in his path to the U.S. presidency -- his loss in the New Hampshire primary and the maelstrom over his controversial former pastor Jeremiah Wright, said Koehn. In each case, Obama responded with an "emotional competence" that leaders could use, especially in today's troubled financial climate, to cope with currents such as fear of job losses or anxiety over poor performance at their organizations, she said. "Business leaders need to be very conscious of those aspects to their people and their organization that are more than just, 'What are our tangible resources?' 'What's our head count?' 'What's our market?' 'What's our customer?'" she said. CEO coach Deb Dib can tick off a list of traits she sees in Obama -- caring, confident, consistent, commanding, calm and more -- traits she tries to teach business executives. "If you look at any really effective CEO, they almost all share in one way or another almost every one of those attributes," said Dib from her office in Medford, New York. "It transcends politics. You really have to look at him and say, 'Wow, I can learn something from this." | null |
The conservative state is already one of the only EU members to bar marriage or civil partnerships for same sex couples. But supporters of the proposal, including the Orthodox Church and all but one parliamentary party, say they want to go further and change the constitutional definition of marriage from a union of "spouses", to one exclusively of a man and a woman to stop gay couples winning the right to marry in the future. Dozens of human rights groups, which are encouraging people to boycott the ballot, have warned that approval would embolden further attempts to chip away at the rights of minority groups and push Romania onto a populist, authoritarian track. A poll released on Friday by CURS estimated a turnout of 34 percent - above the needed 30 percent threshold - with 90 percent in favour of the change. A group called the Coalition for the Family collected 3 million signatures to enable the change. The lower house of parliament voted in favour last year and the senate followed in September, making the referendum the last needed stage. Some Coalition campaign posters urged people to vote "Yes" to defend family values or run the risk of gay couples stealing or adopting their children. A separate advert said a "No" vote would enable a man to marry a tree. "Many fear that what has happened in other countries, such as legalizing marriage between a man and an animal, could happen here," the leader of the ruling Social Democrat Party (PSD), Liviu Dragnea, told television station Romania TV. LOOSE CONTROLS Days before the vote, the government relaxed anti-fraud monitoring and limited options for challenging the result, while the country's broadcasting regulator eliminated a cut-off date for campaigning. "There are ... no efficient, applicable mechanisms to verify fraud for this referendum," independent think tank Expert Forum (EFOR) said, adding the conditions have created "a climate of distrust in the fairness of the process" Some opposition politicians and activists have accused the PSD of using the vote as a smokescreen to divert attention from its leader's legal problems, and its clashes with the European Commission over the rule of law. Dragnea's appeal against a conviction in an abuse of office case begins on Oct 8, one day after the vote. "The plan is clear: creating an anti-European sentiment in Romania that Liviu Dragnea can use when European officials ask him not to destroy the judicial system, rule of law and anti-corruption fight," former Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos said. The government has dismissed the accusations and the Orthodox Church has said a "Yes" vote would be Christian, democratic and patriotic. Romania decriminalised homosexuality in 2001, decades after neighbouring countries and LGBT discrimination is widespread. >>>>>>>>>>>> Photo name: Romania 1+2 Caption 1: Romanian clergymen take part in a rally in support of a "Yes" vote on the upcoming referendum, proposing changes to the constitution to prevent future recognition of same-sex marriages, in Draganesti, Romania, Oct 4, 2018. REUTERS | null |
Negotiators returned to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on Thursday to tackle the remaining obstacles to a deal in agriculture, considered crucial to clinching an overall agreement in the Doha free trade round. The climate for the talks has changed dramatically since the round was launched in 2001 to repeal the politically sensitive rich-country farming subsidies and tariffs that poor farmers said made it impossible for them to compete. Record food prices have eased pressures on governments to support farmers with subsidies, and worries about food-price inflation and even security of food supplies have prompted some to cut import tariffs, shifting the focus of the talks. And growing protectionist pressure in rich countries is making it harder for the WTO's 151 member states to reach an overall deal. Trade negotiators said the nine days of talks called by New Zealand's WTO ambassador Crawford Falconer, who chairs the farm negotiations, would focus on technical issues such as how to designate and treat sensitive products that countries want to shield from tariff cuts. Diplomats said they would leave the big headline numbers, such as the size of cuts to farm subsidies and tariffs, for senior politicians to settle at the climax of the round. "That's minister stuff. We set it up. We get it as close as we can and get it to the point where the ministers can come in," said one rich country negotiator. SPECIAL PRODUCTS Agriculture is key to the success of the whole Doha process because of the importance of farming to developing countries who are supposed to be the special beneficiaries of the round. Developing countries want rich nations to cut farm tariffs and subsidies in exchange for opening up their own markets to industrial goods and services. One of the main issues still to be resolved in the Geneva talks is the treatment of "special products" in agriculture. WTO members have agreed that developing countries would be able to exempt some farm products from generally agreed tariff cuts, but there is still no agreement on how they will be treated and how many can be designated. A group of 45 developing countries, known as the G-33, said two weeks ago that any deal must allow developing countries to completely exempt some special products from tariff cuts. But developing food exporters like Brazil, Argentina and Thailand are joining rich countries in resisting this. Falconer hopes the talks this week and next will narrow the gaps enough for him to draft a revision later this month of the negotiating document he first produced last July. Trade negotiators said the talks, among three dozen key delegations, would cover the full range of agriculture negotiations, starting off this week on domestic support, or matters related to subsidies. Next week they would move on to market access, or tariffs, and then finish with export competition, including areas such as food aid and export credits, and the sensitive topic of cotton. Falconer will brief all the WTO's members on the talks on Friday next week, negotiators said. Just before Christmas, Falconer circulated documents reflecting the past four months of talks. Among other things they set a schedule for rich countries to implement cuts in subsidies and propose exemptions from cuts for new WTO members. | null |
US President Barack Obama will lay out a jobs package worth more than $300 billion (186.8 billion pounds) on Thursday, staking his re-election hopes on a call for urgent bipartisan action to revive the faltering American economy. With his poll numbers at new lows amid voter frustration with 9.1 percent unemployment, Obama will make tax cuts for middle-class households and businesses the centrepiece of the plan and will press for new spending to repair roads, bridges and other deteriorating infrastructure. He will use his televised speech before a joint session of the US Congress, at 7 p.m. EDT (midnight British time), to urge passage of his "American Jobs Act" by year-end. If it succeeds, his plan might provide an economic boost quickly enough to help Obama's re-election prospects. If it fails, his strategy will be to paint congressional Republicans as obstructionist and blame them for the stagnating economy. Already on Thursday morning, White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley went on the offensive against what he described as a do-nothing climate on Capitol Hill. "It's time for Congress, after a five-week vacation, to come back and do something and not just say 'no' to everything that gets proposed in this town," Daley said on CBS. Surprisingly weak jobs data has heightened fears that the United States may be headed for another recession. The Federal Reserve is considering ways to bolster demand and G7 finance ministers meeting in France on Friday are expected to encourage countries that can afford it to do more to help growth. Obama is under intense pressure to change perceptions that he has shown weak leadership. His economic stewardship has been criticized by both Republicans and fellow Democrats, casting a cloud over his prospects for re-election in November 2012. "It's a major leadership moment for Obama," said Terry Madonna, a political scientist at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. "He's running out of months before voters settle in on whether his presidency has failed." An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll this week showed Obama was no longer the favourite to win next year. 'SHARED RESPONSIBILITY' The White House said Obama will describe in stark terms the difficulties the US economy faces and argue Washington must do all it can to help the labour market heal -- a message he will press throughout the autumn as the 2012 race heats up. A renewal of payroll tax cuts for workers passed last December and tax cuts to encourage businesses to hire are the biggest elements of the jobs plan. Media reports have estimated the package will cost $300 billion or more. Obama will send the jobs proposals in legislative form to Congress next week, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett told Reuters Insider. She said Thursday's speech was designed to encourage "shared responsibility" for the economy's woes. "It's not just up to the president. It's up to Congress, it's up to the business community, it's up to the American people. Everyone has to get involved in this," she said. The White House goal is to get legislation passed this year to make a dent in unemployment by spring 2012. To bolster his chances for re-election, Obama needs to be able to point to economic improvement by the middle of next year. If Congress, which controls the nation's purse strings, does not act, the White House is prepared to paint Republicans as obstructing his efforts to solving the jobless problem. The bruising battle in July over the country's debt levels that led to a Standard & Poor's ratings downgrade highlighted a wide chasm between Obama's Democrats and Republicans who control the House of Representatives. Republicans have derided an $800 billion economic stimulus package that Obama pushed through Congress in 2009 as wasteful spending and want immediate cuts in the deficit. Democrats say that while long-term deficits must be trimmed, the economy needs a short-term fiscal boost. The White House has said the jobs package will be paid for with cuts in the future but offered no details. Obama will push the congressional "super committee" that met for the first time on Thursday to go beyond its goal of finding $1.2 trillion in budget savings, but is not due to lay out his recommendations until next week or later. In a sign of conciliation, House Republican leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor have signalled they were open to some infrastructure spending and to a program Obama will pitch in his jobs plan to help train unemployed workers. But Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, said the president's attempt to accuse those who don't support his ideas of being overly partisan was a political smokescreen. "There is a much simpler reason to oppose the president's economic policies that has nothing whatsoever to do with politics -- they simply don't work," he said. "This isn't a jobs plan, it's a re-election plan." | null |
The former US spy agency contractor finally left Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on Thursday after spending nearly six weeks confined to its transit zone while a diplomatic battle over his future raged between Russia and the United States.Snowden, sought by Washington on espionage charges for leaking details of Internet and phone surveillance programmes, now embarks on his new life armed with an asylum document that is valid for a year and can be renewed annually.Former Russian intelligence officers said things will not be easy for Snowden - a highly interesting catch for the Kremlin - if the legacy of earlier defections is any guide."Precedents show us that life is hard for defectors from their countries," Lev Korolkov, a former officer in the Soviet KGB security service, told Reuters."They experience a huge internal stress that can last for a very long time, sometimes for the rest of their lives - even for those who stayed, such as Kim Philby," he said, referring to one of the British 'Cambridge ring' who spied for the Soviet Union during and after World War Two."He (Snowden) was free only as long as he was in the transit zone," Korolkov added.Snowden is not the first employee of the US National Security Agency (NSA) to defect to Moscow.NSA cryptologists William Martin and Bernon Mitchell defected to the Soviet Union during the Cold War in 1960 because of disenchantment with US intelligence gathering methods.The pair denounced Washington for spying on its own allies - charges echoed by Snowden half a century later.But Martin later called his choice foolhardy as he became disillusioned with the less than ideal life in the Soviet Union and the relevance of their revelations quickly faded.BRITISH DEFECTORSOther precedents are hardly more encouraging.Philby, recruited by the Soviets at Cambridge in the 1930s, lived under virtual house arrest after his defection, drank heavily and suffered from loneliness and depression.Fellow double agent and comrade Guy Burgess also became heavily dependent on alcohol and, despite defecting, continued ordering clothes from London.Of the high-profile British defectors, only George Blake - not a member of the Cambridge ring - seems to have done well in exile. He married a Russian, is still alive at 90 and was awarded a medal by President Vladimir Putin last year.The Cold War is long over but some things do not change. Snowden is a useful propaganda tool for the Kremlin, which often accuses Washington of preaching on human rights abroad what it fails to practise at home."He no longer belongs to himself. He is a political personality and a pawn," said Anna Kachkayeva, a prominent media expert."He is like a ticking time-bomb. Maybe they will save him up for something and put him on television - or maybe not."The Kremlin's decision to harbour Snowden has gone down well with Russian public opinion."I don't think he is a traitor, so I think we did the right thing," said a Moscow resident who gave his name as Ivan.St Petersburg resident Yevgeny agreed. "The Americans have gone too far and someone should wipe their nose. The man stood for the truth, he told the world and we needed to protect him."Forty three percent of Russians back the plan to harbour Snowden while 29 percent are against, according to a survey published on Wednesday by independent pollster Levada.Snowden has even received a marriage proposal from former Russian spy Anna Chapman, over Twitter, and a job offer from Russia's answer to social networking site Facebook.TV CELEBRITY?A Russian lawyer who is helping Snowden, Anatoly Kucherena, said he had letters from others seeking to hire Snowden, adding that the American would not want for employment."I don't exclude that he will have his own TV show," he told Reuters.The Kremlin has given no indication it wants to turn Snowden into a television star. However, Russian state television has already become a platform for Wikileaks anti-secrecy group founder, Julian Assange, to rail against the United States.Snowden will stay for now with US expatriates who support his security leaks, Kucherena said, adding that he would soon bring over Snowden's father, Lonnie, along with a US lawyer and other friends, to give the fugitive "moral support".But Snowden remains vulnerable to a fluid political climate and his usefulness to his Russian hosts will steadily diminish."There have always been defectors and their baggage is their knowledge, abilities and skills - what is in his head," ex-KGB officer Korolkov said. But he added: "You know information gets old and loses its value."Snowden may find that in Russia, he has traded some part of his freedom for security, some experts say."I think he may find Russia less appealing than he might have imagined," said Misha Glenny, a British author on Internet security and eastern Europe."Snowden may find that it is very, very difficult for him to be involved in some of the activities he wishes to engage in." | null |
Johnson, who wanted to minimise any disruption from the cabinet reshuffle, quickly appointed Javid's deputy Rishi Sunak, an ultra-loyal supporter of the prime minister who has often been put in front of the cameras to sell government policy. The prime minister's team had carefully choreographed the reshuffle, presenting it as an opportunity to foster new talent, particularly among women, while also rewarding loyal supporters to deliver his vision for Britain beyond Brexit. But the finance minister's resignation - which some commentators said might have been sought by Johnson's team - due to a dispute over Javid's advisers added to the picture that the prime minister will not tolerate dissent in his government. "He has turned down the job of Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister)," a source close to Javid said. The source said Johnson had told Javid he would have to sack his advisers and replace them with advisers from the prime minister's Downing Street office. "The Chancellor said no self-respecting minister would accept those terms." Sunak, who once worked for investment bank Goldman Sachs and is married to the daughter of an Indian billionaire, is seen by many Conservatives as a safe pair of hands who will easily get on board with Johnson's agenda for a post-Brexit Britain. Sterling rose on the expectation of investors that Sunak's appointment would pave the way for a more expansionary budget next month. Johnson has promised to reduce the wealth and opportunity gap between parts of Britain by channelling investment into northern and central England, where he won the votes of traditional supporters of the main opposition Labour Party. "CHAOS" Johnson had not been expected to change the biggest-hitting posts in his government, keeping change to a minimum. But even the smaller changes in the lower ranks of government offered some insight into how he wanted to tighten his grip on power. His sacking of Northern Ireland minister Julian Smith, who only a month ago had helped broker the restoration of a government in the British province, prompted criticism from politicians north and south of the border with Ireland. Smith, who had been in charge of parliamentary discipline for Johnson's predecessor, Theresa May, was the first minister to lose his job in the reshuffle. He was joined by business minister Andrea Leadsom and environment minister Theresa Villiers. Ultra-loyal Alok Sharma, a former minister for international development, was appointed as the new minister for business and also the head of the COP26 climate change summit in Scotland in November, due to be attended by world leaders. But it was Javid's move which shook up the 'business as usual' look that Johnson had wanted to portray. Downing Street aides had previously played down suggestions, based on Johnson's senior adviser Dominic Cummings' well-publicised desire to see a radical reorganisation of government, that there would be major changes. A source in Johnson's office said on Wednesday the prime minister wanted the "reshuffle to set the foundations for government now and in the future" and to promote new talent, particularly women. It was clear that loyalty mattered to Johnson to be able to deliver his agenda and meet the promises he made in the run-up to the December 12 election, in which he won a large majority. But opposition politicians said the reshuffle was a mess. "This is a historical record. A government in chaos within weeks of an election," said John McDonnell, finance spokesman for the main opposition Labour Party. | null |
Poverty rate in Bangladesh has declined sharply from 49 per cent to 31 per cent as Bangladesh has progressed in various categories of human development, a new report by the United Nations has said. But the poverty reduction rate was not the same in vulnerable areas, according to the Human Development Report 2011. "There are some growth centres where it fell significantly but there are also some pockets like coastal or char areas where poverty is (still) rampant," said UNDP country director Stefan Priesner at the launch of the report on Thursday. The report, however, praised Bangladesh for maintaining a good track. The report said it is expected that Bangladesh would elevate to the medium human development index (HDI) category from the lower one. Bangladesh showed very strong longer term progress on the HDI but there is no room for complacency, said Priesner. Bangladesh improved its point from 0.497 to 0.5 at the index with a significant improvement in gender inequality issue, according to the report. The overall inequality HDI has dropped by seven percentage point from 29 per cent to 22 per cent showing a good performance of the country, it said. Bangladesh ranked just below Pakistan (0.504) while Delhi is ahead of Dhaka. The UN country director said Bangladesh needs to address the pressure of environmental degradation, adverse impact of climate change and risks of disaster to improve further. The four key messages of the report are sustainable urbanization, tackling climatic threat, providing clean energy to the poor and addressing environmental degradation issue, he said. He said current rate of urbanization is not sustainable while climatic threat does more harm to poor than the richer part of the society. Clean energy is pre-requisite for the development of the poor and if environmental degradation is not addressed, many poor who live on natural resources will be affected, he added. "Equity and sustainable development are two sides of one coin," he said. | null |
