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She had never spent much money or time on beauty treatments; she had had few facials, and shopping at Sephora was rare. But when Dr Lara Devgan, a plastic surgeon in New York, reopened her office last month, Aubry went in for a consultation and got treated the same day. That office visit was one of the few outings she had taken since March. Aubry, 40, could pinpoint her unease: “Hearing the sirens from my apartment. Being constantly terrified of getting sick. Having my kids home, compromising my ability to run my company. Seeing what the pandemic has done to the economy. All of it made me stressed, and I started noticing that I was aging rapidly.” Throughout the lockdown, waitlists for nonessential, noninvasive skin-care appointments — those laser procedures, fillers and Botox injections — grew. Dr Ben Talei, a plastic surgeon in Los Angeles, reported that he and his colleagues are seeing people who are clamouring for care now, especially for anything that has healing time. “They want to do it now while it’s not interfering with their work and social lives,” Talei said. A surge of catch-up appointments was probably predictable. But what will the aesthetic world look like after an initial surge? Will more of us have a list of things we’d like to fix after becoming better acquainted with our features over innumerable virtual meetings? Or, after a long break from a doctor’s office and a reliance on at-home skin care, will we realise that we don’t need medical intervention after all? Then there’s the most important consideration of all: How do we do any of this safely? The pandemic will change how we look. With masks covering most of our faces, we’ll likely turn our attention to our eyes, doctors say. Devgan expects more requests for under-eye filler, Botox brow lifts and eyelid surgery. “I also think that as we cover our faces, we’ll reveal more of our bodies,” she said. “That will create an emphasis on the aesthetics of the torso, buttocks and legs.” As practices reopen, doctors are indeed seeing an increase in requests for body treatments. Typically, summer would be a slow time for surgeries as people plan for beach vacations spent in revealing clothing. But these days, said Dr Sachin Shridharani, a plastic surgeon in New York, “because the pandemic has limited travel, they’re doing these procedures now.” According to the Aesthetic Society, a professional organisation and advocacy group for board-certified plastic surgeons that gathers data from plastic surgery practices nationwide, liposuction and tummy tucks made up 31% of total procedures in June, up from 26% in June 2019. Breast procedures were up 4.3% over last June. “In my own practice, if you take into account the time that we were closed, breast augmentations and breast lifts are up significantly when compared to last year,” said Dr Herluf Lund, a plastic surgeon in St Louis and the president of the Aesthetic Society. Nonsurgical body treatments, particularly injectables, are in demand as well. “We’re seeing a lot of interest in what can be done with a syringe instead of a scalpel,” Shridharani said. Injectables, typically approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the face, can be effective at tackling body concerns. For instance, Shridharani treats patients with Kybella, an acid that is injected to dissolve a double chin, to melt fat in the abdomen, arms and thighs. He also has been injecting small amounts of diluted Sculptra, a product that stimulates the body to produce more collagen, into arms and thighs to help smooth crepey skin. (Shridharani is compensated financially for work with the companies that manufacture Kybella and Sculptra.) What may be on the wane are the excessive fillers and Botox that we’ve grown used to seeing on celebrities and influencers. Steven Pearlman, a plastic surgeon in New York, said that he expects the baby-smooth, motionless foreheads and overfilled lips and cheeks — already diminishing in popularity — to retreat even more rapidly now. “People have seen their faces relax into something more natural during the lockdowns,” Pearlman said. “And because of all that’s going on in society, too, they are going to realise it’s not important to have that extreme look.” Social media habits will change, too. It’s tough to say whether or not we’ll be sharing (or oversharing) scenes from our Botox appointments on Instagram. In a climate of coronavirus concerns, economic suffering and mounting national unrest, posting one’s very expensive cosmetic procedures on social media could, and arguably should, invite criticism. At the end of May and the beginning of the Black Lives Matter protests, aesthetic doctors noticeably paused their streams of striking before-and-after shots. “We wanted to be sensitive, of course,” Pearlman said. “Everyone was considering, ‘What is the right thing to post at this moment, and should we be posting at all?’” On the other hand, social media has been an essential mode of connection during monthslong lockdowns. People have grown comfortable sharing life’s details with their followers. Perhaps we will land in a middle ground where instead of posting about procedures on their own social media feeds, more patients will allow their doctors to share their procedure photos. “I wouldn’t have given my permission to post before going through this experience,” Aubry said. “But I wanted other women who were feeling as I did to know that there are options, and they shouldn’t have any shame in pursuing them.” But is it safe to have aesthetic procedures right now? In medicine, everything is about risk-benefit,” said Dr Adolf Karchmer, an infectious disease expert and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Some people feel they need these procedures for psychological or even professional benefit.” The risk of getting the coronavirus when out in the world will never be zero, but offices should enact safety protocols to reduce the risk to a negligible level, he said. Karchmer served on a task force that developed Project AesCert, safety guidelines for reopening. For patients, there are a few main lessons. First, safety begins before you arrive at the office. Practices will be screening patients based on presence of symptoms, potential exposures and preexisting conditions. Some practices may turn away individuals at high risk for COVID-19. “The first thing the patient should be asking is, ‘What is this practice saying about their safety protocols,’” Lund said. “When you call, can they describe without hesitation what they’re doing? Is it on their website?” When you arrive, you’ll have your temperature taken. Paperwork will have been handled online before your appointment. Everyone should be in masks. The doctor will have on personal protective equipment, likely an N95 mask, face shield, gown and gloves. Doctors are in agreement that many consultations and follow-ups will by default be done virtually to keep traffic in office to a minimum. “Because of the risk of coronavirus exposure, the stakes are higher than ever for aesthetics,” Devgan said. Medical resources are still not optimal, she said, making it a bad time to have a complication from a procedure. c.2020 The New York Times Company

Clashes broke out between hundreds of stone-throwing youths and police firing teargas to disperse them in the southern town of Gafsa, but the streets were calm elsewhere in the North African state which gave birth to the Arab Spring uprisings.Calls for a general strike raised the specter of more trouble although the family of assassinated secular politician Chokri Belaid said his funeral, another possible flashpoint, might not be held until Friday.Prime Minister Hamdi Jebali of Ennahda announced late on Wednesday he would replace the government led by his moderate Islamist party with a non-partisan cabinet until elections could be held, as soon as possible.But a senior Ennahda official said Jebali had not sought approval from his party, suggesting the Islamist group was split over the move to replace the governing coalition."The prime minister did not ask the opinion of his party," said Abdelhamid Jelassi, Ennahda's vice-president. "We in Ennahda believe Tunisia needs a political government now. We will continue discussions with other parties about forming a coalition government."Tunisia's main opposition parties also rejected any move to a government of experts and demanded they be consulted before any new cabinet is formed.Political analysts said protracted deadlock could aggravate the unrest, which has underscored the chasm between Islamists and secular groups who fear that freedoms of expression, cultural liberty and women's rights are in jeopardy just two years after the Western-backed dictatorship crumbled.Belaid was shot as he left home for work by a gunman who fled on the back of a motorcycle. That sent thousands of protesters onto the streets nationwide hurling rocks and fighting police in scenes recalling Egypt last month.No one claimed responsibility for the killing, and the head of Ennahda said the party had nothing to do with it.But a crowd set fire to the Tunis headquarters of Ennahda, which won the most seats in a free election 16 months ago. Protests also hit Sidi Bouzid, fount of the Jasmine Revolution that ousted dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011.Although Belaid had only a modest political following, his sharp criticism of Ennahda policies spoke for many Tunisians who fear religious radicals are bent on snuffing out freedoms won in the first of the Arab Spring uprisings.PARLIAMENT TO WEIGH NEW CABINETMehrzia Abidi, vice-president of the interim parliament which has been struggling for months to draft a new post-Ben Ali constitution, said it would discuss Jebali's proposal for temporary technocratic government on Thursday.Sadok Belaid, a constitutional law expert, said the assembly would have to approve the cabinet overhaul. But the body's dysfunctional record raised the prospect of protracted deadlock that could kindle further unrest.Political analyst Salem Labyed said the opposition appeared to want to leverage the crisis to its own advantage."It seems that the opposition wants to secure the maximum possible political gains but the fear is that the ... crisis will deepen if things remain unclear at the political level. That could increase the anger of supporters of the secular opposition, which may go back to the streets again," he said.Many Tunisians complain that radical Salafi Islamists may hijack the democratic revolution, fearing Ennahda is coming increasingly under their sway.Nervous about the extent of hardline Islamist influence and the volatility of the political impasse, big powers urged Tunisians to see through a non-violent shift to democracy.But discontent has smoldered for some time not only over secularist-Islamist issues but also over the lack of progress towards better living standards expected after Ben Ali's exit.In a reflection of investor fears about the crisis, the cost of insuring Tunisian government bonds against default rose to their highest level in more than four years on Thursday. It remains lower than that of unrest-wracked Egypt, however.Lacking the huge oil and gas resources of neighbors Libya and Algeria, Tunisia counts tourism as a crucial currency earner, and further unrest could deter visitors.REBELLION WITHIN CABINETJebali declared after Wednesday's protests that weeks of talks on reshaping the government had failed amid deadlock within the three-party coalition. One secular party threatened to bolt unless Ennahda replaced some of its ministers.The opposition Nida Touns, Republican, Popular Front and Massar parties demanded that Jebali - who planned to stay on as caretaker prime minister - talk to them before making any move to dissolve his cabinet."The situation has changed now ... Consultations with all parties are essential," said Maya Jribi, head of the secular Republican party."All the government, including the prime minister, should resign," added Beji Caid Essebsi, a former prime minister who heads the secular Nida Touns.The day before his death Belaid was publicly lambasting a "climate of systematic violence". He said tolerance shown by Ennahda and its two, smaller secularist allies in the coalition government toward Salafists had allowed the spread of groups hostile to modern culture and liberal ideas.As in Egypt, secular leaders have accused Islamists of trying to cement narrow religiosity in the new state. This dispute has held up a deal on a constitution setting the stage for a parliamentary election, which had been expected by June.But unlike Egypt's government, Ennahda has struggled to form a stabilizing partnership with key existing state institutions, as the Muslim Brotherhood has done with the Egyptian military, risk consultancy Stratfor said in an analysis on Wednesday."This inability or unwillingness to rely on the state security apparatus as a regime backer has left Ennahda with few useful tools to address the strengthening political opposition and popular forces increasingly calling for significant changes in the makeup of the government," Stratfor said.

Beneath a towering canopy in the heat of the Amazon jungle, Brazilian Indians and officials urged U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday to rally international support to protect the world's largest rain forest. "We need the Secretary to help convert international good will into concrete mechanisms that benefit the residents of the Amazon," Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva told Ban under a century-old Samauma tree 30 minutes upriver from Belem, the Amazon's largest city. Ban was on the last stop of a South American tour that focused on the potential impact of global warming and included a visit to Antarctica last week. "I kindly ask you to help create incentives so we and other forest dwellers can make a living here," Amazon Indian Marcos Apurina told Ban, who received a necklace made of native plant seeds and saw other forest products from honey to handicrafts. Ban, who hiked a short jungle trail on Combu island on the Guama River, said: "The United Nations will stand beside you. This is a common asset of all humankind." Earlier Ban petted a three-toed sloth and planted two native trees at a botanical garden in Belem. Ban is preparing for a UN climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December, which should start talks to curb carbon emissions after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. FOREST DESTRUCTION Brazil produces the world's fourth-largest amount of carbon emissions, due mostly to the destruction of the Amazon rain forest, according to international environmental groups. Ban did not comment on Brazil's refusal to adopt targets to reduce deforestation and carbon emissions. Instead, he commended Brazil for its efforts to curb forest destruction by 50 percent over two years, even though the rate has risen again since August. The Amazon releases stored carbon dioxide when trees are burnt or decompose, contributing to global warming. Advancing farmers and loggers clear country-sized chunks of the forest every year -- more when grain, beef or timber prices are high, less when they fall. Silva, a former rubber tapper and activist, urged Ban to help overcome opposition by some Western countries to a proposal within the international Convention on Biodiversity that would force pharmaceutical companies to pay for drugs derived from Amazon medicinal plants. "He listened and said he would study the proposal," Silva said after a meeting with Ban late on Monday. Scientists say global warming could turn part of the Amazon into semi-arid savanna within a few decades. Extreme weather has caused droughts in some parts and flooding in others. Ban's planned trip along an Amazon tributary near the port city of Santarem was canceled because the river was too shallow. Ban praised Brazil for its leadership in developing low-emission biofuels but said more international research was needed to study the possible impact of their large-scale production on food supplies. On the weekend, he visited one of the plants in Sao Paulo state that make Brazil one of the largest and cheapest producers of ethanol. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government has increased police raids on illegal loggers and expanded protected areas. But it is also building roads and hydroelectric plants which conservationists fear could increase deforestation in the long term.

The prime minister spoke on the matter at the inauguration of ‘World Environment Day and Environment Fair 2017 and National Tree Planting Project and Tree Planting Day 2017’ on Sunday at the Bangabandhu International Convention Centre. “We put a particular focus on ensuring that the Sundarbans comes to no harm when developing our projects,” she said. Many environmentalists and leftist groups have protested the Awami League government’s decision to build a coal-based power plant in Rampal, 14 kilometres from the Sundarbans. The government has repeatedly stated the power plant would not harm the Sundarbans in any way. The Sundarbans were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997 under an Awami League government led by Hasina. “We have continued to protect the Sundarbans ever since,” Hasina said. Bangladesh has been saved by the Sundarbans, the prime minister said. The government is making plans to grow the mangrove forest through artificial means. The Awami League government has been able to ensure a 17 percent increase in the forest area in Bangladesh and has targeted a 25 percent increase, she said. A balance of environmental protection and socially conscious forestry has been developed by the government, Hasina said. She also proposed the development of ‘smart patrolling’ to protect the region. A number of steps are also being taken to ensure those who live off the Sundarbans can find alternative employment, she added. “And most essential is the development of a ‘green seawall’ to fend off hurricanes and floods.” The prime minister also mentioned the trust fund she had set up to fight climate change. Thus far, Tk 31 billion has been allocated for the fund, she said. Hasina did, however, express her disappointment that many developing countries had not contributed to the fund. “Though we received many promises, very little financial support was given,” she said. “But what we have received, we put to good use.” “Bangladesh has shown the world how to begin work on your own without depending on others and we are being recognised for it,” the prime minister said.

Delegates at climate talks in Bali are close to agreeing guidelines for a pay-and-preserve scheme for forests under a future deal to fight global warming, Indonesia's foreign minister said on Thursday. Under the scheme called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD), preservation of forests could become a tradeable commodity with the potential to earn poor nations billions of dollars from trading carbon credits. Scientists say deforestation in the tropics is responsible for about 20 percent of all man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and preserving what's left of them is crucial because they soak up enormous amounts of the gas. CO2 is blamed for the bulk of global warming that the UN Climate Panel says will trigger rising seas, rapid melting of glaciers and more droughts, floods and intense storms. "In the meeting this morning, it was very clear that there was enthusiasm from developed countries on the importance of forests in the context of climate change," Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told reporters. "Developed countries and countries with large forest areas agreed to formulate a world map as part of the cooperation, involving not just governments, but also institutions like universities and research bodies." Curbing deforestation has been a top issue for the thousands of delegates at Bali because the Kyoto Protocol, the existing U.N. climate pact, does not include schemes that reward developing nations for preserving tropical rainforests. LAND USE At its simplest, the REDD scheme would allow carbon credits to be issued to qualifying developing nations. Rich nations buy these credits to offset their emissions at home. The unresolved issue centres on the question whether to put future talks on deforestation in a wider context, which includes other types of land use, a proposal backed by the United States and opposed by most developing nations, an Indonesian forestry official said. The official told Reuters the proposal could take away the focus from forests, complicate the scheme and further stall its implementation. So far, the Bali meeting has agreed to encourage individual countries to run a series of projects to help them prepare for REDD while agreeing to study the issue further. The World Bank has already launched plans for a $300 million fund to fend off global warming by preserving forests, which includes a $100 million "readiness" fund to give grants to around 20 countries to prepare them for large-scale forest protection schemes. Grants will fund projects including surveys of current forest assets, monitoring systems and tightening governance. A second $200 million "carbon finance mechanism" will allow some of these countries to run pilot programmes earning credits for curbing deforestation. Indonesia, a keen supporter of REDD, is among the world's top three greenhouse gas emitters because of deforestation, peatland degradation and forest fires, according to a report earlier this year sponsored by the World Bank and Britain's development arm. Indonesia has a total forest area of more than 225 million acres (91 million hectares), or about 10 percent of the world's remaining tropical forests, according to rainforestweb.org, a portal on rainforests.

Japan thinks 2005 would be a 'fair' base year for calculating cuts in greenhouse gas emissions under a post-Kyoto climate pact, a senior trade and industry official said on Monday. Japan has rejected the idea of keeping 1990 as the base year for emissions cuts for a new global pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol after 2012, saying it was unfair to Japanese industry, which had made energy efficiency investments two decades ago. But Tokyo had not specified what the new base year should be. Takao Kitabata, vice minister at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) told a news conference that 2005 would be 'fair', a spokesman for the ministry said. The proposed change in the base year would likely be opposed by the European Union, which has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels. About 190 countries agreed at UN-led talks in Bali last year to launch two-year negotiations on a replacement for Kyoto, which binds only rich nations to emissions cuts by an average of five percent between 2008 and 2012 from 1990 levels. All nations would be bound under Kyoto's successor and under the "Bali roadmap," nations recognised that deep cuts in global emissions were needed. But there are wide gaps over the size of binding targets and the base year for such targets.

But after a failed 2016 coup, Erdogan embarked on a sweeping crackdown. Last year, the economy wobbled and the lira plunged soon after he won re-election with even greater powers. As cronyism and authoritarianism seep deeper into his administration, Turks are voting differently — this time with their feet. They are leaving the country in droves and taking talent and capital with them in a way that indicates a broad and alarming loss of confidence in Erdogan’s vision, according to government statistics and analysts. In the past two to three years, not only have students and academics fled the country, but also entrepreneurs, businesspeople, and thousands of wealthy individuals who are selling everything and moving their families and their money abroad. “We are selling everything,” Merve Bayindir, a hat designer, said after closing her business in Istanbul and moving it to London. The New York Times More than a quarter of a million Turks emigrated in 2017, according to the Turkish Institute of Statistics, an increase of 42 percent over 2016, when nearly 178,000 citizens left the country. “We are selling everything,” Merve Bayindir, a hat designer, said after closing her business in Istanbul and moving it to London. The New York Times Turkey has seen waves of students and teachers leave before, but this exodus looks like a more permanent reordering of the society and threatens to set Turkey back decades, said Ibrahim Sirkeci, director of transnational studies at Regent’s University in London, and other analysts. “The brain drain is real,” Sirkeci said. The flight of people, talent and capital is being driven by a powerful combination of factors that have come to define life under Erdogan and that his opponents increasingly despair is here to stay. They include fear of political persecution, terrorism, a deepening distrust of the judiciary and the arbitrariness of the rule of law, and a deteriorating business climate, accelerated by worries that Erdogan is unsoundly manipulating management of the economy to benefit himself and his inner circle. The result is that, for the first time since the republic was founded nearly a century ago, many from the old moneyed class, in particular the secular elite who have dominated Turkey’s cultural and business life for decades, are moving away and the new rich close to Erdogan and his governing party are taking their place. One of those leaving is Merve Bayindir, 38, who is relocating to London after becoming Turkey’s go-to hat designer in the fashionable Nisantasi district of Istanbul. “We are selling everything,” she said during a return trip to Istanbul last month to close what was left of her business, Merve Bayindir, which she runs with her mother, and to sell their four-story house. Protesters in Taksim Square in Istanbul in June 2013. Many participants were subject to harassment and persecution, and subsequently left Turkey. The New York Times Bayindir was an active participant in the 2013 protests against the government’s attempt to develop Taksim Square in Istanbul. She said she remains traumatised by the violence and is fearful in her own city. Protesters in Taksim Square in Istanbul in June 2013. Many participants were subject to harassment and persecution, and subsequently left Turkey. The New York Times Erdogan denounced the protesters as delinquents and, after enduring arrests and harassment, many have left the country. “There is so much discrimination, not only cultural but personal, the anger, the violence is impossible to handle,” Bayindir said. “If you had something better and you see it dissolving, it’s a hopeless road.” Thousands of Turks like her have applied for business visas in Britain or for golden visa programmes in Greece, Portugal and Spain, which grant immigrants residency if they buy property at a certain level. Applications for asylum in Europe by Turks have also multiplied in the past three years, according to Sirkeci, who has studied the migration of Turks to Britain for 25 years. He estimates that 10,000 Turks have made use of a business visa plan to move to Britain in the past few years, with a sharp jump in applications since the beginning of 2016. That is double the number from 2004 to 2015. Applications by Turkish citizens for political asylum also jumped threefold in Britain in the six months after the coup attempt, and sixfold among Turks applying for asylum in Germany, he said, citing figures obtained from the UN refugee agency. The number of Turks applying for asylum worldwide jumped by 10,000 in 2017 to more than 33,000. A large proportion of those fleeing have been followers of Fethullah Gulen, the Pennsylvania-based preacher who is charged with instigating the 2016 coup, or people accused of being followers, often on flimsy evidence. Tens of thousands of teachers and academics were purged from their jobs after the coup, including hundreds who had signed a peace petition calling on the government to cease military action in Kurdish cities and return to the peace process. Hundreds have taken up posts abroad. Erdogan has tried to make Turkey more conservative and religious, with a growing middle class and a tight circle of elites who are especially beholden to him for their economic success. The flight of capital and talent is the result of this conscious effort by Erdogan to transform the society, said Bekir Agirdir, director of the Konda polling company. With the help of subsidies and favorable contracts, the government has helped new businesses to emerge, and they are rapidly replacing the old ones, he said. “There is a transfer of capital underway,” he said. “It is social and political engineering.” Ilker Birbil, a mathematician who faces charges for signing the peace petition and left Turkey to take a position at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, warned that the country was losing people permanently. “People who are leaving do not want to come back,” Birbil said, citing the polarised political climate in the country. “This is alarming for Turkey.” “I have received so many emails from students and friends who are trying to get out of Turkey,” he said. Students are despairing of change partly because they have grown up with Erdogan in power for 17 years, said Erhan Erkut, a founder of MEF University in Istanbul, which teaches innovation and entrepreneurship. “This is the only government they have seen; they do not know there is another possibility,” he said. Families are setting up businesses abroad for the next generation to inherit, said Sirkeci of Regent’s University, adding that many students at his private university fell into that category. At least 12,000 of Turkey’s millionaires — around 12 percent of the country’s wealthy class — moved their assets out of the country in 2016 and 2017, according to the Global Wealth Migration Review, an annual report produced by AfrAsia Bank. Most of them moved to Europe or the United Arab Emirates, the report said. Turkey’s largest business centre, Istanbul, was listed among the top seven cities worldwide experiencing an exodus of wealthy people. ‘'If one looks at any major country collapse in history, it is normally preceded by a migration of wealthy people away from that country,” the report said. Erdogan has reviled as traitors businesspeople who have moved their assets abroad as the Turkish economy has begun to falter. “Pardon us, we do not forgive,” he warned in an April speech at the Foreign Economic Relations Board, a business association in Istanbul. “The hands of our nation would be on their collars both in this world and in the afterlife.” ‘'Behaviour like this cannot have a valid explanation,” Erdogan added. His comments came amid reports that some of Turkey’s largest companies were divesting in Turkey. Several such companies have made significant transfers of capital abroad, amid fears they would be targeted in the post-coup crackdown or as the economy began to contract. One is Turkish food giant Yildiz Holding, which came under fire on social media as being linked to Gulen’s movement. Soon after, Yildiz rescheduled $7 billion of debt and sold shares of its Turkish biscuit maker, Ulker, to its London-based holding company, essentially transferring the family’s majority holding of Ulkerout of reach of Turkish courts. “Billions of dollars have fled Turkey in the last couple of years, especially after the coup attempt when people started to feel threatened,” said Mehmet Gun, the owner of a law firm in Istanbul. Bayindir, the designer, began slowly moving her company to London two years ago. In Turkey she had half a dozen workers and a showroom, but now she designs and makes the hats herself out of a rented atelier in London. “I could have stayed,'’ in Istanbul, she said. “I would be better off.” But life in Turkey had become so tense, she said, that she fears civil strife or even civil war could develop between Erdogan supporters and their opponents. “Now when I come here, I don’t see the same Istanbul,” she said. “She does not have energy anymore. She looks tired. Me not wanting to come here is a big, big thing, because I am one of those people who is in love with the city itself.”   © 2018 New York Times News Service

Sheikh Shahariar Zaman Senior Correspondent bdnews24.com Dhaka, Jul 16 (bdnews24.com)—The government is going to introduce a Green Initiative in all the export-processing zones to reduce energy consumption, Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority Member Mahbubur Rahman says. He said the industries using boiler in the EPZs release steam into the air which could be used for generating heat, saving 'a lot of energy'. According to Rahman, a project is being implemented at Chittagong Export Processing Zone for developing a roadmap to ensure low carbon emission. The project, supported by International Finance Corporation, UKAID, KOICA and the European Union, will be replicated in other export processing zones, he added. All the export-processing zones would be brought under a system for ensuring efficient use of energy as Bangladesh is committed to reduce carbon emission being most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, said Rahman. There are eight export-processing zones in Bangladesh. Senior Investment Officer of International Finance Corporation Han-koo Yeo said awareness and sharing of knowledge are the two most crucial factors to be considered in adopting the Green Initiative. The project being implemented in Chittagong would provide local companies with an opportunity to see how the initiative can be adopted, he added. Yeo underscored using energy efficiently for ensuring a sustainable development in the business.

Inspired by teenage Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, 16-year-old student Aman Sharma launched a petition on Change.org in May after noticing that every successive year was getting hotter, drier, thirstier and more polluted, he said. "I started this campaign to put pressure on the government because if we keep silent right now then it's going to affect our survival in the future," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Friday as his petition gathered more than 170,000 signatures. His other demands to the environment ministry include increasing the country's green cover and meeting pledges made under the 2015 Paris climate agreement to try to limit a rise in global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change did not respond to repeated requests for comment. With backing from several film personalities including actress Nathalie Kelley from US TV soap "Dynasty" as well as some Bollywood names, Sharma said his next aim was to draw Hollywood environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio's attention. On Wednesday, DiCaprio posted a photo on Instagram of women in the southern city of Chennai drawing pots of water from a near empty well, capturing the daily struggle of thousands. Chennai has been in the global spotlight since its four main reservoirs dried up earlier this month, largely because of poor monsoons in 2018, forcing residents to ration the use of water. The city was one of 21 cities predicted to run out of ground water by 2020, government think-tank NITI Aayog said in a report published last year. It warned that India faced the worst long-term water crisis in its history, with 600 million people - nearly half of India's population - at risk of facing acute shortage. In the north, a heatwave has killed at least 36 people this year, with New Delhi recording its highest-ever temperature of 48 degrees Celsius (118 Fahrenheit). Jitendra Sharma, a popular Mumbai-based Instagram influencer, started a similar petition this week which had nearly 300,000 signatures by Friday. He said he was hopeful that the government would announce a climate emergency. "It is the need of the hour," he said, citing other countries taking similar action. In May Britain's parliament declared a symbolic climate change "emergency" in a nod to an increasing vocal activist movement particularly among young people in Europe. While there is no single definition of climate emergency, environmentalist Chandra Bhushan said it was the act of placing climate change at the centre of policy and planning decisions. "It means the Indian government will have to recognise we are in crisis, will have to set up an action plan," said Bhushan of the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment. "We are in trouble. Even if the Indian government does not recognise climate emergency now, it is a matter of time that they will have to."

UNITED NATIONS,April 08 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Dozens of world leaders gather in Washington next week for an unprecedented meeting on nuclear security, with USPresident Barack Obama hoping they can agree on how to keep atomic bombs out of terrorists' hands. Although the gathering of 47 countries will not focus on individual nations, the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea -- and possible new UN sanctions against Tehran -- are expected to come up in Obama's bilateral meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao and other leaders, as well as in the speeches of Israeli and other participants. Hu's decision to attend the summit, Western diplomats said, was a major victory for Obama, since it indicates that Beijing does not want bilateral tensions over Taiwan and other issues to cripple Sino-US relations and cooperation on other key security and foreign policy topics. A draft communique circulated to countries attending the summit, the contents of which were described to Reuters, includes a US proposal to "secure all vulnerable nuclear material in four years." The draft text will likely be revised before it is adopted at the end of the April 12-13 meeting. Analysts and Western diplomats say the significance of the summit meeting -- one of the biggest of its kind in Washington since World War Two -- goes far beyond its official agenda. "Too many people see nuclear security as a narrow technical issue of concern only to those most fearful of nuclear terrorism," Ian Kearns of British American Security Information Council said in a report. "If leaders at the summit get it right, they could render nuclear power safer to use in the fight against climate change, strengthen the non-proliferation regime, and build further international confidence in ... nuclear disarmament," said Kearns, who is an adviser to Britain's parliamentary committee on national security. In addition to China's Hu, attendees include Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Also represented will be India and Pakistan, which never signed the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty but have atomic arsenals, and Israel, another NPT holdout that is presumed to have atomic weapons but has never confirmed it. NO INVITATIONS FOR IRAN, NORTH KOREA The inclusion of Pakistan, diplomats say, is important since it is one of the countries that has pledged to improve its internal safeguards. Disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan was the kingpin of an illicit atomic network that provided atomic technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya. Two nations excluded from the meeting are Iran, which the United States and its Western allies accuse of pursuing nuclear weapons, and North Korea, which withdrew from the NPT in 2003 and has twice detonated nuclear devices despite its promise to abandon its atomic programs. Both are under UN sanctions. Joe Cirincione, a professor at Georgetown University and head of the Ploughshares Fund anti-nuclear arms group, said the plan to secure nuclear materials worldwide within four years could substantially boost global security. "If they follow through, this strategy could effectively prevent nuclear terrorism by stopping radicals from getting the one part of the bomb they cannot make themselves," he said. But Cirincione wants to see if the final communique is "more than a 2-page press release, if the action plan has real targets and real deadlines, if key nations pledge to secure their weapons material within four years, and if the states agree to meet again in two years to assess progress." On the agenda are plans to join together a disparate group of countries with nuclear programs to gather up dangerous atomic material from vulnerable nuclear, defense and medical sites worldwide, something Russia and the United States have been doing with the aid of the UN atomic watchdog for years. If successful, the summit can send a strong signal to the world that the international community is united in boosting nuclear security and that Washington is taking a leading role. The White House on Tuesday unveiled a new policy that restricts US use of nuclear weapons, while sending a stern warning to Iran and North Korea that they remain potential targets. Reversing the position of the former US administration, the so-called Nuclear Posture Review also said Washington would not develop any new atomic weapons. Analysts said the combination of the US nuclear policy, the success of Obama and Medvedev in agreeing a new treaty committing them to reducing their atomic arsenals, and a productive nuclear summit could help set the stage for a successful gathering of NPT signatories in New York next month to find ways to overhaul the 40-year-old arms pact. Analysts say the NPT has been battered by North Korea's withdrawal, Iran's insistence on pursing nuclear technology that could help it make bombs and developing nations' charges that big nuclear powers are ignoring disarmament commitments. Possible new UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program will be the focus of a Thursday meeting of envoys from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia in New York. UN diplomats said their leaders were ready to discuss Iran on the sidelines of the summit if Obama wants to.

Concerns about the US economy and banking sector woes gnawed at investor confidence on Wednesday despite a better-than-expected German business sentiment report, keeping stocks and the dollar under pressure. But a weakening greenback helped fuel interest in a range of commodities including oil, gold and industrial metals that had sold off recently. A Deutsche Bank warning that credit market aftershocks could hit its 2008 profits and data on Tuesday showing U.S. consumer confidence dropping to a five-year low in March conspired to keep investors cautious. Adding to the gloom, fresh US data on Wednesday showed new orders for long-lasting US manufactured goods unexpectedly fell 1.7 percent in February, reinforcing worries about the world's biggest economy. Wall Street looked set to open lower with major stock index futures all trading in the red. "There definitely is still nervousness in the banking sector and the announcement from Deutsche bank served as a reminder that JPMorgan raising its bid for Bear Stearns doesn't necessarily solve all the problems for the financial sector," said Sean Maloney, fixed-income strategist at Nomura in London. News early this week that JPMorgan had boosted its takeover offer for Bear Stearns by about fivefold had sparked a rally in financial stocks globally and eased worries about a sector constrained by a credit crunch. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares slid 0.9 percent, while Germany's DAX fell 0.7 percent with Deutsche Bank about 2 percent lower. London's FTSE 100 index shed 0.7 percent, weighed by a near 7 percent fall for Swiss miner Xtrata after takeover talks with the world's largest iron ore miner Vale broke down. Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei ended down 0.3 percent, but MSCI's measure of other Asian stock markets climbed 0.7 percent. MSCI's main world equity index nudged 0.2 percent higher. DOLLAR DOWN, COMMODITIES UP The dollar slipped against a basket of major currencies, with the dollar index falling 0.8 percent amid ongoing concerns about the health of the US economy. In contrast, upbeat data showing the German business climate index, based on a poll of around 7,000 firms, rose to a better-than-expected 104.8 from 104.1 in February helped drive the euro higher. The euro rose about 0.7 percent on the day to $1.5736, further boosted by comments from European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet, which markets interpreted as suggesting no interest rate cuts were imminent. Testifying before an economic committee of the European Parliament, Trichet said the ECB believed the current monetary policy stance will contribute to achieving price stability in the medium term. Among commodities, US light crude for May delivery climbed $1.25 to $102.47, while gold rose to $947.70 an ounce from around $934.60 an ounce late in New York on Tuesday. Copper for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange last traded at $8,155/tonne, up 0.8 percent. Global demand for many commodities is seen remaining intact thanks to booming economies such as China despite a gloomy US outlook. "The dollar's fall has prompted buying but traders are reluctant to take large positions ahead of the end of the quarter," said Shuji Sugata, a manager at Mitsubishi Corp Futures and Securities Ltd in Tokyo. Underlying concerns about the US economy underpinned demand for safe-haven U.S. Treasuries with the benchmark 10-year yield slipping about 5 basis points to 3.457 percent. But German 10-year bonds underperformed their US counterparts, weighed by Trichet's comments as well as fresh bond supply. The 10-year yield was little changed at 3.887 percent.

Shrinking ice and snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere is reflecting ever less sunshine back into space in a previously underestimated mechanism that could add to global warming, a study showed. Satellite data indicated that Arctic sea ice, glaciers, winter snow and Greenland's ice were bouncing less energy back to space from 1979 to 2008. The dwindling white sunshade exposes ground or water, both of which are darker and absorb more heat. The study estimated that ice and snow in the Northern Hemisphere were now reflecting on average 3.3 watts per square meter of solar energy back to the upper atmosphere, a reduction of 0.45 watt per square meter since the late 1970s. "The cooling effect is reduced and this is increasing the amount of solar energy that the planet absorbs," Mark Flanner, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan and lead author of the study, told Reuters. "This reduction in reflected solar energy through warming is greater than simulated by the current crop of climate models," he said of the findings by a team of US-based researchers and published in the journal Nature Geoscience Sunday. "The conclusion is that the cryosphere (areas of ice and snow) is both responding more sensitively to, and also driving, stronger climate change than thought," he said. As ever more ground and water is exposed to sunlight, the absorbed heat in turn speeds the melting of snow and ice nearby. Arctic sea ice, for instance, has shrunk in recent decades in a trend that the United Nations panel of climate scientists blames mainly on greenhouse gases from mankind's burning of fossil fuels in factories, power plants and cars. Many studies project that Arctic sea ice could vanish in summers later this century in a trend that would undermine the hunting cultures of indigenous peoples and threaten polar bears and other animals, as well as adding to global climate change. ICE SHRINKS But Flanner said that it was impossible to draw conclusions from the study about the rate of future melting, for instance of Arctic sea ice, since it was based on only 30 years of data. "There are a lot of other things that determine climate ... this is just one of them," he said. Other factors include whether there will be more clouds in a warmer world -- whose white tops also reflect sunlight. Or there could be more water vapor that traps heat in the atmosphere. The study estimated that each degree Celsius (1.8 degree Fahrenheit) rise in temperatures would mean a decline in solar energy reflected out to space of between 0.3 and 1.1 watts per square meter from the Northern Hemisphere's snow and ice. Temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere have risen by about 0.75 degree Celsius in the past three decades. The study did not look at the Southern Hemisphere, where Antarctica has far more ice but is much colder and shows fewer signs of warming. "On a global scale, the planet absorbs solar energy at a rate of about 240 watts per square meter averaged over a year. The planet would be darker and absorb an additional 3.3 watts without the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere," Flanner said.

POZNAN, Poland, Dec 13(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Developing nations accused the rich of meanness on Saturday at the end of UN climate talks that launched only a tiny fund to help poor countries cope with droughts, floods and rising seas. They said the size of the Adaptation Fund -- worth just $80 million -- was a bad omen at the halfway mark of two years of negotiations on a new treaty to fight global warming designed to be agreed in Copenhagen at the end of 2009. "We are so sad and so disappointed," Colombian Environment Minister Juan Lozano said of the Dec. 1-12 talks, which went on into the early hours of Saturday and have been overshadowed by worries that global economic woes are drying up donor cash. "The human side of climate change is the suffering of our orphans and our victims and that was not considered here. It's a bad signal on the road to Copenhagen," said Lozano. "I must say that this is one of the saddest moments I have witnessed in all these years," Indian representative Prodipto Ghosh told delegates at the 189-nation talks, adding he had attended U.N. climate meetings for 12 years. Several other nations including Brazil, Costa Rica and Maldives made similar remarks. Many delegates expressed hopes that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama would adopt more aggressive climate policies. Environment ministers at the talks in Poland set rules for the Adaptation Fund, which is meant to help poor nations build flood defences, develop drought-resistant crops, or produce storm warnings. Polish Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki, the host, said the launch of the fund was the biggest achievement of Poznan. The fund, which can start paying out cash in 2009, has just $80 million but could rise to $300 million a year by 2012. BILLIONS NEEDED U.N. projections are that poor nations will need tens of billions of dollars a year by 2030 to cope with climate change. Poland spent 24 million euros ($31.84 million) just to host the Dec. 1-12 conference. Developing nations accused the rich of blocking agreement in Poznan on a wider funding mechanism that could raise about $2 billion a year. The issue was delayed until 2009. Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said the talks achieved all they had set out to do but acknowledged there was "some bitterness". "Half the work (for Copenhagen) hasn't been done," he said. Still, he said Poznan had achieved a main task of reviewing progress towards a sweeping new global climate treaty in Copenhagen in December 2009 to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Environmentalists disagreed. "We are desperately disappointed with the progress here," said Stephanie Tunmore of the Greenpeace environmental group. "The stocktaking bit wasn't difficult: 'What did we do in 2008? Not much'." Environmentalists accused Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand of blocking progress and failing to set ambitious new goals to cut emissions. By contrast, countries including Mexico, China and South Africa laid out ideas to curb rising emissions. European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said talks were on track. "Everyone said the fight against climate change is consistent with tackling the economic crisis," he said. European Union ministers in Poznan expressed relief after EU leaders in Brussels agreed a pact on Friday to cut greenhouse gases by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 -- after making costly concessions to east European countries. Under the Adaptation Fund, cash is raised by a 2 percent levy on a U.N. system of projects to cut greenhouse gas emissions in poor nations. The levy has raised 60 million euros ($80 million) so far.

