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In the political context of 2016-20, this belief was overstated. Yes, Donald Trump won the presidential election of 2016 with a minority of the popular vote. But more Americans voted for Republican congressional candidates than Democratic congressional candidates, and more Americans voted for right-of-centre candidates for president — including the Libertarian vote — than voted for Hillary Clinton and Jill Stein. In strictly majoritarian terms, liberalism deserved to lose in 2016, even if Trump did not necessarily deserve to win. And Republican structural advantages, while real, did not then prevent Democrats from reclaiming the House of Representatives in 2018 and the presidency in 2020 and Senate in 2021. These victories extended the pattern of 21st century American politics, which has featured significant swings every few cycles, not the entrenchment of either party’s power. The political landscape after 2024, however, might look more like liberalism’s depictions of its Trump-era plight. According to calculations by liberalism’s Cassandra, David Shor, the convergence of an unfavourable Senate map for Democrats with their preexisting Electoral College and Senate disadvantages could easily produce a scenario where the party wins 50% of the congressional popular vote, 51% of the presidential vote — and ends up losing the White House and staring down a nearly filibuster-proof Republican advantage in the Senate. That’s a scenario for liberal horror, but it’s not one that conservatives should welcome either. In recent years, as their advantages in both institutions have increased, conservatives have defended institutions like the Senate and the Electoral College with variations of the argument that the United States is a democratic republic, not a pure democracy. These arguments carry less weight, however, the more consistently undemocratic the system’s overall results become. (They would fall apart completely in the scenario sought by Trump and some of his allies after the 2020 election, where state legislatures simply substitute their preferences for the voters in their states.) The Electoral College’s legitimacy can stand up if an occasional 49%-47% popular vote result goes the other way; likewise the Senate’s legitimacy if it tilts a bit toward one party but changes hands consistently. But a scenario where one party has sustained governing power while lacking majoritarian support is a recipe for delegitimisation and reasonable disillusionment, which no clever conservative column about the constitutional significance of state sovereignty would adequately address. From the Republican Party’s perspective, the best way to avoid this future — where the nature of conservative victories undercuts the perceived legitimacy of conservative governance — is to stop being content with the advantages granted by the system and try harder to win majorities outright. You can’t expect a political party to simply cede its advantages: There will never be a bipartisan constitutional amendment to abolish the Senate, on any timeline you care to imagine. But you can expect a political party to show a little more electoral ambition than the GOP has done of late — to seek to win more elections the way that Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon won them, rather than being content to keep it close and put their hopes in lucky breaks. Especially in the current climate, which looks dire for the Democrats, the Republicans have an opportunity to make the Electoral College complaint moot, for a time at least, by simply taking plausible positions, nominating plausible candidates and winning majorities outright. That means rejecting the politics of voter-fraud paranoia — as, hopefully, Republican primary voters will do by choosing Brian Kemp over David Perdue in the Georgia gubernatorial primary. It means rejecting the attempts to return to the libertarian “makers versus takers” politics of Tea Party era, currently manifested in Florida Sen. Rick Scott’s recent manifesto suggesting tax increases for the working class — basically the right-wing equivalent of “defund the police” in terms of its political toxicity. And it means — and I fear this is beyond the GOP’s capacities — nominating someone other than Trump in 2024. A Republican Party that managed to win popular majorities might still see its Senate or Electoral College majorities magnified by its structural advantages. But such magnification is a normal feature of many democratic systems, not just our own. It’s very different from losing the popular vote consistently and yet being handed power anyway. As for what the Democrats should do about their disadvantages — well, that’s a longer discussion, but two quick points for now. First, to the extent the party wants to focus on structural answers to its structural challenges, it needs clarity about what kind of electoral reforms would actually accomplish something. That’s been lacking in the Biden era, where liberal reformers wasted considerable time and energy on voting bills that didn’t pass and also weren’t likely to help the party much had they been actually pushed through. A different reform idea, statehood for the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, wouldn’t have happened in this period either, but it’s much more responsive to the actual challenges confronting Democrats in the Senate. So if you’re a liberal activist or a legislator planning for the next brief window when your party holds power, pushing for an expanded Senate seems like a more reasonable long ball to try to train your team to throw. Second, to the extent that there’s a Democratic path back to greater parity in the Senate and Electoral College without structural reform, it probably requires the development of an explicit faction within the party dedicated to winning back two kinds of voters — culturally conservative Latinos and working-class whites — who were part of Barack Obama’s coalition but have drifted rightward since. That faction would have two missions: To hew to a poll-tested agenda on economic policy (not just the business-friendly agenda supported by many centrist Democrats) and to constantly find ways to distinguish itself from organised progressivism — the foundations, the activists, the academics — on cultural and social issues. And crucially, not in the tactical style favoured by analysts like Shor, but in the language of principle: Rightward-drifting voters would need to know that this faction actually believes in its own moderation, its own attacks on progressive shibboleths and that its members will remain a thorn in progressivism’s side even once they reach Washington. Right now the Democrats have scattered politicians, from West Virginia to New York City, who somewhat fit this mould. But they don’t have an agenda for them to coalesce around, a group of donors ready to fund them, a set of intellectuals ready to embrace them as their own. Necessity, however, is the mother of invention, and necessity may impose itself upon the Democratic Party soon enough. ©2022 The New York Times Company

That scene is gone from the final version of the sci-fi comedy, starring Adam Sandler and released by Sony Pictures Entertainment this week in the United States. The aliens strike iconic sites elsewhere, smashing the Taj Mahal in India, the Washington Monument and parts of Manhattan. Sony executives spared the Great Wall because they were anxious to get the movie approved for release in China, a review of internal Sony Pictures emails shows. It is just one of a series of changes aimed at stripping the movie of content that, Sony managers feared, Chinese authorities might have construed as casting their country in a negative light. Along with the Great Wall scene, out went a scene in which China was mentioned as a potential culprit behind an attack, as well as a reference to a “Communist-conspiracy brother” hacking a mail server – all to increase the chances of getting “Pixels” access to the world’s second-biggest box office. “Even though breaking a hole on the Great Wall may not be a problem as long as it is part of a worldwide phenomenon, it is actually unnecessary because it will not benefit the China release at all. I would then, recommend not to do it,” Li Chow, chief representative of Sony Pictures in China, wrote in a December 2013 email to senior Sony executives. Li’s message is one of tens of thousands of confidential Sony emails and documents that were hacked and publicly released late last year. The US government blamed North Korea for the breach. In April, WikiLeaks published the trove of emails, memos and presentations from the Sony hack in an online searchable archive. “We are not going to comment on stolen emails or internal discussions about specific content decisions,” said a spokesman for Sony Pictures, a unit of Tokyo-based Sony Corp. “There are myriad factors that go into determining what is best for a film’s release, and creating content that has wide global appeal without compromising creative integrity is top among them.” Chinese government and film-industry officials didn’t respond to requests for comment for this story. A palatable 'Robocop' “Pixels” wasn’t the only Sony movie in which the China content was carefully scrutinised. The emails reveal how studio executives discussed ways to make other productions, including the 2014 remake of “RoboCop,” more palatable to Chinese authorities.  In a 2013 email about “RoboCop,” the senior vice president at Sony Pictures Releasing International at the time, Steve Bruno, proposed relocating a multinational weapons conglomerate from China. His solution: Put it in a Southeast Asian country like Vietnam or Cambodia. Ultimately, that change wasn’t made, a viewing of the movie shows. Bruno has since left Sony. The Sony emails provide a behind-the-scenes picture of the extent to which one of the world’s leading movie studios exercised self-censorship as its executives tried to anticipate how authorities in Beijing might react to their productions. The internal message traffic also illustrates the deepening dependence of Hollywood on audiences in China, where box office receipts jumped by almost a third last year to $4.8 billion, as revenues in the United States and Canada shrank. Other studios have made changes to movies in a bid to get them approved by Beijing, altering the version that is screened in China. A scene showing a Chinese doctor who helps the main character in “Iron Man 3,” for example, was lengthened in the Chinese version and included popular Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, a comparison of the Chinese and international versions shows. Produced by Marvel Studios, “Iron Man 3” was the second top grossing movie in China in 2013. Marvel declined to comment. The logic of self-censorship In the case of “Pixels,” in which the aliens attack Earth in the form of popular video game characters, the Sony emails point to the creation of a single version for all audiences – a China-friendly one. The logic behind Sony’s thinking was explained by Steven O’Dell, president of Sony Pictures Releasing International, in a September 12, 2013 email about “RoboCop.” “Changing the China elements to another country should be a relatively easy fix,” O’Dell wrote. “There is only downside to leaving the film as it is. Recommendation is to change all versions as if we only change the China version, we set ourselves up for the press to call us out for this when bloggers invariably compare the versions and realize we changed the China setting just to pacify that market.” Efforts by the US motion-picture industry to woo China come as the ruling Communist Party under President Xi Jinping is engaged in the biggest crackdown on civil society in more than two decades. About a dozen human rights lawyers were taken into police custody this month, and hundreds of dissidents have been detained since Xi took power in late 2012. As China rises, its efforts to contain civil liberties at home are radiating outward. The removal of scenes from “Pixels” thought to be offensive to Beijing shows how global audiences are effectively being subjected to standards set by China, whose government rejects the kinds of freedoms that have allowed Hollywood to flourish. “I think the studios have grown pretty savvy,” said Peter Shiao, founder and CEO of Orb Media Group, an independent film studio focused on Hollywood-Chinese co-productions. “For a type of movie, particularly the global blockbusters, they are not going to go and make something that the Chinese would reject for social or political reasons. That is already a truism.” Sony’s emails were hacked ahead of the release of “The Interview,” a comedy depicting the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. When Sony halted the film’s release in response to threats made against movie theatres, US President Barack Obama warned of the dangers of self-censorship. (A Sony spokesman said the studio cancelled the theatrical release “because theatre owners refused to show it.”) Ultimately, Sony released the movie. “If somebody is able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they start doing when they see a documentary that they don’t like, or news reports that they don’t like,” Obama said at his year-end White House press briefing. “Or even worse, imagine if producers and distributors and others start engaging in self-censorship because they don’t want to offend the sensibilities of somebody whose sensibilities probably need to be offended. That’s not who we are. That’s not what America is about.” Fast & furious growth For Hollywood studios, the allure of the Chinese box office has become increasingly difficult to resist. While box office receipts in the United States and Canada combined fell five percent last year to $10.4 billion compared with 2013, box office receipts in China jumped 34 percent to $4.8 billion in the same period, according to the Motion Picture Association of America Inc. China is on course to set a new record this year: Box office receipts were $3.3 billion in the first half of 2015, China’s state-run media reported.  Action movie “Fast & Furious 7” was the best ticket seller in China by early June 2015, grossing $383 million – higher than the $351 million in the United States and Canada combined. It was followed by “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “Jurassic World.” Last November, the vice president of the China Film Producers’ Association, Wang Fenglin, said the Chinese film market would overtake the United States to become the largest in the world within three years. The importance of the China market appears to have informed decisions taken by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc in its 2012 remake of the action movie “Red Dawn”. MGM changed the nationality of the soldiers who invade the United States from Chinese to North Korean in post-production, according to Red Dawn producer Tripp Vinson. MGM did not respond to requests for comment. Apparatus of control To get on the circuit in China, a movie must win the approval of the Film Bureau, which is headed by Zhang Hongsen, a domestic television screenwriter and senior Communist Party member. “Foreign films come to China one after another like aircraft carriers; we are facing great pressure and challenges,” Zhang said last year. “We must make the Chinese film industry bigger and stronger.” The Film Bureau is part of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), which reports directly to China’s cabinet, the State Council. The administration controls state-owned enterprises in the communications field, including China Central Television and China Radio International. Censorship guidelines are included in a 2001 order issued by the State Council. The order bans content that endangers the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of China, harms national honour and disrupts social stability. Harming public morality and national traditions is forbidden. SAPPRFT guidelines also include bans on material seen as “disparaging of the government” and political figures. The broadening scope of these guidelines can be seen in an email sent last November by Sanford Panitch, who has since joined Sony as President of International Film and Television, to Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton. The email outlines new measures that were being implemented by SAPPRFT officials: “What is different is now they are clearly making an attempt to try to address other areas not been specified before, decadence, fortune telling, hunting, and most dramatically, sexuality,” Panitch wrote. Studios also have to work with China Film Group Corp, a state-owned conglomerate that imports and distributes foreign movies. In some cases China Film also acts as an investor. In the emails, Sony executives discussed a co-financing arrangement whereby China Film will cover 10 percent of the budget of “Pixels”. China Film is run by La Peikang, a Communist Party member and the former deputy head of the Film Bureau. 'Too much money on the line' A total of 34 foreign films are allowed into China each year under a revenue-sharing model that gives 25 percent of box office receipts to foreign movie studios. Fourteen of those films must be in “high-tech” formats such as 3D or IMAX. The censorship process in China can be unpredictable, the Sony emails show. In early 2014, the studio was faced with a demand to remove for Chinese audiences a key but disturbing scene from “RoboCop,” the story of a part-man, part-machine police officer. “Censorship really hassling us on Robocop…trying to cut out the best and most vital scene where they open up his suit and expose what is left of him as a person,” reads a January 28, 2014 email written by international executive Steven O’Dell. “Hope to get through it with only shortening up the scene a bit. Don’t think we can make a stand on it either way, too much money on the line, cross fingers we don’t have to cut the scene out.” The political climate under President Xi may also be playing a role, one email indicates. “As to greater flexibility, I am not so sure about that,” Sony China executive Li Chow wrote in early 2014, commenting on a media report that Beijing was mulling an increase in its foreign film quota. “The present government seems more conservative in all aspects and this is reflected by the repeated cuts to Robocop. Lately, members of the censorship board seem uncertain, fearful and overly careful.” In the messages in which “Pixels” is discussed, Sony executives grapple with how to gauge the sensitivities of the Chinese authorities. In a November 1, 2013 email, Li Chow suggested making a number of changes to the script, including the scene in which a hole is smashed in the Great Wall. “This is fine as long as this is shown as part of a big scale world-wide destruction, meaning that it would be good to show several recognisable historical sites in different parts of the world being destroyed,” she wrote. She also advised altering a scene in which the President of the United States, an ambassador and the head of the CIA speculate that China could be behind an attack using an unknown technology. In the final version, which moviegoers are now getting to see, the officials speculate that Russia, Iran or Google could be to blame. “China can be mentioned alongside other super powers but they may not like ‘Russia and China don’t have this kind of technology’,” Li wrote in the email. “And in view of recent news on China hacking into government servers, they may object to ‘a communist-conspiracy brother hacked into the mail server...’” 'The unwritten rule' In mid-December 2013, Li suggested doing away with the Great Wall scene altogether, saying it was “unnecessary.” Around the same time, the emails show Sony executives also discussed relocating a car-chase scene involving the video-game character Pac-Man from Tokyo to Shanghai, and whether that might help with the release date in China. Li Chow advised against the change. “As to relocating the Pac-Man action from Tokyo to Shanghai, this is not a good idea because it will involve destruction all over the city and may likely cause some sensitivity,” she wrote in a December 18, 2013 email. “In other words, it is rather hard to say whether it would be a problem because the unwritten rule is that it is acceptable if there is no real intention in destroying a certain building or street and if it is just collateral damage. But where would you draw the line?” Ultimately, all references to China in the movie were scrubbed. That decision appears to have been made in early 2014. “It looks like Doug is going to heed Li’s advice and get all China references out of Pixels (including not using the Great Wall as one of the set pieces),” international executive O’Dell wrote, referring to then-Columbia Pictures President Doug Belgrad. The cost of not winning approval to distribute a movie in China is also evident in the Sony emails. In February 2014, a Sony marketing executive circulated an email: “Please note that CAPTAIN PHILLIPS will not be released theatrically in China” – a reference to the movie in which Tom Hanks stars as Captain Richard Phillips, who was taken hostage by Somali pirates in 2009.  Budget discussions about “Captain Phillips,” contained in the emails, show Sony executives had expected to earn $120 million globally from the movie, but that changed when they didn’t get approval for it to be screened in China. “We are short $9M and we won’t be getting into China,” emailed notes from a conference call read. “We need to grab every dollar we can to meet our objectives. It is incumbent on all of us to try to figure out how we can get more money from this picture.” In a December 2013 email, Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution at Sony Pictures, had speculated that “Captain Phillips” was unlikely to be approved by China’s censors. In the film, the US military rescues the ship’s captain. That plot element, Bruer noted, might make Chinese officials squirm. “The reality of the situation is that China will probably never clear the film for censorship,” wrote Bruer. “Reasons being the big Military machine of the US saving one US citizen. China would never do the same and in no way would want to promote this idea. Also just the political tone of the film is something that they would not feel comfortable with.” Beijing shows every sign of being comfortable with “Pixels”. This week, Sony had some good news: “Pixels” has been approved for release in China. It opens there on September 15.

US Republican White House contenders offered strong support for the military mission in Iraq but voiced qualms about the Bush administration's management of the war during a quiet first debate on Thursday. The Republican debate, staged at the California presidential library of conservative Republican hero Ronald Reagan, produced few direct confrontations or memorable moments but exposed some differences among the 10 candidates on social issues like abortion. Most of the 2008 candidates called for victory in Iraq one week after Democratic presidential candidates endorsed a quick end to the war during their first debate. "We must win in Iraq. If we withdraw, there will be chaos, there will be genocide, and they will follow us home," said Arizona Sen John McCain, who has led the charge in support of the war and backs President George W Bush's plan to increase troop levels in Iraq. Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and the leader of the Republican pack in national polls, said: "We should never retreat in the face of terrorism. Terrible mistake." But some candidates raised doubts about the management of the war by Bush and his administration. McCain said the war was "badly managed for four years." "Clearly there was a real error in judgment, and that primarily had to do with listening to a lot of folks who were civilians in suits and silk ties and not listening enough to the generals," said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. The debate in California occurred in a dour political climate for Republicans six months after the party was tossed from power in Congress in November's elections. Polls show broad public dissatisfaction with Bush, the Iraq war and Republicans in general 18 months before the November 2008 election for the presidency, forcing the candidates to walk a fine line when deciding whether to embrace Bush or his policies. Former Massachusetts Gov Mitt Romney, whose strong fund-raising and establishment support have elevated him into the race's top tier even though he lingers in single digits in national polls, said candidates must ignore the polls when it comes to the war. "I want to get our troops home as soon as I possibly can. But, at the same time, I recognise we don't want to bring them out in such a precipitous way that we cause a circumstance that would require us to come back," Romney said. Conservatives have grumbled about the Republican presidential field, particularly Giuliani for his stances in support of gay rights and abortion rights and Romney for changing his stance on those issues. Romney defended his switch on abortion rights as an honest change of opinion. "I changed my mind," he said. Most of the candidates said they supported repealing the Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal. Giuliani also said he would be "OK" with it, but that abortion should be an issue left to the states. Virginia Gov James Gilmore said he supported the right to abortion in the first eight to 12 weeks of pregnancy but had taken other steps to limit abortion when he was governor. The debate's location at the Reagan library generated an explosion of tributes to the former president and conservative icon, with candidates lining up to praise Reagan's leadership and conservative principles. Former first lady Nancy Reagan, along with California Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger, watched the debate from the front row. But Reagan's presence did not convince many of the candidates to agree with her support for federal funding for stem cell research. Also participating were Kansas Sen Sam Brownback, Reps Tom Tancredo of Colorado, Ron Paul of Texas, and Duncan Hunter of California, and former Gov Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin.

Dhaka, Feb 12 (bdnews24.com)--Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed has requested G8 leaders to help least developed countries overcome tariff and non-tariff barriers in developed markets. Fakhruddin asked for market access of LDC products "without discrimination". Foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury Tuesday said that the chief adviser had written separate letters to the heads of the G8 nations on behalf of the WTO LDCs Consultative Group of which Bangladesh is the chair. "The chief adviser asked for market access benefits for all products from all LDCs without discrimination," Iftekhar said.

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."

She defended Bangladesh’s human rights record in Geneva at the Human Rights Council’s second Universal Periodic Review of the member states, according to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs media release.Moni said her government attached “importance to sensitising the agencies about their human rights obligations in the line of duty”.The minister responded for three and half an hours to questions from different states concerning Bangladesh’s recent ‘achievements and challenges’ in promoting and protecting human rights.She emphasised “upholding the rule of law in every sphere of society and safeguarding the rights of the vulnerable and marginalised segments of the population”.The minister reiterated the government’s ‘unequivocal’ commitment to show ‘zero tolerance’ to attacks against minorities that took place in Ramu, Cox’s Bazar last year and against the Hindu communities during the recent political violence.The foreign ministry says this is the first time Bangladesh participated with a delegation comprising eminent personalities from the religious and ethnic minority groups in the review process.Principal of Seema Bihar Ramu Mohathero Seemath Satyapriyo, Bangladesh Hindu Bouddho Chirstian Oikyo Parishod’s Secretary General Rana Dasgupta, and Buddhist Religious Welfare Trust’s Trustee Gyanendriya Chakma are in the delegation longside senior government officials.The media release said 98 countries spoke during Bangladesh’s session and “commended the significant strides made in ensuring citizens’ civil, political, economic and social rights”.Members of the Human Rights Council have to undergo a review process of their overall human rights situation every four years.The minister made a ‘comprehensive’ presentation on her government’s initiatives to improve human rights situation.She first faced such review in Feb 2009, a month after assuming power.Referring to that session, she said she had then made a commitment that “Bangladesh would pursue the path of inclusion and that change would come”.After four years, she said her government made “a significant qualitative change in the normative and institutional framework in the country’s human rights regime”.She touched upon ‘all the major legislative and policy initiatives’ taken by the current government to ensure human rights in Bangladesh.The media release said during question-answer session “there seemed to be considerable degree of interest in Bangladesh’s success in combating poverty, reducing child mortality, attaining food security, facing climate change impacts and promoting migrant’s well-being and the rights of persons with disabilities”.She sought international community’s support ‘to strengthening its democratic, secular, inclusive and pluralistic socio-political fabric in Bangladesh’.The UN’s universal periodic review is a process which involves a review of the human rights records of all UN member states.The Bangladesh government submitted its report before the UN in January while National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and civil society groups have presented two separate reports for the state-driven process under the auspices of the Human Rights Council.The NHRC Chairman Mizanur Rahman was present during the meeting.The review provides the opportunity for each state to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfill their human rights obligations.

‘9/12’ It’s not easy to find something new to say about Sept 11, which is what makes this provocative and creatively reported series from Dan Taberski (“Missing Richard Simmons,” “Running from Cops”) such a striking listening experience. The show begins with a crew of reality show contestants who set sail on a six-week, 18th century-themed voyage in August 2001. The sailors’ relative inability to engage with the wider world initially prevented them from forming hard impressions of the attacks, a state of innocence that Taberski sets out to re-create. Backed by a stunning score from jazz composer Daniel Herskedal, “9/12” uses little-memorialized stories from the “war on terror” years (a Pakistani grocery store owner in New York who advocates for his detained and desperate neighbors; the staff of The Onion versus a climate of anti-humor) to challenge conventional wisdom about what it all meant. ‘Forever Is a Long Time’ Ian Coss’ five-part meditation on the improbability of lifelong commitment couldn’t have been more personal. Motivated by lingering doubts about the durability of his own marriage, he interviewed divorced members of his family and their former spouses about why theirs fell apart. Each episode tells a different love story from beginning to end, with Coss gathering evidence like a single-minded detective. The details he uncovers — and, at the end of each episode, sets to music in an original song inspired by the couple — quietly reflect the irreducible mysteries of human intimacy. ‘La Brega’ Loosely translated as “the hustle” or “the struggle,” the concept of “la brega” is a point of common heritage and a point of departure in this expansive story collection and love letter to Puerto Rico. Produced in English and Spanish by a collective of Puerto Rican journalists and hosted by Alana Casanova-Burgess, each episode of “La Brega” creates a transporting sense of place. Rich and underexamined American histories abound in its stories of pothole fillers, political activists and basketball heroes who navigate their own versions of the struggle, many of which trace back to the very idea of a self-governing territory in the United States. ‘The Midnight Miracle’ Sound-rich, unpredictable and borderline hypnotic, this star-studded conversation show from Dave Chappelle, Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli is much more than a celebrity podcast. The three hosts, longtime friends and collaborators, are joined by a revolving cast of funny and thoughtful guests (David Letterman, Chris Rock, Jon Stewart) who wax extemporaneously about subjects falling generally under the banners of art, philosophy and politics. Inventive sound design — voices and scoring seamlessly enter and exit the central conversation — makes it feel like the world’s most interesting dinner party. ‘One Year: 1977’ Produced and hosted by Josh Levin, a former host of “Slow Burn,” “One Year” takes that show’s forensic historical lens and zooms both in and out, attempting to capture a year of life in America by focusing on its distinctive icons, manias and controversies. As with all good history, its most haunting episodes — including one focusing on a quack treatment for cancer that became a deadly phenomenon among celebrities and science skeptics — resonate uncannily with the present. ‘The Plot Thickens: The Devil’s Candy’ Julie Salamon unearthed a trove of half-forgotten tape recordings to make this podcast adaptation of “The Devil’s Candy,” her classic book on Hollywood filmmaking. That book, first published in 1991, showed readers the doomed production of Brian De Palma’s “The Bonfire of the Vanities”; the podcast puts listeners in the middle of it. On-set interviews with De Palma, Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith and a small army of assistants and crafts people resurrect a quixotic effort to mingle high art and dizzying commerce. ‘Resistance’ Born in the aftermath of the global Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, “Resistance” is more interested in revolutions of a much smaller scale. The host, Saidu Tejan-Thomas Jr., and the producer-reporters Salifu Sesay Mack, Bethel Habte and Aaron Randle find hard-to-shake stories in the circumstances that push individuals off the tram lines of their day-to-day existence. Lesser-known miscarriages of justice are made personal and palpable, as in one episode about a woman fighting to free her incarcerated partner and co-parent, and another about the plunder of an early 20th century oasis for the Black bathers of Manhattan Beach. ‘Rough Translation: Home/Front’ The latest season of “Rough Translation,” Gregory Warner’s podcast about the ways cultural conflicts abroad mirror and reframe our own, focused exclusively on an American schism — the “Civ-Mil divide” between civilians and the members of the military who fight on their behalf. Quil Lawrence, NPR’s longtime veterans correspondent, shows how this binary obscures fundamentally human acts of compassion and sacrifice on both sides. His patient eye and ear capture a cast of unforgettable characters, including Alicia and Matt Lammers, whose civ-mil marriage buckles under the weight of compounding trauma, and Marla Ruzicka, an irrepressible aid worker who changed the way the Pentagon handles civilian casualties. ‘The Sporkful: Mission Impastable’ Dan Pashman, a longtime food critic and the host of “The Sporkful,” spent much of his career dreaming of something most people wouldn’t think to imagine: the perfect pasta shape. His three-year quest to not only design that shape (he doesn’t think it exists, and he might convince you) but also get it manufactured unfolds like the overachieving love child of earlier audio capers from “Radiolab,” “StartUp” and “Planet Money.” The emotional roller coaster Pashman endures will be familiar to anyone who has ever tried to make a hit — edible or otherwise. ‘Welcome to Your Fantasy’ Natalia Petrzela’s sweeping account of the rise and fall of Chippendales — the traveling male strip show that became a global phenomenon in the spandex-clad ’80s — manages to transcend its noisy keywords: sex, true crime, hidden history. Those things are served, of course, in good measure. But what distinguishes the show is its evocative mood, characters and story. And what a story it is. The stranger-than-fiction odyssey of the troupe’s founder, Steve Banerjee — from immigrant small-business owner to green-eyed sex industry titan to murderous racketeer — is a true American classic. c.2021 The New York Times Company

Scientific detective work has uncovered a decades-old glitch in ocean temperature measurements and revealed that the world's seas are warming and rising faster than previously reported. An international team of scientists, reporting their findings on Thursday in the journal Nature, looked at millions of ship-based measurements taken since 1950, but particularly from 1960, and revealed an error in data from a common probe called an XBT. Correcting the error in data running over decades as well as applying a complex statistical analysis to sea temperature data, the team came up with a global estimate of ocean warming in the top layers down to 700 meters (2,300 feet) as well as how fast oceans are rising. "We show that the rate of ocean warming from 1961 to 2003 is about 50 percent larger than previously reported," said team member Catia Domingues, from the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research. Fellow report author John Church said he had long been suspicious about the historical data because it did not match results from computer models of the world's climate and oceans. "We've realigned the observations and as a result the models agree with the observations much better than previously," said Church, a senior research scientist with the climate centre. "And so by comparing many XBT observations with research ship observations in a statistical way, you can estimate what the errors associated with the XBTs are." This was crucial because the oceans store more than 90 percent of the heat in the planet's climate system and can act as a buffer against the effects of climate change, Domingues said. Water also expands the warmer it becomes, pushing up sea levels, in addition from run-off from melting glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland and parts of Antarctica. Church said the global average surface warming between 1961 to 2003 was about 0.4 degrees Celsius according to his team's estimates and that seas rose on average 1.6 millimeters a year during this period. RISING SEAS But Church said that since 1993, sea levels had been rising more than 3 mm a year as the world consumes ever greater amounts of fossil fuels. XBTs were widely used by commercial vessels but have since been largely replaced by satellites and permanent probes in the ocean. The disposable XBTs were thrown over the side with a wire attached to measure temperatures as it sank. "If you miscalculate how quickly the instrument falls through the water column, you miscalculate the depth and therefore the temperature at that depth and that's the prime source of error," said Church. So a colleague, Susan Wijffels and other associates, figured out a mathematical formula to correct the error. That, combined with a wider statistical analysis of global ocean temperature data, revealed a clearer picture that better matched widely used computer models that project how the climate and oceans behave because of global warming. "Now we see a more steady rate of warming and an increased trend in that warming," Church told Reuters. "It builds confidence in the models that we use for projecting the future," adding that observations also indicated that the actual sea level rise was tracking on the upper end of those projections. The U.N. Climate Panel's latest global assessment last year estimated sea levels could rise by up to 80 cm by the end of 2100 unless carbon dioxide levels were reined in.

He spoke at a virtual press conference after the inauguration of an office of the Global Centre on Adaptation or GCA in Dhaka on Tuesday. He stressed sharing of the best adaptation practices among the countries. "We need to do it quickly, with combined expertise and financial resources," he said. Bangladesh has stood firm in battling disasters when the entire world is busy discussing the effects of climate change, said Ban, the chairman of GCA. He referred to the successful evacuation of a huge number of people during the recent cyclone Amphan that hit Bangladesh amid the coronavirus pandemic. In his speech at the inauguration, Ban Ki-moon described the country as the “best example of successful case” to tackle climate change. This is one of the reasons behind setting up the office in Bangladesh, he said. Citing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the GCA chairman said at the press conference that 17 percent of Bangladesh could go under water if the sea level rises 1 metre by 2050. Another UN report says the Dhaka city can be inundated even if sea level rises slightly, he said, highlighting the dangers Bangladesh faces as one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of global warming. He emphasised long-term planning, preparation, knowledge about possible risks and risk-tackling methods, education and awareness to tackle the crisis. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also joined the inauguration of the office via video conferencing from the Ganabhaban. Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen also attended the event.

Wearing white boiler suits, the roughly 300 protesters sat on the red carpet where Hollywood stars such as Brad Pitt, Scarlett Johansson and Joaquin Phoenix have premiered their latest films during the 11-day event. Waving banners that read 'Our home is on fire' and 'No to cruise ships', the protesters sat outside the main festival venue and chanted slogans, surrounded by police. "We want to address the topic of the climate crisis, we think that it is more important than anything that we can see in the world now," said Chiara Buratti, a member of the Venice anti-cruise ship committee, adding the demonstrators wanted celebrity backing for their cause. The protesters arrived in the early morning but left peacefully several hours later, around 1200 GMT. Saturday is the last day of the festival, held on the Venice Lido, and the winner of the Golden Lion prize will be announced in the evening. Buratti said the demonstrators were also planning a march elsewhere on the Lido later in the day. The protesters, who belong to Italian and foreign groups, were taking part in a five-day Venice Climate Camp event. "The climate crisis has no borders, why should we stop at some border and just care about some local problems that we have back home," said demonstrator Sina Reisch from the German group Ende Gelande. "We must see that the struggles are connected." The demonstrators got the support of rocker Mick Jagger and veteran actor Donald Sutherland, who will walk that red carpet later to present their thriller "The Burnt Orange Heresy". "I am glad they're doing that because they’re the ones that are going to inherit the planet," Jagger said at a news conference to promote the movie. "We’re in a very difficult situation at the moment, especially in the US where all the environmental controls that were put in place, that perhaps were just about adequate say for the last 10 years, are being rolled back by the current administration, so much that they will be wiped out." "I am glad people feel so strongly about it they want to protest anywhere whether it's the red carpet or another place." Sutherland said environmental protesters had "to fight harder" and "get as much support as they can", adding those calling for the plight of migrants also needed backing. "When you're my age ... 85 years old and you have children and grandchildren, you will leave them nothing if we do not vote those people out of office in Brazil, in London and in Washington. They are ruining the world," he said. "We have contributed to the ruination of it but they are ensuring it."

Warning that he might ultimately terminate the agreement, Trump's move was a major change in US foreign policy at a time when his administration is also in a crisis with North Korea over that country's nuclear ambitions. It was the second time in two days that Trump took aim at the legacy of his predecessor Barack Obama after signing an executive order on Thursday to weaken the Democratic former president's signature healthcare reform. Hailed by Obama as key to stopping Iran from building a nuclear bomb, the deal was also signed by China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and the European Union. But Trump says it was too lenient on Tehran and effectively left the fate of the deal up to the US Congress which might try to modify it or bring back US sanctions previously imposed on Iran. "We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror and the very real threat of Iran’s nuclear breakout," Trump said. European allies have warned of a split with Washington over the nuclear agreement and say that putting it in limbo as Trump has done undermines US credibility abroad. Trump's "America First" approach to international agreements has also led him to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks and renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. Iran reaction Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Friday that Tehran was committed to the deal and accused Trump of making baseless accusations. "The Iranian nation has not and will never bow to any foreign pressure," he said. "Iran and the deal are stronger than ever." Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivers a television address in Tehran, Iran, Oct 13, 2017. President.ir Handout via Reuters The chief of the UN atomic watchdog reiterated that Iran was under the world's "most robust nuclear verification regime" and that Tehran is complying with the deal. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivers a television address in Tehran, Iran, Oct 13, 2017. President.ir Handout via Reuters "The nuclear-related commitments undertaken by Iran under the JCPOA are being implemented," Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency said, referring to the deal by its formal name. Under US law, the president must certify every 90 days to Congress that Iran is complying with the deal, which Trump had reluctantly done twice. Two administration officials privy to the Iran policy debate said Trump this time ultimately ignored the opinions of his secretary of defense, secretary of state, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, his chief of staff and his national security advisor. Instead, one of the officials said, Trump listened to the more hardline views of (CIA Director Mike) Pompeo and some outsiders. US Democrats criticised Trump's decision. Senator Ben Cardin said: “At a moment when the United States and its allies face a nuclear crisis with North Korea, the president has manufactured a new crisis that will isolate us from our allies and partners.” In Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Washington could not unilaterally cancel the accord. "We cannot afford as the international community to dismantle a nuclear agreement that is working," said Mogherini, who chaired the final stages of the landmark talks. "This deal is not a bilateral agreement. Congress decides The US Congress will now have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under the pact. If Congress reimposes the sanctions, the United States would in effect be in violation of the terms of the nuclear deal and it would likely fall apart. If lawmakers do nothing, the deal remains in place. A lone protestor demonstrates outside the White House wearing a Donald Trump mask in opposition to President Trump's announcement about the Iran nuclear deal and his policy towards Iran at the White House in Washington, US, Oct 13, 2017. Reuters Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker was working on amending a law on Iran to include "trigger points" that if crossed by Tehran would automatically reimpose US sanctions. A lone protestor demonstrates outside the White House wearing a Donald Trump mask in opposition to President Trump's announcement about the Iran nuclear deal and his policy towards Iran at the White House in Washington, US, Oct 13, 2017. Reuters A source familiar with the issue said the triggers include reimposing US sanctions if Tehran were deemed to be less than a year away from developing a nuclear weapon. The trigger points are also expected to address tougher nuclear inspections, Iran's ballistic missile program and eliminate the deal's "sunset clauses" under which some of the restrictions on Iran's nuclear program expire over time. It is far from clear Congress will be able to pass the legislation. Trump warned that if "we are not able to reach a solution working with Congress and our allies, then the agreement will be terminated." He singled out Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for sanctions and delivered a blistering critique of Tehran, which he accused of destabilizing actions in Syria, Yemen and Iraq. The Trump administration censured the Revolutionary Guards but stopped short of labeling the group a foreign terrorist organization. The body is the single most dominant player in Iran’s security, political, and economic systems and wields enormous influence in Iran’s domestic and foreign policies. It had already previously been sanctioned by the United States under other authorities, and the immediate impact of Friday’s measure is likely to be symbolic. The US military said on Friday it was identifying new areas where it could work with allies to put pressure on Iran in support of Trump's new strategy and was reviewing the positioning of US forces. But US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis Iran had not responded to Trump's announcement with any provocative acts so far.