BONN, Germany, Fri Jun 12, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - A small reference on page 776 of a mammoth UN scientific report to cuts in greenhouse gases far deeper than those on offer by rich nations has become a main roadblock towards a new UN climate treaty. For developing nations at two-week UN talks in Bonn ending on Friday, the outlined emissions cuts by developed nations of 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 have become vital for a deal due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December. Many developed nations, however, say such curbs meant to avert the worst of climate change would cripple their economies. "The minus 25 to 40 range has become a sort of beacon," Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, told Reuters. "It is very much in the back of people's minds as something to measure the success of Copenhagen against." The 25-40 range was based on only a handful of studies and did not even make it to the "summary for policymakers" of the three-part report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), drawing on work of 2,500 experts. "Very little progress has been made on setting targets," Shyam Saran, special climate envoy to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said of the Bonn talks. Developing nations led by China and India say the rich should aim for cuts in emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, of at least 40 percent. They say that evidence of global warming, such as melting Arctic ice, has worsened since 2007. And small island states, who fear being washed off the map by rising sea levels, say the rich should cut by at least 45 percent below 1990 levels. "Forty percent by 2020 is a rather reasonable target" if the problem is as big as now widely believed, Saran said. De Boer noted the level was not an agreed target, merely a scenario for avoiding the worst of global warming. OBAMA CUTS Many developed nations led by the United States say the number is out of reach -- President Barack Obama wants to cut U.S. emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020, a 14 percent cut from 2007 levels, and by 80 percent below by 2050. And Japan set a 2020 target this week of just 8 percent below 1990 levels. "A level of minus 25 percent is still possible but it will be quite difficult," said Bill Hare of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research who was an author of the IPCC's final summary. He said that recent scientific findings had backed up the range. The 25-40 percent did not make it to the summary more for technical reasons than for doubts about its validity. The 25 to 40 percent gained wide political prominence when a reference to page 776 and other findings were included as a footnote to a document launching talks on a new treaty at a meeting of more than 190 nations in Bali in 2007. So far, offers on the table by rich nations total cuts of between 8 and 14 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, Hare said. The European Union is offering 20 percent cuts, or 30 if other developed nations join in. And the same page 776 says that developing nations should make a "substantial deviation" by 2020 to slow the rise of their emissions from business as usual. That judgment splits rich and poor into two starkly different camps rather than, for instance, setting a sliding scale of cuts with the richest making the deepest. "Both sides feel they are being asked to do too much," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists. It was unclear how deadlock will be broken. The rich might offer deeper cuts or the poor could back down, perhaps in return for clean technologies and far more aid. Hare said that Russia, the main country which has yet to set a greenhouse gas goal and whose emissions are already about 30 percent below 1990 levels after the collapse of the Soviet Union, could make a big difference. A Russian 2020 goal maintaining current levels would deepen overall promised cuts to between 12 and 18 percent. But some countries suggest that cuts do not have to fall within the range, especially if later reductions are deeper. "There are other trends that are possible," Jonathan Pershing, head of the US delegation in Bonn and an IPCC author of the chapter that included the 25-40 percent range, said in a briefing late last month. | null |
The poll found that 5.6% of adults identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, rising from 4.5% in 2017, the last time Gallup reported an annual update. The poll also found that more than half of LGBT adults identified as bisexual. One in six adults in Generation Z, people born between 1997 and 2002, identify as LGBT, the poll found. The growth in Americans who identify as LGBTQ is likely to increase, Gallup’s senior editor, Jeffrey Jones, wrote in announcing the results. That is because those in younger generations are more likely than those in older generations to consider themselves LGBT, he said. Americans have been more supportive of equal rights for LGBTQ people, Jones said, prompting an increase in people who identify themselves as LGBT. “I think the findings prove that visibility and acceptance, when combined, will bust out closet doors,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and chief executive of GLAAD, an LGBTQ media organisation and advocacy group. The survey was based on more than 15,000 interviews conducted throughout 2020 with Americans in all 50 states and the District of Columbia who were 18 or older. Those surveyed were interviewed by both cellphone and landline. They were asked: “Which of the following do you consider yourself to be? You can select as many as apply: straight or heterosexual; lesbian; gay; bisexual; transgender.” Gallup said the poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 1 percentage point for all adults, and plus or minus 5 percentage points for LGBT adults. The identity question in the most recent poll was more detailed than in previous years, Jones said. Respondents answered their precise sexual orientation instead of answering “yes” or “no” to whether they identified as LGBT. The Supreme Court has made several landmark rulings in the past decade, adding to a more supportive climate for LGBTQ people. In 2013, the court ruled that married same-sex couples were entitled to federal benefits. In 2015, the court ruled that same-sex marriage was a nationwide right. Most recently, it ruled in June that civil rights law protected gay and transgender workers. But challenges continue for LGBTQ Americans. Although hundreds of religious leaders around the world signed a declaration demanding a global ban on conversion therapy, which seeks to change the sexual orientations of LGBTQ people, only about 20 states have some form of a ban on the disputed approach. During President Donald Trump’s administration, the rollback of rights for transgender people extended through the entire federal government. An annual report by GLAAD also found this year that LGBTQ representation on television had fallen for the first time in five years. The US House of Representatives is likely to vote this week on the Equality Act, a bill that would expand protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, NPR reported. While leading LGBTQ advocacy groups were encouraged that the Gallup results matched their independent polls, leaders said there was more to be done to make the estimates more inclusive for people who identify in other ways or are gender nonconforming. “You’re not just erasing their identity, but you’re missing an opportunity to understand the complexity of lived experiences,” said Amit Paley, the chief executive and executive director of the Trevor Project, an organisation that aims to prevent suicides in young LGBTQ people. For leaders, the poll also highlights a perpetual issue in gathering data on LGBTQ people that could influence new policies. “We don’t actually know how many LGBTQ people in this country die by suicide because death records don’t include data on gender identity or sexual orientation, which is erasing LGBTQ people in important ways,” Paley said. © 2021 New York Times News Service | null |
The United States last week accused China of raising
tensions in the South China Sea by its apparent deployment of surface-to-air
missiles on a disputed island, a move China has neither confirmed nor denied. Asked whether the South China Sea, and the missiles, would
come up when Wang is in the United States to meet Secretary of State John
Kerry, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Washington should not use
the issue of military facilities on the islands as a "pretext to make a
fuss". "The US is not involved in the South China Sea dispute,
and this is not and should not become a problem between China and the United
States," Hua told a daily news briefing. US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the United
States would "press China to deescalate and stop its militarization"
in the South China Sea. Toner said China's "militarisation activity" only
escalated tensions, and added: "There needs to be a diplomatic mechanism
in place that allows these territorial claims to be settled in a peaceful
way." Wang is due to meet Kerry on Tuesday. Their talks will also
include the international response to North Korea's recent nuclear test and
rocket launch, cyber security and climate change, Toner told a regular news
briefing. China hopes the US abides by its promises not to take sides
in the dispute and stop "hyping up" the issue and tensions,
especially over China's "limited" military positions there, she said. "China's deploying necessary, limited defensive
facilities on its own territory is not substantively different from the United
States defending Hawaii," Hua added. US ships and aircraft carrying out frequent, close-in
patrols and surveillance in recent years is what has increased regional
tensions, she said. "It's this that is the biggest cause of the
militarization of the South China Sea. We hope that the United States does not
confuse right and wrong on this issue or practise double standards." Australia operations
urged On Monday, a senior US naval officer was reported as saying
Australia and other countries should follow the US lead and conduct
"freedom-of-navigation" naval operations within 12 nautical miles (18
km) of contested islands in the South China Sea. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more
than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei,
the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims. Beijing has rattled nerves with construction and reclamation
activities on the islands it occupies, though it says these moves are mostly
for civilian purposes. The state-owned China Southern Power Grid Company will set
up a power grid management station in what China calls Sansha City, located on
Woody Island in the Paracels, which will be able to access microgrids in 16
other islands, according to China's top regulator of state-owned assets. In the long term, the station will be able to remotely
manage power for many islands there, the statement added, without specifying
which islands it was referring to. Wang is scheduled to be in the United States from Tuesday
until Thursday.
Hua said the minister
is also expected to discuss North Korea, and she repeated China's opposition to
the possible US deployment of an advanced US missile defence system following
North Korea's recent rocket launch. | null |
The Bangladesh High Commissioner to the UK, Mijarul Quayes, hosted the evening reception organised in partnership with BRAC and Oxfam on Thursday night (local time).Parliamentarians, diplomats, civil society representatives and members of the Bangladeshi diaspora attended the event, digital press officer of the Oxfam GB Rachel Cawood said in a press release.She said the High Commissioner, in his welcome speech, provided an overview of the commendable improvement made by Bangladesh in socio-economic indicators, including being on track on many of the MDGs.Mijarul Quayes highlighted the seminal role of the effective partnering between the civil society organisations and the state in this regard. In particular he lauded Oxfam's support during Bangladesh's Liberation War for which it has been awarded the Friends of the Liberation War Honour.Oxfam also played an important role in the post-war reconstruction in Bangladesh, he added.Quayes mentioned that although born in Bangladesh, BRAC is today an international NGO, and is engaged in changing the lives of people, not only in Bangladesh, but also around the world.Speaking on the occasion BRAC UK's Chief Executive Mary Garvey said: "Whilst huge challenges remain in areas such as child health and women’s empowerment Bangladesh has made amazing progress, supported by organisations such as Oxfam and BRAC.”“The lessons learnt in Bangladesh have the potential to make huge differences in other communities across the world," Garvey added.Mark Goldring, Oxfam Chief Executive, said: "We are delighted to be recognising the hard work of staff of Oxfam and BRAC in Bangladesh, who are helping to make a real difference to people's lives.“But the work cannot stop now - there is still so much more that needs to be done. Bangladesh’s 580 km coastline is one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world and with climate change increasing the threat of storms and flooding, we need to ensure that people are prepared for disasters in the most effective way possible.” | null |
But there's still a lot they don't know. As the new coronavirus continues to spread around the world, here are some of the most important questions researchers and doctors – as well as policymakers and economists – are still trying to answer: How contagious is the virus? The virus spreads from person to person through small droplets from the nose or mouth via coughing or sneezing, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It can persist on most surfaces up to several days, so in addition to directly inhaling the virus, you can become infected by touching something that has been contaminated and then touching your own nose, mouth or eyes. There is some evidence that virus particles in the feces of an infected person can transmit the disease through contact, but that remains unconfirmed. How many people are infected, and how many do not show any symptoms? So far, more than 550,000 cases have been reported worldwide, of which more than 127,000 have recovered and more than 24,000 have died. Some researchers estimate that up to 80% of people who are infected show no or only mild symptoms and may not even know they are sick. That would put the number of people who might have been infected in the millions. But we need many more studies and much more testing to close in on a more accurate number. Are younger people less likely to die from the virus? Younger people, while less vulnerable, can still develop COVID-19 - the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus - severe enough to require hospitalisation. Just how much safer they are is still unanswered. The WHO says older people with pre-existing conditions - such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease - appear to develop serious illness more often than others, while a US health official said the mortality rate in males appears to be twice that of women in every age group. Health officials have cautioned that anyone with those underlying conditions, as well as those with weakened immune systems, are at increased risk.Can people be re-infected? This is a key question – and we don't yet know the answer. There are a handful of cases of possible "reinfection" in recovered patients. But most scientists believe those are more likely to have been relapses. A patient may feel better and test negative for the virus in their nose and throat, while the virus remains elsewhere in their body. Fully recovered patients have antibodies in their blood that should protect them from fresh infection, but we don't know how long those antibodies will last. With some viruses, antibodies fade faster. Even if they do persist, SARS-CoV-2 might undergo small changes over time, as flu viruses do each year, rendering the antibodies ineffective. Several academic laboratories and medical companies are looking to produce blood tests to figure out who has been exposed to the virus and whether some people have developed immunity. Serological testing will also give a better picture of the full extent of the pandemic. Do we know when there will be treatments or a vaccine? No. So far there are no vaccines or antiviral medicines specific to the new coronavirus. Treatment for now focuses on relieving symptoms such as breathing assistance. Companies around the world are racing to develop vaccines. A few have launched early safety testing in humans, but experts say it could take a year or more to develop and test a vaccine. Another complication: viruses can mutate quickly. Some scientists have already identified subtle changes since SARS-CoV-2 emerged in Wuhan, China, in December. But recent studies show the virus is relatively stable, which suggests vaccines should still be effective when they become available. Does the virus spread more slowly in hot places? Some experts had hoped that the onset of summer will naturally slow the virus. But the European Centre for Disease Control said on Wednesday that it is unlikely to diminish its spread. The WHO has also said that the virus can be transmitted in all areas, including hot and humid climates. How long will the pandemic last? We don't know. It will depend on a range of factors, from how long people continue to isolate and avoid group gatherings to when effective drugs or a vaccine become available. President Donald Trump said this week that he hopes to "reopen" the U.S. economy by Easter Sunday on April 12. But he has faced criticism that such a timetable is too rushed and could lead to more people dying. In Hubei province, the epicenter of China's coronavirus outbreak, life has started to return to normal after two months of lockdown. It remains to be seen whether such a return to normal spurs another outbreak. Does the amount of exposure to the virus determine how sick someone gets? Viruses enter the body and infect cells, using them as factories to make many millions of copies of themselves, so the number of virus particles that first enter the body has little effect on the eventual amount of virus in the system. At the same time, more frequent exposure does increase the chance that the virus will enter the body in the first place. When will the economy return to normal? The International Monetary Fund expects the pandemic will cause a global recession in 2020 that could be worse than the one triggered by the 2008 financial crisis. The depth of a recession, how long it will last and the nature of the recovery are a matter of debate. Economists say it will largely depend on how long the lockdowns last – around a quarter of all humanity is currently in lockdown – and how far government support goes in helping individuals, businesses and markets survive the crisis. Are the trillions of dollars in emergency spending helping? Central bank measures have sought to keep financial markets functioning, including areas that keep the real economy humming, such as the markets where companies go to raise short term cash to pay staff and where cities go to raise money for roads and schools. Steps taken by governments, such as the $2 trillion US stimulus package, are expected to further help the economy by putting cash in the hands of individuals and providing additional funding to small businesses and companies. Such measures still need to work through the system, however, and it remains unclear whether they will be enough. Is it a good time to invest? Some investors and bank strategists are starting to look at whether people should buy back into the world's stock markets, which have plunged some 25% from their highs in February. U.S. hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said this week he had turned increasingly positive on stocks and credit and was "redeploying our capital in companies we love at bargain prices that are built to withstand this crisis." But with all the uncertainties, many more analysts and investors remain shy about calling the bottom of the market. | null |
Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara has urged his team to show "mental strength and fortitude" at the Twenty20 World Cup after the trauma of Lahore this year when the team bus was attacked by armed militants. "Since Lahore we have accepted there is never a 100 percent guarantee -- that's the way life is," Sangakkara told reporters after his team's warmup match against Bangladesh on Tuesday. "We've got to have the mental strength and fortitude to get on with our business of playing cricket. "With all teams in the current world climate, not just us, security is going to be an issue, in some countries more so than others maybe. But still worldwide there is a threat so our mental comfort depends on certain things being put in place for us and so far we have been very satisfied." Six members of the Sri Lanka team, including Sangakkara, were wounded after gunmen shot at their team bus en route to the Gaddafi Stadium for the second test against Pakistan in March. Six Pakistani policemen and the driver of the bus carrying the match officials were killed. The Sri Lanka team are liaising daily with a national police intelligence cell set up to oversee security for the World Cup in England, which starts on Friday. HEIGHTENED SECURITY World Twenty20 tournament director and former South Africa player Steve Elworthy, 44, held the same role at the 2007 World Twenty20 in South Africa. He said security had become much tighter since Lahore. "The situation has changed and it's now a completely different landscape to then," Elworthy told Reuters. "Without a shadow of a doubt it opened our eyes even more to the hazards facing cricketers and officials. "Our security plan for the event was already at an advanced stage and in place, but something like that made us go back and recheck everything again and do a strategy review." Tournament organisers, as well as the International Cricket Council (ICC), believe they have done as much as they can to keep the players safe. All teams get police convoys to and from matches and when travelling between venues, while there are also dedicated security staff for each side. Elworthy said he could not reveal the exact details of team security. The man heading the event's security is the former chief constable of Devon and Cornwall in south-west England, John Evans, who also advised the Football Association (FA) on security matters. The England team's security head Reg Dickason is also involved, as are the ICC's own independent security consultants. Despite the added attention, Sangakkara said the increased security measures had not distracted his side from cricket. "It feels like just another tournament; they have done a good job at keeping everything low key," Sangakkara said. "We have the opportunity to just concentrate on cricket and that's very nice." | null |