But here’s the bad news: When talking recently to Oscar voters, I hear too many of them complain, “Are there even 10 great films to vote for this year?” Greatness is in the eye of the beholder, but this year’s pack of Oscar contenders is at least gratifyingly varied, featuring big-studio blockbusters, intimate international dramas and an end-of-the-world comedy with a tramp-stamped Meryl Streep as the president. If voters feel the field is too sparse to fill out 10 slots, it’s only because they’re not looking hard enough. I’ve now screened all of this year’s major Oscar players aside from Guillermo del Toro’s “Nightmare Alley” (which will finally begin showing just after this column goes to press), and though some consensus has begun to form about the major contenders, there is still an exciting array of movies that could fill out the rest of this year’s lineup. Here are my projections for the six movies that have the strongest best-picture chances, as well as a clutch of other worthy films that ought to give voters plenty to pick from. ‘West Side Story’ Could Steven Spielberg’s new musical pull off the same feat as the 1961 big-screen version and win best picture at the Oscars? After the film showed this week to standing ovations, I’ve moved “West Side Story” to pole position. Spielberg’s savvy re-imagining of the source material marries old-school sweep with contemporary concerns, putting the movie right in Oscar voters’ sweet spot. And after last year’s smaller-scaled Academy Awards, a mammoth Steven Spielberg musical debuting only in theatres is exactly the sort of thing that the movie industry — and the Oscars themselves — will want to rally behind. ‘Belfast’ As a movie, “Belfast” has an appealing modesty: It’s only 97 minutes, it never overreaches, and it ends on exactly the moment it should. But could that same modesty keep it from Oscar’s top spot? Many in the academy will adore Kenneth Branagh’s story of an Irish family navigating the Troubles, but “West Side Story” offers more pomp and circumstance and “Belfast” has so far racked up a fine but hardly eye-popping limited gross of about $5 million. The older art-house crowd that could have made the film a sleeper hit has not yet returned to theatres, so awards momentum will have to come from pure love of the movie itself. ‘The Power of the Dog’ Jane Campion’s western is anchored by two very buzzy performances — Benedict Cumberbatch as a sadistic rancher and Kirsten Dunst as his tormented sister-in-law — and played at all the top fall film festivals, just as last year’s ultimate winner, “Nomadland,” did. Much has changed since 1994, when Campion became only the second woman ever nominated for best director, and the chance to canonise her could put Campion in contention for a major Oscar. But I think the film has a better shot at winning the director race than triumphing in best picture. ‘King Richard’ This inspirational drama about Richard Williams, father to tennis phenoms Venus and Serena, boasts this year’s presumed best-actor front-runner in Will Smith. That alone should secure it a best-picture berth, since the last 10 best-actor winners all hailed from films also nominated in Oscar’s top category. (That’s true of only six of the last 10 best-actress winners, another sign of how this voting body needs to take female-fronted films more seriously.) Still, a flurry of headlines about the film’s weak opening-weekend box office got “King Richard” off on the wrong foot. ‘Being the Ricardos’ The trailer for this Aaron Sorkin-directed dramedy played a very unwise game of “Hide the Lucy,” treating Nicole Kidman’s performance as TV comedian Lucille Ball as an impending disaster that had to be judiciously cut around. But after the film began to screen for cheering guild audiences, Kidman’s smoky-throated transformation proved a surprise, vaulting her closer to a second Oscar. Add to all that a strong supporting cast — including Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz, along with J.K. Simmons and Nina Arianda — and “Being the Ricardos” (opening later this month) ought to be a significant awards player. ‘Don’t Look Up’ The academy has gone gaga for Adam McKay’s last two issue-based comedies, “The Big Short” and “Vice,” and his new satire, “Don’t Look Up” (due later this month), has higher stakes and even more star wattage. Oscar favourites Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Mark Rylance and Jonah Hill all star in this ensemble comedy about a comet threatening the end of the world — a just-veiled-enough metaphor for the climate crisis, granted even more real-world resonance during the worldwide pandemic — and amid a sea of period-piece contenders, “Don’t Look Up” and its screwed-future fatalism feels even more of the moment. Those are six sure things. So which other films are left contending for the last four spots? Like I said earlier, it helps to have a strong best-actor candidate fronting your movie. Expect a major push, then, for the musical “Cyrano,” with a never-better Peter Dinklage, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Tick, Tick … Boom!,” featuring Andrew Garfield as the musical-theatre composer Jonathan Larson, and Joel Coen’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” with a galvanising Denzel Washington in the title role. And since “C’mon C’mon” is the first film Joaquin Phoenix has starred in since “Joker,” it shouldn’t be discounted, even though I suspect this tender little drama about child-raising from the director Mike Mills could go the way of Mills’ last masterpiece, “20th Century Women,” and fly over academy heads. Let’s hope that when voters mark their best-actress choices, they realise that some of the most wonderful films of the year are contending in that category and deserve a best-picture berth, too. That group includes Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza,” which features the film acting debut of the musician Alana Haim, as well as Pedro Almodóvar’s “Parallel Mothers,” which won its star Penélope Cruz the Volpi Cup for best actress at the Venice Film Festival. At Cannes, Renate Reinsve took best-actress honours and her romantic dramedy “The Worst Person in the World” deserves a lot more awards attention, while at the recent Gotham Awards, the Maggie Gyllenhaal-directed “The Lost Daughter” won several big trophies, including one for Olivia Colman’s lead performance. Many pundits think Kristen Stewart could win the Oscar for playing Princess Diana in Pablo Larraín’s “Spencer,” though we’ll see if the film itself can manage something Larraín’s more generally acclaimed “Jackie” couldn’t and crack best picture. The academy has welcomed a big chunk of international members in the recent push to diversify its voting base, which could be good news for Asghar Farhadi: The Iranian director’s movies have twice taken what’s now known as the international-feature Oscar, but his new moral drama “A Hero” may go one step further and snag a best-picture nomination. The Oscar-vetted Italian auteur Paolo Sorrentino will attempt the same leap with his coming-of-age film “The Hand of God,” which could also land him in the best-director race. I’m curious about “CODA,” the dramedy about the hearing daughter of a deaf family. It started 2021 off with a huge Sundance sale before landing on Apple TV+ over the summer to considerably less attention. The film is a conventional crowd-pleaser that crowds simply haven’t found, though two wins at the recent Gotham Awards may finally put some wind in its sails. And then there’s the sci-fi epic “Dune,” which will be a major player in all the tech categories. The reception to “West Side Story'' may relieve the pressure to give “Dune” a best-picture nod just to have something blockbuster-shaped in the final 10, but I still think the film has a good shot at the list: It’s beautifully made, and voters respect the director Denis Villeneuve for fighting a corporate mandate that shuffled his film off to HBO Max without warning. (And let’s face it: This year’s best-picture montage will look a lot cooler if it features giant sandworms.) © 2021 The New York Times Company

While the South Asian nation has made significant strides in its battle to eradicate hunger, it stands among 40 countries where hunger remains at ‘serious’ levels with a score of 20.4, down from 25.8 last year, according to the 2020 report. A high GHI score can be evidence of a lack of food, a poor-quality diet, inadequate child care-giving practices, an unhealthy environment, or all of these factors. The GHI ranks countries on a 100-point scale, with 0 being the best score (which means no hunger) and 100 the worst. Jointly published by Concern Worldwide and its partner Welthungerhilfe, the 2020 Global Hunger Index was launched through an online event on Friday. The report categorises countries into moderate, serious, or alarming hunger level, using the most recently published official data from a range of specific sources including FAO, UNICEF and WHO.  As a result, the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic is not reflected in the Index. The world faces an “immense mountain” if it is to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development goal of ‘Zero Hunger’ by 2030, according to the report. GHI scores show that hunger and undernutrition have worsened in the countries with hunger level. In many countries, the situation is progressing too slowly or even worsening, the report states. GHI scores are based on the values of four component indicators: undernourishment (share of the population with insufficient caloric intake), child wasting (share of children under-five who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition), child stunting (share of children under-five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition), and child mortality. According to the index, Bangladesh has made significant inroads in curbing child stunting, with the rate dropping by 12.8 percentage points between 2012 and 2020. But undernourishment remains an issue, with 13 percent of the population suffering from nutritional deficiencies. It marks a marginal improvement on the rate of 13.8 percent in 2012. Meanwhile, the under-five mortality rate in the country is 3 percent in 2020, down from 4.3 percent in 2012. “In Bangladesh, we are now looking at a possible doubling of the country’s poverty rate this year for the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to a worsening of food and nutrition insecurity caused by the overlapping Health, Economic, and Environmental crises of 2020” said Hasina Rahman, Assistant Country Director, Concern Worldwide. “At this crucial moment, we must act together to reshape our food systems as fair, healthy, and environmentally friendly in order to address the current crises, prevent other health and food crises from occurring, and chart a path to Zero Hunger by 2030.” she added. Sri Lanka (64th) and Nepal (73rd) are the only countries in the region to fare better than Bangladesh on the index, both with 'moderate' levels of hunger. Meanwhile, India (94th) is lagging behind Pakistan (88th) in the rankings with Afghanistan (99th) the only other country to feature in the index. The official data used in calculating the 2020 rankings does not yet reflect the damaging impact which COVID-19 has had on countries.  That said, it clearly points to where underlying vulnerabilities to food insecurity already exist. “Even before COVID-19, the world was already off track to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030. That negative trajectory has been forcefully exacerbated by the events of this year and the economic downturn is affecting every corner of the world,” Concern Worldwide Chief Executive Dominic MacSorley said. “The phenomenal impact of these multiple crises – combined with the ongoing effects of climate change and conflict - is rapidly escalating food and nutrition insecurity for millions, especially for those who were already most vulnerable. COVID-19 has exposed the woeful inadequacies of the world’s food system and its inability to deal with overlapping global and regional crises.” Experts argue that only by taking both an integrated and holistic approach to global and environmental health will it be possible to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030.

Only a small minority of bodies consulted over proposals to allow police to detain terrorism suspects for up to 42 days without charge support the government's proposal, Britain's Home Secretary said on Tuesday. The admission to a cross-party parliamentary committee came as Jacqui Smith defended the controversial plans, which would increase the time suspects could be held from 28 days. In her evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee, Smith said that of 71 unnamed organisations which had given their opinion, just six had voiced "unequivocal" support. While Smith refused to name any of the organisations or people, both the Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald, and the former Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, have given evidence to the committee saying no change was necessary. Smith told the hearing that she had not met MacDonald to discuss the proposals despite needing his support. Media reports at the weekend also said that the head of MI5, Jonathan Evans, privately told MPs that he would not back the new laws. However senior police officers, including London Commissioner Ian Blair, have backed the extension. Smith argued the proposals were necessary to give police extra time to question suspects in highly-complex terrorism cases. She said the laws would include "safeguards" with any application to extend the time needing support from both parliament and a judge. Under questioning from opposition and government members, Smith denied the 42 day-limit had been formulated with political interests in mind but to "ensure successful prosecutions". "It is likely there is a point in the future that with only 28 days we risk a situation that somebody would be released before the evidence was developed against them," she told the hearing. She had previously agreed with her critics that there was no need to extend the time, but she said her opinion had changed in the current climate of sustained terrorism threats. "If I am wrong, if senior police are wrong about holding somebody longer than 28 days, then the pre-trial extension would never be used," she said. Smith unveiled the plans in a surprise announcement last week prompting heavy criticism from opposition parties, human rights groups and some Muslim organisations. The level of opposition -- including from some government MPs -- indicates that Smith and Prime Minister Gordon Brown will face a tough battle to get the laws through parliament. That would mirror the problems of former Prime Minister Tony Blair who suffered his first Commons defeat in 2005 when he tried to increase the detention time to 90 days.

Bangladesh has been elected a titular member to the governing body of the International Labour Organisation for the period of 2008-11, said a statement of Bangladesh mission in Geneva Monday. Bangladesh would represent the Asia Pacific Group of countries in the ILO. The elections for 18 new titular members were held Monday at the international labour conference in Geneva. The ILO governing body has 56 regular members. "To reflect the unique tripartite structure of ILO, the GB comprises of members from governments, employers and workers," the statement said. "The election reflects the international community's support to the country's adherence to various ILO conventions," acting labour and employment secretary Mahfuzul Haque, now in Geneva, told bdnews24.com. "Being a member of ILO GB, Bangladesh would be able to play an important role in protecting the rights of the working people at home and abroad," he said. "Presently, with ILO, Bangladesh is implementing a number of projects concerning elimination of child labour, withdrawing children from hazardous work, developing guidelines for ship-breaking industry, protecting workers from impending climate change related disaster," Haque said. It is believed, Haque said, the country will be able to undertake more projects with ILO assistance in promoting causes of the labour community following Bangladesh's elections.

Bangladesh needs to adopt cleaner technology to harness power from coal so as not to aggravate the climate change situation in the country, according to a visiting UK official. Speaking in an interview with few journalists, John Ashton, special representative for the UK foreign secretary, said that while power is needed for development and it would be wrong to exclude coal, but at the same time one must take pollution into consideration. "There are two ways. One is stop using coal or apply technology to reduce pollution," he elaborated. The government can ask its development partners to finance the use of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology in the coal-fired power plants, he suggested. Bangladesh, a gas-starved country, is looking for alternative options, including coal, to produce power. "Agencies like the World Bank or DFID can help pay the additional expenses for the CCS technology," Ashton said. Political consensus The British diplomat stressed that political consensus is needed to combat climate change. "The climate change will affect everybody and in this issue all the political parties should work together to formulate policies," he said. Carbon trading Ashton said the British government is willing to help a country like Bangladesh with carbon trading. "We need to have buyers in the carbon market and for that contracts should be legally binding so that low emission countries can sell carbon emissions quotas to others," he explained. "The UK government really has an appetite to work with Bangladesh In this area," he said. Bangladesh is one the most climate change vulnerable countries in the world. It is feared that a vast part of the country will be inundated by the end of this century due to climate change.

In a study, they said peat bogs, wetlands that contain large amounts of carbon in the form of decaying vegetation that has built up over centuries, could help the world achieve climate goals like the limit of 2 degrees Celsius of postindustrial warming that is part of the 2015 Paris agreement. But without protection and restoration efforts, some targets for greenhouse gas emissions “would be very difficult or nearly impossible to achieve,” said Alexander Popp, an author of the study, which was published in Environmental Research Letters. Popp is a senior scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, where he leads a group studying land-use issues. Peatlands exist around the world, in tropical as well as colder regions. They make up only about 3% of global land area, but their deep layers of peat are practically treasure chests of carbon, overall containing roughly twice as much as the world’s forests. In pristine bogs, that carbon remains soggy and intact. But when a bog is dried out, for agriculture or other reasons, the carbon starts to oxidize and is released to the atmosphere as planet-warming carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. That process potentially can continue for centuries. Current estimates are that drained peatlands worldwide emit as much carbon dioxide annually as global air travel. But dry peat is also a fire risk, and peat fires have the potential to release a lot of carbon very quickly. In September and October 2015, peat fires in Indonesia, where bogs have long been drained for palm oil plantations and other purposes, released more carbon dioxide per day than all the fossil fuels burned in the European Union. Dried peatlands could be restored by allowing them to become wet again, which would saturate the decaying vegetation and prevent further release of carbon dioxide, and also eliminate the fire hazard. “Rewetting them is really the core for reaching mitigation targets,” Popp said. Most pathways for countering climate change predict that by the end of this century, land use, which includes forests and agriculture, would be a net carbon sink, meaning it would store more carbon than the amount being released to the atmosphere. That would slow the process of global warming. But most of those pathways do not take emissions from degraded peatland into account, the researchers said. When they plugged peatland data into their own land-use model, they found that land use would be a net carbon source, releasing more carbon dioxide than was stored. The researchers then calculated that protecting pristine wetlands and rewetting about 60% of the degraded ones would reverse that, making land use a net sink again. Mike Waddington, a peat researcher at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, who was not involved in the work, said the study “makes a very compelling case” in favour of restoring peatlands. “Despite covering a small area, they really pack a carbon punch when it comes to carbon storage in ecosystems,” Waddington said. “They are really important in global climate regulation.” He said the study made an important point: In current pathways for changing land use to aid the climate, through planting more trees or other measures, peatlands are often considered expendable. “When we think about storing carbon in ecosystems, it’s almost always about planting trees,” Waddington said. There’s often tremendous pressure to plant trees in drained peatlands, he said, but that’s the wrong choice given the carbon-storing ability of an intact bog. Peat bogs are usually dried by digging ditches through them, which allows the water to drain away. In addition to conversion to croplands, tree plantations or forests, some peatlands are drained so the peat can be extracted for use in horticulture or even, in some parts of the world, for fuel. “You only have to drain 10 to 15% of a peatland and start extracting peat to turn that entire system into a source,” Waddington said. Restoring them could be accomplished by blocking the ditches or building berms to keep the peat saturated, he said. In the study, the researchers found that there was considerable uncertainty in estimates of the costs of protecting and restoring peatlands. But even if the costs were at the high end, the basic finding of the research was unchanged, they said. “In a way it’s the low-hanging fruit,” Waddington said. © 2020 The New York Times Company

BRUSSELS, Fri Jun 5, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Poor countries will need to be given about 100 billion euros ($142 billion) a year by 2020 to help them cut emissions in the fight against climate change, a draft report for European Union finance ministers shows. The report, obtained by Reuters, comes after the EU laid out plans to hold competitive tenders for the funding from richer countries, during which poor nations would present their most cost-effective projects for cutting carbon emissions. Both documents reveal an EU vision taking shape in the run-up to global climate talks in Copenhagen in December. Finance ministers will fine-tune the bloc's position at a meeting next Tuesday. The key issue in Copenhagen will be finding the finance needed to persuade developing nations to cut emissions, and further funding to help them adapt to a problem they say has been caused by rich, industrialised nations. Between half and two-thirds of the cheapest options for cutting greenhouse gases up to 2020 or 2030 are in developing countries, the EU's Economic Policy Committee and the Economic and Financial Committee say in the document on funding needs. Environmentalists see the document as proof that Europe's economic experts recognise the need to support poor nations in the fight against climate change. "The question is now whether the finance ministers will ignore their own experts, or will endorse this clear recognition of the needs in developing countries," said Greenpeace campaigner Joris den Blanken. DEFORESTATION Emissions cuts by poor nations would partly pay for themselves because cleaning up power generation and industry also reduces their consumption of expensive fossil fuels, but an extra 100 billion euros a year of investments would still be needed by 2020. This would include 71 billion euros to clean up industry and energy sectors, 18 billion to halt the destruction of rainforests and 5 billion to curb emissions from agriculture. Although the numbers look huge, they are less daunting when compared to the $300 billion of subsidies for fossil fuels in the developing world each year or the $250 billion of agricultural subsidies among OECD states, the report said. On top of the cost of cutting their own emissions, poor nations will also need help with the costs of adapting to climate change. Such funding could help develop drought-resistant crops, build levees against rising sea levels or find new sources of fresh water as rising temperatures deplete the glaciers on which millions depend for summer meltwater. "The precise cost of adaptation in developing countries is very difficult to estimate, due to uncertainty about the precise scope of global warming, its specific regional and local impact..." said the report. But it delivered a rough estimate that adaptation costs in all developing countries could be 23-54 billion euros per year in 2030.

The Foreign Service Academy organised the training for the first time bringing 15 young diplomats of neighbouring countries and Bangladesh.Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque distributed certificates among them at the closing on Thursday.The foreign ministry said ambassadors and high commissioners of Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar attended the closing ceremony, among others.Basics of international relations ranging from diplomacy and foreign policy to emerging issues like human rights, international trade, energy security, and climate change dominated the short-course. Subcontinent’s history, culture, democratic values, traditions and development priorities have also been taught in the course.The participants were also taken to art galleries, museums, chambers, manufacturing plants as well as centers of excellence and institutions that play important role in the socio economic development of Bangladesh.Founded in 1996, the Foreign Service Academy provides specialised training to Bangladesh diplomats.The foreign ministry said this is for the first time they arranged an international training programme for foreign diplomats.A foreign ministry official earlier said, based on the success of the first course, they would consider institutionalising the endeavour.

WASHINGTON, Fri Aug 15, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - A Stone Age graveyard on the shores of an ancient, dried-up lake in the Sahara is brimming with the skeletons of people, fish and crocodiles who thrived when the African desert was briefly green, researchers reported on Thursday. The 10,000-year-old site in Niger, called Gobero after the Tuareg name for the area, was discovered in 2000 but the group has only now gathered enough information to make a full report, said University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno. The team stumbled onto the assortment of human and animal bones and artifacts while looking for dinosaur fossils. "I realized we were in the green Sahara," Sereno, who discovered the site while working for National Geographic, said in a statement. The site contains at least 200 graves that appear to have been left by two separate settlements 1,000 years apart. Perhaps the most dramatic is a woman and two children, their arms entwined, laid to rest on a bed of flowers around 5,000 years ago. The older group were tall, robust hunter-gathers known as Kiffians who apparently abandoned the area during a long drought that dried up the lake around 8,000 years ago, Sereno's team reports in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE. A second group settled in the area between 7,000 and 4,500 years ago, they said. These were Tenerians, smaller, shorter people who hunted, herded and fished. Both left many artifacts, including tool kits, fishhooks, ceramics and jewelry, the researchers said. "At first glance, it's hard to imagine two more biologically distinct groups of people burying their dead in the same place," said Chris Stojanowski, a bioarchaeologist from Arizona State University who has been working on the site. The Sahara is the world's largest desert and has been for tens of thousands of years, but changes in the Earth's orbit 12,000 years ago brought monsoons further north for a while. The team sampled tooth enamel from the skeletons, pollen, bones and examined soil and tools to date the site, artifacts and remains. "The data from Gobero, when combined with existing sites in North Africa, indicate we are just beginning to understand the complex history of biosocial evolution in the face of severe climate fluctuation in the Sahara," the researchers wrote in their report.

Dhaka, Sep 19 (bdnews24.com)—Prime minister Sheikh Hasina will seek to unite countries worse-affected by climate change to press for climate funds during the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Summit next week, an official said on Saturday. Hasina will address climate change issues and participate in talks with leaders of countries contributing UN peacekeeping troops around the world, among other subjects, foreign secretary Mohamed Mizarul Quayes told reporters Saturday at the Secretariat. She will fly out on Sept 21 and land in the US on Sep 22, being scheduled to stay for a week, before returning on Sep 29, said Quayes, who will join the prime minister's delegation to the UN assembly. Hasina will attend a meeting of 25 heads of state and government on climate change, convened by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon, on Sept 22, where she will seek to unite the worse-affected countries and resolve compensation claims for climate change, said Quayes. Bangladesh, chair of the LDC Group, will seek compensation for least developed countries. "However, everything depends on the stance of other countries who are also suffering the impact of global warming," said Quayes. Bangladesh stands on the front line of countries facing fallout of global warming, caused by manmade carbon emissions, and seeks financial and technological assistance for adaptation. Poor nations also point out they will be among the worst affected by climate change but are least responsible, and rich nations needed to accept their financial responsibilities in this regard. The UN and World Bank have also urged rich nations to shoulder "the moral responsibility". US president Barack Obama and Sheikh Hasina are also scheduled to attend a sideline meeting of nine countries contributing major UN peacekeeping forces around the world. Bangladesh is a leading contributor to the peacekeeping missions, with around 10,000 personnel from the country engaged in different missions around the world. The UN has nearly 115,000 troops, police and civilians deployed in 16 peacekeeping missions from Africa and the Mideast to Cyprus, Kosovo, Western Sahara and Haiti. The missions, however, are beset with problems ranging from a lack of personnel and equipment to shortages of helicopters and other key assets. Quayes said foreign minister Dipu Moni, who is currently in the US, will join a ministerial meeting ahead of the general assembly. On Saturday, Moni met with World Bank vice president for the South Asia Region, Isabel Guerrero, in Washington DC to discuss regional plans of the bank. Earlier, on Sep 17, Dipu Moni met with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Dipu Moni is scheduled to return to Bangladesh in the first week October.

A few nights before, they were hurling Molotov cocktails on the front lines of the anti-government protests that have roiled Hong Kong for months. But after police arrested two of their friends, they feared they would be next. Desperate, they sent a cry for assistance to a private online group known for helping people escape to Taiwan. Within hours, they were on a plane to Taipei, the capital. “We are fleeing the law,” said one of the protesters, her eyes darting across the food court. “We didn’t have much time to figure out what is happening.” Leaving the airport, the group hopped into a black van and sped away — headed for an uncertain future. They are among the more than 200 young protesters who have fled to Taiwan since the start of this year’s Hong Kong democracy movement, according to lawyers, pastors and other supporters who have helped them leave. Lawyers said dozens of protesters had arrived in recent weeks after escaping university campuses besieged by police. Their flight is being fuelled by fears of arrest and violence as the street clashes between demonstrators and authorities have grown more pitched. Demonstrators regularly face tear gas, batons and water cannons at the hands of police. Embittered that the movement’s peaceful tactics didn’t work, some protesters have turned more aggressive, vandalising buildings and throwing bricks at police. Since the protests started in June, more than 5,000 people have been arrested, and hundreds have been charged and may face harsh sentences. While many vow to fight indefinitely, a mounting climate of mistrust is prompting some demonstrators to leave Hong Kong. They worry they won’t be treated fairly in court. Or they fear abuse in detention, citing allegations of sexual assault and rumours of torture. Others are seeking medical treatment in Taiwan after learning of arrests taking place in Hong Kong’s hospitals. Protesters and organisers aiding the escapes stressed that certain details and identities must be kept secret so as not to endanger the operation. “They know that throwing a brick can land them up to 10 years in prison,” said Chris Ng, a lawyer who has been defending arrested protesters. “They have lost faith in the judicial system of Hong Kong.” Ng said he had been in court hearings where protesters didn’t show and probably had fled Hong Kong. “Even if they are willing to accept the legal consequences, they do not trust, and with good reason, that they will be dealt with in a fair system or receive a punishment proportionate to their crime,” Ng said. Along the pipeline from Hong Kong to Taiwan, a clandestine network of sympathisers has sprung into action, quietly operating safe houses and orchestrating exits for protesters. Wealthy donors and aid groups are paying for airplane tickets. Volunteers are ferrying protesters to and from airports. Fishermen are selling boat rides for the 440-mile journey for as much as $10,000 per person. Pastors are fixing smuggling routes for arrested protesters whose passports have been taken away. “I am getting used to unexpected congregations,” joked Chun Sen Huang, an energetic 54-year-old pastor of the Chi Nan Presbyterian Church in Taipei who has emerged as a prominent player in the network. The pastor works as a liaison, coordinating travel plans with organisers in Hong Kong, arranging accommodation at properties owned by churches and connecting protesters with lawyers, doctors, aid groups and schools throughout Taiwan. These days, he said, he is constantly on his phone fielding requests, even during sermons and between prayers. Huang said he recently learned of a protester who said she had been raped by Hong Kong police and needed a boat to smuggle her to Taiwan so that she could receive an abortion. At least 10 students arrived by plane after escaping from the campus of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where police and protesters were in a standoff for days. Huang connected them with a lawyer who helped them get temporary student visas through a Taiwan university. A mother called, looking for a new guardian for her 14-year-old son, who had thrown Molotov cocktails. Taiwan, a self-governing island, is a convenient and welcoming refuge. Like Hong Kong, it has a history of receiving dissidents from the mainland. While Beijing views Taiwan as part of China, Taiwanese leaders assert their sovereignty. Many Taiwanese have supported the protests, concerned about the Chinese government’s encroachment on Hong Kong and what it means for the future of their own democratic island. The protests were initially set off by outrage over an extradition bill, since withdrawn, that would have allowed Hong Kong’s leaders to send a fugitive to Taiwan to face murder charges, though the two entities have no extradition treaty. Protesters in Hong Kong said the legal change could have been used to send dissidents for trial in mainland China, where courts are controlled by the Communist Party. Even though Taiwan is welcoming protesters, the government is treading cautiously. It is wary of provoking Beijing by passing more permissive asylum laws. Many who arrive seeking refuge find themselves in a legal limbo with only temporary visas. During his 22 years as a pastor in Taiwan, Huang said, he has helped several dissidents flee persecution from the Chinese government but has never seen an operation of this scale. He said it was more reminiscent of “Operation Yellowbird,” a secret network that smuggled hundreds of dissidents out of China and into Hong Kong after the massacre in Beijing around Tiananmen Square in 1989. At the time, Hong Kong was still a British colony. “Darkness can never defeat light,” said Huang as he ushered five arrivals into the church. “I believe democracy and freedom will certainly defeat totalitarianism.” For protesters, the decision whether to flee isn’t easy. Ali, a senior at Hang Seng University, has been arrested twice on charges that could carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. The second time, she said, she was held in a parking lot for 48 hours with 70 other protesters. “There was no privacy,” Ali said. She recalled how male officers entered bathroom facilities unannounced and how she could overhear other protesters being interrogated. “They charged me with rioting without giving any explanation,” she added. While detained, she missed her first day of work as an associate teacher at a primary school and was fired. As she awaits trial, her dream of becoming a teacher is slipping away. “It’s like imagining a past life,” she said. “My future is ruined,” Ali said from her grandmother’s home, where she lives. “It makes me wonder what is left for me.” Since her passport has been confiscated, she would have to rely on smugglers to take her by boat to Taiwan. Even then, she worries about leaving behind her 80-year-old grandmother. “She cannot take care of herself,” she said. “And I don’t know if I would be able to ever return.” Groups of volunteers provide a financial lifeline for protesters looking to escape. One 48-year-old social worker said she had paid for 11 protesters to get to Taiwan. With no children of her own, she said she feels a responsibility to help the young people. “If I get arrested, at least I can be proud that I tried to help these youngsters against totalitarianism,” said the social worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of legal repercussions. She started raising money for fleeing protesters in July, after a group of them stormed the legislative building. She helped one 17-year-old whose parents had thrown him out of his home for joining the protests. She mostly accepts donations in cash and in person and hopes to avoid undercover police officers who sometimes pose as enthusiastic supporters. “The majority of Hong Kong people are unhappy,” she said. “It’s not a small group of radical youngsters controlled and manipulated by the USA,” she added, citing one of Beijing’s claims that the West is provoking the protests. “The support is coming from all walks of life.” When protesters arrive through regular channels, the government in Taiwan generally grants monthly visas, which are usually renewable. Daniel, a 22-year-old protester, has been living in Taiwan since July on an extended tourist visa. He described his role in the early days of the movement as “fairly radical.” After he stormed Hong Kong’s legislative building, his face was captured on surveillance footage. Two police officers stopped him on the sidewalk the next day and told him they recognised him. “At that moment I realised I could no longer deceive myself,” Daniel said. “I really had to leave home.” While he avoided arrest, he does not feel secure. He said he believes that his phone has been hacked and that he is being followed. His living costs are covered by a monthly stipend from an aid group in Hong Kong, but he fears the money won’t last. The stress has led him to see a psychologist, who diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder. The hardest part, Daniel said, is the ache he feels for everything he left behind. Just before he fled, he said, he found himself in tears, standing at the bottom of the steps to his house. It’s a moment he replays in his head again and again. “I knew I might never come back to Hong Kong and see home or my mother again,” he said. c.2019 The New York Times Company

The opinion polls have turned strongly against Australia's conservative Prime Minister John Howard as support shifts to his youthful new rival, but analysts say he can still recover to win a fifth term in office. With national elections due in the second half of 2007, Howard, 67, has suffered the worst slump in the polls in six years and has uncharacteristically stumbled in the opening weeks of parliament against new challenger Kevin Rudd. Rudd, 49, elected leader of the centre-left Labour opposition party in December, has lifted his party's hopes of victory on the back of his promise to pull Australian forces out of Iraq and to sign the Kyoto protocol on climate change. Analysts say Howard, who won his fourth term in office in 2004 by promising to keep interest rates low, will claw back support when Australians focus on his strengths of the economy and national security. "The Reserve Bank holds the fate of the government in its hands," Monash University political analyst Nick Economou told Reuters. With record-low unemployment and inflationary pressures easing in Australia, Howard's supporters hope the central bank has stopped its cycle of interest rate hikes and may now look to a rate cut by the end of the year. Economou said an early rate cut would be devastating for Labour and could prompt Howard to run to the polls as early as possible from August. But it was more likely the government would use its May budget to re-focus the debate on the economy. "They may come up with big, big tax cuts, that will then re-focus the debate on the economy and back into an area of Howard's strength," Economou said. HOWARD STUMBLES The latest Reuters Poll Trend, which analyses the three main published opinion polls in Australia, found Howard's Liberal-National Party coalition trailed Labour by 13.4 points in February -- the worst result for the government since March 2001. The poll trend also found Howard has lost his commanding lead as preferred prime minister to Rudd -- the first time Howard has trailed as preferred prime minister since May 2001. The February polls appear to have rattled Howard, who made a rare mistake in parliament when he ruled out a link between greenhouse gases and global warming. He corrected himself hours later, saying he mis-heard the question, but not before the comments were broadcast on evening television news bulletins, further undermining his government's flagging support on environmental issues. In the past week, Howard prompted a heated debate about Australia's 1,400 troops in and around Iraq with unscripted criticism of US presidential hopeful Barack Obama's plan to withdraw US forces from Iraq in 2008. Howard found himself under fire at home and in the United States and was accused of meddling in US politics, putting Australia-US ties at risk because of his personal friendship and support for President George W Bush. "It has not been a good fortnight for the government," the Australian Financial Review's chief political correspondent, Laura Tingle, wrote on Friday. "They have now brought out the three bits of armoury -- economic management, national security, leadership -- which have stood them in good stead against all opposition leaders in the past, and they have not seemed all that effective." Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat who used to read transcripts of parliamentary debate as a child, has pushed his relative youth and family image, while Howard has countered by promoting his experience against Rudd's inexperience. Greg Craven, professor of government at Curtin University, said that while Rudd "must have seemed middle-aged as a child", he has highlighted Howard's age as a problem for the government. "Howard's greatest weakness is as obvious as it is embarrassing to state. He is growing old. Worse, he suddenly seems to be ageing more quickly," Craven wrote on Friday. Howard has twice clawed back from similar polls slumps, in 2001 and 2004, to win elections and notch up 11 years in power, and analysts and commentators warn it is too early to write his political obituary. "He's been down like this before," Economou said. "He's on much firmer territory on defence and foreign policy, and there's still the economic debate to unfold."

The equity investment fund will help strengthen the SMEs' capacity to tackle difficulties arising from climate change, IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, said in a statement on Tuesday. The fund is part of the Small Enterprise Assistance Fund Bangladesh Ventures Fund or SEAF BV with support from the Climate Investment Funds-Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience, which helps developing countries to scale up for climate resilience. SEAF BV, launched by IFC and the Small Enterprise Assistance Funds in 2010, is mandated to invest in SMEs. “IFC’s extended support over the years has been invaluable in the successful initiatives of the fund,” said Hubertus Jan (Bert) van der Vaart, CEO and co-founder of SEAF. "Its engagement will also help the fund begin investing in climate resilience activities for small businesses, helping SMEs to cope better with the adverse impacts of climate change." The IFC said it previously invested $12 million of equity into the fund to catalyse investment in high-growth SMEs.

Ending imports of fresh food from Africa under the pretext of combating climate change risks destroying entire communities that have become dependent on the trade, Ghana's High Commissioner to Britain said on Wednesday. So-called food miles -- the distance food travels from producer to consumer -- have become a highly divisive issue as environmentalists try to persuade people to reduce the amount of climate warming carbon gases their lifestyle emits. "We do understand, of course, that our friends here are anxious to make a difference. However, the figures simply do not add up," said Annan Cato, noting that less than 0.1 percent of Britain's carbon emissions relate to airfreighted food. "At what cost to global justice do we shut the door on the economic prospects of small farmers in Africa by refusing to buy their produce," he told a meeting of artists, musicians and scientists to discuss global warming's impact on Africa. Environmentalists recommend that as much food as possible should be produced and consumed locally, ending airfreighted imports of fruit and vegetables from around the world. But development specialists note that much of the produce comes from the poorer parts of Africa and that whole communities have become dependent on the lucrative lifeline. "There are many other ways for the British shopper to reduce their carbon footprint without damaging the livelihoods of thousands of poor African farming families," said Cato. Scientists say global average temperatures will rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius this century due to carbon gas emissions from burning fossil fuels for power and transport. This will bring floods, famines and extreme weather putting millions of lives at risk, with Africa expected to bear the brunt despite the fact that per capita carbon emissions on the continent are among the lowest in the world. "Reducing greenhouse gas emissions must be done in a fair, scientific and rational way -- making cuts at the expense of the world's poorest is not only unjust, it is a bad basis for building the international consensus needed for a global deal on climate change," Cato said. UN environment ministers meet next month on the Indonesian island of Bali amid growing international pressure for them to agree to open urgent talks on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on cutting carbon emissions that expires in 2012. Europe is pushing for a deal by the end of 2009 at the latest -- a very tight deadline given the time it took to negotiate Kyoto in the first place let alone ratify it. But the world's biggest polluter, the United States which rejected Kyoto and is still dragging its heels despite a sharp change of public mood, and China which is building a coal-fired power station each week say they are not the cause of the crisis. "It is imperative that the post-Kyoto agreement must advance cogent proposals to promote adaptation to climate change with an acceptable regime for implementation," said Cato. "This is an issue not only of global justice but of survival." "The damage has been done by some of the world's most powerful countries but the worst affects are felt by many of the world's most vulnerable countries," he added.