Obama's visit is a fresh bid to make India an enduring strategic partner and he will seek to nurture friendship with a prime minister who a year ago was persona non grata in Washington. Obama will be the first US president to attend India's Republic Day parade, a show of military might long associated with the anti-Americanism of the Cold War, and will host a radio show with Modi. His presence at Monday's parade at Modi's personal invitation is the latest revival in a roller-coaster relationship between the two largest democracies that just a year ago was in tatters. "I'd like to think the stars are aligned to finally realise the vision (of) India and America as true global partners," Obama said in an interview with India Today, a weekly magazine, published on Friday. Modi greeted Obama and his wife, Michelle, on the tarmac of the airport in New Delhi as they came down the steps from Air Force One on a smoggy winter morning. The two leaders hugged each other warmly. According to protocol, the prime minister does not greet foreign leaders on their arrival, meeting them instead at a formal ceremony at the presidential palace. Modi made the decision himself to break with tradition and surprised even his own handlers, media reports said. As Obama's motorcade headed off for the welcome ceremony at the residence of President Pranab Mukherjee, the roads were lined with armed police and soldiers, part of a highly choreographed plan for the visit. Up to 40,000 security personnel will be deployed during the visit and 15,000 new closed-circuit surveillance cameras have been installed in the capital, according to media reports. The two sides have worked to reach agreements on climate change, taxation and defence cooperation in time for the visit. Talks on a hoped-for deal on civil nuclear trade went down to the wire with no clear solution at the weekend. The United States views India as a vast market and potential counterweight to China's assertiveness in Asia, but frequently grows frustrated with the slow pace of economic reforms and unwillingness to side with Washington in international affairs. India would like to see a new US approach to Pakistan. "Particularly with regards to security, and we would like a much greater understanding with the United States with regards to regional issues," India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in Davos ahead of Obama's visit. Elected last May, Modi has injected a new vitality into the economy and foreign relations and, to Washington's delight, begun pushing back against China's growing presence in South Asia. Annual bilateral trade of $100 billion is seen as vastly below potential and Washington wants it to grow fivefold. The White House said Obama will depart slightly early from India to travel to Saudi Arabia following the death of King Abdullah, instead of a planned visit to the Taj Mahal. Modest roots Like Obama, Modi rose from a modest home to break into a political elite dominated by powerful families. Aides say the two men bonded in Washington in September when Obama took Modi to the memorial of Martin Luther King, whose rights struggle was inspired by India's Mahatma Gandhi. The "chemistry" aides describe is striking because Modi's politics is considerably to the right of Obama's, and because he was banned from visiting the United States for nearly a decade after deadly Hindu-Muslim riots in a state he governed. Obama, the first sitting US president to visit India twice, also enjoyed a close friendship with Modi's predecessor Manmohan Singh, who in 2009 staked his premiership on a controversial deal that made India the sixth "legitimate" atomic power and marked a high point in Indo-US relations. In a reminder that personal chemistry is not always enough, under Obama ties between Washington and India descended into bickering over protectionism that culminated in a fiery diplomatic spat in 2013 and the abrupt departure of the US ambassador from New Delhi, who has only just been replaced. "India and the United States are still some distance away from realizing their objective of cementing a strong geopolitical affiliation," Ashley Tellis, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in a paper. The 2009 nuclear deal, which failed to deliver on a promise of billions of dollars of business for US companies, is back on the agenda with bureaucrats meeting three times in the past six weeks to find a workaround to a tough Indian liability law. "There's extraordinary potential in this relationship," Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told reporters this week. "What we want to do is turn that potential into concrete benefits for both of our peoples."

But across the United States, the heights of structures, landmarks, valleys, hills and just about everything else are about to change, at least with regard to average sea level. Most will get shorter. Parts of the Pacific Northwest will shrink by as much as 5 feet, and parts of Alaska by 6 1/2, according to Juliana P Blackwell, director of the National Geodetic Survey. Seattle will be 4.3 feet lower than it is now. That’s because height is only height compared to a reference point — and geodesists, who calculate the Earth’s shape, size, gravitational field and orientation in space over time, are redefining the reference point, or vertical datum, from which height is derived. It is a fiendishly difficult math and physics task that, once completed, will have taken a decade and a half to accomplish. “The US, at the scale that it is working at, it’s a big deal,” said Chris Rizos, president-elect of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and an emeritus professor of geodesy at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The grand recalibration, called “height modernisation,” is part of a broader effort within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish more accurately where and how the US physically sits on the planet. This new National Spatial Reference System, encompassing height, latitude, longitude and time, is expected to be rolled out in late 2022 or 2023, Blackwell said. It will replace reference systems from the 1980s that are slightly askew, having been derived from calculations that were done before the advent of supercomputers or global navigation satellite systems such as GPS. The errors in height are magnified as one moves diagonally across the country from the southeast to the northwest. One of the few areas of the US expected to either stay the same height or rise fractionally will be the toe of Florida. “There’s really a tilt that shows that all of the accumulated errors in our vertical network are pushed up into the northwest,” Blackwell said. But height has long been tethered to ego. Some Coloradans worry that a few of their mountain peaks will fall below a bragging-rights threshold under the new height system, Blackwell said. “They are very proud of how high these things are, and I know that it’s going to be a bit of a bummer if they start to be a little bit shorter than they were thought to be previously,” she said. She added that she is not yet sure precisely what the new measurements of Colorado’s peaks will be. And near Beaumont, Texas, citizens are grappling with the unwelcome news that certain areas have subsided so much since previous height calculations that these regions now sit in the floodplain. As a result, some landowners may now need to insure themselves against losses from floods, said Daniel R Roman, chief geodesist at NOAA. “They didn’t want to know that the heights had changed,” he said, “because when they do floodplain mapping, they’re like, ‘Well, I’m this height — it hasn’t changed.’” A SHORT HISTORY OF HEIGHT The US has been measuring its height since 1807, when Thomas Jefferson, then the president, established the Survey of the Coast, forerunner to the National Geodetic Survey, to chart the waters and coasts on the Eastern Seaboard. The survey was the nation’s first civilian scientific agency. The aim was to make shipping safer. As the country expanded westward, so did the measuring, using the coast, a proxy for sea level, as the reference point for zero elevation. Surveyors planted metal bench marks in the land as they travelled, describing each point’s height above sea level, often mile by mile. Anyone who wanted to measure the height of a building or hill measured it relative to the bench mark and, indirectly, to sea level. Geodetic levelling, as the process was called, was painstaking and expensive. The rationale was to make sure heights were measured in the same way right across the country over time, rather than each county or state having its own system. For example, if engineers from two states were building a bridge across state lines, they needed to know it would meet in the middle. And by 1900, geodesy had become more sophisticated. Instead of using a coastline as the stand-in for sea level, geodesists developed a model representing sea level based on readings from tides. They have adjusted the height reference five times since then, in 1903, 1907, 1912, 1929 and 1988. The 1988 model remains the standard in the US and Mexico. But the 1988 version was short on accurate information for California and parts of Texas and North Carolina, said David B Zilkoski, a geodesist who is the former director of the National Geodetic Survey. That is because the crust there has moved up or down considerably, as a result of tectonic plate activity and the removal of oil, gas and water from beneath the ground. The solution, Zilkoski decided, might be to use the global navigational satellite system technologies, such as GPS, that were then beginning to proliferate. GPS is excellent at pinpointing where you are in a flat, two-dimensional system — say, at the corner of Bank Street and Garden Avenue. But it is also capable of telling you where you are in a three-dimensional world: Bank Street and Garden Avenue at 40 feet above sea level. By the mid-1990s, Zilkoski said, the goal of using GPS to modernise height had caught on. It had the advantage of being inexpensive and easy. Satellites, and therefore global positioning systems, measure height relative to a smoothed-out mathematical approximation of the Earth’s shape called an ellipsoid. (Picture a basketball squished at the top and bottom.) But there was a big catch. “GPS doesn’t know much about gravity,” said James L Davis, a geophysicist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in New York. Topographic work is done in the Glacier Bay area of Alaska. The New York Times A MATTER OF SOME GRAVITY Topographic work is done in the Glacier Bay area of Alaska. The New York Times Gravity matters to a geodesist. Height is distance measured along the direction that gravity points, and the strength and direction of gravity’s pull vary according to the density of what is beneath the terrain and near it. In other words, height is not merely distance or elevation above the ground; it is tied to gravity. Gravity, in turn, is related to the distribution of mass. So geodesists use the term “height” rather than “elevation.” “Whenever I give a public lecture on gravity, half the talk is getting them to think about it differently,” Davis said. As a result, a height measured only by GPS could be badly inaccurate. An engineer who laid pipe only using GPS, without measuring local variations in the effect of gravity, might not get water to flow where it was supposed to go. But making highly detailed measurements of the gravitational field, in order to factor them into heights captured by GPS, is no small task. In 2007, the National Geodetic Survey began an ambitious mission — GRAV-D, for Gravity for the Redefinition of the American Vertical Datum — to accomplish just that. Geodesists will then use these gravity readings to make a model that best represents average sea level everywhere in the world, even on land. Because the pull of gravity varies everywhere, this model, called the geoid, resembles a lumpy potato. All heights will subsequently be measured taking it into account. Once the new height system is in place, people will find unexpected uses for it, Blackwell of the National Geodetic Survey said. She invoked “The Jetsons,” the futuristic animated sitcom from the 1960s that featured characters zipping around their cities in tiny spacecraft. The underlying technology — the ability to calculate heights and other positional coordinates swiftly and accurately — was unimaginable at the time. Today, with the proliferation of drones, self-driving cars and remotely operated aerial systems, the ability to navigate accurately in three dimensions is becoming paramount. “I think it’s going to get adopted really quickly,” she said. OUR SHIFTING SHAPE Even as geodesists get better at calculating the shape of the Earth, humans are changing it. As we warm the planet, we are melting glaciers and ice sheets. Their mass shifts from the land to the ocean, raising sea level and, eventually, changing height, which uses sea level as the reference for zero elevation. The shift in mass also has an effect on the configuration of the planet. “That mass on the surface of Earth pushes down on Earth and actually changes its shape,” said Davis of Columbia University. In effect, through climate change, our species is altering gravity across the planet. “We’re doing it by making chemical changes in the atmosphere that cause mass to be moved around,” Davis said. “And the amount of mass now is tremendous. It’s noticeable in the shape of the geoid. It’s also noticeable in the Earth’s rotation.” Davis and other scientists are scrambling to figure out more accurately how to calculate the effect of the human footprint in the coming years. “A few hundred years ago, it was all about what is the shape of the Earth,” he said. “And now it’s: Can we measure Earth’s changing shape, and the amount of mass in the glaciers, and where it came from, well enough to say what will happen at this location in the next few years? We’re in a race.” c.2020 The New York Times Company

Ugandan police have found an unexploded suicide belt and made several arrests after 74 soccer fans were killed by two bomb attacks while they were watching the World Cup final on television. Somali Islamists linked to al Qaeda said on Monday they carried out the attacks. Uganda's opposition called on Tuesday for the country's peacekeepers to be withdrawn from Somalia. A government spokesman said the unexploded suicide belt was found at a third site in the capital Kampala, a day after the twin explosions ripped through two bars heaving with soccer fans late on Sunday. "Arrests were made late yesterday after an unexploded suicide bomber's belt was found in the Makindye area," government spokesman Fred Opolot said. He did not say how many people were arrested, or where they were from. Such coordinated attacks have been a hallmark of al Qaeda and groups linked to Osama bin Laden's militant network. The al Shabaab militants have threatened more attacks unless Uganda and Burundi withdrew their peacekeepers from the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia (AMISOM). Uganda's opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party urged President Yoweri Museveni to pull his soldiers out and said it planned to withdraw if it won elections scheduled for early 2011. "There is no peace to keep in Somalia and Uganda has no strategic interest there. We're just sacrificing our children for nothing," FDC spokesman Wafula Oguttu told Reuters. "Our objective is to withdraw our troops immediately after coming to power." AMISOM said the explosions would not affect its mission in Somalia, where it shields the presidential palace from insurgent attacks and guards Mogadishu's airport and port. FBI INVESTIGATES The coordinated blasts were the first time al Shabaab has taken its bloody push for power onto the international stage. Analysts say its threats should be taken seriously, given the clear evidence the group has the intent and will to strike abroad. Foreign direct investment into east Africa's third largest economy has surged, driven by oil exploration along the western border with Democratic Republic of Congo. Analysts say a sustained bombing campaign would damage Uganda's investment climate, but a one-off attack was unlikely deter major companies such as British hydrocarbons explorer Tullow Oil TLW from investing. [ID:nLDE66B14N] An American was among the dead, and the United States has offered assistance with its investigations. The State Department said it had three FBI agents on the ground collecting evidence. An additional FBI team is on standby to deploy to the east African nation, it said. Opolot said there was no suggestion an African Union summit to be hosted by Uganda this month would be cancelled following the bombings.

Australia Nov. 26 (bdnews24.com/AFP)-- The newly elected Australian prime minister has made signing the Kyoto Protocol his top priority. Kevin Rudd will act quickly to sign the climate change pact, his deputy, Julia Gillard, said on Monday. Rudd's honouring of a campaign promise that he would make signing the pact one of his first acts in office would pave the way for Australia to have a greater role at a major international meeting on tackling environmental issues in Bali, Indonesia, starting next week. The prime minister-elect's policy on Kyoto leaves the US isolated as the only Western country not to ratify the pact. The US is the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide while Australia is the worst polluter per capita. Rudd's plan for the phased withdrawal of Australia's 550 combat troops from Iraq could also test Australia's tight relations with the US. Among congratulatory messages from foreign leaders over the weekend, Rudd took a phone call from George Bush, the US president. He declined to give details of the conversation but said he planned to visit Washington next year. Rudd entered a second day of meetings on Monday with senior bureaucrats and advisers about taking over the levers of power after sweeping elections on Saturday. He is to meet freshly elected members of parliament from his Labor party on Thursday to choose his ministerial team, which is then expected to be sworn in by Michael Jefferey, the governor-general, within a few days. The government is in caretaker mode until then. Officials said Rudd, whose victory ended almost 12 years of conservative rule, also started work on redrafting the country's labour laws, another campaign promise. Meanwhile, questions remained over who would lead the coalition that lost the election, as the new opposition. John Howard, the outgoing prime minister, looked likely to lose his place in parliament while his nominated successor, deputy Peter Costello, made the surprise announcement on Sunday that he did not want the job. Malcolm Turnbull, the former environment minister, and Tony Abbott, the former health minister, said they would contest the position of opposition leader. The counting of ballots was still under way on Monday, with only the size of Rudd's emphatic win to be confirmed and a handful of closely fought districts to be decided. Among them was the Sydney suburban district of Bennelong, held by Howard for the past 33 years, leaving Australia's second-longest serving leader faced with the ignominy of losing not only the government but also his seat in parliament. Howard acknowledged on Saturday that "it is very likely to be the case that I will no longer be the member for Bennelong". Labor's Maxine McKew, a former television presenter, holds a slight lead over Howard and counting is expected to go down to postal votes.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who blindsided creditors by calling a referendum on the austerity cuts in the aid package proposed by the creditors, appeared on television on Sunday night to announce capital controls to prevent banks from collapsing. Their imposition capped a dramatic weekend for Greece that has pushed the country towards a likely default on 1.6 billion euros ($1.77 billion) of International Monetary Fund loans on Tuesday and closer to an exit from the euro currency bloc. French President Francois Hollande appealed to Tsipras to return to the negotiating table and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was willing to talk to the 40-year-old Greek leader if he wanted. "There are a few hours before the negotiation is closed for good," Hollande said after a cabinet meeting on Greece. But with Greece's bailout programme expiring in less than 48 hours, hopes of a last-minute breakthrough were fading fast. Greeks - used to lengthy talks with creditors before a eleventh-hour deal materializes - were left stunned. "I can't believe it," said Athens resident Evgenia Gekou, 50, on her way to work. "I keep thinking we will wake up tomorrowand everything will be OK. I'm trying hard not to worry." European officials sent confusing signals about their next move. A spokesman for the European Commission told French radio that Brussels would not make any new proposals on Monday, appearing to contradict comments by EU Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici. He said a new offer was forthcoming and that the two sides were "only a few centimetres" away from a deal. European bank shares fell sharply on Monday. Top banks in Spain, France and Germany were down more than 6 percent as the risk of a spillover to banks in other peripheral euro zone countries spooked investors. The Greek government will keep banks shut at least until after July 5, the date of the referendum, and withdrawals from automated teller machines were limited to 60 euros a day when they reopened at midday. The stock exchange will also stay shut. After months of talks, Greece's exasperated European partners have put the blame for the crisis squarely on Tsipras's shoulders. The creditors wanted Greece to cut pensions and raise taxes in ways that Tsipras has long argued would deepen one of the worst economic crises of modern times in a country where a quarter of the workforce is already unemployed. As Tsipras announced the emergency measures late on Sunday, there were long queues outside ATMs and petrol stations as people raced to take out cash before it was too late. Lines of over a dozen people formed at ATMs when they reopenedon Monday. "I've got five euros in my pocket, I thought I would try my luck here for some money. The queues in my neighbourhood were too long yesterday," said plumber Yannis Kalaizakis, 58, outside an empty cash machine in central Athens on Monday. "I don't know what else to say. It's a mess." Newspapers splashed pictures of long lines outside cash machines on their front page. The Nafetemporiki daily headlinedMonday's edition "Dramatic hours" while the Ta Nea daily simply said: "When will the banks open". The conservative-leaning Eleftheros Typos newspaper accused Tsipras of announcing the referendum as a ruse to tip the country into early elections in the hopes of winning them. "Mr Tsipras's decision to call a referendum and a possible euro exit constitutes a premeditated crime," it said in an editorial. "It is clear that Mr Tsipras has lost the trust of citizens. That's obvious from the queues at ATMs and petrol stations, and it will become obvious at next Sunday's ballot." As rumours flew about, dozens of pensioners queued outside at least two offices of the National Bank of Greece (NBGr.AT)on Monday after hearing they could withdraw pensions from some branches. They were turned away, Reuters photographers said. "I've worked all my life, only to wake up one morning to a disaster like this," said one shop owner, who was there to collect his wife's pension. Despite the financial shock, parts of daily life went on as normal, with shops, pharmacies and supermarkets in the city opening and Greeks meeting to discuss their country's fate at cafes and restaurants. Tourists gathered as usual to watch the changing of the presidential guard outside parliament. A rally called by Tsipras's Syriza party to protest against austerity measures and urge voters to say "No" in the referendum on bailout terms is expected later on Monday. Officials around Europe and the United States made a frantic round of calls and organised meetings to try to salvage the situation. U.S. President Barack Obama called Merkel, and senior U.S. officials including Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, who spoke to Tsipras, urged Europe and the IMF to come up with a plan to hold the single currency together and keep Greece in the euro zone. "While the programme is active until Tuesday, they aren't providing the necessary liquidity for Greek banks just to blackmail and to terrorize us," Administrative Reforms Minister George Katrougalos told Antenna television. "If we vote a yes, they will demolish pensions, you will have to pay for medicare in public hospitals. When your kids can't go to school you will say 'thanks' and they will say 'you asked for it'. "But if you say no you have the ability to fight for a better future."

In early September, a seawall at Japan's Kansai International Airport built on a reclaimed island near Osaka, was breached during Typhoon Jebi. The runway was flooded and it took 17 days to fully restore airport operations, at a high cost to the region's economy as well as the dozens of airlines that cancelled flights. Major airports in Hong Kong, mainland China and North Carolina were also closed due to tropical storms last month. Such incidents highlight the disaster risks to investors and insurers exposed to a sector with an estimated $262 billion of projects under construction globally, according to Fitch Solutions. "There is a kind of one-way direction with regards to the frequency and severity of climate change-related events," said Fitch Solutions Head of Infrastructure Richard Marshall. "If people aren't taking that seriously, that is a risk." Fifteen of the 50 most heavily trafficked airports globally are at an elevation of less than 30 feet above sea level, making them particularly vulnerable to a changing climate, including rising sea levels and associated higher storm surges. "You see it at individual airports that are already seeing sea rise and are already dealing with water on their runway," Airports Council International (ACI) Director General Angela Gittens said, citing examples in island nations including Vanuatu and the Maldives. "But even in some of these mature economies they are having more storms, they are having to do more pumping. My old airport in Miami is in that scenario." A draft copy of an ACI policy paper reviewed by Reuters and due to be released this week warns of the rising risks to facilities from climate change. It encourages member airports to conduct risk assessments, develop mitigation measures and take it into account in future master plans. The paper cites examples of forward-thinking airports that have taken climate change into account in planning, such as the $12 billion Istanbul Grand Airport on the Black Sea, set to become one of the world's largest airports when it opens next month. FILE PHOTO: Planes are surrounded by flood waters caused by Tropical Storm Harvey at the West Houston Airport in Texas, US, August 30, 2017. Reuters INVESTOR INTEREST FILE PHOTO: Planes are surrounded by flood waters caused by Tropical Storm Harvey at the West Houston Airport in Texas, US, August 30, 2017. Reuters Debt investors in particular have high exposure to airports, most of which are owned by governments or pension funds. Ratings agency Moody's alone has $174 billion of airport bonds under coverage. Earl Heffintrayer, the lead analyst covering US airports at Moody's, said the risk of climate change became apparent to investors after Superstorm Sandy closed major New York airports for days in 2012. Sandy led to the cancellation of nearly 17,000 flights, costing airlines $500 million in revenues and disrupting operations around the world, according to a 2017 presentation by Eurocontrol on climate change risk. Investors are increasingly asking about mitigation plans at low-lying airports like San Francisco and Boston as they look to invest in bonds with terms of up to 30 years, Heffintrayer said. San Francisco International Airport, built on reclaimed land that is slowly sinking, has completed a feasibility study on a $383 million project to make the airport more resilient to sea level rises on its 8 miles (12.9 km) of bay front shoreline by 2025. "We are seeing a lot more thought going into protection against flood damage, catastrophe, making sure that the storm drains around the airport are fit for purpose," said Gary Moran, head of Asia aviation at insurance broker Aon. "There definitely is a lot more thought going into potential further worsening in weather conditions further down the line." FILE PHOTO: An MH-65T Dolphin helicopter aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City looks over LaGuardia Airport while it conducts an over flight assessment of New York Boroughs impacted by Hurricane Sandy, October 30, 2012. US Coast Guard handout via Reuters TAKING ACTION FILE PHOTO: An MH-65T Dolphin helicopter aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City looks over LaGuardia Airport while it conducts an over flight assessment of New York Boroughs impacted by Hurricane Sandy, October 30, 2012. US Coast Guard handout via Reuters Singapore's Changi Airport, which has analysed scenarios out to 2100, has resurfaced its runways to provide for better drainage and is building a new terminal at a higher 18 feet (5.5 metres) above sea level to protect against rising seas. Moran said such steps were prudent and would provide comfort to insurers. "If you were to look at Singapore, if something was to happen at Changi in terms of weather-related risk, Singapore would have a problem," he said. "There isn't really too much of an alternative." Singapore expects sea levels to rise by 2.5 feet (0.76 metre) by 2100. Changi Airport declined to comment on the cost of the extra protection. ACI, Fitch, Moody's and Standard & Poor's were unable to provide Reuters with an estimate of the global cost of climate change protection at airports. The protective action is often folded into larger refurbishment and expansion projects, ratings agency analysts said. In Australia, Brisbane Airport and located on reclaimed land on the coast at just 13 feet (4 metres) above sea level, is constructing a new runway 3.3 feet (1 metre) higher than it otherwise would have done, with a higher seawall and better drainage systems as sea levels rise. Paul Coughlan, the director of Brisbane Airport's new runway project, said the incremental cost of such moves was relatively low - for example the seawall cost around A$5 million ($3.6 million) more than without taking into account sea level rises - but the potential benefits were big. "At the end of the day, whether you are a believer in climate change or a disbeliever, doing a design that accounts for elevated sea levels, more intense rainfall, flooding considerations, that is just prudent," Coughlan said. "If you build it into your design philosophy from day one, you don't pay that much of a premium and you have bought a lot of safeguards." ($1 = 1.3841 Australian dollars)

In a ceremony where no single movie commanded attention, Mexico's Alejandro Inarritu nabbed the best directing Oscar for "The Revenant", becoming the first filmmaker in more than 60 years to win back-to-back Academy Awards. Inarritu won in 2015 for "Birdman." "The Revenant" went into Sunday's ceremony with a leading 12 nominations, and was among four movies believed to have the best chances for best picture after it won Golden Globe and BAFTA trophies. The ambitious 20th Century Fox Pioneer-era tale, shot in sub-zero temperatures, also brought a first Oscar win for its star Leonardo DiCaprio, who got a standing ovation from the A-list Hollywood audience. "I do not take tonight for granted," DiCaprio said, taking the opportunity in his acceptance speech to urge action on climate change. Yet voters in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chose Open Road Films'  "Spotlight," which traces the Boston Globe's 2003 Pulitzer Prize winning investigation of child sex abuse by Catholic priests, for best picture. The movie also won best original screenplay. 'Spotlight' Producer Michael Sugar accepts the Oscar for Best Picture. "This film gave a voice to survivors, and this Oscar amplifies that voice, which we hope can become a choir that will resonate all the way to the Vatican," said producer Michael Sugar. 'Spotlight' Producer Michael Sugar accepts the Oscar for Best Picture. Rising star Brie Larson, 26, took home the statuette for best actress for her role as an abducted young woman in indie movie "Room," adding to her armful of trophies from other award shows. 'Jabbing at Hollywood' Racial themes and barbs about the selection of an all-white acting nominee line-up for a second year were a running theme of the show, dubbed "the white People's Choice awards" by Rock, an outspoken black comedian. He questioned why the furore over diversity in the industry had taken root this year, rather than in the 1950s or 1960s, saying that black Americans had "real things to protest at the time.""We were too busy being raped and lynched to care about who won best cinematographer," Rock added. In a taped section, Rock visited the Los Angeles neighbourhood of Compton - the heart of the hip-hop music industry - to ask residents if they had heard or seen the Oscar-nominated movies. None had. Several nominees gave Rock a thumbs-up for striking the right balance on a tricky theme. "I thought it was jabbing at Hollywood, yet at the same time even-handed, and kind of dealing with a new era of how we discuss diversity," said Adam McKay, director and co-writer of best picture nominee "The Big Short." "Really impressive and really funny." Rock wasn't alone in putting people of colour in the spotlight on the movie industry's biggest night. Alejandro Inarritu, winner for Best Director for "The Revenant". "I (am) very lucky to be here tonight, but unfortunately many others haven't had the same luck," Inarritu said, expressing the hope that, in the future, skin colour would become as irrelevant as the length of one's hair. Alejandro Inarritu, winner for Best Director for "The Revenant". Among surprises, Britain's Mark Rylance beat presumed favourite and "Creed" actor Sylvester Stallone to win the Academy Award for best supporting actor for "Bridge of Spies." "Sly, no matter what they say, remember, to me you are the best, you were the winner. I'm proud of you," Arnold Schwarzenegger, a fellow action star, said in a short video he posted online. British singer Sam Smith's theme song for James Bond movie "Spectre" beat Lady Gaga's sexual assault awareness ballad "Til It Happens to You." Swedish actress Alicia Vikander won the supporting actress Oscar for transgender movie "The Danish Girl" while documentary "Amy," about the late and troubled British pop star Amy Winehouse was also a winner. Warner Bros "Mad Max: Fury Road" was the biggest winner, clinching six Oscars, but all were in technical categories such as costume, make-up and editing.

Democrats are positioned to bolster their Senate majority in next year's elections, which would give them more clout regardless who succeeds President George W Bush in the White House. With Republicans dogged by retirements, scandals and the Iraq war, there's an outside chance Democrats will gain as many as nine seats in the 100-member Senate in the November 2008 elections, which would give them a pivotal 60. That is the number of votes needed to clear Republican procedural roadblocks, which have been used to thwart the Democrats' efforts to force a change in Bush's policy on the Iraq war, particularly plans to withdraw U.S. troops. The last time Democrats had an overriding majority in the Senate was in the 1977-1979 congressional session, when they held 61 seats. "Sixty is not outside the realm of possibility," said Jennifer Duffy, who tracks Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. "But for that to happen, everything would have to break their way," she said. "Right now, it's way too early to say." With the elections a year away, many Republicans are distancing themselves from Bush, whose approval rating was around 33 percent in recent polls. But they remain largely tied to his unpopular stance on the Iraq war, now in its fifth year. Many are concerned about their future and Senate Democrats have raised more in campaign contributions than Republicans. "We're going to lose seats," predicted a senior Senate Republican aide. "The political climate is not good for us." Republicans now hold 22 of the 34 Senate seats up for re-election next year, while Democrats have 12. The Democrats all intend to seek re-election, and most are seen as shoo-ins. Five Republican incumbents have already announced they will not seek another six-year term in 2008. For sharply different reasons, Sens. Pete Domenici of New Mexico and Larry Craig of Idaho last week followed fellow Republicans John Warner of Virginia, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Wayne Allard of Colorado, in announcing they would not to seek re-election. Domenici, 75, cited declining health, while Craig, 62, pointed to his disputed conviction in a undercover sex-sting in an airport men's room. The Craig conviction has embarrassed Republicans, who portray themselves as the party of "conservative family values." The party also has been shaken by an expanding political corruption investigation in Alaska that has touched Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican senator ever. Stevens, who first joined the Senate in 1968, has denied any wrongdoing. But the probe has suddenly helped make the 83-year-old Alaskan vulnerable in the 2008 elections. The Iraq war helped Democrats win control of Congress last year. It may also enable them to widen their majorities next year in the House of Representatives as well as the Senate. Yet Republicans see some hope in polls that show only about one in four Americans approves of the Democratic-led Congress, which has been stifled by partisan gridlock. "Democrats have yet to prove that they can lead this country effectively and voters are taking note," said Rebecca Fisher, a spokeswoman for the party's Senate campaign committee. She predicted that Republicans would take back control of the Senate. Democrats brush aside such talk, noting surveys still find that Americans prefer Democrats over Republicans in Congress. But many are reluctant to predict how well they may do in the elections. "Democrats want to tamp down expectations of any big (Senate) gains because they fear it could fire up the Republican base," said the Cook Political Report's Duffy. As if to underline the point, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, who in 2005 said it would "take a miracle" for his party to win the Senate in 2006, declines to offer any predictions about 2008. He simply says his top goal is to "maintain a majority." Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, who heads the Senate Democratic campaign committee, also refuses to discuss how many seats his party may gain. But he says, "We feel very good about our chances."

“All our 45 workers are jobless now. The men are driving taxis and women are back to being housewives,” said CEO Farzad Rashidi. Reuters interviews with dozens of business owners across Iran show hundreds of companies have suspended production and thousands of workers are being laid off because of a hostile business climate mainly caused by new US sanctions. The Iranian rial has fallen to record lows and economic activity has slowed dramatically since US President Donald Trump withdrew from the big powers’ nuclear deal with Tehran in May. He imposed sanctions directed at purchases of US dollars, gold trading, and the automotive industry in August. Iran’s vital oil and banking sectors were hit in November. “We have lost around five billion rials ($120,000 at the official rate) in the last few months, so the board decided to suspend all activities for as long as the fluctuations in the currency market continue. It is stupid to keep driving when you see it’s a dead end,” Rashidi said. The country has already experienced unrest this year, when young protesters angered by unemployment and high prices clashed with security forces. Official projections indicate unrest could flare up again as sanctions make the economic crisis worse. Four days before parliament fired him August for failing to do enough to protect the jobs market from sanctions, labor minister Ali Rabiei said Iran would lose a million jobs by the end of year as a direct result of the US measures. Unemployment is already running at 12.1 percent, with three million Iranians unable to find jobs. A parliamentary report in September warned that rising unemployment could threaten the stability of the Islamic Republic. “If we believe that the country’s economic situation was the main driver for the recent protests, and that an inflation rate of 10 percent and an unemployment rate of 12 percent caused the protests, we cannot imagine the intensity of reactions caused by the sharp rise of inflation rate and unemployment.” The report said if Iran’s economic growth remains below 5 percent in coming years, unemployment could hit 26 percent. The International Monetary Fund has forecast that Iran’s economy will contract by 1.5 percent this year and by 3.6 percent in 2019 due to dwindling oil revenues. Iran’s vice president has warned that under sanctions Iran faces two main dangers: unemployment and a reduction in purchasing power. “Job creation should be the top priority ... We should not allow productive firms to fall into stagnation because of sanctions,” Eshaq Jahangiri said, according to state media. But business owners told Reuters that the government’s sometimes contradictory monetary policies, alongside fluctuations in the foreign exchange market, price increases for raw materials, and high interest loans from banks have made it impossible for them to stay in business. Many have not been able to pay wages for months or had to shed significant numbers of workers. A manager at the Jolfakaran Aras Company, one of the biggest textile factories in Iran, told Reuters that the firm was considering halting its operations and hundreds of workers might lose their jobs. “Around 200 workers were laid off in August, and the situation has become worse since. There is a high possibility that the factory will shut down,” the manager said, asking not to be named. Ahmad Roosta, CEO of Takplast Nour, was hopeful that a drought in Iran would provide a boost for his newly launched factory, which produces plastic pipes used in agriculture. “I will wait one or two months, but I will have to shut down if the situation remains the same ... The farmers, who are the main consumers of our products, cannot afford them,” Roosta told Reuters. The sanctions have affected the Iranian car industry, which had experienced a boom after sanctions were lifted two years ago and it signed big contracts with French and German firms. French carmaker PSA Group (PEUP.PA) suspended its joint venture in Iran in June to avoid US sanctions, and German car and truck manufacturer Daimler has dropped plans to expand its Iran business. Maziar Beiglou, a board member of the Iran Auto Parts Makers Association, said in August that more than 300 auto parts makers have been forced to stop production, threatening tens of thousands of jobs in the sector. A spokesperson for Iran’s Tire Producers Association blamed the government’s “changing monetary policies over the last six months” for problems in the sector. “Fortunately tire factories have not slowed down, but the production growth that we had planned for was not achieved,” Mostafa Tanha said in a phone interview from Tehran. YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT Washington says economic pressures on Tehran are directed at the government and its malign proxies in the region, not at the Iranian people. But Iran’s young people, bearing the brunt of unemployment, stand to lose the most. Maryam, a public relations manager in a food import company, lost her job last month.  “The prices went so high that we lost many customers ... In the end the CEO decided to lay off people and started with our department.” She said the company had stopped importing, and people who still worked there were worried that it might shut down after selling off its inventory. Youth unemployment is already 25 percent in a country where 60 percent of the 80 million population is under 30. The unemployment rate among young people with higher education in some parts of the country is above 50 percent, according to official data. Armin, 29, has a mechanical engineering degree but lost his job in the housebuilding industry when the sector was hit by recession following the fall of rial. “The property market is slowing because high prices have made houses unaffordable ... It is getting worse day by day,” he told Reuters from the city of Rasht in northern Iran. Nima, a legal adviser for startups and computer firms, believes sanctions have already affected many companies in the sector that depended on an export-oriented model and hoped to expand in the region. He said even the gaming industry in Iran has felt the sanctions pinch: “The situation has become so severe that many of these teams decided to suspend development of their games and are waiting to see what will happen next. Without access to international markets, they see very little chance of making a profit.” Saeed Laylaz, a Tehran-based economist, was more sanguine. He said youth unemployment was a product of Iran’s demographics and government policies, and sanctions were only adding to an existing problem. “The sanctions, the uncertainty in the market and Rouhani’s zigzag policies have put pressures on the economy and the job market, but I predict that the market will find a balance soon,” Laylaz told Reuters. “We will defeat this round of sanctions as we have done in the past,” said Laylaz who met Rouhani last month with other economists to offer advice on economic policies.

The six-meter (20 foot) high blimp will fly above Parliament Square for two hours from 0900 GMT when Trump is due to hold talks with the outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May nearby in Downing Street. Trump and his wife Melania arrived on Monday for a three-day state visit - a pomp-laden affair that involved a banquet at Buckingham Palace on Monday evening. "We’re sending a very clear message of solidarity to those affected by his despicable politics – and saying loud and clear that the US president doesn’t deserve the red carpet treatment," said Ajuub Faraji, one of the organisers of the blimp. In central London, tens of thousands of protesters are expected to take part in a "Carnival of Resistance" later in the day to voice their opposition to the president. Among those taking part will be environmental activists, anti-racism campaigners and women’s rights protesters. Police will close the road directly outside Downing Street to protect the president and his family. In Britain, Trump's ban on travel to the United States from several primarily Muslim countries, the decision to withdraw the United States from a global deal to combat climate change, and his criticism of British politicians have helped stoke opposition to his presidency. The state dinner held in the president's honour was boycotted by several lawmakers, including Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party. The US president’s supporters said it was an insult to snub the leader of Britain’s closest ally. But the demonstrators have received tactical support from Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who has repeatedly clashed with the president and who gave permission to fly the blimp. The president called the mayor a "stone-cold loser" shortly before he arrived in Britain and has in the past accused him of failing to do enough to stop deadly terror attacks in London. POMP AND PROTESTS Trump said he is "loved" in Britain despite the protests. He said he was closer to Britain than any other American leader, citing his mother's Scottish roots and the two golf courses he owns in the country. "I don't imagine any US president was ever closer to your great land," he told The Sun in an interview. "I think I am really — I hope — I am really loved in the UK. I certainly love the UK." The protests are expected to build up later in the day when demonstrators begin gathering at Trafalgar Square at 10:00 GMT. They will travel via Embankment to reach Parliament Square in the afternoon because the police have closed off the southern part of Whitehall. Protesters from all over Britain will travel to London to join the demonstrations. Other protests against Trump's visit are planned in 14 other cities and towns. Trump’s last visit in July cost police more than 14.2 million pounds ($17.95 million). At the time, 10,000 officers were deployed from all over Britain. Scott Lucas, a professor of international and American studies at the University of Birmingham, said other US presidents such as Ronald Reagan and George W Bush have faced large protests in Britain. He said the protests typically tend to be larger for American presidents than leaders from other countries such as China or Saudi Arabia because the two countries are historic allies. "America is our friend and you have to be able to speak to your friends in a certain way," he said. "You are usually more concerned about someone who is in your own household, or your neighbour down the street, than someone who is in the next village or town."