Norwegian Ambassador Sidsel Bleken said they discuss all the difficulties their businesses face in Bangladesh regularly with the government. Still, it’s a “very cumbersome process and it takes very long to get approval”, she said. “In general, we would like to see more Norwegian companies coming to Bangladesh and investing in Bangladesh. The ease of doing businesses is extremely important,” she told bdnews24.com after a breakfast meeting with the Norwegian businesses, operating in Dhaka, at her residence on Monday. Questions the embassy receives from Norwegian companies are mostly related to business climate, Bleken said. “When investment climate is improving, I am sure more companies are coming. This is a huge market and huge opportunity.” Executive Chairman of the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority Kazi M Aminul Islam listened to the concerns of the Norwegian companies that include Grameenphone, Jotun Group, Sactec Solar, Bergen Engines and Poly ConCrete. He encouraged them to speak up and go to him with whatever the issues they have. “We try to resolve all those. Now we hold meetings every week. I don’t think we have any pending case,” he said. “The ease of doing business is very close to my heart.” bdnews24.com’s Editor-in-Chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi, who was also invited to the breakfast meeting, shared his experiences as a news publisher and said those are similar to what foreign companies face. The bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Norway are said to be good. The Nordic country established diplomatic relations with Bangladesh on April 14, 1972, soon after the independence. Norway’s involvement in Bangladesh has traditionally been based on development cooperation. But over the years with Bangladesh’s economic growth, aid has been replaced by an increased emphasis on trade and business. The largest Norwegian player in Bangladesh is Telenor that owns 55.8 percent of Grameenphone, the country's largest mobile operator with over 70 million customers. In the textile industry, the Varner group is the most important Norwegian player. Norwegian software company Cefalo has its own office in Dhaka. Bergen Engines (Rolls Royce Power Systems) has increased its business activity. The company is part of several new power plant projects and has its own local office in Dhaka with 20 employees. Other Norwegian companies in Bangladesh are Jotun Group, composite manufacturer Poly Concrete, which supplies to the building industry, FireSafe and Hexagon. Scatec Solar has its presence in Bangladesh. Bangladesh exported a total value of NOK 2.2 billion to Norway, with clothing accounting for most of it, in 2017, while it imported NOK 286 million which is mostly machinery and finished goods. The political relations between the countries have also increased in recent years. Foreign Minister Børge Brende visited Bangladesh as the first Norwegian Foreign Minister in February 2017. The ambassador said they hold business dialogue in every quarter. “Today we mainly discussed the repatriation of dividends with other issues related to the ease of doing business.” She said sometimes laws are okay. “But there is a lack of professional institutions who implement the laws. Institutional strengthening is extremely important.” Foreign investors traditionally send home their money with profit following the rules and regulations of a country. Like other countries, Bangladesh has also policies on repatriation and specific foreign exchange guidelines prepared by the central bank, Bangladesh Bank. There are different types of processes for different types of repatriation. Entrepreneurs also need foreign consultants for foreign expertise and technical know-how. And for that they need to pay money and the payees are required to remit their earnings in foreign currency. But officials of the Norwegian companies who attended the meeting said they find it complicated when it comes to both the inflow and outflow of money. “It’s challenging for a new company,” one official said. “Under Bangladesh’s law the consultancy payment has to be made based on the revenue earnings. For a new company who has no previous revenue how will they make the foreign payment for the consultants who are necessary for technology know-how?” “This approval process is too bureaucratic.” In repatriating dividend which is allowed by the law, the challenges they go through are enormous, another official said. Inward funds are supposed to be free and outward funds against profit earned from investments are supposed to be free-flowing too. “But our experiences are not really good. Every time you send money, it’s more of an approval process.” Grameenphone Chief Executive Officer Michael Foley, who attended the event, told bdnews24.com that “the rule of law is critically important for the businesses to feel comfortable operating in a foreign market”. For example, he said authorities use “discretion” when there is nothing in the laws on an issue. “It’s wrong.” Foley cited the significant market power status for Grameenphone, which he said went against the competition law of 2012. “We keep managing the situation. It’s okay. We do with a happy heart to operate in this country.” “But we have to make sure the rule of law is maintained that we make it easier for people to operate in this country,” he said. “We support the efforts of BIDA in doing that because we do need the foreign investments. And it’s hard to get now.” Khalidi, the editor-in-chief of bdnews24.com, urged the government to solve those long-standing problems. “These are some valid points they raised,” he said. “We’ve been talking about these issues for a long time,” he said referring to the editorials he wrote in the 1990s on facilitating investment. “Bureaucrats have to change their attitude.” | null |
Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed has asked G8 leaders to assist least developed countries in overcoming trade barriers in developed markets, both tariff and non-tariff. Fakhruddin has requested for fair market access for LDC products without any discrimination. Foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury mentioned that the chief adviser has written individual letters to the leaders of G8 nations on behalf of the WTO LDCs Consultative Group, which is chaired by Bangladesh. Iftekhar stated, "The chief adviser has requested for equal market access benefits for all products from all LDCs without any discrimination." | null |
She defended Bangladesh's human rights record at the Human Rights Council's second Universal Periodic Review in Geneva, according to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs media release. Moni emphasized the importance of agencies understanding their human rights obligations while performing their duties. She spent three and a half hours responding to questions about Bangladesh's recent achievements and challenges in promoting and protecting human rights. Moni stressed the importance of upholding the rule of law and protecting the rights of vulnerable populations. She reiterated the government's commitment to zero tolerance for attacks against minorities, such as those that occurred in Ramu and Cox's Bazar. This was the first time Bangladesh participated with a delegation that included members of religious and ethnic minority groups. The minister presented on her government's initiatives to improve human rights, highlighting legislative and policy changes made in the past four years. The review process involves all UN member states declaring actions taken to improve human rights situations and fulfill their obligations. | null |
The series "9/12" is a thought-provoking and creatively reported exploration of the September 11 attacks by Dan Taberski. Beginning with a group of reality show contestants embarking on an 18th century-themed voyage just before the attacks, the show captures their initial unawareness and innocence. Backed by a beautiful score from jazz composer Daniel Herskedal, "9/12" uncovers lesser-known stories from the "war on terror" era to challenge traditional interpretations of the events. "Forever Is a Long Time," a five-part series by Ian Coss, delves into the complexity of lifelong commitment in a deeply personal way. Driven by his own uncertainties about the strength of his marriage, he conducted interviews with divorced family members and their ex-partners to understand the reasons behind their failed relationships. Each episode of the series delves into a different love story, with the host, Coss, approaching the investigation like a determined detective. The revelations he uncovers are transformed into original songs that capture the complexities of human relationships. In "La Brega," a project that celebrates Puerto Rican culture, the concept of struggle is explored through a series of stories that highlight the island's unique heritage. This bilingual production, hosted by Alana Casanova-Burgess, immerses listeners in the rich tapestry of Puerto Rico. Rich and overlooked American histories are filled with tales of pothole fillers, political activists, and basketball heroes who face their own struggles, many of which can be traced back to the concept of self-governing territories in the United States. "The Midnight Miracle," a conversation show featuring Dave Chappelle, Yasiin Bey, and Talib Kweli, is a star-studded and captivating podcast that goes beyond celebrity gossip. The hosts, who are close friends and collaborators, are joined by a rotating cast of humorous and insightful guests like David Letterman, Chris Rock, and Jon Stewart, discussing topics related to art, philosophy, and politics. The show's innovative sound design creates a seamless and engaging listening experience, making it feel like the most intriguing dinner party in the world. "One Year: 1977," hosted by former "Slow Burn" host Josh Levin, offers a forensic historical examination of a particular year in American life, focusing on its iconic figures, trends, and controversies. Just like in any captivating history, the most chilling moments, such as the deadly craze surrounding a bogus cancer treatment among celebrities and skeptics, continue to resonate with the present. Julie Salamon's podcast adaptation of her book "The Devil's Candy" delves into forgotten tape recordings to bring the doomed production of Brian De Palma's "The Bonfire of the Vanities" to life. Through on-set interviews with key players like De Palma, Tom Hanks, and Melanie Griffith, listeners are transported back to a time when high art clashed with commercial pressures. "Resistance," inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, focuses on smaller-scale revolutions. Saidu Tejan-Thomas Jr., the host, along with producer-reporters Salifu Sesay Mack, Bethel Habte, and Aaron Randle, uncover compelling stories that delve into the struggles faced by individuals in their everyday lives. These stories shed light on lesser-known miscarriages of justice and personal challenges, such as a woman fighting to free her incarcerated partner and the exploitation of a historic oasis for Black bathers in Manhattan Beach. The latest season of “Rough Translation,” hosted by Gregory Warner, focuses on the “Civ-Mil divide” between civilians and military members, exploring how this divide overlooks acts of compassion and sacrifice on both sides. Through the stories of individuals like Alicia and Matt Lammers and Marla Ruzicka, the podcast highlights the complexities of civ-mil relationships and the impact of trauma on those involved. In the podcast "The Sporkful: Mission Impastable," Dan Pashman, a seasoned food critic and host of the show, has dedicated years to a seemingly unconventional goal: creating the perfect pasta shape. His journey to develop this shape, which he believes does not yet exist, and to have it produced, is reminiscent of popular podcasts like "Radiolab," "StartUp," and "Planet Money." Pashman's emotional ups and downs throughout the process will resonate with anyone who has pursued a successful project. Similarly, Natalia Petrzela's podcast "Welcome to Your Fantasy" delves into the fascinating history of Chippendales, the male strip show that rose to fame in the '80s, going beyond the sensationalism of sex and true crime to explore a rich narrative with compelling characters and a nostalgic atmosphere. This is truly an incredible story. The journey of troupe founder Steve Banerjee, from immigrant small-business owner to successful player in the sex industry to violent racketeer, is a classic American tale that is stranger than fiction. (c.2021 The New York Times Company) | null |
Obama's visit to India is aimed at strengthening the country's strategic partnership and building a friendship with Prime Minister Modi, who was previously unwelcome in Washington. Obama will be the first US president to attend India's Republic Day parade, a symbol of military strength once associated with Cold War tensions, and will also appear on a radio show with Modi. The invitation to the parade, extended by Modi himself, marks a significant improvement in the relationship between the two nations, which was strained just a year ago. In an interview with India Today magazine, Obama expressed hope for a closer partnership between India and the US. Modi welcomed Obama and his wife, Michelle, on the tarmac in New Delhi as they arrived on Air Force One on a foggy winter morning. The two leaders embraced each other warmly, which was a departure from the usual protocol of the prime minister not personally welcoming foreign leaders upon their arrival. Modi made the decision to break this tradition himself, surprising his own staff. As Obama's motorcade made its way to the welcome ceremony at the president's residence, the roads were heavily guarded by armed police and soldiers as part of a carefully planned visit. Reports suggest that up to 40,000 security personnel will be present during the visit, and 15,000 new closed-circuit surveillance cameras have been installed in the capital. Both sides have been working to come to agreements on climate change, taxation, and defense cooperation before the visit. Talks on a potential deal on civil nuclear trade were intense and no clear solution was reached. The United States sees India as a valuable market and potential counterbalance to China in Asia, but is often frustrated with India's slow economic reforms and reluctance to align with the US on global issues. India is hoping for a new approach from the US towards Pakistan, especially in terms of security and regional matters. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley expressed this desire for greater understanding with the US ahead of Obama's visit to Davos. Elected in May of last year, Modi has brought new energy to the economy and foreign relations, and has started to challenge China's influence in South Asia, which has pleased Washington. The current annual trade between the US and India is considered to be much lower than it could be, and the US hopes to increase it fivefold. Due to the death of King Abdullah, President Obama will be leaving India slightly earlier than planned to visit Saudi Arabia instead of going to the Taj Mahal. Like Obama, Modi comes from a humble background and has risen to prominence in a political landscape dominated by powerful families. Their bond was strengthened during a visit to the Martin Luther King memorial in Washington in September, as both leaders draw inspiration from figures like King and Gandhi. The connection between Modi and Obama is noteworthy due to their differing political stances and Modi's past controversies. Despite Obama's close relationship with Modi's predecessor, Manmohan Singh, tensions between the US and India have arisen, particularly regarding trade issues. According to Ashley Tellis, the two countries have yet to fully solidify their geopolitical alliance. Efforts to revive the 2009 nuclear deal, which did not fulfill expectations for US businesses, are currently underway. Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes informed reporters this week that there is great potential in the relationship and the goal is to transform that potential into tangible advantages for both nations. | null |
Ugandan police have discovered an unexploded suicide belt and detained several individuals following the deaths of 74 soccer fans in two bomb attacks while they were watching the World Cup final on television. Somali Islamists associated with al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for the attacks. The opposition in Uganda has demanded the withdrawal of the country's peacekeepers from Somalia. A government representative stated that the unexploded suicide belt was found in a third location in the capital city of Kampala, a day after the twin explosions occurred in two bars filled with soccer fans on Sunday night. "Arrests were made yesterday after an unexploded suicide bomber's belt was found in the Makindye area," said government spokesman Fred Opolot. He did not provide details on the number or origin of the arrested individuals. Coordinated attacks similar to this have been associated with al Qaeda and groups connected to Osama bin Laden's militant network. The al Shabaab militants have threatened further attacks unless Uganda and Burundi remove their peacekeepers from the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia (AMISOM). Uganda's opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party has urged President Yoweri Museveni to withdraw his soldiers and stated their intention to do so if they win the upcoming elections in 2011. They argue that there is no peace to be maintained in Somalia and that Uganda has no strategic interest in the region. FDC spokesman Wafula Oguttu told Reuters that they are sacrificing their children for no reason, as their goal is to remove troops immediately after gaining power. AMISOM stated that the explosions will not hinder their mission in Somalia, where they protect the presidential palace and secure Mogadishu's airport and port. The FBI is investigating the coordinated attacks by al Shabaab as the group is now expanding its violent tactics internationally. Analysts warn that the threats from al Shabaab should be taken seriously, as they have shown they have the capability and willingness to carry out attacks abroad. Foreign direct investment has increased in the third largest economy of East Africa due to oil exploration near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Analysts believe that a sustained bombing campaign could harm Uganda's investment climate, but a one-time attack is unlikely to deter major companies like British hydrocarbons explorer Tullow Oil from investing. The United States has offered assistance with investigations into the attack, with three FBI agents currently collecting evidence on the ground and an additional team ready to deploy to the country. Opolot stated that there were no indications that the African Union summit, which is scheduled to be hosted by Uganda this month, would be cancelled in light of the bombings. | null |
Australia's newly elected prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has made signing the Kyoto Protocol his top priority, according to his deputy, Julia Gillard. Rudd intends to fulfill a campaign promise by quickly signing the climate change pact, which will allow Australia to have a more significant role at an upcoming international meeting on environmental issues in Bali, Indonesia. This decision will also leave the US as the only Western country not to ratify the pact, despite being the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide. Australia, on the other hand, is the worst polluter per capita. Rudd's proposal to gradually bring back Australia's 550 combat troops from Iraq could potentially strain Australia's close relationship with the US. Following messages of congratulations from foreign leaders, Rudd received a phone call from US President George Bush over the weekend. Although he did not disclose specifics of their conversation, Rudd mentioned plans to visit Washington in the upcoming year. Continuing his meetings with senior officials on Monday to transition into power after the recent elections, Rudd is scheduled to meet with newly elected Labor party members of parliament on Thursday to select his ministerial team. The team is then expected to be sworn in by Governor-General Michael Jefferey shortly after. The government is currently in caretaker mode. Officials have stated that Rudd, who won the election after almost 12 years of conservative rule, has already begun working on rewriting the country's labour laws as he promised during his campaign. There is uncertainty about who will lead the coalition that lost the election and is now the new opposition. Outgoing prime minister John Howard is likely to lose his seat in parliament, while his nominated successor Peter Costello surprised everyone on Sunday by announcing he did not want the job. Former environment minister Malcolm Turnbull and former health minister Tony Abbott have both declared their intention to compete for the position of opposition leader. The ballot counting was still in progress on Monday, with the extent of Rudd's decisive victory yet to be officially confirmed and a few closely contested districts still to be determined. One of these districts is Bennelong in Sydney, which has been held by Howard for 33 years. This puts Australia's second-longest serving leader in the position of potentially losing not just the government but also his own seat in parliament. Howard conceded on Saturday that he will likely no longer represent Bennelong. Labor's Maxine McKew, a former TV presenter, currently has a slight lead over Howard and the final outcome is expected to depend on postal votes. | null |
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras surprised creditors by calling a referendum on proposed austerity cuts, then announced on television that capital controls would be implemented to prevent bank collapse. This move came after a weekend of turmoil in Greece, leading the country closer to defaulting on a significant IMF loan and potentially exiting the eurozone. French President Francois Hollande urged Tsipras to resume negotiations, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed willingness to speak with the Greek leader. Time was running out for a resolution as Greece's bailout programme was set to expire soon. Greeks, who are accustomed to prolonged negotiations with creditors leading to last-minute agreements, were shocked by the situation. An Athens resident named Evgenia Gekou expressed disbelief and uncertainty about the future while on her way to work. She hoped that everything would be resolved when she woke up the next day and tried to remain calm despite the unclear messages coming from European officials. A representative from the European Commission told French radio that Brussels had no plans to present any new proposals on Monday, which seemed to contradict statements made by EU Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici. Moscovici had claimed that a new offer was on the way and that a deal was close to being reached. As a result of the uncertainty, European bank shares experienced a significant drop on Monday, with top banks in Spain, France, and Germany seeing a decline of over 6 percent. Concerns about the potential impact on banks in other peripheral euro zone countries caused anxiety among investors. In response to the situation, the Greek government announced that banks would remain closed until at least after July 5, the date of the referendum. When automated teller machines reopened at midday, withdrawals were limited to 60 euros per day. The stock exchange will also remain closed. Following extensive discussions, Greece's frustrated European partners have placed responsibility for the crisis squarely on Tsipras's shoulders. The creditors demanded that Greece reduce pensions and increase taxes in ways that Tsipras has consistently argued would worsen one of the most severe economic crises in modern history in a country where a quarter of the workforce is already without jobs. Upon Tsipras's announcement of emergency measures on Sunday, there were long queues outside ATMs and gas stations as people hurried to withdraw cash before it was too late. When the ATMs reopened on Monday, lines of more than twelve people were formed. Plumber Yannis Kalaizakis, 58, mentioned that he had five euros in his pocket and decided to try his luck at getting more money. He commented on the long queues in his neighborhood the previous day and expressed frustration at the situation. Newspapers featured images of the long lines at cash machines on their front pages. The Nafetemporiki newspaper's headline on Monday read "Dramatic hours," while Ta Nea simply asked "When will the banks open." Eleftheros Typos, a conservative-leaning newspaper, accused Tsipras of using the referendum as a tactic to push the country into early elections with the goal of winning them. The editorial criticized Tsipras for his decision, calling it a premeditated crime and stating that he has lost the trust of the citizens, as evidenced by the long lines at ATMs and petrol stations. This lack of trust will likely be reflected in the upcoming ballot on Sunday. As rumors spread, numerous elderly individuals lined up outside of at least two National Bank of Greece branches on Monday in hopes of withdrawing their pensions, only to be turned away, as reported by Reuters photographers. One shop owner expressed his frustration, saying, "I've spent my entire life working, only to wake up to a situation like this." Despite the financial turmoil, some aspects of everyday life continued as usual, with businesses and shops in the city operating normally, and Greek citizens gathering at cafes and restaurants to discuss the state of their country. Tourists also gathered as usual to observe the changing of the guard outside parliament. A demonstration organized by Tsipras's Syriza party to oppose austerity measures and encourage voters to reject the bailout terms in the upcoming referendum is expected to take place later today. Officials in Europe and the United States have been making urgent calls and arranging meetings in an attempt to resolve the situation. U.S. President Barack Obama contacted Merkel, and senior U.S. officials, including Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, who spoke with Tsipras, have called on Europe and the IMF to develop a plan to maintain the stability of the euro and keep Greece in the eurozone. According to Administrative Reforms Minister George Katrougalos, Greek banks are not receiving the necessary funds, which he believes is a tactic to intimidate them. He also warned that a "yes" vote would result in cuts to pensions and require citizens to pay for healthcare in public hospitals. When your children are unable to attend school, you will express gratitude while they may respond by saying that you wanted this situation. However, if you refuse, you have the power to strive for a brighter tomorrow. | null |