While some companies are preparing to call back workers to their offices, the amount of office space available for lease in Manhattan has soared to the highest rate ever, according to reports released Thursday, underscoring how the sudden shift to remote work during the coronavirus pandemic is upending the city’s commercial real estate industry. Across Manhattan, home to the two largest business districts in the country, 18.7% of all office space is available for lease, a jump from more than 15% at the end of 2020 and more than double the rate from before the pandemic, according to Newmark, a real estate services company. Many New York employers are offering greater flexibility to their workforce, allowing at least some remote work even as the pandemic recedes and recalculating their space needs. As a result, companies continue to end their leases or seek tenants to take over their existing leases at a steady pace. Some neighbourhoods are faring worse, such as Downtown Manhattan, where 21% of offices have no tenants, Newmark said. Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, an influential business organisation, said that New York City was facing its biggest crisis since the 1970s, when half of the city’s 125 Fortune 500 companies moved out. “This is as close as we’ve come to that type of scenario where there’s an exodus from the city, and the recovery took 30 years,” Wylde said. “The city has to attract people for reasons other than going to the office.” No other city in the United States must confront the changing workplace more so than New York, whose offices, before the pandemic, had attracted 1.6 million commuters every day and helped sustain a swath of the economy, from shops to restaurants to Broadway theatres. The pandemic has also placed enormous pressure on the commercial real estate sector, a pillar of the New York economy, as landlords rush to redesign offices and dangle incentives like lower rent to retain and attract companies. Property taxes are the largest source of revenue for New York City, with commercial property accounting for the largest share of that at 41%. Commercial districts across the country are struggling, but office towers in Manhattan continue to empty out even as other cities, including Atlanta and Los Angeles, show signs that they have moved beyond the worst of the pandemic. While New York’s vacancy rate was higher than the national rate of 16.2% at the end of March, many other cities are also struggling to fill their offices. In Los Angeles, 24.1% of its offices are without tenants, and in Chicago, the office vacancy rate is 21.9%. But both cities also entered the pandemic with much higher vacancy rates than New York: In Los Angeles the rate was 18.1%, while it was 15.5% in Chicago. There are signs that the situation in New York could get worse. A third of leases at large Manhattan buildings will expire over the next three years, according to CBRE, a commercial real estate services company, and companies have made clear they will need significantly less space. The overall availability rate in New York City is the highest since it started to be tracked in the mid-1970s, when the city was plunged into a financial crisis and the Manhattan skyline was being transformed by the rise of towering office buildings like the Twin Towers at the World Trade Centre. Franklin Wallach, a senior managing director for research at the real estate firm Colliers, said that the amount of available office space in Manhattan would most likely continue to climb, as new construction is completed and large companies complete relocation plans that were announced before the pandemic. About 14 million square feet of office space is under construction in New York City, which is equal to about double the size of Orlando, Florida. Just as the broader economic recovery has been uneven with some industries faring better than others, so too will the office market rebound in different ways in Manhattan, Wallach said. Neighborhoods close to major transportation hubs, like Pennsylvania Station and Grand Central Terminal, could recover faster than other parts of Manhattan. “The long-term, overall market will recover,” Wallach said, “but the when, where and how — that will vary where you are standing.” One real estate firm, Savills, said the Manhattan office market would not likely rebound to pre-pandemic levels until “late 2022 or beyond.” At the end of May, just 12%of Manhattan’s office workers had returned to their desks, according to a survey of companies by the Partnership for New York City. More than 60% of workers are estimated to return in September, the group said, but many companies will allow their employees to work remotely at least several days a week. Throughout the pandemic, just one industry — the technology sector — has signed significant leases in New York. But those companies, such as Facebook and Google, are also perhaps best equipped to shift seamlessly to remote work. Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said in June he planned to work outside the office for half of next year. Wylde said that the growth of the tech sector increasingly appeared to be a short-lived success, as employees in those companies demand that they be allowed to work remotely or on a hybrid schedule on a permanent basis. They are telling their employers that they do not want to pay expensive apartment leases in New York to work in the office only a few days a week, she said. “The other cities have become more competitive as a result of the pandemic and the whole remote-work phenomenon,” she said. “It’s going to require a real shift in public policy toward focusing on quality of life, a positive business climate and affordability.” © 2021 The New York Times Company

Want the good life despite the dire economy? Head east, according to a survey showing some of the world's highest-paid expatriates live in Asia and the Middle East. A third of all expats in Russia -- the highest proportion in the world -- earn more than $250,000 a year, followed closely by expats in Japan and Qatar, according to the 2009 Expat Explorer survey, commissioned by HSBC Bank International, the offshore financial services arm of HSBC Holdings. Between a third and a quarter of foreigners working in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand and India earned annual wages of more than $200,000, while countries such as Malaysia, China and India, were ranked among the cheapest for accommodation. "Asia is home to the highest paid expats in the world, with one in four expats earning more than $200,000 per year," said the survey (here). Russia was ranked the number one country overall for expats in terms of wealth. The rest of the top nine were all in Asia and the Middle East. Building a nest egg is one of the perks of expat life for many people, and the survey showed that Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar, India and the United Arab Emirates were the top five countries where people have increased their savings. But the global economic crisis has taken a heavy toll on expats in Britain and the United States, where close to a quarter are considering returning home, compared to just 15 percent overall, due to the high cost of living, lack of savings and lower wages. Generous salaries are also relatively scarce in Australia and Belgium, the survey showed. More than 60 percent of expats in both countries earn under $100,000, making them the poorest expats wage-wise when compared to a global average of 35 percent. LARGEST SURVEY "We have seen some interesting trends in terms of how expats are reacting to the credit crunch, but what is also interesting to see is that they remain a wealthy group of individuals," Paul Say, head of marketing and communications for HSBC Bank International, said in a statement. "Over half the expats surveyed are actually earning $100,000 and over -- no mean feat particularly in the current climate." Expat Explorer, now in its second year, surveyed more than 3,100 expats from various nationalities living in 26 countries. HSBC said it was the largest survey of its kind. More than two-thirds of expatriates worldwide said the credit crisis had changed the way they spend their money, with luxuries and day-to-day spending the most affected. Nearly 40 percent said they were saving more for a rainy day. Over half of the expats in Japan -- the highest globally at 53 percent -- said they were cutting back on holidays and other perks, while almost one in two expats in Thailand and Hong Kong -- the second and third globally, were also scaling back. In contrast, two-thirds of expats living in Qatar said the global financial crisis would not change their spending attitudes at all, followed by more than half of those living in Bahrain, which HSBC said indicated that some oil-rich Gulf Arab states have not been hit as hard by the downturn. Expats in Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Russia were also the least likely to cut back on luxuries, the survey showed. Those polled in the survey were chosen by four main criteria: annual income in excess of $200,000; a monthly disposable income in excess of $3,000; an increase in saving while working abroad and having at least two luxury items in the country they live in. The survey was conducted between February and April 2009.

They calculate that although the world’s soils already hold 2.4 trillion tonnes of gases in the form of organic carbon, there’s room for more. Scientists from the US and Scotland report in Nature journal that with a few changes to agricultural practice, there would be room for another 8 billion tonnes. “In our fight to avoid dangerous climate change in the 21st century, we need heavyweight allies,” says Dave Reay, a geoscientist and specialist in carbon management at Edinburgh University. “One of the most powerful is right beneath our feet. Soils are already huge stores of carbon, and improved management can make them even bigger. Data availability “Too long they have been overlooked as a means to tackle climate change. Too often have problems of accurate measurement and reporting stymied progress towards climate-smart soil management. “With the surge in availability of big data on soils around the world, alongside rapid improvements in understanding and modelling, the time has come for this big-hitter to enter the ring.” In fact, researchers have been conscious for years that the soils have a powerful role to play. They have identified the agencies that control a soil’s capacity for carbon. They have tested climate models to check on emissions from soils. They have experimented with techniques for conserving soil carbon. And they have repeatedly sounded the alarm about the stores of organic carbon in the permafrost. In addition, they have established that man-made greenhouse gas releases coincide with the spread of global agriculture thousands of years ago. Land use, the scientists now calculate, accounts for perhaps a quarter of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions, and between 10% and 14% directly from agriculture. But, they reason, since soils hold three times as much organic carbon as exists in carbon dioxide form in the atmosphere, better management of the terrestrial planet could help reduce emissions too. So, the trick is: don’t degrade healthy ecosystems, because unmanaged forests and grasslands store carbon very efficiently. Wetlands drained for agriculture surrender their soil carbon, but restored wetlands soak the stuff up. Agricultural practices And there is a range of sustainable agricultural practices that can conserve carbon and, at the same time, continue to deliver food to the table. Farmers could grow crops with deeper root systems, use charcoal-based composts, and exploit a suite of more efficient practices tailored to their crops and terrain. Schemes such as ‘Cool Farm Tool’ could help farmers measure and manage emissions from their own land. There would not be one big answer, but a host of varied responses. These range from better crop rotation to low tillage as opposed to deep ploughing, and from land restoration to agroforestry. All of these added together − what the researchers call the “all-of-the-above” approach − could make a big difference. With help from science, government policymakers and new approaches, ultimately they could help soils retain the equivalent of four-fifths of the emissions released each year by the combustion of fossil fuels, the researchers say.

Her dream is a difficult one. But if she succeeds, she will be the first Bangladeshi to have climbed the seven summits of the world. That will total 113,102 feet of climbing, in seven continents, two in prohibitively cold climates devoid of natural human habitation. It has typically been men who attempted or finished the seven summits to be followed by women from the same country. That too, would put Wasfia Nazreen in the record books. Bangladesh on Seven Summits is a campaign supported by the Liberation War Museum, in celebration of 40 years of Bangladesh's Independence. The project is a tribute to those women and men, who overcame enormous challenges for the birth of the nation by dint of their resolve. When asked about funding, she told bdnews24.com that she had sold off all the jewellery her mother had left. Wasfia has also sold off the small property she inherited. "This gave me the initial seed-money for this campaign. Mutual Trust Bank & Renata Limited sponsored me for Elbrus." "Now we are calling upon all national companies to come forward and help me put Bangladesh's flag on top of every continent," she said. Wasfia said she had quit her job to make this happen within the next year or so. "I am fully determined to accomplish my goals, even if it takes me a decade," she said with enthusiasm. THE FIRST EFFORT Wasfia left the country on July 3 with the intention to conquer the first peak on her schedule — the highest point of Europe, Mount Elbrus, on the borders of Russia and Georgia. Since February, the south side of the mountain, which is the normal climbing route to the European summit, remained closed after multiple terrorist attacks. Therefore her team was forced to shift the climb to the North side — a more dangerous and unexplored terrain — home to more crevasses. On July 10, Wasfia and team tried for the first summit push but met with drastic weather changes — thunderstorms, strong winds and poor visibility. Then finally on July 12, the team reached within 300 meters of the summit. However, due to severe weather conditions and a deadline to descend by mid-day, everyone had to fall back. She will be going back to Elbrus to complete the last 300 meters when situation gets better. Wasfia was quoted as saying through a satellite message from almost atop Europe: "Remembering all the martyrs of 1971, we call upon the youth of our motherland to take the country forward in the best way each of us can serve. It is high time Bangladesh be recognised in the world podium for all the beauty she is…. Bangladesh aaro egiye choluk." THE SEVEN SUMMITS PLAN In September, Wasfia will set out for her next challenge — Kilimanjaro. Situated in north-eastern Tanzania, Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa at 19,341 feet. In December she plans to climb Aconcagua, the highest peak of South America at 22,841 feet, located in the Argentinian Andes. Denali or Mount McKinley in Alaska, United States is the highest peak in North America, at an altitude of 20,320 feet, is also on Wasfia's list and she plans take on this infamous peak around June-July 2012. "Summit rate in Denali is only 18 percent and a lot of climbers fall into accidents and death there, I would consider that one of the more tougher ones, even so than Everest,"," Wasfia told bdnews24.com. In April-May 2012, Wasfia will try to beat the highest point of the world. If she succeeds, she will be the third Bangladeshi to have conquered the Everest, Sagarmatha or Chomolungma as the Nepalese and Tibetans call it respectively. A mere 750 miles from the South Pole, in the harsh cold of Antarctica, Vinson Massif stands at 16,066 feet. In February 2012, Wasfia will brave the sub-zero temperatures to put a Bangladeshi flag on top of it. The last on her list will be Puncak Jaya, also called the Carstensz Pyramid, a mountain in the western central highlands of Indonesia. At 16,024 feet, Puncak Jaya is the highest mountain in Oceania and the highest island peak in the world. Wasfia will go there in Sep-Oct 2012. "This one is also dangerous, as just reaching the base-camp requires overcoming a lot of red-tapes, climbing its hard rock surface requires a lot of technical skills," she said. Wasfia said that while she does need sponsorship for climbing the mountains on all continents, she would prefer that the sponsors are Bangladeshi. "So that there is a national ownership in this achievement," she explained. "I would put big foreign companies as the last resort," she added.

Last month, as fighting raged in the northern Tigray region, DBL's compound was rocked by an explosion that blasted out the factory's windows, radically altering its business calculus. "All we could do was to pray out loud," said Adbul Waseq, an official at the company, which makes clothes mainly for Swedish fashion giant H&M and is one of at least three foreign garment makers to have suspended operations in Tigray. "We could have died," Waseq told Reuters. For over a decade, Ethiopia has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure such as hydro-electric dams, railways, roads as well as industrial parks in an ambitious bid to transform the poor, mainly agrarian nation into a manufacturing powerhouse. By 2017, it was the world's fastest growing economy. A year later, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office, pledging to loosen the state's grip on an economy with over 100 million people and liberalise sectors such as telecoms, fuelling something akin to glasnost-era headiness among investors. But for two years Ethiopia has been pummelled by challenges: ethnic clashes, floods, locust swarms and coronavirus lockdowns. Now, fighting which erupted on Nov. 4 between the army and forces loyal to Tigray's former ruling party, and fears it could signal a period of prolonged unrest, have served investors with a harsh reality check. Any hesitation by investors could spell trouble as the country's manufacturing export push isn't yet generating enough foreign currency either to pay for all the country's imports or keep pace with rising debt service costs. Even before the pandemic, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had warned that Ethiopia was at high risk of debt distress. Abiy's government said that, amid the crises it's facing, Ethiopia was pushing ahead with reforms that will build the foundations for a modern economy. "Despite the unprecedented shock from COVID and continued insecurity in different parts of the country, the Ethiopian economy showed remarkable resilience," Mamo Mihretu, senior policy adviser in the prime minister's office, told Reuters. PRODUCTION SUSPENDED Ethiopia is a relatively small textiles producer with exports in 2016 of just $94 million compared with $29 billion for Vietnam and $253 billion for China in the same year, World Bank trade data showed. Its top exports are agricultural, such as coffee, tea, spices, oil seeds, plants and flowers. But Ethiopia's push into the textile industry over the past 10 years has been emblematic of its manufacturing ambitions. As fighting neared Tigray's regional capital, Mekelle, textile companies began shutting down and pulling out staff. "It seemed that the conflict was getting closer to the city, and our worry was that we wouldn't be able to leave," Cristiano Frati, an electrician evacuated from a factory run by Italian hosiery chain Calzedonia, told an Italian newspaper. A general view shows Hawassa Industrial Park in Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples region, Ethiopia November 17, 2017. Reuters Calzedonia said on Nov. 13 it had suspended operations at the plant, which employs about 2,000 people, due to the conflict. It has declined to comment further. A general view shows Hawassa Industrial Park in Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples region, Ethiopia November 17, 2017. Reuters DBL, meanwhile, has flown its foreign staff out of Ethiopia. "Everything has become uncertain," its managing director M.A. Jabbar said. "When will the war end?" Another foreign company, Velocity Apparelz Companies - a supplier to H&M and Children's Place - has also temporarily shut down, a company official told Reuters. H&M said it was "very concerned" and was closely monitoring the situation. "We have three suppliers in Tigray, and the production there has come to a halt," the company told Reuters, emphasising that it would continue to source from Ethiopia where it has about 10 suppliers in total. Indochine Apparel, a Chinese firm that supplies Levi Strauss & Co, said its operations in the Hawassa industrial park in the south of the country were unaffected. Levi Strauss said it was monitoring the situation and confirmed there had been no impact on its supply chain so far. 'NOT A PRETTY PICTURE' Ethiopia's apparel sector was struggling even before the fighting in Tigray because of the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Some facilities did not survive the collapse in orders while others slashed wages or laid off staff. The malaise has not been limited to the garment sector. Even before the conflict, insurance companies underwriting political risk had stopped providing cover beyond Ethiopia's northern Amhara region and the federal capital Addis Ababa, a risk consultant who advises corporate clients said. "Ethiopia is not a pretty picture right now," he said. Like most sources contacted by Reuters, the consultant asked not to be named, fearing a backlash from government authorities. Abiy's efforts to ease a repressive political climate had already uncorked ethnic clashes before the war in Tigray. Violence in other parts of the country which intensified in 2019 had disrupted projects, notably in agriculture. Workers sew clothes inside the Indochine Apparel textile factory in Hawassa Industrial Park in Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples region, Ethiopia November 17, 2017. Reuters "The fighting started around the time we were going to start planting," said the head of an agri-industry project that was forced to delay its investment last year. Workers sew clothes inside the Indochine Apparel textile factory in Hawassa Industrial Park in Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples region, Ethiopia November 17, 2017. Reuters Swedish furniture giant IKEA opened a purchasing office in Ethiopia last year. However, it closed it down in September after shelving plans to source from the country due to the political and social situation, COVID-19 and changes to the cotton market in Africa, the company told Reuters. Meanwhile, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, a bottling partner of the Coca-Cola Company, told Reuters that the fighting in Tigray, which accounts for about 20% of its sales volumes in Ethiopia, had halted business there. That comes on the heels of delays in the construction of two new bottling plants - part of a $300 million five-year investment plan announced last year - due to the pandemic and an excise tax increase. 'FEW WAYS OUT' With the fall of Mekelle at the end of last month, Abiy declared victory over Tigray's former ruling party (TPLF). "The swift, decisive, and determined completion of the active phase of the military operation means any lingering concerns about political uncertainty by the investment community will be effectively settled," Abiy's adviser Mamo said. The TPLF has vowed to fight on. For the government, there is little margin for error. Ethiopia's external debt has ballooned five-fold over the past decade as the government borrowed heavily - notably from China - to pay for infrastructure and industrial parks. Foreign direct investment inflows, meanwhile, have declined steadily since a 2016 peak of more than $4 billion, slipping to about $500 million for the first quarter of this fiscal year. Inflation is hovering around 20%. "There are very few ways out of this. They aren't going to get more money from the IMF. They can't go to the markets. Their best bet is a global economic recovery next year," said Menzi Ndhlovu, senior country and political risk analyst at Signal Risk, an Africa-focused business consultancy. Still, Ethiopia passed a landmark investment law earlier this year and implemented currency reforms. And the government is pushing ahead its plans to open up the telecommunications sector. It opened tendering for two new telecoms licences at the end of November and plans to sell off a minority stake in state-owned Ethio Telecom. Sources following the process, which should provide the beleaguered economy with a hefty injection of dollars, said interested companies were not deterred by the current unrest. But for now, Ethiopia's grand manufacturing dreams have been dealt a setback. "Who will go there in this situation?" asked DBL's Waseq, who has returned to Bangladesh. "No one."

Climate change, high water demand and even tourism are putting unprecedented pressures on the world's desert ecosystems, according to a new report. The Global Deserts Outlook, produced by the UN's Environment Programme, is described as the most authoritative assessment to date of desert regions. Its authors say too much water is being frittered away on water-intensive agricultural crops. But, they add, deserts have huge economic benefits if managed sensibly. Far from being barren wastelands, deserts are biologically, economically and culturally dynamic, the report says. Desertification is the theme of World Environment Day on Monday when ecologists plan to plant trees to slow erosion, or deliver talks in schools. A group in Mauritius plans to plant vegetation on dunes to protect beaches from erosion Activists in Churchill, Australia, is collecting computer parts for recycling A group in Zambia holds a "Miss Environment" beauty pageant. Activists in Vadodara, India, encourage local schools both to plant trees and build sandcastles to "get a closer connection to the topic of deserts and desertification". "Across the planet, poverty, unsustainable land management and climate change are turning drylands into deserts, and desertification in turn exacerbates and leads to poverty," UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a statement. According to the report, while many changes are likely to occur in the next 50 years, some are surprisingly positive. There are new economic opportunities such as shrimp and fish farms in Arizona and in the Negev Desert in Israel offering environmentally friendly livelihoods for local people. Similarly, desert plants and animals are being seen as positive sources of new drugs and crops. Even the problems of global warming could be tackled by better use of deserts: Some experts say that an area of the Sahara 800km by 800km could capture enough solar energy to meet the entire world's electricity needs. However, most of the 12 desert regions whose climate has been modelled are facing a drier future. There are also problems caused by the melting of the glaciers whose waters sustain deserts in South America. The impact of humans continues to cause difficulties. In the United States and in the United Arab Emirates more and more people are choosing to live in desert cities creating further pressures on scarce water resources. Mountainous areas in deserts face particular threats to their wildlife and ecosystems - all of which could be lost in 50 years without urgent action.

But in its long-awaited announcement, Aramco, the world's most profitable company, offered few specifics on the number of shares to be sold, pricing or the date for a launch. Bankers have told the Saudi government that investors will likely value the company at around $1.5 trillion, below the $2 trillion valuation touted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman when he first floated the idea of an IPO nearly four years ago. Aramco also did not mention what measures it has taken to beef up security following unprecedented attacks on its oil plants in September. Sources have told Reuters the oil company could offer 1%-2% of its shares on the local bourse, raising as much as $20 billion-$40 billion. A deal over $25 billion would top the record-breaking one of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2014. "Today is the right opportunity for new investors to reap the benefits of Aramco's ability to achieve value, and boost it on the long-term," Aramco Chairman Yasir al-Rumayyan told a news conference at the company's headquarters in the eastern city of Dhahran. The company will spend the next 10 days talking to investors and sounding out their interest and the price range will follow, he said. The IPO is designed to turbocharge Prince Mohammed's ambitious economic reform agenda by raising billions to build non-energy industries and diversify revenue streams. Rumayyan said a decision on an international listing for Aramco shares will be made in the future, without giving a time frame or venue for the overseas listing. "Selling a small piece of Aramco in a captive market gives the KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) more control to prop the value of Aramco up over its fair value," said Gary Ross, CEO at Black Gold Investors. Confirmation of the sale of shares in the oil giant, whose formal name is Saudi Arabian Oil Co, comes about seven weeks after the crippling attacks on its oil facilities, underlining Saudi Arabia's determination to push on with the listing regardless. Amin H Nasser, president and CEO of Saudi Aramco, speaks during a news conference at the Plaza Conference Center in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia November 3, 2019. Reuters Aramco said it does not expect the Sept 14 attack, which targeted plants at the heart of Saudi Arabia's oil industry and initially halved its production, would have a material impact on its business, operations and financial condition. Amin H Nasser, president and CEO of Saudi Aramco, speaks during a news conference at the Plaza Conference Center in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia November 3, 2019. Reuters Aramco accounted for about one in every eight barrels of crude oil produced globally from 2016 to 2018, it said on Sunday. Its net income for the third quarter of 2019 amounted to $21.1 billion, according to Reuters calculations, dwarfing the income for the same period of oil giants like Exxon Mobil Corp , which was just over $3 billion. Rumayyan said the valuation should be determined after the investor roadshow. CEO Amin Nasser told the same news conference that Aramco plans to release the prospectus on Nov. 9. To help get the deal done, Saudi Arabia is relying on easy credit for retail investors and hefty contributions from rich locals. "Whatever this local round achieves, with domestic players being strong armed into investing, international investors are still going to value this well below the expectations of (Crown Prince) Mohammed bin Salman," said Rory Fyfe, managing director at Mena Advisors. LURING INVESTORS The Saudi stock market fell 2% on Sunday after the Aramco announcement. The benchmark index is down nearly a fifth since May as local institutions sold shares to prepare for the Aramco deal, fund managers and analysts say. Salah Shamma, head of investment, MENA, at Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets Equity, said some local investors could be selling other shares in order to shift investments to Aramco, but this could well be a case of "short-term pain for long-term gain." To comfort investors, Aramco said on Sunday the state will forgo its right to receive a portion of cash dividends on shares, giving priority to new shareholders. Aramco is also cutting royalties it pays to the state. Effective Jan. 1, 2020, it will adopt a progressive royalty scheme, with a marginal rate set at 15% up to $70 per barrel, 45% between $70 and $100, and 80% if the price rises higher. The firm said the Saudi market regulator, which approved the application to list on Sunday, issued an exemption for non-resident institutional foreign investors to subscribe. Saudi investors would be eligible to receive bonus shares - a maximum of 100 bonus shares for every 10 allotted shares. At a valuation of $1.5 trillion, Aramco would still be worth at least 50% more than the world's most valuable listed companies, Microsoft and Apple, which each have a market capitalisation of about $1 trillion. But a 1% sale would raise "only" around $15 billion for Saudi coffers, ranking Aramco as the 11th biggest IPO of all time, Refinitiv data show. "Some perspective on the Aramco IPO for the overall Saudi diversification story is needed: the likely Aramco IPO proceeds will be less than the Aramco dividends the government received in the first half of 2019 alone," said Hasnain Malik, head of equity strategy at Tellimer. THE 'RIGHT TIME' The promised listing has had Wall Street on tenterhooks since Prince Mohammed flagged it in 2016. Aramco mandated 27 banks to work on the deal including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley. "I think this is the right time for us to take Aramco to be a public company...we wanna go IPO and we wanna go now," Rumayyan told reporters on Sunday when asked about the timing. Initial hopes for a blockbuster international listing of about 5% were dashed when the share sale was halted last year amid debate over where to list Aramco overseas. Aramco said the IPO timetable was delayed because it began a process to acquire a 70% stake in petrochemicals maker Saudi Basic Industries Corp. IPO preparations were revived this summer after Aramco attracted huge interest in its first international bond sale, seen as a pre-IPO relationship-building exercise with investors. But a listing announcement expected on Oct 20 was delayed after advisers said they needed more time to lock in cornerstone investors, three sources told Reuters. A growing movement to fight climate change and embrace new "green" technologies have put some fund managers, particularly in Europe and the United States, off the oil and gas sector. A bond sale in April forced the secretive company to reveal its finances for the first time, including net income of $111 billion -- over a third bigger than the combined net income of the five super oil majors. Those companies have been raising payouts to shareholders to counter rising pressure from climate activism. Aramco said on Sunday it intended to declare aggregate ordinary cash dividends of at least $75 billion in 2020. At a valuation of $1.5 trillion, this would mean a dividend yield of 5%, below that offered by rival Royal Dutch Shell . Shell's dividend yield is over 6%, according to Refinitiv data.

Classes were cancelled for Wednesday and Thursday for students across the Midwest, including Chicago, home of the nation's third-largest school system, and police warned of the heightened risk of accidents on icy highways. Michigan said all state offices would remain closed through Thursday. In a rare move, the US Postal Service appeared to set aside its credo that "neither snow nor rain ... nor gloom of night" would stop its work as it suspended deliveries from parts of the Dakotas through Ohio. At least a dozen deaths related to extreme cold weather have been reported since Saturday in Michigan, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, according to officials and media reports. Illinois State Police officers rescued 21 people who were stranded in a charter bus that broke down in sub-zero temperatures along Interstate 55 near Auburn after the vehicle's diesel fuel turned to gel in its engine, according to the agency. In Detroit, a 70-year-old man was found dead on Wednesday on a residential street, a Detroit police spokeswoman said. About 15 miles (24 km) south in the community of Ecorse, a former city councilman in his 70s and dressed only in sleepwear was also found dead on Wednesday, police there said. A University of Iowa student was found dead outside a building at the campus early on Wednesday, the school said in a statement. The death of Gerald Belz, a pre-med student, was believed to be weather-related. Streets in Chicago were nearly empty, with few people walking outside in the painfully cold air as temperatures hovered around 18 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 28 Celsius). "It's terrible!" Pasquale Cappellano, a 68-year-old waiter, said as he smoked a cigarette while waiting outside for a bus on Chicago's North Side. "I gotta pick up my medication at Walgreens or else I wouldn't be out the door." In Minneapolis, chilled to minus 14 F (minus 26 C), Brian Pierce ventured out to "embrace the elements" and found himself watching cars slipping on the roads. "The roads sound really weird, it seems there’s a lack of grip," he said. "And my teeth hurt." HEADING EAST Wind-chill temperatures in parts of the Northern Plains and Great Lakes plunged as low as minus 42 F (minus 41 C) in Park Rapids, Minnesota, and to 31 degrees below zero F (minus 35 C) in Fargo, North Dakota, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). The frigid winds began to blow into the U.S. East Coast later on Wednesday, sending temperatures plunging there. More than a thousand flights, close to two-thirds of those scheduled, were cancelled on Wednesday into or out of Chicago O'Hare and Chicago Midway international airports, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware. The Amtrak passenger rail service canceler all trains in and out of Chicago on Wednesday. At the Morning Joy Farm in Mercer, North Dakota, Annie Carlson said her horses and sheep were doing fine. "They can go into the barn if they wish," she said. "They're snuggled in, warm and toasty." Her chickens, ducks and guinea hens were enjoying the 70-degree F (21 C) climate inside their greenhouse-like hoop house, she said. Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist with the NWS, said some of the coldest wind chills were recorded in International Falls, Minnesota, at minus 55 F (minus 48 C). Even the South Pole in Antarctica was warmer, with an expected low of minus 24 F (minus 31 C) with wind chill. Temperatures in Chicago will drop again "quite precipitously" on Wednesday night, Orrison said, potentially breaking the record low of minus 27 F (minus 33 C) on Jan. 21, 1985, the day of Ronald Reagan's second presidential inauguration. Banks and stores closed for business. Waste Management Inc , a major trash collection company, said it cancelled pickups in counties across the Midwest on Wednesday and Thursday. WARMING CENTERS The bitter cold was caused by a displacement of the polar vortex, a stream of air that normally spins around the stratosphere over the North Pole but whose current was disrupted and was now pushing south. Officials opened warming centres across the Midwest, and in Chicago, police stations were open to anyone seeking refuge. Five city buses were also deployed to serve as mobile warming centres for homeless people, while city police handed out hats, jackets and blankets. The Chicago Police Department said it was urging people to get out of the cold. "But we will never force someone," police officer Michael Carroll said. US homes and businesses will likely use record amounts of natural gas for heating on Wednesday, according to energy analysts. Some residents just to the north and northwest of the Twin Cities in Minnesota were asked by Xcel Energy to dial down their thermostats to 60 F (16 C) because of the strains on its natural gas supply system. The Michigan Agency for Energy said the state's utility companies had agreed not to shut off gas or electric supplies to delinquent customers for the rest of the week.   c.2019 New York Times News Service   

When Harper Lee wrote "To Kill A Mockingbird" she could not have known it would be hailed as a classic, much less that it would shape the way her hometown viewed its past. Lee's novel has put Monroeville, Alabama, on the map and acted as a magnet for tourists. It has also stimulated debate in the town about the legacy of racial segregation that prevailed in the south until the 1960s. Mockingbird tells the story of two children growing up in a fictional southern town similar to Monroeville. Their father, an attorney, is selected to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman. Though the man is innocent, he is convicted by an all-white jury. Some of the book's most powerful moments come as the children realize their father was fighting a doomed cause. Published in 1960, it was an instant sensation. It won the Pulitzer Prize, has sold at least 30 million copies and a film of it starring Gregory Peck is hailed as a classic. But sales only tell part of the story. U.S. readers often cite it as their favorite novel. It ranked second only to the Bible in a reader survey of books that had affected them the most. Library Journal voted it the novel of the 20th century. Every spring, thousands of Mockingbird tourists flock to Monroeville to visit locations associated with Lee's life, the book and the courthouse used in the film. They also come to watch a stage adaptation of Mockingbird. Act One takes place in the grounds of the court but for Act Two the audience and players move indoors to the original oval-shaped courthouse where the book and film are set. That setting allows the drama to unfold with audience, judge, lawyers and defendant occupying the same positions as they would have held in a real trial. Black cast members are even confined to the gallery as they were under segregation. For the audience, part of the fascination is being witness to injustice. For the volunteer actors, the annual productions have also allowed them to reflect on the book's message. "It's taught me you don't judge people," said Robert Champion, a detective with the Monroeville police department who plays Boo Radley, a reclusive figure in the novel who turns out to be a hero. "One of the lessons is that we should be tolerant of other people but intolerant of injustice," said Champion, who prepared for the role by speaking with people who knew the real-life person on whom the character in the book is based. FALSELY ACCUSED Lee may have based her story on an actual rape trial that took place in Monroeville's old courtroom, according to Jane Ellen Clark of the Monroeville County Heritage Museum. In 1934 Walter Lett, a black man, was tried for the rape of a white woman. He was sentenced to death but according to records recently uncovered, white citizens wrote anonymously to Alabama's governor to say he had been falsely accused. Lett's sentence was commuted to life in prison and he died of tuberculosis in 1937 in a state prison, Clark said. George Thomas Jones, a former businessman who writes local history, went to school with Lee and remembers her as a tomboy similar to the character of Scout, the novel's narrator. Jones, 81, said he could understand why the all-white juries of the time would have returned a guilty verdict in such cases. "People were called 'nigger lovers.' Regardless of the circumstances they would have been branded and they would have been social and economic outcasts," he said. Jones said relations between blacks and whites were in some ways better at that time despite injustices against blacks, and the social climate had been misunderstood. "There was mutual respect and we didn't have racial problems back in the '20s and '30s," he said. "People that were good at heart on both sides had no problem in getting along." Some of the major struggles of the civil rights movement were played out in Alabama but Monroeville desegregated its public facilities quietly. The biggest change was school desegregation, according to residents. The lack of protest didn't mean blacks were not resentful over segregation, said Mary Tucker, who moved to the town in 1954 and taught in both black and integrated schools. "We were separate but not equal," she said of the difference between black and white schools. "In spite of our history of segregation and oppression there were always some good people who tried to be fair as Harper Lee portrayed in (the lawyer) Atticus. There were always a few good people who tried to do the right thing," she said. Lee, now 81, still lives in Monroeville part time, but is rarely seen in public. "Nelle (Lee's first name) is very unassuming, unpretentious. You may run into her in the grocery store in jeans ... She's a very shy person," said Tucker.

The ruling Awami League and its front organisations are observing the historic March 7 on Monday through elaborate programmes in the capital and across the country. In the city, party chief and prime minister Sheikh Hasina, along with the party leaders and activists, placed wreaths before the mural of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Bangabandhu Museum at Dhanmondi around 7am. To mark the occasion, Awami League will hold a discussion meeting at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre at 3pm. Prime minister Sheikh Hasina is due to address the meeting as chief guest. Bangladesh Betar (radio), Bangladesh Television and other private television channels will air special programmes highlighting the significance of the day. The historic significance of the day dates back to 1971 when Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, addressing a huge rally at Suhrawardy Udyan, had called for the liberation movement. Responding to his call, people of the then East Pakistan had taken up arms to fight the Pakistani occupation army through a nine-month bloody war that finally heralded the birth of Bangladesh as an independent nation. President Mohammad Zillur Rahman and prime minister Sheikh Hasina delivered in separate statement underlined the historic significance of the day. The president in his statement said: "March 7 is an unforgettable day in the history of Bengali nation. On this day, I, with profound respect, remember the father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who led struggle for establishing the independent and sovereign Bangladesh." He also said that the 'Golden Bengal', the long cherished dream of Bangabandhu, is yet to be built. The nation has to fight against hunger, poverty, superstitions and the adverse effects of climate change to bring into reality the dream of Golden Bengal. The prime minister in her statement said, "That historic speech of March 7 echoed the wish of the nation ahead of the liberation war after years of oppression by the colonial power of West Pakistan." She also said, "The magic speech had united the entire nation and led to the liberation war."

Addressing the One Planet Summit in the French capital, she has also announced that her administration will initiate measures to increase tree coverage by two percent in Bangladesh within the next five years. “I would like to urge the developed countries to fulfil their commitments in bringing climate justice and meeting historical responsibility. We can secure the world only through shared responsibility.” The summit at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Tuesday brought together local, regional and national leaders, as well as those working in public and private finance to chalk out ways to boost support global efforts to fight climate change. The prime minister said Bangladesh spends more than one percent of its GDP on combating climate change despite being a developing nation. “Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to the impact of climate change although we are not responsible for this threat. Yet, with our limited resources, we are addressing the consequences of climate change by mitigation and adaptation.” French President Emmanuel Macron received Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina upon her arrival at the Elysse Place in Paris, where the One Planet Summit was held on Tuesday. Photo: PID During her speech at the summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, the Bangladesh leader said Bangladesh faces a huge challenge because of the influx of more than a million of Rohingya people from Myanmar. French President Emmanuel Macron received Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina upon her arrival at the Elysse Place in Paris, where the One Planet Summit was held on Tuesday. Photo: PID “On humanitarian ground, we have given them shelter on 1, 783 hectares of our forest land in Cox’s Bazar. This crisis has severely affected our forest and environment in that area. In this situation, climate adaptation has become a major challenge.”  Emphasising afforestation as a key factor to address environment degradation, she said a $50.76 million project is under way for conservation of the Sundarbans— the world’s largest mangrove forest. “In the coastal region, we have been creating green belt for protecting people from cyclones and tidal surges, coastal erosion and saline water intrusion. Around 67,000 hectares of land has been identified for afforestation in this region,” added the prime minister. Bangladesh has stepped up efforts to make its agriculture climate resilient, she said. “We are also working on reducing dependency on ground water for urban water supply.” Appreciating Macron’s leadership on the issue, Hasina reiterated her commitment to implement the 2015 Paris climate accord. “I recall the launching of Global Pact for the Environment at the UN in September this year.” The prime minister said she strongly believed that joint efforts for resilience and adaption “would contribute in peace, stability and prosperity, and addressing inequalities across societies.”