Published online in Nature Geoscience, the study by an international research team of geoscientists details how relatively recent geologic events -- volcanic activity 10 million years ago in what is now Panama and Costa Rica -- hold the secrets of the extreme continent-building that took place billions of years earlier. Many scientists think that all of the planet's continental crust -- masses of buoyant rock rich with silica -- was generated during this time in earth's history, and the material continually recycles through collisions of tectonic plates on the outermost shell of the planet. But the new research shows "juvenile" continental crust has been produced throughout earth's history. "Whether the earth has been recycling all of its continental crust has always been the big mystery," said senior study author Esteban Gazel, an assistant professor of geology at Virginia Tech. "We discovered that while the massive production of continental crust that took place during the Archaean is no longer the norm, there are exceptions that produce 'juvenile' continental crust," Gazel added. Melting of the oceanic crust originally produced what today are the Galapagos islands, reproducing Achaean-like conditions to provide the "missing ingredient" in the generation of continental crust. The researchers discovered the geochemical signature of erupted lavas reached continental crust-like composition about 10 million years ago. They tested the material and observed seismic waves travelling through the crust at velocities closer to the ones observed in continental crust worldwide. The western Aleutian Islands and the Iwo-Jima segment of the Izu-Bonin-Mariana (IBM) arc system are some other examples of juvenile continental crust that has formed recently, the researchers said. The study raises questions about the global impact newly-generated continental crust has had over the ages, and the role it has played in the evolution of not just continents, but life itself. For example, the formation of the Central American land bridge resulted in the closure of the seaway, which changed how the ocean circulated, separated marine species, and had a powerful impact on the climate on the planet. "We've revealed a major unknown in the evolution of our planet," Gazel said.

Kim Yong Chol, vice-chairman of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, will lead a high-level delegation at the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang on Sunday. The delegation will also meet President Moon Jae-in. He was previously chief of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, a top North Korean military intelligence agency, which South Korea blamed for the deadly 2010 sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean navy corvette. North Korea has denied its involvement in the event. “Under current difficult circumstances, we have decided to focus on whether peace on the Korean peninsula and improvement in inter-Korean relations can be derived from dialogue with (the visiting North Korean officials), not on their past or who they are,” said Unification Ministry Baik Tae-hyun in a media briefing on Friday. Kim’s visit will also coincide with the visit of US President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, who is scheduled to arrive in South Korea later on Friday to attend a dinner with Moon and later, the Winter Olympics’ closing ceremony. The Blue House has said there are no official opportunities for U.S. and North Korean officials to meet. South Korea’s decision on Thursday to allow Kim, currently sanctioned by the United States and South Korea, across the border has sparked protest from family members of the dead Cheonan sailors and opposition parties. Some 70 members from the main opposition Liberty Korea Party staged a protest in front of the presidential Blue House on Friday, demanding the government withdraw its decision. “President Moon’s decision to accept the North’s facade of peace is a serious issue and it will go down in history as a crime eternal,” said the party in a statement. A group of family members of those killed in the Cheonan sinking has said it will hold a press conference against the decision on Saturday. Acknowledging public angst over Kim’s pending visit, Baik said the South’s stance that the Cheonan sinking was instigated by the North has not changed. “However, what’s important are efforts to create actual peace on the Korean peninsula so these kind of provocations don’t occur again,” said Baik, adding the government would make “various efforts” to assuage the public’s concerns. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he wants to boost the “warm climate of reconciliation and dialogue” with South Korea after a high-level delegation returned from the Winter Olympics, while the United States has stressed the need to intensify pressure to force North Korea to give up his nuclear weapons. Last year, North Korea conducted dozens of missile launches and its sixth and largest nuclear test in defiance of United Nations sanctions. However, it has now been more than two months since its last missile test in late November.

BELENE, Bulgaria, Nov 8, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - In the dense forests of the idyllic Danube island of Persin, home to the endangered sea eagle and the pygmy cormorant, lie the ghastly remains of a communist-era death camp. Hundreds of "enemies of the regime" perished from beatings, malnutrition and exhaustion in 1949-59 in Bulgaria's Belene concentration camp, where dead bodies were fed to pigs. Twenty years after the fall of communism, Belene is largely forgotten -- only a small marble plaque tells its horrific story. And nostalgia for the past is growing in the small Balkan country and across the former Soviet bloc. Capitalism's failure to lift living standards, impose the rule of law and tame flourishing corruption and nepotism have given way to fond memories of the times when the jobless rate was zero, food was cheap and social safety was high. "(The bad) things have been forgotten," said Rumen Petkov, 42, a former guard now clerk at the only prison still functioning on the Persin island. "The nostalgia is palpable, particularly among the elderly," he said, in front of the crumbling buildings of another old jail opened on the site after the camp was shut in 1959. The communists imprisoned dozens of ethnic Turks here in the 1980s when they refused to change their names to Bulgarian. Some young people in the impoverished town of Belene, linked to the island with a pontoon bridge, also reminisce: "We lived better in the past," said Anelia Beeva, 31. "We went on holidays to the coast and the mountains, there were plenty of clothes, shoes, food. And now the biggest chunk of our incomes is spent on food. People with university degrees are unemployed and many go abroad." In Russia, several Soviet-themed restaurants have opened in Moscow in recent years: some hold nostalgia nights where young people dress up as pioneers -- the Soviet answer to the boy scouts and girl guides -- and dance to communist classics. Soviet Champagne and Red October Chocolates remain favorites for birthday celebrations. "USSR" T-shirts and baseball caps can be seen across the country in summer. While there is scant real desire for old regimes to be restored, analysts say apathy is a vital outcome. "The big damage of the nostalgia...is that it dries out the energy for meaningful change," wrote Bulgarian sociologist Vladimir Shopov in the online portal BG History. DISENCHANTMENT Across former communist eastern Europe, disenchantment with democracy is widespread and pollsters say mistrust of the elites who made people citizens of the European Union is staggering. A September regional poll by U.S. Pew research center showed support for democracy and capitalism has seen the biggest fall in Ukraine, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Hungary. The poll showed 30 percent of Ukrainians approved of the change to democracy in 2009, down from 72 percent in 1991. In Bulgaria and Lithuania the slide was to just over half the population from nearer three-quarters in 1991. Surveys by U.S.-based human rights group Freedom House show backsliding or stagnation in corruption, governance, independent media and civil society in the new EU-member states. The global economic crisis, which has wounded the region and put an end to six or seven years of growth, is now challenging the remedy of neoliberal capitalism prescribed by the West. Hopes of catching up with the wealthy Western neighbors have been replaced by a sense of injustice because of a widening gap between the rich and the poor. In Hungary, one of the countries worst hit by economic downturn, 70 percent of those who were already adults in 1989 say they were disappointed with the results of the regime change, an October survey by pollster Szonda Ipsos showed. People in the former Yugoslav countries, scarred by the ethnic wars from the 1990s and still outside the EU, are nostalgic for the socialist era of Josip Broz Tito when, unlike now, they traveled across Europe without visa. "Everything was better then. There was no street crime, jobs were safe and salaries were enough for decent living," said Belgrade pensioner Koviljka Markovic, 70. "Today I can hardly survive with my pension of 250 euros ($370 a month)." GOLDEN ERA In Bulgaria, the 33-year rule of the late dictator Todor Zhivkov begins to seem a golden era to some in comparison with the raging corruption and crime that followed his demise. Over 60 percent say they lived better in the past, even though shopping queues were routine, social connections were the only way to obtain more valuable goods, jeans and Coca Cola were off-limits and it took up to 10 years' waiting to buy a car. "For part of the Bulgarians (social) security turned out to be more precious than freedom," wrote historians Andrei Pantev and Bozhidar Gavrilov in a book on the 100 most influential people in the Balkan country's history. Nearly three years after joining the EU, Bulgaria's average monthly salary of about 300 euros and pension of about 80 euros remain the lowest in the club. Incomes in the more affluent Poland and the Czech Republic, which joined the bloc in 2004, are also still a fraction of those in western Europe. A 2008 global survey by Gallup ranked Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania among the 10 most discontented countries in the world. "Our parents' generation was much more satisfied with what they had. Everybody just wants more of everything these days," said Zsofia Kis, a 23-year old student in Budapest, referring to the way communist regimes artificially held down unemployment. DALAVERA, MUTRI, MENTE After two decades of patchy, painful reforms, the majority of people refuse to make more sacrifices, as would be needed to complete a revamp of the economy and the judiciary. Demoralization and heightened popularity for political parties promising "a firm hand" are other consequences. Not without reason. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent, described the fall of the Soviet Union as the "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century." Kremlin critics have accused the authorities of a creeping rehabilitation of the Soviet Union to justify their clampdowns on the media and opposition parties. "There is an idealization of the Soviet past," said Nikita Petrov, an historian from the Memorial human rights group. "It's a conscious policy. They are trying to show the Soviet authorities looking decent and attractive to today's generation." In Bulgaria, oligarchs who control entire sectors of the economy have emerged from the former communist party's ranks and its feared secret services. The names of corrupt politicians and crime bosses are an open secret, but Bulgaria has not convicted a single senior official of graft and has jailed only one gang boss since 1989. No one has been convicted for the communist repressions. Some of the most popular words among ordinary Bulgarians are "dalavera," a Turkish word meaning fraud, "mutri," a nickname for ugly mafiosi and "mente," which means counterfeit products. "People are losing faith that one can achieve success in an honest, decent way. Success is totally criminalized," said Boriana Dimitrova of Bulgarian polling agency Alpha Research. She said the sense of injustice was particularly strong in the Balkans, Europe's poorest corner, where untouchable parallel structures of power reign. "Some people say: 'yes, the old regime was repressive but at least there was law and order.'" A promise to end the climate of impunity helped tough-talking Prime Minister Boiko Borisov of the center-right populist GERB party to a landslide election win in Bulgaria in July. Public discontent and recession mean only populist governments can survive in the region, analysts say. "The level of mistrust in the political elite and institutions is so high that you cannot convince people to do anything under unpopular governments," said Ivan Krastev of Sofia's Liberal Strategies Institute. Some in Bulgaria accuse the West of duplicity for easily swallowing the communist past of members of the new elite. The election of Bulgarian Irina Bokova, 57, a former communist apparatchik and ambassador to Paris, as head of the U.N. culture and education body UNESCO in September was a stark example of the West's hypocrisy, critics say. Bokova studied in Moscow during the communism and climbed the diplomatic career ladder in the 1990s thanks to her past. "AMERICANIZATION" On one front at least, some eastern Europeans say they have succeeded in catching up with and even outstripping capitalist standards -- the thirst for materialism. A big chunk of the loans taken in the boom years was spent on fancy cars and yachts, flat TV screens, designer clothes, silicon surgeries and exotic trips abroad. Copying foreign standards went as far as giving babies Western names and flooding TV screens with reality shows like "Big Brother." "Bulgaria is becoming Americanized," said renowned Bulgarian artist, Nikola Manev, who lives in Paris. "I pick up the phone and they talk to me in English, I go to a restaurant and it's called Miami. Don't we have our own names for God's sake? "Looking on the surface, I see new buildings, shops, shiny cars. But people have become sadder, more aggressive and unhappy," he said, prescribing spiritual cures. This autumn for the first time in many years, tickets at Sofia's theatres are selling out weeks in advance.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Monday the country could not have high economic growth and a rapid rise in carbon emissions now that the nation was the number three emitter after China and the United States. Jairam Ramesh's comments come as negotiators from nearly 200 governments meet in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin. The UN talks aim to reach agreement on what should follow the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol, the key treaty on climate change, which expires in 2012. Indian per-capita emissions are still low but demand for energy is rising as the middle-class buys more cars, TVs and better housing. Much of that energy comes from coal oil and gas, the main sources for planet-warming carbon dioxide. But Ramesh said India's rush for wealth could not come at the expense of the environment. Officials said his comments are the first time a government minister has said India has overtaken Russia as the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. "We will unilaterally, voluntarily, move on a low-carbon growth path. We can't have 8-9 percent GDP growth and high-carbon growth," Ramesh told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in the Nepalese capital. "It has to be low-carbon 8 percent, 9 percent growth and that is the objective that we have set for ourselves," he said. Poorer nations are now the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and many big developing countries have taken steps to curb the growth of their emissions but say they won't agree on absolute cuts, fearing this will hurt their economies. India weathered the global financial crisis better than most, and is setting its sights on economic growth of almost 10 percent over the coming years. Its economy currently grows at around 8.5 per cent. "We are the third largest emitter of the greenhouse gases in the world ... China is number one at 23 percent, the United States is second at about 22 percent and India is number three at about five percent." GREENER PATH In India, any talk of a low-carbon economy was once seen as politically very risky, given the economic costs involved. But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in January asked a panel to begin charting a path to a greener economy. The report is expected by the year-end. Although India has announced a new climate plan which identifies renewable energy, such as solar power, as a key element, coal remains the backbone of energy supply in a country where almost half the 1.1 billion population has no access to electricity. "The gap between the second and the third (highest emitters) is very very high, but nevertheless we need to be conscious of our contribution," Ramesh said. The fraught UN talks have been hobbled by lack of trust between rich and poor nations over climate funds, demand for more transparency over emissions cut pledges and anger over the size of cuts offered by rich nations. The risk of the talks stalling is so great that the United Nations has stopped urging nations to commit to tougher pledges to curb carbon emissions, fearing further debate could derail already fraught talks on a more ambitious climate pact.

President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, widely credited with bringing democracy to the hideaway resort islands, resigned on Tuesday after weeks of opposition protests erupted into a police mutiny and what an aide said amounted to a coup. Nasheed, the Maldives' first democratically elected president, handed power over the Indian Ocean archipelago to Vice-President Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, explaining that continuing in office would result in his having to use force against the people. "I resign because I am not a person who wishes to rule with the use of power," he said in a televised address. "I believe that if the government were to remain in power it would require the use of force which would harm many citizens. "I resign because I believe that if the government continues to stay in power, it is very likely that we may face foreign influences." It was not immediately clear to what influences he was referring but Hassan Saeed, leader of the DQP, one of the parties in the opposition coalition, and an Indian diplomatic source in Colombo said Nasheed had requested help from India and been refused. India helped foil a coup on the islands in 1988 by sending a battalion of soldiers to back the government. A spokesman for India's Foreign Ministry, Syed Akbaruddin, said the rebellion was an internal matter of the Maldives "to be resolved by the Maldives." Nasheed swept to victory in 2008, pledging to bring full democracy to the low-lying islands and speaking out passionately on the dangers of climate change and rising sea levels. But he drew opposition fire for his arrest of a judge he accused of being in the pocket of his predecessor, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled for 30 years. Protests at the arrest set off a constitutional crisis that had Nasheed defending himself against accusations of acting like a dictator. "It's a coup, I am afraid," an official at Nasheed's office said, asking not to be identified. "The police and Gayoom's people as well as some elements in the military have forced the president Nasheed to resign. According to my book it's a coup." The new president said that Nasheed was in protective police custody for his security. "We will insist Nasheed is tried for his corruption, for his violation of rule of law," said Saeed of the DQP. "...we will provide full support for the new president." Overnight, vandals attacked the lobby of the opposition-linked VTV TV station, witnesses said, while mutinying police attacked and burnt the main rallying point of Nasheed's Maldives Democratic Party before taking over the state broadcaster MNBC and renaming it TV Maldives, as it was called under Gayoom. On Tuesday, soldiers fired teargas at police and demonstrators who besieged the Maldives National Defence Force headquarters in Republic Square. Later in the day, scores of demonstrators stood outside the nearby president's office chanting "Gayoom! Gayoom!." SCRAMBLE FOR POSITION Gayoom's opposition Progressive Party of the Maldives accused the military of firing rubber bullets at protesters and a party spokesman, Mohamed Hussain "Mundhu" Shareef, said "loads of people" were injured. He gave no specifics. An official close to the president denied the government had used rubber bullets, but confirmed that about three dozen police officers defied orders overnight and attacked a ruling party facility. "This follows Gayoom's party calling for the overthrow of the Maldives' first democratically elected government and for citizens to launch jihad against the president," said the official who declined to be identified. The protests, and the scramble for position ahead of next year's presidential election, have seen parties adopting hardline Islamist rhetoric and accusing Nasheed of being anti-Islamic. The trouble has also shown the longstanding rivalry between Gayoom and Nasheed, who was jailed in all for six years after being arrested 27 times by Gayoom's government while agitating for democracy. The vice-president is expected to run a national unity government until the presidential election. The trouble has been largely invisible to the 900,000 or so well-heeled tourists who come every year to visit desert islands swathed in aquamarine seas, ringed by white-sand beaches. Most tourists are whisked straight to their island hideaway by seaplane or speedboat, where they are free to drink alcohol and get luxurious spa treatments, insulated from the everyday Maldives, a fully Islamic state where alcohol is outlawed and skimpy beachwear frowned upon. Nasheed was famous for his pleas for help to stop the sea engulfing his nation and in 2009 even held a cabinet meeting underwater, ministers all wearing scuba gear, to publicize the problem. An Asian diplomat serving in Male told Reuters on condition of anonymity: "No one remembers the underwater cabinet meeting. They remember Judge Abdulla Mohamed," a reference to Nasheed having the military arrest the judge accused of being in Gayoom's pocket. Meanwhile, Twitter user Alexander Brown said he was in the Maldives enjoying life. "Maldives government overthrowing (sic) and im watching a Vogue photo shoot infront of me on Four Seasons ... very strange world."

India's prime minister and US President Barack Obama meet next week to strengthen ties, with the emerging Asian power increasingly playing a bigger role on global issues such as climate change and trade. Manmohan Singh's three-day state visit starting on November 23 is seen by New Delhi as a touchstone of Obama's intention of sustaining a relationship that deepened under his predecessor George W. Bush. India is also widely seen as a key geopolitical player in helping bring stability to a South Asian region overshadowed by violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as militant attacks like last year's raids on Mumbai. Singh and Obama will hold talks on issues ranging from curbing carbon emissions - where the two sides are poles apart - to multi-billion dollar defense contracts and speeding up the completion of a landmark civilian nuclear deal signed last year. Singh's trip will be the first state visit of the Obama administration, highlighting the prime minister's personal push for broadening ties with Western economies and moving India away from decades of mistrust with Washington. The success of the trip may be measured by whether the two leaders manage to dispel any doubts of Washington's commitment to New Delhi in a region where it rivals China and Pakistan -- both seen as U.S. foreign policy priorities. "The relationship is good, but lacks a central defining issue, such as the civilian nuclear deal, that defined the relationship during the presidency of George Bush," said Walter Andersen of Johns Hopkins University's South Asia Studies center. "(The visit) provides an opportunity for India and the U.S. to introduce new ideas for regaining the bilateral relationship's strategic momentum." President Bill Clinton started U.S. efforts to build ties with modern India when the Cold War ended nearly two decades ago and India began to liberalize its economy in the 1990s. FOCUS ON CHINA, PAKISTAN His successor Bush elevated relations with a 2008 civilian nuclear deal that ended an embargo imposed in 1974 after New Delhi tested a nuclear bomb. Bilateral trade went from $5.6 billion in 1990 to about 43 billion in 2008, a 675 percent rise. But Obama's early focus on Pakistan to fight the Taliban and emphasis on relations with China irked some in India, which had hoped to build on Bush's legacy. "In terms of important but second-tier issues -- trade, climate change, even defense sales and counter-terrorism -- relations are good, and may get better," said Stephen Cohen, a South Asia specialist at the Brookings Institution think tank. "However, there seems to be a parting of the ways at the strategic level." U.S. strategy for Afghanistan, focused partly on Pakistan which Washington sees as a necessary ally, has been criticized as ignoring the concerns of regional countries such as India, which competes with Islamabad for influence in Kabul. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947. India, whose long-running border dispute with China has sharpened in recent months, sees the Asian giant's huge influence over the U.S. economy as leverage Beijing enjoys over Washington. India also worries about Chinese support for Pakistan. Beijing is concerned about the Dalai Lama's presence in India. "So when India sees Obama preoccupied with China and Pakistan it gets worried," Chintamani Mahapatra, foreign policy professor at the New Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University. "It will look for a statement that will acknowledge a greater role for India in the region and assuage the fact that the Obama administration has so far marginalized New Delhi." But Washington values India's importance as an economic power, its huge market, a booming IT industry, its military might and potential as a counterweight to China. Among the nettlesome issues Singh will discuss is the nuclear deal held up now for want of liability protection for American firms and nuclear fuel reprocessing rights for India. India will also hope Obama declares his support for a permanent seat for Indian on the U.N. Security Council. "We can talk strategy, we can talk economics, we can talk the great global issues of the day," said consultant Frank Wisner, former U.S. ambassador to India. "We need India's cooperation if we are to achieve any of our objectives."

Bangladesh is to receive a grant of $2 million from Japan, administered by the Asian Development Bank, to tackle the huge challenges posed by climate change over the coming decades. ADB approved a technical assistance grant of US$2 million from the Japan Special Fund on Wednesday to increase the capacity of government agencies implementing a 10-year Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan. The Plan addresses food security, disaster preparedness and other key issues linked to climate change. "It is essential that Bangladesh prepares to adapt to climate change and safeguard the future well being of its people," says Zahir Ahmad, Project Implementation Officer for ADB's Bangladesh mission. "ADB assistance will allow the government to implement the Strategy and Action Plan, which will put the country on a low carbon growth path, make it more climate-resilient and help strengthen its food and energy security." In recent years, the country has seen higher-than-normal temperatures, heavier monsoon rains and an increasing number of tropical cyclones and storms linked to climate change, said a statement by ADB. With temperatures expected to keep rising over coming years, it is estimated that average sea levels may rise by around 30 centimetres by 2050 and could make about 14% of the country highly vulnerable to flooding, it said. Along with increasing the capacity of the Ministry of Environment and Forests and other government agencies, support will be given to develop specific climate change mitigation and adaptation programs and projects. A sub-programme will also be put in place to attract private sector businesses and other stakeholders to invest in clean energy projects eligible for carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism. The full cost of the technical assistance is estimated at $2.5 million with the government making an in-kind contribution of $500,000. It will run for two years, starting in August 2009, with the Ministry of Environment and Forests as the executing agency. The Japan Special Fund is financed by the government of Japan and is administered by ADB.

Britain urged world leaders on Monday to turn up in person to salvage a UN climate deal in Copenhagen in December, and Australia and India outlined ways to curb their greenhouse gases. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told representatives of 17 major emitters meeting in London that success was still within reach for 190-nation talks in Denmark from Dec. 7 to 18, up to now intended as a gathering for environment ministers. "We must frankly face the plain fact that our negotiators are not getting to agreement quickly enough," he said. "Leaders must engage directly to break the impasse," he told the two-day talks ending on Monday. "I've said I'll go to Copenhagen, and I'm encouraging them to make the same commitment." Talks are bogged down in disputes between industrialized and developing countries over how to share out curbs on emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels. Just one week of formal talks remains before Copenhagen, in Barcelona in early November. The two-year UN talks launched in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007 are particularly stuck on how big carbon cuts recession-hit rich countries should make by 2020, and how much they should pay developing countries to fight global warming. Among signs of action on Monday, Australian Climate Minister Penny Wong said the government would bring carbon trade legislation back to parliament on Thursday and will demand a vote on the controversial laws before the end of November. POSSIBLE ELECTION The conservative opposition on Sunday demanded changes to the scheme, already rejected once by the upper house to avert a second defeat that would give Prime Minister Kevin Rudd an excuse to call a possible snap election. The government, which is ahead in opinion polls and could benefit from an election, wants to start carbon trading from July 2011, putting a price on greenhouse gas and helping curb emissions in one of world's highest per capita polluters. The Australian scheme will cover 75 percent of Australian emissions from 1,000 of the biggest companies and be the second domestic trading platform outside Europe. Companies will need a permit for every tonne of carbon they emit. An Indian newspaper said Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh wanted New Delhi to accept curbs on the country's rising carbon emissions, dropping insistence that they should hinge on new finance and technology from rich nations. "We should be pragmatic and constructive, not argumentative and polemical," The Times of India quoted Ramesh as writing in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In an interview with Reuters on Friday, Ramesh signalled a willingness to make compromises to win a deal. India, China and other big developing countries fear they will be hard hit by climate change and say it is in their national interest to try to limit the effects more extreme droughts, floods, rising seas and melting glaciers that feed major rivers. The London talks of the Major Economies Forum focus on how to turn a patchwork of national policy plans, from China to the United States, into a deal. Countries attending account for 80 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. "The rich countries in the Major Economies Forum must urgently put new money on the table," said Friends of the Earth Climate Campaigner Asad Rehman. A big sticking point for Copenhagen is that the United States, the only industrialized country outside the current Kyoto Protocol for curbing emissions, is unlikely to pass carbon-cutting laws by December. In Cape Town, South Africa pointed to one area of soaring emissions -- next year's soccer World Cup. Emissions would leap almost tenfold from a 2006 benchmark set by Germany, partly because air travel would be added to the count. "The FIFA 2010 World Cup will have the largest carbon footprint of any major event with a goal to be carbon neutral," Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said.

As a consequence of a geomagnetic storm triggered by a recent outburst of the sun, up to 40 of 49 newly launched Starlink satellites have been knocked out of commission. They are in the process of reentering Earth’s atmosphere, where they will be incinerated. The incident highlights the hazards faced by numerous companies planning to put tens of thousands of small satellites in orbit to provide internet service from space. And it’s possible that more solar outbursts will knock some of these newly deployed orbital transmitters out of the sky. The sun has an 11-year-long cycle in which it oscillates between hyperactive and quiescent states. Presently, it is ramping up to its peak, which has been forecast to arrive around 2025. This recent solar paroxysm was relatively moderate by the sun’s standards. “I have every confidence that we’re going to see an extreme event in the next cycle, because that typically is what happens during a solar maximum,” said Hugh Lewis, a space debris expert at the University of Southampton in England. If a milquetoast outburst can knock out 40 Starlink satellites hanging out at low orbital altitudes, a more potent solar scream has the potential to inflict greater harm on the megaconstellations of SpaceX and other companies. SpaceX announced the looming destruction of as many as 40 of its satellites in a company blog post on Tuesday night. The company said that after the launch, the satellites were released to their intended orbit, about 130 miles above Earth. This altitude was chosen partly to prevent potential collisions in the future with other satellites. If the satellites malfunction after being deployed at that altitude, and are unable to raise their orbits to more secure heights, “the atmosphere kind of reclaims the failed technology very rapidly,” Lewis said. “And that’s a very good safety measure.” But on Jan 29, before these satellites launched, a violent eruption from the sun of highly energetic particles and magnetism known as a coronal mass ejection was detected. That ejection arrived at Earth sometime around Feb 2, creating a geomagnetic storm in Earth’s magnetic bubble. The powerful storm added kinetic energy to particles in Earth’s atmosphere. “The atmosphere kind of puffs up, expands, as a result,” Lewis said. That expansion causes an increase in the atmosphere’s density, which in turn increases the drag experienced by objects moving through it, including satellites. This drag shrinks the size of their orbits, which draws them closer to the thick, lower atmosphere in which they burn up. According to SpaceX, during the recent Starlink deployment, “the escalation speed and severity of the storm caused atmospheric drag to increase up to 50% higher than during previous launches.” This ensured that as many as 40 of the 49 satellites would eventually succumb to the forces of gravity and perish. There are currently a total of 1,915 Starlink satellites in orbit, so for SpaceX, a loss of up to 40 “is not a big deal from their point of view,” said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who also catalogs and tracks artificial space objects. But Lewis said “that probably accounts for potentially up to $100 million of hardware, if you include the cost of the launch.” The dangers that solar outbursts and geomagnetic storms pose to objects in low-Earth orbit, from electrical damage to communications disruptions, are well known. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ranks geomagnetic storms on a scale from minor to extreme. The latest, a “moderate” storm, is noted by the agency as possibly causing changes in atmospheric drag that can alter orbits. With these risks being known, did SpaceX take this hazard into account during this Starlink deployment? “I’m just kind of dumbfounded,” said Samantha Lawler, an astronomer at the University of Regina in Canada. “Really? They did not think of this?” “It’s a bit of a surprise,” said McDowell. “They should have been ready for this, one would have thought.” When contacted by email, a SpaceX media representative said that no one was available to answer questions, noting that “it’s an incredibly demanding time for the team.” That these satellites seem to be quickly entering the atmosphere, rather than lingering in low-Earth orbit, is a good thing. They also pose no threat to anyone on the ground. “From a safety perspective, the system functioned exactly as it should have,” Lewis said. “The satellites de-orbited, and nothing else was put at risk.” Most satellites orbit at higher altitudes and can avoid the hazards posed by atmospheric expansion. But the threat to satellites orbiting at lower altitudes is far from over, and it leads to the question of whether SpaceX can continue deploying spacecraft at this low altitude. “As the sun gets more active, it releases an increasing amount of extreme ultraviolet, which gets absorbed into our atmosphere,” Lewis said. That atmosphere will expand significantly, and “the expectation is that the atmospheric density is going to increase by one or two orders of magnitude. That’s a way bigger change compared to what we’ve just seen with this particular event.” Many astronomers have been critical of Starlink and other satellite constellations, which reflect sunlight and will potentially interfere with telescope research on Earth. And some see this incident as emblematic of SpaceX’s attitude toward problems occurring in low-Earth orbit. “If things fail, they fix them and do things better next time,” Lewis said. “This is another example of that” — a policy of adherence to hindsight, not foresight. The death of these satellites is “a harsh lesson for SpaceX,” Lewis said. What happens next is up to them. Lawler added, “I hope this will knock a little bit of sense into them.” © 2022 The New York Times Company

Negotiators from 190 countries meeting in Bali to discuss climate change have "a political and historical responsibility" to reach a deal, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday. Asked about the consequences of not reaching a deal, Ban said "that would be very serious". The UN Secretary General said he felt all countries, including the United States, wanted an agreement. The United States, as well as Japan, Canada and Australia, have been disputing a guideline for rich nations to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels. "I think there will be an agreement," he told reporters on board a flight from the Indonesian resort island of Bali, where the summit is taking place, to East Timor's capital Dili. He warned against countries becoming fixated on emission targets. "That will have to be negotiated down the road" he said. Ban said he would be prepared to make an unscheduled return to Bali on Saturday if the talks were still deadlocked. "I think the negotiators and particularly the ministers and the senior leaders have a political and historical responsibility" to conclude the talks successfully, he said. "Climate change, global warming doesn't care where you're from," he said.

Ardem Patapoutian and David Julius received the Nobel for medicine on Monday. Giorgio Parisi, Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann won the physics gong for their work deciphering chaotic climate, while Benjamin List and David MacMillan received the chemistry accolade for developing a tool for molecule building. Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, 72, on Wednesday became only the second writer of colour in sub-Suharan Africa ever to win a Nobel Prize for Literature. The last Black recipient of the prize was Toni Morrison in 1993. "Abdulrazak Gurnah meets at least one of the criterion of a writer from a non-traditional cultural circle - a non-European with a colonial background, but he's no woman," said Anne-Marie Morhed, head of the Swedish Association of Female Academics. "Two prizes remain, the Peace Prize and the Economy Prize. The (Norwegian) Nobel committee... still have a chance to honour a woman." Exiled Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Greta Thunberg are at least two women seen to be in contention when the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Norway on Friday. The Norwegian Nobel Committee is led by a woman and the majority of the members are women. Ditto the previous committee: led by a woman and with a majority of women on it. There has also been a real push in recent years to not give the prize to only white men from North America and Western Europe, as was the case in the earlier decades. In comparison to the dozen Black peace laureates in the Nobel's history, there has never been a Black recipient of the prizes for medicine, chemistry and physics, points out Professor Winston Morgan, a toxicologist at the University of East London who has looked at representation in the prizes as part of his research on inequality in the sciences. "In terms of the gap between the world's population and the winners - the biggest gap is a gender one," Morgan said. "The number of female prize winners is really, really tiny." Scientists of both genders have already taken to social media to decry the lack of women recognised so far this year. GenderAvenger, a non-profit group dedicated to advancing women's voices in public dialogue, said the prizes were "like a terrible mystery where you know the ending halfway through the book. 4 out of 6 categories announced and nary a woman in sight, @NobelPrize. Is the story of the 2021 Nobel Prize that the men did it? (Spoiler: Women are also doing amazing work)." Some, including Ellie Murray, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health, expressed disappointment that this year's awards excluded the contributions of Katalin Kariko and Kizzmekia Corbett, key scientists behind the development of mRNA vaccines that are changing the course of the pandemic. Nobel watchers, however, said it was entirely likely that Kariko and Corbett would be recognised in years to come. The committee, they said, tended to reward recipients after a period of time. "The issue for the Nobel prize is it has a criteria and a tradition and it is hard for them to break away from that," Morgan said, adding that the committee would likely respond to scientific innovation during the pandemic in three or four years. He added that if you looked at the general trajectory of Nobel prize winners, the number of women scientists was growing as were those given to men from Japan and China. "We are not seeing that same trajectory for Black scientists. That concerns me more," he said. "You need to ask are there enough black scientists in universities and are they being supported." Asked why there were so few Black Nobel Prize winners for literature, Gurnah told Reuters the world was changing. Jesper Haeggstrom, chairman of the Nobel Assembly that awarded the prize in Physiology or Medicine, said there was no simple explanation for the lack of female prize winners, but that it reflected the representation of women in science. "There has been an under-representation of women historically in science, so the further back in time you look, the fewer female candidates there are," he said. Haeggstrom declined to say whether gender played a role in the committee's selection process. "I'm not at liberty to give you any details on this, but in general terms, I can say that scientific competence is the deciding factor," he said. Critics, however, point to the makeup of the scientific selection committees. Only 25 percent of the 50 professors on the medicine selection committee are women. The Committee for Physics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences consists of six members, of which one is a woman, and two co-opted members, both men. The chemistry committee consists of six members, all male, and two co-opted members, both women.

Bringing a message that America's power and wealth should be used to serve humanity, the 78-year-old pontiff said the United States must not turn its back on "the stranger in our midst." "Building a nation calls us to recognise that we must constantly relate to others, rejecting a mindset of hostility," Francis told the Republican-led Congress in Washington a day after he met with Democratic President Barack Obama. Francis, born in Argentina to an Italian immigrant family, delivered a wide-ranging speech that addressed issues dear to liberals in the United States but also emphasized conservative values and Catholic teachings on the family. The leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics called for a worldwide end to the death penalty, which is still used in 31 of the 50 US states, while advocating a more equitable economy to help people "trapped in a cycle of poverty" and a greater effort against climate change driven by human activities. The pope later flew to New York, where he was cheered by throngs lining Fifth Avenue as he headed in his "popemobile" to St. Patrick's Cathedral to the sound of the cathedral bells pealing. With organ music playing and a chorus singing, the pope was welcomed by a crowd of 3,000 inside the cathedral for an evening prayer service. Francis on Friday is due to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York and to celebrate an open-air Mass in Philadelphia on Sunday. His plea on immigration received frequent applause mostly from Democrats but also from Republicans among the lawmakers, Supreme Court justices and other dignitaries packed inside the House of Representatives chamber to hear the first address by a pope to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress. Harsh rhetoric toward illegal immigrants has featured heavily in the race for the Republican nomination for the November 2016 presidential election. Republican front-runner Donald Trump says if elected he would deport all 11 million illegal immigrants, most of whom are from Latin America like the pope, and the billionaire businessman has accused Mexico of sending rapists and other criminals across the border. Francis, addressing an issue that has cost the Republicans support among increasingly influential Hispanic voters, said America should not be put off by the flow of foreigners from south of the border "in search of a better life." "We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation. To respond in a way which is always humane, just and fraternal," he said, speaking softly and in heavily accented English. As he spoke, Francis was flanked by two of America's most influential Catholics: House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, and Democratic Vice President Joe Biden. Boehner, who often tears up at emotional moments, cried openly during the speech. The United States has grappled for years over what to do with illegal immigrants. Republicans in Congress last year blocked a bipartisan effort to overhaul immigration laws that would have allowed illegal immigrants a chance to win US citizenship. In a Pew Research Center poll conducted in May, 51 percent of 2,002 U.S. adults surveyed said immigrants strengthen the United States because of their hard work and talents, while 41 percent said immigrants are a burden because they take jobs, housing and healthcare. It was is unclear whether the pope's speech will change hearts and minds on immigration. "It doesn't affect my thoughts," said Michael Tipsword, a student at George Washington University and a Catholic. He said Francis' opinion on immigration is more related to humanitarian needs than politics. "I'm a pretty staunch conservative," said Tipsword, standing on the lawn in front of the US Capitol building where thousands watched the speech on a large video screen. Invoking famous American figures Abraham Lincoln and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Francis told U.S. lawmakers who are often caught up in bitter partisan fights that politics should be "an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good." Presidential candidates from both sides of the divide held up the pope's comments as evidence that the leader of America's 70 million Catholics agrees with them. Alluding to abortion and euthanasia, the pope cited a "responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development." But he quickly turned to the abolition of the death penalty, saying "every life is sacred" and "society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes." Francis also called for an end to a global arms trade fuelled by "money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood, in the face of the shameful and culpable silence." In remarks welcomed by conservatives, Francis said, "Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family," expressing his opposition to same-sex marriage. To underscore his message of helping the poor, Francis went straight from the US Capitol in his small black Fiat to have lunch with homeless people, telling them there was no justification for homelessness.

The prime minister urged members of the public to plant more trees as she kicked off the 'National Tree Plantation Campaign' at Ganabhaban on Saturday. "Today is World Environment Day. I have planted trees myself. At the same time, I would urge all the people of the country to plant trees in whatever space that is available." "It is best to plant three trees at a time. If you can't do that, then plant at least one.” Highlighting the threat of climate change, the Awami League chief called for initiatives aimed at building a 'greener' Bangladesh. She also addressed the measures taken by the government geared towards afforestation which she hopes will help make Bangladesh even greater strides now that it has achieved the status of a developing nation. "We have had a lot of success in the field of afforestation. As a result of these measures, we have been able to create about 22 percent more forests.” Many families are also growing their own gardens in the country amid growing awareness of the benefits of a green environment, according to the prime minister. “Trees bring many benefits to our lives. That is why I urge everyone to protect the environment, and your own financial well-being, the most useful thing to protect the environment is to plant trees extensively.”