In the upcoming elections, Democrats have the opportunity to strengthen their Senate majority, which would increase their influence regardless of who becomes the next President. Due to retirements, scandals, and the Iraq war, Republicans are facing challenges, and Democrats may potentially gain up to nine seats in the 100-member Senate in the November 2008 elections. This would give Democrats a crucial 60 seats, which is the number needed to overcome Republican procedural obstacles. This majority would allow Democrats to push for changes in President Bush's Iraq war policy, including the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The last time Democrats had a significant majority in the Senate was during the 1977-1979 congressional session when they held 61 seats. Jennifer Duffy, who monitors Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, believes that reaching 60 seats is a real possibility. She stated that for things to go in their favor, everything would need to go perfectly. At this point, it is too soon to make any predictions. The elections are a year away and numerous Republicans are trying to separate themselves from Bush, who has a low approval rating. However, they are still connected to his unpopular position on the Iraq war, which has been ongoing for five years. Many are worried about what lies ahead, especially since Senate Democrats have received more campaign contributions than Republicans. "We are expected to lose seats," said a senior Senate Republican aide, citing the unfavorable political climate for their party. Currently, Republicans hold 22 out of the 34 Senate seats up for re-election next year, compared to Democrats' 12. All Democratic incumbents plan to seek re-election and are considered likely winners. On the other hand, five Republican incumbents have already stated they will not run for another six-year term in 2008. Last week, Senators Pete Domenici and Larry Craig, both Republicans, announced they would not be seeking re-election. Domenici, aged 75, cited declining health as his reason, while Craig, aged 62, mentioned his disputed conviction in an undercover sex-sting in an airport men's room. The Craig conviction has embarrassed Republicans, who pride themselves on being the party of "conservative family values." Additionally, the party has been rattled by a political corruption investigation in Alaska involving Senator Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican senator in history. Stevens, who has been a member of the Senate since 1968, has denied any misconduct. However, the investigation has made the 83-year-old Alaskan vulnerable in the upcoming 2008 elections. The Iraq war played a significant role in helping Democrats gain control of Congress last year, and it may also help them increase their majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate in the following year. Despite this, Republicans are encouraged by polls showing that only about one in four Americans approve of the Democratic-led Congress, which has been hindered by partisan disagreements. Rebecca Fisher, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Senate campaign committee, stated that Democrats have not yet demonstrated their ability to effectively lead the country, and voters are noticing. She believes that Republicans will regain control of the Senate. Despite this, Democrats are dismissing these claims, pointing to surveys that show Americans still prefer Democrats over Republicans in Congress. However, many are hesitant to make predictions about their performance in the upcoming elections. Duffy from the Cook Political Report says that Democrats are trying to lower expectations for significant Senate gains because they are concerned it could energize the Republican base. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, who previously doubted his party's chances of winning the Senate, is now focused on maintaining a majority. Similarly, Sen. Charles Schumer, who leads the Senate Democratic campaign committee, is optimistic about their chances in the upcoming election but does not want to speculate on the number of seats they may gain. | null |
CEO Farzad Rashidi stated that all 45 of their workers are currently unemployed. The male employees have resorted to driving taxis while the female employees have returned to being housewives. Numerous business owners in Iran have reported to Reuters that their companies have halted production and thousands of workers have been laid off due to a challenging business environment, primarily caused by new US sanctions. The value of the Iranian rial has dropped significantly and economic activity has decreased substantially since US President Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal with Tehran in May. In August, he implemented sanctions targeting purchases of US dollars, gold trading, and the automotive industry. Iran's oil and banking industries suffered significant blows in November, with losses totaling around five billion rials. As a result, all activities have been suspended until the currency market stabilizes. Rashidi stated that continuing operations in the current economic climate would be foolish, likening it to driving down a dead end. Earlier in the year, the country faced unrest due to high unemployment and rising prices, leading to clashes between protestors and security forces. There are concerns that the economic crisis will worsen with the imposition of sanctions, potentially sparking further unrest. Four days before being dismissed by parliament in August for not adequately protecting the jobs market from sanctions, labor minister Ali Rabiei predicted that Iran would see a million job losses by the end of the year due to US measures. Current unemployment is at 12.1 percent, leaving three million Iranians without work. A parliamentary report in September warned that the increasing unemployment rate could threaten the stability of the Islamic Republic. The report stated that if economic conditions do not improve, with an inflation rate of 10 percent and unemployment at 12 percent, the intensity of protests could increase dramatically. If Iran's economic growth remains below 5 percent in the future, unemployment could skyrocket to 26 percent. The International Monetary Fund has forecasted a contraction of Iran's economy by 1.5 percent this year and 3.6 percent in 2019, primarily due to decreasing oil revenues. Iran's vice president has expressed concerns about the impact of sanctions on Iran, particularly in terms of unemployment and decreased purchasing power. He emphasized the importance of creating jobs and ensuring that productive companies do not suffer due to sanctions. However, business owners have criticized the government's monetary policies, exchange rate fluctuations, rising costs of raw materials, and high interest loans from banks, which have led to difficulties in staying afloat. Some companies are unable to pay wages or are forced to lay off workers, with one major textile factory even considering halting operations, potentially leading to hundreds of job losses. The manager, who preferred to remain anonymous, reported that around 200 workers were laid off in August, and the situation has continued to deteriorate. There is a strong likelihood that the factory will close down. Ahmad Roosta, the CEO of Takplast Nour, had initially been optimistic that a drought in Iran would benefit his recently established factory, which manufactures plastic pipes for agricultural use. However, he now acknowledges that he may have to cease operations if the current circumstances persist, as the farmers, who are the primary buyers of their products, are unable to purchase them due to financial constraints. The Iranian car industry has been impacted by sanctions, which caused a decline after a period of growth when sanctions were lifted two years ago. French carmaker PSA Group and German manufacturer Daimler have both taken steps to avoid US sanctions by suspending joint ventures and dropping expansion plans in Iran. This has led to more than 300 auto parts makers halting production, jeopardizing tens of thousands of jobs. The Iran Tire Producers Association attributed issues in the sector to the government's changing monetary policies over the past six months. Mostafa Tanha, a spokesperson for the association, expressed disappointment in the sector's failure to achieve planned production growth due to these challenges. Washington claims that the economic pressures on Tehran are specifically aimed at the government and its allies in the region, rather than the Iranian people. However, young Iranians, who are experiencing high levels of unemployment, are the ones most affected by the situation. For example, Maryam, who worked as a public relations manager in a food import company, recently lost her job due to a decrease in customers and the company's decision to halt imports. She and her colleagues are concerned about the company potentially shutting down after selling off its inventory. In a country where 60 percent of the 80 million population is under 30, youth unemployment is already at 25 percent. Official data shows that in some parts of the country, the unemployment rate among young people with higher education is above 50 percent. Armin, 29, who holds a degree in mechanical engineering, lost his job in the housebuilding industry due to the recession caused by the fall of the rial. He mentioned that the property market is slowing down because high prices have made houses unaffordable, and the situation is worsening day by day in the city of Rasht in northern Iran. Nima, a legal adviser specializing in startups and computer companies, believes that sanctions have already had an impact on many companies in the sector that relied on exports and had plans for regional expansion. He mentioned that even the gaming industry in Iran has been affected by the sanctions, causing many development teams to pause their projects and wait for further developments. Saeed Laylaz, an economist in Tehran, was more optimistic, attributing youth unemployment to Iran's demographics and government policies, with sanctions exacerbating an already existing issue. Laylaz predicted that despite the challenges posed by sanctions and economic uncertainties, the market would eventually stabilize. Laylaz, who recently met with Rouhani along with other economists to provide guidance on economic policies, expressed confidence that they will overcome the current round of sanctions just as they have in the past. | null |
A six-meter high blimp will be flying above Parliament Square for two hours starting at 0900 GMT while Trump is meeting with Theresa May nearby in Downing Street. Trump and Melania arrived on Monday for a three-day state visit, which included a banquet at Buckingham Palace. Organizers of the blimp, such as Ajuub Faraji, are sending a message of solidarity to those affected by Trump's politics. In central London, tens of thousands of protesters are expected to participate in a "Carnival of Resistance" against the president, including environmental activists, anti-racism campaigners, and women's rights protesters. The police will shut down the road outside Downing Street to ensure the safety of the president and his family. Trump's policies, such as the travel ban and withdrawal from the climate change deal, as well as his criticism of British leaders, have fueled opposition to his presidency in Britain. Several lawmakers, including Jeremy Corbyn, boycotted the state dinner held in the president's honor, causing controversy among his supporters who viewed it as disrespectful to a close ally. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has supported the demonstrators by allowing the flying of the blimp, despite his ongoing clashes with the president. The president has previously criticized the mayor for not doing enough to prevent terror attacks in London, calling him a "stone-cold loser." Despite facing protests in Britain, Trump believes he is well-liked in the country due to his Scottish roots and ownership of two golf courses there. He expressed in an interview with The Sun that he feels closer to Britain than any other American leader. I really adore the United Kingdom. The protests are anticipated to escalate later today as demonstrators gather at Trafalgar Square at 10:00 GMT. They will then march via Embankment to reach Parliament Square in the afternoon due to the closure of the southern part of Whitehall by the police. Protesters from various parts of Britain will be traveling to London to participate in the demonstrations. Additionally, protests against Trump's visit are scheduled in 14 other cities and towns. Trump's most recent visit in July resulted in police spending more than 14.2 million pounds ($17.95 million), with 10,000 officers brought in from various parts of the UK. According to Scott Lucas, a professor at the University of Birmingham, past US presidents like Ronald Reagan and George W Bush have also faced significant protests in Britain. Lucas noted that protests for American presidents tend to be larger compared to leaders from countries like China or Saudi Arabia due to the historic alliance between the US and the UK. Lucas emphasized the importance of being able to communicate openly with friends, such as the US. Typically, you are more focused on the well-being of individuals within your immediate community, such as those in your household or neighborhood, rather than those in a neighboring village or town. | null |
Kim Yong Chol, the vice-chairman of the North Korean Workers' Party's Central Committee, will lead a high-level delegation to the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang on Sunday. The delegation is also scheduled to meet with President Moon Jae-in. Kim Yong Chol previously served as the chief of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, a prominent North Korean military intelligence agency that South Korea accused of being responsible for the 2010 sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean navy corvette. North Korea has denied any involvement in the incident. In light of the current challenging circumstances, the South Korean Unification Ministry has stated that the focus will be on the potential for peace on the Korean peninsula and improved inter-Korean relations through dialogue with the visiting North Korean officials, rather than dwelling on their past actions or identities. Kim's visit will coincide with Ivanka Trump's visit to South Korea for the Winter Olympics' closing ceremony. The Blue House stated that there are no official plans for U.S. and North Korean officials to meet. South Korea's decision to allow Kim, who is under sanctions by the U.S. and South Korea, to cross the border has caused protests from family members of deceased Cheonan sailors and opposition parties. The main opposition Liberty Korea Party staged a protest in front of the Blue House, criticizing President Moon's decision to accept North Korea's peace offering. A group of relatives of the victims of the Cheonan sinking announced plans to hold a press conference to protest the decision. Despite public concerns about Kim's upcoming visit, the South maintains that the sinking was caused by North Korea. The focus, however, should be on working towards peace on the Korean peninsula to prevent future provocations. The government intends to take various measures to address the public's worries. Kim Jong Un of North Korea expressed a desire to improve relations with South Korea, while the United States emphasized the need to increase pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons. North Korea conducted numerous missile launches and its sixth nuclear test in violation of UN sanctions last year. It has been over two months since its most recent missile test in late November. | null |
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh stated that India cannot sustain high economic growth while also experiencing a rapid increase in carbon emissions, especially now that the country is the third largest emitter after China and the United States. Ramesh made these remarks during a meeting of negotiators from nearly 200 governments in Tianjin, China, as part of the UN talks to determine the next steps after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Despite India's low per-capita emissions, the demand for energy is on the rise due to the middle-class purchasing more cars, TVs, and improved housing, with much of this energy being derived from coal, oil, and gas, which are major sources of carbon dioxide emissions. Ramesh emphasized that India's pursuit of wealth should not harm the environment. Government officials confirmed that his remarks marked the first time a minister had acknowledged India surpassing Russia as the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Ramesh stated that India would proactively transition to a low-carbon growth trajectory, rather than achieving high economic growth at the expense of high carbon emissions. He reiterated this commitment during a conference in Nepal, emphasizing the goal of achieving 8-9 percent GDP growth with low carbon emissions. Less wealthy countries are now the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, and many major developing nations have made efforts to limit the increase of their emissions. However, they are hesitant to agree to absolute cuts as they believe this would harm their economies. India, which fared better than most during the global financial crisis, aims for nearly 10 percent economic growth in the near future. Currently, its economy is growing at approximately 8.5 percent. India is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases globally, following China and the United States. Transitioning to a low-carbon economy was previously considered politically risky in India due to the associated economic costs. In January, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requested a panel to start planning a transition to a more environmentally friendly economy. The report is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Despite India's new climate plan focusing on renewable energy like solar power, coal continues to be the primary source of energy in a country where almost half of the 1.1 billion population lacks access to electricity. Minister Ramesh emphasized the importance of acknowledging India's contribution to emissions despite the significant gap between the top two emitters. The UN climate talks have been hindered by a lack of trust between wealthy and developing nations regarding climate funds, calls for greater transparency in emission reductions, and frustration over the limited cuts proposed by wealthy nations. The United Nations has decided to stop pushing nations to make stronger commitments to reduce carbon emissions out of concern that the talks could come to a standstill, potentially risking the progress of ongoing discussions for a more ambitious climate agreement. | null |
President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, who is widely recognized for introducing democracy to the secluded resort islands, stepped down on Tuesday following weeks of protests by the opposition that escalated into a police mutiny and what his aide described as a coup. Nasheed, the first democratically elected president of the Maldives, transferred power to Vice-President Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, stating that staying in office would force him to use violence against the people. In a televised speech, Nasheed explained, "I am resigning because I do not want to govern through force. I fear that if the government were to remain in power, it would resort to violence that would harm many citizens. I am stepping down because I believe that if the government continues, we may be subjected to outside influences." It was not immediately clear what influences he was referring to, but Hassan Saeed, leader of the DQP, a party in the opposition coalition, and an Indian diplomatic source in Colombo both said that Nasheed had requested assistance from India and been denied. India had previously helped thwart a coup in the Maldives in 1988 by sending soldiers to support the government. A spokesperson for India's Foreign Ministry, Syed Akbaruddin, stated that the rebellion in the Maldives was an internal matter to be resolved by the Maldivian government. Nasheed won the election in 2008 with promises to bring full democracy to the islands and raise awareness about climate change and rising sea levels. However, he faced criticism for arresting a judge he believed was biased towards his predecessor, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who had ruled the Maldives for 30 years. The arrest of Nasheed sparked protests and led to a constitutional crisis, with Nasheed facing accusations of behaving like a dictator. An official at Nasheed's office expressed concern, stating that they believed it was a coup orchestrated by the police, supporters of former President Gayoom, and certain factions within the military. The new president claimed that Nasheed was placed under protective police custody for his own safety. Saeed from the DQP stated that they will push for Nasheed to be prosecuted for his corruption and disregard for the rule of law, while also pledging full support for the new president. Vandals targeted the lobby of the opposition-linked VTV TV station, and mutinying police attacked and set fire to the main gathering place of Nasheed's Maldives Democratic Party. They also took control of the state broadcaster MNBC and renamed it TV Maldives. Soldiers used teargas against police and protesters outside the Maldives National Defence Force headquarters, and later demonstrators gathered outside the president's office chanting "Gayoom" on Tuesday. Gayoom's opposition party in the Maldives, the Progressive Party, accused the military of using rubber bullets on protesters. A party spokesman mentioned that many people were injured, but did not provide details. A government official denied the use of rubber bullets but confirmed that some police officers had disobeyed orders and attacked a ruling party facility. The official also mentioned that Gayoom's party had called for the overthrow of the democratically elected government and for citizens to launch a jihad against the president. The protests and competition for power leading up to next year's presidential election have caused political parties to adopt extreme Islamist rhetoric and accuse Nasheed of being anti-Islamic. This has highlighted the ongoing rivalry between Gayoom and Nasheed, with Nasheed having been jailed for six years and arrested 27 times by Gayoom's government for advocating for democracy. The vice-president is expected to lead a national unity government until the election. Despite this unrest, the 900,000 tourists who visit the Maldives each year are largely unaware, as they are taken directly to their luxury resorts where they can enjoy alcohol and spa treatments, shielded from the everyday realities of the Islamic state where alcohol is banned and modest dress is expected. Nasheed was well-known for his efforts to prevent the sea from overtaking his country, even going as far as conducting a cabinet meeting underwater in 2009 with ministers in scuba gear to bring attention to the issue. However, an Asian diplomat in Male stated that the public tends to remember Judge Abdulla Mohamed more than the underwater cabinet meeting, referring to Nasheed's decision to have the judge arrested for allegedly being corrupt. Meanwhile, a Twitter user named Alexander Brown mentioned being in the Maldives and witnessing a government overthrow while watching a Vogue photo shoot at the Four Seasons, describing it as a strange world. | null |