The demonstrations began earlier this week as a campaign by high school students, who jumped subway turnstiles to protest the second fare increase this year. But Friday night, demonstrators set fire to a dozen subway stations, several banks, buses and the headquarters of the country’s largest electricity provider, Enel Looters stormed into supermarkets, stores and pharmacies. One student was reported to have been killed by the police and another was wounded by rubber bullets during the demonstrations, which rattled one of Latin America’s most prosperous and orderly capitals. The state of emergency declared by Piñera imposes restrictions on citizens’ right to move about and assemble freely, and it gives the army authority over internal security. Speaking from the presidential palace around midnight, he said the measure was needed to restore order after the chaos caused by protesters, whom he called “delinquents.” The fare increase unleashed fury when it was announced Oct 6, coming at a time when the cost of living for poor and middle-class families has been rising while wages remain stagnant. “Everything that is going on is so unfair, because everything is going up: transportation fares, electricity, gas, everything, and salaries are so low,” said Isabel Mora, an 82-year-old retiree who receives a monthly pension of about $62. Piñera had announced earlier in the week that he would try to find ways to mitigate rising transportation costs. With the fare hike, rush hour rides now cost about $1.20. On Friday afternoon, as hundreds of people stormed into subway stations without paying, the protests spilled into the streets. Special police units barged into stations and deployed tear gas, beat up demonstrators and violently dragged people from subway cars to take them into custody. The subway system suspended service for several lines, and by nighttime it had been forced to shut down the entire network. Hundreds if not thousands of people were left stranded on the streets. Unable to board overflowing buses, many had to walk for hours to get home. Government officials called the demonstrators “organised vandals” and “criminals” and announced that they would enforce an internal security law that gives the state the authority to impose higher penalties for crimes. Residents in the capital banged pots and pans throughout the city Friday night. As people looted supermarkets and set up barricades, the police appeared to have retreated to their stations. The protests occurred as Chile prepares to host two major international conferences: an APEC summit meeting in mid-November and the UN Climate Change Conference in December. © 2019 New York Times News Service

Yet President Donald Trump this past week proposed guidelines for reopening the economy and suggested that a swath of the United States would soon resume something resembling normalcy. For weeks now, the administration’s view of the crisis and our future has been rosier than that of its own medical advisers, and of scientists generally. In truth, it is not clear to anyone where this crisis is leading us. More than 20 experts in public health, medicine, epidemiology and history shared their thoughts on the future during in-depth interviews. When can we emerge from our homes? How long, realistically, before we have a treatment or vaccine? How will we keep the virus at bay? Some felt that American ingenuity, once fully engaged, might well produce advances to ease the burdens. The path forward depends on factors that are certainly difficult but doable, they said: a carefully staggered approach to reopening, widespread testing and surveillance, a treatment that works, adequate resources for health care providers — and eventually an effective vaccine. Still, it was impossible to avoid gloomy forecasts for the next year. The scenario that Trump has been unrolling at his daily press briefings — that the lockdowns will end soon, that a protective pill is almost at hand, that football stadiums and restaurants will soon be full — is a fantasy, most experts said. “We face a doleful future,” said Dr Harvey V Fineberg, a former president of the National Academy of Medicine. He and others foresaw an unhappy population trapped indoors for months, with the most vulnerable possibly quarantined for far longer. They worried that a vaccine would initially elude scientists, that weary citizens would abandon restrictions despite the risks, that the virus would be with us from now on. “My optimistic side says the virus will ease off in the summer and a vaccine will arrive like the cavalry,” said Dr William Schaffner, a preventive medicine specialist at Vanderbilt University medical school. “But I’m learning to guard against my essentially optimistic nature.” Most experts believed that once the crisis was over, the nation and its economy would revive quickly. But there would be no escaping a period of intense pain. Exactly how the pandemic will end depends in part on medical advances still to come. It will also depend on how individual Americans behave in the interim. If we scrupulously protect ourselves and our loved ones, more of us will live. If we underestimate the virus, it will find us. More Americans may die than the White House admits. COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, is arguably the leading cause of death in the US right now. The virus has killed more than 1,800 Americans almost every day since April 7, and the official toll may be an undercount. By comparison, heart disease typically kills 1,774 Americans a day, and cancer kills 1,641. Yes, the coronavirus curves are plateauing. There are fewer hospital admissions in New York, the centre of the epidemic, and fewer COVID-19 patients in intensive care units. The daily death toll is still grim, but no longer rising. The epidemiological model often cited by the White House, which was produced by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, originally predicted 100,000 to 240,000 deaths by midsummer. Now that figure is 60,000. New York seen from Weehawken, NJ, Apr 16, 2020. The New York Times While this is encouraging news, it masks some significant concerns. The institute’s projection runs through Aug 4, describing only the first wave of this epidemic. Without a vaccine, the virus is expected to circulate for years, and the death tally will rise over time. New York seen from Weehawken, NJ, Apr 16, 2020. The New York Times The gains to date were achieved only by shutting down the country, a situation that cannot continue indefinitely. The White House’s “phased” plan for reopening will surely raise the death toll no matter how carefully it is executed. The best hope is that fatalities can be held to a minimum. Reputable longer-term projections for how many Americans will die vary, but they are all grim. Various experts consulted by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in March predicted that the virus eventually could reach 48% to 65% of all Americans, with a fatality rate just under 1%, and would kill up to 1.7 million of them if nothing were done to stop the spread. A model by researchers at Imperial College London cited by the president on March 30 predicted 2.2 million deaths in the US by September under the same circumstances. By comparison, about 420,000 Americans died in World War II. The limited data from China is discouraging. Its epidemic has been halted — for the moment — and virtually everyone infected in its first wave has died or recovered. China has officially reported about 83,000 cases and 4,632 deaths, which is a fatality rate of over 5%. The Trump administration has questioned the figures but has not produced more accurate ones. Fatality rates depend heavily on how overwhelmed hospitals get and what percentage of cases are tested. China’s estimated death rate was 17% in the first week of January, when Wuhan was in chaos, according to a Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine report, but only 0.7% by late February. In this country, hospitals in several cities, including New York, came to the brink of chaos. Officials in both Wuhan and New York had to revise their death counts upward last week when they realised that many people had died at home of COVID-19, strokes, heart attacks or other causes, or because ambulances never came for them. In fast-moving epidemics, far more victims pour into hospitals or die at home than doctors can test; at the same time, the mildly ill or asymptomatic never get tested. Those two factors distort the true fatality rate in opposite ways. If you don’t know how many people are infected, you don’t know how deadly a virus is. A health worker checks her personal protective equipment in a mirror in Central Park in New York, Apr 16, 2020. The New York Times Only when tens of thousands of antibody tests are done will we know how many silent carriers there may be in the US The CDC has suggested it might be 25% of those who test positive. Researchers in Iceland said it might be double that. A health worker checks her personal protective equipment in a mirror in Central Park in New York, Apr 16, 2020. The New York Times China is also revising its own estimates. In February, a major study concluded that only 1% of cases in Wuhan were asymptomatic. New research says perhaps 60% were. Our knowledge gaps are still wide enough to make epidemiologists weep. “All models are just models,” Dr Anthony S Fauci, science adviser to the White House coronavirus task force, has said. “When you get new data, you change them.” There may be good news buried in this inconsistency: The virus may also be mutating to cause fewer symptoms. In the movies, viruses become more deadly. In reality, they usually become less so, because asymptomatic strains reach more hosts. Even the 1918 Spanish flu virus eventually faded into the seasonal H1N1 flu. At the moment, however, we do not know exactly how transmissible or lethal the virus is. But refrigerated trucks parked outside hospitals tell us all we need to know: It is far worse than a bad flu season. The lockdowns will end, but haltingly. No one knows exactly what percentage of Americans have been infected so far — estimates have ranged from 3% to 10% — but it is likely a safe bet that at least 300 million of us are still vulnerable. Until a vaccine or another protective measure emerges, there is no scenario, epidemiologists agreed, in which it is safe for that many people to suddenly come out of hiding. If Americans pour back out in force, all will appear quiet for perhaps three weeks. Then the emergency rooms will get busy again. “There’s this magical thinking saying, ‘We’re all going to hunker down for a while and then the vaccine we need will be available,’” said Dr Peter J Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. In his wildly popular March 19 article in Medium, “Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance,” Tomas Pueyo correctly predicted the national lockdown, which he called the hammer, and said it would lead to a new phase, which he called the dance, in which essential parts of the economy could reopen, including some schools and some factories with skeleton crews. Every epidemiological model envisions something like the dance. Each assumes the virus will blossom every time too many hosts emerge and force another lockdown. Then the cycle repeats. On the models, the curves of rising and falling deaths resemble a row of shark teeth. Surges are inevitable, the models predict, even when stadiums, churches, theatres, bars and restaurants remain closed, all travellers from abroad are quarantined for 14 days, and domestic travel is tightly restricted to prevent high-intensity areas from reinfecting low-intensity ones. The tighter the restrictions, experts say, the fewer the deaths and the longer the periods between lockdowns. Most models assume states will eventually do widespread temperature checks, rapid testing and contact tracing, as is routine in Asia. Even the “Opening Up America Again” guidelines Trump issued Thursday have three levels of social distancing, and recommend that vulnerable Americans stay hidden. The plan endorses testing, isolation and contact tracing — but does not specify how these measures will be paid for, or how long it will take to put them in place. On Friday, none of that stopped the president from contradicting his own message by sending out tweets encouraging protesters in Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia to fight their states’ shutdowns. China did not allow Wuhan, Nanjing or other cities to reopen until intensive surveillance found zero new cases for 14 straight days, the virus’ incubation period. Compared with China or Italy, the US is still a playground. Americans can take domestic flights, drive where they want, and roam streets and parks. Despite restrictions, everyone seems to know someone discreetly arranging play dates for children, holding backyard barbecues or meeting people on dating apps. Partly as a result, the country has seen up to 30,000 new case infections each day. “People need to realise that it's not safe to play poker wearing bandannas,” Schaffner said. Even with rigorous measures, Asian countries have had trouble keeping the virus under control. China, which has reported about 100 new infections per day, recently closed all the country’s movie theatres again. Singapore has closed all schools and nonessential workplaces. South Korea is struggling; Japan recently declared a state of emergency. Resolve to Save Lives, a public health advocacy group run by Dr Thomas R Frieden, a former director of the CDC, has published detailed and strict criteria for when the economy can reopen and when it must be closed. Reopening requires declining cases for 14 days, the tracing of 90% of contacts, an end to health care worker infections, recuperation places for mild cases and many other hard-to-reach goals. “We need to reopen the faucet gradually, not allow the floodgates to reopen,” Frieden said. “This is a time to work to make that day come sooner.” Immunity will become a societal advantage. Imagine an America divided into two classes: Those who have recovered from infection with the coronavirus and presumably have some immunity to it; and those who are still vulnerable. “It will be a frightening schism,” Dr David Nabarro, a World Health Organisation special envoy on COVID-19, predicted. “Those with antibodies will be able to travel and work, and the rest will be discriminated against.” Already, people with presumed immunity are very much in demand, asked to donate their blood for antibodies and doing risky medical jobs fearlessly. Soon the government will have to invent a way to certify who is truly immune. A test for IgG antibodies, which are produced once immunity is established, would make sense, said Dr Daniel R Lucey, an expert on pandemics at Georgetown Law School. Many companies are working on them. Fauci has said the White House was discussing certificates like those proposed in Germany. China uses cellphone QR codes linked to the owner’s personal details so others cannot borrow them. The California adult-film industry pioneered a similar idea a decade ago. Actors use a cellphone app to prove they have tested HIV negative in the last 14 days, and producers can verify the information on a password-protected website. As Americans stuck in lockdown see their immune neighbours resuming their lives and perhaps even taking the jobs they lost, it is not hard to imagine the enormous temptation to join them through self-infection, experts predicted. Younger citizens in particular will calculate that risking a serious illness may still be better than impoverishment and isolation. “My daughter, who is a Harvard economist, keeps telling me her age group needs to have COVID-19 parties to develop immunity and keep the economy going,” said Dr Michele Barry, who directs the Centre for Innovation in Global Health at Stanford University. It has happened before. In the 1980s, Cuba successfully contained its small AIDS epidemic by brutally forcing everyone who tested positive into isolation camps. Inside, however, the residents had their own bungalows, food, medical care, salaries, theatre troupes and art classes. Dozens of Cuba’s homeless youths infected themselves through sex or blood injections to get in, said Dr. Jorge Pérez Ávila, an AIDS specialist who is Cuba’s version of Fauci. Many died before antiretroviral therapy was introduced. It would be a gamble for American youth, too. The obese and immunocompromised are clearly at risk, but even slim, healthy young Americans have died of COVID-19. The virus can be kept in check, but only with expanded resources. The next two years will proceed in fits and starts, experts said. As more immune people get back to work, more of the economy will recover. But if too many people get infected at once, new lockdowns will become inevitable. To avoid that, widespread testing will be imperative. Fauci has said “the virus will tell us” when it’s safe. He means that once a national baseline of hundreds of thousands of daily tests is established across the nation, any viral spread can be spotted when the percentage of positive results rises. Detecting rising fevers as they are mapped by Kinsa’s smart thermometers may give an earlier signal, Schaffner said. But diagnostic testing has been troubled from the beginning. Despite assurances from the White House, doctors and patients continue to complain of delays and shortages. To keep the virus in check, several experts insisted, the country also must start isolating all the ill — including mild cases. In this country, patients who test positive are asked to stay in their homes but keep away from their families. Television news has been filled with recuperating personalities like CNN’s Chris Cuomo, sweating alone in his basement while his wife left food atop the stairs, his children waved and the dogs hung back. But even Cuomo ended up illustrating why the WHO strongly opposes home isolation. On Wednesday, he revealed that his wife had the virus. “If I was forced to select only one intervention, it would be the rapid isolation of all cases,” said Dr Bruce Aylward, who led the WHO observer team to China. In China, anyone testing positive, no matter how mild their symptoms, was required to immediately enter an infirmary-style hospital — often set up in a gymnasium or community centre outfitted with oxygen tanks and CT scanners. There, they recuperated under the eyes of nurses. That reduced the risk to families, and being with other victims relieved some patients’ fears. Nurses even led dance and exercise classes to raise spirits, and help victims clear their lungs and keep their muscle tone. Still, experts were divided on the idea of such wards. Fineberg co-wrote a New York Times op-ed article calling for mandatory but “humane quarantine processes.” By contrast, Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, opposed the idea, saying: “I don’t trust our government to remove people from their families by force.” Ultimately, suppressing a virus requires testing all the contacts of every known case. But the US is far short of that goal. Someone working in a restaurant or factory may have dozens or even hundreds of contacts. In China’s Sichuan province, for example, each known case had an average of 45 contacts. The CDC has about 600 contact tracers and, until recently, state and local health departments employed about 1,600, mostly for tracing syphilis and tuberculosis cases. China hired and trained 9,000 in Wuhan alone. Frieden recently estimated that the US will need at least 300,000. There will not be a vaccine soon. Even though limited human trials of three candidates — two here and one in China — have already begun, Fauci has repeatedly said that any effort to make a vaccine will take at least a year to 18 months. All the experts familiar with vaccine production agreed that even that timeline was optimistic. Dr Paul Offit, a vaccinologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, noted that the record is four years, for the mumps vaccine. Researchers differed sharply over what should be done to speed the process. Modern biotechnology techniques using RNA or DNA platforms make it possible to develop candidate vaccines faster than ever before. But clinical trials take time, in part because there is no way to rush the production of antibodies in the human body. Also, for unclear reasons, some previous vaccine candidates against coronaviruses like SARS have triggered “antibody-dependent enhancement,” which makes recipients more susceptible to infection, rather than less. In the past, vaccines against HIV and dengue have unexpectedly done the same. A new vaccine is usually first tested in fewer than 100 young, healthy volunteers. If it appears safe and produces antibodies, thousands more volunteers — in this case, probably front-line workers at the highest risk — will get either it or a placebo in what is called a Phase 3 trial. It is possible to speed up that process with “challenge trials.” Scientists vaccinate small numbers of volunteers, wait until they develop antibodies, and then “challenge” them with a deliberate infection to see if the vaccine protects them. Challenge trials are used only when a disease is completely curable, such as malaria or typhoid fever. Normally, it is ethically unthinkable to challenge subjects with a disease with no cure, such as COVID-19. But in these abnormal times, several experts argued that putting a few Americans at high risk for fast results could be more ethical than leaving millions at risk for years. “Fewer get harmed if you do a challenge trial in a few people than if you do a Phase 3 trial in thousands,” said Lipsitch, who recently published a paper advocating challenge trials in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. Almost immediately, he said, he heard from volunteers. Others were deeply uncomfortable with that idea. “I think it’s very unethical — but I can see how we might do it,” said Lucey. The hidden danger of challenge trials, vaccinologists explained, is that they recruit too few volunteers to show whether a vaccine creates enhancement, since it may be a rare but dangerous problem. “Challenge trials won’t give you an answer on safety,” said Michael T Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. “It may be a big problem.” Dr W Ian Lipkin, a virologist at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, suggested an alternative strategy. Pick at least two vaccine candidates, briefly test them in humans and do challenge trials in monkeys. Start making the winner immediately, even while widening the human testing to look for hidden problems. As arduous as testing a vaccine is, producing hundreds of millions of doses is even tougher, experts said. Most American vaccine plants produce only about 5 million to 10 million doses a year, needed largely by the 4 million babies born and 4 million people who reach age 65 annually, said Dr R Gordon Douglas Jr, a former president of Merck’s vaccine division. But if a vaccine is invented, the US could need 300 million doses — or 600 million if two shots are required. And just as many syringes. “People have to start thinking big,” Douglas said. “With that volume, you’ve got to start cranking it out pretty soon.” Flu vaccine plants are large, but those that grow the vaccines in chicken eggs are not suitable for modern vaccines, which grow in cell broths, he said. European countries have plants but will need them for their own citizens. China has a large vaccine industry, and may be able to expand it over the coming months. It might be able to make vaccines for the US, experts said. But captive customers must pay whatever price the seller asks, and the safety and efficacy standards of some Chinese companies are imperfect. India and Brazil also have large vaccine industries. If the virus moves rapidly through their crowded populations, they may lose millions of citizens but achieve widespread herd immunity well before the US does. In that case, they might have spare vaccine plant capacity. Alternatively, suggested Arthur M Silverstein, a retired medical historian at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the government might take over and sterilise existing liquor or beer plants, which have large fermentation vats. “Any distillery could be converted,” he said. Treatments are likely to arrive first. In the short term, experts were more optimistic about treatments than vaccines. Several felt that convalescent serum could work. The basic technique has been used for over a century: Blood is drawn from people who have recovered from a disease, then filtered to remove everything but the antibodies. The antibody-rich immunoglobulin is injected into patients. The obstacle is that there are now relatively few survivors to harvest blood from. In the pre-vaccine era, antibodies were “farmed” in horses and sheep. But that process was hard to keep sterile, and animal proteins sometimes triggered allergic reactions. The modern alternative is monoclonal antibodies. These treatment regimens, which recently came very close to conquering the Ebola epidemic in eastern Congo, are the most likely short-term game changer, experts said. The most effective antibodies are chosen, and the genes that produce them are spliced into a benign virus that will grow in a cellular broth. But, as with vaccines, growing and purifying monoclonal antibodies takes time. In theory, with enough production, they could be used not just to save lives but to protect front-line workers. Antibodies can last for weeks before breaking down — how long depends on many factors — and they cannot kill virus that is already hidden inside cells. Having a daily preventive pill would be an even better solution, because pills can be synthesised in factories far faster than vaccines or antibodies can be grown and purified. But even if one were invented, production would have to ramp up until it was as ubiquitous as aspirin, so 300 million Americans could take it daily. Trump has mentioned hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin so often that his news conferences sound like infomercials. But all the experts agreed with Fauci that no decision should be made until clinical trials are completed. Some recalled that in the 1950s inadequate testing of thalidomide caused thousands of children to be born with malformed limbs. More than one hydroxychloroquine study has been halted after patients who got high doses developed abnormal heart rhythms. “I doubt anyone will tolerate high doses, and there are vision issues if it accumulates,” Barry said. “But it would be interesting to see if it could work as a PrEP-like drug,” she added, referring to pills used to prevent HIV. Others were harsher, especially about Trump’s idea of combining a chloroquine with azithromycin. “It’s total nonsense,” said Dr Luciana Borio, a former director of medical and bio-defence preparedness at the National Security Council. “I told my family, if I get COVID, do not give me this combo.” Chloroquine might protect patients hospitalised with pneumonia against lethal cytokine storms because it damps down immune reactions, several doctors said. That does not, however, make it useful for preventing infections, as Trump has implied it would be, because it has no known antiviral properties. Several antivirals, including remdesivir, favipiravir and baloxavir, are being tested against the coronavirus; the latter two are flu drugs. Trials of various combinations in China are set to issue results by next month, but they will be small and possibly inconclusive because doctors there ran out of patients to test. End dates for most trials in the US are not yet set. Goodbye, ‘America First.’ Previously unthinkable societal changes have taken place already. Schools and business have closed in every state, and tens of millions have applied for unemployment. Taxes and mortgage payments are delayed, and foreclosures forbidden. Refrigerated trucks used as mobile morgues in Randall’s Island in New York, Apr 15, 2020. The New York Times Stimulus checks, intended to offset the crisis, began landing in checking accounts last week, making much of America, temporarily, a welfare state. Food banks are opening across the country, and huge lines have formed. Refrigerated trucks used as mobile morgues in Randall’s Island in New York, Apr 15, 2020. The New York Times A public health crisis of this magnitude requires international cooperation on a scale not seen in decades. Yet Trump is moving to defund the WHO, the only organisation capable of coordinating such a response. And he spent most of this year antagonising China, which now has the world’s most powerful functioning economy and may become the dominant supplier of drugs and vaccines. China has used the pandemic to extend its global influence, and says it has sent medical gear and equipment to nearly 120 countries. A major recipient is the US, through Project Airbridge, an air-cargo operation overseen by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. This is not a world in which “America First” is a viable strategy, several experts noted. “If President Trump cares about stepping up the public health efforts here, he should look for avenues to collaborate with China and stop the insults,” said Nicholas Mulder, an economic historian at Cornell University. He has called Kushner’s project “Lend-Lease in reverse,” a reference to American military aid to other countries during World War II. Osterholm was even blunter. “If we alienate the Chinese with our rhetoric, I think it will come back to bite us,” he said. “What if they come up with the first vaccine? They have a choice about who they sell it to. Are we top of the list? Why would we be?” Once the pandemic has passed, the national recovery may be swift. The economy rebounded after both world wars, Mulder noted. The psychological fallout will be harder to gauge. The isolation and poverty caused by a long shutdown may drive up rates of domestic abuse, depression and suicide. Even political perspectives may shift. Initially, the virus heavily hit Democratic cities like Seattle, New York and Detroit. But as it spreads through the country, it will spare no one. Even voters in Republican-leaning states who do not blame Trump for America’s lack of preparedness or for limiting access to health insurance may change their minds if they see friends and relatives die. In one of the most provocative analyses in his follow-up article, “Coronavirus: Out of Many, One,” Pueyo analysed Medicare and census data on age and obesity in states that recently resisted shutdowns and counties that voted Republican in 2016. He calculated that those voters could be 30% more likely to die of the virus. In the periods after both wars, Mulder noted, society and incomes became more equal. Funds created for veterans’ and widows’ pensions led to social safety nets, measures like the GI Bill and VA home loans were adopted, unions grew stronger, and tax benefits for the wealthy withered. If a vaccine saves lives, many Americans may become less suspicious of conventional medicine and more accepting of science in general — including climate change, experts said. The blue skies that have shone above American cities during this lockdown era could even become permanent.   © 2020 New York Times News Service

A woman holding a clipboard, Amanda Otero, asked Hoch if she planned to vote in favor of a ballot measure that would replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a Department of Public Safety. Hoch had a ready answer: Absolutely not. But she was happy for a distraction and willing to chat for a bit. They ended up talking for nearly 20 minutes. “I think this is setting something that is very good up to fail,” Hoch, 35, said. “It doesn’t have enough substance to it.” But she was also critical of the police. She knew people who had been mistreated. It sounded, Otero said, as if they shared the same values. “Something is really getting in the way of real change,” Hoch replied with a heavy sigh. Otero, the deputy director of TakeAction Minnesota, listened as much as she talked. Finally, she asked: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being completely in favour of the ballot measure, where would Hoch place herself? She had called herself a three at the beginning. Now, she labelled herself a five. This was deep canvassing in action — a messy, roundabout way to persuade voters not with talking points or pamphlets, but by getting them to talk about their experiences and feelings. Ultimately, the goal is to get voters to support a specific policy, but also to change their minds for the long term, not just in one election or on one issue. In Minneapolis, the aim is not just to gain support for the charter amendment that would transform the police department, but also to help voters rethink what law enforcement should look like in the country, and in the city where Derek Chauvin, a former police officer, was found guilty of murder in the killing of George Floyd, a Black man whose death galvanised a protest movement for racial justice. In an era of mass texting, automated robocalls, email blasts and 280-character social media posts, deep canvassing seems out of step with modern politics — a sort of slow food movement for the activist set. In typical campaign work, canvassers knock on doors with the intent of getting a voter to talk for a minute or two. In deep canvassing, the idea is to exchange stories — in this case, experiences with the police — and develop empathy for anyone who thinks differently. And while many modern campaigns on the left and right are designed to engage people who already agree on the issues, deep canvassing aims to preach far outside the choir or even the congregation, to those whose minds would need to be changed for them to support a given policy or candidate. Canvassers are briefed before splitting into groups and heading out to speak with residents about a Minneapolis ballot measure on Oct 10, 2021. For organisers, the intent of deep canvassing is to have longer conversations with voters and focus on people who need to be convinced. Aaron Nesheim/The New York Times Minneapolis is an important test case for those eager to bring deep canvassing to communities all over the country. Envisioning tens of thousands of people trained to talk with people who disagree with them, they aim not just to win over converts on policy, but to help restore voters’ faith in democracy. Canvassers are briefed before splitting into groups and heading out to speak with residents about a Minneapolis ballot measure on Oct 10, 2021. For organisers, the intent of deep canvassing is to have longer conversations with voters and focus on people who need to be convinced. Aaron Nesheim/The New York Times “We’re in an era when many people think the opposition is the boogeyman,” said Steve Deline, whose New Conversation Initiative has worked with teams to lead deep canvasses on climate, immigration, jail reform and other issues. “This is giving people the space to share what they are feeling and experiencing, and not just tell them they’re wrong, but instead get to a shared place that is relatable and human.” Proponents argue that in a polarised age, the strategy can work to persuade those who have not yet embraced sweeping progressive changes on such issues as immigration, transgender rights and policing. Knocks on doors often lead to conversations that can last as long as half an hour and that often leave both the canvasser and the voter feeling disarmed and more open. “Progressives have a superpower right now, and that’s getting a big idea into the national conversation like never before,” said George Goehl, the director of People’s Action, which trains liberal groups like the one in Minnesota. “But we think to really get things across the finish line, you have to be in conversation with people who do not see eye-to-eye with you.” The work is both labour-intensive and expensive. Training canvassers takes hours. The vast majority of voters never even open their doors, and those who most strongly disagree are often the least likely to speak to a stranger at their door. In Minneapolis, a city of 2.9 million, about 60 volunteers and staff members have reached just 2,400 voters after visiting 6,900 homes and making 49,000 phone calls. Still, the method of persuasion has been shown to be effective. It was pioneered by gay-rights advocates in California in 2009, after a state ballot measure there outlawed same-sex marriage. Three years later, advocates in Minnesota relied on deep canvassing to help defeat a ballot measure banning same-sex marriage. So far, the political tactic has primarily been used by activists on the left. A 2016 study by researchers at University of California, Berkeley and Yale found that deep canvassing in Miami and Los Angeles had changed the attitudes of some voters who were reluctant to support transgender rights, in part by prompting voters to reflect on their own experiences with being treated differently. Canvassers with Take Action Minnesota prepare to speak with residents about a Minneapolis ballot measure on Oct 10, 2021. Take Action Minnesota has adopted deep canvassing as a way to engage voters as it knocks on thousands of doors. Aaron Nesheim/The New York Times And Goehl’s group used deep canvassing by phone to try to win over rural white voters in swing states on behalf of Joe Biden in 2020, with an internal study showing that it was far more effective at persuading voters than traditional canvassing. Canvassers with Take Action Minnesota prepare to speak with residents about a Minneapolis ballot measure on Oct 10, 2021. Take Action Minnesota has adopted deep canvassing as a way to engage voters as it knocks on thousands of doors. Aaron Nesheim/The New York Times This year, supporters of the charter amendment in Minneapolis, who contend that Black residents are unfairly targeted by the police, turned to deep canvassing as a way to engage voters first about racism, and then about the push for law-enforcement reform — whose opponents have reduced it to a loaded phrase: defunding the police. Changing minds on race requires “the hard work of human-to-human contact — listening to learn, not to confirm,” Goehl said. “There will be no quick fixes or shortcuts.” But there are things that go unsaid even in the lengthiest conversations on the police issue. Racism was not mentioned in training sessions or in conversations with voters observed by a reporter over two days earlier this month — in which most of the canvassers were white, as were most of the voters they encountered. Some white voters said they would be more likely to vote in favour of the measure if they were convinced the majority of Black voters supported it. It was only as Otero was leaving the home of Hoch, the librarian, that Otero noticed a Black Lives Matter sign in the front window. Perhaps she had missed an opening. But then came a welcome surprise: A woman sitting on the porch next door waved her over. She, too, had a Black Lives Matter sign posted at the front of her house, along with a sign spelling out “love” in several different languages. Mary Scavotto introduced herself and announced that it was her birthday. Otero politely declined a piece of cake and launched into her script. Had Scavotto heard about the charter amendment? Oh, she had. “The whole idea of throwing everything up in the air and exploding it, without a plan, concerns me,” Scavotto said. Scavotto said she had lived on the block for nearly 20 years, but would move out of Minneapolis if the measure passed. She pointed to a gas station that burned down last summer. She recalled how she and her neighbours were careful to take anything off their porch that could be taken and used to cause damage to their homes. “We had our bags packed and gas in our tank and were ready to go at any moment,” she said. Now, she added: “We’ve seen what happens with less police. I don’t want my kids out anymore after dark.” Nodding along, Otero noted that increased spending on the police had not made anyone feel safer. Then she described her younger brother’s struggles with his mental health and her own ambivalence toward law enforcement. “Do I want the cops to catch my brother so that then he gets help?,” said Otero, who is Latina. “Well, but wait, I don’t want him to have a record — and would they give him the help?” She spoke of her fear whenever her husband, an immigrant from Nicaragua, drives around Minneapolis. Scavotto, who is white, listened intently. “I understand that people of colour have not felt safe with the police, and so I know we have to reform,” she said. Otero said she hoped that more conversations like this would bring about that kind of clarity. “What do you think it would take in Minneapolis for us to really come together, across age and race and class and life experience?” she asked. “Because we are reeling from a year of trauma.” “Well, that’s the million-dollar question,” Scavotto replied, with a nervous laugh. “I can’t even get along with my eight siblings right now.” Looking back on their half-hour conversation days later, Scavotto said it had kept her up that night. She remarked how Otero had listened more than she spoke. And she said she had promised herself to attend local forums to better understand the charter amendment. “I wouldn’t change my vote yet,” she said, but added: “I feel more open to it.” © 2021 The New York Times Company

CANBERRA Mon Dec 15,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Australia vowed on Monday to push ahead with the most sweeping carbon trade scheme outside Europe in 2010, resisting calls for a delay, but some feared the plan would fall far short of what's needed to combat global warming. As part of the plan, Canberra set a target to cut emissions by at least 5 percent of 2000 levels by 2020, rising to 15 percent if world governments reached an ambitious agreement next year in talks for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the scheme was vital for Australia, which has the fourth-highest per-capita greenhouse gas emissions in the world, and five times more per person than China, due to its reliance on coal for electricity. "These are hard targets for Australia," Wong told reporters, adding that the policy was designed to ease the economic impact of the scheme in light of the global financial crisis. "Our economy, including food production, agriculture and water supplies, is under threat. If we don't act now, we will be hit hard and fast. We will lose key industries and Australian jobs." The plan allows for prices to be set by the market, first under auctions to be held in the first half of 2010, abandoning an earlier idea of a fixed price. The government expects a price of about A$25 ($16.70) a tonne, below the European emission allowances, which are trading around 15 euros (A$30) a tonne. But the government said it would also impose an interim price cap of A$40 a tonne, a move that analysts said could limit the market's development initially. "It seems a bit like the old game of one foot on the brake and one foot on the accelerator, having a bet each way and I'm not sure the numbers add up," said Brett Janissen, executive manager of the consultancy Asia-Pacific Emissions Trading Forum. By allowing polluters to import carbon permits from green projects abroad but barring potential exports from Australia, participants will have their pick of the cheapest price. Scientists and green groups wanted cuts of at least 25 percent but the carbon scheme comes at a politically sensitive time for the government, with the mid-2010 start date set only months before it is due to hold elections to seek a second term. "It's a total and utter failure," Greenpeace climate campaigner John Hepburn said. The government said the scheme would trim about 0.1 percent off annual growth in gross national product from 2010 to 2050, with a one-off increase in inflation of around 1.1 percent. "BUY THEIR WAY OUT" Wong said carbon trading would cover 75 percent of Australia's carbon emissions and involve 1,000 of the nation's biggest firms, although big-polluting exporters would receive up to 90 percent of carbon permits for free. The rapidly growing liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry, which had been excluded from an earlier draft plan in July, was pleased to be given exemptions in the final version. "There's no doubt that this has come a long way since the model was outlined in the Green paper," said Belinda Robinson, CEO, Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association. "For that the LNG (liquefied natural gas) industry is very pleased and for that, we think Australia should be pleased, because it's the LNG industry that represents Australia's best chance for assisting the rest of the world reduce its greenhouse gas emissions." But by global standards the targets were cautious. Europe has pledged a 20 percent reduction by 2020 and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recommended rich nations back reductions of 25 up to 40 percent by then. "The proposed scheme is disappointing in terms of the levels of reductions required as set down by the IPCC," said Martijn Wilder, partner at Baker & McKenzie in Sydney. "By adopting a A$40 price cap, it will provide companies with certainty as to their compliance cost but it also enables companies to buy their way out of compliance, in circumstances where the carbon price breaks the $40 ceiling," he added. Janissen described the scheme as a soft start with a tougher downward trajectory on emissions occuring beyond the 2012-2013 financial year. But he said it also appeared to be "providing a high degree of shielding key industries that are concerned about their emissions intensity", referring to subsidies for emissions intensive and trade exposed industries. Under the scheme, participating firms will need to surrender a permit for every tonne of carbon emitted. The auction of permits is expected to raise A$11.5 billion in 2010/11, which will all be used to compensate business and households for higher costs for electricity and transport. Australian farmers, who have suffered more than seven years of severe drought, will be spared from taking part in carbon trading for at least five years. Agriculture accounts for about 16 percent of Australian emissions. But transport and fuel will be included in the scheme. The government will introduce carbon-trading laws into parliament in 2009, where it needs the support of the Greens and two independent senators, or the conservative opposition, which want the scheme delayed due to the global economic downturn. ($1 = A$1.49)

While fans of the fantasy drama watched by almost 20 million people may be mesmerised by the White Walkers and power struggles for the Iron Throne, a growing number of US bloggers think the show could also be a way to make the threat of climate change more vivid to a wide audience, a new study suggests. Manjana Milkoreit, a research fellow at Arizona State University, says US bloggers, among them "scientists, science communicators and geeks", are using "Game of Thrones" to trigger public discussion about the dangers of global warming. The HBO show is the latest in an expanding genre of TV shows, films and novels that touch on the genre of climate change fiction, or "cli-fi." "Climate change can be a scary and overwhelmingly difficult topic that people want to avoid," Milkoreit told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview. "(But some bloggers) want to help people become engaged in climate change by showing that it can be fun by talking about it in terms of the show and how there are actually solutions to solve this global problem." While climate worries in the fictional Westeros might seem irrelevant to the uninitiated, the blogs have triggered some lively online debates in the United States about the consequences of global warming. Milkoreit, a sustainability fellow, found six blogs in 2013 focussed on the climate in "Game of Thrones" - and that increased to eight blogs last year. She expects the fifth series of the show, that is just starting, to prompt further discussions. She said the blogs draw parallels between the responses of the fictional people of Westeros to the looming threat of winter and the response to climate change in the real world - something helpful in explaining the complex world of climate change and politics. Fantasy or founded fears? The White Walkers for example, a mythical race with magical powers elated to ice and cold, are portrayed by some bloggers as representing the threat of climate change. Meanwhile, some observers have suggested that the Night's Watch, a military order dedicated to guarding an immense ice "Wall" to block northern invaders, represents scientists warning about impending problems. The links to climate change in "Game of Thrones" might not be as evident as in films such as "The Day After Tomorrow" - when a huge superstorm sets off catastrophic natural disasters globally - and "Snowpiercer" - based in a post-apocalytpic ice age - which focus more directly on climate change. Academics disagree on how well such films portray the problem and spur understanding of it or action from viewers. Elizabeth Trobaugh, who teaches a class on climate fiction in popular culture at Holyoke Community College in Massachusetts, believes they help the cause. "For many movie-goers, these climate fiction films might just be action films, but for many they are raising awareness and interest in the air," she said. But Ted Howell, who teaches a climate fiction class at Temple University in Philadelphia, said film-goers may be getting the wrong idea about what climate change looks like. "Some people think (climate change) is going to be this massive tidal wave or giant snowstorm, but it's actually slower than that," he said. Finding the right balance between an entertaining storyline and science can be difficult but in trying to bring about effective action on climate threats it is worth pursuing, Milkoreit said. "(The world needs to) engage people with the subject in a way that is fun and doesn't turn them off," she said.

Like Trump did when he came to Davos last year, Bolsonaro tried to smooth the edges of the insurgent message that vaulted him into the presidency last fall. He pitched Brazil to the well-heeled audience gathered in this Alpine ski resort as a good place to do business — a country committed to rooting out rampant corruption and rolling back regulations. But Bolsonaro also said Brazil would purge left-wing ideology from its politics and society, and he made no apologies for emphasising economic growth, something his critics say will come at the cost of protecting Brazil’s environment. “We represent a turning point in the eyes of the Brazilian people — a turning point in which ideological bias will no longer take place,” Bolsonaro said in a brief address to a packed room, which was greeted with perfunctory applause. “Our motto is, ‘God above all things.'” Bolsonaro’s keynote address set the tone for a Davos gathering shorn of its usual retinue of American and European leaders, wrestling with political forces, from Latin America to Europe, that are starkly at odds with this conference’s ethos of global cooperation and a liberal world order. With his nationalist instincts, strongman style, and history of making crude statements about women, gay people and indigenous groups, Bolsonaro is in many ways the very antithesis of a “Davos Man” — the term once used to describe the type of person who attends the annual conference. A 63-year-old former Army officer whose victory symbolised the frustration of Brazilians with their corrupt governing elite, he has acted swiftly since taking power to loosen restrictions on guns, curb lesbian and gay rights, and put civil-society groups under tighter control. In November, at the behest of Bolsonaro, Brazil withdrew its pledge to host the 2019 United Nations global summit meeting on climate change. During the election campaign, many people feared he would pull out of the Paris climate accord, which he has not yet done. On Tuesday, Bolsonaro insisted that Brazil would “work in harmony with the world, in sync with the world” to reduce carbon emissions, though he did not mention the accord. “Those who criticize us have a great deal to learn with us,” he added. Bolsonaro and Trump have cultivated each other assiduously, and the parallels between them are at times striking. Bolsonaro boasted of winning “despite having been unfairly attacked all the time,” echoing Trump’s vilification of the news media. Though he was speaking in a heated room, Bolsonaro wore a long winter coat. Trump is partial to these as well: He was photographed wearing one recently in the State Dining Room as he posed with a spread of fast food laid out for the Clemson University football team. After Bolsonaro took office, Trump tweeted, “Congratulations to President @JairBolsonaro who just made a great inauguration speech — the USA is with you!” Bolsonaro quickly replied, “Together, under God’s protection, we shall bring prosperity and progress to our people!” Trump, whose presence dominated last year’s meeting, cancelled his visit this year because of the government shutdown. He pulled the plug on the rest of the American delegation a few days later, after he denied House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers the right to use a military aircraft to fly to Afghanistan and Brussels. Those who wanted to hear from the Trump administration had to make do with a video appearance by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who spoke from the balcony of the State Department, with the Lincoln Memorial over his left shoulder. Pompeo delivered a faithful summary of Trump’s “America First” foreign policy, with harsh words for Iran and China. He told the audience that Trump’s brand of disruption was a healthy response to voters who had tuned out more traditional politicians, and mirrored political upheavals in Britain, France, Italy and Brazil. Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain, who is dealing with the chaos over Britain’s exit from the European Union, and President Emmanuel Macron of France, who is facing a wave of unrest from “Yellow Vest” protesters, both skipped this year’s meeting. Pompeo said that critics of the Trump administration were not ready to face the challenge of reforming international institutions like the United Nations. “But President Trump is,” he said. Asked if the United States was isolated, Pompeo said, “I don’t think we’re remotely isolated.” Still, the signposts of a changing world order were evident throughout the snow-covered streets of Davos. While Silicon Valley stalwarts like Facebook and Salesforce still put up gleaming pavilions to promote their presence, the biggest billboard belonged to Saudi Arabia, which took up the side of a hotel to encourage visitors to invest in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia’s own investor conference, known as Davos in the Desert, was hit by a wave of cancellations in October after intelligence reports linked the conference’s patron, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to the killing of Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. Along the streets were advertisements for the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s answer to Davos. Though few Chinese officials turned up here, the sessions devoted to China’s economy, like the Belt and Road Initiative, drew by far the largest audiences. Although the United States kept a lower profile this year, it continued to cast a long shadow over the gathering. Economic analysts cited Trump’s trade war with China as a culprit for cutting their forecasts of global economic growth. And foreign policy analysts said Trump’s erratic style remained the greatest single source of risk in the world. “If you are challenging the international system, you need something to put in its place,” said Karin von Hippel, a former State Department official who is director-general of the Royal United Services Institute in London. “There doesn’t seem to be a plan.”   c.2019 New York Times News Service

VATICAN CITY, Sun May 25, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Pope Benedict urged all Christians on Sunday to help international efforts to resolve a food price crisis that threatens to make millions more people go hungry, ahead of a food summit in Rome early next month. "Whoever is nourished by the bread of Christ cannot remain indifferent before those who, in our times too, are deprived of daily bread," he said, referring to the Christian Eucharist where bread and wine represent the body and blood of Christ. "This problem is getting more and more serious and the international community is struggling to resolve it," said the German-born pontiff in his regular Angelus address to pilgrims at St. Peter's Square in Rome. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization hosts a summit in Rome on June 3-5 to discuss the difficulties caused by record-high commodity prices, which have doubled the food import bills of the poorest countries in the past two years. With food protests and riots already seen in some developing countries, the summit will discuss the impact on food security of climate change and biofuel use, which has switched millions of tonnes of cereals from food to fuel production.