European Union states debate how far they are willing to go to fight climate change on Tuesday as the 27-nation bloc forms what could become the world's most ambitious strategy to curb global warming. A draft statement to be agreed at a meeting of EU environment ministers, obtained by Reuters, endorses a plan to cut EU greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels. It also says the bloc would be willing to reduce its emissions by 30 percent by 2020 if other industrialised nations made similar cuts and 'economically more advanced' developing countries contributed, too. That call is likely to form the basis of the EU's negotiating position for a global agreement to cut emissions after 2012, when the first period covered by the Kyoto Protocol on climate change concludes. But officials said Hungary and Poland, which joined the EU in 2004, oppose making the 20 or 30 percent targets mandatory. Finland has also voiced opposition to a unilateral EU target, while Sweden and Denmark feel the bloc should commit to a 30 percent reduction from the start. Some states also wanted to discuss using a different base year than 1990 for calcualting the emissions cuts. Germany, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, will try to smooth out differences between ministers to get unanimous support for its climate change strategy ahead of a summit of the bloc's top leaders in March. The draft says EU states would commit to a 30 percent target 'provided that other developed countries commit themselves to comparable emissions reductions and economically more advanced developing countries adequately contribute according to their responsibilities and respective capabilities.' The statement said that a 'differentiated approach' would be needed when distributing the requirements to fulfil the EU's target among the 27 states. It called on the Commission to analyse criteria for how the targets would be divided up. "A differentiated approach to the contributions of the member states is needed reflecting fairness and taking into account national circumstances and the base years of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol," the draft said. The 15 'old' EU member states that were members before the bloc expanded to 25 nations in 2004 and 27 countries in 2007 have a collective target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by eight percent by 2012 compared to 1990 levels. That overall goal is split up among the 15 states in a burden-sharing agreement, with some having to reduce emissions more than others.

Cities should play a much bigger role in fighting global warming and can act more easily than governments struggling to agree on a UN climate accord, the World Bank said on Friday. "The 10 biggest cities in the world emit more greenhouse gases than Japan," Andrew Steer, the World Bank's special envoy for climate change, told Reuters. He urged reforms including changes to carbon markets to help cities become greener. A World Bank study said that urban areas, home to just over half the world's population and responsible for two-thirds of greenhouse gas emissions, could help by shifting to greener transport, clean energy or better trash recycling. "Cities are the most important cause of climate change and cities are the most important potential solution to climate change," Steer said. And they have huge economic power. The report said that the world's 50 biggest cities had a combined gross domestic product behind only that of the United States, ahead of China. It listed Tokyo and New York as having bigger economies than Canada or Turkey. "When you have 194 countries in the world it's not always easy to get consensus," he said of UN climate talks, which are seeking to agree a modest package of measures to slow global warming at Nov. 29 to Dec. 10 talks in Cancun. More than 1,000 US mayors, for instance, signed on in 2008 to targets to cut greenhouse gases in line with the UN's Kyoto Protocol, an accord binding almost 40 nations to curb emissions until 2012 but never ratified by Washington. SEA LEVELS And many of the world's biggest cities, such as Tokyo, Shanghai, New York or Buenos Aires, are near coasts or rivers and so have compelling reasons to act to limit risks of floods or sea level rise. He said the World Bank favored an overhaul of a UN market mechanism that encourages investments in individual projects in developing nations, such as solar panels in Morocco or hydropower in Honduras, to allow a broader, city-wide scale. Such a reform of the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) would allow mayors to get money and allow them to invest in areas ranging from flood barriers to hydrogen-powered buses, rather than getting each individual project approved. "Our view is that measurement challenges are not overwhelming for cities as a whole," he said. The CDM allows companies to invest in green projects in developing nations and claim credits back home for the averted emissions. Steer also said that city-dwellers' views of where it was best to live were shifting -- in past decades, when industrial air pollution was high, areas downwind such as the east side of London were home to the poor. In future, the poor would live in low-lying areas at risk of river floods or rising sea levels.

The agency said in a statement that Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Johor, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan and Sabah were still affected by floods, and 8,727 people were taking shelter at 128 relief centres. A total of 125,490 people have been affected by the floods nationwide, it said, of which 117,700 evacuees have returned home. Floods are common on the eastern coast of Malaysia during the annual monsoon season between October and March, but unusually heavy rainfall that started on Dec. 17 displaced thousands and strained emergency services. Fifty people have died in the floods, and two remain missing, according to a police tweet citing Inspector-General Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani. Following the meteorological department's warning of continuous heavy rains, the National Disaster Control Centre has issued a disaster operation preparedness notice. The Department of Irrigation and Drainage also issued a warning of high tides between Jan. 2-5, and cautioned residents on the west coast in Peninsula Malaysia, the statement said. Malaysia said it will provide 1.4 billion ringgit ($336.22 million) in cash aid and other forms of relief for those hit by severe flooding this month. It is also seeking $3 million from the UN Green Climate Fund to develop a national plan to adapt to climate change.

Cuba will free seven of 59 dissidents imprisoned since 2003, a move that opponents of ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said reflects a "climate of change" under his brother's rule. The first releases of jailed dissidents since August were negotiated by Spain on health grounds and announced by Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos on Friday. "The decision was made unilaterally by the Cuban authorities and we are very satisfied," Moratinos told Spanish radio from the city of Cordoba, noting that the move came after dialogue with Cuba. The Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on its Web site that four of them will be sent to Spain with their families to receive medical treatment. The four dissidents who will go to Spain have been gathered from different jails around Cuba in the Combinado del Este prison on the outskirts of Havana. They are Omar Pernet, Jose Gabriel Ramon Castillo, Alejandro Gonzalez and Pedro Pablo Alvarez. "We hope ours are not the only releases," Alvarez, 60, told Reuters by telephone from the prison. "The four of us are well. They've treated us well. We don't know when they will free us; it could be today or tomorrow," he said. The dissidents were arrested in a political crackdown ordered by Cuban leader Fidel Castro in March 2003 that put 75 of his opponents in prison with sentences of up to 28 years. 'CLIMATE OF CHANGE' Sixteen had already been freed on health grounds. One of them, economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, said the new releases were a step in the right direction by acting President Raul Castro, who has been running Cuba since Fidel Castro was sidelined by illness in July 2006. He has not appeared in public since. "This is a rational step by the Cuban government and by the reformist sectors within that want change," Espinosa Chepe said. "It reflects a climate of change and will benefit that climate of change," he said. Another dissident, Manuel Cuesta Morua, said the government of Raul Castro was responding to requests by the international community for improved respect for human rights in Cuba. The releases show that a strategy of dialogue and engagement of Cuba's communist government advocated by Spain within the European Union is paying off with "concrete results," Morua said. Cuba's main rights group, the illegal but tolerated Cuban Commission for Human Rights, says there were 234 political prisoners in Cuba at the end of 2007, down from 283 a year earlier, indicating a drop in the number of Cubans behind bars for political reasons since Raul Castro took over. Last August, Cuba released its longest-serving political prisoner, Francisco Chaviano Gonzalez, a former mathematics professor and rights activist who had spent more than 13 years in jail. Morua said more releases can be expected as Havana prepares to sign the U.N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and a similar pact on economic and social rights by next month. This would oblige Cuba to accept regular U.N. monitoring of its human rights record from 2009. The Cuban government does not allow the International Red Cross access to its prisons. It denies holding any political prisoners and labels dissidents "counter-revolutionary mercenaries" on the payroll of its arch-enemy, the United States

The program, "Countering Violent Extremism," or CVE, would be changed to "Countering Islamic Extremism" or "Countering Radical Islamic Extremism," the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white supremacists who have also carried out bombings and shootings in the United States. Such a change would reflect Trump's election campaign rhetoric and criticism of former President Barack Obama for being weak in the fight against Islamic State and for refusing to use the phrase "radical Islam" in describing it. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for attacks on civilians in several countries. The CVE program aims to deter groups or potential lone attackers through community partnerships and educational programs or counter-messaging campaigns in cooperation with companies such as Google and Facebook. Some proponents of the program fear that rebranding it could make it more difficult for the government to work with Muslims already hesitant to trust the new administration, particularly after Trump issued an executive order last Friday temporarily blocking travel to the United States from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Still, the CVE program, which focuses on US residents and is separate from a military effort to fight extremism online, has been criticised even by some supporters as ineffective. A source who has worked closely with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on the program said Trump transition team members first met with a CVE task force in December and floated the idea of changing the name and focus. In a meeting last Thursday attended by senior staff for DHS Secretary John Kelly, government employees were asked to defend why they chose certain community organisations as recipients of CVE program grants, said the source, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions. Although CVE funding has been appropriated by Congress and the grant recipients were notified in the final days of the Obama administration, the money still may not go out the door, the source said, adding that Kelly is reviewing the matter. The department declined comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Program criticised Some Republicans in Congress have long assailed the program as politically correct and ineffective, asserting that singling out and using the term "radical Islam" as the trigger for many violent attacks would help focus deterrence efforts. Others counter that branding the problem as "radical Islam" would only serve to alienate more than three million Americans who practice Islam peacefully. Many community groups, meanwhile, had already been cautious about the program, partly over concerns that it could double as a surveillance tool for law enforcement. Hoda Hawa, director of policy for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said she was told last week by people within DHS that there was a push to refocus the CVE effort from tackling all violent ideology to only Islamist extremism. "That is concerning for us because they are targeting a faith group and casting it under a net of suspicion," she said. Another source familiar with the matter was told last week by a DHS official that a name change would take place. Three other sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said such plans had been discussed but were unable to attest whether they had been finalised. The Obama administration sought to foster relationships with community groups to engage them in the counterterrorism effort. In 2016, Congress appropriated $10 million in grants for CVE efforts and DHS awarded the first round of grants on Jan. 13, a week before Trump was inaugurated. Among those approved were local governments, city police departments, universities and non-profit organisations. In addition to organisations dedicated to combating Islamic State's recruitment in the United States, grants also went to Life After Hate, which rehabilitates former neo-Nazis and other domestic extremists. Just in the past two years, authorities blamed radical and violent ideologies as the motives for a white supremacist's shooting rampage inside a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina and Islamist militants for shootings and bombings in California, Florida and New York. One grant recipient, Leaders Advancing & Helping Communities, a Michigan-based group led by Lebanese-Americans, has declined a $500,000 DHS grant it had sought, according to an email the group sent that was seen by Reuters. A representative for the group confirmed the grant had been rejected but declined further comment. "Given the current political climate and cause for concern, LAHC has chosen to decline the award," said the email, which was sent last Thursday, a day before Trump issued his immigration order, which was condemned at home and abroad as discriminating against Muslims while the White House said it was to "to protect the American people from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals."

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, told workers during a staff meeting that was livestreamed on his Facebook page that within a decade as many as half of the company’s more than 48,000 employees would work from home. “It’s clear that COVID has changed a lot about our lives, and that certainly includes the way that most of us work,” Zuckerberg said. “Coming out of this period, I expect that remote work is going to be a growing trend as well.” Facebook’s decision, the first among tech’s biggest companies, is a stark change for a business culture built around getting workers into giant offices and keeping them there. Using free shuttle buses, free cafeterias and personal services like dry cleaning, tech companies have done as much as possible over the years to give employees little reason to go home, let alone avoid the office. If other giant companies follow suit, tech employment could start to shift away from expensive hubs like Silicon Valley, Seattle and New York. The option to work from home could also provide more reason for tech workers who complain that their enviable salaries still aren’t enough to buy a home in San Francisco or San Jose to consider settling in other parts of the country. Zuckerberg’s announcement followed similar decisions at Twitter and the payments company Square, both led by Jack Dorsey. Dorsey said last week that employees at his companies would be allowed to work from home indefinitely. At Google, employees have been told they can work from home through the end of the year, but the company has not made any indications about permanent plans. There are signs that remote work is popular among technologists. After Dorsey’s announcement, Google searches for “Twitter jobs” spiked, according to Google Trends. Aaron Levie, the chief executive of the business technology company Box, wrote on Twitter that “the push happening around remote work is as game-changing for the future of tech as the launch of the iPhone” more than a decade ago. Tech executives have long believed that person-to-person communication was a big part of the creativity that went into generating popular products. They built giant campuses that reflected that belief, from the ornate offices of Apple, Google and Facebook in Silicon Valley to the new Amazon headquarters in Seattle. Still, the biggest tech companies were trying to expand beyond their main offices before the pandemic, as an older generation of companies like Intel had done. Amazon, for example, intends to open a second headquarters in Virginia. The coronavirus pandemic could accelerate those plans. “Before the virus happened, a lot of the discussion about the tech sector was about how to bring people to work sites and create affordable housing,” said Robert Silverman, a professor of urban and regional planning at the State University of New York at Buffalo. “This is kind of a natural progression.” An employee exodus from the biggest urban tech hubs, combined with layoffs, could have dramatic local impacts. Housing costs in the Bay Area, for example, have fallen since the pandemic began, according to the rental firm Zumper. Rents in San Francisco fell 7% in April, and were down 15% in Menlo Park, Facebook’s home. Zuckerberg long worried that employees who worked remotely would lose productivity. Facebook once provided cash bonuses to employees who lived within 10 miles of its headquarters. In 2018, Facebook expanded its main campus with elaborate new offices designed by Frank Gehry, including a 3.6-acre roof garden with more than 200 trees. Just last year, Facebook started moving into a 43-story office tower that it had leased in San Francisco, and the company is still reportedly in talks for a significant office expansion in New York, as well. In March, the coronavirus lockdown forced companies to send employees home. Many tech companies, including Facebook, emptied their offices before local shelter-in-place orders. Now, more than two months later, executives are discovering that their remote workers performed better than expected. Zuckerberg said employees remained focused even though they were working from home. Facebook will begin by allowing new hires who are senior engineers to work remotely, and then allow current employees to apply for permission to work from home if they have positive performance reviews. Starting in January, Facebook’s employee compensation will be adjusted based on the cost of living in the locations where workers choose to live. Facebook will make sure employees are honest about their location by checking where they log in to internal systems from, he said. Zuckerberg said the shift could offer more benefits than inconveniences for the company. Allowing remote work will allow Facebook to broaden its recruitment, retain valuable employees, reduce the climate impact caused by commutes and expand the diversity of its work force, Zuckerberg said. So far, Facebook, Square and Twitter are being far more aggressive than their counterparts in the industry. Their work is mostly done in software code, which can be handled remotely. At Apple, on the other hand, many employees are hardware engineers who need to be in the company’s lab, particularly because of the company’s secrecy around its products. Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said in April that the company’s main office in Silicon Valley would be closed until at least June and has not updated that timeline. Startups could also find it difficult to manage a remote work force. Allowing workers to live in the Midwest could keep costs down, but Silicon Valley has a giant talent pool from which startups draw their workers. Also, many venture capitalists, mostly based in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, expect the companies they invest in to be based nearby. At Los Angeles-based Snap, the maker of Snapchat, employees are allowed to work at home through September. Evan Spiegel, Snap’s chief executive, said in an interview that he was reassessing the situation regularly and considering guidance from health authorities about when to reopen. “People want certainty, and there’s a huge amount of pressure as a leader to make definitive statements,” Spiegel said on Wednesday. “I think it’s important that we remain flexible in a situation that is changing rapidly.” c.2020 The New York Times Company

“Not everything is closed as USA quits…only one country has exited but all others are with it,” he said, “Even 79 percent of the US people believe climate change is a big issue and their government should take initiatives.” He made the remarks at a press briefing at the foreign ministry on Monday on the “Dhaka Meeting of the Global Commission on Adaptation” to be held on Wednesday. Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister M Shahab Uddin and Principal Coordinator (SDG Affairs) at the Prime Minister’s Office Md Abul Kalam Azad also spoke at the briefing. President Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States from the landmark agreement, reached in Paris after years of negotiations, that provides a pathway for countries to reduce emissions so that the global temperature rise is kept below 2 degrees Celsius. Bangladesh as the climate vulnerable country has ratified the agreement. “We hope they (US) will join again (Paris Agreement) as their citizens want it,” the foreign minister said. Marshall Island President Hilda Heine, former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva are scheduled to arrive in Dhaka on Tuesday to attend the meeting to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. They will also visit Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar to see environmental degradation due to influx of Myanmar people here. “We would like to show the global leaders (involved in climate change mitigation efforts) how our environment is being affected due to huge influx of Rohingyas,” Principal Coordinator Azad said. The Marshal Island president will arrive in the early hours of Tuesday and Ban Ki-moon in the afternoon. They will be received by foreign minister at Shahjalal International Airport. Hasina will hold a meeting with the Marshall Island president and the former UN chief before the inauguration of the conference at the Hotel Intercontinental.

The UN climate agency called on Wednesday for a special summit to spur a fight against climate change but said high-level ministerial talks could fit the bill if world leaders resist. Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn, said that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon agreed at talks in New York on Tuesday to send envoys to probe government willingness for a high-level meeting about global warming. "The Secretary-General is exploring ways and means ... to facilitate global efforts for dealing with climate change," de Boer told Reuters by telephone after flying back to Europe. Ban's envoys would "explore the possibility of a high-level meeting ... possibly on the margins of the UN General Assembly" in New York in September, de Boer said. "It doesn't necessarily have to be heads of state," he added. "It could be a different level, such as foreign affairs or energy ministers." On March 1, Ban said global warming posed a threat as great as war and urged the United States to play a leading role in combating climate change. But Ban's spokeswoman said at the time that there were no plans to arrange a summit despite pleas from UN environment agencies. "I don't think it's a change of heart. What's being explored is ... a high-level meeting to engage a broader constituency -- foreign affairs, energy, trade, economy, transport," de Boer said. "It needs a broader push and broader support," irrespective of whether leaders meet, he said. World talks on expanding a fight against global warming, widely blamed on burning fossil fuels, are stalled. UN scientific reports this year say that mankind's emissions of greenhouse gas are "very likely" to be causing global warming that could bring more hunger, droughts, floods, heatwaves, melt glaciers and raise sea levels. De Boer says the world needs to speed up talks on widening the UN Kyoto Protocol, which sets cuts on emissions by 35 industrialised nations until 2012. The United States and Australia pulled out in 2001, reckoning Kyoto too costly. Kyoto nations make up only about a third of world emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. Only Russia is bound to a Kyoto target of the top four emitters -- the United States, China, Russia and India. De Boer said that a new meeting could build on, rather than duplicate, a Group of Eight summit in June at which German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to focus on climate change. The G8 summit will be joined by heads of China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa. Together the G8 and the five make up the bulk of world emissions of carbon dioxide. De Boer said that the G8 summit omits groups such as small island states, threatened by rising seas, the poorest nations such as in sub-Saharan Africa, and Australia. Environment ministers will meet for a next round of formal UN climate negotiations in Bali, Indonesia, in December.

Output from mines, utilities and factories grew by a much slower-than-expected 0.5 percent year-on-year, government data showed on Friday, down from June's revised 3.9 percent rise.Output growth hit a 19-month high of 5.0 percent in May.Retail inflation, which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) tracks for setting lending rates, edged down marginally to 7.8 percent in August from 7.96 percent a month earlier, helped by slower annual rises in prices of fuel and clothes.The numbers come after the economy posted its fastest growth in 2-1/2 years in the quarter to June, helped by a revival in industry.Prime Minister Narendra Modi seized on that figure to highlight the "huge positive sentiment" behind India's recovery.However, high inflation would make it tougher for Modi to encourage Indian consumers, who power nearly 60 percent of the economy, to loosen their purse strings.It would also make the RBI wary of lowering interest rates later this month.The RBI, which wants to reduce retail inflation to 6 percent by 2016, left interest rates steady last month, citing inflationary risks from a late monsoon.While better rainfall in recent weeks, falling global crude prices, moderating vegetable prices and a favourable statistical base will likely help lower inflation, rates are widely expected to remain on hold when the RBI reviews them on Sept 30. A man works inside a boiler spare parts manufacturing workshop on the outskirts of Kolkata June 11, 2014. Credit: Reuters "The outlook on inflation seems less discomforting than it was a month back," says Upasna Bhardwaj, an economist at ING Vysya Bank, in Mumbai."We continue to expect that RBI will keep its policy rate unchanged through fiscal year 2014/15 (March 2015) with a probable action mid-next year."The prospects of a revival in demand-driven price pressures following a pick-up in economic activity and sooner-than-expected interest rate increases in the US are also expected to weigh on the central bank's rate decision.Any decision by the US Federal Reserve to raise rates, which have been held near zero since December 2008, will have implications for India, as it could lead to capital outflows, weakening the rupee and inflating costs of imported commodities.Modi won India's strongest electoral mandate in 30 years in May, vowing to lift sliding economic growth, cool inflation and create enough jobs for its young workforce.Bullish investors, glum consumersThe optimism fanned by Modi's rise to power has already brought inflows of nearly $14 billion of foreign funds into Indian equities this year as investors bet that his drive to cut red tape will revive stalled projects and underpin the economic recovery. A labourer works inside a steel factory on the outskirts of Jammu January 2, 2014. Credit: Reuters The 50-share Nifty has gained over 30 percent in US dollar terms this year to become the best-performing equity index in Asia.Goldman Sachs upgraded its target for the index this week, citing optimism over future earnings of Indian firms.To sustain this euphoria, economists say, Modi must overhaul India's strained public finances, stringent land acquisition laws, chaotic tax regime and rigid labour rules.During his first 100 days in office, the new prime minister showed little appetite for such structural changes, and there is concern that sharply higher growth in the last quarter could reduce their urgency.That could be damaging for an economy that is still hobbled by slack consumption and weak business investment.Persistently high inflation and years of stagnant growth have forced consumers to cut discretionary spending.Consumer goods output, a proxy for consumer demand, has grown in just two of the last 19 months. It fell an annual 7.4 percent in July.Firms are shying away from fresh investments. Capital goods production fell 3.8 percent from a year earlier."The pro-business government has facilitated the investment climate and boosted confidence, but more needs to be done to get back to a period of high growth and low inflation," said Rohini Malkani, an analyst at Citi. A man works inside a boiler spare parts manufacturing workshop on the outskirts of Kolkata June 11, 2014. Credit: Reuters A labourer works inside a steel factory on the outskirts of Jammu January 2, 2014. Credit: Reuters

In a ceremony marking Rokeya Day on Thursday, Hasina made the request for Saima, who is known for her work on global child autism. Born in 1973 in Dhaka, the granddaughter of Bangabandhu is on the National Advisory Committee for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders and is also a member of World Health Organization’s global Expert Advisory Panel on Mental Health. “There was a time when parents kept their autistic or disabled children away from public eyes. The mothers of such children were harassed. There were cases where husbands divorced women over giving birth to such children,” Hasina said. “Saima Wazed has brought about a major change, allowing parents to no longer have to hide autistic or disabled children. Rather, they now proudly speak about them.” Saima, who is a licensed school psychologist in the United States, entered the field of autism and children’s nervous complications in 2008 and was acclaimed for her work within a short time. In 2014, she received the ‘Excellence in Public Health’ award from the WHO for her contribution in the field in 11 Southeast Asian countries. She received the ‘International Champion Award’ in 2017 from the New York-based School and Center for Children with Autism. The daughter of nuclear scientist MA Wazed Miah, Saima also played the role of a thematic ambassador for the Climate Vulnerable Forum or CVF. Saima achieved her honours degree in psychology in 1997 and master’s in clinical psychology in 2002 from Barry University in the US. She received a specialist degree in school psychology two years later. At the university, she conducted a study on the development of Bangladeshi women. It was praised as the best scientific presentation by the Florida Academy of Science. The efforts of Saima, who earned a place in the list of 100 Innovative Women Leaders in Global Mental Health published by Global Mental Health Programs Consortium in 2019, included organising an international conference on autism in Dhaka for the first time in 2011. Saima played a chief role in the formulation of the country’s Neurodevelopment Disability Trust Act 2013. She is also the chairperson of Shuchona Foundation, which works on mental health issues. She is a trustee and the vice-chairperson of Awami League’s research wing Centre for Research and Information or CRI.

Modern humans may have left Africa for Arabia up to 65,000 years earlier than previously thought and their exodus was enabled by environmental factors rather than technology, scientists said on Thursday. Their findings suggest the migrants followed a direct route to the Arabian Peninsula from Africa, and did not travel via the Nile Valley or the Near East as suggested in previous studies. An international team of researchers studied an ancient tool kit containing hand axes, perforators and scrapers which was unearthed at the Jebel Faya archaeological site in the United Arab Emirates. "Our findings should stimulate a re-evaluation of the means by which we modern humans became a global species," said Simon Armitage, of the University of London, who worked on the study. Using luminescence dating -- a technique used to determine when mineral grains were last exposed to sunlight -- they found that the stone tools were between 100,000 and 125,000 years old. Hans-Peter Uerpmann of Eberhard Karls University in Tuebingen, who led the research, said the craftsmanship ruled out the possibility the tools were made in the Middle East. He said the tools resembled those made by early humans in east Africa instead, suggesting that "no particular cultural achievements were necessary for people to leave Africa". The research, published in the journal Science, suggests environmental factors such as sea levels were more important than technological innovations in making the migration possible. The researchers analysed sea-level and climate-change records preserved in the landscape from the last interglacial period -- around 130,000 years ago -- to determine when humans would have been able to cross Arabia. They found that the Bab al-Mandab strait between Arabia and the Horn of Africa would have become narrower at this time as sea levels were lower, providing a safe route out of Africa both prior to and at the beginning of the last interglacial period. Uerpmann said the straits may have been passable at low tide, making it likely that the modern humans walked across or travelled on either rafts or boats. It was previously thought that the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula would have hindered an exodus from Africa but the new study suggests Arabia became wetter during the last interglacial period, with more lakes, rivers and vegetation, making it easier for humans to survive the passage to Arabia. Although the timing of modern humans moving out of Africa has been the subject of much debate, previous evidence suggested the exodus took place along the Mediterranean Sea or Arabian coast around 60,000 years ago.

NEW ORLEANS, Oct 16,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - President Barack Obama fired back on Thursday at critics who say he has few accomplishments of note in his nine months in office and declared he was just getting started. In recent weeks, Obama has faced criticism both from liberals who want him to do more to advance causes such as gay rights, and conservatives who accuse him of taking too long to decide whether to send more US troops to Afghanistan. A comedy skit on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" program a couple of weeks ago drew attention to the issue. An actor playing the president said, "When you look at my record, it's very clear what I've done so far, and that is: Nothing. Nada. Almost one year, and nothing to show for it." The criticism was magnified after Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a week ago when even some commentators sympathetic to the president said it seemed premature. Obama, making his first trip as president to see efforts to recover from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, opened a town-hall meeting by saying his work had led to some improvement in the US economy and brought an overhaul of the US healthcare system within reach this year. "Now, just in case any of you were wondering, I never thought any of this was going to be easy," he said. "You know, I listen to sometimes these reporters on the news (who say) 'Well, why haven't you solved world hunger yet?'" As the crowd laughed, he said: "Why hasn't everybody done it? It's been nine months. Why? I never said it was going to be easy. What did I say during the campaign? I said change is hard. And big change is harder." In what seemed a reference to Republicans opposed to Democratic healthcare proposals, Obama accused them of "trying to stand in the way of progress." "Let me tell you: I'm just getting started," Obama said. 'WHY DO PEOPLE HATE YOU?' The town-hall meeting showed evidence of the partisan divide in America. When the Democratic Obama introduced Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a rising star in Republican politics, some in the crowd booed until Obama settled them down and hailed Jindal as a hard-working politician. At the end of the event, a young schoolboy named Terence Scott asked Obama, "Why do people hate you?" "Well, now, first of all, I did get elected president, so not everybody hates me now," Obama replied. "I got a whole lot of votes." "But you know, what is true is if you were watching TV lately, it seems like everybody's just getting mad all the time," Obama said, blaming the climate in part on politics and on concerns among Americans about losing jobs or their healthcare. "And when things are going tough, then, you know, you're going to get some of the blame, and that's part of the job. But you know, I'm a pretty tough guy," he said.

Ugandan police have found an unexploded suicide vest and made a number of arrests after coordinated bomb blasts ripped through two bars and killed at least 76 soccer fans watching the World Cup final on Sunday. Somali al Shabaab Islamists linked to al Qaeda said on Monday they had carried out the attacks, but an official from the militant group said on Tuesday there had been no suicide bombers involved. The vest was found on Monday in Makindye, a suburb of Kampala, and was consistent with evidence found at the other blast sites in the capital, Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura told reporters. Ugandan police said the vest was designed so it could be planted, rather than worn, and be used as an improvised bomb. "Rage blessed those who carried the attack and expected a long life for them. That shows there was no suicide bomb. These were planted," a man who identified himself as Yonis, assistant to al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, told Reuters by telephone. Coordinated attacks are a hallmark of al Qaeda and groups linked to Osama bin Laden's militant network. If confirmed to be the work of al Shabaab, they would be the first time the militants have taken their push for power internationally. Analysts have questioned whether they might have been helped or funded by elements in Uganda, or foreign militants within al Shabaab itself. "Somalis or foreigners, the effect is nonetheless the same. It is the foreign elements that now dominate the al Shabaab project," Abdi Samatar, a Somalia expert at the University of Minnesota, said. Kayihura gave no further details on how many suspects had been detained or where they were from. He also revised up the death toll to 76 from 74. "NO PEACE TO KEEP" The al Shabaab militants have threatened more attacks unless Uganda and Burundi withdraw their peacekeepers from the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia (AMISOM). They control of large areas the south and center of the anarchic country. But regional bloc, IGAD, said it would not cower in the face of threats and would continue to support the Western-backed government in Somalia. "We shall continue with our plans to increase peacekeepers in Somalia to over 8,000 and we hope to have the extra troops in the country by the second week of August," executive secretary Mahboud Maalim told journalists in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. Last week IGAD members Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti said they eventually wanted 20,000 troops from the AU and United Nations deployed in Somalia. Uganda's opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party urged President Yoweri Museveni to pull his peacekeepers out and said it planned a withdrawal if it won elections in 2011. "There is no peace to keep in Somalia and Uganda has no strategic interest there. We're just sacrificing our children for nothing," FDC spokesman Wafula Oguttu told Reuters. Analysts say any sustained bombing campaign would damage Uganda's investment climate, but a one-off attack was unlikely to deter major companies such as British hydrocarbons explorer Tullow Oil from investing. Foreign direct investment into east Africa's third largest economy has surged, driven by oil exploration along the western border with Democratic Republic of Congo. An American was among the dead, and the US State Department said it had three FBI agents on the ground collecting evidence. An additional team was on standby to deploy. Opolot said there was no suggestion an African Union summit to be hosted by Uganda this month would be canceled following the bombings.

Insurance companies can drive positive changes towards more environment-friendly behaviour, an expert has said. Richard Lord, a commercial litigator and an observer of the Oxfam's mock climate tribunal, on Sunday said, "Insurers could drive behaviour change." Specialising in insurance claims for over 20 years, Lord added, "In many ways, industries are much ahead of governments in dealing with climate change." He told bdnews24.com that unlike government, industries are more aware of climate change and have acted far more responsibly. "There is pressure from their shareholders. There is pressure from the activists. And then there are the regulators." "Insurance companies are taking this quite seriously," said Lord, who works for the Brick Court Chambers in London. His recent experiences include settling claims related to Hurricane Katrina victims. "They are quite serious about the issue simply because they have to be aware of all the risks." Lord said that the insurance companies have an active interest in understanding climate change risks and also litigation risk so that they fully understand the implications. "So, for instance, if a homeowner has to pay higher premiums for insuring a house because it is in an area prone to flooding, then that individual is more likely to question the reasons behind it." Lord says that insurances go about collecting such information in as much detail as possible so they can understand the risk better, which has an impact on people's behaviour. He also mentioned that the insurance industry being larger than oil, gas or other typically large sectors, could have significant influence across the world. "Indeed, it is the economic muscle of insurers that really underpins a huge amount of commercial life." Regarding the tribunal that he has come to observe, the commercial litigator was reluctant to comment on the issue because of his unfamiliarity with Bangladesh laws. Stressing that he was not an environmental or human rights lawyer, Lord pointed out that although litigation was one of the tools to address climate change, it was perhaps quite a blunt one. "But increasingly, as the problem worsens and the failure to perceive its consequence in many quarters continues, people will inevitably take to different ways to address climate change." He said it was interesting to see that the 'still infant' atmospheric trust litigation invokes certain ancient principles, traditionally applied to "assets of such fundamental importance to society as a whole that right to those assets is considered inalienable, that the government is the sovereign owner and must act to protect them". "This has typically been used for natural assets like water." However, Lord said there were no such cases of climate litigation that he was aware of. "Many nations enshrine the right to clean environment in their constitutions directly, or indirectly, through the reference to more general rights or under human rights." He explained that the problems of Bangladesh, although moving in the emotional sense, are not so compelling in terms of evidence. "And without such compelling evidence, based on scientific research, it would not be possible to establish a cause and effect." Thus, the litigator explained, this kind of mock tribunal turning into a real tribunal brings up complicated issues. He said that the notional defendant, Bangladesh government for instance, could easily turn around and tell the plaintiff that it is already doing enough to prevent climate change, citing the nation's low carbon footprint of 200 kilograms of carbon per head compared to 8600kgs for every British citizen. "On the other hand, a legal action between nations could see the notional defendant, presumably a developed country, shrug off any historical responsibility, claiming that it has developed in the same manner that Bangladesh seeks." "I can't say, I see a mechanism under which the Bangladesh authorities could readily bring a case against the government of, say, the United States." "That is perhaps one of the reasons that people have been approaching the matter indirectly by blocking permits and brining injunctions or demanding environmental impact assessments of certain entities, which in a way are also affecting positive changes."

With the launch of its sleek e-motorbikes, startup Yatri Motorcycles believes it can convert Nepalis to electric vehicles that can clean up the country's toxic air, save money, reduce petrol imports and help to achieve its climate goals. "We need to switch to electric vehicles," said Ashim Pandey, founder of Yatri, which means traveller. "It is only a matter of time when battery technology surpasses the energy density hurdle to make internal combustion engines obsolete." Across the world, manufacturers are competing to develop affordable, low-emission vehicles as a growing number of countries have announced plans to ban the sale of new fossil fuel-powered cars in a bid to combat global warming. At risk from glacier melt and torrential monsoon rains, Nepal pledged in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change that 20% of its vehicles would be electric by 2020, but this is currently 1%, according to the Climate Action Tracker website. Nepal is a small emitter of carbon globally, with 40% of the country under forest cover and most of its electricity coming from hydropower. But emissions are rising, with a surge in petrol and diesel vehicle imports and fossil fuel consumption. The government has set out ambitious plans to transition to e-vehicles through reduced taxes and customs duties on imports and the installation of more charging stations. But implementation is slow, despite a pledge that e-vehicles will make up 90% of all private passenger vehicle sales by 2030. The country currently has about 700 electric cars, 5,000 electric scooters, and 40,000 electric rickshaws, according to the Electric Vehicle Association of Nepal, a lobby group. WORLD-CLASS Yatri Motorcycles was set up in 2017 with the dream of designing, engineering and manufacturing world-class electric vehicles from the ground up in Nepal. "We are looking into markets beyond the borders of Nepal," said Pandey. "We have to start exporting cutting-edge technology and capital goods and not be limited to handicrafts and boutique items," he said, referring to Nepal's traditional exports. Pandey, who moved to The Netherlands to train as an aerospace engineer in 2010 and designed hydrogen-powered race cars when he was a student at the Delft University of Technology, has an ambitious 10-year plan. He kicked off in 2019 with Project Zero, a top-end motorbike with a digital dashboard, in-built 4G connectivity, a keyless start, a range of 240km and a maximum speed of 140km/ hour that recharges in two hours. It easily outclasses most two-wheelers on the market, which are made in China and India and have a lower range and speed but costs almost 2,000,000 Nepalese rupees ($16,797) - almost seven times that of a petrol motorbike. In April, Yatri launched a more affordable model, Project One, for 500,000 rupees and received 50 orders within a week. "The initial price will come down once we start producing them on a larger scale," Pandey said. "We are well on track to meeting our 200 unit sales milestones for 2021." Motorcycles are key to the switch to e-vehicles because they make up 80% of Nepal's registered vehicles, government data shows, providing commuters with an affordable alternative to Nepal's crowded, often chaotic, public buses. But e-motorbikes alone cannot decarbonise Nepal's transport. The country's top three emitters are trucks at 29%, cars and vans at 26% and buses at 19%, with two-wheelers trailing behind at 8%, according to 2011 government figures. With this in mind, Yatri's ultimate goal is to launch e-vans and e-buses for fleet operators by the end of the decade. "To solve the problem of modern cities, you need to address the problem of space," he said. "A safe, comfortable and pleasing public transportation system that is appealing to use is what will solve the problem of modern urban mobility." CHARGING STATIONS Nepal has a long history of experimenting with e-vehicles, from trolleybuses brought by China in the 1970s to three-wheeled minibuses, known as Safa Tempos, which were introduced in the 1990s by the United States Agency for International Development. But the electric buses folded due to mismanagement and the Safa Tempos have been edged out by diesel vehicles because of their inefficient batteries. The government is seeking to reintroduce electric vehicles by buying 300 electric buses. One of the most urgent challenges in boosting e-vehicle sales is to provide more charging stations, said Manish Pandey, a popular YouTuber who travels the country by motorbike. Six months ago, the 23-year-old planned to film himself making a long-distance trip using an e-scooter but ended up cancelling. "There were no charging stations on the route and the range of electric vehicles is too low, so I couldn't complete the journey," he said. "With the present availability of charging stations, I would definitely not choose to ride an electric motorbike." He also pointed to the high cost of the vehicles as a major obstacle to convincing ordinary motorcyclists to go green. "In a poor country like Nepal, with people having poor environmental awareness, almost every customer sees the price first, rather than whether the technology is environmentally friendly," he said.

The name was approved by the cabinet at a meeting in the Secretariat on Monday presided over by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.  Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told the media that the name change proposal had been submitted before. The government agreed to add ‘Climate Change’ along to the name following an agreement with neighbouring countries.   Form now, the name of the ministry will be ‘Poribesh, Bon o Jolbayu Poribartan’ in Bangla and ‘Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change’ in English. On Aug 6, 2017, the decision of the change was passed at 4th meeting of the National Environment Committee. The new name will be effective after a notification signed by the Bangladesh president is issued.   Bangladesh is one of the countries most at risk from the climate change.  Global warming is one of the biggest challenges for Bangladesh. Researchers believe that if it continues a large amount of land will be covered by water and approximately 2 billion people around the world could be displaced.      Since coming to power in 2009, the Awami League government has created two separate climate change alleviation funds. The funds are named Bangladesh Climate Change Trust (BCCT) and Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF).