India's prime minister and US President Barack Obama are set to meet next week in order to strengthen ties between the two nations. India, an emerging Asian power, is increasingly playing a larger role on global issues such as climate change and trade. Manmohan Singh's three-day state visit, starting on November 23, is viewed by New Delhi as an important indicator of Obama's commitment to maintaining a relationship that began to deepen under his predecessor George W. Bush. India is also recognized as a significant geopolitical player in bringing stability to a South Asian region marked by violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as militant attacks like those in Mumbai last year. During their discussions, Singh and Obama will address a range of issues including reducing carbon emissions, multi-billion dollar defense contracts, and expediting the completion of a landmark civilian nuclear deal signed the previous year. Singh's visit will be the first state visit of the Obama administration, underscoring the prime minister's personal efforts to strengthen ties with Western economies and move India away from decades of mistrust with Washington. The trip's success will be determined by whether the two leaders can address any doubts about Washington's commitment to New Delhi, especially in a region where it competes with China and Pakistan, both of which are important U.S. foreign policy priorities. Walter Andersen from Johns Hopkins University's South Asia Studies center mentioned that although the relationship between India and the U.S. is good, it lacks a defining issue like the civilian nuclear deal that characterized the relationship during George Bush's presidency. This visit presents an opportunity for both countries to introduce new ideas to strengthen their strategic partnership. President Bill Clinton initiated efforts to build ties with modern India after the Cold War, and this was further enhanced by Bush's civilian nuclear deal in 2008, which lifted a 1974 embargo imposed on India after it conducted a nuclear test. Bilateral trade between India and the United States saw a significant increase from $5.6 billion in 1990 to around 43 billion in 2008, marking a 675 percent rise. However, some in India were displeased with Obama's early focus on Pakistan in the fight against the Taliban and his emphasis on relations with China, as they had hoped to build on Bush's legacy. According to Stephen Cohen, a South Asia specialist at the Brookings Institution, while relations on secondary issues like trade, climate change, defense sales, and counter-terrorism are good and may improve, there appears to be a divergence at the strategic level. The U.S. strategy for Afghanistan, which involves Pakistan as a key ally, has been criticized for overlooking the concerns of regional countries like India, which competes with Pakistan for influence in Kabul. Since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, India and Pakistan have engaged in three wars. India is concerned about China's growing influence in the U.S. economy, which it sees as leverage Beijing has over Washington. Additionally, India is worried about Chinese support for Pakistan. On the other hand, Beijing is troubled by the presence of the Dalai Lama in India. Foreign policy professor Chintamani Mahapatra from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi explains that India becomes anxious when it sees the U.S. focusing on China and Pakistan. "It will seek a statement that recognizes India's increased importance in the region and addresses the fact that the Obama administration has marginalized New Delhi. Washington recognizes India's value as an economic power, a large market, a thriving IT industry, strong military, and potential counterbalance to China. Prime Minister Singh will address issues such as the nuclear deal, liability protection for American firms, and nuclear fuel reprocessing rights. India also hopes for Obama's support for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. Former U.S. ambassador to India, Frank Wisner, emphasized the importance of discussing strategy, economics, and global issues." If we want to accomplish any of our goals, it is essential for us to have the cooperation of India. | null |
Britain is encouraging world leaders to attend the UN climate deal conference in Copenhagen in person to ensure its success. Australian and Indian representatives discussed strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown emphasized the need for leaders to directly engage in negotiations to overcome the current impasse and achieve a successful outcome at the upcoming conference in Denmark. He expressed his commitment to attend the event and urged others to do the same. Negotiations between industrialized and developing countries on how to allocate emissions reductions are currently stalled. There is only one week of formal talks left before the Copenhagen summit, with discussions having started in Bali in 2007. The main points of contention are the size of carbon cuts that wealthy countries should make by 2020, and the financial support they should provide to developing nations for combating climate change. In a recent development, Australian Climate Minister Penny Wong announced that carbon trade legislation will be brought back to parliament for a vote before the end of November. The conservative opposition has called for revisions to the scheme to avoid a potential snap election. The government, which is leading in opinion polls and stands to gain from an election, plans to implement carbon trading starting in July 2011. This initiative will place a price on greenhouse gas emissions, helping to reduce emissions in one of the world's highest per capita polluting countries. The Australian program will apply to 75 percent of emissions from 1,000 major companies and will be the second trading platform of its kind outside of Europe. Companies will be required to obtain a permit for each ton of carbon they release. In India, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh is reportedly advocating for New Delhi to agree to limits on the country's increasing carbon emissions without insisting on new financial and technological assistance from wealthier nations. Ramesh emphasized the importance of being practical and positive in approach, rather than confrontational and argumentative. In an interview with Reuters on Friday, Ramesh indicated a readiness to make concessions in order to secure a deal. India, China, and other large developing nations are concerned about the potential impacts of climate change, such as extreme droughts, floods, rising sea levels, and melting glaciers that supply major rivers. The London discussions at the Major Economies Forum are centered on how to transform a variety of national policy plans, ranging from China to the United States, into an agreement. The countries participating in the forum are responsible for 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Asad Rehman, Climate Campaigner for Friends of the Earth, emphasized the need for wealthy countries in the Major Economies Forum to promptly provide additional funding. A major issue for Copenhagen is that the United States, the only developed nation not included in the current Kyoto Protocol for reducing emissions, is unlikely to enact laws to cut carbon emissions by December. In Cape Town, South Africa highlighted a significant source of increasing emissions - the upcoming soccer World Cup in 2010. Emissions are projected to increase nearly ten times compared to a benchmark set in 2006 by Germany, in part due to the inclusion of air travel in the calculation. Minister Buyelwa Sonjica of Water and Environmental Affairs stated that the FIFA 2010 World Cup is expected to have the largest carbon footprint of any major event, despite efforts to achieve carbon neutrality. | null |
Due to a geomagnetic storm caused by a recent solar outburst, 40 out of 49 newly launched Starlink satellites have been disabled and are descending into Earth's atmosphere to be destroyed. This event emphasizes the risks faced by companies looking to deploy thousands of small satellites for internet service from space. There is a possibility that future solar outbursts could also disrupt these orbital transmitters. The sun operates on an 11-year cycle of activity. At the moment, solar activity is increasing towards its peak, expected around 2025. The recent solar event was considered mild compared to past occurrences. Hugh Lewis, a space debris expert, believes that a more intense event is likely during the next solar cycle. If a minor solar flare can disrupt 40 Starlink satellites in low orbit, a stronger solar event could cause even more damage to SpaceX and other company's megaconstellations. SpaceX recently announced the potential loss of up to 40 satellites due to the solar activity. The company stated that the satellites were released to their intended orbit, which is approximately 130 miles above Earth, to avoid potential collisions with other satellites in the future. If the satellites encounter malfunctions at this altitude and cannot raise their orbits to safer heights, the atmosphere quickly disposes of the failed technology. This safety measure was mentioned by Lewis. However, before the launch of these satellites on Jan 29, a powerful eruption from the sun called a coronal mass ejection, which contains highly energetic particles and magnetism, was observed. This ejection reached Earth around Feb 2, causing a geomagnetic storm in Earth's magnetic field. The intense storm increased the kinetic energy of particles in Earth's atmosphere, causing it to expand and become denser. This increased drag on objects moving through the atmosphere, such as satellites, resulting in their orbits shrinking and bringing them closer to the lower atmosphere where they would burn up. SpaceX reported that during a recent Starlink deployment, the storm caused atmospheric drag to increase by up to 50% compared to previous launches, leading to the eventual loss of 40 out of 49 satellites due to gravitational forces. Currently, there are 1,915 Starlink satellites orbiting in space. According to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, losing up to 40 of these satellites is not a major concern for SpaceX. However, aerospace engineer Lewis estimates the potential hardware loss to be around $100 million, taking into account the cost of the launch. The risks of solar outbursts and geomagnetic storms damaging objects in low-Earth orbit are well-documented, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration categorizing geomagnetic storms on a scale from minor to extreme. The agency notes that even a moderate storm can lead to changes in atmospheric drag, potentially altering orbits. Given these risks, the question arises as to whether SpaceX considered this hazard during the deployment of the Starlink satellites. Samantha Lawler, an astronomer at the University of Regina in Canada, expressed her disbelief, saying "I'm just kind of dumbfounded." McDowell also found it surprising, stating "Really? They did not think of this?" When reached via email, a SpaceX spokesperson explained that the team was unavailable to answer questions due to the demanding nature of the situation. The fact that the satellites are quickly entering the atmosphere, rather than staying in low-Earth orbit, is actually a positive development and does not pose any danger to people on the ground. Lewis stated that the system operated as intended in terms of safety, with the satellites de-orbiting without putting anything else at risk. While most satellites orbit at higher altitudes and are not affected by atmospheric expansion hazards, those at lower altitudes remain vulnerable. This raises concerns about SpaceX's ability to continue deploying spacecraft at low altitudes. Lewis explained that as the sun becomes more active, it emits more extreme ultraviolet radiation, which is absorbed into the atmosphere, causing it to expand significantly. This is expected to increase atmospheric density by one or two orders of magnitude. Many astronomers have expressed concerns about the impact of satellite constellations like Starlink on telescope research, noting that they reflect sunlight and could disrupt observations. Some view the recent incident involving the destruction of two Starlink satellites as indicative of SpaceX's approach to issues in low-Earth orbit - fixing problems after they occur rather than proactively addressing them. Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell described the incident as a significant change compared to previous events, highlighting the need for SpaceX to learn from this experience. Lawler stated that the outcome depends on them and expressed his wish that this would bring some understanding to them. | null |
Negotiators from 190 countries gathered in Bali to discuss climate change have a significant responsibility to come to an agreement, according to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Ban emphasized the seriousness of not reaching a deal and expressed confidence that all countries, including the United States, are motivated to reach an agreement. There has been contention among countries like the United States, Japan, Canada, and Australia regarding emission reduction guidelines, but Ban remains optimistic that an agreement will be reached. He advised countries not to focus solely on emission targets, as those details can be negotiated later. Ban expressed his willingness to return to Bali if the talks remained at a standstill. He emphasized the importance of political and historical responsibility for negotiators, ministers, and senior leaders to successfully conclude the talks. Ban also stressed that climate change affects everyone regardless of their nationality. | null |
European Union member states are discussing the extent to which they are prepared to combat climate change, with the possibility of implementing the world's most ambitious strategy to reduce global warming. A draft statement obtained by Reuters reveals plans to decrease EU greenhouse gas emissions by a minimum of 20 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels. The document also suggests a willingness to further reduce emissions by 30 percent if other developed nations follow suit and economically advanced developing countries also contribute. This proposal is expected to guide the EU's stance in negotiations for a global emissions reduction agreement post-2012. However, Hungary and Poland, recent additions to the EU, are opposing the mandatory nature of the 20 or 30 percent targets. Finland, Sweden, and Denmark have differing views on the EU target for emissions reductions, with Finland opposing a unilateral target and Sweden and Denmark advocating for a 30 percent reduction from the beginning. Some countries are also considering using a different base year for calculating emissions cuts than 1990. Germany, currently holding the EU presidency, is working to address these differences among ministers in order to secure unanimous support for the climate change strategy before a summit in March. The draft proposal states that EU states would agree to the 30 percent target under the condition that other developed countries also commit to comparable emissions reductions and economically advanced developing countries contribute according to their capabilities. The statement also mentions the need for a differentiated approach when distributing the requirements for meeting the EU target among the 27 member states. The Commission was urged to assess the criteria for how the targets would be distributed among member states. The draft stated that a differentiated approach, taking into consideration fairness, national circumstances, and the base years of the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period, is necessary. The 15 original EU member states have a joint target to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by eight percent by 2012 compared to 1990 levels, which is divided among them in a burden-sharing agreement where some must make greater reductions than others. | null |
He mentioned that despite the USA withdrawing from the agreement, all other countries are still committed to it. He also highlighted that a majority of US citizens believe that climate change is a significant issue and their government should take action. The remarks were made during a press briefing at the foreign ministry regarding the upcoming "Dhaka Meeting of the Global Commission on Adaptation". The Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister and the Principal Coordinator (SDG Affairs) at the Prime Minister’s Office also spoke at the briefing. President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius, was also mentioned. Bangladesh, as a climate vulnerable country, has ratified the agreement and the foreign minister expressed hope that the US will rejoin the agreement based on the desires of its citizens. President Hilda Heine of the Marshall Islands, former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, and World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva are set to arrive in Dhaka on Tuesday to participate in a meeting that will be opened by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. They will also be visiting Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar to witness the environmental damage caused by the arrival of people from Myanmar. Principal Coordinator Azad stated, "We want to demonstrate to these global leaders involved in climate change efforts how our environment is being impacted by the large number of Rohingya refugees." President Heine will arrive early Tuesday morning, followed by Ban Ki-moon in the afternoon. They will be welcomed by the foreign minister at Shahjalal International Airport. Hasina is scheduled to have a meeting with the President of the Marshall Islands and the former United Nations Secretary-General before the conference inauguration at the Hotel Intercontinental. | null |
The data released by the government on Friday showed that output from mines, utilities, and factories grew by only 0.5 percent year-on-year, a significant drop from the 3.9 percent rise seen in June. This growth was in contrast to the 5.0 percent high seen in May. Retail inflation also decreased slightly to 7.8 percent in August from 7.96 percent the previous month, primarily due to slower price increases in fuel and clothing. Despite the recent economic growth, high inflation could pose challenges for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in encouraging consumer spending and may prevent the Reserve Bank of India from lowering interest rates in the upcoming review. Economists predict that interest rates will remain unchanged for the rest of the fiscal year, with a possible adjustment next year. The prospect of rising inflation, driven by increased demand and potential interest rate hikes in the US, may also influence the central bank's decisions. Modi's promise to boost the economy, control inflation, and create jobs has attracted foreign investment, but sustaining this positive momentum will require addressing issues such as public finances, land acquisition laws, tax regulations, and labor policies. Failure to implement necessary reforms could hinder economic growth, especially as consumer spending and business investment remain weak. In July, there was a 7.4 percent annual decrease in production, with firms being hesitant to make new investments. Capital goods production also dropped by 3.8 percent from the previous year. Rohini Malkani, an analyst at Citi, stated that while the government has improved the investment climate and confidence, more actions are needed to return to a period of strong growth and low inflation. Photos from Reuters show workers inside a boiler spare parts manufacturing workshop in Kolkata on June 11, 2014, and inside a steel factory on the outskirts of Jammu on January 2, 2014. | null |
During a ceremony celebrating Rokeya Day on Thursday, Hasina asked for support for Saima, who is recognized for her efforts in global child autism. Saima, born in 1973 in Dhaka, is the granddaughter of Bangabandhu and serves on the National Advisory Committee for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. She is also a member of the World Health Organization's global Expert Advisory Panel on Mental Health. Hasina mentioned a time when parents would hide their autistic or disabled children from the public and mothers of such children faced harassment. Some husbands even left their wives for giving birth to such children. Saima Wazed has made a significant impact by empowering parents to openly discuss their autistic or disabled children, rather than keeping them hidden. As a licensed school psychologist in the US, she began working with autism and children's neurological disorders in 2008 and quickly gained recognition for her efforts. In 2014, she was honored with the 'Excellence in Public Health' award from the WHO for her contributions in 11 Southeast Asian countries. Additionally, she was awarded the 'International Champion Award' in 2017 by a New York-based school and center for children with autism. Saima, the daughter of nuclear scientist MA Wazed Miah, also served as a thematic ambassador for the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF). In 1997, Saima completed her honours degree in psychology and in 2002 she obtained her master's in clinical psychology from Barry University in the US. Two years later, she earned a specialist degree in school psychology. While at the university, she conducted a study on the development of Bangladeshi women which was recognized as the best scientific presentation by the Florida Academy of Science. Saima's accomplishments also include being listed as one of the 100 Innovative Women Leaders in Global Mental Health by the Global Mental Health Programs Consortium in 2019, and organizing the first international conference on autism in Dhaka in 2011. Saima was instrumental in developing the Neurodevelopment Disability Trust Act 2013 in her country. She holds the position of chairperson at Shuchona Foundation, an organization that focuses on mental health concerns. Additionally, she serves as a trustee and vice-chairperson at the Centre for Research and Information (CRI), the research arm of the Awami League. | null |
