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WASHINGTON, Apr 28, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The outbreak of a flu virus that has led to a US public health emergency highlights the need for a strong government commitment to scientific research, President Barack Obama said on Monday. During remarks on science and technology that covered topics from climate change to the public-school curriculum, Obama set a goal of devoting 3 percent of gross domestic product to scientific research. "If there was ever a day that reminded us of our shared stake in science and research, it's today," Obama said in a speech to the National Academy of Sciences, a society of scientists and engineers who give advice to US policymakers. "Our capacity to deal with a public health challenge of this sort rests heavily on the work of our scientific and medical community," Obama said. "And this is one more example of why we cannot allow our nation to fall behind." Obama said that US cases of swine flu were "not a cause for alarm" but the administration was monitoring them closely. The administration said its declaration of a public health emergency was precautionary. The flu has killed 149 people in Mexico and spread to North America and Europe. Though no one outside of Mexico has died, pandemic fears have been raised. Obama invoked the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the 1950s and 1960s as an example of the importance of a major investment in research, and said science spending as a share of GDP has declined since that "high water mark." Through the goal of spending more than 3 percent of GDP on science, "we will not just meet, but we will exceed the level achieved at the height of the space race," Obama said. The goal refers to public and private spending. The United States now spends 2.66 percent of gross domestic product on research and development, according to the White House. Some of the increased spending is included in the $787 billion economic stimulus package that Obama signed in February. In his proposed fiscal 2010 budget, Obama called for making permanent tax credits for business investment in research and development. The science speech comes as the White House is trying to highlight Obama's accomplishments with the approach of the 100-day mark for his presidency on Wednesday. He also touted his proposals to tackle global climate change, which face a fight in the US Congress, saying it was "this generation's challenge to break our dependence on fossil fuels." The administration on Monday also opened a two-day meeting of major world economies on climate change. Obama wants to cut US emissions by roughly 15 percent by 2020 -- back to 1990 levels -- mostly through a cap-and-trade system that limits how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases big factories can emit. That proposal is at the heart of a bill under consideration in Congress. Republicans have criticized the cap-and-trade system as a backhanded energy tax. Some moderate Democrats are also worried about the impact of the plan on jobs and the economy.

Global warming is occurring faster than predicted because rapid economic growth has resulted in higher than expected greenhouse gas emissions since 2000, said an Australian report on Tuesday. Emissions from burning fossil fuels have increased about 3 percent a year since 2000, up from 1 percent a year during the 1990s, said Australia's peak scientific body, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). "A major driver of the accelerating growth rate in emissions is that, globally, we're burning more carbon per dollar of wealth created," CSIRO scientist Mike Raupach said in a statement. "It means that climate change is occurring faster than has been predicted by most of the studies done through the 1990s and into the early 2000s," he said. Raupach led an international team of carbon-cycle experts, emissions experts and economists, brought together by the CSIRO's Global Carbon Project, to quantify global carbon emissions and demand for fossil fuels. The report found nearly 8 billion metric tons of carbon were emitted globally into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide in 2005, compared with just 6 billion metric tons in 1995. "As countries undergo industrial development, they move through a period of intensive, and often inefficient, use of fossil fuel," said Raupach. "Efficiencies improve along this development trajectory, but eventually tend to level off. Industrialised countries such as Australia and the US are at the leveling-off stage, while developing countries such as China are at the intensive development stage." Since the start of the industrial revolution, the United States and Europe account for more than 50 percent of global emissions over two centuries, while China accounts for less than 8 per cent, said the CSIRO report. The 50 least-developed nations contributed less than 0.5 percent of global emissions over 200 years, it said. On average, each person in Australia and the United States now emits more than 5 tons of carbon per year, while in China the figure is 1 ton per year, said the report. "In addition to reinforcing the urgency of the need to reduce emissions, an important outcome of this work is to show that carbon emissions have history," said Raupach. "We have to take both present and past emissions trajectories into account in negotiating global emissions reductions. To be effective, emissions reductions have to be both workable and equitable," he said. The CSIRO report found Australia's per capita emissions were amongst the highest in the world due to a heavy reliance on fossil-fuel generated electricity and a dependence on cars and trucks for transport. "That means that we have quite a way to go in terms of reducing our emissions to bring about CO2 stabilisation," said Raupach. "Our own improvements in the energy efficiency of the economy ... have been not as rapid as improvements in other developed countries." Australia, like close ally the United States, refuses to sign the Kyoto Protocol setting caps on greenhouse gas emissions, and has called for a global scheme to replace "Old Kyoto". Both countries say the pact is unworkable because it excludes big developing nations such as India and China from binding targets during the treaty's first phase, which ends in 2012. China is the world's second top emitter of carbon dioxide after the United States. Negotiations have yet to start in earnest on shaping Kyoto's next phase, with India and China strongly opposed to binding targets and demanding rich nations, particularly the United States, commit to deep reductions in emissions.