South Africa urged Zimbabwe on Tuesday to respect the rule of law and the rights of opposition leaders amid a worldwide outcry over police treatment of detained Zimbabwean opposition figures. Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad, in Pretoria's first detailed statement on the situation in its northern neighbour since an opposition demonstration was crushed on Sunday, said South Africa was concerned. "South Africa urges the Zimbabwean government to ensure that the rule of law including the respect for rights of all Zimbabweans and leaders of various political parties is respected," Pahad said in a statement. "Similarly, we appeal to leaders of opposition political parties to work towards a climate that is conducive to finding a lasting solution to the current challenges faced by the people of Zimbabwe." South Africa, the region's economic powerhouse, has long maintained a policy of "quiet diplomacy" toward Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, arguing that public confrontation with him over allegations of human rights abuses and economic mismanagement could be counterproductive. Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and dozens of other people were arrested on Sunday for attempting to protest against Mugabe's rule. Tsvangirai and the others appeared in court on Tuesday but were immediately sent to hospital for treatment of injuries which party officials said were sustained in police custody. Pahad said South Africa would continue to work with all sides in Zimbabwe "to ensure the objective of dialogue among all political parties is realised."

A State Department spokeswoman confirmed Rank's departure, but said she was unable to verify Twitter posts that said he resigned as he felt unable to deliver a formal notification to China of the US decision last week to quit the agreement. "He has retired from the foreign service," said Anna Richey-Allen, a spokeswoman for the department's East Asia Bureau. "Mr Rank has made a personal decision. We appreciate his years of dedicated service to the State Department." Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, President Donald Trump's pick as the next US ambassador to Beijing, is expected to take up the post later this month. A tweet from China expert John Pomfret quoted unnamed sources as saying that Rank had resigned as he could not support Trump's decision last week to withdraw from the Paris agreement. Another tweet from Pomfret said Rank called a town hall meeting to announce his decision to embassy staff and explained that he could not deliver a diplomatic note informing the Chinese government of the US decision. A senior US official confirmed the account given in the tweets but added that after Rank announced his intention to retire on Monday in Beijing, he was told by the State Department to leave his post immediately. The official spoke on condition of anonymity. On Jun 1, the US State Department accepted the resignation of its top personnel officer, who had been among its few remaining senior Obama administration political appointees, another US official said. Arnold Chacon had served as the director general of the foreign service and director of human resources. The official said Chacon had tendered his resignation when Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, along with all presidential appointees, who serve at the pleasure of the president and secretary of state. The acceptance of Chacon's resignation was first reported by the DiploPundit website. It was not immediately clear whether he would be offered another post at the department. Other than Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, his deputy John Sullivan and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Tom Shannon, the third-ranking US diplomat, most of the State Department's senior posts are currently vacant or filled by acting officials. Chacon and Rank, a career foreign service officer who took over the post of deputy chief of mission in Beijing in January 2016, could not immediately be reached for comment. Jonathan Fritz, the embassy's economics councillor, would serve as chargé in his place, Richey-Allen said. Rank had been with the department for 27 years and served as the political councillor at the US Embassy in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012. Trump's announcement on Thursday that he would withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, saying the agreement would undermine the US economy and cost jobs, drew anger and condemnation from world leaders and heads of industry.

Ugandan police have found an unexploded suicide vest and arrested six of the more than 20 Somalis and Ugandans suspected of planning twin bombings that killed 76 soccer fans on Sunday, an intelligence source said. Somali al Shabaab Islamists linked to al Qaeda said they had carried out the attacks on a crowded restaurant and a rugby club in the Ugandan capital while fans watched the World Cup final on television. In Washington, a senior U.S. official said there were indications that al Shabaab's claim of responsibility was authentic. It would mark the first time the group has struck outside Somalia. U.S. President Barack Obama said it was "tragic and ironic" that the explosions happened as people were watching the World Cup being played in South Africa. "On the one hand, you have a vision of an Africa on the move, an Africa that is unified, an Africa that is modernizing and creating opportunities," Obama told the South African Broadcasting Corp. "On the other hand, you've got a vision of al Qaeda and Al Shabaab that is about destruction and death." Washington has been in contact with Uganda and other governments in the region to determine whether al Shabaab is plotting more attacks and to share intelligence and decide on all "appropriate measures," a senior U.S. official said. An al Shabaab official said there had been no suicide bombers involved in the attack on Uganda, which has peacekeepers in Somalia. A Ugandan military intelligence source told Reuters that intelligence officials had received a tip-off last month that an attack was being planned. But the U.S. official said Washington was not aware of any advance warning. "On June 17 an informer from the Kisenyi suburb of Kampala told intelligence that some Somalis were planning an attack during the World Cup," the Uganda source said. The official said more than 20 people, Somalis and Ugandans, were involved in planning the attacks. "So far we have arrested six people from that racket," he said. Al Shabaab has threatened more attacks unless Uganda and Burundi withdraw their peacekeepers from the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia, where the militants are fighting the government and control large parts of the country. Police said the suicide vest found late on Monday at a third site was designed so it could be planted, rather than worn. "Rage blessed those who carried the attack and expected a long life for them. That shows there was no suicide bomb. These were planted," a man who identified himself as Yonis, assistant to al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, told Reuters. As well as banning alcohol, al Shabaab has prohibited watching soccer matches in areas under its control. Coordinated attacks are a hallmark of al Qaeda and groups linked to Osama bin Laden's militant network. But for al Shabaab, it would be the first time the militants have taken their push for power internationally. AFRICAN SUMMIT "I think that there's a common recognition that this is a new phase for al Shabaab in terms of expanding their geographic reach unfortunately," U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters. "We are constantly looking at ways that we can increase our preparation for, prevention of, and interdiction of any type of terrorist attack before it should occur on our own soil," she said. The U.S. official who briefed reporters in Washington said al Shabaab had been "on our radar screen," had links to al Qaeda in East Africa and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The official said the Kampala attack was in line with threats to broaden its targets, but did not directly answer a question whether the group might pose a specific danger to the United States. "What you've seen in some of the statements that have been made by these terrorist organizations is that they do not regard African life as valuable in and of itself," Obama said in the interview with South African Broadcasting Corp. "They see it as a potential place where you can carry out ideological battles that kill innocents without regard to long-term consequences for their short-term tactical gains." The African Union said Uganda would still host a summit of African leaders this month and that it would not be deterred from its peacekeeping mission. Regional bloc IGAD said it would not be cowed and would continue to support the Western-backed government in Somalia. "We shall continue with our plans to increase peacekeepers in Somalia to over 8,000 and we hope to have the extra troops in the country by the second week of August," executive secretary Mahboud Maalim told journalists in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. Last week IGAD members Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti said they eventually wanted 20,000 troops from the AU and United Nations deployed in Somalia. Uganda's opposition Forum for Democratic Change party urged President Yoweri Museveni to pull his peacekeepers out and said it planned a withdrawal if it won elections in 2011. "There is no peace to keep in Somalia and Uganda has no strategic interest there. We're just sacrificing our children for nothing," party spokesman Wafula Oguttu told Reuters. Analysts say any sustained bombing campaign would damage Uganda's investment climate, but a one-off attack was unlikely to deter major companies such as British hydrocarbons explorer Tullow Oil from investing. Direct foreign investment in east Africa's third largest economy has surged, driven by oil exploration along the western border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. One American was among the dead. The U.S. embassy in South Africa said five other U.S. citizens who had been wounded had been evacuated to Johannesburg and Nairobi. An FBI team is in Kampala, the U.S. State Department said.

China urged President Barack Obama to increase a U.S. offer to cut carbon emissions but its top climate envoy indicated willingness on Wednesday to compromise at a U.N. conference in Copenhagen. Xie Zhenhua said that China wanted to play a constructive role at the December 7-18 climate talks, where a successful outcome largely depends on agreement between the United States and China which together emit 40 percent of global greenhouse gases. "I do hope that President Obama can bring a concrete contribution to Copenhagen," Xie told Reuters. When asked whether that meant something additional to what Obama has already proposed, a 3 percent cut on 1990 levels by 2020, Xie said: "Yes." Xie also said that China could accept a target to halve global emissions by 2050 if developed nations stepped up their emissions cutting targets by 2020 and agreed to financial help for the developing world to fight climate change. "We do not deny the importance of a long-term target but I think a mid-term target is more important. We need to solve the immediate problem." "If the demands of developing countries can be satisfied I think we can discuss an emissions target," to halve global emissions by 2050. The deputy chairman of the powerful economic planning superministry, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told Reuters he wanted rich countries to cut their emissions by 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. "It is our hope that the emissions cuts of developed countries can fall into the range of 25-40 percent (below 1990 levels." Earlier this year, at some previous rounds of U.N. talks, China had insisted on a cut of "at least 40 percent." Xie said that he preferred a final, legally binding agreement at the meeting in Copenhagen, but if that were not possible a deadline to wrap up a full treaty by June "would be very good." He rejected a U.N. proposal for fast-track funding of $10 billion a year from 2010-2012 as "not enough."

ZANESVILLE, Ohio, Mon Oct 27, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee John McCain on Sunday fought to distance himself from unpopular President George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama attempted to attach them at the hip on a day of fierce campaigning. "Do we share a common philosophy of the Republican Party? Of course. But I've stood up against my party, not just President Bush but others, and I've got the scars to prove it," McCain told NBC's "Meet the Press" on a day he held events in both Iowa and Ohio. Obama quickly seized on McCain's comment in a speech in Denver, saying McCain was "finally giving us a little straight talk, and owning up to the fact that he and George Bush actually have a whole lot in common." "We're not going to let George Bush pass the torch to John McCain," Obama told a crowd of more than 100,000 supporters who jammed a downtown Denver park and sprawled up the steps of the Colorado state capitol building. McCain, in his "Meet the Press" interview and at his campaign events, shrugged off opinion polls showing him far behind Obama in the campaign, saying he senses the race is tightening just over a week ahead of the Nov. 4 election. It was the 41st anniversary of the day Navy flyer McCain was shot down over Vietnam, starting a 5-1/2 year stint as a prisoner of war. "A long time ago, today, I had a bad experience and I spent some time in what many of you know as the Hanoi Hilton," McCain said. "I've fought for you most of my life in places where defeat meant more than returning to the Senate. I will fight for you, my friends." Obama and his campaign have attempted to tie McCain to Bush at every opportunity, citing the Arizona senator's record of voting with the president 90 percent of the time. Flush with campaign cash, the Obama campaign released a television advertisement that shows footage of McCain with Bush as the announcer says, "He's out of ideas, out of touch, and out of time." McCain said that while he respects Bush, he has disagreed with him on a number of important issues, by opposing increased government spending, challenging Bush on his Iraq strategy and demanding tougher action to address climate change. "For eight years, we've seen the Bush-McCain philosophy put our country on the wrong track, and we cannot have another four years that look just like the last eight. It's time for change in Washington, and that's why I'm running for president of the United States," Obama said. OBAMA LEADS IN IOWA Obama leads McCain in national opinion polls and in polls in many battleground states, including Iowa, which Bush won in 2004. A new Courier-Lee Enterprises poll gave Obama a 54 percent to 39 percent edge in Iowa. A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Sunday, however, suggested a tightening race overall. It said Obama leads McCain by 49 percent to 44 percent among likely U.S. voters in the daily tracking poll. In this poll the Illinois senator's lead has dropped over the last three days after hitting a high of 12 points on Thursday. Some Republicans have complained that McCain's campaign has seemed to lurch from issue to issue and has put in jeopardy not only Republican attempts to hang on to the White House but also many seats in the U.S. Congress. "We're doing fine. We have closed in the last week," McCain said, adding that if the trend were to continue, "We'll be up very, very late Election Night." "I see intensity out there and I see passion, so we're very competitive here and I'm very happy of where we are and I'm proud of the campaign I've run," he said. McCain gave a strong vote of confidence to his vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor who has energized the Republican base but has come under withering criticism on a variety of issues. Many Americans do not consider her ready to be president. McCain's choice of Palin as his running mate was at first welcomed as a boon to his campaign but the scrutiny of her has been tough and some conservatives have said they do not believe she is sufficiently experienced to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. "I don't defend her. I praise her. She needs no defense," McCain said of Palin. He dismissed questions about the Republican National Committee's purchase of $150,000 in clothes for her and her large family for wearing if they needed it while campaigning, saying a third of the clothes had been returned and the rest would be donated to charity. McCain said Palin lives a "frugal life." "I'm so proud of the way she ignites the crowds. The way she has conducted herself in my view is incredibly admirable," McCain said.

Big polluting countries must aggressively cut greenhouse gases and listen to ideas from small nations to reverse global warming, activists and left-wing leaders concluded on Thursday at a meeting billed as an alternative to the failed Copenhagen summit. The gathering in Bolivia's Cochabamba region was meant to give voice to countries and environmental groups that said they were excluded from an active role at the Copenhagen summit in December, when world leaders negotiated behind closed doors. Activists say the big industrial powers sabotaged the Copenhagen summit by not agreeing to major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and insist the next big climate change meeting in Mexico in December must include other voices. The Cochabamba summit called for leading industrial nations to cut emissions by 50 percent, a much more ambitious goal than the pledges of cuts from 7 percent to 16 percent in the Copenhagen Accord. "Developed countries ... in the meeting of heads of state in Mexico in December, they've got to listen to the people, take decisions to better the lives of all," Bolivian President Evo Morales told the summit. Earlier in the summit, Morales drew controversy when he said eating chicken fed with hormones causes "sexual deviation" in men and that European men lose their hair because they eat genetically modified food. Capitalism, genetically modified food and global warming were all targets at the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, which drew some 20,000 environmentalists and representatives from 90 governments. Representatives from indigenous groups from all over the world took part in the meeting in the small village of Tiquipaya, which was free and included concerts, theater, a handicrafts market and artists painting murals. SMALL COUNTRIES COULD BACK RESOLUTIONS Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Ecuador, which belong to a leftist group of Latin American countries, as well as Sudan and Saudi Arabia, have been strong critics of the Copenhagen accord. "Climate change is a crisis that was created in the north and its effects are overwhelmingly lived in the south. If you acknowledge that simple fact of justice and decency, that means that southern countries are no longer begging for aid," said Canadian author Naomi Klein. Klein, a prominent activist against global warming, said Cochabamba could help cement an alliance among nations that are already suffering the effects of climate change. "That's a much more empowered position" which calls for "a lot more unity between developing countries," she said. The Cochabamba meeting resolved that an international tribunal should be created to hold those to blame for global warming accountable. It also called for a global referendum on climate change and the creation of a fund to help affected nations cope with global warming. The resolutions are not binding, but countries and social organizations who took part in the summit have pledged to drum up support for them ahead of December's United Nations summit on climate change in Cancun, Mexico. Alicia Barcena, the top UN representative at the meeting, told reporters on Tuesday it was time for the organization to admit it had excluded grassroots groups from the Copenhagen summit, but she was pessimistic about Cancun. "Rio+20 should be our goal, because I don't think Cancun will solve the problems," she said. Late last year, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution agreeing to hold the Rio+20 Earth Summit on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in 2012.

India must ban incandescent light bulbs in favour of more energy efficient light sources, environmental group Greenpeace said on Monday, adding the ban would cut the nation's greenhouse gas emissions by four percent. Currently contributing to around three percent of total global emissions, India is already amongst the world's top five polluters, along with the United States, China, Russia and Japan. Experts say the populous Asian nation's carbon emissions, like those of China, are set to rise steeply due to its rapid economic development. "With India's growing population and ambitious economic plans, carbon emissions will rise to three times more than current levels by 2050," K. Srinivas, Greenpeace's climate change campaigner, told a news conference. "It is therefore essential that India looks at becoming more energy efficient. And one way of doing this is through replacing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lights or CFLs which use much less energy and will cut emissions by four percent." Experts say unchecked greenhouse gas emissions could see temperatures rising between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius (3.2 and 7.8 Fahrenheit) in the 21st century. The Indian subcontinent is expected to be one of the most seriously affected regions in the world by global warming, which will mean more frequent and more severe natural disasters such as floods and droughts, more disease and more hunger. Srinivas said CFLs -- although eight times more expensive than the yellow incandescent bulbs that have been in use virtually unchanged for 125 years -- use 80 percent less energy and would save households and industries money. Approximately 20 percent of electricity generated in India is consumed by lighting, he said, adding that switching to CFLs would also help address the country's growing power needs. In February, Australia announced it would be the first country to ban the light bulbs, saying they would be phased out within three years. However, there are concerns about the mercury content in CFLs by environmentalists, who say disposing of them could present serious health risks due to the toxicity of the heavy metal. Global demand for CFLs remains relatively low, accounting for only 10 percent of the world's market share in light sources. India uses 640 million incandescent light bulbs every year compared to 12 million CFLs, Greenpeace said.

Despite sweeping economic reform and openness to social change, the party does not tolerate criticism and its leader, Nguyen Phu Trong, has intensified a crackdown on dissidents and activists since being re-elected in 2016. At least 16 people have been arrested, detained or convicted this year for anti-government posts on Facebook, a spokesman for rights group Amnesty said. Another 12 political prisoners are behind bars on similar charges. Pham Van Diep, a 54-year-old activist from the northern province of Thanh Hoa, was jailed for nine years for spreading "distorted information defaming the Communist Party and the Vietnamese government," the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) said. "He also spread fake and baseless news about the country’s policies, which caused Facebook users and residents to misunderstand the party and the government," it added. The posts were uploaded between April 2014 and June 2019, and he was jailed for 21 months in Laos for spreading anti-Vietnamese literature there in 2016, it added. Diep is the third person jailed this month, following a music teacher jailed for 11 years on Nov. 15 over similar anti-state posts on Facebook, and a 38-year-old man jailed over broadcasts of 33 live video sessions. The broadcasts aimed to "encourage people to participate in protests during national holidays", a court said. Late last month, a 54-year-old architect was jailed for a year over similar accusations of anti-government posts on Facebook. Widely used in Vietnam, Facebook serves as the main platform both for e-commerce and the expression of political dissent. In May, it said it had boosted more than sixfold the content in Vietnam to which it restricted access in the last half of 2018. Amnesty International and New York-based Human Rights Watch urged Hanoi to halt a crackdown on an independent publisher, and decried curbs on freedom of expression that leave people facing arrest and jail for voicing their opinion. "This crackdown has further exacerbated the prevailing climate of fear in Vietnam," the groups added in a statement on Wednesday.

But the abbot, the Venerable Ambalangoda Sumedhananda Thero, barely registered the blast. Waving away the mosquitoes swarming the night air in the southern Sri Lankan town of Gintota, he continued his tirade: Muslims were violent, he said, Muslims were rapacious. “The aim of Muslims is to take over all our land and everything we value,” he said. “Think of what used to be Buddhist lands: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Indonesia. They have all been destroyed by Islam.” Minutes later, a monastic aide rushed in and confirmed that someone had thrown a Molotov cocktail at a nearby mosque. The abbot flicked his fingers in the air and shrugged. His responsibility was to his flock, the Buddhist majority of Sri Lanka. Muslims, who make up less than 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s population, were not his concern. A demonstration organized by a Buddhist monk in support of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s handling of the Rohingya crisis in Yangon, Myanmar, Oct. 14, 2017. Incited by a politically powerful network of charismatic monks, Buddhists have entered the era of militant tribalism, casting themselves as spiritual warriors who must defend their faith against an outside force. Incited by a politically powerful network of charismatic monks like Sumedhananda Thero, Buddhists have entered the era of militant tribalism, casting themselves as spiritual warriors who must defend their faith against an outside force. A demonstration organized by a Buddhist monk in support of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s handling of the Rohingya crisis in Yangon, Myanmar, Oct. 14, 2017. Incited by a politically powerful network of charismatic monks, Buddhists have entered the era of militant tribalism, casting themselves as spiritual warriors who must defend their faith against an outside force. Their sense of grievance might seem unlikely: In Sri Lanka and Myanmar, two countries that are on the forefront of a radical religious-nationalist movement, Buddhists constitute overwhelming majorities of the population. Yet some Buddhists, especially those who subscribe to the purist Theravada strain of the faith, are increasingly convinced that they are under existential threat, particularly from an Islam struggling with its own violent fringe. As the tectonic plates of Buddhism and Islam collide, a portion of Buddhists are abandoning the peaceful tenets of their religion. During the past few years, Buddhist mobs have waged deadly attacks against minority Muslim populations. Buddhist nationalist ideologues are using the spiritual authority of extremist monks to bolster their support. “The Buddhists never used to hate us so much,” said Mohammed Naseer, the imam of the Hillur Mosque in Gintota, Sri Lanka, which was attacked by Buddhist mobs in 2017. “Now their monks spread a message that we don’t belong in this country and should leave. But where will we go? This is our home.” Last month in Sri Lanka, a powerful Buddhist monk went on a hunger strike that resulted in the resignation of all nine Muslim ministers in the Cabinet. The monk had suggested that Muslim politicians were complicit in the Easter Sunday attacks by Islamic State-linked militants on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, which killed more than 250 people. Monks pray in the Bengala monastery in Yangon, Myanmar, Oct. 4, 2017. Incited by a politically powerful network of charismatic monks, Buddhists have entered the era of militant tribalism, casting themselves as spiritual warriors who must defend their faith against an outside force. In Myanmar, where a campaign of ethnic cleansing has forced an exodus of most of the country’s Muslims, Buddhist monks still warn of an Islamic invasion, even though less than 5% of the national population is Muslim. During Ramadan celebrations in May, Buddhist mobs besieged Islamic prayer halls, causing Muslim worshippers to flee. Monks pray in the Bengala monastery in Yangon, Myanmar, Oct. 4, 2017. Incited by a politically powerful network of charismatic monks, Buddhists have entered the era of militant tribalism, casting themselves as spiritual warriors who must defend their faith against an outside force. Because of Buddhism’s pacifist image — swirls of calming incense and beatific smiles — the faith is not often associated with sectarian aggression. Yet no religion holds a monopoly on peace. Buddhists go to war, too. “Buddhist monks will say that they would never condone violence,” said Mikael Gravers, an anthropologist at Aarhus University in Denmark who has studied the intersection of Buddhism and nationalism. “But at the same time, they will also say that Buddhism or Buddhist states have to be defended by any means.” Thousands of people gathered in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, in May as Ashin Wirathu, a Buddhist monk who was once jailed for his hate speech, praised the nation’s army. Since August 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh. Behind it all was a campaign of ethnic cleansing by the army and its allies, with Buddhist mobs and the country’s security forces subjecting Rohingya Muslims to slaughter, rape and the complete erasure of hundreds of their villages. Ashin Wirathu has rejected the nonviolent teachings of his faith. Military-linked lawmakers deserved to be glorified like Buddha, he said at the rally. “Only the military,” he continued, “protects both our country and our religion.” At another protest last October, Ashin Wirathu slammed the decision by the International Criminal Court, or ICC, to pursue a case against Myanmar’s military for its persecution of the Rohingya. A Sri Lankan Buddhist bows in front of Sitagu Sayadaw, one of Myanmar’s most revered Buddhist leaders, in Delgoda, Sri Lanka, Nov. 18, 2017. Incited by a politically powerful network of charismatic monks, Buddhists have entered the era of militant tribalism, casting themselves as spiritual warriors who must defend their faith against an outside force. Then the monk made a startling call to arms. “The day that the ICC comes here is the day I hold a gun,” Ashin Wirathu said in an interview with The New York Times. A Sri Lankan Buddhist bows in front of Sitagu Sayadaw, one of Myanmar’s most revered Buddhist leaders, in Delgoda, Sri Lanka, Nov. 18, 2017. Incited by a politically powerful network of charismatic monks, Buddhists have entered the era of militant tribalism, casting themselves as spiritual warriors who must defend their faith against an outside force. Monks like Ashin Wirathu inhabit the extremist fringe of Buddhist nationalism. But more respected clerics are involved as well. At 82 years old, the Venerable Ashin Nyanissara, known more commonly as Sitagu Sayadaw, is Myanmar’s most influential monk. As hundreds of thousands of Rohingya were fleeing their torched villages, Sitagu Sayadaw sat in front of an audience of army officers and said that “Muslims have almost bought the United Nations.” The army and monkhood, he continued, “could not be separated.” Sitagu Sayadaw was pictured in May on a Facebook page linked to the Myanmar military, grinning among soldiers. He has offered up his faith’s greatest sacrifice: an army of spiritual soldiers for the national cause. “There are over 400,000 monks in Myanmar,” he told the commander of Myanmar’s armed forces. “If you need them, I will tell them to begin. It’s easy.” “When someone as respected as Sitagu Sayadaw says something, even if it is strongly dismissive of a certain group, people listen,” said Khin Mar Mar Kyi, a Myanmar-born social anthropologist at the University of Oxford. “His words justify hatred.” When suicide bombers linked to the Islamic State blew up churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, Buddhist nationalists felt vindicated. “We have been warning for years that Muslim extremists are a danger to national security,” said Dilanthe Withanage, a senior administrator for Bodu Bala Sena, the largest of Sri Lanka’s Buddhist nationalist groups. “Blood is on the government’s hands for ignoring the radicalisation of Islam,” Withanage said. After a few years of moderate coalition governance, a fusion of faith and tribalism is again on the ascendant in Sri Lanka. The movement’s champion is Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a former defense chief who is the leading candidate for president in elections due this year. Rajapaksa has pledged to protect religion in the country with the longest continuous Buddhist lineage. He is determined to reconstruct Sri Lanka’s security state, which was built during the country’s nearly three-decade-long civil war with an ethnic Tamil minority. From 2005 to 2015, Sri Lanka was led by Rajapaksa’s brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, an unabashed nationalist who justified the brutal end to the civil war by portraying himself as the nation’s spiritual savior. Temples decorated their walls with pictures of the Rajapaksa brothers. Money flowed for radical Buddhist groups that cheered on sectarian rioting in which Muslims died. One of the founders of Bodu Bala Sena, or the Buddhist Power Army, was given prime land in Colombo, the capital, for a high-rise Buddhist cultural center. The national telecom service added Bodu Bala Sena’s theme song to its collection of ringtones. Last year, Bodu Bala Sena’s leader, Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero, was sentenced to six years in prison. But in late May, amid a changing political climate, he received a presidential pardon. On Sunday, he presided over a meeting of thousands of monks intent on making their political presence felt in the upcoming elections. Before his imprisonment last year, Gnanasara Thero placed his campaign in a historical context. “We have been the guardians of Buddhism for 2,500 years,” he said in an interview with The Times. “Now, it is our duty, just as it is the duty of monks in Myanmar to fight to protect our peaceful island from Islam.”   ©2019 New York Times News Service

It was 2016, and a deal had been struck by the Arizona-based mining giant Freeport-McMoRan to sell the site, located in Congo, which figures prominently in China’s grip on the global cobalt supply. The metal has been among several essential raw materials needed for the production of electric car batteries — and is critical to retiring the combustion engine and weaning the world off climate-changing fossil fuels. Perriello, a top US diplomat in Africa at the time, sounded alarms in the State Department. Kapanga, then the mine’s Congolese general manager, all but begged the American ambassador in Congo to intercede. “This is a mistake,” Kapanga recalled warning him, suggesting the Americans were squandering generations of relationship building in Congo, the source of more than two-thirds of the world’s cobalt. Presidents starting with Dwight D Eisenhower had sent hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, including transport planes and other military equipment, to the mineral-rich nation. Richard Nixon intervened, as did the State Department under Hillary Clinton, to sustain the relationship. And Freeport-McMoRan had invested billions of its own — before it sold the mine to a Chinese company. Not only did the Chinese purchase of the mine, known as Tenke Fungurume, go through uninterrupted during the final months of the Obama administration, but four years later, during the twilight of the Trump presidency, so did the purchase of an even more impressive cobalt reserve that Freeport-McMoRan put on the market. The buyer was the same company, China Molybdenum. China’s pursuit of Congo’s cobalt wealth is part of a disciplined playbook that has given it an enormous head start over the United States in the race to dominate the electrification of the auto industry. But an investigation by The New York Times revealed a hidden history of the cobalt acquisitions in which the United States essentially surrendered the resources to China, failing to safeguard decades of diplomatic and financial investments in Congo. Perriello, who has since left government, said he learned of the plan in 2016 to sell Tenke Fungurume not long after touring the mine. The owner had a tarnished reputation for its operations in other countries. But he was convinced that American ownership was good not only for the United States but for the people of Congo. Freeport-McMoRan got largely favourable reviews on the ground, was employing thousands of Congolese and had built schools and health care clinics and provided drinking water. “What can we do?” Perriello recalled asking Linda Thomas-Greenfield — who was then an assistant secretary of state with responsibility for Africa and is now President Joe Biden’s ambassador to the United Nations — about keeping the mine under American control. Perriello said he raised the issue with the National Security Council as well. (A spokesperson for Thomas-Greenfield said she remembered the sale of the mine but not the conversation with Perriello, and several members of the NSC also said they could not recall such a conversation.) The only serious bidders were Chinese companies, leaving no doubt about the consequences of standing by. “They were able to move swiftly and quicker than anybody else could,” Kathleen L Quirk, Freeport-McMoRan’s president, said in an interview. “So we got the deal done.” Freeport-McMoRan had been determined to sell. The company, one of the world’s largest copper-mining outfits, had made a catastrophically bad bet on the oil and gas industry just before oil prices tanked and the world began to shift to renewable energy. With debt piling up, the company saw no option but to unload its Congo operations. The American response, in essence, was nothing because it was a straight financial transaction. The country has no oversight of transactions by American companies abroad. The crisis, exposing significant blind spots of US leaders, was just the kind of opportunity the Chinese government excels at exploiting, according to previously unreported documents and emails and interviews with diplomats, mining executives, government officials and others in China, Congo and the United States. Over the past year, as the clean energy transition has accelerated, the US government and the private sector have moved more rapidly to recover from past mistakes, scouring the world for new cobalt supplies and deploying cobalt-free batteries in some shorter-range electric cars. But all that falls far short of Chinese efforts to take over resources critical to a green future, including cobalt, lithium and others. Cold War Gamesmanship Nixon stood outside the White House with the first lady one morning in August 1970. President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire was about to pay a visit. It had been a decade since Zaire, now Congo, had secured independence from Belgium, and as the leader of a country abundant in natural resources, Mobutu found himself with considerable global clout. Not only did he control those resources, but he had emerged as a key intermediary for the United States in its efforts to keep the Soviet Union from making inroads in Africa. Access to minerals and metals in Congo had been a top priority for the United States since at least World War II. Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1939 urging him to stockpile Congolese uranium, used in the first atomic bombs. By the mid-1960s, the CIA had set up one of its most extensive operations in the country, secretly bankrolling a small army of mercenaries and Congolese troops. The agency ran missions with the help of US warplanes to suppress Soviet-backed rebels. Mobutu, a former army sergeant who would become a corrupt dictator, saw the Americans as an ideal partner in his bid to grow the country’s mining wealth. With an eye to developing Tenke Fungurume, he reached out to a prominent New York diamond merchant named Maurice Tempelsman, according to a series of now declassified cables, to discuss giving him mining rights in the area. But just before his trip to Washington in August 1970, Mobutu made a surprise announcement: He had decided to contract a Belgian company to develop the mine. Washington went into crisis mode as it tried to wrestle back the concession, and its generosity knew no bounds. “Whatever Mobutu wants, give it to him,” Herman J Cohen, an American diplomat in Congo at the time, recalled Nixon signalling to his administration. Hundreds of millions of dollars in US aid had been sent to Mobutu. Now Nixon agreed to give him several C-130 transport planes. The campaign reached a tipping point at a black-tie dinner for Mobutu at the White House, according to Cohen. After the meal, Tempelsman took Mobutu for a private boat ride on the Potomac. Word soon came that the Americans were getting the mining concession. A ‘Grand Reopening’ Mark Mollison, a mining engineer from New York City, climbed into a Toyota Land Cruiser in southeastern Congo, where he had traveled to visit Tenke Fungurume. It was by then an abandoned construction site. Mollison was amazed. He saw hilltops with bald spots where copper and cobalt poked through the surface. “The ore was 10 times as rich as what we were mining in Arizona,” Mollison recalled. It was the late 1990s, and Mollison belonged to a new wave of mining executives who had arrived to pick up the pieces left by the Tempelsman group two decades earlier. After spending $250 million, the group had pulled out when it ran into a series of hurdles, including anti-government rebels who shut down a railroad needed to ship the cobalt and copper to the sea. Kissinger, the secretary of state, helped craft a cable to apologize to the Congolese government in January 1976, explaining that the United States “deeply regrets” the “mothballing” of the project. Interest rekindled many years later after Mobutu was overthrown. The rebel leader, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, had recently seized valuable land near Tenke and Fungurume, the two towns that gave the mine its name. “Everybody thought, 'Boy, this is the grand reopening, a new awakening of Congo,'” Mollison said. Western mining executives and their Wall Street bankers arrived in the region. The investors gathered at a hotel as Kabila’s representatives secured financial commitments for mining access. A memo written by one banker summed up Kabila’s perspective: “Rules of the game: you give and I give.” Lundin Group, a Canadian mining company, was so determined to seal a deal that it agreed to give the rebels $50 million. Mollison’s job, when he arrived several months later, was to evaluate if his company, now called Freeport-McMoRan, should partner with Lundin to finish what Tempelsman had started at Tenke Fungurume. Freeport-McMoRan would later publicise that undertaking as the biggest private investment ever in Congo. “What’s this place going to need?” Mollison recalled wondering. “Electric power. Lots of it. Roads. Plenty of water.” Freeport-McMoRan eventually landed a controlling 57.75% stake in the mine, while Lundin got 24.75%. Congo’s state mining enterprise, Gécamines, kept 17.5%. By the end of 2007, after yet another civil war in Congo, the project got fully underway. Freeport-McMoRan went on a building spree. It helped construct a highway so cobalt and copper could be exported to other parts of Africa. It spent $215 million to refurbish an aging hydroelectric plant. “It was very impressive,” said Pierrot Kitobo Sambisaya, who worked as a metallurgist at the mine for a decade. Freeport-McMoRan had developed one of the most modern and productive cobalt and copper mines in the world. But Freeport-McMoRan made a monumental blunder. Instead of doubling down on mining, it ventured into fossil fuels, spending $20 billion in 2012 to buy two oil and gas companies. When oil prices plummeted, Freeport-McMoRan found itself mired in debt. “It breaks my heart to do it,” Richard Adkerson, Freeport-McMoRan’s CEO, told Wall Street analysts in May 2016 when he announced the company would sell Tenke Fungurume. The top bidder was China Molybdenum, which offered $2.65 billion. The news troubled executives at the mine, including Kapanga, the general manager, who had also worked as a Congolese presidential adviser and diplomat. He phoned the American ambassador, James Swan. “Tenke Fungurume is the jewel in the crown,” Kapanga said he told Swan, worried the United States was inexplicably letting go of its biggest private investment in Congo. Swan declined to comment when contacted by The New York Times. The focus at the time for American diplomats in Congo centred on trying to urge President Joseph Kabila out of office. He had taken over after his father was assassinated in 2001 and spent much of the next 15 years looting millions of dollars from the public treasury. No Lessons Learned The sale of Tenke Fungurume closed in November 2016. It drew little attention in the United States outside the financial news media. Early in his administration, President Donald Trump signalled that challenging China’s efforts to dominate mineral supplies might be a major focus. His administration issued reports on cobalt and the potential for supply shortfalls, taking note of the Tenke Fungurume sale. Nonetheless, history repeated itself. Freeport-McMoRan still owned an undeveloped site that contains one of the world’s most important untapped sources of cobalt. When the company indicated late last year that it intended to sell the site, known as Kisanfu, there was next to no reaction from the US government. “Nobody even talked about this,” said Nazak Nikakhtar, who until January served as the Commerce Department assistant secretary in charge of tracking critical mineral supplies. “It is horrible.” The sale, to China Molybdenum for $550 million, went ahead as announced, a month before Trump left office. With it, the last major US investment in Congo’s cobalt and copper mines evaporated.   © 2021 The New York Times Company