Ugandan authorities discovered an unexploded suicide vest and made several arrests following bomb blasts at two bars that killed 76 soccer fans watching the World Cup final. Al Shabaab Islamists, reportedly linked to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attacks, although a militant group official denied the involvement of suicide bombers. The vest, found in Makindye on Monday, resembled evidence from the other blast sites in Kampala. Police stated that the vest was designed to be planted as an improvised bomb, rather than worn. A man named Yonis, who is an assistant to al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, stated in a telephone interview with Reuters that the presence of planted bombs indicates that there was no suicide bombing. Coordinated attacks are a common strategy used by groups associated with al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. If it is proven that these attacks were carried out by al Shabaab, it would mark the first time the militants have extended their influence beyond their borders. Analysts have raised concerns about the possibility of assistance or funding from individuals in Uganda or foreign militants within al Shabaab. "The impact remains unchanged whether they are Somalis or foreigners. According to Abdi Samatar, an expert on Somalia from the University of Minnesota, it is the foreign elements that now control the al Shabaab project." Kayihura did not provide additional information on the number or origin of the detained suspects. He also increased the death toll to 76 from 74. The al Shabaab militants have warned of additional attacks unless Uganda and Burundi pull out their peacekeepers from AMISOM." They have control over large portions of the southern and central regions of the chaotic nation, but the regional bloc, IGAD, has stated that they will not back down in the face of threats. They will continue to support the government in Somalia, which is backed by Western powers. The executive secretary of IGAD, Mahboud Maalim, announced plans to increase peacekeepers in Somalia to over 8,000, with hopes of having the additional troops deployed by the second week of August. IGAD members, including Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Djibouti, have expressed a desire for 20,000 troops from the AU and United Nations to be stationed in Somalia. Meanwhile, Uganda's opposition party, Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), has called on President Yoweri Museveni to withdraw his peacekeepers and has stated plans for a withdrawal if they win the 2011 elections. FDC spokesman Wafula Oguttu told Reuters that Somalia does not have peace to maintain and Uganda does not have any strategic interest there, so sacrificing their children for nothing. Analysts believe that a sustained bombing campaign would harm Uganda's investment climate, but a one-time attack would not deter major companies like Tullow Oil from investing. Foreign direct investment in Uganda has increased due to oil exploration along the western border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The US State Department confirmed that an American was among the casualties and had three FBI agents at the scene collecting evidence. Opolot mentioned that there was an extra team ready to be sent out. He also stated that there were no indications of the African Union summit, which is scheduled to be held in Uganda this month, being called off due to the bombings. | null |
The cabinet approved the name change during a meeting at the Secretariat on Monday, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina presiding. Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam informed the media that the proposal for the name change had been previously submitted, and the government decided to include 'Climate Change' in the name after discussions with neighboring countries. The ministry will now be known as 'Poribesh, Bon o Jolbayu Poribartan' in Bangla and 'Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change' in English. The decision to change the name was made during the 4th meeting of the National Environment Committee on August 6, 2017. The new name will become official once a notification signed by the president of Bangladesh is released. Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to climate change and global warming poses a significant challenge for the country. Experts predict that if global warming persists, a significant amount of land in Bangladesh will be submerged underwater, potentially displacing around 2 billion people worldwide. Since taking office in 2009, the Awami League government has established two distinct funds to mitigate the effects of climate change. The names of the funds are Bangladesh Climate Change Trust (BCCT) and Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF). | null |
A spokesperson from the State Department has confirmed Rank's departure, but could not confirm Twitter posts saying he resigned because he was unable to formally notify China of the US decision to withdraw from the agreement. The spokesperson stated that Rank has retired from the foreign service and that his departure was a personal decision. The State Department expressed appreciation for Rank's dedicated years of service. Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, who has been chosen by President Trump as the next US ambassador to Beijing, is expected to assume the position later this month. According to China expert John Pomfret, Rank resigned from his position because he disagreed with Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement. Rank reportedly called a meeting to inform embassy staff of his decision and explained that he could not deliver a diplomatic note to China regarding the US decision. A senior US official confirmed these details, adding that Rank announced his retirement in Beijing on Monday but was instructed by the State Department to leave his post immediately. The official, who spoke anonymously, also mentioned that the top personnel officer at the US State Department, one of the few remaining Obama administration appointees, resigned on June 1. Arnold Chacon, who previously held positions as director general of the foreign service and director of human resources, resigned from his position when President Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, along with all other presidential appointees. Chacon's resignation was reported by the DiploPundit website, but it is uncertain if he will be given another position within the department. Currently, aside from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and a few others, most of the senior positions at the State Department are either vacant or filled by acting officials. Chacon and Rank, a long-time foreign service officer who recently became the deputy chief of mission in Beijing, were not available for immediate comment. Jonathan Fritz, the embassy's economics councillor, will be stepping in as chargé in Rank's absence, according to Richey-Allen. Rank had a 27-year career with the department and previously served as the political councillor at the US Embassy in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012. Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord on Thursday was met with criticism from world leaders and industry heads, who believe the agreement is essential for the environment and economy. | null |
China is urging President Barack Obama to increase the U.S. offer to reduce carbon emissions, but their top climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua, is willing to compromise at the U.N. conference in Copenhagen. Xie stated that China wants to be constructive at the climate talks, where success hinges on an agreement between the U.S. and China, who together account for 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Xie expressed hope that President Obama would make a significant contribution to Copenhagen, potentially exceeding the 3 percent cut on 1990 levels proposed by Obama. Additionally, Xie mentioned that China could agree to a target of halving global emissions by 2050 if developed nations increase their emissions reduction targets by 2020 and provide financial assistance to developing countries to combat climate change. The significance of a mid-term target is emphasized over a long-term target, with the focus on addressing immediate problems. The deputy chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) expressed a desire for developed countries to reduce their emissions by 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, with the ultimate goal of halving global emissions by 2050. Earlier in the year, during previous rounds of U.N. discussions, China had pushed for a reduction of "at least 40 percent." Xie expressed a preference for a conclusive, legally binding agreement at the Copenhagen meeting, but stated that if that was not achievable, a deadline to finalize a comprehensive treaty by June would be satisfactory. He dismissed a U.N. suggestion for expedited funding of $10 billion annually from 2010-2012 as insufficient. | null |
In ZANESVILLE, Ohio, on Monday, Republican presidential candidate John McCain made efforts to separate himself from President George W. Bush, while Democrat Barack Obama tried to link the two together during a day of intense campaigning. McCain stated on NBC's "Meet the Press" that while he shares a common philosophy with the Republican Party, he has also stood up against President Bush and other party members, resulting in visible scars. Obama used McCain's statement to his advantage in a speech in Denver, highlighting the similarities between McCain and Bush. Obama addressed a crowd of over 100,000 supporters in a Denver park, saying that he will not allow George Bush to hand the presidency over to John McCain. Despite trailing in opinion polls, McCain remains optimistic about the election, believing that the race is tightening. McCain reflected on the 41st anniversary of being shot down in Vietnam, emphasizing his dedication to serving his country throughout his life. Obama and his team have consistently tried to link McCain to Bush by pointing out how often the Arizona senator has voted in line with the president. In response, McCain has emphasized his disagreements with Bush on various issues such as government spending, Iraq strategy, and climate change. McCain has expressed respect for Bush but believes that the country cannot afford to continue on the same path for another four years. Obama stated that he is running for president of the United States because it is time for a change in Washington. He is currently leading in national opinion polls and in many battleground states, including Iowa, which Bush won in 2004. A recent poll by Courier-Lee Enterprises showed Obama with a 54 percent to 39 percent advantage in Iowa. Another poll by Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby indicated a closer race overall, with Obama leading McCain 49 percent to 44 percent among likely U.S. voters in their daily tracking poll. The Illinois senator's lead in this poll has decreased over the past three days, dropping from a high of 12 points on Thursday. Some Republicans are concerned that McCain's campaign has been inconsistent and could jeopardize not only Republican efforts to retain the White House, but also many seats in Congress. McCain stated that they are doing well and have narrowed the gap in the past week. He expressed confidence that if the current trend continues, they will be in a strong position on Election Night. McCain also noted the intensity and passion among voters, highlighting the competitiveness of the race and expressing pride in his campaign. McCain expressed his full support for his vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin, the Governor of Alaska who has excited the Republican base but has faced strong criticism on various issues. Despite her popularity, many Americans doubt her readiness to assume the presidency. Initially seen as a boost to McCain's campaign, Palin has faced intense scrutiny and some conservatives question her experience to be next in line for the presidency. McCain stands by Palin, praising her rather than defending her. McCain expressed that Palin does not require any defense and he believes she lives a frugal life. He addressed concerns about the Republican National Committee buying $150,000 worth of clothes for her and her family, stating that a third of the clothes were returned and the rest would be donated to charity. McCain commended Palin for her ability to energize crowds and conduct herself admirably. | null |
The fight against climate change in the U.S. is no longer exclusive to Democrats. Democrats used to dominate the environmental issue, gaining votes from party supporters and independent voters by emphasizing their efforts to reduce global warming. This year, Republicans, the party of President George W. Bush, may also highlight climate change during elections. This could distinguish Republican presidential candidates from the policies of the Bush administration, which have isolated the U.S. among major developed countries. Former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman believes that climate change can attract support from beyond party lines. Republicans are in need of assistance after losing control of both houses of Congress in 2006. According to Mehlman, the party lost due to independents abandoning them, and they need to regain their trust. Mehlman believes that addressing climate change can help win back independents while staying true to conservative values. Economic conservatives, who are typically Republicans, see technological solutions as a means to generate wealth and employment opportunities. Some corporate leaders support a federal limit on carbon emissions to avoid conflicting state laws. Religious conservatives see reducing carbon emissions as part of their responsibility to care for the earth. National security conservatives believe cutting dependence on foreign oil would weaken anti-U.S. forces. The current administration opposes the Kyoto Protocol, arguing it would disadvantage the U.S. if developing countries like China and India were exempt. Republican Senator John Warner is leading the way in Congress by co-sponsoring a bill to limit carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change. Senator John McCain, a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, previously sponsored a bill addressing climate change. There is bipartisan support for these efforts. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, now a presidential candidate and Baptist minister, has not provided many details on how to address climate change but believes that humans must take action to address the issue. In contrast, former Massachusetts Governor (Text ends here) In the Michigan Republican primary last month, Mitt Romney emerged victorious by criticizing McCain's stance on increased fuel efficiency, which he argued would negatively impact the U.S. auto industry, particularly in a state where the Big Three automakers are based and where Romney's father served as governor. In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has spearheaded a movement to implement stricter emissions standards for vehicles, a plan that has gained support from 16 other states. However, in order to proceed, these states require a waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has not yet been granted. During a candidates' debate, McCain, Huckabee, and Romney all expressed support for the waiver, although Romney later adjusted his position. In the presidential campaign, the theme of "change" is prominent among candidates from both major parties. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, both Democrats, have expressed strong support for cap-and-trade plans to reduce carbon emissions. Tony Kreindler of Environmental Defense emphasized the bipartisan backing for this initiative, calling on Congress to take notice. While polls typically show that U.S. voters prioritize issues like the economy and the war in Iraq over climate change, David Sandretti of the League of Conservation Voters disagrees. He believes that environmental concerns are interconnected with other important issues, such as national security and the country's energy future. Sandretti stated that addressing global warming requires addressing the energy issue, which is intertwined with all aspects of America's political life. | null |
US singer Rihanna, climate change activist Greta Thunberg, and US lawyer and activist Meena Harris, the niece of Vice-President Kamala Harris, took to social media to shed light on the struggles of farmers protesting against reforms for months. The Indian foreign ministry advised to first gather all facts and gain a thorough understanding of the situation before making comments on such matters. | null |
After nine months of a bloody Liberation War in 1971, Bangladesh won the right to declare itself an independent country on the global stage. The country recently marked the golden jubilee of its independence and the birth centenary of Bangabandhu with a 10-day program, which included a discussion at the National Parade Ground in Dhaka on the theme "Banglar Mati, Amar Mati" (Bengal's Soil, My Soil) with participation from author Selina Hossain, Education Minister Dipu Moni, and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam. Nepal's President Bidya Devi Bhandari joined Bangladesh's President Md Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in commemorating the events. Selina highlighted Sheikh Mujib's role in establishing a secular Bengali nationalist identity worldwide. She mentioned that Bangabandhu had called for changing the name of East Pakistan to Purbo Bangla during his speech to the assembly on Aug 25, 1955. She quoted him as saying, "I will not disrespect my Bengali nation even in death. I will not ask for forgiveness. As I depart, I will cry out: Joy Bangla, Free Bangla, Bengali is my nation, Bangla is my language, the land of Bangla is my place." Shahriar also cited Bangabandhu's statement from his Jun 7, 1972 speech at the Suhrawardy Udyan, where he declared, "Today I proudly declare myself as a Bengali; I affirm that Bengali is a nation; I proclaim that Bangla's soil is my soil." She added that although Bangabandhu was taken from us by his killers, we continue to follow the path he showed us. Dipu Moni described him as an eternal source of our motivation. Bhandari stated that Bangabandhu not only captured the affection of Bengalis, but also held a respected position as a leader in the region. She emphasized that as a skilled speaker, organizer, and advocate, Bangabandhu was able to connect with the people of Bangladesh and achieve the goal of establishing a new nation. Hamid urged politicians to set a new standard in politics by setting aside their differences and focusing on the well-being of the country's most impoverished and vulnerable citizens, following the spirit of independence and the principles of Bangabandhu. In celebration of the two occasions, Hasina urged global leaders to prioritize sustainable development and cautioned that efforts to adapt will not adequately protect the most vulnerable countries unless climate change is urgently addressed. The second session of the program featured an orchestra performance, traditional Nepalese dance, and a Jatrapala folk theatre drama titled 'Ma, Mati O Manush'. Following this, 100 folk singers performed in chorus. The President of the Maldives, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, and the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, have both visited Bangladesh to participate in the festivities. The Prime Minister of Bhutan, Lotay Tshering, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have also been invited to attend. | null |
Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faces the possibility of losing his stronghold in Milan to the left for the first time in twenty years. The recent local elections have highlighted the fragility of his center-right coalition. The focus is on the mayoral contests in Milan and Naples, with around 6 million Italians eligible to vote. Results are expected in the evening after the polls close. The government is set to implement plans to reduce the budget deficit by 40 billion euros following a downgrade in Italy's credit rating. A defeat in Milan would further weaken Berlusconi, already embattled by scandals and economic troubles, and raise doubts about his government's ability to implement necessary cuts. Italy has a high public debt of around 120 percent of gross domestic product, but it has not experienced the financial market troubles that Greece and Portugal have faced. However, a recent warning from S&P serves as a reminder of the consequences of inaction. The possibility of the current government effectively managing this issue is a significant dilemma, as highlighted by business daily Il Sole 24 Ore. Berlusconi faced defeat in the first round of voting in May, with the center left maintaining power in Turin and Bologna, while the center right was pushed into run-offs in Naples and Milan. A defeat would likely worsen tensions with his key ally, the Northern League, and could lead to challenges to his leadership of the center-right, although senior ministers have ruled out any changes before the next national elections in 2013. Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa, a loyal supporter of Berlusconi, stated that an alternative government is unlikely and early elections are not desired. In Milan, outgoing center-right mayor Letizia Moratti is trailing behind leftist Giuliano Pisapia, indicating a shift in the city's political climate. Regional issues such as transportation and the ongoing garbage crisis in Naples have influenced voters' decisions, but the struggling national economy has been the main focus during the polls. Italy has had a slow economy for more than ten years, with high youth unemployment and the average Italian being poorer than they were a decade ago. The government led by Berlusconi recently had to lower its growth forecast for the year and next year due to economic challenges. S&P downgraded Italy's outlook for not reducing its debt and increasing growth. Despite concerns, the Treasury was able to sell long-term bonds successfully. Berlusconi has shifted his focus to attacking his political opponents on the left and "communist" magistrates after facing criticism for initially framing the election as a referendum on his leadership and policies. He predicted that Milan would turn into an "Islamic gypsyland" if the left wins. He also said that leftist voters lacked intelligence, which led to Internet spoofs and a lawsuit from an offended voter. During the Group of Eight summit in Deauville, France, he went on a rant against Italian magistrates to President Barack Obama, which caused Economy Undersecretary Daniela Melchiorre, a former magistrate, to resign in protest. | null |
Three additional US lawmakers have recently joined the Congressional Caucus for Bangladesh. Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford, along with New York Congressmen Mike McMahon and Scott Murphy, made this announcement during a meeting of a new alliance called the 'New Democratic Coalition Pact' on Monday. These congressmen have committed to advocating for Bangladesh's interests on issues such as climate change, the environment, and the proposed construction of the Tipai Dam by India. Representatives from the Bangladeshi-American Public Affairs Front and US-based BNP leader Gias Ahmed were also present at the meeting. Congressman Joseph Crowley, who serves as co-chairman of the Bangladesh Caucus, emphasized his efforts to secure duty-free access for Bangladeshi ready-made garments in the US market. He also had an interest in providing expatriate Bangladeshis with a legal status to reside and work in the United States. Currently, there are around 39 congressmen who are part of the Bangladesh Caucus. Recently, Patrick Kennedy, the son of the late Senator Edward Kennedy who was a strong supporter of Bangladesh, also joined the Bangladeshi Caucus in America. | null |