Chinese President Hu Jintao lauded closer cooperation with Japan when he arrived on Tuesday for a state visit intended to nurture trust between the Asian powers despite rifts over energy resources and security. Hu was greeted in Tokyo by senior Japanese officials and flag-waving, mostly Chinese well-wishers. Downtown, some 7,000 police were deployed ahead of threatened protests by hundreds of right-wing activists who see China as a danger. But China is promoting itself as a friendly neighbor after years of feuding over Japan's handling of its wartime aggression, and Hu has stressed forward-looking goals for his five days of ceremony, speeches and deals, as well as table tennis and perhaps pandas. China's second ever state visit to Japan comes as it seeks to calm international tensions over Tibetan unrest, which has threatened to mar Beijing's Olympic Games, a showcase of national pride. With the two economies increasingly intertwined, Hu said better ties were important to both countries' prosperity. "I sincerely hope for generations of friendship between the people of China and Japan," Hu wrote in a message to Japanese readers of a Chinese magazine, Xinhua news agency reported. Cooperation has "brought real benefits to the people of both countries and spurred the growth and development of each," Hu said. "These achievements are worth treasuring by the people of China and Japan." The Beijing Games were "Asia's Olympics and the world's Olympics", Hu added. Certainly much is at stake in ties between Asia's two biggest economies. China replaced the United States as Japan's top trade partner last year, with two-way trade worth $236.6 billion, up 12 percent from 2006. OPPORTUNITIES, ANXIETIES But while China's fast growth offers opportunities, Beijing's accompanying expansion in diplomatic and military reach has stirred deeper anxieties in Japan -- over disputed energy resources, military power and the safety standards of Chinese exports. "Although the iceberg between China and Japan has melted, fully warming relations require further efforts from both sides," a commentator wrote in China's People's Daily on Tuesday. The political climax of Hu's visit is set to be a summit on Wednesday with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, when they hope to unveil a joint blueprint for managing ties in coming years. But it was unclear whether the avowals of friendship would narrow disagreements or merely bathe them in warm words. Japanese media reports said touchy references in the document to Taiwan, human rights, and Japan's hopes for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council were still under negotiation. The two country's are also quarrelling over the rights to gas beds beneath the East China Sea, while a row over Chinese-made dumplings laced with pesticide that made several people sick has become, analysts say, a symbol of Japanese alarm at China's rise. PING-PONG AND PANDAS Officials from both sides had earlier raised hopes of a breakthrough in the gas dispute before Hu's visit, but a swift compromise seems unlikely. Japan also wants greater transparency about China's surging defense spending, set at 418 billion yuan ($60 billion) for 2008, up 17.6 percent on 2007 and outstripping Japan's defense budget. Foreign critics say China's real military budget is much higher. Tokyo wants Chinese backing for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, an issue that in 2005 fuelled anti-Japanese protests in China, where there is deep rancor over Japan's harsh 1931-1945 occupation of much of the country. A mainland China-run Hong Kong paper, the Ta Kung Pao, indicated that Hu was unlikely to meet Japanese hopes. "There are several touchy issues that it will be very difficult for this trip to settle," said the paper, citing the gas dispute and the Security Council issue. "At the least, the time isn't ripe...But reaching some vague understandings may be possible." For its part, China has pressed Japan to spell out again its stance on Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing says must accept reunification. Tokyo has said it supports "one China" that includes Taiwan, which was a Japanese colony for fifty years until 1945 and keeps close ties to Japan. Still, the two sides are keen to stress forward-looking goodwill and are to issue a joint document on fighting climate change, a key topic for Japan as host of the July G8 summit. Hu will give a speech to university students in Tokyo, he may play table tennis with Fukuda and he might also offer Japan a panda to replace one that died in a Tokyo zoo in April. ($1=6.988 Yuan)

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday he was optimistic that the world could agree on a climate change accord with the support of the US administration of Barack Obama. In his opening remarks to the Global Humanitarian Forum, Annan said the clock was ticking for the world to avert extreme storms, floods and droughts that will intensify with global warming. "Every year we delay, the greater the damage, the more extensive the human misery," he told an audience at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva, also warning of "cost, pain and disruption of inevitable action later". His group's two-day meeting has drawn together heads of UN agencies with government officials and experts for talks on practical ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions that scientists expect to stoke global warming and cause rising sea levels and loss of food production. Annan, 71, said he hoped their discussions on "the greatest environmental and humanitarian concern of our age" would help set the stage for a deal in Copenhagen in December on a successor to the Kyoto accord. "A new president and new administration in the United States have demonstrated their seriousness about combating climate change. Given that the US is the greatest source of emissions, this raises optimism for Copenhagen and beyond," Annan said. More than 190 countries will meet in Copenhagen to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which regulates emissions of greenhouse gases. Economic stimulus efforts in Washington, Brussels and around the world in response to the global economic downturn have also pumped investment into low-carbon energy and alternative technologies that could create jobs and boost sustainable projects, Annan said. Climate experts have warned pledges by industrialised nations to cut emissions by 2020 fall far short of the deep cuts widely advocated to avert dangerous climate change. Overall emissions cuts promised by industrialised nations in the run-up to December's meeting now average between 10 and 14 percent below 1990 levels, according to Reuters calculations. The UN Climate Panel says cuts must be in the 25-40 percent range below 1990 levels to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

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.