The purchase three years ago, in Exeter, promised to make his sprawling community a major hub for what seemed like Canada’s next big growth industry — legal pot — and the high-paying jobs it would bring. But before any of the 200 or so anticipated jobs in the greenhouse were filled — or before a single marijuana seed was even sown there — it became apparent that Canada was already growing far more marijuana than the market wanted. After sitting idle for two years, the 1-million-square-foot greenhouse was sold last year for about one-third of its original purchase price of 26 million Canadian dollars, or $20.75 million. Exeter’s experience with the greenhouse — high hopes, followed by disappointment — mirrors the broader Canadian story with the business side of legal pot. Analysts say one reason the sunny projections have failed to materialise is the tightly regulated distribution system introduced by Canada, which largely bans advertising and marketing. The halting rollout of stores in some provinces — particularly Ontario — is also a factor. Plus, surveys have suggested that many Canadians are simply not interested in adopting a new vice. “We were looking forward to it,” said the mayor, George Finch, standing outside Exeter’s 19th-century Town Hall. “Sounded too good almost, eh? It’s too bad. So it may well revert to vegetables again.” When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government legalised marijuana in 2018, a primary goal was to create a more equitable justice system — not a major new business sector. Investors, however, thought otherwise, and in the time leading up to legalisation, a “green rush” swept the Toronto Stock Exchange. Money poured into companies starting up to service not only the Canadian market but also eyeing other opportunities, particularly the US market, where more states were embracing legalisation. Long-dormant greenhouses were renovated and sold for record prices like the one in Exeter, and new indoor growing facilities popped up across the nation. Newspapers that had been cutting back on staff hired journalists to cover new marijuana beats. Like plastics in the film “The Graduate,” marijuana seemed destined to become Canada’s next big thing. The investment craze produced a strong echo of the dot-com stock boom of the late 1990s. And it ended with the same collapse. Even with a slight recovery propelled by the spreading legalisation in the United States — New York legalised marijuana last month, and voters in four states backed legalisation in November — one marijuana stock index is still down about 70% from its peak in 2018. And 2 1/2 years after legalisation, most marijuana producers in Canada are still reporting staggering losses. A major new competitor is looming as well; Mexico’s lawmakers legalised recreational pot use last month. So the business climate for Canada’s growers could become even more challenging. “There’s probably going to be a series of shakeouts,” said Kyle Murray, vice dean at the University of Alberta School of Business in Edmonton. “Things were way overblown. It’s very similar to the dot-com boom and then bust.” Canopy Growth, the country’s largest producer, lost CA$1.2 billion, or about $950 million, in the first nine months of its current operating year. Layoffs have swept the industry. Large producers have merged in a bid to find strength in size. The lights have been permanently switched off in many greenhouses in several provinces. The big bets on marijuana, analysts said, were made on the assumption that marijuana sales in Canada would mirror the sharp spike in liquor sales that occurred in the United States after the end of Prohibition. “Everyone thought that in Canada, the industry was going to move further, faster, and that hasn’t happened,” said Brendan Kennedy, chief executive of Tilray, a major grower based in Nanaimo, British Columbia, that lost $272 million last year. “One of the challenges around competing with the illicit market is that the regulations are so stringent.” Kennedy is among the few leaders in Canada’s marijuana industry still standing. As losses piled higher and stocks tumbled, most pioneers were shown the door. When a planned merger between Tilray and Ontario-based Aphria goes through this year, creating what is likely to be the world’s biggest cannabis company, Kennedy will remain as a director, although he will no longer be at the helm. In Ontario, the plan at first was to handle sales through a branch of the government-owned liquor store system, the way it is done in Quebec. But when a new Conservative government came to power in 2018, it swiftly canceled those plans, which left only online sales through a provincial website. Since then, the province’s plans have changed two more times, making for an uneven introduction of privately owned shops. Even after a recent increase in licensing, Ontario still has approved only 575 shops. By comparison, Alberta, which has about one-third of Ontario’s population, has 583 shops. While initial hopes for marijuana wealth were overly optimistic, Murray said he was confident that a viable business will emerge, with the rising number of Ontario shops one sign of that. That prices have dropped closer to parity with street prices should also help legal sales. “None of this means that it’s a bad market,” Murray said of the poor start. “Too much money and too many companies were involved initially. Eventually there will be some companies that are very successful for a long period of time. And if we’re lucky, they become global leaders.” One comparative bright spot has been British Columbia, previously the heart of Canada’s illegal marijuana industry. There, sales in legal stores grew 24% from June to October 2020. And in Quebec, while the government-owned cannabis store operator, Société Québécoise du Cannabis, lost nearly CA$5 million during its first fiscal year, it has since become profitable. Largely disappointed at home, some of the larger growers in Canada have pointed to foreign markets, particularly for medical marijuana, as their next great hope. But many analysts are skeptical. Mexico’s recent move toward creating the world’s largest legal market could doom most marijuana growing in Canada, said Brent McKnight, a professor at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Trade agreements will likely make it impossible for Canada to stop imports from Mexico, while Mexico’s significantly lower labor costs and warmer climate potentially give it a competitive advantage. “That would certainly put some downward pricing pressure on local growers,” he said. And as Canada’s industry is forced to consolidate to survive, some worry about who will lose out as large, publicly traded companies come to dominate the space. Long before legalisation, many of the first shops to defy Canadian marijuana laws were nonprofit “compassion clubs” selling to people who used cannabis for medicinal purposes. The current system’s emphasis on large corporate growers and profits has squeezed many people from minority communities out of the business, said Dr Daniel Werb, a public health researcher and drug policy analyst at St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Werb is part of a research group whose preliminary findings have shown that “there is a marked lack of diversity” in the leadership of the new, legal suppliers, he said. Sellers in Indigenous communities, too, have been left in limbo, generally not subjected to police raids but also outside the legal system, although Ontario has begun licensing shops in some of those communities. “I get more and more concerned about, on the one hand, the lack of ethno-racial diversity and, on the other hand, a lack of imagination around the fact that this didn’t have to be a wholly for-profit industry,” Werb said. “It seems like there was a missed opportunity to think creatively.” © 2021 The New York Times Company

The U.S. fight against climate change isn't just for Democrats any more. Democrats used to own the environmental issue, grabbing votes from party loyalists and independent voters when they stressed their plans to curb global warming. This could be the year Republicans, the party of President George W. Bush, use climate change as a rallying cry at election time. It could also differentiate Republican presidential contenders from Bush administration policies that have left the United States isolated among the world's biggest developed countries. Climate change can draw support from outside the party ranks, former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said. Republicans could use the help after losing control of both houses of Congress in 2006. "Republicans lost in 2006 because independents abandoned our party," Mehlman said at a political discussion several weeks before the Feb. 5 "Super Tuesday" vote. "How do we earn the confidence back of independents? This (climate change) is an issue on which not only you can do it, but it's an issue on which you can do it consistent with conservative values," Mehlman said. Economic conservatives, traditionally Republicans, view technological solutions as a way to create wealth and jobs. Some corporate leaders have backed a federal limit on carbon emissions to prevent a patchwork of state laws. Religious conservatives, often aligned with the Republicans, embrace cutting carbon emissions as an aspect of human stewardship of divine creation. National security conservatives argue that reducing dependence on foreign oil would cut off funding for anti-U.S. elements in the Middle East and elsewhere. This stance is at odds with the current administration, which is alone among major industrialized countries in opposing the carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol. Bush has said the Kyoto plan, which expires in 2012, would put the United States at a disadvantage if fast-growing developing countries like China and India were exempt from its requirements. Republican Sen. John Warner has taken the lead on Capitol Hill, co-sponsoring a bill to cap the carbon dioxide emissions that spur climate change. Arizona Sen. John McCain, front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, sponsored an earlier climate change bill. BIPARTISAN SUPPORT Former Republican Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister now running for president, has been light on specifics to combat climate change but has said that whatever is causing it, humans must act to clean it up. By contrast, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won last month's Republican primary in Michigan -- where his father served as governor and where the Big Three automakers are based -- after taking aim at McCain's support for increased fuel efficiency, saying this would hurt the U.S. auto industry. In California, the biggest prize of "Super Tuesday," Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has headed a campaign to set tougher-than-federal emissions standards for cars, light trucks and sport utility vehicles, and that plan has been taken up by 16 other states. To do this, the states need a waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has yet to be granted. McCain, Huckabee and Romney said at a candidates' debate they supported the waiver, though Romney later modified his answer. In the presidential race, where "change" has become a mantra for candidates in both major parties, Democrats Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois have strongly supported cap-and-trade plans to limit emissions of climate-warming carbon. "The clear bipartisan support for capping global warming pollution should be a wake-up call for Congress," said Tony Kreindler of the non-partisan group Environmental Defense. Polls generally show U.S. voters rank climate change below the top tier issues, such as the economy and the war in Iraq, a finding disputed by David Sandretti of the League of Conservation Voters. "Pollsters put the environment in this little box and pretend that it doesn't bleed over into other issues," Sandretti said in a telephone interview. He noted, as Mehlman did, that climate change is tied to national security, and added that it was also linked to the U.S. energy future. "You can't address global warming without dealing with the energy issue, and the energy issue pervades all aspects of America's political life," Sandretti said.

Police picked up Disha Ravi from her home in Bengaluru and took her to Delhi for questioning over her alleged role in disseminating the document in the months-long protest outside the Indian capital. A Delhi police source said that Ravi had been arrested in connection with a sedition case against the alleged authors of the "toolkit" on how to help the farmers. Sedition carries a penalty of life imprisonment in India. On Sunday a court ordered Ravi into custody for questioning for five days, prompting outrage on social media and among the farm unions. "Disha Ravi's arrest is the latest escalation in India's crackdown on free expression and political dissent, as it seeks to stifle the farmers' mass protests," said Shashi Tharoor, a member of parliament from the main opposition Congress party. Ravi could not be reached in custody and her family was not immediately available for comment. Police have been cracking down on the farmer protests, centred on the outskirts of Delhi, after thousands stormed the iconic Red Fort on India's Republic Day last month. Activists planned protests against Ravi's detention across the country and the hashtag #IndiabeingSilenced was trending on Twitter. Ravi is one of the leaders of the Indian arm of Thunberg's Fridays for Future campaign movement. The Swedish teenager had shared a "toolkit" for people who wanted to help the farmers and said it had been created by those on the ground at the demonstrations. The protests against farm reforms have drawn international support with pop star Rihanna and Meena Harris, a niece of US Vice-President Kamala Harris and activist, drawing attention to the months-long campaign. On Sunday, Meena Harris noted Ravi's arrest and pointed to a Twitter thread on activists being targeted in India. India's government says the reforms are meant to modernise India's antiquated agriculture produce markets and blame vested interests and outsiders for misleading the farmers.

US singer Rihanna, climate change activist Greta Thunberg and US lawyer and activist Meena Harris, the niece of Vice-President Kamala Harris, made comments on social media drawing attention to the plight of farmers who have been on a months-long campaign against reforms. "Before rushing to comment on such matters, we would urge that the facts be ascertained, and a proper understanding of the issues at hand be undertaken," the Indian foreign ministry said.

The ballot is the first major popularity test for the junta led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who has suppressed political activity during the two years since he seized power in a 2014 coup. Ahead of the vote polls suggested a small lead in favor of accepting the new constitution, but most voters were undecided. Polling stations closed at 1600 local time (0500 ET). Preliminary results based on a count of 95 percent of the votes are expected at around 2100 local time (1000 ET). "Voting in all areas was orderly," said Supachai Somcharoen, chairman of the Election Commission, after voting ended. The junta has said the constitution is designed to heal more than a decade of divisive politics in Thailand that has dented growth and left scores dead in civil unrest. Critics, among them major political parties, say it aims to enshrine the military's political role for years to come. Prayuth has said he will not resign if Thailand rejects the constitution and that an election will take place next year no matter what the outcome. "I urge everyone to come out and vote... to decide on the future of the country," Prayuth told reporters after casting his vote at a polling station in northwest Bangkok early on Sunday. Around 200,000 police were deployed for the vote. Of 21 cases of voters tearing ballot papers, some were deliberate and others accidental, said Boonyakiat Rakchartcharoen, deputy secretary-general of the Election Commission. Two students were detained and charged on Saturday in the northeastern province of Chaiyaphum for handing out leaflets urging voters to vote against the referendum, police said. The junta, formally known as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), banned debate about the constitution and campaigning ahead of the vote. The authorities have detained and charged dozens of people who have spoken against it, including politicians and student activists. Jatuporn Prompan, chairman of the anti-government United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship group, said the referendum should not have been held under those conditions. "We condemn the Constitution Drafting Committee and NCPO for holding a referendum under a climate of fear in the kingdom," Jatuporn told reporters. The vote comes amidst concern about the health of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88. The military has for decades invoked its duty as defender of the deeply revered monarch to justify its interventions in politics. DECADE OF TURMOIL Critics say the charter is the military's attempt to make good on their failure to banish former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his brand of populism from Thai politics after the coup that removed him in 2006. Thaksin lives in self-imposed exile but retains a strong influence, particularly with his rural support base in the north. His sister Yingluck swept to power with an electoral landslide in 2011, and her government was ousted by Prayuth n the 2014 coup. Yingluck, who was banned from politics for five years in January 2015 after a military-appointed legislature found her guilty of mismanaging a rice scheme, also voted on Sunday. "I'm happy that I could still exercise my rights as a (Thai) person," Yingluck told reporters after she voted. Thaksin called the charter a "folly", saying it would perpetuate the junta's power and make it impossible to govern Thailand. Reuters interviews with senior officers showed the military's ambition is to make future coups unnecessary through the new charter by weakening political parties and ensuring the military a role in overseeing the country's economic and political development. Under the constitution, which would be Thailand's 20th since the military abolished an absolute monarchy in 1932, a junta-appointed Senate with seats reserved for military commanders would check the powers of elected lawmakers. "I want the country to get better," said farmer Thongyoon Khaenkhaomeng at a polling station in a school in the northeastern city of Khon Kaen. He voted in favor of the constitution because he wanted Thailand's divisions to end, he said. Nearby, voters queued to cast their ballot at the rebuilt city hall, which was burnt down during political unrest in 2010. Day laborer Decha Shangkamanee said he had voted against the charter because he disliked the junta, but did not expect the referendum to make much difference. "I know that nothing really changes today with the way the country is ruled," he said.

After the bloody Liberation War for nine months in 1971, Bangladesh achieved victory and the right to call their homeland a country on the world map following his declaration of independence. Bangladesh celebrated the golden jubilee of independence and the birth centenary of Bangabandhu through the sixth day of a 10-day programme on Monday. Author Selina Hossain, Education Minister Dipu Moni and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam took part in a discussion at the National Parade Ground in Dhaka on the theme “Banglar Mati, Amar Mati” (Bengal’s Soil, My Soil). Nepal's President Bidya Devi Bhandari joined her Bangladesh counterpart Md Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to celebrate the occasions. Sheikh Mujib laid the foundation of the secular Bengali nationalist identity in the world, said Selina. She noted that Bangabandhu demanded to change the name of then East Pakistan to Purbo Bangla in his address to the assembly on Aug 25, 1955. “I will not dishonour my Bengali nation in my death. I will not beg for pardon. While I pass, I will scream: Joy Bangla, Free Bangla, Bengali is my nation, Bangla is my language, the land of Bangla is my place,” she quoted from the speech Bangabandhu delivered upon returning home after he was freed from a Pakistani jail. Shahriar quoted from Bangabandhu’s Jun 7, 1972 address to a rally at the Suhrawardy Udyan, then the Racecourse Ground: “Today I can say that I am a Bengali; I can say that Bengali is a nation; I can say that Bangla’s soil is my soil.” “The killers have snatched him away from us, but we still tread the path he has shown to us. He is the everlasting source of our inspiration,” said Dipu Moni. Bhandari said Bangabandhu has not only won the hearts of Bengalis, he is also a revered leader of this region. “As an excellent orator, organiser and crusader, Bangabandhu won the hearts and minds of the people of Bangladesh and attained the goal of creating a new nation. He is a revered leader of this region,” she said. Hamid called on politicians to start a new chapter in politics by putting aside partisan differences and working for the welfare of the country's poorest and most vulnerable people with the spirit of independence and the principles of Bangabandhu. Marking the twin occasions, Hasina called on world leaders to emphasise sustainable development and warned the adaptation process will fail to provide lasting protection to the most vulnerable countries unless the current trend of climate change is stemmed. An orchestra of instrumentalists performed in the second session of the programme. Nepalese artists performed their traditional dance, among other attarctions.   A Jatrapala or folk theatre drama titled ‘Ma, Mati O Manush’ was also presented at the programme. As many as 100 folk singers performed in chorus afterwards. President of the Maldives Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa have already visited Bangladesh to join the celebrations, while Prime Minister of Bhutan Lotay Tshering and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are among the invitees.

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi risks losing his northern power base of Milan to the left for the first time in two decades after local elections that have shown just how fragile his centre-right coalition is. Around 6 million Italians are eligible to vote in mayoral contests in 90 towns and six provinces on Monday, but the focus is squarely on the main battlegrounds in the financial capital Milan and the southern port of Naples. Voting began at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) on Monday with results expected in the evening after the polls close at 1300 GMT. With the government preparing to bring forward plans to slash the budget deficit by some 40 billion euros ($57 billion) after ratings agency Standard and Poor's cut its outlook for Italy's A+ rating to "negative" from "stable", the stakes are high. Defeat in his hometown of Milan would be a serious blow for a premier already weakened by a series of sex scandals, corruption trials and a sluggish economy and could call into question his government's ability to push through painful cuts. Despite mountainous public debt of about 120 percent of gross domestic product, Italy has largely avoided the financial market turmoil seen in Greece and Portugal but the S&P warning earlier this month was a reminder of the price of inaction. "This is the real dilemma. Will the current government be able to manage it?" business daily Il Sole 24 Ore asked in an editorial on Monday. Berlusconi suffered a drubbing in the first round of voting on May 15 and 16, when an uninspired centre left easily held on to power in Turin and Bologna and forced the centre right into run-offs in Naples and Milan, its longtime stronghold. A loss would almost certainly deepen a rift with his main ally, the Northern League, and could provoke challenges to his otherwise unquestioned leadership of the centre right, although senior ministers have ruled out any change of course before the next national elections in 2013. "I don't see any possibility of an alternative government. And I don't think anyone wants early elections," Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa, one of Berlusconi's most faithful lieutenants, told daily newspaper La Stampa. "ISLAMIC GYPSYLAND" In Milan, where Berlusconi made his business fortune and launched his political career, outgoing centre-right mayor Letizia Moratti trailed with 41.6 percent of the first-round vote against leftist Giuliano Pisapia's 48 percent. "I have seen the climate is changing, Milan is really changing," Milan resident Cinzia Zarotti said after she cast her vote on Monday. Regional issues including transport and the chronic garbage crisis in Naples have weighed on voters' choices but the flailing national economy has overshadowed the polls. Italy has been one of the euro zone's most sluggish economies for over a decade, with more than a quarter of its youth unemployed and the average Italian poorer than he or she was 10 years ago. Berlusconi's government last month was forced to trim its growth forecast for the year to 1.1 percent from 1.3 percent and cut next year's outlook to 1.3 percent from 2.0 percent. S&P's lowered its outlook on Italy for failing to cut its debt and boost growth, although worries of an immediate impact on the markets eased after the Treasury sold long-term bonds near the top of its target range on Monday. [ID:nLDE74T0BE] After being punished for initially characterising the vote as a referendum on his popularity and policies, Berlusconi has since blanketed the airwaves with trademark tirades against his longtime enemies: the left and "communist" magistrates. Milan will become an "Islamic gypsyland" if the left wins, he predicted. Leftist voters lacked a brain anyway, he said, prompting Internet spoofs and a lawsuit from an offended voter. A rant against Italian magistrates to a surprised US President Barack Obama at the Group of Eight summit in Deauville, France prompted Economy Undersecretary Daniela Melchiorre, a former magistrate, to resign in protest.

Three more US congressmen have joined Congressional Caucus for Bangladesh. The three, Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford and New York congressmen Mike McMahon and Scott Murphy, made announced this at a meeting of internal new alliance, the 'New Democratic Coalition Pact', on Monday. The congressmen pledged to work for protecting the interest of Bangladesh on issues like climate change, environment and proposed Indian move to construct Tipai Dam. Bangladeshi-American Public Affairs Front general secretary Hasanuzaman Hasan and US-based BNP leader Gias Ahmed represented Bangladesh community at the meeting. Congressman Joseph Crowley, who is also co-chairman of Bangladesh Caucus, told the meeting that he was working relentlessly for duty free access of the Bangladeshi readymade garments to the US market. He was also concerned about giving expatriate Bangladeshis a legal status to live and work in US. At present there are some 39 congressmen who have joined the Bangladesh Caucus. Patrick Kennedy, son of late senator Edward Kennedy, who was one of the doughtiest friends of Bangladesh, joined Bangladeshi Caucus in America few days ago.

Kolkata, May 14 (bdnews24.com/Reuters)- Kolkata's red-brick secretariat was built more than 200 years ago for Britain's East India Company, which used trade in opium, cloth and tea to colonise the subcontinent. Distrust of foreign merchants lingers still. For the past year, the sprawling building has been occupied by Mamata Banerjee, the diminutive chief minister of West Bengal who is perhaps the largest obstacle to economic reforms that would allow 21st-century traders free access to India's consumer markets. To supporters who affectionately call her "Didi", or "Big Sister", Banerjee is a hero who ended more than three decades of communist rule in West Bengal. They say she shelters farmers and shopkeepers from the harsh winds of globalisation, while guiding West Bengal towards its rightful place as an economic and cultural powerhouse and India's gateway to Southeast Asia. But after a series of erratic moves, including the arrest of an academic who forwarded a joke email about her to his friends, critics see her as an autocrat in the making. Weekly magazine India Today branded her the "Queen of Democrazy". Banerjee's widely ridiculed antics and disappointment with her administration in West Bengal could hasten the end of her honeymoon with the voters. She is also dependent on the central government to bail West Bengal out of a debt crisis. Together, those factors offer Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a chance to out-manoeuvre someone who, despite being a coalition ally, has stood doggedly in the way of much-needed economic reform. In the past year, India's stellar economic growth has slowed and its current account and budget deficits have ballooned. But the central government's attempts to introduce policies it says would remedy the crisis have been blocked by the very coalition allies it relies on for survival, chief among them Banerjee's Trinamool Congress party. "She's very much on the back foot because of her behaviour," said Bengali political analyst Amulya Ganguli, adding a change may now be "in the offing". "There are signs of mellowing. Perhaps she realizes she has to act responsibly and not say no to everything." A weakened Banerjee could make it easier for Singh's government, whose popularity has sagged amid corruption scandals and high inflation, to push through reform. SLUMS AND iPADS Despite modest beginnings as a poor teacher's daughter, Banerjee was named in April one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. Last week she was visited by Hillary Clinton, who praised her political achievements after discussing potential US investment in Indian ports. Talking to Reuters in the same sparse room where she received Clinton, Banerjee however gave cold comfort to US merchants who may have thought a visit from the secretary of state would soften her opposition to foreign supermarkets such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. operating in India. "Never," Banerjee said emphatically. She said she welcomed private investment to create jobs in areas such as tourism and industrial projects, even for hospitals, but would always oppose policies that destroy jobs for farmers and small retailers. "There are some areas I cannot go," she said, clad in a white saree. "I cannot tell the people you just go from your work, you must be jobless because of this." She said she would remain opposed to raising the price of heavily subsidised fuel and rail fares. That is bad news for Prime Minister Singh, whose failure to rein in the deficits and reverse the slowdown has tarnished his reputation as the architect of reforms that transformed India's slow-coach economy 20 years ago. "They talk about price rises only for the common people, you have to nurture other options also, you need to look at other ways out, how you can develop business, how you can find more funds," said Banerjee, whose 19 MPs give Singh's Congress party a majority in parliament. Unmarried and still living in her tin-roofed family house in a Kolkata slum, Banerjee is facing her own financial crisis in the state government, which could give Singh more leverage on his stalled reform agenda. Saddled with India's highest state debt of nearly $40 billion - mostly inherited from her communist predecessors who had ruled from 1977 until elections last year - Banerjee is struggling to pay teachers' salaries and is seeking a three-year moratorium from the central government. Although she proudly brandishes her iPad, Banerjee is drawn to the frugal tradition of Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi. She says she takes no government salary, or perks such as a car and residence. Such personal austerity has not stopped her hiring some 90,000 new teachers and police, despite the state's debts. The cost has raised eyebrows but her finance minister, Amit Mitra, said it was nominal because of low wages. Mitra, a harried-looking former head of India's premier industry chamber, FICCI, said the state's tax take was up 20 percent last year thanks mainly to enforcement. PAST GLORY Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, was Britain's beachhead in India and flourished as an intellectual and industrial capital long after the colonialists were expelled. One of the world's richest cities in the 19th century, Kolkata today is more reminiscent of Cuba's Havana with its faded tropical grandeur and 1950s-style taxis. "We want to restore the past glory of this state," said Banerjee, who has promised to make the city as modern as London and has invited companies to help, including to build a 'Kolkata Eye' to rival the British capital's giant ferris wheel. Projects to paint city bridges and buildings blue and install thousands of ornamental street lights Banerjee designed herself to boost civic pride have been pilloried in the media but officials say they are cost effective. New flyovers to ease congested streets, an airport terminal and the mushrooming of middle-class apartments and office buildings are signs that change is on the way. Overtures to private investment began before Banerjee took office, and many have been disappointed that she has not done more to improve the investment climate in West Bengal. BLACK AND BLUE Devoted to Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel literature prize winner, Banerjee has her own creative leanings as a painter and poet. But critics point to a darker side of someone who does not appear to tolerate dissent. In a sign of her clout, she recently forced the prime minister to fire his railway minister, one of her own party members, after he announced in parliament that rail fares would go up. "When I announced the increase in fares, everyone thumped the desk," the former minister, Dinesh Trivedi, said from his New Delhi residence. "And suddenly, I was asked to go." The fare rise was supported by unions and economists as necessary to help pay for the modernisation of a railway network whose overcrowded trains and creaking infrastructure are a major drag on economic growth. Then in April, 52-year-old chemistry professor Ambikesh Mahapatra forwarded an email doing the rounds that ridiculed Banerjee's treatment of Trivedi. Police detained him for what Banerjee called 'cyber crimes', but not before a group of about two dozen people confronted him and beat him up. "I didn't realise that I was committing some kind of crime," Mahapatra told Reuters. "There is a sense of fear in my mind. Especially because the government seems so unapologetic." Mahapatra's treatment sparked an outcry. Banerjee, once hospitalised for months after Communist thugs punched her to the ground, defeated the leftists partly by railing against the culture of political violence in West Bengal. Her critics now wonder whether life is any different. "White and blue for the bridges, black and blue for the protesters," said Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. "That appears to be her policy at this moment ... She doesn't have any tolerance for even an iota of dissent." Such behaviour has alienated the educated middle classes who cheered her defeat of the left, Bhattacharyya said. Banerjee was visibly annoyed by the charge she was autocratic, saying the campaign against her was orchestrated by the communists she ousted and maintaining that violence has dropped sharply since she took office. Until now, Anand Sharma, the minister who drove the plan to open up India's retail sector, has seen his ambition thwarted. But change might be coming. "With this scientist arrest, she is losing sheen as a dragon slayer," one very senior government adviser said on condition of anonymity. "Perhaps that gives Anand a little more room, we'll see."

Labor returned to power after nine years in opposition as a wave of unprecedented support for the Greens and climate-focussed independents, mostly women, helped unseat the conservative coalition in Saturday's general election. "I look forward to leading a government that makes Australians proud, a government that doesn't seek to divide, that doesn't seek to have wedges but seeks to bring people together," Albanese said during his first media briefing after taking charge as the prime minister. Although votes are still being counted and the makeup of government has yet to be finalised, Albanese was sworn in by Governor-General David Hurley at a ceremony in the national capital, Canberra so he could attend a meeting of the "Quad" security grouping in Tokyo on Tuesday. India, the United States, Japan and Australia are members of the Quad, an informal group that Washington has been promoting to work as a potential bulwark against China's increasing political, commercial and military activity in the Indo-Pacific. Albanese said the country's relationship with China would remain "a difficult one" ahead of the summit with U.S. President Joe Biden and the prime ministers of Japan and India. Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles and three key ministers - Penny Wong in foreign affairs, Jim Chalmers as treasurer and Katy Gallagher in finance - were also sworn in, with Wong to join Albanese on the Quad trip. WORKING CLASS CARD Labor's campaign heavily spotlighted Albanese's working-class credentials - a boy raised in public housing by a single mother on a disability pension - and his image as a pragmatic unifier. Centre-left Labor is leading in 76 seats in the 151 seat lower house, with a few races too close to call, according to the Australian Electoral Commission. Independents or Green party looked set to win more than a dozen seats as counting of postal votes continued. So-called "teal independents" campaigning in affluent, Liberal-held seats on a platform of climate, integrity and equality, could yet hold significant sway. Independent Monique Ryan said climate was the most important issue to constituents in her seatof Kooyong in Melbourne, which outgoing Treasurer Josh Frydenberg formally conceded on Monday. "We listened to what people wanted, we listened to their values and their desires, and we put together a platform that reflected those," Ryan said. Albanese said he hoped Labor would get enough seats to govern on their own but added he had struck agreements with some independents that they not support no-confidence motions against his government. After his return from Japan, Albanese said, he would act swiftly to implement his election promises, including setting up a national anti-corruption commission and a A$15 billion ($10.6 billion) manufacturing fund to diversify Australia's economy. The swearing-in of the full ministry will happen on June 1, he said. Australian financial markets offered a muted reaction to the election verdict on Monday, with the outcome already priced in and no radical change in economic course expected. "Our economic forecasts and call on the (Reserve Bank of Australia) are unchanged despite the change of national leadership," economists at Commonwealth Bank of Australia said.

Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" earned $64.1 million (40.7 million pounds) at U.S. and Canadian theatres during its second weekend, topping box office charts in a sluggish overall market facing Olympic television coverage and the impact of the Colorado shooting. The finale in director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy starring Christian Bale added $122.1 million from international markets and has pulled in $248.2 million overseas since its July 20 debut, distributor Warner Bros. said. Add in cumulative ticket sales of $289 million in domestic markets - the United States and Canada - and the global haul now stands at $537 million for the film that cost its backers some $250 million to make and tens of millions more to market. Sales in U.S. and Canadian theatres dropped 60 percent from its debut weekend, a bigger decline than predecessor "The Dark Knight" or other recent superhero films. In 2008, "Dark Knight" fell 53 percent during its second weekend to earn $75 million domestically, according to Hollywood.com Box Office. This year, summer smash "The Avengers" slipped 50 percent in the weekend following its opening in May, and June release "The Amazing Spider-Man" declined 44 percent. While "Dark Knight Rises" ranks as one of the year's highest-grossing movies, sales are weaker than pre-release forecasts after the opening was overshadowed by the killing of 12 moviegoers at a midnight screening in Aurora, Colorado. Through Sunday, total "Dark Knight Rises" sales in North America ran behind "Dark Knight," which hauled in $313.8 million domestically through its first two weekends. IMPACT OF OLYMPICS, SHOOTING Warner Bros. officials declined to discuss box office and its relation to the shooting for the second week, but industry watchers said the turnout for the Batman film and other movies likely suffered from some moviegoer reluctance after the massacre, as well as Friday's start to the London Olympics. "It's been a double dose of things," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com Box Office. "The Olympics has been dominating media coverage lately and probably kept a lot of people home Friday night, and then there's the Aurora shooting." He noted that lacklustre reviews for this weekend's new features likely further dampened theatre attendance but predicted that next weekend will see a resurgence. "There will be a bit more distance from the Aurora shooting, the Olympics will become routine, and there's some really exciting films coming out," Dergarabedian said, mentioning upcoming "Total Recall" and "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days." Overall domestic ticket sales for the weekend came in 25 percent lower than the same weekend one year ago, according to Hollywood.com Box Office. The No. 2 spot belonged to animated children's movie "Ice Age: Continental Drift," with $13.3 million. It beat out comedy "The Watch" and dance movie "Step Up Revolution," both of which made their theatre debuts this weekend. "The Watch" came in third, earning $13 million at domestic theatres. The film stars Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Jonah Hill as men who start a neighbourhood watch group to battle aliens. The movie earned largely negative reviews, with just 14 percent of critics praising the film on website Rotten Tomatoes. "The Watch" also was affected by real-life events. In May, 20th Century Fox changed the movie's title from "Neighbourhood Watch" to distance it from the fatal shooting of black teenager Trayvon Martin by Neighbourhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Florida. Ahead of the weekend, Fox saw the $68 million production pulling in $13 million to $15 million. "We didn't really know what to expect," said executive vice president for domestic distribution at Fox Chris Aronson, speaking on the box office climate, post-shooting. "It's a wild-card weekend for sure." Aronson said he "hopes for a bounceback in the overall marketplace," which he predicted would benefit all films. "Step Up Revolution" finished in fourth place with $11.8 million domestically. The movie about a group of flash-mob dancers in Miami is the fourth in a franchise that has grossed more than $400 million around the world. Its distributor had forecast a domestic opening in the low- to mid-teens. Comedy "Ted" rounded out the top five with $7.4 million. "Step Up Revolution" was released by a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment. "The Watch" and "Ice Age" were released by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp. Sony Corp's movie division distributed "Spider-Man."

While the 2008 presidential campaign grabs most of the headlines, Republicans hope to buck the odds on another front -- the U.S. Senate, where last year they narrowly lost control to the Democrats. With a 51-49 Democratic majority and 34 seats up for grabs in November 2008, experts say the fight is the Democrats' to lose. They only have 12 seats to safeguard. President George W. Bush's Republicans have to defend 22. "I see all kinds of potential for Democrats out there, I just don't know if it's going to be realized," said Jennifer Duffy, an expert at the Cook Political Report who specializes in Senate races. "I don't think the majority is in play ... The Republicans' goal is to keep their losses at a minimum," she said. Control of the Senate will be crucial to the White House next year, no matter who succeeds Bush. A president's policies can live or die there because major bills routinely require 60 votes to clear potential hurdles and win passage. The prolonged Iraq war, an anemic economy, differences over tax cuts and squabbles over climate change will dominate Senate races, said Anthony Corrado, a government professor at Colby College in Maine. "This is going to be an election where the Republicans are on the defensive," he said, and arguments for change will dominate the political discussion. Duffy said it was by no means guaranteed that Democrats would pick up many seats. An ABC News/Washington Post poll showed support for Democrats dropping 10 points since April to 44 percent. Democrats were voted into power in 2006 largely on a pledge to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq but so far have been unable to deliver. A turning point could be September when Congress is due to consider several anti-war measures. Several Republicans are seen as ripe for knocking out to boost Democrats' lead: Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and New Hampshire Sen. John Sununu. So is a seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Wayne Allard of Colorado. Democrats must also defend a few seats: Sen. Mary Landrieu in Louisiana, Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor and South Dakota's Sen. Tim Johnson who is recovering from brain surgery last December. Republicans have yet to settle on a candidate for Landrieu's seat and political watchers are speculating that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee could drop his presidential ambitions and instead challenge Pryor. Sen John Ensign, head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, thinks his party will do better than some think. "The odds makers would have given the Democrats almost no shot at taking the Senate two years ago and they would have been wrong," he said. "We're of the opinion that you run elections and you see what the results are." Ensign said the Democrats' call for reversing some tax cuts and their opposition to the Iraq war would aid Republicans, who lost six seats and Senate control in 2006. Ensign's Democratic counterpart, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, counters that the Iraq war, now in its fifth year, would help his party and that Democrats had a history of balancing the budget, which should resonate with voters. "Republicans have lost touch and we're going to sweep in on a mandate of change," said Schumer, head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Republicans could face an even tougher fight if senators like John Warner of Virginia and Pete Domenici of New Mexico retire, putting more seats in play. Yet another hurdle is fund-raising. The Democratic campaign has raised twice the money of its Republican rival during the first four months of 2007, $18.3 million to $9.1 million. In a tight Minnesota race, comedian Al Franken, the leading Democratic challenger, has already raised $1.35 million in the first quarter, a strong showing against the $1.53 million raised by Coleman.

When Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died this week after an 85-day hunger strike, hopes for near-term improvement in US-Cuba relations may have died with him, political experts said on Friday. His death in a protest against prison conditions added to tensions caused by the arrest of an American contractor in Cuba and made the political climate tougher for diplomatic and legislative moves to improve ties with the island, they said. "For the time being all bets are off regarding further progress in US-Cuba relations," said Marifeli Perez-Stable, a Cuba analyst at Florida International University in Miami. Zapata's death prompted indignant statements in Washington, where long-time opponents of communist Cuba said it showed the United States must not appease the government of President Raul Castro by easing the 48-year trade embargo against the island, the cornerstone of US-Cuba policy. "Let us take his sad and untimely death and renew our commitment to assure that the Cuba of the future is rid of the failed ideology which killed this brave man," said Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida. Zapata's death makes it harder for supporters of a thaw in relations with Cuba to make their central argument -- that the best way to encourage change in Cuba is to get closer to the island. Coincidentally, new legislation was proposed on the day of Zapata's death that would do just that by ending a general ban on US travel to Cuba and making it easier for Cuba to buy food from the United States. "I have always felt -- and continue to believe -- that if we are truly going to do a better job of standing with the Cuban people, then we need to be closer to them," Democratic Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts said in the US House of Representatives. "We need to travel freely to the island to meet and learn from them, and them from us," he said. In the same statement, McGovern expressed his "deepest sorrow and outrage" at Zapata's death, saying the Cuban government could have intervened to prevent it. Spain is facing a similar problem. Spain, which is currently presiding over the European Union, has pushed to remove a clause from the EU's common position on Cuba urging democracy and greater respect for human rights on the island. Havana has said the clause is an obstacle to full normal relations with the 27-nation bloc. NAIL IN COFFIN Under pressure from Spanish media, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, a socialist and long-time advocate of close ties with Havana, lamented Zapata's death and demanded that Cuba free political prisoners and respect human rights. "That is a fundamental demand of the entire international community," he said in the Spanish parliament. Perez-Stable said Zapata's death would likely put the nail in the coffin of Spain's efforts to improve EU-Cuba ties. "Havana should forget about the EU lifting the common position," she said. Cuba watchers said the dissident's death was a setback for the Cuban government's diplomatic efforts to bring pressure to bear on the United States to drop the embargo. Cuba's small dissident community, meanwhile, vowed to step up demands for democratic change on the island, so that Zapata will not have died in vain. On Friday, five dissidents -- four of them currently in prison -- announced they had begun hunger strikes aimed at forcing the government to free political prisoners. "This death weighs on the heart of all of us," said leading dissident Oswaldo Paya. "This is a before and after. We're not going to use violence, but the government is sending a dangerous message to the Cuban people," Paya said.

Bloomberg has advised friends and associates that he would be willing to spend at least $1 billion of his own money on a campaign for the November 2016 election, the Times said, citing sources briefed on the former mayor's thinking. Bloomberg, 73, has given himself an early March deadline for entering the race, the Times reported, after commissioning a poll in December to see how he would fare against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the Republican and Democratic frontrunners. No independent has ever won a US presidential election. But Bloomberg, who has close Wall Street ties and liberal social views, sees an opening for his candidacy if Republicans nominate Trump or Texas Senator Ted Cruz and the Democrats nominate Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the Times said. Bloomberg, who has long privately flirted with the idea of mounting a presidential run, served as mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013. He switched his party affiliation from Republican to independent in 2007 and in recent years has spent millions on national campaigns to tighten US gun laws and reform immigration. One anonymous Bloomberg adviser told the Times the former mayor believes voters want “a non-ideological, bipartisan, results-oriented vision” that has not been offered in the 2016 election cycle by either political party. A well-financed presidential run by Bloomberg would likely disrupt the dynamics of the election, but the billionaire would face significant hurdles in a race that has been in full swing for nearly a year. Though no third-party candidate has ever claimed the White House, several previous bids have affected the overall makeup of the race. In 1992 Texas businessman Ross Perot ran as an independent, a decision that some believe helped Democrat Bill Clinton defeat incumbent Republican George H. W. Bush. Part of Bloomberg's motivation to enter the race stems from a frustration with Clinton's campaign, the Times reported. Clinton has been dogged by questions about her honesty amid an ongoing investigation into her use of a private email server as secretary of state. Sanders, Clinton's chief rival, has recently surged in polling in key early voting states Iowa and New Hampshire. That development has made Bloomberg increasingly worried about a general election between Sanders, a self-described socialist, and Trump or Cruz, both of whom have staked out far-right positions on issues like immigration. Representatives for Bloomberg could not immediately be reached for comment.