By Diana Furchtgott-Roth Undated, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) – The first Thanksgiving festival was celebrated in 1621 in Massachusetts by the Pilgrims, immigrants to America, out of gratitude for a plentiful harvest. As we sit around our Thanksgiving tables this Thursday, almost all of us immigrants or their descendants, we're reminded that one of President-elect Obama's most important challenges will be to mend our broken immigration policy. Instead of a rational immigration system, we have occasional raids by immigration officers on plants suspected of employing illegals. Then come deportations that may separate an undocumented parent and children whose birth in the United States made them citizens. The most controversial facet of the immigration challenge is what to do about the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants. Most are unlikely to return to their native lands, even in today's tough economic climate. Nor would we want them to do so. They work at jobs that few Americans choose to do, both in high-skill area—scientific and medical research, for instance—and in mundane yet essential low-skill jobs, such as gardening, washing cars, and cleaning. In 2007, Congress did not pass President Bush's comprehensive immigration proposals, supported by the Democratic leadership and many Republicans. Will Obama succeed where Bush failed? Obama's proposal mirrors the bill that failed: increased border protection; more visas for new immigrants; penalties for employers who hire undocumented workers; and eventual citizenship for undocumented workers already here, after payment of a fine. It would be a major improvement. But with unemployment rising, if Congress won't pass immigration reform, it could still improve the functioning of American labor markets with narrower action. It could authorize the Department of Labor to decide on its own the number of work permits and temporary visas to be issued each calendar quarter. Every year, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), as instructed by law, issues 65,000 H-1b temporary visas for skilled workers. These lucky workers are certified by the Labor Department out of approximately 630,000 approved applications from employers. Immigrants who hold H-1b visas must return to their home countries when their jobs end. Yet, as the numbers show, most applicants do not get a visa. Many skilled foreign college graduates who have been studying in America, often at American taxpayer expense, are denied access to American jobs. They must leave, taking their intellectual achievements and valuable skills with them. Foreign workers benefit the American economy. They pay taxes. They keep laboratories and motels, high-tech shows and construction sites, running. They cannot if they are sent away. For 2009, the H-1b visa cap of 65,000 was reached one week after the start of the application process on April 1, 2008. That represents a tiny part of the U.S. labor force of 154 million. Even if the quota were raised to 150,000, that would be less than one tenth of 1% of the labor force. Such a quota would still deny admission to the vast majority of prospective applicants who don't apply due to the small likelihood of success. Whereas Congress is ill-suited to change laws each time the economy goes up or down, the Labor Department has both the expertise to evaluate changing labor markets and the flexibility to adjust visa quotas. Congress should consider letting the Labor Department make quarterly decisions about how many visas to issue. When unemployment rises, the Department would issue fewer visas; when it goes down, visas could be increased. The Department could manage visas without causing undue burden on U.S. workers or community facilities, such as schools and hospitals. Allowing the Labor Department to adjust legal immigration every quarter would help America. President-elect Obama could leave behind the rancor and division over immigration that have plagued the Bush administration, and set a new tone for a new year. That would be something to be thankful for next Thanksgiving. — Diana Furchtgott-Roth, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. The opinions expressed are her own. — Diana Furchtgott-Roth can be reached at [email protected].

It has sown death in the thousands and filled hospitals with wartime surges, turning them into triage wards. People gird for the grocery store in mask and gloves, as if they were going into battle. Particularly for Europe, which has experienced waves of terrorism that achieved some of the same results, the current plague has eerie echoes. But this virus has created a different terror because it is invisible, pervasive and has no clear conclusion. It is inflicted by nature, not by human agency or in the name of ideology. And it has demanded a markedly different response. People run screaming from a terrorist’s bomb and then join marches of solidarity and defiance. But when the all-clear finally sounds from the new coronavirus lockdown, people will emerge into the light like moles from their burrows. “People are more afraid of terrorism than of driving their car,” said Peter R Neumann, professor of security studies at King’s College London and founder of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation. Many more people die from car accidents or falling in the bathtub than from terrorism, but people fear terrorism more because they cannot control it. While terrorism is about killing people, Neumann said, “it’s mostly about manipulating our ideas and calculations of interest.” As Trotsky famously said, “the purpose of terror is to terrorise.” But the terrorism of the coronavirus is all the more frightening not only because it is so widespread but also because it is impervious to any of the usual responses — surveillance, SWAT teams, double agents or persuasion. “It’s not a human or ideological enemy, so it’s not likely to be impressed by rhetoric or bluster,” Neumann said. “The virus is something we don’t know, we can’t control, and so we’re afraid of it.” And for good reason — it has already killed more Americans than the nearly 3,000 who died on Sept 11, 2001, and it will kill many times more. “There is a difference between man-made and natural disasters,” said Thomas Hegghammer, an expert on terrorism and senior research fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment in Oslo, Norway. “People are typically more afraid of man-made threats, even if they are less damaging.” But this virus is likely to be different, he said. “It goes much deeper into society than terrorism, and it affects individuals on a much larger scale.” There is a similar sense of helplessness, however, said Julianne Smith, a former security adviser to former Vice President Joe Biden and now at the German Marshall Fund. “You don’t know when terrorism or the pandemic will strike, so it invades your personal life. With terror, you worry about being in crowds and rallies and sporting events. It’s the same with the virus — crowds spell danger.” Part of what makes terrorism terrifying is its randomness, said Joshua A Geltzer, former senior director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council and now a professor of law at Georgetown. “Terrorists count on that randomness, and in a sense this virus behaves the same way,” he said. “It has the capacity to make people think, ‘It could be me.’ ” But to defeat the virus requires a different mentality, Geltzer argued. “You see the bomb at the Boston Marathon, so you wonder about going next year; it’s a pretty direct impact,” he said. “But the virus requires one greater step — to think collectively, so as not to burden others by spreading the virus” and overwhelm the health system. And it requires a different sort of solidarity. After the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, President George W Bush urged Americans “to go about their lives, to fly on airplanes, to travel, to work.” After both the Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan attacks of 2015, President François Hollande did the same in France, leading marches and public demonstrations of public resilience and defiance. But in the face of the virus, with so many societies so clearly unprepared, resilience now is not to get on a plane, wrote Geltzer and Carrie F. Cordero, a former security official at the Justice Department and a senior fellow at the Centre for a New American Security. “To be resilient now is to stay at home.” So it is difficult for governments that learned to urge citizens to be calm in times of terrorism to now learn how to frighten them into acting for the common good. Rather than mobilisation, this enemy demands stasis. People respond patriotically, and even viscerally, to the nature of the security response to terrorism, from the helicopters to the shootouts. But “there’s nothing sexy or cool about staying at home, or ordering a company to produce face masks and gowns,” Geltzer said. “We don’t usually chant, ‘USA! USA!’ about home schooling.” It will also be difficult for governments to adjust their security structures to deal with threats that do not respond to increased military spending and enhanced spying. For a long time, Neumann said, analysts who worked on “softer” threats, like health and climate, were considered secondary. “Hardcore security people laughed at that, but no one will doubt that now,” he said. “There will be departments of health security and virologists hired by the CIA, and our idea of security will change.” And there will be new threats afterward — worries about economic collapse, widespread debt, social upheavals. Many fear the effect of such low oil prices on Arab and Persian Gulf countries that need to pay salaries for civil servants and the military, let alone deal with subsidies on bread. But even the Islamic State group has warned its adherents that “the healthy should not enter the land of the epidemic and the afflicted should not exit from it,” which may provide some respite. Hegghammer lived in Norway during the terrorist attacks there in July 2011 by Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people to publicise his fear of Muslims and feminism. The response in Norway was collective solidarity and resolve and a widespread sense of “dugnad,” the Norwegian word for communal work, as individuals donate their labour for a common project. “Dugnad” is being invoked again in the face of the virus, Hegghammer said, with the young aiding the elderly, and government and opposition working “almost too closely together.” The virus and the attacks carried out by Breivik “are being linked explicitly in the debate here,” Hegghammer said. But it is being done in a critical way, to criticize how unprepared the government has been, both then and now, to deal with a major threat. “People say, ‘We’ve already been through this, so how can we be so unprepared?’ ” In the aftermath, as with Breivik, there is likely to be a commission of inquiry in Norway, just as there will inevitably be one in the United States, too, as there was after Sept 11, to see how the government failed and what can be done in the future. But unlike largely homogeneous Norway, the sprawling United States is deeply divided. Unlike Sept 11, “when a single set of events united the country in an instant in its grief, this is a slowly rolling crisis that affects different parts of the country and the society at different speeds,” said Smith of the German Marshall Fund. “So we’re not united as a country.” Given the already deep political polarization in the United States, with partisan battles over science and facts, the virus is likely to have the same impact as the plague did in Athens during the Peloponnesian War, creating indifference to religion and law and bringing forward a more reckless set of politicians, said Kori Schake, director of the foreign and defence policy programme at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. But ultimately, she added, the delayed response from the White House “delegitimises the existing political leadership and practices of society.” If the political consequences are severe enough, she said. they could lead to “ the end of the imperial presidency and a return to the kind of federal and congressional activism that the Founding Fathers designed our system for.” The virus may be politically divisive, but “it is also a reminder,” Schake said, “that free societies thrive on norms of civic responsibility.” c.2020 The New York Times Company

Lars Sorensen is certain of one thing: the number of potential customers for his products is going to keep on rising as a global obesity epidemic tips more people into type 2 diabetes in the West and many developing nations.But he has a mounting fight on his hands when it comes to securing a good price for insulin and other diabetes treatments from cost-conscious reimbursement authorities around the world."Pricing is going to be challenging," Sorensen said in an interview at the drugmaker's headquarters in Bagsvaerd on the outskirts of Copenhagen, where a new spiral office complex inspired by the insulin molecule is under construction."In Europe, it is already a challenge and pricing in the United States is likely to be challenging in the future as well, with healthcare reform and concentration in the distribution chain."It has been a torrid year for the 59-year-old, who has been in the job since 2000 and acknowledges that the group is starting to think about succession planning for when he steps down, sometime before his 65th birthday.Last week he reported the group's 46th quarter of double-digit percentage sales growth in local currency terms, a record most rival drugmakers can only dream of.But the results fell short of market expectations - and a warning that sales and operating profits might only grow by high single digits in 2014 unnerved investors who have bought into the Novo story because of its long-term growth visibility. Lars Sorensen, CEO of Novo Nordisk, gestures during an interview at the company's headquarter in Bagsvaerd near Copenhagen, Credit: Reuters/Fabian Bimmer Sorensen insists the aspiration of double-digit sales growth is "still there, alive and kicking" and Novo has not given up on its long-term financial target of 15 percent operating profit growth, adding that forecasts for the following year given at this stage are "always conservative".But he admits that growing the Nordic region's biggest company by value is getting tougher, especially after a decision by the US Food and Drug Administration earlier this year to delay approval of its new long-acting insulin Tresiba.That setback opens the door to competition from Sanofi's new insulin U300, just as Eli Lilly threatens Novo's popular non-insulin diabetes drug Victoza with a potential rival called dulaglutide that may be superior.On top of all this, Novo is now encountering growing pushback on prices from healthcare insurers and governments, challenging its strategy of increasing prices and charging a premium for innovative medicines.Pricing BalanceGetting the pricing mix right is a balancing act for Novo, whose giant factory at Kalundborg, 100 km west of Copenhagen, supplies half the world's insulin, making both modern products for rich markets and cheap generics for the developing world.Up until now, the West - particularly the United States - has accepted higher prices for more convenient and effective treatments. But the climate is changing, with Novo losing a major US managed care contract with Express Scripts in the face of cheaper competition to Victoza, while austerity-hit Europe is reluctant to pay up for Novo's new drugs.It is a battle in which Sorensen believes he cannot afford to give ground."We need to price innovation at a premium, otherwise we will not be able to fund innovation going forward," he said."We could have priced ourselves into the (Express Scripts) contract had we wanted to, but we believe Victoza is a better product and therefore demands a premium."In Europe, Novo is facing resistance to the 60-70 percent price premium it is asking for Tresiba but Sorensen said he had no plans to reduce the price, even though this may mean the new medicine is never launched in Germany.For Sorensen, fighting for a fair reward for innovation is a matter of principle and he believes Europe will have to find extra funding beyond taxation - via insurance or patient co-payments - to deal with its rising healthcare burden.The stand-off, however, is unnerving for investors anxious about Novo's long-term growth story.Even after this year's setbacks, its B shares, the class of stock open to outside investors, still trade on 18 times expected earnings, against a sector average of about 14.The stock is underpinned by the knowledge that more than half a billion people are expected to be living with diabetes by 2030, up from 370 million today, according to the International Diabetes Federation.Sorensen hopes to stay around long enough to see the company well on the way to the next stage of technological breakthrough - oral pills, rather than injections, for delivering insulin and so-called GLP-1 medicines like Victoza.He thinks a GLP-1 pill could hit the market in five years, with a 50/50 chance of an insulin tablet in 6-8 years time.Novo is trailing Israel's Oramed Pharmaceuticals in clinical testing of an insulin pill, sparking speculation of a possible deal. But Sorensen said this was not on the cards since Novo doubted Oramed's approach.At a personal level, the Danish company's boss shows no signs of flagging, having recently extended his mandatory retirement age from 62 to 65. He cycles to work most days and is a keen cross-country skier, preparing to take part again in the 90-km Vasa race in Sweden this winter.Whoever takes over will have a hard act to follow but Sorensen sees good internal candidates for the job."We've bought a little time to work on diligent succession planning and we are doing that at the moment," he said. Lars Sorensen, CEO of Novo Nordisk, gestures during an interview at the company's headquarter in Bagsvaerd near Copenhagen, Credit: Reuters/Fabian Bimmer

She said that this would ensure better exchange of parliamentary delegations and help further strengthen the cooperation in socioeconomic, educational, agricultural, energy and cultural fields.Hasina came up with the call when she met Chairperson of the Council of Federation of Federal Assembly of Russia Valentina I Matvienko at the Council of Federation building in Moscow.The Prime Minister’s Deputy Press Secretary Bijan Lal Dev briefed reporters after the meeting which lasted about an hour.During the meeting, Hasina said that Bangladesh and Russia could work together in the issue of counter-terrorism.She also recalled the contribution of the Russian government to Bangladesh’s Liberation War and its assistance in reformation and development in the post-independence period.Hasina said her government gave democracy an institutional shape and ensured the fundamental rights of the people.Terming Bangladesh a convenient connecting hub between the Eastern Asia and the Western countries, she said: “We want to ensure peace in the region.”“Bangladesh and Russia can work together in the field of counterterrorism.”In response, Matvienko, the highest-ranking female politician in Russia, agreed to work together with Bangladesh to fight terrorism.She praised the dynamic leadership of Hasina and termed her visit to Russia a landmark which would help further bolster the bilateral relations.In the meeting, the two leaders also agreed to jointly face the climate change impact.Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, State Minister for Science and Technology Yeafesh Osman and AKM Rahmatullah MP were present on the occasion.Later, Hasina moved around the Russian Council of Federation building.Hasina went on a three-day visit to Russia on Monday. This is the first official visit of a Bangladesh Prime Minister to Moscow since Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s visit to the erstwhile Soviet Union in April 1972.On Tuesday, Bangladesh and Russia signed six memorandums of understanding and three deals that include financing of a nuclear power plant in Rooppur.

Major influential group G77 and China walked out of negotiation at 3am BdST on Wednesday while developed countries refused any allocation for loss and damage fund separately.The US, Australia, Canada were more vocal for a separate mechanism on loss and damage issue.One of the developing country’s key negotiators Quamrul Islam Chowdhury who was at the talk told that G77 staged the walkout as some of the parties tried to reduce the loss and damage issue into a simple disaster risk reduction.Disclosing the latest update of the negotiation, Dr Ainun Nishat told bdnews24.com, there were serious differences on many issues among the parties about the nature of the institutional mechanism. The G77 and China want it to be an independent work stream reporting to COP. Some developed countries wanted to be under the adaptation commitment.The developed countries were also very negative about providing financial support to the loss and damage mechanism, he added.Later Bangladesh delegation told a press conference on Wednesday afternoon at the conference centre, “We believe that the ultimate aim of all negotiation now is to arrive at a clear global understanding about the action to be taken for mitigation and adaptation.”Along with loss and damage, supported by commensurate financing, technology development and transfer and capacity building for a legally binding agreement in Paris in 2015, were the other issues dominated the talk.“We came here with high expectation that during the COP 19 we shall be able to agree on an institutional mechanism on loss and damage. Some party wants to see loss and damage as part of adaptation mechanism”, Bangladesh delegation said in the press conference.Secretary for the ministry of environment and forests Shafiqur Rahman read out the statement in the press conference. Ainun Nushat, Dr Asaduzzaman and Md Quamrul Islam Chowdhury also addressed the press conference members of the delegation.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left for New York on Saturday night on a nine-day official visit to the USA to attend the 67th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). An Emirates flight carrying the Prime Minister and members of her entourage took off from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 9.30 pm. The flight is expected to reach the John F Kennedy (JFK) International Airport in New York at 8.15am (New York time) on Sunday. On their way to New York, Hasina and members of her entourage would make a stopover at Dubai International Airport for two hours. From the JFK Airport the Prime Minister will straight drive to the Hotel Grand Hayatt in New York where she will be staying during her visit to the city. Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, Environment and Forest Minister Hasan Mahmud, Ambassador-At-Large M Ziauddin, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Shaikh Mohammad Wahid-Uz- Zaman and Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad, among others, would accompany Hasina during her visit to the USA. A 23-member high-level business delegation led by AK Azad, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), will accompany the Prime Minister to explore new areas of trade and business in the USA. The Prime Minister will attend a high-level event on 'Rule of Law' on Sept 24 at the General Assembly Hall at the UN headquarters. On the same day, she will join a reception to be hosted by the US President Barak Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama. On Sep 25, Hasina will attend the reception to be hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. She will also join the opening session of the 67th UN General Assembly on the same day. On the next day, the Prime Minister will launch an event titled 'Second Edition of the Climate Vulnerability Monitor'. Expatriate Bangladeshis will give her a reception at Marriott Marquis Hotel adjacent to the Times Square in New York. On Sep 27, Hasina will attend a meeting on autism to be arranged by the US First Lady at the Roosevelt House. She is also scheduled to join the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) initiative. She will deliver a speech at the General Assembly at 8pm local time on Sep 27. The theme for this year's session is "Bringing about adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations by peaceful means". Before leaving New York for home on Sep 30, Hasina will attend a press conference at 4pm. She is expected to reach Dhaka in the morning on Oct 2.

There’s also a risk that devoting our attention to these technological marvels may give us a pass from confronting a deeper question: How can we make our lives less dependent on cars? After decades of putting the automobile at the centre of the United States' transportation plans and policy, we’re now dealing with the downsides, like air pollution, traffic, road deaths, sprawl and the crowding out of alternative ways to move people and products. The solution to problems caused partly by cars may not only be using different kinds of cars but also remaking our world to rely on them less. I’ve been thinking about the risk and reward of faith in technology recently because of a new book by Peter Norton, an associate professor of history at the University of Virginia. Norton detailed decades of unfulfilled promises by carmakers and tech companies that some invention was just around the corner to free us from the worst aspects of our car dependency. Radio waves, divided highway engineering, transistors and technology repurposed from targeted bombs were all pitched at points after World War II as ways of delivering an automobile utopia. Norton told me that the technologies were often half-baked but that the idea behind them was that “anyone can drive anywhere at any time and park for free and there would be no crashes.” These technologies never delivered, and Norton said he doubted that driverless cars would, either. “The whole boondoggle depends on us agreeing that high tech is better tech,” he said. “That just doesn’t stand up.” This is not only Norton’s view. Even most driverless-car optimists now say the technology won’t be ready to hit the roads in large numbers for many more years. Our health and that of the planet will significantly improve if we switch to electric cars. They are one focus of the global climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. And taking error-prone drivers out of the equation could make our roads much safer. But making better cars isn’t a cure-all. Popularising electric vehicles comes with the risk of entrenching car dependency, as my New York Times Opinion colleague Farhad Manjoo wrote. Driverless cars may encourage more miles on the road, which could make traffic and sprawl worse. (Uber and similar services once also promised that they would reduce congestion and cut back on how many miles Americans drove. They did the opposite.) The future of transportation needs to include safer and more energy-efficient cars. But Norton also said that it would be useful to redirect money and attention to make walking, cycling and using shared transportation more affordable and appealing choices. What Norton is talking about might sound like a fantasy concocted by Greta Thunberg. The car is a life-changing convenience, and changing our reliance on it will be difficult, costly and contentious. Why should we try? Well, the transportation status quo is dangerous and environmentally unsustainable, and it gobbles up public space and government dollars. It took decades to build the U.S. around the car. It was a choice — at times a contested one — and we could now opt for a different path. Norton asked us to imagine what would happen if a fraction of the bonkers dollars being spent to develop driverless cars was invested in unflashy products and policy changes. He mentioned changing zoning codes to permit more homes to be built in the same places as stores, schools and workplaces so that Americans don’t have to drive everywhere. He also said that bicycles and electric railways that don’t require batteries are technology marvels that do more good than any driverless-car software ever could. Talking to Norton reminded me of the mixed blessing of innovation. We know that technology improves our lives. But we also know that belief in the promise of technology sometimes turns us away from confronting the root causes of our problems.   © 2021 The New York Times Company

Biden's "Billionaire Minimum Income Tax" would set a 20% minimum tax rate on households worth more than $100 million, in a plan that would mostly target the United States' more than 700 billionaires, according to a White House fact sheet released on Saturday. The plan would require such households to pay the minimum tax of 20% on all of their income including unrealized investment income that is now untaxed, the fact sheet said. The tax will help reduce the budget deficit by about $360 billion in the next decade, the fact sheet added. Senate Democrats last autumn had proposed a billionaires tax to help pay for Biden's social and climate-change known as "Build Back Better" although the spending package did not move forward due to insufficient support in the Senate.

More than 1,000 residents scrambled up 32 feet (9.75 m) of slippery soil and limestone to take refuge inside the Tinabanan Cave, known for providing shelter since colonial times. Lorna dela Pena, 66, was alone when the super-typhoon landed on Nov 8, killing more than 6,000 people nationwide and forcing about 4 million from their homes. She remembered how everything was "washed out" by the storm, but despite being "lost in a daze", she managed to evacuate. "There still weren't stairs to comfortably climb up to the cave. My grandfather's dream was for it to have stairs," she said, noting they were finally put in after the Haiyan disaster. While serving hot porridge to evacuees, dela Pena grasped how important local organisations are to helping communities become more resilient to fiercer weather, as the planet warms. “It’s stronger when more people unite to help. What one can’t do is possible when everyone unites,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Following that experience, she worked with others in Marabut to build up women's groups focused on different issues. Now they take the lead in organising workshops on organic farming, hold discussions on violence against women, and educate and encourage other women to adopt renewable energy. Azucena Bagunas, 47, and dela Pena are among “solar scholars” trained by the Philippines-based Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC), an international nonprofit that promotes low-carbon development and climate resilience. In an effort to prepare better for disasters after Typhoon Haiyan, known locally as Yolanda, the women learned to operate portable solar-powered generators called TekPaks, which they use during evacuations. LIFE-SAVING TECHNOLOGY The TekPaks light up the dark Tinabanan cave, making it easier to count the number of people seeking shelter there, and charge mobile devices to keep communication lines open. For Bagunas, the most memorable use of the technology was when it helped save a life. “We were able to use this TekPak to power a nebuliser when someone had an asthma attack,” she recalled. Bagunas and dela Pena share their knowledge by teaching other women to operate TekPaks and making them aware of the benefits of renewable energy. Now, whenever a storm is coming, women in Marabut ensure their solar-powered equipment is charged so they are ready to move their communities to safety. Bagunas said harnessing solar energy was also cheaper than relying on coal-fired electricity from the grid. “If we use (solar) as our main source of power in our homes, then we don’t even have to pay for electricity," she said. "As long as you have a panel, you’ll have affordable and reliable power." Bagunas also prefers solar as a safer option. In June, her brother's house next-door went up in flames when a live electricity wire hit his roof, with the fire reaching some parts of her own house. WOMEN'S WORK According to 2020 data from the Department of Energy, about 60% of the Philippines' energy still comes from coal and oil, with only about 34% from renewable sources. But under a 2020-2040 plan, the government aims to shift the country onto a larger share of renewable energy such as solar, rising to half of power generation by the end of that period. Chuck Baclagon, Asia regional campaigner for 350.org, an international group that backs grassroots climate action, said the ICSC's efforts to bring solar power to communities would help expand clean energy at the local level. Today's model of a centralised power system reliant on fossil fuels does little to address energy poverty in remote island areas far from commercial centres, he added. “The shift to solar energy dispels the myth that we can’t afford to transition," he said. "The reason why fossil fuel is expensive is that it’s imported so it’s volatile in the market." Renewable energy sources like solar, however, are easier to build locally because they harness what is available and has the highest potential in particular locations, he added. Leah Payud, resilience portfolio manager at Oxfam Philippines, said her aid agency supported initiatives to introduce solar energy in poor rural communities, especially because it helps women and children who are among the most vulnerable to climate change. "During disasters, the unpaid care work and domestic work of women doubles," she said, adding their burden is made heavier by having to find an energy source to carry out those jobs. "Women don’t have access to a clean kitchen to cook their meals, and there is no electricity to lighten their tasks, for example when breastfeeding or sanitising equipment,” she said. The direct benefits women can gain from clean, cheap and easily available energy mean they should be involved in expanding its adoption, she added. “They are the mainstream users and energy producers - and without their involvement, renewable energy initiatives can become inappropriate," she added. “There is no climate justice without gender justice." One good way to introduce women to renewable energy is by asking them to draw a 24-hour clock of their chores at home and identifying the energy they use to do them, Payud said. They then consult with Oxfam staff on how switching energy sources could lighten their responsibilities, making it "very relatable", she added. The exercise has revealed that many women spend at least 13 hours a day doing unpaid family care work, a load that has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic due to home-schooling. QUICK AND SAFE On Suluan Island, a three to four-hour boat ride from the mainland, women are tasked with collecting water in energy-deprived areas, putting them at risk when they have to go out after dark. They have found solar lights more reliable than oil lamps because they do not have to cross the sea to buy fuel for them. Payud said solar was the best energy source during a disaster, especially when the mains power supply is cut and it is impossible to travel between islands. After Haiyan, it took half a year to restore grid power in far-flung communities, but that would not have been the case had women had access to alternative energy such as solar, she said. For dela Pena and Bagunas, women should be at the forefront of tackling climate change and energy poverty because they act as "shock absorbers". "Women oversee the whole family, and whenever there are problems, they are the ones who try to address it first,” said Bagunas.

More than 50 speakers from Bangladesh and abroad will share their expert opinions in five panel discussions during the forum, the organisers said in a media briefing on Moday.  Bangladesh Apparel Exchange along with Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association will organise the forum.The panel discussions will be held on issues currently critical to the country’s apparel industry such as on human, transparency, water, purchasing practice and climate change.“Sustainability is not an option but a must for Bangladesh apparel industry.  So, the SAF aims to add pace to the sustainability momentum and drive discussions to that end,” founder and CEO of BAE Mostafiz Uddin said.BGMEA President Rubana Huq emphasised sustainable labour practice along with sustainable industry environment.The Netherlands Ambassador in Bangladesh Harry Verweij was also present. The embassy is the title sponsor of the forum to be organised in collaboration with H&M. Better Work Bangladesh and C&A Foundation have also partnered with the organisers of the event.

President Bush and Queen Elizabeth toasted the enduring Anglo-American friendship at a state dinner at the White House on Monday night honoring the British monarch near the end of six-day US visit. Only 132 guests were invited to dine with the queen and Prince Philip at the first white tie event hosted by Bush and his wife Laura. Arriving at the White House in a black Chevrolet Suburban four-wheel drive vehicle, the royal couple was met by the president and first lady, who wore an aqua gown. The queen wore a white gown with a blue sash and a sparkling crown. In toasts before dinner, Bush hailed the US-British alliance as a force for the "common good." "Together we are supporting young democracies in Iraq and Afghanistan. Together we are confronting global challenges such as poverty and disease and terrorism," he said. "We're confident that Anglo-American friendship will endure for centuries to come." The queen said today's trans-Atlantic leaders can learn from 20th-century century figures like Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. "Whether in Iraq or Afghanistan, climate change or the eradication of poverty, the international community is grappling with problems certainly no less complex than those faced by our 20th century forebears," she said. "Together with our friends in Europe and beyond we can continue to learn from the inspiration and vision of those earlier statesmen in ensuring that we meet these threats and resolve these problems." Former first lady Nancy Reagan, golfer Arnold Palmer, Kentucky Derby winning jockey Calvin Borel winner and violinist Itzhak Perlman were among the guests at the dinner. The royal couple's visit to America has included ceremonies marking the 400th anniversary of the British settlement in Jamestown, Virginia, and the Kentucky Derby. Earlier they were treated to a formal arrival ceremony on the White House South Lawn, complete with a marching fife-and-drum corps. Trumpets heralded the arrival of the dignitaries. The US Air Force Band played national anthems before 7,000 invited guests on a sunny spring day. Bush noted the queen's long history of dealing with successive American governments, just barely stopping himself before dating her to 1776, the year the 13 British colonies declared their independence from Britain. Elizabeth has occupied the British throne for 55 years and is 81. "The American people are proud to welcome your majesty back to the United States, a nation you've come to know very well. After all you've dined with 10 US presidents. You've helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17 -- in 1976," Bush said. Bush looked at the queen sheepishly. She peered back at him from beneath her black and white hat. "She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child," Bush said as the crowd burst into laughter. Taking the podium, the queen applauded the closeness of US-British relations. "It is the moment to take stock of our present friendship, rightly taking pleasure from its strengths while never taking these for granted," she said. "And it is the time to look forward, jointly renewing our commitment to a more prosperous, safer and freer world."

Britain says it hasn't decided yet how much energy it aims to get from renewable sources like the wind and sun by 2020, but industry players fear a lack of ambition. European Union leaders signed up in March to a mandatory target to get a fifth of all energy from renewable sources by 2020, to help fight climate change, but didn't decide how the target would be split between the 27 EU member states. Tough talk is expected ahead of a decision due in January, and the renewable energy industry fears Britain is aiming low. "There's an exceptionally defeatist attitude on renewables in the UK," said Leonie Greene, spokeswoman for Britain's Renewable Energy Association (REA). Renewable energy contributes less to global warming but is more expensive than conventional fossil fuels like oil and coal, and so needs support both in research and development and installation to drive investment and bring costs down. Greene cited EU data showing Britain obtained 1.8 percent of all its energy, including heat, transport and electricity, from renewable sources in 2005, versus an EU-27 average of 6.7 percent. "We have signed up to the EU 20 percent target... we haven't changed our position," a UK government spokesman said on Tuesday. "We're going through the process of deciding how that's going to be met." Britain said in May that present policies would enable the country to get 5 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, and described the EU target as "an ambitious goal." According to documents leaked to the Guardian newspaper in August and again on Tuesday, British government officials estimate it would cost up to 4.4 billion pounds ($8.99 billion) annually by 2020 to double that share to 10 percent. The documents suggested Britain wanted as flexible an approach as possible, for example achieving targets using a similar mechanism to carbon offsetting, where you pay someone else to install renewable energy on your behalf. EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said two weeks ago he supported such a trading approach, where richer EU governments invested in renewable energy in the newer, mostly ex-communist members of the bloc. He got a mixed reception from renewable energy companies.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is making a career change, from icon of liberty opposing Myanmar's junta to party boss in a fragile new quasi-democracy. The transition hasn't been easy. At a talk in London in June, a student from the Kachin ethnic minority asked why Suu Kyi (a majority Burman) seemed reluctant to condemn a bloody government military offensive against Kachin rebels. The conflict has displaced some 75,000 people. Suu Kyi's answer was studiously neutral: "We want to know what's happening more clearly before we condemn one party or the other." The Kachin community was livid. The Kachinland News website called her reply an "insult." Kachin protesters gathered outside her next London event. An "open letter" from 23 Kachin groups worldwide said Suu Kyi was "condoning state-sanctioned violence." That a woman so widely revered should arouse such hostility might have seemed unthinkable back in April. A landslide by-election victory propelled Suu Kyi and 42 other members of her National League for Democracy into Myanmar's parliament. Not anymore. Once idolized without question for her courageous two-decade stand against the old junta, Suu Kyi now faces a chorus of criticism even as she emerges as a powerful lawmaker here. She has quickly become an influential voice in the country's newly empowered parliament. Still, ethnic groups accuse her of condoning human-rights abuses by failing to speak out on behalf of long-suffering peoples in Myanmar's restive border states. Economists worry that her bleak public appraisals of Myanmar's business climate will scare foreign investors. Political analysts say her party has few real policies beyond the statements of its world-famous chairperson. She must also contend with conflict within the fractious democracy movement she helped found. International critics have seized upon her ambiguous response to one of Myanmar's most urgent humanitarian issues: the fate of 800,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims in remote western Myanmar. There, clashes with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists have killed at least 77 people and left 90,000 homeless since June. Spurned by both Myanmar and neighboring Bangladesh, which hosts 300,000 refugees, many Rohingya live in appalling conditions in Rakhine State. The United Nations has called the Muslim minority "virtually friendless" in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar. The violence erupted in June, days before Suu Kyi's first trip to Europe in 24 years. "Are the Rohingya citizens of your country or are they not?" a journalist asked Suu Kyi in Norway, after she collected the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded in 1991 while under house arrest. "I do not know," said Suu Kyi. Her rambling answer nettled both the Rohingya, who want recognition as Myanmar citizens, and the locals in Rakhine, who regard them as invaders. The reply contrasted with the moral clarity of her Nobel speech, in which she had spoken about "the uprooted of the earth ... forced to live out their lives among strangers who are not always welcoming." STRATEGIC AMBIGUITY Suu Kyi's moral clarity helped make the former junta a global pariah. Her new role as political party leader demands strategic ambiguity as well. She must retain her appeal to the majority Burmans and Buddhists, without alienating ethnic minorities or compatriots of other faiths. She must also engage with the widely despised military, which remains by far the most dominant power in Myanmar. Her political instincts have been apparent to Myanmar watchers since 1988, when she returned after spending much of her life abroad. Amid a brutal military crackdown, she emerged as leader of the democracy movement. She spent most of the next two decades in jail or house arrest and yet remained the movement's inspiration. "I don't like to be referred to as an icon, because from my point of view, icons just sit there," she said in a lecture on September 27 at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "I have always seen myself as a politician. What do they think I have been doing for the past 24 years?" Suu Kyi declined multiple interview requests from Reuters for this article. Myanmar's reforms have accelerated since she was freed from house arrest in November 2010, days before an election stage-managed by the military installed a quasi-civilian government. This year, it has freed dissidents, eased media censorship and started tackling a dysfunctional economy. Myanmar's emergence from authoritarianism is often compared to the Arab Spring. Yet its historic reforms were ushered in not by destabilizing street protests, but by former generals such as President Thein Sein. Suu Kyi's role was pivotal. A meeting she held with Thein Sein in the capital of Naypyitaw in August 2011 marked the start of her pragmatic engagement with a government run by ex-soldiers. She pronounced him "sincere" about reforming Myanmar, an endorsement that paved the way for US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Naypyitaw last November and, earlier this year, the scrapping of most Western sanctions. A saint-like reputation for unwavering principle can be unhelpful in politics, a murky world of compromise and negotiation. So can adulation, which generates expectations that not even Myanmar's "human rights superstar" - as Amnesty International calls her - can fulfill. Suu Kyi realizes this. "To be criticized and attacked is an occupational hazard for politicians. To be praised and idealized is also an occupational hazard and much the less desirable of the two." She wrote that 14 years ago. Today, she regularly visits her parliamentary district of Kawhmu, a small and impoverished rice-growing area near the commercial capital Yangon. On a recent morning, as she was driven in an SUV along Kawhmu's potholed roads, villagers spilled out of their huts to cheer for "Mother Suu." Kawhmu's problems - household debt, lack of electricity, joblessness - are Myanmar's writ small. "Some villages around here have no young people," says Aung Lwin Oo, 45, a carpenter and member of the National League for Democracy. "They have all left to work in Thailand and Malaysia." UNGLAMOROUS WORK Suu Kyi's first stop that day was the Buddhist monastery. There, she prayed with the monks and met representatives from two villages to settle a money dispute. Then she ate lunch with NLD members at a tin-roofed wooden bungalow - the party's Kawhmu headquarters - and discussed drainage issues with local officials. Her new job is unglamorous, but aides say she relishes it. "She enjoys political life," said Win Tin, an NLD elder and long-time confidant. "She enjoys it to the utmost." She is also adapting to life in Naypyitaw, the isolated new capital built from scratch by the junta, where she lives in a house protected by a fence topped with razor wire. In the Lower House of parliament, the colorful garb worn by many ethnic delegates lends a festive atmosphere. Sitting near Suu Kyi is an MP from Chin State who wears a head-dress of boar's teeth and hornbill feathers. Men in green uniforms, however, dominate one side of the chamber. Myanmar's constitution, ratified after a fraudulent referendum in 2008, reserves a quarter of parliamentary seats for military personnel chosen by armed forces chief Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, a protégé of the retired dictator, Than Shwe. Suu Kyi's mere presence in parliament breathes legitimacy into a political system built by the junta that jailed her. Her party has reversed many long-cherished positions to get here. The NLD boycotted both the constitution-drafting process and the 2010 election. That vote was rigged in favor of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, now the ruling party and the NLD's main electoral rival. Suu Kyi's camp also demanded that the military recognize the results of a 1990 election, which the NLD won easily but the junta nullified. Her party abandoned these stances to take part in April's by-elections. It now holds less than a tenth of the lower house seats, but Suu Kyi ensures the NLD punches above its weight. She led opposition to a higher education bill that she deemed substandard; it was scrapped in July and will now be redrafted by legislators. She also helped kill a clause in a foreign-investment law that would have protected Myanmar's crony businessmen. In August she was named chair of a 15-member parliamentary committee on "rule of law and tranquility," which could further amplify her influence. Her star power has limits, however. Reforming the constitution to dial back the military's influence remains an NLD priority. That requires three-quarters support in parliament, including from some military delegates - a daunting task even for Suu Kyi. "She is very persuasive," said Ohn Kyaing, NLD party spokesman and member of parliament. But "without the military's help, we can't change our constitution. We have no chance." REJUVENATING THE NLD While the NLD's by-election landslide suggests it will win the next general election in 2015, the party hardly seems like a government-in-waiting. The NLD was formed in September 1988 after a military crackdown that killed or injured thousands of pro-democracy protesters. The junta arrested Suu Kyi before the NLD was a year old, and hounded, jailed and tortured its members. In 2003, government thugs attacked Suu Kyi's convoy, killing dozens of her supporters. She was lucky to escape alive. Most NLD offices were shut down. When Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest in 2010, her party was a moribund force with a geriatric leadership. She set about rejuvenating it, personally opening dozens of offices. Two of the party's aging co-founders, Win Tin and Tin Oo, both in their eighties, have been nudged into "patron" roles. The party is booming - it now has a million members, spokesman Ohn Kyaing said. But success is bringing a new set of problems. The NLD plans to hold its first national party conference in late 2012 or early 2013, and protests have erupted in several constituencies, including Suu Kyi's Kawhmu, over who gets to attend. The dispute highlights the friction between old NLD members, who survived two decades of persecution, and new members who joined in reform-era Myanmar. "The old ones don't want to give up their posts because they struggled," said Ohn Kyaing. It also reveals a struggle between the party headquarters and far-flung branches, with local officials accusing their leaders of being bossy or unresponsive. At least five members were suspended for disobeying or protesting against the party leadership. Suu Kyi heads a seven-member Central Executive Committee which, past and present NLD members say, effectively rubber-stamps her decisions. These included the NLD's refusal in April to swear a parliamentary oath to "uphold and abide by" the constitution. Imposing her will might not be democratic, said Aung Kyi Nyunt, an NLD upper house legislator. "But it's not authoritarian, because she never orders (us) to follow her decisions. We already agree." After a two-week stand-off and criticism from supporters, the "Iron Aunty" backed down and her MPs took their seats. The NLD also has a troubled relationship with Myanmar's reinvigorated media. One newspaper said in May that Suu Kyi's bodyguards had assaulted one of its reporters, which the NLD denies. Some Burmese-language websites are dedicated to smearing Suu Kyi. Their unsubstantiated gossip - one falsely claimed that she has a teenage daughter by a Burmese lover - strikingly resembles junta-era propaganda. (The websites, whose owners protect their identities by registering through proxies, couldn't be reached for comment.) ETHNIC UNREST The NLD's parliamentary debut has also highlighted a lack of concrete policies and experts to formulate them, a critical weakness when Myanmar's reformist government is drafting new legislation at a breakneck pace. Pressed by Reuters in Kawhmu to explain the NLD's policy on the Rohingya, for example, Suu Kyi seemed to say the party didn't have one. "It's not a policy that has to be formulated by the NLD," she said. "It's something that the whole country must be involved in. It's not just a party concern." Suu Kyi's popularity in Myanmar is not as universal as many Western admirers assume. She is adored in the lowlands, where fellow ethnic Burmans predominate and her image adorns homes, shops, cars and T-shirts. Burmans, or Bamar, make up two-thirds of Myanmar's 60 million population. That reverence fades in rugged border regions, occupied by ethnic minorities who have fought decades-long wars against Myanmar's Burman-dominated military. In rural Shan State, named after the largest minority, images of Suu Kyi are hard to find. Suu Kyi used her maiden speech in parliament in July to call for greater legal protection of minorities. But this has not inoculated her against criticism from ethnic leaders. Among them is Khun Htun Oo, a leading Shan politician who was jailed for almost seven years by the former junta. Suu Kyi has been "neutralized" by participating in parliament, he told reporters in Washington last month, a day before the two of them picked up awards from a human-rights group. "The trust in her has gone down." In an interview with CNN during her US trip, Suu Kyi stoked the anger with a gaffe. She admitted that she had a "soft spot" for Myanmar's military, which was founded by her father, the independence hero General Aung San. That expression of filial piety ignited a storm of negative comments on Facebook, Myanmar's main forum for popular political discussion. For years, the NLD backed calls for a United Nations Commission of Inquiry into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Myanmar. This push has been quietly dropped since Suu Kyi's release. "What we believe in is not retributive justice but restorative justice," she said in March. Restorative justice, she added, did not mean putting junta members on trial. Western governments take their cue from Suu Kyi on human rights. And they use such equivocations "to justify doing nothing" about issues of justice and accountability, said Mark Farmaner of London-based advocacy group Burma Campaign UK. He noted it took more than two months for British Foreign Secretary William Hague to comment on the violence against the Rohingya minority. Suu Kyi will speak up on the Rohingya issue "when the time comes," said NLD spokesman Ohn Kyaing. "Politics is timing."