OPEC will back the fight against global warming and affirm its commitment to stable oil prices when its heads of state meeting ends on Sunday, but only Saudi Arabia has so far pledged cash for climate change research. Saudi King Abdullah said on Saturday the world's top oil exporter would give $300 million for environmental research, but other leaders have yet to make similar promises. "We are not committing anything. We don't know what the proposal is," Algerian Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil said. "As far as I am aware, nobody else has committed anything either." OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri said this week OPEC would be willing to play its part in developing carbon capture and storage technology to help reduce emissions. According to a draft final communique read over the telephone by an OPEC delegate, the group will say it "shares the international community's concern that climate change is a long-term challenge" and seek "stability of global energy markets" but will make no mention of any environmental fund. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday he expected the summit to affirm commitment to "stable and competitive" oil prices. He warned that crude oil prices, already close to $100 per barrel, could double on global markets if the United States attacks his ally Iran over its disputed nuclear programme. "If the United States is crazy enough to attack Iran or commit aggression against Venezuela ... oil would not be $100 but $200," Chavez told heads of state including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the Saudi capital Riyadh. Fears the United States or its ally Israel could attack Iran, which Washington says is covertly seeking to develop atomic weapons, have helped drive world oil prices to record levels. Tehran denies the charge. NO OIL SUPPLY DECISIONS Soaring prices have prompted calls by consumer nations for the exporter group to provide the market with more crude, but OPEC oil ministers said this week any decision on raising output will be left to a meeting in Abu Dhabi on Dec. 5. Iran and Venezuela are seen as price hawks, while Riyadh has traditionally accommodated Western calls to curb prices. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa told the conference on Sunday he favoured pricing oil in a currency stronger than the dollar. The U.S. currency's drop in the value against other major currencies has helped fuel oil's rally to $98.62 last week but has also reduced the purchasing power of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. On Friday, Saudi Arabia steered the group towards rebuffing an attempt by Iran and Venezuela to highlight concern over dollar weakness in the summit communique. Analysts say Saudi King Abdullah, a close U.S. ally and, as OPEC's "swing producer", veteran guarantor of crude to the United States, is keen to keep populists Chavez and Ahmadinejad from grabbing the summit limelight with anti-U.S. rhetoric. The octogenarian leader sat stony-faced throughout Chavez's 25-minute speech on Saturday, and was heard joking to the Venezuelan president afterwards: "You went on a bit!" Addressing leaders assembled in an opulent hall with massive crystal chandeliers and toilet accessories fitted in gold leaf, self-styled socialist revolutionary Chavez said OPEC "must stand up and act as a vanguard against poverty in the world. "OPEC should be a more active geopolitical agent and demand more respect for our countries ... and ask powerful nations to stop threatening OPEC," he said. Ahmadinejad said he would give his views at the summit's close. Saudi Arabia this month proposed setting up a consortium to provide Iran with enriched uranium for peaceful purposes in an effort to diffuse the tension between Washington and Tehran. Iran said it will not halt its own enrichment programme. Worried by a resurgent Iran with potential nuclear capability, Gulf Arab countries, including OPEC producers Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, have said they will start a nuclear energy programme of their own.

Dhaka, Sept 15 (bdnews24.com)–The finance minister has blamed the donors not fulfilling their aid pledges for the country's failure to pull itself out of poverty and get over other problems. AMA Muhith made the remarks at the launch of a report on Bangladesh's progress towards Millennium Development Goals at Sonargaon hotel in the city on Wednesday. He said he believed MDGs will not be difficult to achieve if donor agencies fulfill their pledges. Like other countries, Bangladesh is committed, under the MDGs, to eradicate extreme poverty by halving the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day by 2015. The minister said there are various problems in achieving MDGs though there has been progress on some issues. The malnutrition of children still remains as a major problem, he said. Muhith said arsenic problem is yet to be fully addressed though the sanitation problem has been mostly solved. On the country's economic growth, he said the rate is good but below that of the neighbouring countries. Planning minister AK Khandker and foreign minister Dipu Moni, among others, spoke at the function. Khandker called for more international help to address climate change effects that Bangladesh is facing. Natural calamities from climate change stand in the way of the country's development, Moni said. She claimed progress on poverty reduction, women empowerment, primary education and child mortality. Planning Commission member Shamsul Alam presented the progress report.