“We want to go too fast,” said Jean-Pierre Door, a conservative lawmaker with a lot of angry constituents. “People are being pushed to the limit.” Three years ago, Montargis became a centre of the Yellow Vest social uprising, an angry protest movement over an increase in gasoline taxes that was sustained, sometimes violently, for more than year by a much broader sense of alienation felt by those in the outlying areas that France calls its “periphery.” The uprising was rooted in a class divide that exposed the resentment of many working-class people, whose livelihoods are threatened by the clean-energy transition, against the metropolitan elites, especially in Paris, who can afford electric cars and can bicycle to work, unlike those in the countryside. Now as Door and others watch the global climate talks underway in Glasgow, where experts and officials are warning that immediate action must be taken in the face of a looming environmental catastrophe, the economic and political disconnect that nearly tore apart France three years ago remains just below the surface. There are plenty of people in the “periphery” who understand the need to transition to clean energy and are already trying to do their part. But if the theme of COP26, as the Glasgow summit is known, is how time is running out to save the planet, the immediate concern here is how money is running out before the end of the month. Household gas prices are up 12.6% in the past month alone, partly the result of shortages linked to the coronavirus. Electric cars seem fancifully expensive to people encouraged not so long ago to buy fuel-efficient diesel automobiles. A wind turbine that will slash property values is not what a retired couple wants just down the road. “If Parisians love wind turbines so much, why not rip up the Bois de Vincennes and make an attraction of them?” asked Magali Cannault, who lives near Montargis, alluding to the vast park to the east of Paris. For President Emmanuel Macron, facing an election in April, the transition to clean energy has become a delicate subject. He has portrayed himself as a green warrior, albeit a pragmatic one, but knows that any return to the barricades of the Yellow Vests would be disastrous for his election prospects. Each morning, at her farm a few miles from town, Cannault gazes from her doorstep at a 390-foot mast built recently to gauge wind levels for proposed turbines. “Nobody ever consulted us on this.” The only sounds as she spoke on a misty, damp morning were the honking of geese and the crowing of roosters. Claude Madec-Cleï, the mayor of the nearby village of Griselles, nodded. “We are not considered,” he said. “President Macron is courting the Greens.” In fact, with the election looming, Macron is courting just about everyone and is desperate to avoid a return of the Yellow Vests. The government has frozen household gas prices. An “energy check” worth $115 will be sent next month to some 6 million people judged most in need. An “inflation indemnity” for the same amount also will be sent to about 38 million people earning less than $2,310 a month. Gasoline inflation has been a main driver of these measures. Sophie Tissier, who organized a Yellow Vest protest in Paris in 2019, said a heavy police response made it “very hard to restart the movement,” despite what she called “a grave social crisis and rampant anger.” She added that inequalities were so extreme in France that “it prevents us making an ecological transition.” The president touts the realism of his energy proposals. These combine the development of new small-reactor nuclear power with the embrace of wind power and other renewables. To his left, the Green movement wants nuclear power, which accounts for 67.1% of France’s electricity needs, phased out, an adjustment so enormous that it is derided by conservatives as heralding “a return to the candlelight era.” To Macron’s right, Marine Le Pen favours the dismantling of the country’s more than 9,000 wind turbines, which account for 7.9% of France’s electricity production. In the middle, millions of French people, buffeted between concern for the planet and their immediate needs, struggle to adjust. Christine Gobet drives her small diesel car about 90 miles a day from the Montargis area to her job at an Amazon warehouse on the outskirts of Orléans, where she prepares packages and earns about $1,600 a month. Sitting at the wheel outside a garage where her diesel engine had just been replaced at a cost of about $3,000, she mocked the notion of switching to an electric car. “For people like me, electric is just out of the question,” she said. “Everything’s going up, there’s even talk of more expensive baguettes! We were pushed to diesel, told it was less polluting. Now we are told the opposite.” At the start of the Yellow Vest movement, she joined demonstrations in Montargis. It was not just financial pressure that pushed her. It was a sense that “we are not listened to, that it’s those elites up on high who decide and we just suffer the consequences.” She dropped out of the movement when it became violent. At a traffic circle on the edge of Montargis, known as the “peanut roundabout” because of its shape, traffic was blocked for two months, and stores ran out of stock. Today, she feels that little has changed. In Paris, she said, “they have everything.” Anne Hidalgo, the Paris mayor and a socialist candidate for the presidency, wants “no more cars in the city and has no time for people from the provinces who go there to work.” For working-class people like Gobet, who was mentioned in a recent 100-part series called “Fragments of France” in the newspaper Le Monde, calls in Glasgow to stop using fossil fuels and close nuclear power stations appear wildly remote from their daily lives. At 58, she illustrates a generational chasm. The world’s youth led by Greta Thunberg is on one side, convinced that no priority can be more urgent than saving the planet. On the other are older people who, as Door put it, “don’t want the last 20 years of their lives ruined by environmental measures that drive energy prices up and the value of the house they put their money in down.” The area around Montargis has attracted many retirees who want to be close to Paris without paying Paris prices, as well as many immigrants who live on the outskirts of town. Gilles Fauvin, a taxi driver with a diesel Peugeot, was at the same garage as Gobet. He said most of his business comes from taking clients with medical needs to hospitals in Orléans and Paris. The combination of plans to ban diesel cars from the capital by 2024 and pressure to switch to expensive electric cars could ruin him. “Diesel works for me,” he said. But of course, diesel cars produce several pollutants. The question for Yoann Fauvin, the owner of the garage and the taxi driver’s cousin, is whether electric cars are really better. “You have to mine the metals for the batteries in China or Chile, you have to transport them with all the carbon costs of that, you have to recycle the batteries,” he said. In front of him a classic green 1977 Citroen 2CV was being reconditioned and a diesel Citroen DS4 repaired. “This business lives from diesel,” he said. “Around here energy transformation is laughed at. It’s wealthy people who move to electric cars, the people who don’t understand what goes on around here.” Magalie Pasquet, a homemaker who heads a local association against wind power called Aire 45, said her opposition to about 75 new turbines planned for the area has nothing to do with dismissing environmental concerns. She recycles. She is careful about traveling. She composts. She wears two sweaters rather than turn up the heat. She finds the environmental idealism of the young inspiring. But the world, she believes, has put the cart before the horse. “Why destroy a landscape that attracts people to this area when the real energy issue is overconsumption?” she asked. “Local people are not consulted, and even mayors are powerless to stop these ugly turbines.” A friend, Philippe Jacob, a professor of management and marketing also involved in the movement against the turbines, said the Yellow Vest movement had stemmed from rising gasoline prices, falling purchasing power, deteriorating public services, and widespread dissatisfaction with top-down decision-making. “The same is true today, and the situation is very dangerous,” he said. “People have invested their life savings here, and nobody listens when they say planned turbines and biogas plants will mean the region is ruined.” © 2021 The New York Times Company

European Union states must meet pledges to boost aid to poor countries, the EU executive said on Wednesday, warning that missing U.N. goals would be a disaster for developing nations and threaten global stability. Progress has been made towards the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, the European Commission said, but each year 11 million children die of curable illnesses, one person in four lacks access to drinking water, 114 million children have no primary education and 584 million women are illiterate. "Missing the Millennium Development Goals would be a disaster for developing countries, a failure for Europe, and a potential threat to global stability," the Commission said. "With seven years remaining, the message for 2008 is that the Millennium Development Goals can be achieved, but for this to happen, increased political and public support will be needed," the EU executive said in a statement. The Commission called on EU states to deliver on pledges to boost development aid to 0.56 percent of Gross National Income (GNI) by 2010 and 0.7 percent in 2015, terming this vital to containing problems like migration, security and climate change. It called on each of the 27 EU states to draw up financial plans showing year by year increases to meet the goals. The European Union is the world's biggest aid donor, committing more than 46 billion euros in 2007, but the total amount fell about 1.7 billion euros from 2006, enough to have financed 4,500 schools or 1,200 hospitals. "SERIOUS FAILURE" Aid and development Commissioner Louis Michel last week called this a "serious failure". The Commission urged more effective aid by avoiding duplication of effort, help to developing countries to use biofuels to fight poverty, and steps to help limit brain drains, particularly in health, education and research. "Fundamental principles of aid effectiveness are not yet being respected," it said, adding that it would put forward proposals to improve the situation state by state. It called for 2 billion euros ($3.15 billion) to be allocated by 2010 to the Aid for Trade programme aimed at helping poorer countries take advantage of export opportunities, with special focus on African, Caribbean and Pacific states. Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said 2008 must be a year of action not just words. "If we want to remain credible, we have to deliver on our promises" he said in a statement. A report last week by the 22 member Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said development aid from all the world's biggest donors fell last year, largely due to the end of big debt relief packages. In 2000, 189 U.N. members agreed goals aimed at eradicating poverty, promoting human and social development and protecting the environment. In 2005 EU heads of state agreed targets for 2015 of a halving of extreme poverty, access to primary education by all boys and girls and improved health standards. Aid reached 0.38 percent of the EU's GNI last year, below an interim target for 2006 of 0.39 percent -- which the bloc did fulfil in 2006. The European Commission estimates Official Development Assistance amounted to 93 euros per EU citizen, compared to 53 euros per person in the United States and 44 euros in Japan.

The Pacific gray whale population, thought by some experts to have rebounded fully from the ravages of whaling, actually is back to a mere fraction of historic levels, scientists said on Monday. Knowing that an examination of genetic variation within a species can help gauge past population numbers, the scientists used a US government tissue collection to analyze DNA samples from 42 gray whales. The genetic variation seen among these whales indicated a past population far bigger than the current 22,000, researchers at Stanford University and the University of Washington wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They determined that before large-scale hunting of this species began in the 19th century, there were about 96,000 gray whales in the Pacific Ocean -- with as many as many as 118,000 and as few as 76,000. That would mean the current count is 19 percent to 29 percent of the pre-hunting population. The gray whale is a large baleen whale -- a "filter feeder" that feasts on large amounts of small sea creatures -- that first swam the world's oceans perhaps 20 million years ago. "The gray whale population is one of the few baleen whale populations thought to have recovered completely from whaling. In other words, it was thought that there are as many gray whales now as there ever were," Stanford marine biologist Liz Alter, one of the researchers, said in a telephone interview. "But when we surveyed genetic diversity we found a much higher level of diversity than we would have expected given the size today, indicating that there once were many more gray whales in the Pacific Ocean than there are now," Alter added. This marine giant was hunted to the brink of extinction, with the population bottoming out at perhaps a few thousand by the end of the 19th century and through the 1920s, the researchers said. The gray whale disappeared from the Atlantic Ocean centuries ago, with some experts blaming whaling. The gray whale migrates along North America's Pacific Coast between arctic seas and the lagoons off of Mexico's Baja California. It was given its name due to the gray patches and white mottling on its dark skin. They are about 46 feet (14 meters) long and weigh up to 40 tonnes. Gray whales feed off the sea bottom, scooping up mud and eating small crustaceans and tube worms found in sediments. The gray whale was given partial protection in 1937 and full protection in 1947 by the International Whaling Commission, the American Cetacean Society said. Once hunted in large numbers, gray whales now attract whale watchers along North America's Pacific coast. The whales are still occasionally hunted. Five Washington state American Indian hunters may face prosecution from their Makah tribe after illegally shooting and killing a gray whale on Saturday with harpoons and a rifle often used to hunt elephants. A number of gray whales have been spotted by scientists in recent years suffering from starvation. The researchers said their findings suggest the whales have less to eat due to changing climate conditions in their Arctic feeding grounds. The researchers said other animals also may have been affected by the diminished numbers of the gray whale. Fellow Stanford researcher Steve Palumbi said Arctic seabirds foraged on creatures dug up by the whales as they fed on the bottom. Palumbi said that 96,000 gray whales would have helped feed more than a million seabirds annually.

Burundi is due to hold a referendum on May 17 to decide whether to amend the constitution to extend presidential terms to seven years from five. Human rights groups say they do not think the vote will take place in a free and fair climate, while there has been sporadic incidents of violence and abductions. Emmanuel Bigirimana, the head of Buganda district, said the incident happened in a village called Ruhagarika at around 10 pm on Friday. "They arrived at the village ... armed with rifles, some with machetes, and started shooting. Some died instantly and others were rushed to the hospital," he told Reuters by phone. "The attackers were around 20 and nearly all of them were in military uniforms." Burundi was plunged into crisis in April 2015 when President Pierre Nkurunziza said he planned to run for a third term, which the opposition said was unconstitutional and violated a peace deal that had ended the country's civil war in 2005. Nkurunziza was re-elected, but some of his opponents took up arms against him. Rights groups say an estimated 400,000 people have sought refuge from the violence in neighbouring countries. Government officials and members of the opposition have been among those killed in tit-for-tat violence by rival sides. The proposed constitutional changes would limit the president to two consecutive terms but would not take into account previous terms, potentially extending Nkurunziza's rule to 2034. Three residents at the village who did not wish to be named said it was likely the attack was to warn against anyone voting in favour of constitutional changes. But Bigirimana downplayed that, saying the attackers were not politically motivated, given they targeted three homesteads and killing only women and children. "A whole family of six people has also been slain. The attack was not politically motivated but was rather a settlement of a score," he said.

Pressures, hopes, aspirations — this was the burden on Harris at the Democratic convention as she sought, in telling the story of her life, to introduce herself to a nation and a party that really barely knows her. But this is also the burden that will be on her for the next four years if she and Biden win in November. Rarely has a vice-presidential candidate served under a presidential nominee who well may not seek a second term. As a result, Harris carries an extraordinary weight of expectations from her party to rise to the demands of leadership. “That’s a lot to put on the shoulders of a person,” said Tim Kaine, the Virginia senator who was the vice-presidential candidate for Hillary Clinton in 2016. In the tumultuous tent that is the ever-changing Democratic Party, he said, there was no one person Biden could have chosen who would appeal to everyone. “There’s no way that you’re going to get, in this broad family, like everybody like, ‘Oh, you were my first pick,’” he said, even as he spoke enthusiastically about Harris. If anything, the first two days of the convention were about the party trying to paper over any kinds of disagreements, aiming to present a united front of moderates and progressives, as well as some Republicans and democratic socialists. With elaborate videos and stage-managed speeches, Democrats showcased diversity — racial, gender, age — while nominating a 77-year-old white grandfather from Delaware as their standard-bearer. Party leaders gave small slots to liberals, although barely gave a platform to their policy goals like “Medicare for All.” For the time being, the party’s desire to beat President Donald Trump overrides all other factors. But if the Democrats succeed, Trump will be gone, and the challenge of satisfying the many constituent parts of the Democratic Party will become only more difficult for Harris, the figure who is supposed to be that bridge for generations and the face of the party’s future. Like every vice-presidential candidate, Harris will be judged in the coming weeks in a multitude of ways: her ability as a campaigner and her skill at drawing in Trump, debating Mike Pence and exciting turnout among voters — particularly younger voters and progressives — who might not be overly enthusiastic about turning out in a pandemic to support Biden. But as a woman of colour seeking an office held only by white men so far, she may also be judged by some in ways that reflect deep-seated biases that remain strong in segments of the country. Harris took this subject on directly for her Democratic audience, and it is probably not the last time she will need to address it in the months ahead. “We must elect a president who will bring something different, something better, and do the important work,” she said, speaking from Wilmington. “A president who will bring all of us together — Black, white, Latino, Asian, Indigenous — to achieve the future we collectively want. We must elect Joe Biden.” She now faces some daunting tests as she steps into the biggest spotlight of her career at a pivotal moment for the nation and her party. Can Harris, a former prosecutor and relatively moderate Democrat, navigate the complex political terrain marked by a rapid transformation in ideology, powered by the rise on the left, and on the verge of a generational handoff? Given Biden’s age, does the first-term Democratic senator from California, whose career in public service began 16 years ago as the San Francisco district attorney, seem prepared to step into the Oval Office should that be necessary? In her speech, Harris spoke about the threat of the pandemic and a president “who turns our tragedies into political weapons.” She talked about grief and “a loss of normalcy” as the nation struggles with COVID-19 and pointed out that Black, Latino and Indigenous people were suffering disproportionately because of “structural racism.” In perhaps her most direct callout to the thousands of Americans who have marched against police abuses in cities for months, she said, “There is no vaccine for racism.” She named victims of police violence like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. But she spent just as much time on the centrality of family and friendships, and her biography as a prosecutor defending people and victims. “I know a predator when I see one,” she said. She would be the first Black woman and first person of Indian descent to ever serve as vice president, and the power of such a historically symbolic choice was evident in the excitement that greeted her selection and has coursed through this convention (albeit virtually). After a primary that was dominated by two white men and one white woman, all over 70 years old, the nomination of a 55-year-old woman of colour signalled that the Democratic Party’s leadership is catching up with the demographic changes that have swept the country. She has shown herself to be a fierce debater and sharp speaker during her short-lived campaign for president and, even more, as a member of the Judiciary Committee questioning Attorney General William Barr. There is little doubt in Democratic circles that she will live up to the tradition of vice-presidential candidates wielding the sword against the other side. “Donald Trump’s failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods,” she said. “The constant chaos leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callousness makes us feel alone. It’s a lot.” But even the toughest campaign in California doesn’t approach what it’s like battling on a national stage, particularly in a nation as polarized as this one, and particularly in the age of Trump. She has had competitive contests in California, but her presidential campaign collapsed early, beset by infighting and a lack of clear message from its candidate. Patti Solis Doyle, who served as a campaign manager for Clinton’s 2008 presidential run, pointed to the surge of contributions that followed Harris’ announcement — $48 million in 48 hours — as a sign of the enthusiasm she infused into the presidential race. “Voters, Democrats — are excited at the prospect of the first African American woman, the first American Indian woman on a national ticket,” Solis Doyle said of Harris, who is the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica. Kaine said Harris could help the ticket expand its generational appeal, engaging Americans who feel it’s time for a new guard even as some older voters have indicated that they are comfortable with Biden’s centrist views and promises to restore civility and stability to government. “There’s a segment of the Democratic vote, not all of this, but a segment that may be a little bit older that just wants competence and character and kind of old-time virtues to come back into the Oval Office,” he said. “You also want to have some excitement and energy. And Kamala really brings that.” But her bigger challenge — for Harris as a candidate, potential vice president and future party leader — is how she responds to the rising influence of the left-wing of the party. Biden won the Democratic primary on his strengths with Black voters, older voters and white suburbanites, but younger and more liberal voters overall were sceptical of his centre-left instincts and embrace of bipartisanship, of which they were reminded with the awarding of prime speaking spots Monday and Tuesday to Republicans backing Biden. And while Harris, as a product of California, is more fluent in the language of the left than Biden, her selection did not reassure many liberal Democrats, wary of her record on policing issues. “She’s the choice of the party establishment to be the standard-bearer, but she’s not the choice of the party’s base, especially the next generation of Democrats,” said Waleed Shahid, a spokesman for the prominent progressive organization Justice Democrats. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, one of the most prominent leaders of the progressive wing, never mentioned Biden or Harris when she spoke for 90 seconds nominating Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on Tuesday night. That dissent has been largely submerged during this convention, testimony to the party’s hunger to defeat Trump. But that will change if the Democrats win. Harris will need to finesse this divide or risk a primary from the left should the time come when she is the one running for president. Varshini Prakash, the executive director of the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led group of climate activists, said Harris’ nomination was a historic moment that excited Democrats across generational and ideological spectrums. “I think Kamala Harris could represent one way in which the future of the Democratic Party is headed,” she said. “But the Democratic Party has far more ideological diversity that goes beyond the Harris ticket.” Harris did not appear to have any such doubts as she spoke of following in the footsteps of President Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president, and Hillary Clinton, who sought to become the nation’s first female president. She has been elevated by Biden to national stature, embraced by many in the party, and celebrated at a convention. Things will surely get more difficult in the weeks and, should she win, the years ahead. But for now, addressing Democrats with a message about unity and the future in the midst of a pandemic, presenting herself as a new leader of the party to a nation facing an unnerving future, this was Kamala Harris’ moment. c.2020 The New York Times Company

Hours after the military council sought to calm public anger by promising a new civilian government, Defence Minister Awad Ibn Auf said in a televised speech he was quitting as head of the council. Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan Abdelrahman will be the new head of the council, Ibn Auf said. He also said Chief of Staff Kamal Abdelmarouf al-Mahi was relieved of his position as deputy head of the transitional military council. “In order to ensure the cohesion of the security system, and the armed forces in particular, from cracks and strife, and relying on God, let us begin this path of change,” Ibn Auf said. News of the change sparked joyful celebrations by many thousands in the streets of Khartoum as people chanted, “The second has fallen!” in reference to Bashir, witnesses said. “What happened is a step in the right direction and is a bow to the will of the masses, and we have become closer to victory,” Rashid Saeed, a spokesman for the main protest group, the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), told Reuters. “We are committed to our demands that we submitted to the army,” he said. “We call on the masses to stay on the streets until all the demands are met.” The military council said earlier that it expected a pre-election transition to last two years at most or much less if chaos can be avoided. The head of the military council’s political committee, Omar Zain al-Abideen, said the council would hold a dialogue with political entities. The announcement of a future civilian government appeared aimed at reassuring demonstrators who had pressed for months for Bashir’s departure and quickly resumed protests against army rule after his ouster on Thursday, calling for quicker and more substantial change. In a clear challenge to Ibn Auf’s military council, several thousand protesters remained in front of the defence ministry compound, and in other parts of the capital, as a night time curfew Ibn Auf had announced went into effect. The SPA said the military council was “not capable of creating change.” In a statement, the group restated its demand for power to be handed immediately to “a transitional civilian government.” Bashir, 75, himself seized power in a 1989 military coup. He had faced 16 weeks of demonstrations sparked by rising food costs, high unemployment and increasing repression during his three decades of autocratic rule. Worshippers packed the streets around the Defence Ministry for Friday prayers, heeding a call by the SPA to challenge the military council. The numbers swelled in the afternoon, and a Reuters witness estimated hundreds of thousands of protesters thronged areas around the ministry, which was guarded by soldiers. At least 16 people were killed and 20 injured by stray bullets at protests and sit-ins on Thursday and Friday, a Sudanese police spokesman said in a statement on Saturday. Government buildings and private property were also attacked, spokesman Hashem Ali added. He asked citizens to help ensure safety and public order. “We do not reject a military council in principle, but we reject these people because they are from Bashir’s regime,” said Abdelhamid Ahmed, a 24-year-old doctor. Ibn Auf was Bashir’s vice president and defence minister and is among a handful of Sudanese commanders whom Washington imposed sanctions on over their alleged role during atrocities committed in the Darfur conflict that began in 2003. Announcing Bashir’s ouster on Thursday and the creation of the military council, Ibn Auf also announced a state of emergency, a nationwide ceasefire and the suspension of the constitution, as well as the night time curfew from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. Those steps were criticised as heavy-handed by rights groups. Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman was the third most senior general in the Sudanese armed forces and is not known in public life. He was the head of Sudan’s ground forces, a role in which he oversaw Sudanese troops that fought in the Saudi-led Yemen war. INCLUSIVE POLITICAL PROCESS Sudan’s deputy UN ambassador, Yasir Abdalla Abdelsalam Ahmed, told the UN Security Council on Friday that any democratic process in the country required time, and he urged the international community to support a peaceful transition. “No party will be excluded from the political process, including armed groups,” he told the council during a meeting on Abyei, a contested border region claimed by Sudan and South Sudan. The 15-member council convened later on Friday behind closed doors to be briefed on the latest developments in Sudan. “Moreover, the suspension of the constitution could be lifted at any point and the transitional period could be shortened depending on developments on the ground and agreements reached between stakeholders,” the Sudanese envoy said. World powers, including the United States and Britain, said they supported a peaceful and democratic transition sooner than two years. China said it would continue to seek cooperation with Sudan regardless of the political situation. Zain al-Abideen said the military council would not interfere with a civilian government. However, he said the defence and interior ministries would be under its control. Burhan, the new head of the transitional military council, was the inspector general of the Sudanese armed forces and its third most senior general. He is little known in public life. He was the head of Sudan’s ground forces, a role in which he oversaw Sudanese troops who fought in the Saudi-led Yemen war. He has close ties to senior Gulf military officials as he was responsible for coordinating Sudan’s military involvement in the war. “NOT GREEDY FOR POWER” Zain al-Abideen said the military council itself had no solutions to Sudan’s crisis and these would come from the protesters. “We are not greedy for power,” he said. “We will not dictate anything to the people. We want to create an atmosphere to manage a peaceful dialogue”. He said the council was to meet on Friday with political entities to prepare a “climate for dialogue,” but that was later postponed. The council said it did not invite Bashir’s National Congress Party to join the dialogue because “it is responsible for what happened.” It warned protesters that the army would not tolerate unrest. Ibn Auf said on Thursday that Bashir was being detained in a “safe place.” Sudanese sources told Reuters he was at the presidential residence under heavy guard. The council said on Friday it would not extradite Bashir, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Bashir is facing an arrest warrant over accusations of genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region during an insurgency that began in 2003 and led to the death of an estimated 300,000 people. He denies the allegations.

Just before a new round of climate talks began in Glasgow, the G20 nations pledged on Sunday to end finance for all coal-fired power plants overseas. It followed a similar commitment made by Chinese President Xi Jinping to the United Nations General Assembly in September. According to new research from Boston University's Global Development Policy Center, the G20 pledge means that 99 percent of all development finance institutions are committed to cutting coal investment and raising support for renewables. "If these institutions live up to their commitments, it will be easier for developing countries to find official finance for renewable energy and coal power phase-out than for building new coal-fired power plants," said Rebecca Ray, senior researcher at the GDP Center and one of the study's authors. The study said only three major "holdouts" remain - the Development Bank of Latin America, the Islamic Development Bank and the New Development Bank - though many of the major shareholders in those institutions were part of the G20 pledge. Xi's September announcement that China would no longer be involved in overseas coal projects was the most significant change so far, depriving coal-fired power of its biggest financial backers, including the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China, the study said. The decision appears to have had an immediate effect on the country's financial institutions, with the Bank of China vowing to end new overseas coal mining and power projects starting in October. One expert involved in drawing up guidelines to decarbonise China's Belt and Road investments said Chinese financial institutions were aware of the waning demand for coal-fired power, making it easier for Xi's order to be implemented. "They are quite serious about it," said the expert, who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. "They are not looking for excuses to continue the projects; they are looking for reasons not to continue." With coal already struggling to compete with renewables - and many analysts forecasting that the sector will eventually consist of billions of dollars worth of "stranded assets" - China's decision to pull out represented a rare alignment of political, economic and climate interests, analysts said. "The economics have changed, and their experience with financing coal with the Belt and Road Initiative wasn't good - there are already issues with host countries defaulting on debt," said Matt Gray, analyst with the climate think tank TransitionZero. "I think they now have the political signals (to stop investing) that they have been crying out for all along."

Asia-Pacific rim leaders pledged to boost free trade and enhance security on Sunday, at the end of their two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. Here are key points in the "Hanoi Declaration" issued by the 21-member group, which represents nearly half of global trade. TRADE * Pledged to spare no efforts to break the deadlock over the Doha round of global trade talks. * Agreed to study a proposed Asia-Pacific free trade area and report the findings to next year's meeting in Australia. * Agreed on six model measures for free trade arrangements that would serve as a reference for APEC, but emphasised the templates would be non-binding and voluntary. * Called on member countries to implement measures to tackle piracy and copyright infringements. SECURITY * Condemned in an oral statement read out behind closed doors North Korea's Oct. 9 nuclear test. * Acknowledged the need to take action to "protect legitimate financial and commercial systems from abuse" -- a veiled reference to the kind of financial crackdown the United States took against North Korea. * Welcomed a study looking at ways of recovering trade in the event of a terrorist attack or a pandemic. * Agreed to continued collaboration on bird flu, especially on developing official responses and business continuity plans in case of a pandemic. * Welcomed initiatives aimed at mitigating a terrorist threat to the APEC food supply. CORRUPTION * Will consider developing measures to deny safe haven to corrupt individuals and prevent them from accessing gains from their illegal activities. ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE * Instructed APEC ministers to report back in 2007 on policies to promote cleaner energy and improve energy efficiency. * Will encourage energy policies that reduce or remove market distortions and enhance energy security.

"We will never surrender America's sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy," Trump said, in language popular with his political base. "America is governed by Americans. We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism." Trump's 35-minute address was met largely by silence from world leaders still not comfortable with go-it-alone views that have strained US relationships with traditional allies worldwide. His speech, while delivered in a low-key fashion, was nonetheless a thunderous recitation of his "America First" policies. He has disrupted the world order by withdrawing the United States from the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord, and threatened to punish NATO nations for not paying more for their common defence. "Moving forward, we are only going to give foreign aid to those who respect us and, frankly, are our friends. And we expect other countries to pay their fair share for the cost of their defense," he said. Besides calling out Iran, Trump also criticized China for its trade practices but made no mention of Russia's interference in Syria's war or its suspected meddling in US elections. MACRON'S ALTERNATIVE VIEW Offering an alternative view when it was his turn at the podium, French President Emmanuel Macron told the delegates that the law of the survival of the fittest, protectionism and isolationism would only lead to heightened tensions. Defending multilateralism and collective action, he warned that nationalism would lead to failure and if countries stopped defending basic principles, global wars would return. "I do not accept the erosion of multilateralism and don't accept our history unravelling," Macron told the assembly at times raising his voice. "Our children are watching." Trump aimed much of his remarks squarely at Iran and its "corrupt dictatorship," which the United States accuses of harbouring nuclear ambitions and fomenting instability in the Middle East through its support for militant groups in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. "Iran's leaders sow chaos, death and destruction," Trump told the gathering in the green-marbled hall. "They do not respect their neighbors or borders or the sovereign rights of nations." Macron, citing the example of Iran, which minutes earlier Trump had called on the world to isolate, Macron said that this unilateralism push would lead directly to conflicts. Trump, who begins his political rallies with boasts about his economic record in less than two years in office, used the same rhetoric before the crowd of world leaders and diplomats, telling them he had accomplished more than almost any previous US president. The remark led to some murmuring and laughter in the crowd, taking the president slightly aback. "I didn’t expect that reaction, but that's OK," he said. REJECTS MEETING ROUHANI Trump, who said in a Twitter post on Tuesday morning that he had given up hope for a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani while both were in New York, said he would keep up economic pressure on Tehran to try to force a change in its behaviour. Rouhani is due to address leaders later on Tuesday. In May, Republican Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 international deal to put curbs on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for easing sanctions. Foes for decades, Washington and Tehran have been increasingly at odds since May. The accord with OPEC member Iran was negotiated under Democratic US President Barack Obama. "Additional sanctions will resume November 5th and more will follow and we are working with countries that import Iranian crude oil to cut their purchases substantially," Trump said. He said the United States would help create a regional strategic alliance between Gulf nations and Jordan and Egypt, an initiative that the United States sees as a bulwark against Iran. Trump compared US relations with Iran to what he called improved ties with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who Trump had met in Singapore in June as part of a still-unfulfilled drive to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons. In his address last year to the UN, Trump insulted Kim as a "rocket man" bent on nuclear destruction. On Tuesday, Trump praised Kim for halting nuclear and missile tests, releasing Americans held prisoner and returning some remains of US soldiers killed in the 1950s Korean War. The two leaders are trying to arrange a second summit and are exchanging private correspondence. Trump has said sanctions on North Korea would remain for now. Delivering a harsh message to OPEC members, Trump called on them to stop raising oil prices and to pay for their own military protection. He threatened to limit US aid only to countries that are friendly to the United States. A Gulf diplomat said in response that "we have been doing our fair share of burden sharing." Crude oil prices shot to a four-year high on Tuesday, catapulted by imminent US sanctions on Iranian crude exports and the apparent reluctance of OPEC and Russia to raise output to offset the potential hit to global supply. Trump's main message was aimed at Iran and attempting to drive a wedge between its leadership and its people, days after an attack in southwestern Iran on a military parade killed 25 people and unsettled the country. In remarks to reporters on his way to his speech, Trump said he would not meet the Iranians until they "change their tune." He held out the possibility of a better relationship in the future. Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for Iran's UN mission, told Reuters that Iran has not requested a meeting with Trump. Some Iranian insiders have said any talks between Rouhani and Trump would effectively kill the existing nuclear accord, which France, Britain, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union also signed with Iran.

An increase in heat waves is almost certain, while heavier rainfall, more floods, stronger cyclones, landslides and more intense droughts are likely across the globe this century as the Earth's climate warms, UN scientists said on Friday. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) urged countries to come up with disaster management plans to adapt to the growing risk of extreme weather events linked to human-induced climate change, in a report released in Uganda on Friday. The report gives differing probabilities for extreme weather events based on future greenhouse gas emissions scenarios, but the thrust is that extreme weather is likely to increase. "It is virtually certain that increases in the frequency and magnitude of warm daily temperature extremes ... will occur in the 21st century on the global scale," the IPCC report said. "It is very likely that the length, frequency and/or intensity of warm spells, or heat waves, will increase," it added. "A 1-in-20 year hottest day is likely to become a 1-in-2 year event by the end of the 21st century in most regions," under one emissions scenario. An exception is in very high latitudes, it said. Heat waves would likely get hotter by "1 degrees C to 3 degrees C by mid-21st century and by about 2 degrees C to 5 degrees C by late-21st century, depending on region and emissions scenario." Delegates from nearly 200 countries will meet in South Africa from Nov. 28 for climate talks with the most likely outcome modest steps towards a broader deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions to fight climate change. CARBON EMISSIONS UP The United Nations, the International Energy Agency and others say global pledges to curb emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases are not enough to prevent the planet heating up beyond 2 degrees Celsius, a threshold scientists say risks an unstable climate in which weather extremes become more common and food production more difficult. Global carbon emissions rose by a record amount last year, rebounding on the heels of recession. "It is likely that the frequency of heavy precipitation or the proportion of heavy rainfall from heavy falls will increase in the 21st century over many areas of the globe," especially in "high latitudes and tropical regions." For the IPCC, "likely" means a two-thirds chance or more. It said there was "medium confidence" that this would lead to "increases in local flooding in some regions", but that this could not be determined for river floods, whose causes are complicated. The report said tropical cyclones were likely to become less frequent or stay the same, but the ones that do form are expected to be nastier. "Heavy rainfalls associated with tropical cyclones are likely to increase with continued warming. Average tropical cyclone maximum wind speed is likely," the report said. That, coupled with rising sea levels were a concern for small island states, the report said. Droughts, perhaps the biggest worry for a world with a surging population to feed, were also expected to worsen. The global population reached 7 billion last month and is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, according to UN figures. "There is medium confidence that droughts will intensify in the 21st century ... due to reduced precipitation and/or increased evapotranspiration," including in "southern Europe and the Mediterranean region, central Europe, central North America, Central America and Mexico, northeast Brazil and southern Africa." There is a high chance that landslides would be triggered by shrinking glaciers and permafrost linked to climate change, it said.

A directorate on climate change will be set up under the environment ministry. A proposal in this regard was approved in principle at a meeting of the trustee board on climate change on Wednesday. After the meeting, state minister for environment Hassan Mahmud, also the head of the trustee board, told reporters about the approval. Five proposals were endorsed in principle at the board meeting, while 33 non-government projects and 44 government projects got its final approval. The junior minister said approval was also given to procure machinery for the Karnafuli Jute Mills and Forat Karnafuli Carpet Factory using the climate change fund. He said conditional final approval was given to projects of the army on establishing solar power plants at different military establishments, including its headquarters. He added that the projects by non-government agencies got the final approval after a budget cut. The organisations had sought maximum Tk 50 million. Under the revised budget, they will get Tk 2 million to 10 million, he said.

The link to his Dec 7 proposal titled: "Donald J. Trump statement on Preventing Muslim Immigration," in which he called for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" vanished by Thursday, along with his list of his potential Supreme Court justice picks as president and certain details of his economic, defence and regulatory reform plans. The Trump campaign did not respond to multiple emails seeking comment on the website changes. The links, which now redirect readers to a campaign fundraising page, appear to have been removed around Election Day on Tuesday, when Trump won a historic upset against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, according to a website that records historic snapshots of web pages. Muslims In an appearance on CNBC on Thursday, Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal praised Trump for removing the Muslim ban proposal from his website and also said Trump had deleted statements offensive to Muslims from his Twitter account. Several tweets attacking Muslims that Trump sent while campaigning for president remained in his feed on Thursday, however, including a March 22 tweet in which Trump wrote: "Incompetent Hillary, despite the horrible attack in Brussels today, wants borders to be weak and open-and let the Muslims flow in. No way!" A Nov 30, 2015 tweet from a supporter which Trump quoted in a tweet of his own repeated the claim that Muslims celebrated the attacks of Sept 11, 2001, and suggested Trump include footage of the celebrations in his political ads. At a news conference with other civil rights leaders on Thursday, Samer Khalaf, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said the group was still worried about Trump's policies' effects on Muslims. "We thank him for removing those words," Khalaf said, referring to the Muslim ban proposal, "but you know what, words are one thing, actions are something totally different." Deletions Most of Trump's core policy positions remained on his website, including his central immigration promise to build an "impenetrable physical wall" on the border with Mexico and make Mexico pay for its construction. It was not the first time the Trump campaign has made unexplained changes to its site. The campaign this year also replaced the part of the site describing Trump's healthcare policy with a different version. When contacted about it by Reuters in September, the campaign put the original page back up.