The governments should not only honour their national contributions under the Paris Agreement, but also need to substantially increase their ambitions, the prime minister said in her address at the Climate Vulnerable Leaders’ Event on Wednesday. “The idea of climate justice must be established for the sake of climate and the planet. More vigorous provision of finance must be ensured by the major economies, MDBs, and IFIs along with access to technology,” she said. Bangladesh is honoured to be chosen to lead the Climate Vulnerable Forum for the second time, the prime minister said. The CVF represents over one billion people of the world’s most vulnerable countries. CVF countries suffer the most despite their insignificant contribution to global carbon emission. According to the Climate Change Vulnerability Index, 2019 of German Watch, Bangladesh is the seventh most affected countries of the world due to the adverse impacts of climate change. The country has faced recurrent flooding this monsoon causing immense damage to crops and displacing huge people, with super cyclone Amphan and current COVID-19 pandemic aggravating the situation, Hasina mentioned. The 1.1 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar given shelter at Cox’s Bazar are also causing serious social and environmental damages, she highlighted. “As president, our focus would be galvanising support for the goal to keep the global temperature-increase up to 1.5 degrees, accelerating financing mechanisms and highlighting the narratives of climate resilience, and ‘loss and damage’ issue. We will also put emphasis on appointing a UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change and creating a CVF and V20 Joint Multi-Donor Fund,” Hasina said in her speech. As the chair of CVF, Hasina launched the Climate Vulnerable Forum’s “Midnight Survival Deadline for the Climate” initiative to combat the global impact of climate change. “We urge every leader of every nation to show leadership now. Convening alongside the UNGA, we also declare our call for an international day to be named “Climate Resilience Day” to secure our harmony with the Mother Earth,” Hasina made the call in her address at the Climate Vulnerable Leaders’ Event on Wednesday. The world is at the edge of the cliff of surpassing the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 degrees Centigrade limit, Hasina said adding the G20 countries which account for more than three-quarters of global emissions, are expected to have clear and definite NDC for effective reduction of their emission. If the current trend of sea-level rise is continuing, most of the island and coastal countries will go under water making millions of people climate refugees with the world having no capacity to shelter them, she said. “Realising this, Bangladesh parliament declared a “Planetary Emergency” and called on the world to work “on a war-footing’’ to stop climate change. Following COP 26’s postponement, the decisive hour now falls at midnight on December the 31st this year when we declare our extended NDCs. This is practically our “survival deadline,’’ the prime minister said. “We should also ensure that at least 100 billion US dollars a year are available to developing countries for mitigation, adaptation and disaster response and recovery,” Hasina said.

Cameron wants to launch the strikes as soon as possible against Islamic State in Syria, convinced Britain can no longer "sub-contract" its security to other countries after the group said it was behind last month's Paris attacks. But his push to win approval for the action in the House of Commons on Wednesday, avoiding a repeat of a damaging defeat in 2013 on a motion to strike Syria, has deepened divisions in the Labour Party. New Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused Cameron of rushing to war, and appealed to those Labour lawmakers who favour the motion to "think again ... and please cast your vote against supporting this government's military endeavours in Syria". Cameron said his cabinet had agreed the motion on extending air strikes to Syria from Iraq, where British warplanes have been bombing targets since Sept. 30 last year. "That motion talked about, yes, the necessity of taking military action against ISIL (Islamic State) in Syria as well as in Iraq but it is part of a broader strategy," he said in a televised statement, adding that the debate in parliament would be thorough and would last 10-1/2 hours. Asked about the prospects for securing a majority, he said: "Let's wait and see." Cameron is all but assured of winning parliamentary approval after Corbyn said he would allow his members of parliament to vote according to their conscience on Wednesday -- breaking with a tradition for leaders to instruct MPs how to vote on big decisions. Media reports say about 50 Labour members of parliament (MPs) will vote with the government, although their leader, a veteran anti-war campaigner, hoped he could still persuade them to change their minds. Corbyn argued that Cameron's case did not meet his party's demands. "I am saying to every MP, you've got to make up your own mind ... on whether we should commit British troops into yet another war in the Middle East with no endgame in sight," he told BBC Radio Two. Many Britons are wary of entering into more costly military action in the Middle East after Western intervention in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan failed to bring stability and, some believe, led to the rise of militants such as Islamic State. British finance minister George Osborne said the cost of extending air strikes into Syria would run into the "low tens of millions of pounds". But after Islamic State claimed responsibility for killing 130 people in Paris, some members of parliament who were reluctant to launch the air strikes now feel they are needed to protect Britain from such attacks. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told MPs on Tuesday there was an "urgent need" for Britain to launch air strikes against Islamic State in Syria for "our own security".

A gunman on Sunday shot interior minister Ahsan Iqbal, a senior member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and ally of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, as he was leaving a constituency meeting in Punjab province. Iqbal was recovering in hospital from a bullet wound on Monday. Minister of state for interior affairs Talal Chaudhry said he was stable and in “high spirits”. Leaders from Pakistan’s main opposition parties all condemned the assassination attempt. But a prominent official of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) opposition party said Sharif had created the backdrop for the attack at large rallies protesting his removal by the Supreme Court last July. “We condemn it with full force. But the political climate is being seriously affected by Nawaz’s wild accusations against his opponents and creating tension and anger all over,” said Naeem ul Haq, chief of staff for former cricket star Khan. “So if Nawaz [Sharif] continues to utter poison, such incidents will continue to occur.” Pakistan’s Supreme Court disqualified Sharif as prime minister last July over a small source of unreported income and he is currently on trial before an anti-corruption court, though his party still holds a majority in parliament. Sharif has denounced the court ruling as a conspiracy led by rival Khan, routinely gathering large crowds of his supporters to voice his grievances. Sharif has Sharif has portrayed Khan as a puppet of the powerful military establishment, which has a history of meddling in Pakistani politics. Khan denies colluding with the army and the military denies interfering in politics. Sunday’s attack heightened the sense of unease in the runup to the election, expected by late July. Preliminary reports suggested Sunday’s attacker had links to a new Islamist political party that campaigns on enforcing the death penalty for blasphemy and replacing secular influence on government with strict sharia law. ISLAMISTS DENY LINK A local administrator’s initial report on the attack, seen by Reuters, said the arrested gunman had “showed his affiliation” to the Tehreek-e-Labaik party. “We have got nothing to do with him,” Labaik spokesman Ejaz Ashrafi said on Monday. “We are unarmed. We are in an unarmed struggle. Those conspiring against Tehreek-e-Labaik will not succeed.” Party leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi on Sunday condemned the attack on Iqbal, and said Labaik was in an “unarmed struggle to bring the Prophet’s religion to the throne”. Police said a bullet hit Iqbal in the right arm and entered his groin. They named the suspected shooter as Abid Hussain, 21, but have not officially reported any motive. “Religious radicalism is in his background,” minister of state Chaudhry said, adding that others had been arrested and police were investigating groups that may have influenced the attack. “Such people, on an ideological level, are prepared by others ... radicalism is not an individual issue, it is a social problem,” he said. Labaik was born out of a protest movement supporting Mumtaz Qadri, a bodyguard of the governor of Punjab who gunned down his boss in 2011 over his call to relax Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy laws. The movement’s protests shut down the country’s capital for three weeks last year over a change to an electoral law which it said amounted to blasphemy. The assassination attempt on Iqbal has stoked fears of a repeat of the pre-election violence by Islamists that blighted the last two polls, including in 2007 when former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed on the campaign trail.

Malaysia's ruling coalition took 41 of its lawmakers to Taiwan for a study tour on Monday, at a time when opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has been trying to entice MPs to defect in his campaign to unseat the government. Top opposition leaders were meeting on Monday to plot their campaign to oust the government by Anwar's self-imposed deadline of Sept. 16. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has called for a meeting of his Barisan Nasional coalition on Tuesday to try to deter any defections that could spell the end of its 50-year reign. Anwar's attempt to overturn a political order that has persisted since independence from Britain in 1957 has sharply raised Malaysia's political risks and rattled foreign investors. A ballooning fiscal deficit -- partly a result of spending measures to boost the government's popularity after a general election debacle last March -- has also hit the ringgit currency, the stock market and bond prices. Adding to the climate of uncertainty, Anwar is due in court on Wednesday to face a fresh sodomy charge that he says the government has trumped up to foil his political ambitions. The judge is expected to transfer the case to a higher court. "PSY-WAR GAME" Barisan MPs told reporters before flying off to Taiwan for an eight-day "study mission" that their trip had nothing to do with the Anwar plan. "We are going to Taiwan to study about agriculture," Bung Mokhtar Radin, an MP from the eastern state of Sabah, said at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. "There's nothing political about this trip." He and 40 other MPs left on Monday. Another eight will follow on Tuesday. Barisan has 140 MPs against 82 for the opposition. Lim Kit Siang, a veteran opposition leader, said government MPs were forced to flee Malaysia to ensure that they didn't take part in Sept. 16 "political changes". "The birds have flown," he said, adding that the MPs could be subjected to 24-hour surveillance while in Taiwan with their mobile phones confiscated. A political analyst said the Taiwan trip could provide a handy excuse for Anwar, if he failed to meet his Sept. 16 deadline. "Barisan is playing right into Anwar's psy-war game," columnist Suhaini Aznam wrote in the Star newspaper on Monday. Anwar met leaders of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat alliance on Monday to discuss the takeover plan, his aides said. Anwar was due to issue a statement afterward. Anwar, a former deputy prime minister, was sacked in 1998 during the Asian financial crisis and later jailed for six years on sodomy and corruption charges. He won a by-election last month that allowed him to re-enter parliament, putting him in position to become prime minister if the opposition alliance wins power.

Dhaka, Nov 1 (bdnews24.com)—Prime minister Sheikh Hasina sniped at the opposition saying they cared little for the poor people during a parliamentary discussion on poverty reduction strategies on Sunday. Hasina termed the absence of the main opposition BNP 'unfortunate' and said, "They don't have the urge to do something good of poor people. So they did not join. "I'd be happy if they came. They should have participated the discussion on this national issue," she added in her remarks during the general discussion on the draft second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP-2) in parliament on Sunday. Planning minister A K Khandaker tabled the draft PRSP-2 in the House on Sep 15 for the opinions of the MPs. Hasina spoke the draft for 38 minutes. Twenty-three MPs participated the four-hour discussion presided over by speaker Abdul Hamid. Deputy leader of the House Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, finance minister AMA Muhith were also present in the discussion. In the beginning of the discussion, the planning minister informed the parliament that the paper would be finalised by December this year. He also asked for specific suggestions from the MPs. "We want to develop the country through the five-year plan. We've already formulated the PRSP and it's been discussed in parliament which is a rare instance," prime minister Hasina said. She said the PRSP will be uploaded on the Internet in Bangla. She touched on measures taken in the strategy paper on development through joint partnership, steps to fight Monga, generate employment for the flood-affected people, tap water resources for environmental development, ensure food security, develop poor-friendly infrastructure and the communication system. The prime minister cited her government's steps of rationing essential commodities for the garment workers, rescheduling school and office times to reduce traffic gridlock and constructing six flyovers and elevated roads in the capital. Power outages have been reduced, but her government still takes the blame due to mismanagement of the previous regimes, she added. Regarding climate change, she said, "The developed countries are to be blamed for this, not us. I presented this before the United Nations and demanded compensation. "We've taken plans to dredge the rivers and allotted Tk 700 crore for the people who may be affected." The prime minister also said about her government's plans to set up multi-purpose cyclone centres in the coastal areas. She asked the people to be alert to ongoing conspiracies and false propaganda against the government, which, she said, can cut poverty if the people cooperate with them. "I want people's assistance. Then I'll be able to build the country as a developed nation overcoming the barriers," Hasina said Referring to the recent bomb attack on AL MP Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, she said, "Conspiracies are taking place to plunge the country into chaos by carrying out terrorist acts. "But the people have confidence in us." "I would face any circumstances while working for the people's welfare," she asserted.

Within a few years he moved from abstraction to graffiti, which fascinated de Kooning, recalled Haze, 59, who grew up in Manhattan. She told him that artists have to follow their muses in each moment. By the early 1980s, he became part of Soul Artists, an influential New York City graffiti collective, and exhibited alongside Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, both friends, at MoMA PS1. He showed at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery and later sent his graphic nonfigurative paintings around the world. Rejecting a life of total artist isolation, he formed a thriving design business with clients including the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy and LL Cool J. In recent years he has designed clothes and spaces for Nike and the Standard Hotel. And in 2013 he married actress Rosie Perez and led a highly collaborative and social life. But all that changed when he started his artist’s residency at the Elaine de Kooning house in December. “I came out here with the goal of relearning how to paint,” he said from a studio with a massive window wall looking out at the barren woods in East Hampton. Dozens of his freshly painted views of the studio — in shades of gray — contrasted with de Kooning’s old colour-saturated portrait of Haze and his sister on one wall. His own earliest abstract canvases in rich hues, painted as a child under her tutelage, stood out on another. In between was his striking new portrait of de Kooning, hair as wild as her eyes and one hand holding a cigarette. Over the course of months, with many nights of painting through dawn, “going down a rabbit hole and ending up in such a pure state,” he said, he could feel de Kooning’s spirit — she died in 1989 — guiding him to paint people, starting with himself. “But it wasn’t until now that I felt I deserved to paint Elaine,” he said. “These last few weeks alone I really turned a corner.” Many people have turned all kinds of corners in the weeks since quarantine began, facing isolation with nothing but their own inner creative resources to help shape their days. For many artists, writers and composers who have been awarded prestigious residencies to isolate themselves in remote places and sometimes in punishing climates, it is a coveted situation. But if, as Matisse put it, “creativity takes courage,” the extra isolation during a pandemic can start to wear away at even the most stoic artists. “If you’re not used to it, it can be a little crippling,” said Pat Phillips, who has a painting residency at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, for seven months in the offseason, when the summer resort town can feel like the end zone of a very cold and dark world. “There’s nothing else to do here but get together, so the enforced extra isolation right now is tough.” His long days are, at least, softened by the presence of his wife, artist Coady Brown, who is also a fellow. (They’re called “bedfellows.”) But the usual community interactions and events like readings have been cancelled. Dune walks and potluck dinners made with local clams are out for now too. “The group of residents this year was very social, but now they’re isolated,” said Richard MacMillan, the organisation’s executive director, who decided to keep things running through the quarantine months. Many residency programs have not — the Studios at MASS MoCA, the Vermont Studio Center, Ucross in Wyoming, the American Academy in Rome and Watermill Center, among others, shut down. So did Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York. Meanwhile, a handful of residency programs — Djerassi in California and Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Nebraska among them — were able to remain open into April and even beyond with new rules to keep things safe. “The last month became extremely distracting with all the news,” said Paolo Arao, a Brooklyn artist who just returned from a three-month residency at Bemis. “But Nebraska had very few COVID cases, so it felt safer than home.” The Elaine de Kooning House residency seems especially well designed for sheltering in place. It hosts just one artist — Haze the past few months with a single staff member on the other side of the building who left meals and fresh-baked cookies. “Eric often works through the night while I am up during the day,” Katherine McMahon, the director of programming, said in early April before the artist left to go home, “which is helpful in the age of self-quarantine to minimise interactions.” She would wave and chat from a safe distance when Haze, often in a daze from his painting marathons, stepped outside splattered in paint for a cigarette before going back to work. “I promised my wife I’d quit when I get home,” he said at the time. “But right now, it would be too distracting and take me out of the zone.” On an early April Wednesday, as the pandemic was raging in New York City with reports of constant sirens, an open door to de Kooning’s former studio let in the sound of birds and tree branches creaking in the wind. Haze sat on a stool in front of a self portrait he’d only recently completed of his sultry younger self, leaning against a car, cigarette in hand just like de Kooning in the portrait on the other side of him. Across his studio, his collection of Clorox wipes and surgical gloves (“I have boxes of them and plan to give them away to friends like bottles of wine,” he said) was dwarfed by tubes, buckets and cans of paint, rags, thinner and brushes of every size. “I brought enough supplies out here to paint through the apocalypse,” he said. To his left his large painting of de Kooning painting Kennedy, and his interpretation of the one she painted of him and his sister as children, created a hall of mirrors effect that spiralled back decades, bringing the past into the present. Nearby, a portrait of his grandfather as an immigrant boy was in progress. His time alone in residence, he said, inspired him to remember him vividly as he did all kinds of people from the past. “Elaine has been a spiritual guiding force in these months and I’ve really fallen in love with her since I started coming out here,” he said. “Even my wife knows it.” He said he was planning to return to Perez the following day. But a week later he was still painting through the apocalypse. “As Elaine used to say,” he noted, “obsession is part of the process.” c.2020 The New York Times Company

Now, between the omicron spike and NBC’s decision not to televise the Golden Globes on Sunday because of the ethical issues surrounding the group that hands out the awards, Hollywood’s traditionally frenetic — and hype-filled — first week of the calendar year has been reduced to a whisper. The AFI Awards were postponed. The Critics’ Choice Awards — scheduled to be televised Sunday night in hopes of filling the void left by the Globes’ absence — were pushed back. The Palm Springs Film Festival, an annual stop along the awards campaign trail, was cancelled. And most of those star-driven award favorites bombed at the box office. The Academy Awards remain scheduled for March 27, with nominations Feb 8, but there has been no indication what the event will be like. (The organisation already postponed its annual Governors Awards, which for the past 11 years have bestowed honourary Oscars during a nontelevised ceremony.) Will there be a host? How about a crowd? Perhaps most important, will anyone watch? The Academy hired a producer of the film “Girls Trip” in October to oversee the show but has been mum on any additional details and declined to comment for this article. Suddenly, 2022 is looking eerily similar to 2021. Hollywood is again largely losing its annual season of superficial self-congratulation, but it is also seeing the movie business’s best form of advertisement undercut in a year when films desperately need it. And that could have far-reaching effects on the types of movies that get made. “For the box office — when there was a fully functioning box office — those award shows were everything,” said Nancy Utley, a former co-chair of Fox Searchlight who helped turn smaller prestige films like “12 Years a Slave” and “The Shape of Water” into best-picture Oscar winners during her 21-year tenure. “The recognition there became the reason to go see a smaller movie. How do you do that in the current climate? It’s hard.” Many prestige films are released each year with the expectation that most of their box office receipts will be earned in the crucial weeks between the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards. The diminishing of the Globes — which collapsed after revelations involving possible financial impropriety, questionable journalistic ethics and a significant lack of diversity in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which administers the awards — had already hobbled that equation. If the Hollywood hype machine loses its awards season engine, it could prove devastating to the already injured box office. The huge audience shift fueled by streaming may be here to stay, with only blockbuster spectacles like “Spider-Man: No Way Home” drawing theatergoers in significant numbers. “The movie business is this gigantic rock, and we’re close to seeing that rock crumble,” said Stephen Galloway, dean of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts and a former executive editor of The Hollywood Reporter. “People have gotten out of the habit of seeing movies on a big screen. Award season is the best single tub-thumping phenomenon for anything in the world. How many years can you go without that?” The Academy Awards were created in 1929 to promote Hollywood’s achievements to the outside world. At its pinnacle, the telecast drew 55 million viewers. That number has been dropping for years, and last year it hit an all-time low — 10.4 million viewers for a show without a host, no musical numbers and a little-seen best picture winner in “Nomadland.” (The film, which was released simultaneously in theaters and on Hulu, grossed just $3.7 million.) Hollywood was planning to answer with an all-out blitz over the past year, even before the awards season. It deployed its biggest stars and most famous directors to remind consumers that despite myriad streaming options, theatergoing held an important place in the broader culture. It hasn’t worked. The public, in large part, remains reluctant to return to theaters with any regularity. “No Time to Die,” Daniel Craig’s final turn as James Bond, was delayed for over a year because of the pandemic, and when it was finally released, it made only $160.7 million in the United States and Canada. That was $40 million less than the 2015 Bond film, “Spectre,” and $144 million below 2012’s “Skyfall,” the highest-grossing film in the franchise. Well-reviewed, auteur-driven films that traditionally have a large presence on the awards circuit, like “Last Night in Soho” ($10.1 million), “Nightmare Alley” ($8 million) and “Belfast” ($6.9 million), barely made a ripple at the box office. And even though Spielberg’s adaptation of “West Side Story” has a 93 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it has earned only $30 million at the domestic box office. (The original grossed $44 million back in 1961, the equivalent of $409 million in today.) According to a recent study, 49 percent of pre-pandemic moviegoers are no longer buying tickets. Eight percent say they will never return. Those numbers are a death knell for the midbudget movies that rely on positive word-of-mouth and well-publicized accolades to get patrons into seats. Some believe the middle part of the movie business — the beleaguered category of films that cost $20 million to $60 million (like “Licorice Pizza” and “Nightmare Alley”) and aren’t based on a comic book or other well-known intellectual property — may be changed forever. If viewing habits have been permanently altered, and award nominations and wins no longer prove to be a significant draw, those films will find it much more difficult to break even. If audiences are willing to go to the movies only to see the latest “Spider-Man” film, it becomes hard to convince them that they also need to see a movie like “Belfast,” Kenneth Branagh’s black-and-white meditation on his childhood, in a crowded theater rather than in their living rooms. “All of this doesn’t just affect individual films and filmmakers’ careers,” Galloway said. “Its effect is not even just on a business. It affects an entire art form. And art is fragile.” Of the other likely best-picture contenders given a significant theatrical release, only “Dune,” a sci-fi spectacle based on a known property, crossed the $100 million mark at the box office. “King Richard” earned $14.7 million, and “Licorice Pizza” grossed $7 million. “The number of non-genre adult dramas that have cracked $50M is ZERO,” film journalist and historian Mark Harris wrote on Twitter on Thursday. “The world of 2019, in which ‘1917’ made $160M, ‘Ford v. Ferrari’ made $120M, and ‘Parasite’ made $52M, is gone.” Still, studios are adjusting. MGM is slowing down its theatrical rollout of “Licorice Pizza” after watching other prestige pictures stumble when they entered more than 1,000 theaters. It is also pushing its release in Britain of “Cyrano,” starring Peter Dinklage, to February to follow the US release with the hope that older female moviegoers will return to the cinema by then. Sony Pictures Classics is redeploying the playbook it used in 2021: more virtual screenings and virtual Q&As to entice academy voters while also shifting distribution to the home faster. Its documentary “Julia,” about Julia Child, hit premium video-on-demand over the holidays. Many studios got out in front of the latest pandemic wave with flashy premieres and holiday parties in early December that required proof of vaccination and on-site testing. But so far in January, many of the usual awards campaigning events like screenings and cocktail parties are being canceled or moved to the virtual world. “For your consideration” billboards are still a familiar sight around Los Angeles, but in-person meet-and-greets are largely on hold. Netflix, which only releases films theatrically on a limited basis and doesn’t report box office results, is likely to have a huge presence on the award circuit this year with films like “Tick, Tick ... Boom,” “The Power of the Dog” and “The Lost Daughter” vying for prizes. Like most other studios, it, too, has moved all in-person events for the month of January to virtual. “Last year was a tough adaptation, and it’s turning out that this year is also going to be about adapting to what’s going on in the moment,” Michael Barker, a co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, said in a telephone interview last week. He spoke while walking the frigid streets of Manhattan instead of basking in the sunshine of Palm Springs, California, where he was supposed to be honoring Penélope Cruz, his leading lady in Oscar contender “Parallel Mothers.” “You just compensate by doing what you can,” he said, “and once this passes, then you have to look at what the new world order will be.” © 2022 The New York Times Company

“Great historical progress always happens after major disasters,” Xi said during a recent visit to Xi’an Jiaotong University. “Our nation was steeled and grew up through hardship and suffering.” Xi, shaped by his years of adversity as a young man, has seized on the pandemic as an opportunity in disguise — a chance to redeem the party after early mistakes let infections slip out of control, and to rally national pride in the face of international ire over those mistakes. And the state propaganda machine is aggressively backing him up, touting his leadership in fighting the pandemic. Now, Xi needs to turn his exhortations of resolute unity into action — a theme likely to underpin the National People’s Congress, the annual legislative meeting that opens on Friday after a monthslong delay. He is pushing to restore the prepandemic agenda, including his signature pledge to eradicate extreme poverty by this year, while cautioning against complacency that could let a second wave of infections spread. He must do all this while the country faces a diplomatic and economic climate as daunting as any since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. “If you position yourself as a great helmsman uniquely capable of leading your country, that has a lot of domestic political risk if you fail to handle the job appropriately,” said Carl Minzner, a professor of Chinese law and politics at Fordham University. “That’s a risk for Xi going forward.” Xi has cast himself as the indispensable leader, at the ramparts to defend China against intractable threats. The shift has provoked the party cadre — and by all appearances much of the public — to coalesce around his leadership, whatever misgivings they may have about the bungling of the outbreak. “If we had frozen time at Feb 1, this would be very bad for the Chinese leadership,” said Jude Blanchette, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank based in Washington, DC Xi made his first public appearance in the crisis only two days after ordering Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the coronavirus outbreak began, to be locked down in late January. He presided over an unusual televised session of the country’s top political body, the Politburo Standing Committee. By then, thousands of people had been infected and scores had died. According to a lengthy account of the emergency that appeared in People’s Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, he somberly told the committee that he had difficulty sleeping the night before — the eve of the Lunar New Year holiday. Xi also seemed to shrink, temporarily, from his usual monopoly on centre stage. He put the country’s No. 2 leader, Premier Li Keqiang, in charge of the government’s emergency response, possibly to position himself to deflect blame if the crisis worsened. As China got the outbreak under control, the party’s propaganda pivoted again toward Xi, pushing the premier into the background. Li will deliver the keynote report to the National People’s Congress on Friday, but it will be Xi who dominates the acclamatory media coverage, likely dispensing advice to provincial leaders and delegates, and repeating policy priorities. There are few signs that Xi has been chastened by the failures in the beginning of the country’s fight against the disease — nor by the international criticism. “All along, we have acted with openness, transparency and responsibility,” he told the World Health Assembly on Monday. Xi, though, has warned that China faces an increasingly uncertain world. He has often leavened his promises of a bright future with warnings against a possible economic meltdown, foreign crisis or political decay. Last month, he sounded unusually ominous. “Confronted with a grim and complicated international epidemic and global economic developments, we must keep in mind how things could bottom out,” he told a Politburo Standing Committee. “Be mentally and practically prepared to deal with long-lasting changes in external conditions.” Perhaps the greatest challenge involves the economy, which contracted for the first time since China began its remarkable transformation more than four decades ago. The rising prosperity of millions of Chinese has been a pillar of the Communist Party’s legitimacy ever since. In recent weeks during visits to three provinces, Xi has sought to return the focus to the policy agenda that predated the coronavirus. He went to coastal Zhejiang and two inland provinces, Shanxi and Shaanxi. Wearing his trademark dark blue windbreaker and, when indoors, a mask, Xi has visited factories, ports, government offices and scenic spots trying to return to life while enforcing new safeguards against infection. In poorer inland villages, he has lingered over crops of wood ear fungus and chrysanthemum — the kinds of commercial farming crucial to his anti-poverty drive. “Your wood ear fungus here is famous,” he told a clapping crowd of villagers in Shaanxi, Chinese television news showed. “This is your way out of poverty and into prosperity.” But even the Communist Party’s polished propaganda stagecraft showing China overcoming the epidemic can reveal how life remains far from normal. Footage of his visit to Xi’an Jiaotong University indicated that the crowd of cheering students and professors waiting for Xi was arranged while the university remained largely closed. “School hasn’t restarted yet, but here you all are,” Xi deadpanned, drawing scattered laughter from the crowd. c.2020 The New York Times Company

WASHINGTON, Thu Mar 12,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The United States sought on Wednesday to play down a confrontation between Chinese and US naval vessels as the two sides held high-level talks on reviving growth and reining in North Korea's nuclear program. Tensions between the two countries rose over a weekend incident in the South China Sea in which five Chinese ships jostled with a US Navy survey vessel off China's southern Hainan island, site of a major submarine base and other naval installations. The United States has said its ship, the Impeccable, was in international waters. Beijing, however, has said the US ship was in the wrong and Chinese navy officers have argued that it had violated their country's sovereignty. There are no signs, however, that the disagreement will derail broader political and economic negotiations as the two countries seek to grapple with the global financial crisis, security challenges like North Korea and climate change. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she raised the issue with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who was to see US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner later in the day and, in a rare gesture, to meet President Barack Obama on Thursday. "We both agreed that we should work to ensure that such incidents do not happen again in the future," Clinton told reporters after a meeting Yang. They also discussed human rights, North Korea, Iran and the ailing world economy. CLINTON PRAISES CHINESE STIMULUS Obama is scheduled to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao next month on the sidelines of a meeting of the group of 20 rich and developing countries that hope to agree on coordinated steps to spark growth, quell the banking crisis and improve regulation. Clinton described the moves that China has already taken to stimulate its economy as "significant" and praised them as a "very positive step." She said it was important that the G20 meeting yield collective action to spark global recover. On North Korea, Clinton said there was "a range of options," including UN Security Council action, that could be pursued against Pyongyang if it tested a long-range ballistic missile, which she said would be a "provocative" act. North Korea last month said it was preparing to launch a satellite on one of its rockets, which analysts believe could be a test of its longest-range missile, the Taepodong-2. The missile is designed to hit Alaska but it managed just a few seconds of controlled flight and broke apart in less than a minute the only time it has been tested, in 2006. North Korea has been hit with U.N. sanctions for previous ballistic missile tests and is banned from conducting further tests. It argues that the missiles are part of its peaceful space program and it has the right to put satellites in orbit. She also urged North Korea to return to the negotiating table to discuss a multilateral aid-for-disarmament deal in which Pyongyang agreed to abandon its nuclear programs and said she regretted that Pyongyang had not allowed her new envoy, Stephen Bosworth, to visit when he was in Asia recently. HUMAN RIGHTS CRITICISM The U.S. Secretary of State also took pains to try to rebut criticism from rights groups upset by her remark last month that concerns about China's human rights record "can't interfere with" joint work on the economy and other issues. Clinton said that she and Yang spoke about human rights and about Tibet, which this week marks the 50th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule. "Human rights is part of our comprehensive dialogue. It doesn't take a front or a back seat or a middle seat," she told reporters. "It is part of the broad range of issues that we are discussing, but it is important to try to create a platform for actually seeing results from our human rights engagement." The US House of Representatives passed a resolution 422-1 recognizing the 50th anniversary and calling on Beijing to find a lasting solution. "If freedom loving people around the world do not speak out for human rights in China and Tibet, then we lose the moral authority to talk about it any other place in the world," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on the House floor before the vote.

Not only must Changla Mro and other women of the Mro ethnic group trek for hours along steep paths slicing through trees and bamboo, they must also brave snakes, wild pigs and fishing cats that lurk in the thick undergrowth. But since a water collection and treatment system was installed a year ago, serving about 21 families living in Bandarban district, such dangers have faded into memory. "Two women were victims of snake bites last time they went to collect water at night time," Changla Mro told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Now we have no fear of snake bites or wild animals attacking since we collect our drinking and household water from the water plant." Around the world, deforestation, greater weather extremes linked to climate change and population growth are putting ever larger demands on the world's limited supply of fresh water. Finding innovative ways to capture and conserve it, to keep supplies steady throughout the year, is a growing priority.  Women gather water at the community water treatment plant in Bandarban. Thomson Reuters Foundation Fewer trees, less water Water is a particularly precious commodity in the 5,500 sq mile (14,200 sq km) Hill Tract area of Bangladesh, home to roughly equal numbers of Bengali-speaking settlers and tribal people from 13 ethnic groups. Years of deforestation have stripped away the soil's ability to conserve water, leading to shortages in the dry season when most of the surface water evaporates. This is acutely felt in the districts of Bandarban, Rangamati and Khagrhachharhi where the Mro community live. Kangchag Mro, 50, said she used to spend hours in search of water in springs and streams, and was afraid of catching waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera. But now clean drinking water gushes from taps at the community's water treatment plant, a small, concrete building topped with a sheet of corrugated iron. "Collecting water in this hilly area is a really hard task. But the water plant makes our job easy," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation with a smile. A hillside reservoir 500 metres away supplies the water plant, which was built with funding from the Arannayk Foundation, a joint forest conservation initiative of the Bangladesh and US governments. The man-made reservoir collects water that flows down from the hills. The water then goes through a pipeline to the treatment facility below where it is purified for household use. The success of the gravity flow water system, which does not require expensive pumps, has prompted plans for a wider rollout. Chief engineer of the Department of Public Health Engineering, Md Wali Ullah, said the government was considering plans to supply water to more indigenous communities in the Hill Tract area. Ullah said his department had already sent a proposal to other related government ministries.  A stream runs in Bandarban. Thomson Reuters Foundation Stepping up forest protection Mro leader Khamchang Mro said his community now realised the importance of forests, which act as a sponge to collect rainfall during the monsoon season and release it slowly into streams and rivers. Community members now have been trying to conserve forested areas to ensure a consistent flow of water to springs and canals all year round. "We reforested the degraded area of our village forests," Khamchang Mro said. "As a result, our village forest has now gained a healthy condition." Farid Ahmed Khan, the executive director of Arannayk Foundation, said local communities had no alternative but to protect their forests. "If forests are degraded, there will be a severe water crisis," Khan warned. Women gather water at the community water treatment plant in Bandarban. Thomson Reuters Foundation A stream runs in Bandarban. Thomson Reuters Foundation

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.

Rob Taylor Canberra, Oct 28 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - A YouTube clip of Australia's Prime Ministerial hopeful Kevin Rudd as a Chairman Mao-figure in a spoof Chinese propaganda film is spearheading a guerrilla video campaign undermining the major parties' election advertising. "Topmost politician Rudd seeks votes from eager and impressionable voteholders," the clip proclaims, as a beaming Rudd in a Mao suit smiles down on cheering supporters and Labour lawmakers holding aloft red books and flags. "Rudd impress and frighten Australian persons with his earnestness offensive. Space travels bless Rudd with control of movements of planets and rising of sun," the clip, subtitled and set to heroic Chinese music and commentary, reads. Rudd, 50, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat, is trouncing veteran conservative Prime Minister John Howard in polls ahead of a November 24 parliamentary election, promising generational change and education, health and labour law reform. To attract crucial youth votes, both major parties have embraced the Internet with a slew of online campaign announcements, while voters nationally are bombarded with millions of dollars a day worth of election advertising. But the two-minute Rudd-as-Mao clip, put together by Sydney law student Hugh Atkin and billed as a rejected Labour advertising angle, has been viewed thousands of times since its posting this week, outrating official party material. Other videos show footage of Rudd in parliament, allegedly picking ear wax from his ear and eating it, or re-running a comedy cover of a Led Zeppelin's classic "Stairway to Heaven", re-titled as "Stairway to Kevin". "SCARE TACTICS" Howard, 68, has not escaped YouTube pillory either as he seeks re-election a fifth time in the face of what election pundits believe is near-certain conservative defeat. A bobbing Howard puppet recalls, in a video titled "Search for a scapegoat", how he mounted fear campaigns against refugees and Islamic extremists to secure past victories in 2001 and 2004. "Now it's 2007 and that time again. I need to find something special to scare the people into voting for me. I need to pull that rabbit out of a hat, I need to find the perfect scapegoat," the clip by "Killerspudly" confides to almost 50,000 viewers. The official party Internet fare is far more bland, taking the form of traditional TV advertising without the added cost. The conservatives are targeting Labour and Rudd's union ties and tax policies, while Labour has attacked Howard's refusal to sign the Kyoto climate pact, which surveys show is a major issue, particularly with young voters Smaller parties are also getting in on the act. The Australian Greens have turned to YouTube with a video of Howard in bed and sleeping amid climate change. Howard is joined by Rudd and both are said to be in bed with Australia's world leading coal industry, which is helping fuel China's boom. Atkin, 23, who put together Rudd's Mao clip, said he would actually be voting Labour, despite poking fun at its youthful leader's carefully-guarded and presidential image. "I'd like to see Labour win the election, but I'd like to make fun of them in the process," he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

But the riots that raged through the district last month appear to have cleaved lasting divisions in the community, reflecting a nationwide trend as tensions over the Hindu nationalist agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi boil over. Many Hindus in Yamuna Vihar, a sprawl of residential blocks and shops dotted with mosques and Hindu temples, and in other riot-hit districts of northeast Delhi, say they are boycotting merchants and refusing to hire workers from the Muslim community. Muslims say they are scrambling to find jobs at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has heightened pressure on India's economy. "I have decided to never work with Muslims," said Yash Dhingra, who has a shop selling paint and bathroom fittings in Yamuna Vihar. "I have identified new workers, they are Hindus," he said, standing in a narrow lane that was the scene of violent clashes in the riots that erupted on Feb 23. The trigger for the riots, the worst sectarian violence in the Indian capital in decades, was a citizenship law introduced last year that critics say marginalises India's Muslim minority. Police records show at least 53 people, mostly Muslims, were killed and more than 200 were injured. Dhingra said the unrest had forever changed Yamuna Vihar. Gutted homes with broken doors can be seen across the neighbourhood; electricity cables melted in the fires dangle dangerously above alleys strewn with stones and bricks used as makeshift weapons in the riots. Most Hindu residents in the district are now boycotting Muslim workers, affecting everyone from cooks and cleaners to mechanics and fruit sellers, he said. "We have proof to show that Muslims started the violence, and now they are blaming it on us," Dhingra said. "This is their pattern as they are criminal-minded people." Those views were widely echoed in interviews with 25 Hindus in eight localities in northeast Delhi, many of whom suffered large-scale financial damages or were injured in the riots. Reuters also spoke with about 30 Muslims, most of whom said that Hindus had decided to stop working with them. Suman Goel, a 45-year-old housewife who has lived among Muslim neighbours for 23 years, said the violence had left her in a state of shock. "It's strange to lose a sense of belonging, to step out of your home and avoid smiling at Muslim women," she said. "They must be feeling the same too but it's best to maintain a distance." Mohammed Taslim, a Muslim who operated a business selling shoes from a shop owned by a Hindu in Bhajanpura, one of the neighbourhoods affected by the riots, said his inventory was destroyed by a Hindu mob. He was then evicted and his space was leased out to a Hindu businessman, he said. "This is being done just because I am a Muslim," said Taslim. Many Muslims said the attack had been instigated by hardline Hindus to counter protests involving tens of thousands of people across India against the new citizenship law. "This is the new normal for us," said Adil, a Muslim research assistant with an economic think tank in central Delhi. "Careers, jobs and business are no more a priority for us. Our priority now is to be safe and to protect our lives." He declined to disclose his full name for fear of reprisals. Emboldened by Modi's landslide electoral victory in 2014, hardline groups began pursuing a Hindu-first agenda that has come at the expense of the country's Muslim minority. Vigilantes have attacked and killed a number of Muslims involved in transporting cows, which are seen as holy animals by Hindus, to slaughterhouses in recent years. The government has also adopted a tough stance with regard to Pakistan, and in August withdrew semi-autonomous privileges for Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state. In November, the Supreme Court ruled that a Hindu temple could be built at Ayodhya, where a right-wing mob tore down a 16th-century mosque in 1992, a decision that was welcomed by the Modi government. The citizenship law, which eases the path for non-Muslims from neighbouring Muslim-majority nations to gain citizenship in India, was the final straw for many Muslims, as well as secular Indians, sparking nationwide protests. Modi's office did not respond to questions from Reuters about the latest violence. NIGHT VIGILANTES During the day, Hindus and Muslims shun each other in the alleys of the Delhi districts that were hardest hit by the unrest in February. At night, when the threat of violence is greater, they are physically divided by barricades that are removed in the morning. And in some areas, permanent barriers are being erected. On a recent evening, Tarannum Sheikh, a schoolteacher, sat watching two welders install a high gate at the entrance of a narrow lane to the Muslim enclave of Khajuri Khas, where she lives. The aim was to keep Hindus out, she said. "We keep wooden batons with us to protect the entrance as at any time, someone can enter this alley to create trouble," she said. "We do not trust the police anymore." In the adjacent Hindu neighbourhood of Bhajanpura, residents expressed a similar mistrust and sense of insecurity. "In a way these riots were needed to unite Hindus, we did not realise that we were surrounded by such evil minds for decades," said Santosh Rani, a 52-year-old grandmother. She said she had been forced to lower her two grandchildren from the first floor of her house to the street below after the building was torched in the violence, allegedly by a Muslim. "This time the Muslims have tested our patience and now we will never give them jobs," said Rani who owns several factories and retail shops. "I will never forgive them." Hasan Sheikh, a tailor who has stitched clothing for Hindu and Muslim women for over 40 years, said Hindu customers came to collect their unstitched clothes after the riots. "It was strange to see how our relationship ended," said Sheikh, who is Muslim. "I was not at fault, nor were my women clients, but the social climate of this area is very tense. Hatred on both sides is justified."