WASHINGTON, April 22, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates said on Wednesday they will launch a global agricultural fund to boost food production in the developing world. In an opinion piece, Gates and Geithner said the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, which will be launched in Washington on Thursday, will help farmers grow more food and earn more from farming. "As the world's population increases in the coming years and as changes in the climate create water shortages that destroy crops, the number of people without adequate access to food is likely to increase," Gates and Geithner wrote in the Wall Street Journal. "As that happens, small farmers and people living in poverty will need the most help," they wrote. The fund was first proposed by the United States at a meeting of the Group of Eight in Italy in 2008, where it urged countries to pool their resources to invest in agriculture in the world's poorest countries. Gates and Geithner said commitments for the fund total nearly $900 million from now until 2012. They said Canada, Spain and South Korea would contribute funding. The fund, which will be supervised by the World Bank, will provide financing to poor countries with high levels of food insecurity and have developed sound agricultural plans to boost crop production. The fund will invest in infrastructure that will link farmers to markets, promote sustainable water-use management, and increase access to better seeds and technologies. A rise in world food prices in 2008 to record levels highlighted the chronic underinvestment in agriculture in developing countries, where three-quarters of the poor live in rural areas. Gates' foundation has long been active in providing funding for projects to increase agricultural production of small-scale farmers in Africa and elsewhere. It has particularly been interested in improving access to food, working closely with the United Nation's World Food Programme. The United States is the world's largest food aid donor. While enough food is produced in the world to end hunger, more than 1 billion people go hungry because they cannot afford to buy food or otherwise cannot access supplies.

A VIP Biman Bangladesh flight left Dhaka with the prime minister and her delegation on Tuesday at 12:10pm. The flight is scheduled to arrive in London on Tuesday night Bangladesh time. Hasina will stopover in London for a day to spend time with family members. Her niece Tulip Siddiq has been re-elected MP in the British elections on Jun 8. The prime minister is scheduled to arrive in Stockholm on Wednesday night local time, said her Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim.  The Swedish prime minister had invited her Bangladesh counterpart for the visit, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali had said at a press briefing on Sunday. This visit would “deepen and expand” the cooperation between the countries and would also “brighten” Bangladesh’s image in Europe. Two Memorandum of Understanding or MoUs on Sweden-Bangladesh Business Council and Nordic Chamber of Commerce and Industries are also expected to be signed. A joint statement will also be issued after the visit. A 47-member business delegation will also accompany the prime minister. During her visit to Sweden on Jun 15 and 16, she would meet her counterpart in a bilateral meeting. Besides, the PM will also meet deputy prime minister, acting speaker and minister for justice and migration. She will also meet the chief executives of some Swedish companies. Sweden was one of the first countries in Europe that supported Bangladesh in 1971.  Feb 4, 2017 marked the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. Bangladesh exports garments worth $5 billion every year to Sweden to one of its known brands H&M. The foreign minister said the visit would strengthen the bilateral cooperation and bring investment and strengthen ties in the field of migration, climate change, UN peacekeeping, and counter-terrorism and extremism. Bangladesh’s all products enter in Sweden with duty-free market access. The prime minister will leave for Dhaka on Jun 16 and arrive on Saturday.

The United States must take another step towards a global climate change pact when major industrialized countries meet in Japan next week, the head of the European Union's executive said on Friday. "In this G8 summit we will expect the United States to show more ambition than they have shown so far," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told reporters. He noted a recent narrowing of differences between Brussels and Washington on the need to tackle emissions of greenhouse gases linked to rising global temperatures, but the two sides remained far apart on how to do it. EU officials said that, without a step forward by U.S. President George W. Bush, there was little chance of progress until late next year when countries would be rushing to try to thrash out a new U.N. climate change deal. The next round of U.N. climate talks is due to take place in Poland in December, but the United States will be in transition, before the inauguration of its next president in January. "The world expects more from a major economy like the United States," Barroso said. "I am saying that not just as a hope -- I expect the U.S. will accept a more ambitious conclusion at the G8 than the one last year." At a Group of Eight summit last year, leaders of the world's richest countries agreed to consider seriously a global goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Now the EU wants the G8 to fix that goal and agree on the need for a target for cutting emissions by 2020, although officials in Brussels concede there is little chance of the Bush administration backing the idea of a near-term goal. Barroso said a 2050 target would not be credible without a closer goal, too. He said he expected the next U.S. president to "enhance" the shift in Washington's position towards measures already agreed by the EU. The 27-nation EU has agreed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 and is now working on rules on emissions by industry, cars and aircraft and other legislation to meet that target. The United States says it is committed to fighting climate change but refuses to accept binding emissions cuts until big developing economies such as China and India agree to mandatory limits.