Southern African leaders will hold an emergency meeting in Swaziland's capital Mbabane on Wednesday to discuss the crisis in Zimbabwe, officials said. Earlier, Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai urged the United Nations to isolate President Robert Mugabe and said a peacekeeping force was needed in Zimbabwe. Mugabe has shrugged off Monday's unprecedented and unanimous decision by the U.N. Security Council to condemn violence against the opposition and declare that a free and fair presidential election on Friday was impossible. The Mbabane meeting has been called by the leading regional body, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), amid mounting international pressure on Mugabe to resolve his country's political turmoil and economic meltdown. The leaders of Tanzania, Angola and Swaziland would attend the meeting in their capacity as the SADC's troika organ on politics, defense and security, the Tanzanian government said in a statement. "Others who have been invited to attend the meeting are the current SADC chairman, (President) Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia, and the SADC mediator for Zimbabwe, (President) Thabo Mbeki of South Africa," said the statement. "The meeting will discuss how the SADC and its troika organ on politics, defense and security can help Zimbabwe to get out of its current state of conflict." Tsvangirai, who has withdrawn from the election and taken refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare since Sunday, said Zimbabwe would "break" if the world did not come to its aid. "We ask for the U.N. to go further than its recent resolution, condemning the violence in Zimbabwe, to encompass an active isolation of the dictator Mugabe," Tsvangirai wrote in an article in Britain's Guardian newspaper. "For this we need a force to protect the people. We do not want armed conflict, but the people of Zimbabwe need the words of indignation from global leaders to be backed by the moral rectitude of military force," said Tsvangirai. "Such a force would be in the role of peacekeepers, not trouble-makers. They would separate the people from their oppressors and cast the protective shield around the democratic process for which Zimbabwe yearns." INCREASED PRESSURE Pressure has increased on Mugabe from both inside and outside Africa over Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis, blamed by the West and the opposition on the 84-year-old president who has held power for 28 years. The United States has urged SADC to declare both the election and Mugabe's government illegitimate. Angola's state-run ANGOP news agency quoted SADC executive secretary Tomaz Salomao as saying foreign ministers agreed at a meeting on Monday that a "climate of extreme violence" existed in Zimbabwe and that the government must protect the people. Friday's vote was meant to be a run-off between Mugabe and Tsvangirai. The opposition leader won a first round in March but official figures did not give him an outright victory. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change won a parallel parliamentary election in March, sending Mugabe's ZANU-PF party to its first defeat since independence from Britain in 1980. Both Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade and the leader of South Africa's ruling African National Congress said Friday's election must be postponed after Tsvangirai's withdrawal. Zuma, who rivals Mbeki as South Africa's most powerful man, called for urgent intervention by the United Nations and SADC, saying the situation in Zimbabwe was out of control. South Africa under Mbeki has been an advocate of "quiet diplomacy" with Mugabe and has resisted calls to use its powerful economic leverage over landlocked Zimbabwe. But Zuma, who toppled Mbeki as ANC leader last December, has become increasingly outspoken over Mugabe. On Tuesday, Mugabe dismissed the pressure and told a rally in western Zimbabwe that Friday's election would go ahead. "The West can scream all it wants. Elections will go on. Those who want to recognize our legitimacy can do so, those who don't want, should not," said Mugabe. Mugabe has presided over a slide into economic chaos, including 80 percent unemployment and the world's highest inflation rate of at least 165,000 percent. He blames Western sanctions for his country's economic woes.

But after a white supremacist gunman massacred 22 people in El Paso, Texas, the political world hurtled on Monday toward a more expansive, and potentially more turbulent, confrontation over racist extremism. Though the gun lobby was again on the defensive, it was not alone; so were social media companies and websites like 8chan that have become hives for toxic fantasies and violent ideas that have increasingly leaked into real life, with fatal consequences. Perhaps most of all, President Donald Trump faced intense new criticism and scrutiny for the plain echoes of his own rhetoric in the El Paso shooter’s anti-immigrant manifesto. Trump’s usual methods of deflection sputtered Monday: His early morning tweets attacking the news media and calling vaguely for new background checks on gun purchasers did little to ease the political pressure. A midmorning statement he recited from the White House — condemning “white supremacy” and warning of internet-fuelled extremism, but declining to address his own past language or call for stern new gun regulations — did nothing to quiet the chorus of censure from Trump’s political opponents and critics, who are demanding presidential accountability. No moment better captured how the gun violence debate was giving way to a reckoning on extremism than a statement Monday afternoon from former President Barack Obama. Obama, who has weighed in sparingly on public events since leaving office, called both for gun control and for an emphatic national rejection of racism and the people who stoke it. “We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalises racist sentiments,” Obama wrote, “leaders who demonise those who don’t look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as subhuman, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people.” Obama did not mention Trump or any other leaders by name. The Democrats seeking the presidency in 2020 did not hesitate to do so: Trump had scarcely finished speaking from the White House on Monday when his Democratic challengers blamed him explicitly for giving succour to extremists. Joe Biden, the former vice president and current Democratic front-runner, accused Trump on Twitter of having used the presidency “to encourage and embolden white supremacy.” And in an interview with CNN, Biden said Trump had “just flat abandoned the theory that we are one people.” Other political leaders reacted with their own raw distress and alarm. Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor who has bankrolled a yearslong crusade for gun control, wrote in a column that the “new atrocities need to change the political dynamic” around guns, and said Trump’s remarks were little more than “the usual dodge.” And Democratic presidential candidates rounded on Trump in a front that transcended ideological and tonal divisions in the party. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a populist liberal, said Trump must be held responsible for “amplifying these deadly ideologies,” while Sen Cory Booker of New Jersey, who has campaigned as an advocate for racial justice and national healing, derided Trump’s speech as a “bullshit soup of ineffective words” in a text message that his campaign manager posted on Twitter. An aide to Booker said he would deliver a major speech on gun violence Wednesday morning in South Carolina, at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston where a white supremacist gunman killed nine people in 2015. And the entwined issues of gun violence and racist extremism began to tumble into elections for offices well beyond the presidency. In Colorado, Mike Johnston, a former state lawmaker and gun-control advocate who is challenging Sen Cory Gardner, a Republican, blamed Trump for having “created this toxic culture that incites white nationalists.” In 2020, he said, candidates would have to make a stark binary choice. “Either you’re on the side of the white nationalist holding the AR-15, or you’re on the side of the millions of Americans living in fear of them,” Johnston said in an interview. Trump, for his part, said he was open to “bipartisan solutions” that would address gun violence, and blamed “the internet and social media” for spreading what he termed “sinister ideologies.” He was not specific about any next steps his administration would take, though he stressed his strong support for the death penalty and seemed to express scepticism that gun restrictions would be an appropriate remedy. “Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun,” Trump said. Trump’s campaign responded to criticism of the president with a statement deploring Democrats for “politicising a moment of national grief.” “The president clearly condemned racism, bigotry and white supremacy as he has repeatedly,” said Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for Trump’s campaign. “He also called for concrete steps to prevent such violent attacks in the future.” Murtaugh added that “no one blamed Bernie Sanders” when one of his supporters attempted to kill a group of Republican lawmakers at a Virginia baseball diamond in 2017. “The responsibility for such horrific attacks,” he said, “lies ultimately with the people who carry them out.” If Trump and his allies are adamant that he is blameless in the rise of extremist violence, much of the public believes he has not adequately separated himself from white supremacists. A survey published in March by the Pew Research Centre found that a majority of Americans — 56 percent — said Trump had done “too little to distance himself from white nationalist groups.” That group included about a quarter of people who identified themselves as Republicans or as leaning toward Trump’s party. It has not only been liberals who have argued that the mass shooting in El Paso, and another one hours later in Dayton, Ohio, represented a crisis for the country, and a major test for Trump. The conservative magazine National Review published an editorial Sunday evening calling on Americans and their government to take on “a murderous and resurgent ideology — white supremacy” in much the same way the government has confronted Islamic terrorism. Trump, the magazine said, “should take the time to condemn these actions repeatedly and unambiguously, in both general and specific terms.” Frank Keating, the former Republican governor of Oklahoma, who led his state through the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City by domestic terrorists, said in an interview that the moment called for both new restrictions on firearms and a new tone from the White House. He urged Trump to “carefully choose your words” to avoid instilling fear or inciting anger. “He needs to realise the lethality of his rhetoric,” Keating said. “The truth is, the president is the secular pope,” he added, “and he needs to be a moral leader as well as a government leader, and to say that this must not occur again — exclamation mark.” It was not clear whether the El Paso shooting had the potential to become a pivot point in national politics, much as the Oklahoma City bombing had in the 1990s. After that attack, which killed 168 people, President Bill Clinton delivered a searing speech against the “loud and angry voices in America today whose sole goal seems to be to try to keep some people as paranoid as possible” — a denunciation widely understood as being aimed at the extreme right. Clinton’s handling of the attack helped restore voters’ confidence in him as a strong leader after a shaky start to his presidency. Trump has shown no inclination in the past to play a role of such clarifying moral leadership, or to engage in any kind of searching introspection about his own embrace of the politics of anger and racial division. In the aftermath of a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 that resulted in the death of a young woman, Trump said there had been “very fine people on both sides” of the unrest there. In recent weeks, he has engaged without apology in a sequence of attacks on prominent members of racial minority groups, including five Democratic members of Congress. While few Republican lawmakers had anything critical to say about Trump in public after the El Paso and Dayton shootings, the party harbours profound private anxieties about the effect of his conduct on the 2020 elections. During last year’s midterm elections, Trump campaigned insistently on a slashing message about illegal immigration, and was rewarded with a sweeping rejection of his party across the country’s diverse cities and prosperous suburbs. Punctuating the final weeks of the 2018 elections were a pair of traumatic events that may have deepened voters’ feelings of dismay about the president’s violent language and appeals to racism: a failed wave of attempted bombings by a Trump supporter aimed at the president’s critics, and a mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, carried out by a gunman who had railed about immigrant “invaders.” Trump responded to the Pittsburgh massacre in a tone similar to the one he used Monday, lamenting the “terrible, terrible thing, what’s going on with hate in our country,” before taking up his caustic message again on the campaign trail. He paid no price for that approach with his largely rural and white political base, which has remained fiercely supportive of his administration through all manner of adversity, error and scandal. In the Democratic presidential race, the weekend of bloodshed had the effect of muting, at least temporarily, the divisions in the party that were showcased in last week’s debates. The outbreak of solidarity may not last, but it underscored how much the 2020 campaign is likely to take shape in reaction to Trump’s worldview and behaviour. Even as they aired their disagreements last week, some Democrats appeared to recognise that political reality. In fact, on the morning after his party’s back-to-back debates concluded, Gov Jay Inslee of Washington state predicted to a reporter in Detroit that his party would have little difficulty rallying together in the 2020 election. “We’ve got the most unifying gravitational force, outside of a black hole,” Inslee remarked, “and that’s a white nationalist in the White House.”   ©2019 New York Times News Service

Over the past four decades, which includes 12 years as the director of NASA’s planetary science division and the past three years as its chief scientist, he has shaped much of NASA’s scientific inquiry, overseeing missions across the solar system and contributing to more than 100 scientific papers across a range of topics. While specializing in Earth’s magnetic field and plasma waves early in his career, he went on to diversify his research portfolio. One of Green’s most recent significant proposals has been a scale for verifying the detection of alien life, called the “confidence of life detection,” or CoLD, scale. He has published work suggesting we could terraform Mars, or making it habitable for humans, using a giant magnetic shield to stop the sun from stripping the red planet’s atmosphere, raising the temperature on the surface. He has also long been a proponent of the exploration of other worlds, including a mission to Europa, the icy moon of Jupiter, that is scheduled to launch in 2024. Before a December meeting of the American Geophysical Union in New Orleans, Green spoke about some of this wide-ranging work and the search for life in the solar system. Below are edited and condensed excerpts from our interview. Q: You’ve urged a methodical approach to looking for life with your CoLD scale, ranking possible detections from one to seven. Why do we need such a scale? A: A couple of years ago, scientists came out and said they’d seen phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus. At the level they saw it, which was enormous, that led them to believe life was one of the major possibilities. On the CoLD scale, where seven is “we found life,” it is “one.” It didn’t even make it to “two.” They recognised later there was contamination in their signal and it may not even be phosphine and we can’t reproduce it. So we have to do a better job in communicating. We see methane all over the place on Mars. Ninety-five percent of the methane we find here on Earth comes from life, but there’s a few percent that doesn’t. We’re only at a CoLD Level 3, but if a scientist came to me and said, “Here’s an instrument that will make it a CoLD Level 4,” I’d fund that mission in a minute. They’re not jumping to seven, they’re making that next big step, the right step, to make progress to actually finding life in the solar system. That’s what we’ve got to do, stop screwing around with just crying wolf. Q: The search for life on Mars has been a focus for NASA for so long, starting in 1976 with the Viking 1 and 2 landers and later with missions from the 1990s onward. Are you surprised we haven’t found life in that time? A: Yes and no. What we’re doing now is much more methodical, much more intelligent in the way we recognize what signatures life can produce over time. Our solar system is 4.5 billion years old, and at this time, Earth is covered in life. But if we go back a billion years, we would find that Venus was a blue planet. It had a significant ocean. It might actually have had life, and a lot of it. If we go back another billion years, Mars was a blue planet. We know now Mars lost its magnetic field, the water started evaporating and Mars basically went stagnant about 3.5 billion years ago. We would like to have found life on the surface. We put the Viking landers in a horrible place because we didn’t know where to put them — we were just trying to put them down on the surface of Mars. It was like putting something down in the Gobi Desert. We should have put them down in Jezero Crater, in this river delta we’re at right now with the Perseverance rover, but we didn’t even know it existed at the time! One of the Viking experiments indicated there was microbial life in the soils, but only one of the three instruments did, so we couldn’t say we found life. Now we’ll really, definitively know because we’re going to bring back samples. We didn’t know it would need a sample return mission. Q: You’ve previously suggested it might be possible to terraform Mars by placing a giant magnetic shield between the planet and the sun, which would stop the sun from stripping its atmosphere, allowing the planet to trap more heat and warm its climate to make it habitable. Is that really doable? A: Yeah, it’s doable. Stop the stripping, and the pressure is going to increase. Mars is going to start terraforming itself. That’s what we want: the planet to participate in this any way it can. When the pressure goes up, the temperature goes up. The first level of terraforming is at 60 millibars, a factor of 10 from where we are now. That’s called the Armstrong limit, where your blood doesn’t boil if you walked out on the surface. If you didn’t need a spacesuit, you could have much more flexibility and mobility. The higher temperature and pressure enable you to begin the process of growing plants in the soils. There are several scenarios on how to do the magnetic shield. I’m trying to get a paper out I’ve been working on for about two years. It’s not going to be well received. The planetary community does not like the idea of terraforming anything. But you know. I think we can change Venus, too, with a physical shield that reflects light. We create a shield, and the whole temperature starts going down. Q: In 2015, NASA approved the Europa Clipper mission to search for signs of life on Jupiter’s moon Europa, set for launch in 2024, following the detection of plumes erupting from its subsurface ocean in 2013. Did you want to see that mission happen sooner? A: Oh, yeah, I would love to have seen it earlier, but it wasn’t going to happen. There are certain series of missions that are so big they’re called strategic missions. For them to actually happen, the stars have to align. You have to propose it, have a solid case work, go to the NASA administration and then pitch it to Congress. Every year, I proposed a Europa mission. Every year. The administration was not interested in going to Europa. The plumes on Europa are what made the Europa mission happen. I was at an American Geophysical Union meeting in 2013. Several of the scientists were going to give a talk on finding a plume with Hubble on Europa, and I go, “Oh, my God.” I said this is fantastic, I want to do a press conference. I call back to NASA headquarters, and they pulled it off. I took that information back with me to headquarters and added that into the story of Europa. That really turned the corner. They said, “Wow, maybe we should do this.” Q: Congress decided against putting a lander on the mission. Did you want one? A: I would love a lander, but it’s not in the cards. It makes the mission too complicated, but everything we do on Clipper feeds forward to a lander. I insisted that we had a high-resolution imager to the point whereas we fly over certain areas, we’re going to get the information we need to go, “Let’s land right there, and safely.” Europa has got some really hazardous terrains, so if we don’t get the high-resolution imaging, we’ll never be able to land. You want to take a step, but not a huge step. You fail when you do that. Viking is that example, where we took too big a step. We didn’t know where to go, we didn’t know enough about the soils or the toxins in the soils. We hadn’t really gotten a good idea where water was on the planet in the past. There were 10 things we should have known before we put the two Vikings on the surface. Q: Are you still going to work on scientific papers in your retirement? A: Oh, absolutely. I’ve got the Mars paper to do. I have a Europa paper I’m writing right now. I have an astrobiology book I’m doing. I have an insatiable appetite for science. ©2022 The New York Times Company

BEIJING, Sun Apr 19, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The global financial crisis is unlikely to deter growing long-term demand for new nuclear power plants, international atomic agency officials said on Sunday, ahead of a conference to discuss the future of atomic power. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials and national and international energy representatives are gathering in Beijing to discuss prospects for atomic power during a global slowdown, climate change and energy worries, and tensions over the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran. Thierry Dujardin, a deputy director of the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency, said that although the financial crisis was making it more difficult to fund some proposed nuclear power plants, longer-term worries about energy security and global warming were likely to buffer the impact of the crisis on the sector. "In the short term, it's obvious that it will be more difficult to find the funding for new investments, heavy investment, in energy infrastructure, such as nuclear power plants," Dujardin told a news conference. "There is a chance that nuclear energy as such will not be so strongly impacted by the current economic crisis, because the need for energy will be there." Dong Batong, of the China's atomic energy industry association, said his country was committed to dramatically expanding nuclear power, despite the slowdown in growth. "We've made nuclear power an important measure for stimulating domestic demand," Dong told the news conference, noting that dozens of new nuclear units are being built or planned across the country. Nuclear power provides 14 percent of global electricity supplies, according to the Vienna-based IAEA, and that proportion is set to grow as nations seek to contain fuel bills and the greenhouse gas emissions dangerously warming the planet. Much of the expected expansion is in Asia. As of the end of August 2008, China topped the list of countries with nuclear power plants under construction, with 5,220 megawatts (MW), followed by India at 2,910 MW and South Korea at 2,880 MW, according to the International Energy Agency. But the ambitious plans for nuclear power growth across the developing world also risk straining safety standards and safeguards against weapons proliferation. Yuri Sokolov, deputy director-general of the IAEA, said governments looking to expand nuclear energy had to ensure regulators were backed by effective legislation and properly trained staff. But even North Korea, facing international censure for recently launching a long-range rocket and abandoning nuclear disarmament talks, has the right to nuclear power stations, said Sokolov. "Each country is entitled to have a civilian nuclear program," he said, calling North Korea a "difficult situation." "If it's ready to cooperate with the international community, I think that the international community will be able to provide the support for civil nuclear power development in North Korea." North Korea renounced its membership of the IAEA years ago, and last week expelled IAEA officials who had been invited back to monitor a shuttered nuclear complex that Pyongyang has said it will restart. The director-general of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, will give an opening speech to the nuclear energy meeting on Monday.

Parts of China, India, Europe and the northeastern United States are among the hardest-hit areas, suffering a disproportionately high share of 8.7 million annual deaths attributed to fossil fuels, the study published in the journal Environmental Research found. The new research gives the most detailed assessment of premature deaths due to fossil-fuel air pollution to date. Another study in 2017 had put the annual number of deaths from all outdoor airborne particulate matter — including dust and smoke from agricultural burns and wildfires — at 4.2 million. "Our study certainly isn't in isolation in finding a large impact on health due to exposure to air pollution, but we were blown away by just how large the estimate was that we obtained," said Eloise Marais, an expert in atmospheric chemistry at University College London, and a co-author of the study. Previous research based on satellite data and ground observations had struggled to distinguish pollution caused by burning fossil fuels from other sources of harmful particulates, such as wildfires or dust. The team from three British universities and Harvard University sought to overcome this problem by using a high-resolution model to give a clearer indication of which kinds of pollutants people were breathing in a particular area. With concern growing over the role that burning fossil fuels plays in causing climate change, the authors said they hoped the study, based on data from 2018, would provide further impetus for governments to accelerate a shift to cleaner energy. "We hope that by quantifying the health consequences of fossil fuel combustion, we can send a clear message to policymakers and stakeholders of the benefits of a transition to alternative energy sources," said co-author Joel Schwartz, an environmental epidemiologist at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.

Putin promised to protect a bank partly owned by an old ally, which Washington has blacklisted, and his spokesman said Russia would respond in kind to the latest financial and visa curbs after producing one blacklist of its own.His allies laughed off the US sanctions, but shares on the Moscow stock exchange - which have lost $70 billion of their value this month - fell sharply after President Barack Obama also threatened to target major sectors of the economy if Russia moved on areas of Ukraine beyond the Black Sea peninsula.Obama's national security adviser said Washington was sceptical of Russian assurances that troop movements on the Ukraine border were no more than military exercises and European Security body the OSCE agreed to send monitors to Ukraine.The financial noose was already tightening with Visa and MasterCard stopping processing payments for a Russian bank owned by two brothers on the US blacklist. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Russia might cancel its foreign borrowing for 2014 and raise less domestically if the cost of issuing debt rose.European Union leaders - who like Obama insist Crimea is still part of Ukraine - imposed their own sanctions on 12 people, including Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin and two aides to Putin.Shaken by the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War, they also expressed their determination to reduce the EU's reliance on Russian energy, and signed a political deal with the Kiev leadership that took power after Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovich's overthrow last month.In a Kremlin ceremony shown live on state television, Putin signed a law on ratification of a treaty making Crimea part of Russia as well as legislation creating two new Russian administrative districts: Crimea and the port city of Sevastopol, where Moscow keeps part of its Black Sea fleet.Thousands of Russians marked the annexation with fireworks and celebrations in Simferopol, capital of Crimea where the population is around 58 percent ethnic Russian."Many people wanted this, to go back, not to the USSR, but to that big country of ours," said Anna Zevetseva, 32. "We are waiting for things to improve and for investment from Russia." Ukrainian and Tatar residents stayed behind closed doors.Sergey, a 64-year-old Ukrainian businessman who did not want to give his surname, said he saw no reason to celebrate: "An occupying force is in my country and we have been annexed."Inner circleA referendum last Sunday after Russian troops seized control of Crimea overwhelmingly backed union with Russia but was denounced by Washington and the European Union as a sham. It opened the way for annexation within a week.Obama's decision to go for the financial jugular of the people who accompanied Putin's rise from the mayor's office in St Petersburg in the 1990s to the Russian presidency has deepened the diplomatic confrontation.Putin said Bank Rossiya, singled out by Washington as the personal bank for senior Russian officials, had nothing to do with the events in Crimea.The St Petersburg-based bank - which is chaired and partly owned by Yuri Kovalchuk, an old associate of Putin's - mainly serves clients in Russia's energy sector including businesses owned by state-run gas producer Gazprom.Putin, who says Crimea has exercised its right to self-determination, promised to transfer his wages to Bank Rossiya. "I personally don't have an account there, but I certainly will open one on Monday," he told Russia's Security Council.Others on the U.S. blacklist include oil and commodities trader Gennady Timchenko and the brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, who are linked to big contracts on gas pipelines and the Sochi Olympics, as well as Putin's chief of staff and his deputy, the head of military intelligence and a railways chief.Energy unionEuropean leaders also agreed to accelerate their quest for more secure energy supplies at talks on Friday.The EU has made progress in diversifying since crises in 2006 and 2009, when rows over unpaid bills between Kiev and Moscow led to the disruption of gas exports to western Europe. But Russia still provides around a third of the EU's oil and gas and 40 percent of the gas goes through Ukraine.European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said member states would help one another to maintain supplies if Moscow cut them. "We are serious about reducing our energy dependency," he told a news conference at the end of a summit in Brussels.EU countries, which buy Russian gas individually, will also look to negotiate supply deals jointly with Moscow to increase their bargaining power. "It is clear we need to be moving towards an energy union," said Van Rompuy.German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised the possibility that US shale gas could eventually be an option for European countries seeking to diversify. Obama is expected to address the issue at a summit with EU leaders next Wednesday.Underlining how Washington can apply pressure via the international financial system, US credit card companies Visa and MasterCard stopped providing services for payment transactions with Russia's SMP bank, owned by the Rotenberg brothers, the bank said.SMP called the moves unlawful and foreign banks and companies now fear the secondary ripple effects of the sanctions. In a worst-case scenario for them, Washington would stop banks doing business with Russian clients, similar to the sanctions that were imposed on Iran."What has been announced so far is really nothing. It's purely cosmetic," said a French banker based in Moscow, adding that the biggest risk was to transfers in US dollars, crucial for the energy export-dependent Russian economy.Obama said on Thursday that Washington was also considering sanctions against economic sectors including financial services, oil and gas, metals and mining and the defence industry, if Russia made military moves into eastern and southern Ukraine.In Crimea itself, Ukrainian troops who have been surrounded by Russian forces continued to leave their bases, powerless to halt Moscow's takeover of the peninsula."The situation in Ukraine remains unstable and menacing," said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, urging the OSCE observers to take up their work as quickly as possible.EU support for KievEuropean governments also took individual action against Russia. Germany suspended approval of all defence-related exports to Russia, ordering contractor Rheinmetall to halt delivery of combat simulation gear, while France called off military cooperation with Moscow.In Brussels, the 28 EU leaders underlined their support for Ukraine's new leadership, signing a political agreement with interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk.They also promised financial aid for the government - rejected as illegitimate by Moscow - as soon as Kiev reaches a deal with the International Monetary Fund.The IMF is to report next Tuesday on advanced talks with Ukraine on a loan programme that would be linked to far-reaching reforms of the shattered economy.Three months of protests were set off by Yanukovich's refusal to sign an association agreement with the EU, the political part of which was signed on Friday.Russia's MICEX stock index fell about 3 percent when trade opened, although it recovered some of the losses later. Promsvyazbank analyst Oleg Shagov said Obama had "opened a Pandora's box full of sanctions", with future sanctions to be "directed against whole sectors of the Russian economy".Negative market sentiment was reinforced by warnings from credit ratings agencies Fitch and S&P that they were changing their outlooks on Russia to negative from stable because of the possible impact of sanctions on Russia's economy and business climate. Both agencies presently rate Russia BBB.Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev made clear that Russia would step up financial pressure on Ukraine. He said the former Soviet republic should repay Moscow $11 billion under a gas supply contract that should be scrapped because it no longer applied.

The European Union stuck on Friday to its insistence that UN talks in Bali should set stiff 2020 guidelines for rich nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions, despite US opposition. "We continue to insist on including a reference to an indiciative emissions reduction range for developed countries for 2020," European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said in a statement on the last day of the Dec. 3-14 meeting. He did not restate, however, an EU demand for a reference to cuts of 25 to 40 percent cuts below 1990 levels by 2020. A compromise draft text, meant to launch two years of negotiations for a global pact to fight climate change, dropped a key ambition of tough 2020 greenhouse emissions cuts for rich countries but retained a 2050 goal of at least halving world emissions.

European Union and Group of Eight President Germany urged on Saturday some of the world's top politicians to work together to tackle global warming which it said was one of the most dramatic threats the world faces. German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened her speech to a security conference with an unusual message for a gathering which in recent years has focused mainly on issues such as the Middle East conflict and global terrorism. "Global warming is one of the most dramatic long term threats we face," she told the conference in the southern city of Munich, adding that climate change demanded urgent action. "One thing is clear -- this threat is touching everyone, no one can run away." Portraying climate change as the war of the future, she said the threat demanded coordinated action from world nations. Among those in the audience were Russian President Vladimir Putin, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and US Senator for Arizona John McCain. The United States, Russia and China have been reluctant to join global efforts to tackle climate change. But Merkel has made tackling global warming a priority of Germany's dual EU and G8 presidencies. She wants to push nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save energy and shift to renewable fuels. She has also talked of making progress on a framework agreement to reduce greenhouse gases after the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012. Germany's left-right coalition is, however, itself divided on several energy policies and the government has resisted some EU initiatives to cut emissions.

A "silent tsunami" unleashed by costlier food threatens 100 million people, the United Nations said on Tuesday, and aid groups said producers would make things worse if they curbed exports. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain would seek changes to EU biofuels targets if it was shown that planting crops for fuel was driving up food prices -- a day after the bloc stood by its plans to boost biofuel use. The World Food Programme (WFP), whose head Josette Sheeran took part in a meeting of experts Brown called on Tuesday to discuss the crisis, said a "silent tsunami" threatened to plunge more than 100 million people on every continent into hunger. "This is the new face of hunger -- the millions of people who were not in the urgent hunger category six months ago but now are," she said ahead of the meeting. Riots in poor Asian and African countries have followed steep rises in food prices caused by many factors -- dearer fuel, bad weather, rising disposable incomes boosting demand and the conversion of land to grow crops for biofuel. Rice from Thailand, the world's top exporter, has more than doubled in price this year. Major food exporters including Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Egypt and Cambodia have imposed curbs on food exports to secure supplies. Sheeran said artificially created shortages aggravated the problem: "The world has been consuming more than it has been producing for the past three years, so stocks have been drawn down." Rising prices meant the WFP was running short of money to buy food for its programmes and had already curtailed school feeding plans in Tajikistan, Kenya and Cambodia. Sheeran said the WFP, which last year estimated it would need $2.9 billion in 2008 to cover its needs, now calculated it would have to raise that figure by a quarter because of the surge in prices of staples like wheat, maize and rice. END OF AN ERA Britain pledged $900 million to help the WFP alleviate immediate problems and Brown raised further doubts about the wisdom of using crops to help produce fuel. "If our UK review shows that we need to change our approach, we will also push for change in EU biofuels targets," he said a day after the EU stood by its target of getting a tenth of road transport fuel from crops and agricultural waste by 2020. Japanese Agriculture Minister Masatoshi Wakabayashi said Tokyo would propose the World Trade Organisation set clear rules for food export restrictions imposed by producer countries. Tokyo wanted a WTO mechanism for food importers such as Japan to be able to give an opinion when notified about restrictions by an exporting country, Wakabayashi said, according to the text of a news conference published on the ministry's website. Rajat Nag, managing director general of the Asian Development Bank, said the era of cheap food was over and urged Asian governments not to distort markets with export curbs but use fiscal measures to help the poor. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said dearer food risked wiping out progress on cutting poverty. His predecessor Kofi Annan said climate change was aggravating the global food crisis and many poor countries could be facing the start of "major hunger disasters". "The poor are bearing the brunt and they contributed the least to climate change. The polluter must pay," he said. "Climate change is an all-encompassing threat -- a threat to our health, security, political stability and social cohesion."

Conservationists have announced that some 6,000 rare Irrawaddy dolphins, living in the freshwater regions of Bangladesh's Sundarbans and adjacent Bay of Bengal waters, make up the largest population of these endangered sea mammals found in the wild. The Wildlife Conservation Society—revealing the discovery earlier this week at the First International Conference on Marine Mammal Protected Areas in Maui—said the largest known populations of Irrawaddy dolphins had previously numbered only in the low hundreds. "With all the news about freshwater environments and state of the oceans, WCS's discovery that a thriving population of Irrawaddy dolphins exists in Bangladesh gives us hope for protecting this and other endangered species and their important habitats," Dr. Steven Sanderson, president of the Wildlife Conservation Society, said on Tuesday. "WCS is committed to conservation of these iconic marine species from dolphins, sea turtles, sharks to the largest whales," he said. Authors of the study, undertaken in an area where little marine mammal research has taken place to date, include Brian Smith, Rubaiyat Mansur Mowgli, and Samantha Strindberg of the Wildlife Conservation Society, along with Benazir Ahmed of Chittagong University in Bangladesh. Despite finding this large population, the authors warn that the dolphins are becoming increasingly threatened by accidental entanglement in fishing nets. During the study, researchers say they found two dolphins that had become entangled and drowned in fishing nets - a common occurrence according to local fishermen. The Irrawaddy dolphin, Orcaella brevirostris, grows up to eight feet and lives in large rivers, estuaries, and freshwater lagoons in South and Southeast Asia. In Myanmar's Ayeyarwady River, these dolphins are known for "cooperative fishing" with humans, where the animals voluntarily herd schools of fish toward fishing boats and awaiting nets helping fishermen increase their catches. The dolphins appear to benefit from this relationship by easily preying on the cornered fish and those that fall out of the net as the fishermen pull it from the water. In 2006, WCS helped establish a protected area along the Ayeyarwady River to conserve this critically endangered mammal population. The New York-based WCS says it is now working closely with the Ministry of Environment and Forests in Bangladesh on plans for establishing a protected area network for both Irrawaddy and Ganges River dolphins in the Sundarbans mangrove forest. Funding is critical to sustaining these activities along with WCS's long-term efforts to study the effects of climate change on this habitat, support sustainable fishing practices, and develop local ecotourism projects, says the conservation group.

SHANGHAI, Oct 28, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The United States does not expect to reach an agreement on climate change with China during President Barack Obama's visit to Beijing next month, the country's senior climate change envoy said on Wednesday. "I don't think we are getting any agreement per se," said Todd Stern, US Special Envoy for Climate Change. "I think (Obama) is trying to talk to President Hu, to push towards as much common understanding as we possibly can in order to facilitate an agreement in Copenhagen," Stern told reporters. Negotiators gather in the Danish capital in December to draft a new accord aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol set to expire in 2012. Progress in the talks has remained slow, with the United States reluctant to commit itself to a deal that does not oblige developing countries like China to agree to mandatory CO2 reduction targets. Chinese negotiators have also said the industrialised world should bear the bulk of the burden in cutting carbon emissions. The meeting between Obama and President Hu Jintao, leaders of the world's two biggest greenhouse gas emitters, is seen as a crucial component in the efforts to build a consensus around any new global climate pact. Maria Cantwell, a Democratic Senator from Washington State, said in Beijing last month that China and the United States are likely to sign a bilateral agreement during Obama's visit. But Stern said Washington was not trying to cut a separate deal. The two sides are likely to discuss further cooperation next month on issues like carbon capture and storage, but the differences between the two sides will make it difficult to formulate any substantive agreement, analysts said. "There will be lots of kind words and lots of talk but I don't think it will amount to much, not least because we are moving towards Copenhagen and I don't think they want to show their hand yet," said Paul Harris, professor of global and environmental studies at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. With Copenhagen six weeks away, Stern warned that success was by no means guaranteed. "Copenhagen can be a success," said Stern, "There's a deal to be had, but it doesn't mean we can get it." The Obama administration's attempt to push through its own climate plan before the end of the year is expected to be crucial, analysts suggest. The US Senate Enviroment Committee is holding hearings on a new climate bill this week. The administration has been urging Congress to move forward, and further delays might dent the credibility of the United States during the Copenhagen talks.

ROTHERA BASE, Antarctica, Wed Jan 21,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - US geologists working at an Antarctic base hailed President Barack Obama's inauguration Tuesday and expressed hopes for a stronger focus on science. "It's a very exciting time," David Barbeau, assistant professor of geology at the University of South Carolina, told Reuters after watching the inauguration at the British Rothera research station on the Antarctic Peninsula. "There certainly is a feeling that this administration will have science pretty close to the forefront," he said in the base, by a bay strewn with icebergs with several seals sunning themselves on the ice. And he said he felt inspired by Obama's commitment to doubling the basic research funding over the next 10 years. "It's certainly very hopeful to have someone coming into office ... who is excited about science and supportive of it," said Amanda Savrda, a graduate student in geology at the University of South Carolina working with Barbeau. "It seems to bode well for my future and the future of a lot of people in science," she said. Barbeau and Savrda are trying to work out exactly when the ocean formed between Antarctica and South America millions of years ago. At the Rothera base, other scientists are studying everything from ice sheets to starfish for signs of how they may be affected by climate change. Obama has promised to make the fight against global warming a priority. Former President George W Bush angered many scientists and foreign governments by deciding against adopting the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, the main UN plan for fighting climate change. All other industrialized nations back Kyoto.

Malpass told a virtual event hosted by the Washington Post newspaper the sanctions would have a bigger impact on global economic output than the war itself. He said he expected a robust response by producers around the world to increase supplies as needed, and saw no need for people to have extra stockpiles in their kitchens or restaurants.

Ugandan police have found an unexploded suicide belt and made several arrests after 74 soccer fans were killed by two bomb attacks while they were watching the World Cup final on television. Somali Islamists linked to al Qaeda said on Monday they carried out the attacks. Uganda's opposition called on Tuesday for the country's peacekeepers to be withdrawn from Somalia. A government spokesman said the unexploded suicide belt was found at a third site in the capital Kampala, a day after the twin explosions ripped through two bars heaving with soccer fans late on Sunday. "Arrests were made late yesterday after an unexploded suicide bomber's belt was found in the Makindye area," government spokesman Fred Opolot said. He did not say how many people were arrested, or where they were from. Such coordinated attacks have been a hallmark of al Qaeda and groups linked to Osama bin Laden's militant network. The al Shabaab militants have threatened more attacks unless Uganda and Burundi withdrew their peacekeepers from the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia (AMISOM). Uganda's opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party urged President Yoweri Museveni to pull his soldiers out and said it planned to withdraw if it won elections scheduled for early 2011. "There is no peace to keep in Somalia and Uganda has no strategic interest there. We're just sacrificing our children for nothing," FDC spokesman Wafula Oguttu told Reuters. "Our objective is to withdraw our troops immediately after coming to power." AMISOM said the explosions would not affect its mission in Somalia, where it shields the presidential palace from insurgent attacks and guards Mogadishu's airport and port. FBI INVESTIGATES The coordinated blasts were the first time al Shabaab has taken its bloody push for power onto the international stage. Analysts say its threats should be taken seriously, given the clear evidence the group has the intent and will to strike abroad. Foreign direct investment into east Africa's third largest economy has surged, driven by oil exploration along the western border with Democratic Republic of Congo. Analysts say a sustained bombing campaign would damage Uganda's investment climate, but a one-off attack was unlikely deter major companies such as British hydrocarbons explorer Tullow Oil TLW from investing. [ID:nLDE66B14N] An American was among the dead, and the United States has offered assistance with its investigations. The State Department said it had three FBI agents on the ground collecting evidence. An additional FBI team is on standby to deploy to the east African nation, it said. Opolot said there was no suggestion an African Union summit to be hosted by Uganda this month would be cancelled following the bombings.