Political differences loomed over a summit of European and Latin American leaders in Peru on Friday, threatening to undermine their efforts to fight poverty and global warming. Leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales differed with his regional counterparts over free trade in the run-up to the meeting, while Venezuela's Hugo Chavez ratcheted up tensions in a conflict with neighboring Colombia. Free trade proponents like Peru are losing patience with skeptics like Bolivia's Morales, who accused Peru and Colombia this week of trying to exclude his nation from talks between the European Union and Andean countries. "We can advance at different speeds, but let's advance," Peruvian President Alan Garcia said on Thursday, saying his country should be allowed to move faster with the EU. Morales, a former coca grower, fears free trade deals could hurt peasant farmers in his impoverished country. "We want trade, but fair trade," he told reporters in Lima. The EU is also holding negotiations with Mercosur, led by Brazil and Argentina, and Central American countries. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the first leaders to arrive for the summit, said after meeting Garcia that the EU was "open, and willing to make the path easier" on trade. Merkel made no mention of a spat with Chavez, who this week called her a political descendant of Adolf Hitler for implying he had damaged relations between Europe and Latin America. Chavez frequently insults conservative leaders, especially U.S. President George W. Bush. At a summit in Chile last year, Spain's king told him to "shut up." Chavez is also embroiled in a dispute with Colombia that raised the specter of war in the Andean region in March. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe accuses him of supporting the leftist FARC guerrillas, and soon before leaving for Lima, Chavez said he was reviewing diplomatic ties with Bogota. Such feuds could dominate the fifth such gathering of leaders from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. They may also struggle to find common ground on how to fight cocaine trafficking, as well as the use of food crops to make renewable biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels. Brazil is an advocate of the so-called greener fuels, but many poor countries blame them for pushing up food price. However, the poor nations are increasingly worried about climate change and say rich states must cut carbon emissions. Peru created an environment ministry this week to help it cope with the impact of rising global temperatures, which are melting its Andean glaciers. Peruvian delegates to the summit will push for more concrete measures to combat climate change. "Lots of governments have paid lip service to addressing the threat climate changes poses. We want to urge those governments to take real action," British junior Foreign Office minister Kim Howells told Reuters.

In a letter to the International Monetary Fund Executive Board released on Thursday, Covington & Burling attorney Lanny Breuer asked directors to consider "fundamental procedural and substantive errors" with the investigation report by WilmerHale, a law firm hired by the World Bank's board to investigate data irregularities in the lender's flagship "Doing Business" rankings of country business climates. The WilmerHale report alleged that while Georgieva was World Bank CEO in 2017, she applied "undue pressure" on World Bank staff to make data changes that boosted China's ranking at a time when the bank was seeking Beijing's support for a major capital increase. Georgieva has denied the allegations. The new claims from Breuer, a former US Justice Department official and special counsel to former President Bill Clinton during his 1999 impeachment trial, come as Georgieva tries to persuade the IMF board to support her. The board interviewed both Georgieva and WilmerHale this week and will deliberate again on the matter on Friday. For its part, France plans to give its support to Georgieva at the board meeting, a French Finance Ministry source told Reuters on Friday. Georgieva on Wednesday called the accusations that she pressured staff to make inappropriate data changes "outrageous and untrue" and said some of her statements were taken out of context by WilmerHale. She publicly released her lengthy statement to the board on Thursday. "Ms Georgieva has never been notified that she is a subject of the investigation, or been given an opportunity, as guaranteed by Staff Rule 3.00 to review and respond to the report's findings," wrote Breuer, her attorney. The rule covers the World Bank Office of Ethics and Business Conduct procedures. The WilmerHale report said the initial part of its investigation focused on board officials pursuant to the Code of Conduct for Board Officials, a different set of rules than the staff rule referenced by Breuer. "We conducted our investigation following all applicable World Bank rules," the WilmerHale firm said in an emailed statement. "Dr Georgieva was notified that our report would be presented to the World Bank Board, and that the World Bank could disclose any information she provided." According to a July email from WilmerHale to Georgieva reviewed by Reuters, a WilmerHale partner said the firm was conducting its review into Doing Business data irregularities and staff misconduct authorized by and pursuant to World Bank Staff Rule 3.00. As World Bank CEO in 2017, Georgieva would have been considered a member of staff, not a board official. "You are not a subject of our review," the email to Georgieva asking her to speak with investigators read. "Instead, we are reaching out to you because we believe you may have information that could be helpful to our review." The World Bank's General Counsel's office said that the investigation into the Doing Business 2018 and 2020 reports "was conducted in full compliance with World Bank rules."

Some 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds and 51 million frogs were impacted by the country's worst bushfires in decades, the WWF said. When the fires were still blazing, the WWF estimated the number of affected animals at 1.25 billion. The fires destroyed more than 11 million hectares (37 million acres) across the Australian southeast, equal to about half the area of the United Kingdom. "This ranks as one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history," said WWF-Australia Chief Executive Officer Dermot O'Gorman in a statement. The project leader Lily Van Eeden, from the University of Sydney, said the research was the first continent-wide analysis of animals impacted by the bushfires, and "other nations can build upon this research to improve understanding of bushfire impacts everywhere". The total number included animals which were displaced because of destroyed habitats and now faced lack of food and shelter or the prospect of moving to habitat that was already occupied. The main reason for raising the number of animal casualties was that researchers had now assessed the total affected area, rather than focusing on the most affected states, they said. After years of drought made the Australian bush unusually dry, the country battled one of its worst bushfire seasons ever from September 2019 to March 2020, resulting in 34 human deaths and nearly 3,000 homes lost.

Across the globe, chickens and pigs are doing their bit to curb global warming. But cows and sheep still have some catching up to do. The farm animals produce lots of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that gets far less public attention than carbon dioxide yet is at the heart of efforts to fight climate change. Government policies and a UN-backed system of emission credits is proving a money-spinner for investors, farmers and big polluters such as power stations wanting to offset their own emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2). The reason is simple: methane is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere and it is relatively simple to capture the gas from animal waste, landfills, coal mines or leaky natural gas pipes. "A fifth of all greenhouse gas-induced global warming has been due to methane since pre-industrial times," said climate scientist Paul Fraser of Australia, where ruminant farm animals belch out vast amounts of the gas. Methane concentrations have increased about 150 percent in the air since 1750 and now far exceed the natural range of the past 650,000 years, the UN's climate panel says. And human activities are largely to blame. The panel will be focusing on ways to curb methane and other greenhouse gas emissions when it releases a major report on mitigating the effects of climate change in Bangkok in early May. "It's been argued that the reductions from methane are potentially cheaper than from carbon dioxide," said Bill Hare, climate policy director for Greenpeace and a lead author of the mitigation report. "A lot of policy discussion in the United States has focused on methane rather than more difficult problems such as CO2 from coal," he added. This is because capturing methane from landfills, mines, or from fossil fuel production or natural gas lines is pretty straight forward and makes economic sense. Methane is a major component of natural gas and can be burned to generate power. Agriculture was a greater challenge, Hare said. A MATTER OF BALANCE "There are more difficult areas for methane from livestock and from rice agriculture where, at best, longer time scales are required to change practices in agriculture than you might need in industrial areas," Hare said. Rice paddies and other irrigated crops produce large amounts of methane, as do natural wetlands. Vast amounts of methane are also locked up in deposits under the ice in sub-polar regions, in permafrost or under the sea. Hare said there are lots of options being looked at, such as additives for cattle and sheep to cut the amount of methane in their burps and moving away from intensive livestock feed lots to range-fed animals. "And for example in rice, just changing the timing and when and how you flood rice paddies has great potential to reduce methane emissions." For the moment, the amount of methane in the atmosphere is steady after levelling off around 1999, said Fraser, leader of the Changing Atmosphere Research Group at Australia's government-funded Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. This is thought to be because the drying out of tropical wetlands seems to cancelling out a rise in emissions from the oil and gas industry. But how long this lasts is anyone's guess. "Most people would agree that some time in the future methane is going to start growing again, just because of the world demand for natural gas, rice and cattle," Fraser said. POO POWER All the more reason why chicken manure and pig waste are hot commodities. Under the UN's Kyoto Protocol, a system called the Clean Development Mechanism allows rich countries to keep within their emissions limits by funding projects that soak up greenhouse gases in poor countries, getting carbon credits in return. This has made huge pig farms in South America and poultry farms in India attractive investments. The waste is put into digesters and the methane extracted and burned to generate electricity or simply flared to create CO2 -- not perfect, but a lesser greenhouse gas evil. And interest is growing in these kinds of projects, said N Yuvaraj Dinesh Babu of the Singapore-based Carbon Exchange, which trades Kyoto carbon credits and helps broker emissions off-setting deals. The Kyoto system of emissions credits has proved popular and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which administers it, says dozens of methane-abatement projects have been approved in recent years with more being considered. But Stephan Singer of conservation group WWF thinks this is not the complete solution. He believes more attention should be paid to controlling carbon dioxide emissions and the sources of methane not so easily controlled. Only about 50 percent of all methane emissions are being controlled, namely from landfills, coal mines and the oil and gas industry, said Singer, head of WWF's European Energy and Climate Policy Unit. "What worries me is the increased methane coming out of the stomachs of ruminants, mainly for increased beef consumption within an increasingly wealthy world. The diet of the West has a big impact on the atmosphere." In the United States, cattle emit about 5.5 million tonnes of methane per year into the atmosphere, accounting for 20 percent of US methane emissions, the Environmental Protection Agency says. In New Zealand, emissions from agriculture comprise about half of all greenhouse gas emissions. But what worries Singer most is a rapid release of methane stored in sub-polar permafrost or in huge methane hydrate deposits under the sea. While this has not happened, some scientists suggest it might occur in a warmer world. "If methane hydrates leak, then we're gone, then it's over."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy meets unions on Wednesday to try to hammer out an agreement on economic stimulus plans and avert fresh protests in the face of rising unemployment and tumbling growth. More than a million people took to the streets across France two weeks ago in protest at Sarkozy's policies, demanding pay rises and protection for jobs in the face of the downturn, and trade unions have penciled in another protest next month. Sarkozy's 26 billion euro (23.4 billion pound) stimulus plan has focused on public spending projects rather than helping consumers and workers directly. Unions and the political left have called on him to change tack. A television appearance after last month's protests, intended to allay public fears, only weakened Sarkozy's support further. "The outcome of my five-year term is at stake," Saturday's edition of Le Figaro newspaper, which is close to Sarkozy, quoted him as telling advisers. French gross domestic product fell 1.2 percent in the last three months of 2008, its biggest drop in 34 years, as exports fell and retailers reduced their stock, and unemployment in December was 11 percent higher than a year earlier. Strikers have crippled the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique and, to a more limited extent, the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, demanding an increase in the minimum wage and lower food and fuel prices. There are fears that in the current tense climate, such protests will spread. An IFOP poll for regional newspaper Sud-Ouest published on Saturday found 63 percent of respondents thought they could soon take place on the mainland. Increasing the pressure on Sarkozy before Wednesday's "social summit," the opposition Socialists have called for a 1 percentage point cut in value-added tax and a 3 percent rise in the minimum wage to give a boost to consumer spending. With Sarkozy so far unwilling to meet national unions' demands on boosting consumer spending, there is little room for a breakthrough to avert further protests. "France is the only country not to act massively and immediately in the direction of purchasing power, while a consensus has been established by economists on the need for such measures alongside those in favor of investment," prominent Socialist Dider Migaud said last week. Sarkozy has said it is only worth increasing France's public debt for stimulus measures that amount to investments for the future rather than funding consumer spending, even though that is traditionally the main driver of French growth. He is likely to cite one of the few bright spots in last week's GDP figures in his defense -- household consumption rose 0.5 percent in the last three months of 2008, suggesting that consumers did not need further encouragement to keep spending. Britain has cut its value-added tax by 2 percentage points but Sarkozy lambasted the move in his television address, saying it "brought absolutely no progress," angering Downing Street. Sarkozy has said he is ready to consider measures such as cutting low-level income tax and boosting unemployment benefits, but his employment minister and his social affairs adviser repeated on Sunday their opposition to a minimum wage increase. "That is an old utopia that will not work," Employment Minister Laurent Wauquiez told France 5 television, adding that such a move could force companies in difficulty out of business.

Bali climate talks could collapse "like a house of cards" unless 190 nations quickly settle rows blocking a launch of negotiations on a new global warming pact, the U.N.'s top climate official said on Thursday. "I'm very concerned about the pace of things," Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said on the penultimate day of the December 3-14 meeting of more than 10,000 delegates on the Indonesian island. The Bali talks are deadlocked over the exact terms for launching two years of negotiations on a global climate deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, a pact that binds most industrial nations to cut emissions of greenhouse gases until 2012. "We are in an all-or-nothing situation in that if we don't manage to get the work done on the future (terms for negotiations) then the whole house of cards basically falls to pieces," de Boer told a news conference. Among disputes, the United States, Japan, Canada and Australia are resisting efforts to include a guideline for rich nations to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 as a pointer for future negotiations. The European Union, which favors the range to show that the rich countries will lead the way, accused Washington of being the main obstacle in Bali. The range was in a latest draft on Thursday, outlining terms for talks meant to help avert famines, droughts, rising seas and a melt of Himalayan glaciers. BLOCKING "We are a bit disappointed that all the world is still waiting for the United States," said Humberto Rosa, Portugal's Secretary of State for Environment. Portugal holds the rotating EU presidency and Rosa is the EU's chief negotiator at the Bali talks. "The U.S. has been using new words on this -- engagement, leadership -- but words are not enough. We need action. (That's the) one main blocking issue," he told Reuters. Washington, which is outside the Kyoto Protocol, says guidelines would prejudge the outcome of the talks. And it says 25-40 percent range is based on relatively little scientific study. De Boer said the talks had to settle all outstanding disputes by midday (0400 GMT) on Friday to give time for documents to be translated into the six official U.N. languages. U.N. climate talks often stretch long into the night on the last day. Kyoto binds 37 industrialized nations to curb their emissions between 2008 and 2012. Poor nations, led by China and India, are exempt from curbs and President George W. Bush pulled out in 2001, saying Kyoto would harm the U.S. economy and wrongly excluded targets for developing nations. The United Nations wants all nations to agree on a successor to Kyoto by late 2009 to allow governments time to ratify the new deal by the end of 2012 and to give markets clear guidelines on how to make investments in clean energy technology. China wants talks on a new global compact to be extended. "The Chinese want talks to drag on into 2010 to give time for a new American president to come on board. Not many other countries think that's a good idea," one developing nation delegate said. Bush will step down in January 2009. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told delegates the objective must be that global temperatures rise no more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) and that global emissions peak no later than 2015. "Future generations will judge us on our actions." He also said that the rich would have to take on the "main part of the cost" of helping poor countries curb greenhouse gas emissions.

China and the European Union vowed on Friday to seek balanced trade and foster cooperation in climate change in high-level meetings dogged by tension over Tibet protests and the Olympics. EU officials led by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso had intended meetings with senior Chinese officials in Beijing this week to help ease rifts over China's big trade deficit and to foster agreement on "sustainable" growth. Economic tensions have festered as China's trade surplus with the EU bloc surged to nearly 160 billion euros ($251 billion) last year, according to EU data. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said the two sides had agreed to enhance cooperation on energy conservation and emissions reduction. "Our mutual benefits by far outweigh the conflicts. As long as we respect, trust and learn from each other, there will surely be a better future for the Sino-EU relationship," Wen told reporters. Barroso said the main focus of the talks was climate change and China had signalled its will to make domestic emissions part of a global agreement to tackle climate change after 2012. He said there were "major imbalances" in trade and both sides had agreed on the necessity for a rebalance. The long-prepared talks have been upstaged by anti-Chinese unrest across Tibetan areas last month, followed by Tibet protests that upset the Beijing Olympic torch relay in London and Paris, and then nationalist Chinese counter-protests. Barroso welcomed China's announcement that it would hold talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama. "While fully respecting the sovereignty of China, we have always advocated the need for dialogue because we believe this is the best way to achieve sustainable, substantive solution to the Tibet issue," Barroso told reporters. "As far as I understand the Chinese position, the Chinese say they are ready to discuss everything except sovereignty for Tibet." EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson on Thursday urged an end to mutual threats of boycotts. The European Parliament has asked EU leaders to boycott the opening ceremony at the Beijing Games in August unless China opens talks with the Dalai Lama. Such calls, and Chinese public counter-campaigns to boycott European companies, especially the French supermarket chain Carrefour, served neither side, Mandelson said on Thursday.

India has criticised a United Nations report for recommending that developing countries cut greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, newspapers reported on Wednesday. The latest Human Development Report, released by the UN Development Programme on Tuesday, included some of the strongest warnings yet for collective action to avert catastrophic climate change, which would disproportionately affect the poor. "Its recommendations look egalitarian, but they are not," said Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, India's national policy making body, according to newspaper reports. "This is the first time I have seen a United Nations report talk of developing nations to take up commitments. I challenge the research team to supplement their research." Ahluwalia was speaking as a guest at the Indian launch of the report, which comes ahead of a UN climate summit next month in Bali, Indonesia, where nations will discuss future commitments to cut the carbon emissions seen as the cause of climate change. The UN report says an agreement without quantitative commitments from developing countries would "lack credibility". COMMITMENTS ARE UNFAIR But India, along with other developing countries, has said it does not want to commit to binding cuts. It says such cuts are unfair and would hinder its efforts to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. Rich nations, it points out, only became rich after burning colossal amounts of fossil fuels over 150 years of industrialisation, and the onus should be on them to make cuts. Although Indians account for about a sixth of the world's population, they are responsible for only about a twentieth of total carbon emissions, according to UN figures. India's slow development is partly responsible -- around 500 million Indians, most of them living in the countryside, are still not connected to the grid, instead burning cow dung, wood and kerosene for fuel. But many people argue that it is possible for India to both develop and reduce emissions by investing in more efficient and more renewable energy sources rather than increasing its dependence on coal. One such critic is Indian scientist Rajendra Pachauri, who was a joint winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize as chairman of the UN climate panel and who now sits on India's newly created Council on Climate Change. He has said it would be suicidal if India followed the same path of carbon-heavy development as rich countries.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday Washington's relations with India needed an "upgrade" and urged closer cooperation on security, trade and other issues. Clinton is set to visit India next month and she said she hoped the two nations could work together to solve global challenges from climate change to securing Afghanistan. "As we pursue an enhanced bilateral relationship, we should recognize that, compared to other metrics of our cooperation, our official ties are past due for an upgrade," Clinton said in a speech to the U.S.-India Business Council. "We need the bilateral cooperation between our governments to catch up with our people-to-people and economic ties." Last year, India and Washington signed a landmark civil nuclear deal, overturning a 30-year ban on global nuclear commerce with India. That deal will allow India to procure nuclear technology and fuel for its reactors from the international market. To improve ties, she said Washington and New Delhi must overcome mistrust and address what she said were lingering uncertainties in the relationship. She said some Americans feared that greater economic ties with India would mean lost jobs and falling wages, while Indians felt a closer partnership ran counter to the country's strong tradition of independence. She also pledged closer economic and trade ties and said negotiations would begin soon on a bilateral investment treaty, creating more opportunities for trade between the two countries. "President Obama has been clear that the United States has learned the lessons of the past. We will not use the global financial crisis as an excuse to fall back on protectionism," she said. Without providing details, Clinton said the two countries needed to increase cooperation in fighting terrorism and improve intelligence-sharing. "The president and I are committed to enhancing India's ability to protect itself," she said, adding that six Americans died in the November attacks on India's financial capital, Mumbai. She welcomed Tuesday's meeting between the leaders of India and Pakistan, their first talks since the Mumbai attacks, which New Delhi blamed on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group. "As Pakistan now works to take on the challenge of terrorists in its own country, I am confident India, as well as the United States, will support that effort," Clinton said.

BAGHDAD, Tue Jan 20, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - In the years since Iraqis last brandished fingers stained with purple ink to show the world they had voted in a free election, their country has plunged deeper into, and slowly climbed out of, brutal sectarian war. So it is with bated breath that Iraq's leaders, citizens and the US officials who still have 140,000 troops stationed there are waiting for the next elections at the end of this month. There is no shortage of enthusiasm for democracy almost six years after the US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein. More than 400 parties and groups have registered to field 14,431 candidates to contest just 440 provincial council seats. In the weeks since campaigning began, the concrete blast walls that have become an enduring feature of Iraqi life have been quickly plastered with a bewildering array of posters. The biggest achievement of the election may just be the fact of holding it. Western diplomats say a second cycle of elections like this one can be a more challenging milestone for a new democracy than the first. "A single election doesn't make a democracy. A series of elections do," said U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker. The election is an important sign that Iraq has emerged from the worst of the violence that engulfed it after the invasion in 2003 and worsened after the last election in 2005. Just 18 months ago, when monthly death tolls from violence were up to 10 times as high as now, holding a vote might have been impossible. Many Iraqis talk of change, and hope the election will reform regional governments that spend billions of dollars of state funds but are widely seen as corrupt, unaccountable and beholden to the interests of feuding sectarian groups. "There is an acute impression across the board that incumbents have done badly," a senior Western diplomat said. But the high stakes means there may also be violence in a country grown used to settling political scores with guns and bombs. So far, two candidates have been gunned down and the deputy head of a Sunni Arab party was blown up by a suicide bomber who burst into his home during a meeting with candidates. ALTER THE LANDSCAPE The provincial poll will set the political climate for a national election due later this year, in which Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will fight to keep his mandate, shaping Iraq's future after U.S. forces are due to leave by the end of 2011. In the south, dominated by the country's Shi'ite majority, the parties that make up Maliki's ruling coalition will be running against each other after last facing voters as a bloc. Most southern provincial governments are controlled by the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (ISCI), a religious party founded in exile in Iran during the rule of Saddam and now the strongest group in the ruling coalition. Its grip on the south is likely to hold. But Maliki will be hoping to win an independent base of support for his own smaller Dawa Party, campaigning on promises of more services from a stronger central government. Followers of Moqtada al-Sadr -- an anti-American Shi'ite cleric whose Mehdi Army militia controlled the streets of many southern towns until Maliki cracked down on them last year -- are keeping a low profile. They are not standing as a group, but have backed independent lists of candidates. In Sunni Arab areas in western and central Iraq, tribal groups known as "Awakening Councils" will participate in the election for the first time. The councils helped U.S. troops drive out Sunni militants, including al Qaeda, and are now hoping to win control from traditional Sunni religious parties. Much of the pre-election violence has taken place in the north, especially Nineveh province around Mosul, the part of Iraq where US forces say combat goes on against Sunni militants making a stand after being driven from other areas. Many Sunni Arabs boycotted the last set of polls, allowing Kurds, who make up about a quarter of the province's population, to win control of its provincial government, an imbalance that Western diplomats say has helped fuel unrest. In the long run, the election could ease violence by drawing Sunnis into politics. But with power in the province likely to change hands, militant groups have had something to fight over. Adjacent to Nineveh, one potentially explosive situation has been averted: in Kirkuk, an oil-producing city Kurds claim as their capital, the election has been indefinitely postponed because Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen could not agree rules for voting there.

Begum’s family, desperate to save what few possessions they had, chained their only suitcase to their house, a makeshift structure of bamboo and banana leaves constructed after the last devastating flood in the area, just two years ago. As the waters rose, the house was marooned in muddied waters, and the family had to cook meals on a raised area of dry ground nearby. Then tragedy struck. Begum left her 1-year-old daughter, Lamia Khatun, on a patch of higher ground while she washed clothes in floodwaters on Tuesday. But the waters kept rising. “When I came back, she was gone,” Begum, 32, said. “We found her body hours later.” Across southern Asia, more than 4 million people have been hit hard by monsoon floods that have destroyed homes and structures, drowned entire villages and forced people to crouch on rooftops hoping for rescue. The monsoon season — usually June to September — brings a torrent of heavy rain, a deluge that is crucial to South Asia’s agrarian economy. But in recent years, the monsoon season has increasingly brought cyclones and devastating floods, causing the internal displacement of millions of people in low-lying areas, particularly in Bangladesh. Last year, at least 600 people were killed and more than 25 million affected by flooding because of the torrential monsoon rains in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and Nepal, according to the United Nations. And in 2017, more than 1,000 people died in floods across South Asia. Rainfall has been heaviest this year in northeast India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal, according to the Southeast Asia Flash Flood Forecast System, which is affiliated with the United Nations. Bangladeshi authorities say that the flooding started in late June, inundations are expected to continue this month, and more areas will be affected. Enamur Rahman, the Bangladeshi minister for disaster management, said the inundations were the worst in decades and that hundreds of thousands of families had been marooned, forcing the authorities to open more than 1,000 emergency shelters. “We are fighting the catastrophe with every possible resource available,” Rahman said. “It seems rains and floods will be prolonged this year.” Researchers have warned that within a few decades, Bangladesh, with a population of more than 160 million people, may lose more than 10% of its land to sea-level rise, caused by a warming climate, displacing as many as 18 million. India has also suffered immensely. Floods have swept across the states of Assam, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal and other areas in the eastern part of the country. Authorities have said that at least 85 people have died, with more than 3 million affected by the deluge. In the northeastern state of Assam, Kaziranga National Park, a World Heritage site that is a home to the one-horned Indian rhinoceros, a species listed as vulnerable by the WWF, has been completely inundated. Officials said that more than 50 animals had died in the flooding, though some wildlife had been rescued. With more than a dozen rivers and tributaries swelling above the danger mark, rescue operations have been carried out in at least 22 districts across Assam. In Nepal, 67 people have died and 40 others are missing, according to the National Emergency Operation Center. That is in additional to the monsoons that have battered Bangladesh. Low-lying and densely populated, with 165 million people, the country is chronically ravaged by flooding. In Jamalpur, in the north, the flood situation has become critical, with rivers flowing well above the danger level. Muneeb-ul-Islam, 42, who lives in the area with his wife and three children, said he had lost his home several times in 10 years, leaving him with nothing but the clothes he was wearing. Muneeb-ul-Islam and his family are among more than 1 million people in Bangladesh left displaced or homeless by the floods. “It is as if we have committed some sin,” he said. “This is the third time in the last few years that we will have to rebuild our lives from scratch.” Begum, who lost her 1-year-old, said her life had been completely destroyed. She has now moved to a nearby shelter, a school building, where hundreds of people were crammed in. Fear of the coronavirus spreading in such cramped quarters looms large. Begum’s family said there had not been enough warning about the magnitude of the flooding. “I will never go back to the place where we used to live,” she said, “The water has snatched everything from us.”

NEW DELHI, Mon Jun 30, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - India unveiled a national climate plan on Monday to deal with the threat of global warming, focusing on renewable energy for sustainable development while refusing to commit to any emission targets that risk slowing economic growth. The National Action Plan identified harnessing renewable energy, such as solar power, and energy efficiency as central to India's fight against global warming and said a climate change fund would be set up to research "green" technologies. The national policy reflected India's current stand on climate change and would not please rich western countries asking for more commitment from one of the world's top polluters, experts said. "Our vision is to make India's economic development energy efficient," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on releasing the national plan. "Our people have a right to economic and social development and to discard the ignominy of widespread poverty." In spite of its pledge to clean technology, coal remains the backbone of India's power sector -- accounting for about 60 percent of generation -- with the government planning to add some 70,000 megawatts in the next five years. In a report released this month, Goldman Sachs said climate change could deplete India's cultivable land area and productivity, reduce labour productivity and increase the threat of toxic and chemical waste in the environment. "Although such dire prognostications are premature, urbanisation, industrialisation and ongoing global climate change will take a heavy toll on India's environment, if not managed better," it said. CLIMATE VS GROWTH But India says it must use more energy to lift its population from poverty and that its per-capita emissions are a fraction of those in rich nations, which have burnt fossil fuels unhindered since the industrial revolution. India's per-capita emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, were 1.2 tonnes in 2004, compared with 20.6 tonnes for the United States for the same year, according to U.N. data. India, whose economy has grown by 8-9 percent annually in recent years, contributes around 4 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. "Despite our development imperatives, our per capita GHG emissions will not exceed the per capita GHG emissions of the developed industrialised countries," Singh said. As a developing nation, India is not yet required to cut emissions -- said to be rising by between 2 and 3 percent a year -- under the Kyoto Protocol, despite mounting pressure from environmental groups and industrialised nations. Singh said India was not rigid and would try to make a gradual shift from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy. "Thus the Plan is not a fixity," he said. "It is meant to evolve and change in the light of changing circumstances." At the moment, central to India's climate change plan are energy efficiency, harnessing of solar energy, conserving water, sustainable agriculture, sustaining the Himalayan ecosystem and sustainable habitat to create a "green India". "Our people want higher standards of living," Singh said, "but they also want clean water to drink, fresh air to breathe and a green earth to walk on."

TOKYO, Mon May 11, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Japanese opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa resigned on Monday in a move that is likely to improve his party's prospects in a looming election, after a fundraising scandal dampened its hopes for victory. A political stalemate and voter frustrations with Prime Minister Taro Aso had raised the chances Ozawa would lead his Democratic Party to victory in an election that must be held by October, ending more than 50 years of nearly unbroken rule by Aso's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). But the Democratic Party's lead in polls has narrowed after the scandal, clouding the outlook for the solid opposition victory that would break a deadlock that is stalling policy decisions as Japan struggles with a deep recession. "I have decided to sacrifice myself and resign as party leader to strengthen the unity of the party towards a clear victory in the next election and achieve a change in government," Ozawa told a news conference. The Democrats have vowed to reduce bureaucrats' meddling in policy-making, stress the rights of consumers and workers over corporate interests, and adopt a diplomatic policy less subservient to security ally the United States. Those positions were unlikely to be altered by Ozawa's departure, although a rejuvenated opposition might encourage the LDP to come up with extra stimulus plans to attract voters. A 15 trillion yen ($153 billion) spending package is already on its way through parliament. ] Ozawa's resignation had little impact on financial markets, with the yen trading a touch lower after an initial media report, but broadly unchanged on the day. Aso, who has threatened to call an early election if the Democrats obstruct debate in parliament on the massive extra budget to fight the recession, told reporters Ozawa's resignation would have no direct impact on the election timing. Recent speculation has focused on an August vote. "Now that (Ozawa) is gone, Prime Minister Aso might become more aggressive in economic stimulus to woo voters, rather than dissolving parliament now," said Hidenori Suezawa, chief strategist at Daiwa Securities SMBC. SUCCESSOR QUESTION While replacing Ozawa is likely to improve the Democrats' chances at the polls, not all the damage will be so easily undone, analysts said. "Things had gotten very tough. People were complaining about Ozawa," said independent political commentator Minoru Morita. "This improves the outlook for the Democrats quite a lot." Ozawa's exit could open the way for a younger leader, with possible candidates including former party leaders Katsuya Okada, an advocate of tougher climate policies seen as the frontrunner, and Seiji Maehara, a conservative security policy expert. Two other ex-leaders who are Ozawa's deputies, Yukio Hatoyama and Naoto Kan, are also possible successors. Ozawa, a skilled campaign strategist, has been shaking up Japanese politics for almost two decades since bolting the LDP and helping to briefly replace it with a pro-reform coalition. How far his resignation improves the Democrats' chances depends at least in part on who replaces him, and how smoothly. "It is a necessary step toward fixing the image problem. Now the question is whom do they chose, how do they chose him and how does he perform," said Gerry Curtis, a Columbia University professor and expert in Japanese politics. A Democratic Party source said the next leader would likely be chosen by a vote among party lawmakers, possibly within a week or 10 days. A survey by the daily Yomiuri newspaper before Ozawa's announcement and published on Monday showed the Democrats still had a razor-thin lead over the LDP, but that more than two-thirds of respondents questioned his earlier decision to stay on. "If Ozawa had stayed, I was going to submit a blank paper when I cast my vote," said Yukihiro Nakagawa, 44, an executive at a precision machinery company. "I would like to make up my mind after seeing what kind of policies the Democrats will promise after this, but I am leaning towards voting for the Democrats." The poll by the Yomiuri newspaper conducted before Ozawa's announcement showed 30 percent of respondents would vote for the Democrats in the next election against 27 percent for the LDP. Some experts have said Ozawa's resignation would revive calls in the LDP to replace the unpopular Aso, but others said there is no obvious successor and Aso would do his best to hang on.

The world's growing taste for olive oil is pouring new life into parts of rural North Africa, where the golden liquid has been a staple since ancient times. However, drought, archaic production methods and poor marketing are a challenge for local producers facing growing competition as more countries slip into the olive oil market. Tunisia and Morocco lack the big energy reserves of their OPEC-member neighbours Algeria and Libya and their dry, hot climates make olive oil a promising alternative export. All but 5 percent of the world's olive trees grow around the Mediterranean. Spain dominates the industry from its power base in Martos, followed by Italy and Greece. After heavy investment in modern machinery, the quality of Tunisian olive oil has improved and industry officials in Spain say it now fetches prices similar to their own. Attempts by North Africa to narrow the gap have been welcomed by European producers unable to press enough olive oil to meet world demand as growing middle classes from Brazil to Russia acquire a taste. More expensive than other cooking oils, it contains more healthier mono-unsaturated fat and polyphenols. Tunisians, rich or poor, have honed their expertise over centuries, smothering their food in olive oil and using it in medicines, beauty products and soaps or rubbed in as a moisturiser. "I've kept my health as I drink a glass of olive oil every morning and my wife uses it for every meal," said 90-year-old Hamed, a sprightly former night security guard from Tunis. More than 500,000 families rely on the olive oil business in the country of 10 million, where 56 million olive trees grow on 1.6 million hectares (4 million acres). The olive harvest between November and February sets the rhythm of the rural year and many Tunisians return to their native towns and villages to help gather the crop. Women sing traditional songs and exchange jokes as they pick up the olives shaken to the ground by the men. "My whole family is better off when we have a bumper olive harvest like this year," said Haj Smida, a farmer near the eastern Tunisian town of el-Jem. Salem Rhaim, a 68-year-old olive oil producer, postponed his son's wedding last year because of a poor crop. "I think we'll have a good harvest this season," said Rhaim. "If it's as good as we hope, I'll be ready to face the expensive wedding preparations." For all the local know-how, Tunisian producers say a lot of good oil is still sold off cheaply on the local market because they lack the technology to make it export grade. Some complain businessmen have moved into olive oil just to benefit from tax breaks but what they produce is poor, threatening the industry's brand image. Abdelmajid Mahjoub, who owns a century-old olive press in Tbourba, said poor packaging is also holding back exports. "We need to try harder on this so our products can compete with the Spanish, Greeks and Italians," he said. In Morocco, the government is offering financial incentives to increase the area under olive cultivation to 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) by 2010, from just 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) in 1999. Part of the production will go to satisfy local demand in a country that imports 300,000 tonnes of vegetable oils a year. Mohamed, 42, grows just enough olives for his family in Ain Balidan on the edge of the Rif mountains in northern Morocco. He has just planted dozens more trees donated by the government. "I'd love to have more land to plant olive trees -- prices have been shooting up," he said. The grey-green trees have come to symbolise hope for many Moroccans threatened by drought or desertification, and are a potential alternative to lucrative but illegal cannabis growing. "The weather changed in Morocco in the last 10 years and we've been thinking about plants that can save nature and be adapted to it," said Mohamed Badraoui, who heads Morocco's anti-desertification programme. Morocco, like neighbouring Algeria, has a long way to go to bring up to date technology that has changed little since the time of the Phoenicians. Some presses still use a donkey that walks in a circle dragging a stone or wooden mortar. "The world market has plenty of potential to grow because olive oil at the moment represents only 2.8 percent of the fat we consume," said Jose Ramon Diez, olive expert at Spanish farm union ASAJA in Madrid. Spain's olive harvest fell last year and some farmers in northern Morocco said Spanish traders had come to their villages asking to buy olives. Italy, the number-two olive oil producer, buys some oil for re-export under the label "Imported From Italy" and has been helping the Tunisian industry upgrade its machinery. Italian oil buyers say they want more consistent quality standards from North African producers. They also voice frustration at not being able to contact them directly, often having to go through intermediaries. Mauro Miloni, director of Italian olive oil industry group Unaprol's economic observatory, said increasing exports from North Africa would help balance a market dominated by Spain. "It is important to be able to buy olive oil of different origins," he said. "I think in coming years, with the liberalisation of trade, we can have even closer relations with the North African producers."