That is the conclusion of scientists who examined the bones of fish that died on that day when a 6-mile-wide asteroid collided with Earth. “These fishes died in spring,” said Melanie During, a graduate student at Uppsala University in Sweden and lead author of a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature. “The reign of dinosaurs ended in spring.” Scientists have known when the meteor hit — just over 66 million years ago, give or take 11,000 years — and where it hit, off the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. That ended the Cretaceous period of Earth’s geological history, but even though three-quarters or more of the species of plants and animals disappeared in the mass extinction that followed, it has been hard to pinpoint fossils of anything directly killed by the meteor. But in 2019, palaeontologists published the discovery in southwestern North Dakota of what appeared to be a mass graveyard of creatures that died hours or days after the impact. Although North Dakota was about 2,000 miles from where the meteor hit, the seismic waves of what was the equivalent of an earthquake with a magnitude of 10 or 11 sloshed water out of the lakes and rivers and killed the fish. Tektites — small glass beads propelled into the air by the impact — rained from the skies. The researchers spent years exploring the site, known as Tanis, which is in the fossil-rich Hell Creek formation that stretches across four states. An article in The New Yorker described Tanis as a wonderland of fossil finds; the initial scientific paper describing the site was more sparse on details, focusing on the geological setting. With the new science results, the fossils now provide insight into the cataclysm that was previously impossible to discern. “It’s amazing that we can take an event, a single moment that happened 66 million years ago — literally a rock falling down and in an instant striking the Earth — and we can pinpoint that event to a particular time of the year,” said Stephen L Brusatte, a palaeontologist at the University of Edinburgh who was not involved in the research. “I think it’s a detective story of the highest calibre.” Animals in the Northern Hemisphere — some emerging from hibernation or giving birth to young — might have been more vulnerable to extinction. “If it was spring, then it was not very likely for many organisms to be in hibernation,” During said during a telephone news conference arranged by Nature. Animals in the Southern Hemisphere, hunkering down in autumn, might have been more sheltered from the sudden, drastic change in climate. “If you could hibernate that would increase your chances,” During said. “If you could seal yourself off in a burrow or if you could shelter underwater, that could help you.” Brusatte agreed. “I think there is some potential here for helping understand the patterns and the processes of the extinction,” he said. During first heard about Tanis during a talk in 2017 by Jan Smit, an expert on the dinosaur extinction at Vrije University in Amsterdam, where she was working on a master’s degree. She was intrigued by his description of the North Dakota fossil finds. “I actually started typing him an email from my phone from the back of the room, saying, ‘Hey, if you have these fishes, can we please do isotopic analysis on their bones?’” During said. She got in touch with Robert DePalma, the palaeontologist orchestrating the study of Tanis. In August 2017, During flew to North Dakota and spent 10 days at Tanis excavating fossils of six fish: three sturgeon and three paddlefish. In the laboratory, the scientists sliced thin pieces of bone from the lower jaws of the paddlefish and from the pectoral fin spines of the sturgeon. They saw repeating light and dark lines reflecting seasonal changes in the rate of growth, similar to tree rings. The outermost part of the bones indicated that the fish were becoming more active and growing faster after the end of winter. “My guess is on April,” During said. “It was definitely not summer.” Swings in the levels of different types, or isotopes, of carbon in the bones indicated how much plankton was in the water for the fish to eat. The levels were lower than what they would be during summer’s peak abundance. That added to the “various lines of evidence that we have that these fish perished in spring,” said Jeroen van der Lubbe, a paleo-climatologist at Vrije University and one of the authors of the Nature paper. Tektites were found trapped in the gills of the fish but not in the digestive tract. “They couldn’t swim on,” During said. “They immediately died.” Another team of scientists led by DePalma independently performed similar analysis on fish fossils and reported almost the same conclusions last December in the journal Scientific Reports. ©2022 The New York Times Company