Labor has returned to power after being in opposition for nine years, thanks to strong support for the Greens and climate-focused independents in the recent general election. Prime Minister Albanese expressed his commitment to leading a government that unites rather than divides Australians. Despite ongoing vote counting and finalizing the government's composition, Albanese was sworn in to attend a meeting in Tokyo with the Quad security grouping, which includes India, the United States, Japan, and Australia. He acknowledged the challenges in Australia's relationship with China as he prepared for the upcoming summit with world leaders. Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles and three key ministers were recently sworn in, including Penny Wong in foreign affairs, Jim Chalmers as treasurer, and Katy Gallagher in finance. Wong is set to join Albanese on the Quad trip. Albanese's working-class background was a focal point of Labor's campaign, emphasizing his upbringing in public housing by a single mother on a disability pension and his reputation as a unifier. Labor is currently leading in 76 seats in the lower house, with some races still undecided. Independents and the Green party are expected to win more than a dozen seats as postal votes are tallied. Independents campaigning on climate, integrity, and equality in affluent, Liberal-held seats could have a significant impact. Independent Monique Ryan stated that the most important issue to constituents in her seat of Kooyong in Melbourne was climate change, a sentiment that outgoing Treasurer Josh Frydenberg acknowledged on Monday. Ryan emphasized the importance of listening to the values and desires of the people and creating a platform that reflected them. Opposition leader Albanese expressed his hope for Labor to win enough seats to govern independently, but also mentioned agreements with some independents to not support no-confidence motions against his government. Upon returning from Japan, Albanese plans to quickly fulfill his election promises, including establishing a national anti-corruption commission and a A$15 billion ($10.6 billion) manufacturing fund to diversify Australia's economy. The full ministry will be sworn in on June 1. The Australian financial markets did not show much of a response to the election results on Monday, as the outcome was already anticipated and no significant shift in economic direction was predicted. Economists at Commonwealth Bank of Australia stated that their economic forecasts and predictions for the Reserve Bank of Australia remain the same, despite the change in national leadership. | null |
Republicans are aiming to regain control of the U.S. Senate in the upcoming election, with experts predicting that Democrats have the upper hand with only 12 seats to defend compared to the Republicans' 22. Despite the potential for Democrats to succeed, the outcome remains uncertain. "I believe the majority is not up for grabs ... The Republicans are focused on minimizing their losses," she stated. The control of the Senate will be extremely important for the next White House administration, regardless of who follows Bush. A president's proposed policies can be successful or fail in the Senate since significant bills often need 60 votes to pass. According to Anthony Corrado, a government professor at Colby College in Maine, Senate races will be dominated by issues such as the prolonged Iraq war, a weak economy, disagreements on tax cuts, and debates on climate change. He said that the upcoming election will put the Republicans in a defensive position, with the focus of political discussion being on arguments for change. Duffy mentioned that there is no certainty that Democrats will gain many seats. A recent poll by ABC News/Washington Post indicated a 10-point decrease in support for Democrats since April, now at 44 percent. Democrats came into power in 2006 with a promise to start withdrawing troops from Iraq, but have not been able to fulfill this promise. September could be a crucial moment as Congress is set to discuss various anti-war proposals. There are a number of Republicans who are viewed as vulnerable and could potentially be defeated in order to help increase the Democrats' majority. These include Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Susan Collins of Maine, John Sununu of New Hampshire, and the seat being vacated by Wayne Allard of Colorado. However, Democrats also need to defend seats held by Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, and Tim Johnson of South Dakota, who is recovering from brain surgery. The Republicans have not yet chosen a candidate to run against Landrieu, and some political analysts are suggesting that former Arkansas Governor may be a contender. Mike Huckabee may choose to abandon his plans to run for president and instead run against Pryor. Senator John Ensign, who leads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, believes that his party will perform better than anticipated. Ensign pointed out that the odds makers were wrong about the Democrats' chances of taking the Senate two years ago, and he stressed the importance of running elections to determine the results. He also mentioned that the Democrats' stance on tax cuts and the Iraq war could work in favor of Republicans, who lost Senate control in 2006 after losing six seats. Senator Charles Schumer of New York, the Democratic counterpart to Ensign, argues that the Iraq war, now in its fifth year, will benefit his party. He believes that Democrats have a track record of budget balance, which will appeal to voters. Schumer, who heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, stated that the Republicans have lost touch and that his party will come in with a mandate for change. If senators like John Warner of Virginia and Pete Domenici of New Mexico retire, the Republicans could face an even tougher battle as more seats become up for grabs. Additionally, fundraising is a challenge for the Republicans, as the Democratic campaign has raised double the amount of money in the first four months of 2007, with $18.3 million compared to $9.1 million for the Republicans. In a closely contested election in Minnesota, comedian Al Franken, the top Democratic candidate, has raised $1.35 million in the first quarter. This is a significant achievement compared to the $1.53 million raised by Coleman. | null |
Just prior to the start of new climate negotiations in Glasgow, the G20 countries announced their commitment on Sunday to stop financing coal-fired power plants abroad. This announcement came after Chinese President Xi Jinping also made a similar promise at the United Nations General Assembly in September. A recent study from Boston University's Global Development Policy Center revealed that this pledge by the G20 means that nearly all development finance institutions are now dedicated to reducing investments in coal and increasing support for renewable energy. According to Rebecca Ray, a senior researcher at the GDP Center and co-author of the study, if these institutions uphold their promises, it will be easier for developing nations to secure funding for renewable energy projects and transitioning away from coal power. The study noted that there are only three major institutions that have not yet committed to this shift - the Development Bank of Latin America, the Islamic Development Bank, and the New Development Bank - even though many of the key shareholders in these institutions were part of the G20 pledge. Xi's announcement in September that China would no longer participate in overseas coal projects was a significant change, according to a study. This decision removed major financial supporters of coal-fired power, such as the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China. The Bank of China quickly followed suit by promising to halt new overseas coal projects starting in October. An expert involved in creating guidelines to reduce carbon emissions in China's Belt and Road investments noted that Chinese financial institutions recognized the declining demand for coal power, which made it easier for Xi's directive to be carried out. The expert emphasized that Chinese institutions are committed to this decision and are not seeking excuses to continue coal projects. Analysts believe that China's decision to withdraw from coal investments was a result of a combination of political, economic, and climate factors. The shift is seen as a response to the changing economics of coal, as well as negative experiences with financing coal projects through the Belt and Road Initiative. China now has the political support to stop investing in coal, which they have been seeking for some time. | null |
Leaders from the Asia-Pacific rim committed to increasing free trade and improving security at the conclusion of their two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hanoi, Vietnam. The "Hanoi Declaration" outlines key points from the 21-member group, which makes up almost half of global trade. Some of the main points include efforts to resolve the stalemate in global trade talks, examining the possibility of an Asia-Pacific free trade area, and establishing six model measures for free trade arrangements as a guideline for APEC, with an emphasis that these templates are voluntary and non-binding. Member countries were urged to take steps to address piracy and copyright violations. A statement was issued condemning North Korea's nuclear test, and there was recognition of the importance of safeguarding financial and commercial systems. A study on trade recovery in the face of a terrorist attack or pandemic was welcomed. Collaboration on bird flu, including developing response plans, was also agreed upon. We appreciate efforts to address the terrorist threat to the APEC food supply. Regarding corruption, we will explore ways to prevent corrupt individuals from benefiting from illegal activities. In terms of energy and climate change, APEC ministers have been tasked with providing updates in 2007 on policies to support cleaner energy and increase energy efficiency. We will also support energy policies that decrease market distortions and strengthen energy security. | null |
A new directorate focused on climate change will be established within the environment ministry. The proposal was preliminarily approved during a meeting of the trustee board on climate change, which took place on Wednesday. Following the meeting, State Minister for Environment Hassan Mahmud, who also heads the trustee board, informed reporters about the approval. Additionally, five proposals were tentatively approved during the board meeting, while 33 non-government projects and 44 government projects received final approval. The junior minister also mentioned that permission was granted to acquire machinery for the Karnafuli Jute Mills and the Forat Karnafuli Carpet Factory using funds allocated for climate change initiatives. He mentioned that the army's projects to build solar power plants at various military facilities, including its headquarters, received conditional final approval. Additionally, non-government agencies' projects were approved after a budget reduction. These organizations had initially requested up to Tk 50 million, but will now receive between Tk 2 million and Tk 10 million under the adjusted budget. | null |
Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency stated that despite the global financial crisis, the demand for new nuclear power plants is expected to continue to grow in the long term. A conference in Beijing is being held to discuss the future of atomic power in light of the economic slowdown, climate change concerns, and tensions surrounding the nuclear programs of countries like North Korea and Iran. While the financial crisis may pose challenges for funding nuclear power projects in the short term, the need for energy security and addressing global warming is likely to offset the impact on the sector. Thierry Dujardin from the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency noted that although finding funding for energy infrastructure like nuclear power plants may be harder in the current economic climate, the overall demand for nuclear energy is expected to remain strong. Dong Batong, a representative of China's atomic energy industry association, stated that despite the slowdown in growth, China is dedicated to significantly increasing nuclear power. He emphasized that nuclear power is seen as an important tool for boosting domestic demand, with numerous new nuclear units either being built or planned throughout the country. The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna reports that nuclear power currently supplies 14 percent of global electricity, and this percentage is expected to rise as countries aim to lower fuel costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. Most of the anticipated growth in nuclear power is expected in Asia, with China leading the way in terms of nuclear power plants under construction, followed by India and South Korea. Yuri Sokolov, the deputy director-general of the IAEA, emphasized the importance of maintaining safety standards and safeguards against weapons proliferation in the ambitious plans for nuclear power growth in the developing world. He stated that governments expanding nuclear energy must ensure regulators are supported by effective legislation and adequately trained staff. Despite North Korea's recent actions, Sokolov believes that every country has the right to have civilian nuclear programs, including North Korea. He acknowledged the challenges presented by North Korea and expressed hope that international cooperation could support civil nuclear power development in the country if it is willing to work with the international community. North Korea withdrew from the IAEA several years ago and recently kicked out IAEA officials who were invited to monitor a closed nuclear facility that North Korea plans to reopen. Mohamed ElBaradei, the director-general of the IAEA, will deliver an opening speech at the nuclear energy meeting on Monday. | null |
The European Union reiterated its stance on Friday that the UN talks in Bali should establish strict 2020 guidelines for wealthy nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, despite opposition from the US. European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas stated that they are still pushing for a reference to an indicative emissions reduction range for developed countries by 2020. However, the EU did not mention their previous demand for 25 to 40 percent cuts below 1990 levels by 2020. A compromise draft text, intended to kickstart negotiations for a global agreement to combat climate change, no longer includes the ambitious goal of significant 2020 greenhouse emissions cuts for wealthy countries, but it does maintain a 2050 objective of reducing global emissions by at least half. | null |
Germany, as President of the European Union and Group of Eight, called on top politicians to work together in addressing global warming, which it described as one of the most significant threats facing the world. German Chancellor Angela Merkel emphasized the urgency of taking action on climate change during a security conference in Munich, stating that it is a threat that affects everyone and requires coordinated efforts from all nations. Russian President Vladimir Putin, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and US Senator for Arizona John McCain were among the attendees. While the United States, Russia, and China have been hesitant to participate in worldwide initiatives to combat climate change, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has prioritized addressing global warming during Germany's dual EU and G8 presidencies. Merkel aims to encourage countries to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, conserve energy, and transition to renewable fuels. Additionally, she has discussed advancing a framework agreement to reduce greenhouse gases once the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Germany's coalition government, which includes both left-wing and right-wing parties, is divided on various energy policies and has opposed certain European Union proposals aimed at reducing emissions. | null |
The United States does not anticipate reaching a climate change agreement with China during President Obama's upcoming visit to Beijing, according to Todd Stern, the US Special Envoy for Climate Change. Stern expressed that the goal of the visit is to establish common understanding between Obama and President Hu in order to facilitate a potential agreement at the Copenhagen negotiations in December. The United States has been hesitant to commit to a deal that does not require developing countries like China to agree to mandatory CO2 reduction targets as the Kyoto Protocol approaches its expiration in 2012. Chinese negotiators have also expressed the view that the industrialized nations should take on the majority of the responsibility for reducing carbon emissions. The upcoming meeting between President Obama and President Hu Jintao is considered a crucial step in reaching a consensus on a new global climate agreement. Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell has suggested that China and the US may sign a bilateral agreement during Obama's visit to China, although Washington has stated they are not seeking a separate deal. Despite plans to discuss further cooperation on issues such as carbon capture and storage next month, analysts believe that differences between the two nations will make it challenging to reach a substantive agreement. Paul Harris, a professor of global and environmental studies at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of the upcoming talks in Copenhagen, suggesting that many kind words and discussions may not lead to significant results. With the conference approaching, Stern emphasized that success is not guaranteed but still possible if a deal can be reached. The Obama administration's efforts to pass a climate plan before the end of the year are seen as crucial, with the US Senate Environment Committee currently holding hearings on a new climate bill. The administration has been encouraging Congress to make progress, and any additional postponements could harm the United States' reputation during the Copenhagen talks. | null |
In the midst of the Amazon jungle's intense heat, Brazilian Indians and officials gathered beneath a towering canopy to urge U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to mobilize international support for protecting the world's largest rain forest. Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva emphasized the need for concrete mechanisms to benefit the Amazon's residents during a meeting with Ban near Belem, the region's largest city. Ban, who was concluding a South American tour focused on global warming, listened to pleas from Amazon Indian Marcos Apurina for incentives to support forest dwellers. Ban also received a necklace made of native plant seeds and viewed various forest products during his visit. He reassured the group that the United Nations would support their efforts. This is a shared resource for all of humanity." Ban recently interacted with a three-toed sloth and planted two native trees at a botanical garden in Belem. He is getting ready for a UN climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, scheduled for December, where discussions on reducing carbon emissions post-Kyoto Protocol expiration in 2012 will begin. Brazil's high carbon emissions, largely attributed to Amazon rainforest destruction, rank it fourth globally. Ban did not address Brazil's decision against setting deforestation and carbon emission reduction goals. He praised Brazil for reducing forest destruction by 50 percent in two years, despite the rate increasing again since August. The Amazon's release of carbon dioxide from burning or decomposition contributes to global warming. Farmers and loggers clear large portions of the forest annually, depending on market prices. Silva, a former rubber tapper and activist, asked Ban to support a proposal in the Convention on Biodiversity to make pharmaceutical companies pay for drugs derived from Amazon plants. Ban said he would review the proposal after meeting with Silva on Monday. Researchers predict that global warming may transform a portion of the Amazon into a semi-arid savanna in the coming decades. Severe weather patterns have led to both droughts and floods in different regions. Ban's scheduled trip along an Amazon tributary near Santarem was called off due to low water levels. Despite commending Brazil for its efforts in creating low-emission biofuels, Ban emphasized the importance of further international research to assess the potential impact of large-scale production on food supplies. Over the weekend, he toured a plant in Sao Paulo state, highlighting Brazil's position as one of the leading and most cost-effective producers of ethanol. The government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has stepped up police actions against illegal loggers and has also enlarged protected areas. However, there are concerns among conservationists that the construction of roads and hydroelectric plants could potentially lead to higher rates of deforestation in the future. | null |
The prime minister addressed the issue during the opening ceremony of 'World Environment Day and Environment Fair 2017 and National Tree Planting Project and Tree Planting Day 2017' at the Bangabandhu International Convention Centre. She emphasized the importance of protecting the Sundarbans while carrying out development projects. Despite protests from environmentalists and leftist groups, the government has assured that the coal-based power plant in Rampal will not harm the Sundarbans. The Sundarbans, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997 during a previous Awami League government led by Hasina, remains a focus of conservation efforts. Hasina stated that they have consistently worked to safeguard the Sundarbans. She mentioned that Bangladesh owes its safety to the mangrove forest. The government is strategizing to expand the forest artificially. Hasina highlighted that under the leadership of the Awami League government, there has been a 17 percent growth in the forest area, with a goal of achieving a 25 percent increase. She also mentioned that the government has successfully established a balance between protecting the environment and promoting socially responsible forestry practices. She suggested the implementation of 'smart patrolling' to safeguard the region and emphasized the importance of creating a 'green seawall' to protect against hurricanes and floods. Additionally, measures are being taken to help those who depend on the Sundarbans find alternative sources of income. The prime minister also mentioned creating a trust fund to combat climate change, with Tk 31 billion already allocated. She expressed her disappointment that some developing countries had not contributed to the fund. She mentioned that despite receiving numerous promises, there was minimal financial assistance provided. However, the assistance received was effectively utilized. The prime minister stated that Bangladesh has demonstrated self-reliance and is being acknowledged for their independent efforts. | null |
Delegates at the climate talks in Bali are close to reaching an agreement on guidelines for a pay-and-preserve scheme for forests to combat global warming, according to Indonesia's foreign minister. The scheme, known as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD), could potentially allow poor nations to earn billions of dollars by trading carbon credits for preserving forests. Deforestation in the tropics is a major contributor to man-made carbon dioxide emissions, and it is crucial to protect remaining forests as they play a significant role in absorbing CO2. The UN Climate Panel warns that global warming caused by CO2 will lead to rising sea levels, glacier melting, and extreme weather events. Developed countries are showing enthusiasm for the importance of forests in addressing climate change, as noted by Indonesia's Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda. Developed countries and countries with large forest areas have agreed to work together to create a world map, with participation from not only governments but also institutions such as universities and research bodies. Curbing deforestation is a major concern for the delegates at the Bali conference, as the current U.N. climate pact, the Kyoto Protocol, does not provide incentives for developing nations to protect tropical rainforests. The REDD scheme, which is being considered, would allow developing nations to earn carbon credits that can be purchased by wealthier nations to offset their own emissions. However, there is disagreement on whether future discussions on deforestation should also consider other types of land use, a proposal supported by the United States but opposed by many developing nations. The official informed Reuters that the suggestion may shift the focus away from forests, complicate the plan, and delay its implementation. The Bali meeting has currently agreed to support individual countries in conducting projects to assist them in getting ready for REDD, while also deciding to further study the issue. The World Bank has introduced a $300 million plan to combat global warming by preserving forests, which includes a $100 million fund to aid around 20 countries in preparation for large-scale forest protection plans. The grants will cover projects such as assessing current forest resources, implementing monitoring systems, and improving governance. Additionally, a second $200 million fund will enable some countries to carry out pilot programs that earn credits for reducing deforestation. Indonesia, a strong advocate for REDD, ranks among the top three countries in terms of greenhouse gas emissions due to deforestation, peatland degradation, and forest fires. This information comes from a report supported by the World Bank and Britain's development arm earlier this year. Indonesia has over 225 million acres of forest, making up about 10 percent of the world's remaining tropical forests, as reported by rainforestweb.org. | null |