Maibam Sharat was second in a line of six friends, walking past a security post with his hands up in the air as ordered by Indian troops, when he says a soldier stepped out of an armoured car and opened fire. He doesn't know how long the shooting lasted but when it stopped he found his friend Ranbir, who was walking in front of him, bleeding from the stomach. The troops, there to fight separatist militants in India's remote northeastern state of Manipur, moved him to their camp instead of getting medical help. When they gave in to pressure from locals and took him to hospital, it was four hours too late -- the farmer had taken seven bullets and lost too much blood to make it. "Maybe they were just venting their frustration and anger after their colleagues close by had come under attack from militants earlier in the evening," said Sharat, a driver from the hamlet of Nongpok Semai. Human rights groups and political parties say Ranbir's killing was the latest in a long list of abuses by the military in insurgency-torn Manipur, abuses committed under the protection of a draconian federal anti-terror law. That law, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act or AFSPA, gives soldiers virtual immunity from prosecution, and has taken centre stage as the state of 2.6 million people begins voting this week in a three-stage poll to elect a new legislature. Most parties seem to agree that the law, which only applies to parts of India's northeast and to Kashmir in the northwest, should either be repealed or drastically changed. "If we come to power, we will ensure AFSPA is repealed in the very first session of the new legislature," said Sovakiran Singh, legislator from the Heirok constituency to which Nongpok Sekmai belongs. In theory New Delhi could overrule the state government and reimpose the law. But Singh hopes it will respond to the pressure from Manipur, where 20,000 people have died in a separatist rebellion since the 1960s. AFSPA gives troops sweeping powers to search, arrest and kill suspected militants even when they face no imminent threat. Troops can only be prosecuted with central government permission, -- and that rarely comes. The 1958 law was introduced to combat armed separatist militancy in northeast India, and the army says it offers them vital protection from politically motivated charges. Rights groups say the powers it grants have fostered a climate where security forces commit rights abuses with impunity, including torture, rape and murder. That, they say, has only fuelled more anger and created more insurgents. "AFSPA is the product of the gross paranoia of the state," said Pradip Phanjoubam, editor of the Imphal Free Press daily. A top official of the Border Security Force, whose men were involved in the Nongpok Sekmai shooting, said the soldiers were retaliating against fire from militants. But hardly anyone in the hamlet believes him. Manipur is one of India's most troubled regions, 1,500 miles (2,400 km) from New Delhi but far from the nation's consciousness. Soldiers are everywhere. The state has gone up in flames several times in the last five years when soldiers were accused of killing innocents and people took to the streets in anger. Despite the protests, extra-judicial killings saw a 'slight increase' last year, with 18 documented cases, says Babloo Loitongbam, director of Manipur's Human Rights Alert. Phanjoubam and Loitongbam say New Delhi should be pushing for a political not a military solution to the insurgency in Manipur, to bring development to one of India's most backward states. But whether political parties here will be able to create genuine pressure for change remains to be seen. India's ruling Congress party, which has also been in power in Manipur since 2002, has dilly-dallied on AFSPA. Party chief Sonia Gandhi told Manipuris this week that New Delhi was "seriously and genuinely" looking into the report of an expert panel which is said to have recommended changes to the law 18 months ago. But many Manipuris remain sceptical of change.

Gray, a senior Labor party figure in the resource-rich Western Australia state, should ensure an advocate for the resources industry remains in place at a time when investment in the sector is slowing amid signs the mining boom has peaked. Prime Minister Julia Gillard also said the Climate Change Department, which has overseen the introduction of a controversial carbon tax, would now be merged with the Industry Department, and would be overseen by Climate Change Minister Greg Combet. However, Gillard made no changes to the crucial Treasury or Finance Ministry, held by Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan and Penny Wong respectively. The reshuffle was forced on the government after a botched leadership coup last Thursday by forces loyal to former leader Kevin Rudd, with three cabinet ministers and two junior ministers quitting after supporting Rudd. Gillard has set elections for September 14, which opinions polls currently show she is almost to certain to lose, meaning the reshuffle's impact is likely to be limited. Among those to resign was former Resources Minister Martin Ferguson, who was regarded as a business friendly minister and a strong supporter of the mining industry in Gillard's cabinet. Around A$400 billion ($418 billion) has been invested in Australian resources projects over the past decade, with a further A$200 billion in liquefied natural gas projects, but the boom appears to be slowing. The mining employer group Australian Mines and Metals Association (AMMA) said Gray was well known to the industry and should help attract investment to the sector. Gray joined the Labor party in 1974. He quit the party in 2000 to work for conglomerate Wesfarmers and later as a public relations adviser for Woodside Petroleum, in order to help shape its defense in a takeover battle with Royal Dutch Shell. Shell eventually withdrew its bid after it was deemed harmful to the national interest by then Treasurer Peter Costello, thanks in part to Gray's campaign to muster public sentiment against Shell. ($1 = 0.9572 Australian dollars)

Then, on Oct 16, the day they had planned to visit the Terracotta Warriors, the couple tested positive for the coronavirus. Since then, China has locked down a city of 4 million, as well as several smaller cities and parts of Beijing, to contain a fresh outbreak that has infected more than 240 people in at least 11 provinces and regions. The authorities have shuttered schools and tourist sites. Government websites have detailed every movement of the unlucky couple and their sprawling web of contacts, including what time they checked into hotels and on which floors of restaurants they sat. The no-holds-barred response is emblematic of China’s “zero COVID” policy, which has served the country remarkably well: China has reported fewer than 5,000 deaths since the pandemic began. The scale of the new outbreak, while tiny compared to many other countries, is large for China. But the policy has also, increasingly, made China an outlier. The rest of the world is reopening, including New Zealand and Australia, which also once embraced zero tolerance. China is now the only country still chasing full eradication of the virus. “Every locality should firmly adhere to the policy of ‘Defend externally against importation, defend internally against rebound,’ ” Mi Feng, a spokesperson for the National Health Commission, said at a news conference Sunday. “The current control measures cannot be relaxed.” The government’s strict strategy is the product of a uniquely Chinese set of calculations. Its thriving exports have helped to keep the economy afloat. The ruling Communist Party’s tight grip on power enables lockdowns and testing to be carried out with astonishing efficiency. Beijing is set to host the Winter Olympics in February. For many Chinese, the low case numbers have become a source of national pride. Xi Jinping, China’s leader, has repeatedly pointed to the country’s success in containment as proof of the superiority of its governance model. But experts — both in China and abroad — have warned that the approach is unsustainable. China may find itself increasingly isolated, diplomatically and economically, at a time when global public opinion is hardening against it. “The regime thinks it needs to maintain a ‘zero COVID’ policy to maintain its legitimacy,” said Lynette Ong, a political scientist at the University of Toronto. “At a huge cost, though.” In the early phase of the pandemic, the Chinese Communist Party’s very hold on power seemed to hinge on its ability to control the virus. Its initial attempts to cover up the outbreak in Wuhan gave rise to a stunning outpouring of public anger. Images of overwhelmed hospitals and patients begging for help flooded the Chinese internet. As the virus barrelled across the rest of the world, that narrative changed. China’s strict lockdowns and mass testing campaigns, once criticised as heavy handed, became models for other countries. As deaths mounted in western democracies, Xi repeatedly emphasised how quickly China had flattened its caseload. Outrage about the initial response to Wuhan gave way to at-times strident nationalism. Other countries that adopted “zero COVID” policies were hailed as models of competent governance that prioritised saving lives over convenience and economic growth. As the virus has dragged into its second year, and with the onset of the far more contagious delta variant, countries are again reconsidering their strategies. Australia, which was home to the world’s longest lockdown, is scrapping quarantine requirements for vaccinated residents returning from overseas. New Zealand formally abandoned its quest for zero this month. Singapore is offering quarantine-free travel to vaccinated tourists from Germany, the United States, France and several other countries. China has refused to change tack. When Zhang Wenhong, a prominent infectious disease expert from Shanghai, suggested this summer that China learn to live with the virus, he was attacked viciously online as a lackey of foreigners. A former Chinese health minister called such a mindset reckless. Ong said the government was afraid of any challenge to its narrative of pandemic triumph. “Outbreaks have become so commonplace that it’s really a nonevent,” she said. “But the Chinese authorities want to control any small potential source of instability.” There are also more practical reasons for China’s hesitation. Medical resources are highly concentrated in big cities, and more remote areas could quickly be overwhelmed by an uptick in cases, said Zhang Jun, an urban studies scholar at the City University of Hong Kong. In addition, though China has achieved a relatively high full inoculation rate, at 75% of its population, questions have emerged about the efficacy of its homegrown vaccines. And, at least for now, the elimination strategy appears to enjoy public support. While residents in locked-down areas have complained about seemingly arbitrary or overly harsh restrictions on social media, travel is relatively unconstrained in areas without cases. Wealthy consumers have poured money into luxury goods and fancy cars since they’re not spending on trips abroad. “As long as they can still feel a certain level of freedom of mobility, I think that kind of COVID-zero policy doesn’t strike the domestic audience as too severe,” Zhang said. Other governments that have chosen to live with the virus may yet lose their nerve. After lifting many restrictions this summer, Singapore reinstated them in September amid a spike in infections. (Still, the government is moving forward with travel lanes.) But experts agree that the costs of expecting zero cases will hit eventually. China’s economic growth is slowing, and domestic travel during a weeklong holiday earlier this month fell below last year’s levels, as a cluster of new cases spooked tourists. Retail sales have proven fitful, recovering and ebbing with waves of the virus. The country may also suffer diplomatically. Xi has not left China or received foreign visitors since early 2020, even as other world leaders prepare to gather in Rome for a Group of 20 summit and Glasgow for climate talks. China’s hard-nosed approach is also trickling down to Hong Kong, the semi-autonomous territory and global financial hub. In trying to align their own COVID prevention policies with the mainland’s, Hong Kong’s leaders have introduced the world’s longest quarantine, ignoring escalating warnings from business leaders about an exodus of foreign firms. And even those supportive of the restrictions wonder whether there is an exit strategy. “I think the current policies are still in the right direction,” said Jason Qiu, 27, who grew up in Gansu province, not far from Lanzhou, the city of 4 million now under lockdown. “But if things go on like this for a long time — for example if the pandemic is going to continue for another five or 10 years, or become endemic — maybe it would be time to consider changing some measures.” In a potential nod to those concerns, some officials have broached the idea of loosening restrictions, though cautiously. Gao Fu, the head of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a recent interview with Chinese media that once the country reached an 85% vaccination rate, “why shouldn’t we open up?” But he prefaced his question with a warning: “This is a very good question. But it’s also a very sensitive question.” Until then, those stranded by the lockdowns have tried to make the best of their situations. State news outlets have reported that roughly 10,000 tourists are trapped in Ejin Banner, a region of Inner Mongolia, after the emergence of cases led to a lockdown. As consolation, the local tourism association has promised them free entry to three popular tourist attractions, redeemable within the next three years. © 2021 The New York Times Company

MANAUS, Brazil, Nov 27, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The presidents of France and Brazil said on Thursday that rich countries must immediately boost aid for developing nations to fight global warming if they want to reach a climate accord in Copenhagen next month. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who hosted a climate summit of leaders from the Amazon region in Manaus, said progress had been made with pledges by China and the United States this week to curb greenhouse gas emissions. But he said poor countries needed more aid to cope with climate change and help meet their own targets. "The poor need to be supported without any country giving up its sovereignty," Lula said. Brazil has opened an investment fund to help conservation in the Amazon rainforest but insisted donor countries would have no say in it. So far, Norway has donated the largest amount. Climate negotiators have made little visible progress in sorting out the thorny issue of how rich countries should help poorer ones fight global warming. "We need numbers, not only to reduce the temperature. Copenhagen also needs to provide funds from developed countries for developing countries," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was invited because French Guyana forms part of the Amazon basin. "That needs to happen now," he said through a translator. Sarkozy welcomed the target Washington announced this week to reduce emissions 17 percent by 2020. The European Union says the cost to help developing nations fight global warming is about $100 billion annually. But developing countries say rich countries should pay between 0.5 percent and 1 percent of their gross domestic product. Brazil, which has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by between 36.1 and 38.9 percent from projected 2020 levels, has been seeking a growing role in climate talks and wanted to forge a common position of Amazon countries to take to Copenhagen. But only one other South American president took part at the Manaus summit - Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana.

Dhaka, Oct 24 (bdnews24.com)—The United Nations must press for global action on climate change and food security for poverty alleviation in the current world scenario, the finance minister said on Saturday. "Man is a social being and wants to live in peace," finance minister AMA Muhith said as chief guest at a seminar marking United Nations Day. "To ensure peace, the focus must be addressing climate change and food security alongside eradication of poverty," he said "Many countries of the world including Bangladesh are falling victim to natural disasters like cyclone, tidal bores and flood due to climate change." "As a result, food production is hampered and so are poverty alleviation efforts," he said The UN should attach maximum importance to the three issues now, Muhith said Former diplomat Afsarul Kader presented the key paper at the event chaired by justice Kazi Ebadul Haque. The seminar was hosted by the United Nations Association of Bangladesh at Hotel Rajmoni Isha Khan.

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 "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 favourites 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 US Pew research centre 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 US-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 neighbours 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 travelled 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 artifically 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. Demoralisation 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 idealisation 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 criminalised," 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 centre-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 UN 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. "AMERICANISATION" 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 Americanised," 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.

Kuwait will also require incoming travellers to quarantine at home for 10 days unless they receive a negative PCR test for the coronavirus within 72 hours of their arrival.

The journalists, Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia, were recognised for “their courageous fight for freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.” “They are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions,” the committee said in a statement released after the announcement in Oslo. Ressa — a Fulbright scholar, who was also named a Time magazine Person of the Year in 2018 for her crusading work against disinformation — has been a constant thorn in the side of Rodrigo Duterte, her country’s authoritarian president. The digital media company for investigative journalism that she co-founded, Rappler, has exposed government corruption and researched the financial holdings and potential conflicts of interest of top political figures. It has also done groundbreaking work on the Duterte government’s violent anti-drug campaign. “The number of deaths is so high that the campaign resembles a war waged against the country’s own population,” the committee said. “Ressa and Rappler have also documented how social media is being used to spread fake news, harass opponents and manipulate public discourse.” She is only the 18th woman to win the Peace Prize in its 120-year history. Speaking on Rappler’s Facebook Live platform, Ressa said she hoped the award was a “recognition of how difficult it is to be a journalist today.” “This is for you, Rappler,” she said, her voice breaking slightly, adding that she hopes for “energy for all of us to continue the battle for facts.” Muratov has defended freedom of speech in Russia for decades, working under increasingly difficult conditions. Within hours of news of the award breaking, the Kremlin stepped up its crackdown on critics, labelling nine journalists and activists as “foreign agents,” a designation that imposes onerous requirements on them. One of the founders of independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta in 1993, Muratov has been its editor-in-chief since 1995. Despite a continual barrage of harassment, threats, violence and even murders, the newspaper has continued to publish. Since its start, six of the newspaper’s journalists have been killed, the committee noted, citing Anna Politkovskaya, who wrote revealing articles about the war in Chechnya. “Despite the killings and threats, editor-in-chief Muratov has refused to abandon the newspaper’s independent policy,” the committee wrote. “He has consistently defended the right of journalists to write anything they want about whatever they want, as long as they comply with the professional and ethical standards of journalism.” Many Russian dissidents had hoped and expected that the prize would go to Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned opposition leader, expressing anger and disappointment that he was passed over. Muratov said the award had come as a surprise — and that he, too, would have given it to Navalny. He told Russian media that he ignored several unidentified calls from Norway on Friday while arguing with one of his journalists; in the end, his press secretary gave him a heads-up seconds before the announcement. He said he would donate some of the prize money to the fight against spinal muscular atrophy, a cause for which he has long advocated, and to support journalism against pressure from Russian authorities. “The fight against the media is not a fight against the media,” Muratov said in a radio interview Friday. “It is a fight against the people.” This year was only the third time in the 120-year history of the prize that journalists were honoured for contributions to the cause of peace. Ernesto Moneta, a newspaper editor and leader of the Italian peace movement, won in 1907. And Carl von Ossietzky, a German journalist, pacifist and opponent of Nazism, who was imprisoned by Hitler, won the 1935 prize. The Nobel committee chose from 329 candidates, one of the largest pools ever considered. Those who had been regarded as favourites included climate-change activists, political dissidents and scientists whose work helped fight the COVID-19 pandemic. In its citation, the committee said that “free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda.” “Without freedom of expression and freedom of the press,” the committee said, “it will be difficult to successfully promote fraternity between nations, disarmament and a better world order to succeed in our time.” © 2021 The New York Times Company

European Union leaders agreed an offer to put on the table at global climate talks in Copenhagen in December after healing a rift over how to split the bill. Developing countries will need 100 billion euros ($148 billion) a year by 2020 to battle climate change, leaders said at an EU summit in Brussels on Friday. About 22-50 billion euros of the total will come from the public purse in rich countries worldwide and the EU will provide a share of that. Many countries expect the EU's portion to be somewhere between 20 and 30 percent. "I think this will be seen as one of the major breakthroughs that is necessary for us to get a Copenhagen agreement," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. East European countries said the summit had settled a rift over how to split the EU's portion of the bill in a way that would not hurt their economies as they recover from crisis. "We consider this a success for Poland," said the Polish minister for Europe, Mikolaj Dowgielewicz. "We want to develop quickly. We don't want to become the museum of folklore of eastern Europe." Leaders fell short of agreeing a concrete formula for carving up the bill and handed that job to a new working party. "I would prefer this burden-sharing mechanism to be ready now, but this proved too difficult," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said. MANDATE The two-day summit secured a complex negotiating mandate for the Copenhagen talks to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations anti-climate change scheme expiring in 2012. Success at those talks is likely to hinge on money. Developing countries say they will not sign up to tackling climate change without enough funds from rich nations, which bear most of the responsibility for damaging the atmosphere by fuelling their industries with oil and coal over decades. Developing countries might use such funds to adapt their agriculture or find new sources of water in drought zones. But the European leaders put on hold earlier plans to come up with "fast start" financing for developing nations in the three years before any new climate deal takes effect. Anti-poverty group Oxfam said Europe's bid was insufficient and lacked guarantees that the money would not simply be diverted from existing aid commitments. "If rich countries steal from aid budgets to pay their climate debt, the fight against poverty will go into reverse," Oxfam's Elise Ford said. HOT AIR The opposition to a deal from east European countries largely dissipated after Sweden, which chaired the talks, leveraged the divisive issue of so-called "hot air" -- the 17 billion euros of carbon permits held by eastern Europe. The eastern European states, Russia and Ukraine hold spare permits for about 9 billion tonnes of carbon emissions, left over when their economies collapsed after communist rule ended. The spare permits, known as AAUs, can be sold to big polluters such as Japan for about 10 euros per tonne. The eastern European countries want to keep selling AAUs under the deal that replaces Kyoto. But some countries such as Germany say they undermine the integrity of the agreement and want to scrap them because they lessen the need for action to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Sweden won eastern Europe's support for the overall deal in return for postponing any bold action on AAUs, one EU diplomat said. The deal also included action on domestic emissions, with a pledge to strengthen cuts to 30 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 if other nations take similar steps.

WASHINGTON, Aug 9, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada -- also known as "the three amigos" -- begin a summit on Sunday in Mexico to talk about simmering trade issues and the threat of drug gangs. President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon are gathering in Guadalajara for dinner Sunday night followed by three-way talks on Monday. At the top of their agenda is how to power their economies past a lingering downturn, keep trade flowing smoothly and grapple with Mexican gangs dominating the drug trade over the U.S. border and up into Canada. Obama's national security adviser, Jim Jones, doubted the leaders would announce major agreements, predicting the annual summit "is going to be a step in the continuing dialogue from which agreements will undoubtedly come." Obama is expected to get some heat from Calderon to resolve a cross-border trucking dispute. Under the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexican trucks are supposed to be allowed to cross into the United States, but American trucking companies charge Mexican trucks are not safe. The issue has festered for years. Mexico imposed retaliatory tariffs of $2.4 billion in U.S. goods in March after Obama signed a bill canceling a program allowing Mexican trucks to operate beyond the U.S. border zone. U.S. business groups have been pressing the White House to resolve the dispute, saying the ban threatens to eliminate thousands of U.S. jobs. "We would like to see a final closure and a final solution to the issue of trucking," said Mexico's ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan. He said he would like an agreement by year's end. A top White House official, Michael Froman, told reporters the Obama administration is "quite focused" on the issue and was working with the U.S. Congress to resolve safety issues. CARTEL VIOLENCE Canadian officials are expected to raise their concerns about "Buy American" elements of a $787 billion economic stimulus bill that they fear could shut out Canadian companies from U.S. construction contracts funded by the stimulus. Canada is the United States' largest trading partner. Froman said the Obama administration was talking to Canada and other nations "to try and implement the 'Buy American' provision in a way consistent with the law, consistent with our international obligations, while minimizing disruption to trade." Obama took a potential sore point off the table ahead of his trip: That he might be willing to unilaterally reopen the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) treaty as he had talked about on the campaign trail last year. Given the weakened economies of the three nations, he told Hispanic reporters on Friday, it is not the time to try to add enforceable labor and environmental protections to the treaty as some in his Democratic Party would prefer. "In terms of refining some of our agreements, that is not where everyone's focus is right now because we are in the middle of a very difficult economic situation," Obama said, although he added that he was still interested in learning how to improve the treaty. Another top issue at the summit is what to do about Mexican drug gangs who are killing rivals in record numbers, despite Calderon's three-year army assault on the cartels. The death rate this year from the violence is about a third higher than in 2008, and police in the United States and as far north as the western Canadian city of Vancouver have blamed the Mexican traffickers for crime. Obama is backing Calderon's efforts. "He is doing the right thing by going after them and he has done so with tremendous courage," Obama said. Obama promised full support to Calderon during a visit in April, but Mexico complains that anti-drug equipment and training are taking too long to arrive and hopes the summit will move things ahead. The leaders also promise a statement on H1N1 swine flu and will jointly address climate change as they prepare for major international talks in Copenhagen in December.

Take the October issue of GQ, which features Paul McCartney. For decades he has leaned on familiar Beatles anecdotes, presuming that decades-old chestnuts may still pass for warm. But in GQ, over the course of several long conversations, he revealed himself to be unstudied, slightly wishy-washy and much less preoccupied with the sanctity of his own image than you might think — he even offered a recollection about the Beatles’ teenage sexual adventures that led to a characteristically sweaty New York Post headline: “Beat the Meatles.” The story worked in two ways: For the reader and fan, it was appealingly revealing; for McCartney, who’s been famous so long he is more sculpture than human, it was a welcome softening. This took a willingness to answer questions, to submit to the give and take that comes with a profile of that scale. But not all big stories demand such transparency of their subjects: say, the September issue of Vogue with Beyoncé on the cover. The accompanying article is titled “Beyoncé in Her Own Words” — not a profile, but a collection of brief, only-occasionally-revealing commentaries on a range of topics: motherhood and family, body acceptance, touring. Anna Wintour refers to the story in her editor’s letter as a “powerful essay” that “Beyoncé herself writes,” as if that were an asset, not a liability. There was a journalist in the room at some point in the process — the piece has an “as told to” credit at the end — but outside perspectives have effectively been erased. For devotees of Beyoncé, this might not matter (though it should). But for devotees of celebrity journalism — the kind of work that aims to add context and depth to the fame economy, and which is predicated on the productive frisson between an interviewer and interviewee — this portends catastrophe. And it’s not an isolated event. In pop music especially, plenty of the most famous performers essentially eschew the press: Taylor Swift hasn’t given a substantive interview and access to a print publication for at least two years. For Drake, it’s been about a year (and a tumultuous one at that). Frank Ocean has all but disappeared (again). What’s replaced it isn’t satisfying: either outright silence, or more often, unidirectional narratives offered through social media. Monologue, not dialogue. It threatens to upend the role of the celebrity press. Since the 1960s, in-depth interviews have been a crucial part of the star-making process, but also a regular feature of high-level celebrity maintenance — artists didn’t abandon their obligations to the media just because they had reached the pinnacle of fame. Answering questions was part of the job. It was the way that the people making the most interesting culture explained themselves, whether it was John Lennon on the breakup of the Beatles, Tupac Shakur speaking out from jail, or Courtney Love in the wake of Kurt Cobain’s death. It was illuminating to fans, but also something of a badge of honour for the famous, especially when the conversations were adversarial. Stars like Ice Cube and Madonna used to thrive in those circumstances — the interviews revealed them to be thoughtful, unafraid of being challenged and alive to the creation of their image. But that was in a climate in which print publications had a disproportionate amount of leverage, and the internet and TMZ hadn’t wrested away narrative control. When stars’ comings and goings began to be documented on a minute-by-minute basis, those changes triggered celebrity reticence. On its own, that wouldn’t signal the death knell of celebrity journalism as it’s been practiced for decades. But the pressure being applied to celebrity journalism from the top might pale in comparison to the threat surging from below, where a new generation of celebrities — YouTube stars, SoundCloud rappers, and various other earnest young people — share extensively on social media on their own terms, moving quickly and decisively (and messily) with no need for the patience and pushback they might encounter in an interview setting. This generation is one of all-access hyper-documentation, making the promise of celebrity journalism — emphasising intimate perspective and behind-the-scenes access — largely irrelevant. An emblematic example is the rapper Lil Xan, who in recent months has played out several micro-dramas online: discussing his health struggles and how they put him at odds with his management (his phone was forcibly grabbed from his hand while he was live on Instagram discussing family drama); falling for and then breaking up with Noah Cyrus, Miley’s younger sister. Traditional media might catch up to his story someday, but he’s not waiting to be asked for a comment before providing one. (He recently announced on Instagram that he was filming a series for Netflix, again bypassing old platforms.) Sometimes, social media posts take the place of what was once the preserve of the tell-all interview: Ariana Grande mourned her ex-boyfriend, Mac Miller, in an Instagram post; the rapper XXXTentacion replied to allegations of sexual assault on his Instagram Story; the YouTube star Logan Paul used his usual platform to apologise for a video in which he filmed a dead body. These are one-sided stories, with no scrutiny beyond the comments section. And so they’ve become highly visible safe spaces for young celebrities, especially in an era when one’s direct social media audience — via Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and more — can far exceed the reach of even the most prestigious or popular publication, and in a way that’s laser-targeted to supporters. All of which leaves celebrity journalism in a likely unsolvable conundrum. The most famous have effectively dispensed with it, and the newly famous have grown up in an age where it was largely irrelevant. Over time, the middle space may well be squeezed into nothingness. What’s more, creation of content has been diversified — for the casual consumer, it can be difficult to tell the difference between original reporting and aggregation, content created by journalistic outlets and content created by brands. This blurriness incentivises the famous away from traditional media, where they don’t control the final product. And as old-media extinction looms, the new ecosystem is often used as a corrective — or loud distraction. Selena Gomez is on the cover of Elle this month, and the accompanying story is relatively innocuous. But when it appeared online, she replied with a long Instagram post expressing frustration. “Speaking from my heart for over an hour to someone who puts those thoughts into paid words can be hard for me,” she wrote. “The older I get the more I want my voice to be mine.” She then listed the specific things she sought to promote in the interview, and lamented that other things — namely, her personal life, and her church — were given too much attention. And so as the power dynamic tilts in favour of the famous over the press, publications — weakened, desperate, financially fragile — have been forced to find ever more contorted ways to trade, at minimum, the feeling of control in exchange for precious access. Celebrities guest edit — “edit” — special issues of magazines. And while Swift did appear on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar this year, in the accompanying article, she is the interviewer, asking questions of the rock muse Pattie Boyd. In 2015, Rihanna photographed herself for the cover of The Fader. (The shoot was executed in concert with a professional photographer.) It was, yes, a meta-commentary on panoptic fame, and also the cover star taking her own photograph. If those options aren’t available, magazines can simply assign a friend of the celebrity to conduct the interview. In Elle, Jennifer Lawrence interviewed Emma Stone. Blake Lively conducted Gigi Hadid’s Harper’s Bazaar May cover interview. Katy Perry’s March Glamour cover interview was by the Instagram affirmation specialist Cleo Wade. Interview, a magazine predicated on these sorts of intra-celebrity conversations, was recently resurrected; in the comeback issue, Raf Simons talks with George Condo (a journalist chimes in occasionally) and Jennifer Jason Leigh talks to Phoebe Cates. The friend doesn’t even have to be famous. In Rolling Stone’s current feature with the press-shy pop star Sia, the author announces himself as a longtime friend of hers. And New York magazine’s recent exclusive interview with Soon-Yi Previn, Woody Allen’s wife, was conducted by a longtime friend of Allen, to howls of dismay on Twitter. These stories trade on the perceived intimacy of friendships as a proxy for actual insight, abdicating the role of an objective press in the process. The covenant implicit in celebrity profiles is that the journalist is a proxy for the reader, not the subject. But in the thirst for exclusive access, the old rules get tossed by the wayside — ethics become inconvenient. Friendship should be a disqualifier, not a prerequisite. That is a disservice to fans, who miss out on what happens when someone in the room is pushing back, not merely taking dictation. Imagine how wildly illuminating probing conversations with Beyoncé about “Lemonade” or Swift about “Reputation” would have been, a boon to the curious as well as an opportunity for the interview subjects to be shown in their full complexity. But rather than engage on those terms, these stars have become hermetic. It’s a shame: We’ll never know the answers to the questions that aren’t asked.   © 2018 New York Times News Service

HAIKOU, China, Sat Jun 15,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - With a tropical climate and unspoilt, palm-fringed beaches, Hainan has all the ingredients to become one of Asia's top tourist resorts. But "China's Hawaii", as Hainan has been dubbed, only now seems poised to fulfill that ambition as it recovers from an economic slump that has left it lagging other parts of China. For years, the 48-storey tower that is the tallest building in Hainan province gathered dust as a half-built skeleton like hundreds of other ill-fated construction projects caught in one of China's nastiest property bubbles. Now construction is almost over and the plush Haikou Master hotel and serviced apartments is a symbol of the island's efforts to recover from a meltdown in the early 1990s after a wave of speculation pushed property into the stratosphere. "Sales are going very well," said agent Hong Weibin as he showed a new luxury flat in the complex. Almost all of the 16 million sq m (172.2 million sq ft) worth of construction left unfinished after the crash has either been completed or bulldozed, and investors are returning to Hainan. The anything-goes development model is gone, replaced by an intense focus on forging the tropical island in southwest China into a tourist destination to rival Thailand's beach resorts. Top resorts are opening in droves. The island is planning to broaden a visa exemption scheme, opening duty-free shops, improving infrastructure, building airports, expanding air links and promoting foreign language studies. "Tourism is the industry in Hainan with the most distinguished features, the most potential and the most competitiveness," vice governor Chen Cheng said late last month unveiling a strategic blueprint for development. "It's very attractive," said Ian Zheng, Managing Director of the Pacific Alliance Asia Opportunity Fund, which holds a $150 million stake in the group that owns Hainan's main airports and is also invested in a Beijing property firm working in Hainan. "I really don't foresee any big, material risks." NO LIGHTS ON If the island's azure coast doesn't immediately attract droves of international beachgoers, then the fast expanding pool of domestic tourists will almost certainly prop up the industry. The potentially huge Chinese market is a major draw for the resorts, who hope to leverage on the millions of people who have benefited from the country's economic boom and are increasingly adopting Western lifestyles and aspirations. "Some of the estimates I've seen suggest 450 million middle class Chinese in 10 years from now," said the Banyan Tree Sanya's general manager Peter Pedersen. "I think Sanya has a huge potential." Last month alone saw the Ritz-Carlton, the luxury arm of the world's number three hotel operator, and the Banyan Tree open resorts in Sanya, where the island's premier beach resort sits. The Mandarin Oriental follows later this year. It marks a huge change for Hainan, which until recently has been mainly known in China as a place for cheap package tours. "Sanya is one of the real new tropical destinations in Asia, and in China in particular of course it is the only tropical island," Pedersen told Reuters. "It's becoming more and more in demand for both the local market and the international tourist market. It makes a perfect spot," he added, standing on the top of one of the resort's individual pool villas, which go for some 5,000 yuan a night. SHENANIGANS A test-tube for development after becoming the country's youngest and economically freest province in 1988, Hainan's economy revved into a frenzy to the point where giddy officials even tried to sell the city's main park to developers. While other coastal provinces blossomed, Hainan languished. Now, Hainan finally seems to be finding its feet, but analysts and investors warn that imbalances and friction could upset the island's revival. In Haikou, the capital, some 60 percent of new flats are bought as second homes by people who aren't from Hainan, a problem the mayor Xu Tangxian acknowledges. "There are some areas where the homes are all sold, but there are no lights on at night," Xu said in an interview. While most tourists to Hainan are mainland Chinese -- 18 million last year against just 750,000 overseas visitors -- the government is working hard to attract affluent foreigners, who it hopes will boost the island's reputation and coffers. The goal is to "within five years, attract 20 famous international hotel management groups, and make the number of five star, international-standard resorts rise to 60 or more", provincial tourism bureau head Zhang Qi said last month. As developers drool over the tourism boom, tales of the usual shenanigans are emerging. In the rural township of Longqiao, about a 40-minute drive from Haikou, rust red earth is tilled up in long, wide swaths across the low hills, golfing fairways in the making. Locals say officials convinced them to sell their land for a golf course. In early April, when a rumor circulated that the government had sold the land to the golf course developer for some 10 times what the locals were paid, they were irate. An angry mob flipped a police car. Later, when a crowd gathered in a nearby schoolyard, police fired tear gas, witnesses said. In the southern town of Sanya, some say bottlenecks and corruption are starting to take a toll. One Western investor said he was having trouble getting a project off the ground due to "off the charts" graft. "The permit process has taken months longer than we expected," he said. Yet despite the hassles, the bullishness about Hainan's natural prospects in tourism is die-hard. "I think what you see in Sanya is only the tip of the iceberg. The island of Hainan is still very big. You have beaches more or less all the way up to the capital Haikou. The island is 350 km in diameter," said Banyan Tree Sanya's Pedersen. "The sky's the limit here".

It has taken weeks for EU countries to agree on the contours of the measure, and intensive talks will continue over the weekend before the European Commission, the bloc’s executive, puts a finalised proposal on paper for EU ambassadors to approve. The ambassadors will meet Wednesday and expect to give their final approval by the end of the week, several EU officials and diplomats involved in the process say. The diplomats and officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly on the progress of the sensitive talks. The oil embargo will be the biggest and most important new step in the EU’s sixth package of sanctions since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The package will also include sanctions against Russia’s biggest bank, Sberbank, which has so far been spared, as well as additional measures against high-profile Russians, officials said. Barring an unlikely last-minute demand by Hungary, which has been dragging its feet, the process should be completed without requiring an EU leaders’ meeting — avoiding the time-consuming effort of dragging all 27 heads of state to Brussels. The embargo is likely to affect Russian oil transported by tankers more quickly than oil coming by pipeline, which could take a matter of months. In both cases, however, it is likely that the bloc will allow its members to wind down existing contracts with Russian oil companies as it did with its coal ban, which was given four months to be fully put in place. Germany’s position has been critical in finalising the new measure. The country, the bloc’s economic leader, was importing about one-third of its oil from Russia at the time of the Ukraine invasion. But its influential energy minister, Robert Habeck, said this week that Germany had been able to cut that to just 12% in recent weeks, making a full embargo “manageable.” “The problem that seemed very large for Germany only a few weeks ago has become much smaller,” Habeck told the news media during a visit to Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday. “Germany has come very, very close to independence from Russian oil imports,” he added, but he did not explain how it was able to accomplish that so quickly. Russia is Europe’s biggest oil supplier, providing about one-quarter of the bloc’s yearly needs, according to 2020 data — about half of Russia’s total exports. As the oil embargo is phased in, officials said the bloc would seek to make up the shortfall by increasing imports from other sources, such as Persian Gulf countries, Nigeria, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. The embargo, even if softened by a monthslong phase-in period, is likely to put pressure on global oil prices, compounding already high energy costs around the world. An idea to lessen the impact, floated by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last week, was to impose tariffs or a price cap on Russia’s oil instead of an outright embargo. But that did not gain traction with Europeans, officials said. © 2022 The New York Times Company

The world’s longest serving monarch has designated Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn to represent him in granting an audience for the presentation of the letters of credence of the new ambassadors. Bangladesh mission in Bangkok on Friday said while presenting the credentials at Ambara Villa, Tasneem also handed over the goodwill messages of President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to the King. She also vowed to strengthen the bilateral relations in all fronts during her tenure. She is also the non-resident ambassador of Bangladesh to Cambodia, and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UNESCAP. Last year in November, soon after her arrival in Bangkok, she presented her ‘letter of introduction’ as Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative to UNESCAP to its executive secretary. In June this year, she presented her credentials as the non-resident ambassador of Cambodia. As per Thai practices, it takes time to submit credentials in Bangkok. But ambassadors become functional officially soon after their joining the mission. During the exchange of views, the Crown Prince praised the people of Bangladesh as “hard-working and resilient” in the face of many challenges, including that of climate change. He highlighted that Bangladesh and Thailand “share similar kinds of challenges, particularly related to climate change and disaster risk reduction”. The Crown Prince also recalled the two visits by his sister Princess Maha Chakri  Sirindhorn to Bangladesh in 2010 and 2011 and expressed interest to continue the Thai Royal development projects in Bangladesh. Ambassador Tasneem underlined the importance of strengthening connectivity between Buddhist devotees of the two nations and also enhancing the two countries shared Buddhist heritage by expanding Buddhist circuit tourism.

WASHINGTON, Sun Nov 2,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - As the US presidential candidates sprint toward the finish line, the Bush administration is also sprinting to enact environmental policy changes before leaving power. Whether it's getting wolves off the Endangered Species List, allowing power plants to operate near national parks, loosening regulations for factory farm waste or making it easier for mountaintop coal-mining operations, these proposed changes have found little favor with environmental groups. The one change most environmentalists want, a mandatory program to cut climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions, is not among these so-called "midnight regulations." Bureaucratic calendars make it virtually impossible that any US across-the-board action will be taken to curb global warming in this administration, though both Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama have promised to address it if they win Tuesday's US presidential election. Even some free-market organizations have joined conservation groups to urge a moratorium on last-minute rules proposed by the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, among others. "The Bush administration has had eight years in office and has issued more regulations than any administration in history," said Eli Lehrer of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. "At this point, in the current economic climate, it would be especially harmful to push through ill-considered regulations in the final days of the administration." John Kostyack of the National Wildlife Federation, which joined Lehrer's group to call for a ban on these last-minute rules, said citizens are cut out of the process, allowing changes in U.S. law that the public opposes, such as rolling back protections under the Endangered Species Act. WHAT'S THE RUSH? The Bush team has urged that these regulations be issued no later than Saturday, so they can be put in effect by the time President George W. Bush leaves office on January 20. If they are in effect then, it will be hard for the next administration to undo them, and in any case, this may not be the top priority for a new president, said Matt Madia of OMB Watch, which monitors the White House Office of Management and Budget, through which these proposed regulations must pass. "This is typical," Madia said of the administration's welter of eleventh-hour rules. "It's a natural reaction to knowing that you're almost out of power." Industry is likely to benefit if Bush's rules on the environment become effective, Madia said. "Whether it's the electricity industry or the mining industry or the agriculture industry, this is going to remove government restrictions on their activity and in turn they're going to be allowed to pollute more and that ends up harming the public," Madia said in a telephone interview. What is unusual is the speedy trip some of these environmental measures are taking through the process. For example, one Interior Department rule that would erode protections for endangered species in favor of mining interests drew more than 300,000 comments from the public, which officials said they planned to review in a week, a pace that Madia called "pretty ludicrous." Why the rush? Because rules only go into effect 30 to 60 days after they are finalized, and if they are not in effect when the next president takes office, that chief executive can decline to put them into practice -- as Bush did with many rules finalized at the end of the Clinton administration. White House spokesman Tony Fratto denied the Bush team was cramming these regulations through in a hasty push. Fratto discounted reports "that we're trying to weaken regulations that have a business interest," telling White House reporters last week the goal was to avoid the flood of last-minute rules left over from the Clinton team. There is at least one Bush administration environmental proposal that conservation groups welcome: a plan to create what would be the world's largest marine wildlife sanctuary in the Pacific Ocean. That could go into effect January 20.