Demand for this indispensable component already outstrips supply, prompting a global gold rush that has investors, established companies and startups racing to develop the technology and build the factories needed to churn out millions of electric cars. Long considered one of the least interesting car components, batteries may now be one of the most exciting parts of the auto industry. Car manufacturing hasn’t fundamentally changed in 50 years and is barely profitable, but the battery industry is still ripe for innovation. Technology is evolving at a pace that is reminiscent of the early days of personal computers, mobile phones or even automobiles and an influx of capital has the potential to mint the next Steve Jobs or Henry Ford. Wood Mackenzie, an energy research and consulting firm, estimates that electric vehicles will make up about 18 percent of new car sales by 2030. That would increase the demand for batteries by about eight times as much as factories can currently produce. And that is a conservative estimate. Some analysts expect electric vehicle sales to grow much faster. Carmakers are engaged in an intense race to acquire the chemical recipe that will deliver the most energy at the lowest price and in the smallest package. GM’s announcement last month that it would go all electric by 2035 was widely considered a landmark moment by policymakers and environmentalists. But to many people in the battery industry, the company was stating the obvious. “This was the last in a wave of big announcements that very clearly signaled that electric vehicles are here,” said Venkat Viswanathan, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University who researches battery technology. Battery manufacturing is dominated by companies like Tesla, Panasonic, LG Chem, BYD China and SK Innovation — nearly all of them based in China, Japan or South Korea. But there are also many new players getting into the game. And investors, sensing the vast profits at stake, are hurling money at startups that they believe are close to breakthroughs. “I think we’re in the infancy stage,” said Andy Palmer, the former chief executive of Aston Martin and now the nonexecutive vice chairman of InoBat Auto, a battery startup. “There is more money than there are ideas.” QuantumScape, a Silicon Valley startup whose investors include Volkswagen and Bill Gates, is working on a technology that could make batteries cheaper, more reliable and quicker to recharge. But it has no substantial sales and it could fail to produce and sell batteries. Yet, stock market investors consider the company to be more valuable than the French carmaker Renault. China and the European Union are injecting government funds into battery technology. China sees batteries as crucial to its ambition to dominate the electric vehicle industry. In response, the Chinese government helped Contemporary Amperex Technology, which is partly state-owned, become one of the world’s biggest battery suppliers seemingly overnight. The European Union is subsidising battery production to avoid becoming dependent on Asian suppliers and to preserve auto industry jobs. Last month, the European Commission, the bloc’s administrative arm, announced a 2.9 billion euro ($3.5 billion) fund to support battery manufacturing and research. That was on top of the more than 60 billion euros that European governments and automakers had already committed to electric vehicles and batteries, according to the consulting firm Accenture. Some of the government money will go to Tesla as a reward for the company’s decision to build a factory near Berlin. The United States is also expected to promote the industry in accordance with President Joe Biden’s focus on climate change and his embrace of electric cars. In a campaign ad last year, Biden, who owns a 1967 Chevrolet Corvette, said he was looking forward to driving an electric version of the sports car if GM decides to make one. Several battery factories are in the planning or construction phase in the United States, including a factory GM is building in Ohio with LG, but analysts said federal incentives for electric car and battery production would be crucial to creating a thriving industry in the United States. So will technological advances by government-funded researchers and domestic companies like QuantumScape and Tesla, which last fall outlined its plans to lower the cost and improve the performance of batteries. “There’s no secret that China strongly promotes manufacturing and new development,” said Margaret Mann, a group manager in the Centre for Integrated Mobility Sciences at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a unit of the US Energy Department. “I am not pessimistic,” she said of the United States’ ability to gain ground in battery production. “But I don’t think all of the problems have been solved yet.” Entrepreneurs working in this area said these were early days and US companies could still leapfrog the Asian producers that dominate the industry. “Today’s batteries are not competitive,” said Jagdeep Singh, chief executive of QuantumScape, which is based in San Jose, California. “Batteries have enormous potential and are critical for a renewable energy economy, but they have to get better.” For the most part, all of the money pouring into battery technology is good news. It puts capitalism to work on solving a global problem. But this reordering of the auto industry will also claim some victims, like the companies that build parts for internal combustion engine cars and trucks, or automakers and investors that bet on the wrong technology. “Battery innovations are not overnight,” said Venkat Srinivasan, director of the Argonne National Laboratory’s Collaborative Centre for Energy Storage Science. “It can take you many years. All sorts of things can happen.” Most experts are certain that demand for batteries will empower China, which refines most of the metals used in batteries and produces more than 70 percent of all battery cells. And China’s grip on battery production will slip only marginally during the next decade despite ambitious plans to expand production in Europe and the United States, according to projections by Roland Berger, a German management consulting firm. Battery production has “deep geopolitical ramifications,” said Tom Einar Jensen, the chief executive of Freyr, which is building a battery factory in northern Norway to take advantage of the region’s abundant wind and hydropower. “The European auto industry doesn’t want to rely too much on imports from Asia in general and China in particular,” he added. Freyr plans to raise $850 million as part of a proposed merger with Alussa Energy Acquisition Corp., a shell company that sold shares before it had any assets. The deal, announced in January, would give Freyr a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The company plans to make batteries using technology developed by 24M Technologies in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The first priority for the industry is to make batteries cheaper. Electric car batteries for a midsize vehicle cost about $15,000, or roughly double the price they need to be for electric cars to achieve mass acceptance, Srinivasan said. Those savings can be achieved by making dozens of small improvements — like producing batteries close to car factories to avoid shipping costs — and by reducing waste, according to Roland Berger. About 10 percent of the materials that go into making a battery are wasted because of inefficient production methods. But, in a recent study, Roland Berger also warned that growing demand could push up prices for raw materials like lithium, cobalt and nickel and cancel out some of those efficiency gains. The auto industry is competing for batteries with electric utilities and other energy companies that need them to store intermittent wind and solar power, further driving up demand. “We are getting rumbles there may be a supply crunch this year,” said Jason Burwen, interim chief executive for the United States Energy Storage Association. An entire genre of companies has sprung up to replace expensive minerals used in batteries with materials that are cheaper and more common. OneD Material, based in San Jose, California, makes a substance that looks like used coffee grounds for use in anodes, the electrode through which power leaves batteries when a vehicle is underway. The material is made from silicon, which is abundant and inexpensive, to reduce the need for graphite, which is scarcer and more expensive. Longer term, the industry holy grail is solid state batteries, which will replace the liquid lithium solution at the core of most batteries with solid layers of a lithium compound. Solid state batteries would be more stable and less prone to overheating, allowing faster charging times. They would also weigh less. Toyota Motor Co. and other companies have invested heavily in the technology, and have already succeeded in building some solid state batteries. The hard part is mass producing them at a reasonable cost. Much of the excitement around QuantumScape stems from the company’s assertion that it has found a material that solves one of the main impediments to mass production of solid state batteries, namely their tendency to short circuit if there are any imperfections. Still, most people in the industry don’t expect solid state batteries to be widely available until around 2030. Mass producing batteries is “the hardest thing in the world,” Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, said on a recent conference call with analysts. “Prototypes are easy. Scaling production is very hard.” One thing is certain: It’s a great time to have a degree in electrochemistry. Those who understand the properties of lithium, nickel, cobalt and other materials are to batteries what software coders are to computers. Jakub Reiter, for example, has been fascinated with battery chemistry since he was a teenager growing up in the 1990s in Prague, long before that seemed like a hot career choice. Reiter was doing graduate research in Germany in 2011 when a headhunter recruited him to work at BMW, which wanted to understand the underlying science of batteries. Last year, InoBat poached him to help set up a factory in Slovakia, where Volkswagen, Kia, Peugeot and Jaguar Land Rover produce cars. Reiter is now head of science at InoBat, whose technology allows customers to quickly develop batteries for different uses, like a low-cost battery for a commuter car or a high-performance version for a roadster. “Twenty years ago, nobody cared much about batteries,” Reiter said. Now, he said, there is intense competition and “it’s a big fight.”   2021 The New York Times Company