According to a senior trade and industry official, Japan believes that using 2005 as the base year for calculating cuts in greenhouse gas emissions would be more equitable than using 1990 as the base year. Japan argues that it would be unfair to hold Japanese industry accountable for emissions cuts based on investments made in energy efficiency two decades ago. While Japan has not officially declared a new base year, Takao Kitabata, vice minister at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, suggested that 2005 would be a fair option. However, this proposed change may face opposition from the European Union, which has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels. Approximately 190 countries came to an agreement during UN-led discussions in Bali to begin two-year negotiations for a new agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol currently only requires wealthy nations to reduce emissions by an average of five percent from 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. The successor to Kyoto would involve all nations, and countries acknowledged the necessity of significant reductions in global emissions according to the "Bali roadmap." However, there are significant disagreements regarding the specific targets and the reference year for these targets. | null |
Dozens of world leaders will meet in Washington next week for a historic summit on nuclear security, where US President Barack Obama hopes they can reach an agreement on preventing atomic bombs from falling into the hands of terrorists. While the focus of the gathering will not be on specific countries, discussions on Iran and North Korea's nuclear programs, as well as potential new UN sanctions against Tehran, are expected to be addressed in Obama's meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao and other leaders, as well as in the speeches of Israeli and other participants. Hu's decision to attend the summit is seen as a significant achievement for Obama, as it demonstrates China's commitment to maintaining strong Sino-US relations despite tensions on other issues. A preliminary communique outlining a US proposal to secure all vulnerable nuclear material within four years has been circulated to attending countries, although it is expected to undergo revisions before being officially adopted at the conclusion of the April 12-13 meeting. Analysts and Western diplomats believe that the summit meeting in Washington, one of the largest since World War Two, holds significant importance beyond its official agenda. According to Ian Kearns from the British American Security Information Council, nuclear security is often viewed as a technical issue only concerning those worried about nuclear terrorism. However, if leaders at the summit handle it correctly, they could make nuclear power safer for combating climate change, strengthen non-proliferation efforts, and increase international confidence in nuclear disarmament. Attendees at the summit include leaders such as China's Hu, Russia's Medvedev, France's Sarkozy, and Germany's Merkel, as well as representatives from India, Pakistan, and Israel, all of whom have nuclear capabilities. Iran and North Korea will not be invited to the meeting, as they are both excluded due to their involvement in nuclear weapons programs. Pakistan, on the other hand, will be included as it has pledged to improve its internal safeguards against nuclear proliferation. Disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan played a significant role in providing atomic technology to Iran, North Korea, and Libya. The goal of securing nuclear materials worldwide within four years could greatly enhance global security, according to Joe Cirincione, a professor at Georgetown University and head of the Ploughshares Fund anti-nuclear arms group. "He stated that if they carry out this plan, it could effectively prevent nuclear terrorism by blocking radicals from obtaining the one part of the bomb they cannot create themselves," said Cirincione. He also wants to ensure that the final communique is more than just a brief press release, with concrete targets and deadlines in the action plan, key nations committing to securing their weapons material within four years, and states agreeing to reconvene in two years to evaluate progress. The summit aims to bring together various countries with nuclear programs to collect dangerous atomic material from vulnerable sites globally, a task that Russia and the US have been tackling with the help of the UN atomic watchdog for some time. Success at the summit could demonstrate a strong message to the world that the international community is unified in enhancing nuclear security, with the US leading the charge. Recently, the White House announced a new policy limiting US use of nuclear weapons and issuing a firm warning to Iran and North Korea as potential targets. The Nuclear Posture Review, which reversed the stance of the former US administration, stated that Washington would not create any new atomic weapons. Analysts believe that the US nuclear policy, along with the recent treaty between Obama and Medvedev to reduce their nuclear arsenals, and a successful nuclear summit, could pave the way for a productive meeting of NPT signatories in New York next month to revamp the decades-old arms pact. The NPT has faced challenges due to North Korea's withdrawal, Iran's pursuit of nuclear technology for potential weapon development, and criticism from developing nations about the lack of progress on disarmament by major nuclear powers. Talks about imposing new UN sanctions on Iran for its nuclear program will be the main topic at a meeting in New York this Thursday involving envoys from the US, UK, France, Germany, China, and Russia. UN diplomats are prepared to discuss Iran during the summit if President Obama desires. | null |
Despite a positive report on German business sentiment, concerns about the US economy and banking sector troubles weighed on investor confidence on Wednesday. The weakening dollar led to increased interest in commodities like oil, gold, and industrial metals. A warning from Deutsche Bank about potential credit market issues and a drop in US consumer confidence in March kept investors on edge. Additionally, new data showed a unexpected decrease in new orders for US manufactured goods in February, further adding to worries about the economy. As a result, major stock index futures indicated a lower opening for Wall Street. Sean Maloney, a fixed-income strategist at Nomura in London, stated that there is still nervousness in the banking sector despite JPMorgan raising its bid for Bear Stearns. The announcement from Deutsche Bank serves as a reminder that this increase in bid does not solve all the problems for the financial sector. Earlier in the week, JPMorgan's takeover offer for Bear Stearns had increased by about fivefold, leading to a rally in financial stocks globally and reducing concerns about a credit crunch. However, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares dropped by 0.9 percent, Germany's DAX fell by 0.7 percent, and London's FTSE 100 index shed 0.7 percent due to various factors such as Xtrata's 7 percent fall after failed takeover talks with Vale. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei ended down 0.3 percent while MSCI's measure of other Asian stock markets climbed 0.7 percent. MSCI's primary global stock index increased by 0.2 percent. The dollar decreased in value compared to major currencies, with the dollar index dropping by 0.8 percent due to concerns about the US economy. On the other hand, positive data indicating an improvement in the German business climate index, based on a survey of approximately 7,000 companies, led to an increase in the euro's value. The euro went up by about 0.7 percent to $1.5736, supported by remarks from European Central Bank's Jean-Claude Trichet, which were seen as suggesting that interest rate reductions were not likely in the near future. Trichet, speaking before an economic committee of the European Parliament, stated that the ECB believed the current monetary policy would help maintain price stability in the long term. US light crude for May delivery increased by $1.25 to reach $102.47, while the price of gold went up to $947.70 per ounce from approximately $934.60 per ounce in New York on Tuesday. Copper for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange was last traded at $8,155/tonne, reflecting a 0.8 percent increase. Despite a bleak outlook in the US, global demand for various commodities is expected to remain strong, especially due to robust economies like China. Shuji Sugata, a manager at Mitsubishi Corp Futures and Securities Ltd in Tokyo, mentioned that the weakening dollar has led to increased buying activity, although traders are hesitant to make significant investments before the end of the quarter. Concerns about the US economy have driven demand for safe-haven U.S. Treasuries, causing the benchmark 10-year yield to decrease by approximately 5 basis points to 3.457 percent. German 10-year bonds did not perform as well as US bonds due to comments from Trichet and new bond supply. The 10-year yield remained steady at 3.887 percent. | null |
In the UN climate talks that concluded in POZNAN, Poland, developing nations criticized wealthy countries for being stingy, especially in regards to the small size of the Adaptation Fund which is only $80 million. This fund is meant to help poor countries deal with the effects of climate change such as droughts, floods, and rising seas. Colombian Environment Minister Juan Lozano expressed disappointment and sadness over the outcome of the talks, stating that the lack of consideration for the human impact of climate change is a concerning sign for the future negotiations in Copenhagen in 2009. Indian representative Prodipto Ghosh expressed that this is one of the most sorrowful moments he has witnessed in his 12 years of attending U.N. climate meetings. Other nations such as Brazil, Costa Rica, and Maldives also shared similar sentiments. Many delegates are hopeful that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama will implement more aggressive climate policies. At the talks in Poland, environment ministers established rules for the Adaptation Fund, which aims to assist poor countries in constructing flood defenses, developing drought-resistant crops, and issuing storm warnings. Polish Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki, the host of the talks, stated that the launch of the fund was the biggest accomplishment of the meeting in Poznan. The fund, which may begin distributing money in 2009, currently has $80 million but has the potential to increase to $300 million annually by 2012. According to U.N. estimates, developing countries will require tens of billions of dollars each year by 2030 to address climate change. Poland spent 24 million euros ($31.84 million) to host the conference from December 1-12. Developing nations alleged that wealthy countries hindered an agreement in Poznan on a broader funding system that could generate around $2 billion per year. This matter was postponed until 2009. Yvo de Boer, who leads the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, stated that the negotiations had accomplished their goals but noted that there was a sense of dissatisfaction. He acknowledged that only half of the necessary work for the Copenhagen conference had been completed. Despite this, he believed that Poznan had successfully fulfilled its primary objective of assessing advancements towards a comprehensive new international climate agreement to be established in Copenhagen in December 2009 as a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol. However, environmentalists had a different perspective. Stephanie Tunmore of the Greenpeace environmental group expressed deep disappointment with the lack of progress, stating that the stocktaking portion was not challenging as there was little achieved in 2008. Environmentalists criticized Australia, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand for hindering progress and not setting ambitious targets to reduce emissions. In contrast, Mexico, China, and South Africa presented proposals to address the issue of increasing emissions. European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas stated that discussions were progressing well, with everyone acknowledging that combating climate change aligns with addressing the economic crisis. EU ministers in Poznan were relieved after EU leaders in Brussels reached an agreement to reduce greenhouse gases by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, following significant compromises made to east European countries. Through the Adaptation Fund, funds are generated through a 2 percent levy on a U.N. program aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries. To date, the levy has raised 60 million euros ($80 million). | null |
Australia's conservative Prime Minister John Howard is facing a decline in support as opinion polls favor his new rival, Kevin Rudd. Despite this setback, analysts believe Howard still has a chance to win a fifth term in office during the upcoming national elections in the second half of 2007. Howard, 67, has experienced his worst poll ratings in six years and has struggled against Rudd, 49, who became leader of the Labour opposition party in December. Rudd's promises to withdraw Australian forces from Iraq and sign the Kyoto protocol on climate change have boosted his party's chances of victory. However, analysts predict that Howard, known for his economic policies and national security focus, will regain support as the election approaches. Monash University political analyst Nick Economou stated that the fate of the government lies in the hands of the Reserve Bank. With Australia experiencing record-low unemployment and easing inflationary pressures, supporters of Howard are hopeful that the central bank will cease its cycle of interest rate hikes and consider a rate cut by the end of the year. Economou suggested that an early rate cut could be detrimental for Labour, causing Howard to call for early elections as soon as August. However, it is more likely that the government will use its May budget to shift the focus of the debate back to the economy. Economou speculated that the government may propose significant tax cuts to redirect the conversation towards the economy, which plays to Howard's strengths. The latest Reuters Poll Trend, which analyzes the three main published opinion polls in Australia, revealed that Howard's Liberal-National Party coalition was trailing Labour by 13.4 points in February - the worst result for the government since March 2001. The latest poll results show that Howard's strong lead as the preferred prime minister has dwindled, with Rudd now ahead for the first time since May 2001. Howard's slip-up in parliament, where he initially denied a connection between greenhouse gases and global warming before later correcting himself, has caused further scrutiny on his government's stance on environmental issues. Additionally, Howard's recent comments criticizing Barack Obama's plan to withdraw US forces from Iraq have stirred controversy both at home and abroad, risking Australia-US relations due to his close ties to President George W. Bush. Laura Tingle, the chief political correspondent for the Australian Financial Review, wrote on Friday that the government has had a challenging fortnight. Despite relying on their usual strengths of economic management, national security, and leadership, they have not been very effective. Former diplomat Kevin Rudd has emphasized his youth and family image, while John Howard has highlighted his experience compared to Rudd's inexperience. Greg Craven, a government professor at Curtin University, pointed out that Rudd, who may have appeared middle-aged as a child, is now focusing on Howard's age as a weakness for the government. According to Craven, he is getting older and appears to be aging faster. Howard has overcome similar poll slumps in the past and analysts caution against prematurely counting him out. Economou believes Howard is in a better position on defense and foreign policy, with the economic debate still to come. | null |
Reports released on Thursday indicate that while some companies are getting ready to bring back employees to their offices, the amount of office space available for rent in Manhattan has reached a record high. This trend highlights how the sudden shift to remote work during the coronavirus pandemic is disrupting the city's commercial real estate industry. In Manhattan, which houses the two largest business districts in the country, 18.7% of all office space is currently available for rent, a significant increase from the end of 2020 and more than double the rate before the pandemic. Many New York employers are now offering more flexibility to their employees by allowing remote work, even as the pandemic eases, and are reassessing their space requirements. Consequently, companies are either terminating their leases or looking for new tenants at a consistent pace. Some areas, like Downtown Manhattan, are experiencing more challenges, with 21% of offices currently vacant, according to Newmark, a real estate services company. Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, stated that New York City is currently experiencing its most significant crisis since the 1970s, when half of the city's Fortune 500 companies relocated. She emphasized the importance of attracting people to the city for reasons beyond just going to the office. New York faces unique challenges in adapting to the changing workplace, as it previously relied on a large number of daily commuters to sustain its economy. The pandemic has also put pressure on the commercial real estate sector, a key component of the city's economy. Landlords are now making efforts to redesign offices and offer incentives like lower rent to retain and attract companies. Commercial property taxes are a major revenue source for New York City, making up 41% of the total. Commercial areas in various parts of the country are facing challenges, with office buildings in Manhattan particularly emptying out even as some other cities like Atlanta and Los Angeles begin to recover from the effects of the pandemic. Though New York's vacancy rate was higher than the national average at 16.2% in March, other cities are also struggling to fill their office spaces. Los Angeles has a vacancy rate of 24.1% and Chicago's rate is 21.9%, both higher than their pre-pandemic rates. There are concerns that the situation in New York may deteriorate further. According to CBRE, around one-third of leases in large Manhattan buildings will expire in the next three years, and businesses have indicated they will require less space. The availability rate in New York City is currently at its highest level since the 1970s, when the city faced a financial crisis and the iconic Twin Towers were being built. Franklin Wallach of Colliers predicts that the amount of available office space in Manhattan will continue to increase due to ongoing construction and company relocations. Approximately 14 million square feet of office space is being built in New York City, which is double the size of Orlando, Florida. Wallach also suggests that the office market in Manhattan will recover unevenly, similar to the broader economic recovery. Neighborhoods near major transportation hubs like Pennsylvania Station and Grand Central Terminal may recover quicker than other areas of Manhattan, according to Wallach. While Savills predicts that the Manhattan office market may not fully bounce back until late 2022 or later, only 12% of office workers had returned to their desks by the end of May. The Partnership for New York City estimates that more than 60% of workers will return in September, but many companies will continue to allow remote work at least a few days a week. Throughout the pandemic, the technology sector has been the only industry signing significant leases in New York, with companies like Facebook and Google being well-equipped for remote work transitions. Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced in June his plan to work remotely for half of the following year. Wylde noted that the tech sector's rapid growth seems to be temporary, as employees are now pushing for the option to work from home or on a hybrid schedule permanently. They are expressing their desire to avoid expensive city living costs and are seeking a better quality of life in other cities. This shift in work culture may require a change in public policy to prioritize quality of life, a favorable business environment, and affordability. | null |
The ruling Awami League and its affiliated organizations are commemorating the historic March 7 with extensive events in the capital and throughout the country. In Dhaka, party leader and prime minister Sheikh Hasina, along with party members, paid respects at the mural of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Bangabandhu Museum in Dhanmondi at 7am. To honor the day, Awami League will host a discussion session at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre at 3pm, where Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will speak as the chief guest. Special programs about the importance of the day will be broadcasted on Bangladesh Betar (radio), Bangladesh Television, and other private television channels. The day holds historical importance since 1971 when Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman called for the liberation movement at a rally in Suhrawardy Udyan. This led to the people of East Pakistan taking up arms against the Pakistani occupation army in a nine-month war, resulting in the birth of Bangladesh as an independent nation. President Mohammad Zillur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina emphasized the historical significance of the day in separate statements. President Rahman remembered Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for his leadership in the struggle for an independent Bangladesh on March 7. He further mentioned that the vision of 'Golden Bengal' envisioned by Bangabandhu has not yet been achieved. The country must combat challenges such as hunger, poverty, superstitions, and the impacts of climate change in order to make the dream of Golden Bengal a reality. The prime minister stated that the iconic speech on March 7 reflected the aspirations of the nation before the liberation war, following years of oppression by West Pakistan. She also noted that the powerful speech had brought the nation together and paved the way for the liberation war. | null |
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