Australian Prime Minister John Howard faces a crushing electoral defeat which could see him lose his own Sydney-based seat, a poll showed on Sunday. Howard, 11 years in power and facing re-election in a national vote tipped for November 10, trailed high-profile former television presenter Maxine McKew, 46 percent to 53 when votes were distributed to the two major parties, a Galaxy poll for The Sunday Telegraph newspaper and SBS television showed. McKew, recruited to the rival Labor Party to take on the conservative Howard, was also level with the veteran prime minister when voters were asked who would do the best job for the seat of Bennelong, held by Howard since 1974. The poll was conducted after Australia's central bank lifted interest rates last week to a decade high of 6.50 percent to head off inflation fuelled by strong domestic demand, unemployment at a 32-year low and rapid global growth. Interest rates have been hurting Howard, who secured his fourth election victory in 2004 on the slogan "Keeping interest rates low". The central bank has since lifted rates five times. Rates are also biting into support for Howard's Liberal-National coalition in key fringe suburbs where voters are struggling with large mortgages and a credit binge fuelled in part by the low-interest climate, successive polls show. Also hurting Howard is a charge of boundaries in his own seat, which now has a large Asian community and is in the top 20 electorates for residents who speak a language other than English at home, according to census figures. Howard has angered some immigrant families with policies making it harder for new arrivals, requiring them to adopt vague Australian values of "mateship" and "fair go" equality, while learning English to speed their assimilation into society. Senior Labor lawmaker Bob McMullan cautioned it would be hard to unseat Howard regardless of poll indications. "We're very near the end of this three-year term and people are open to the idea of change. But I think their voting intention isn't set in concrete at all, it's quite fluid," he told Australian television. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Howard's wisdom and experience would carry him over the line and youthful opposition leader Kevin Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat, lacked a plan for Australia's future. "There's always controversy about the record of the incumbent and so on, it happens everywhere," Downer said. "I don't always want to seem Pollyanna-ish. I'm a person though who's pretty relaxed about the struggle that lies ahead."

Making good on a promise in the wake of the protests that rocked Brazil in June, Rousseff asked Congress to hold a non-binding national vote, or plebiscite, to see what Brazilians want changed. In the request, she listed broad themes that she wants to see addressed, including campaign finance reform, an end to anonymous votes by lawmakers in Congress, and a possible shift from proportional representation to district voting.Rousseff's approval ratings have declined by 27 percentage points in the past three weeks, showing that the recent wave of protests sweeping Brazil poses a serious threat to her likely re-election bid next year, according to a survey by pollster Datafolha published on Saturday.More than 1 million people took to the streets of Brazilian cities at the peak of last month's protests, fueled by frustration with deplorable health, education and public transportation services, a high cost of living, and outrage at the $14 billion Brazil will spend to host the 2014 World Cup.The upheaval that paralyzed the country sent politicians a clear message that Brazilians want more effective and transparent government, with an end to corruption.While the protests were aimed at politicians of all stripes, Rousseff's popularity took a beating and the president has insisted on holding a plebiscite to consult the people."It's a fight for more rights, more representation," she said of the protests on Monday."The people want to participate, that's why we are proposing a popular vote. The people must be consulted," Rousseff told reporters.Other issues she suggested the plebiscite address include abolishing unelected stand-ins for senators. Under the Brazilian system, all members of Congress have "substitutes" that can assume their seat if an elected congressman steps down for some reason, such as accepting a Cabinet post. Rousseff also wants the electorate to weigh in on rules that allow lawmakers to be elected with votes from supporters of other parties.Eighty-one percent of Brazilians supported the street demonstrations demanding changes, according to the Datafolha poll, which also showed that 68 percent of respondents back the idea of holding a plebiscite.Rousseff's political opponents, however, see the popular vote as a maneuver to distract the country from the real issues of lack of investment in roads, airports, schools and hospitals, and regain support before next year's election.Senator Alvaro Dias, leader of the main opposition party in the Senate, PSDB, said most of Rousseff's reform proposals - such whether to have public instead of private campaign funding - are dealt with in existing congressional bills. He said a hastily called plebiscite is an unnecessary expense for the nation."These are not the priority issues for Brazilians. This is a political distraction," he told reporters.'THIS COULD BE A FIASCO'The plebiscite also poses a risk to Rousseff. The main ally in her Workers' Party coalition government, the PMDB party, is balking at the idea and would rather see reform drawn up in Congress, which it controls."This could be a fiasco," said Andre Cesar, a political analyst at Brasilia-based consultancy Prospectiva Consultoria."There is a risk that the vote will not happen. Or worse, this could open a Pandora's box and Congress could decide to debate ending the re-election of presidents," Cesar said.Rousseff still has an approval rating just above 50 percent and remains the favorite to win the election in October 2014, though the race now looks more competitive.Some political analysts believe the plebiscite is not the way to recover lost ground. In their view, Rousseff should keep focus on curbing inflation and resurrecting Brazil's economy, which has been largely stagnant for the last two years.Smaller protests continue around Brazil, but a catalyst for the massive demonstrations has gone. The Confederations Cup, a warm-up for next year's soccer World Cup, ended on Sunday.Other challenges exist. Some of Brazil's main labor unions, seeking to take advantage of the tense political climate, are planning a day of marches on July 11 to push their demands, such as a shorter work week.

Bird enthusiasts are reporting rising numbers of snowy owls from the Arctic winging into the lower 48 states this winter in a mass southern migration that a leading owl researcher called "unbelievable." Thousands of the snow-white birds, which stand 2 feet tall with 5-foot wingspans, have been spotted from coast to coast, feeding in farmlands in Idaho, roosting on rooftops in Montana, gliding over golf courses in Missouri and soaring over shorelines in Massachusetts. A certain number of the iconic owls fly south from their Arctic breeding grounds each winter but rarely do so many venture so far away even amid large-scale, periodic southern migrations known as irruptions. "What we're seeing now -- it's unbelievable," said Denver Holt, head of the Owl Research Institute in Montana. "This is the most significant wildlife event in decades," added Holt, who has studied snowy owls in their Arctic tundra ecosystem for two decades. Holt and other owl experts say the phenomenon is likely linked to lemmings, a rodent that accounts for 90 percent of the diet of snowy owls during breeding months that stretch from May into September. The largely nocturnal birds also prey on a host of other animals, from voles to geese. An especially plentiful supply of lemmings last season likely led to a population boom among owls that resulted in each breeding pair hatching as many as seven offspring. That compares to a typical clutch size of no more than two, Holt said. Greater competition this year for food in the Far North by the booming bird population may have then driven mostly younger, male owls much farther south than normal. Research on the animals is scarce because of the remoteness and extreme conditions of the terrain the owls occupy, including northern Russia and Scandinavia, he said. The surge in snowy owl sightings has brought birders flocking from Texas, Arizona and Utah to the Northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest, pouring tourist dollars into local economies and crowding parks and wildlife areas. The irruption has triggered widespread public fascination that appears to span ages and interests. "For the last couple months, every other visitor asks if we've seen a snowy owl today," said Frances Tanaka, a volunteer for the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge northeast of Olympia, Washington. But accounts of emaciated owls at some sites -- including a food-starved bird that dropped dead in a farmer's field in Wisconsin -- suggest the migration has a darker side. And Holt said an owl that landed at an airport in Hawaii in November was shot and killed to avoid collisions with planes. He said snowy owl populations are believed to be in an overall decline, possibly because a changing climate has lessened the abundance of vegetation like grasses that lemmings rely on. This winter's snowy owl outbreak, with multiple sightings as far south as Oklahoma, remains largely a mystery of nature. "There's a lot of speculation. As far as hard evidence, we really don't know," Holt said.

Her remarks came on Wednesday while addressing the Bangladesh Development Forum 2018 at the Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka. “For this, the developed countries will have to come forward with financial and technical assistance to implement the development goals,” she said. On the issue of combating climate change, Hasina said apart from ‘traditional financial assistance’, the global community needs to focus on the world trade system as it can contribute to overall development, including poverty alleviation and job creation. Describing Bangladesh’s achievement on the socio-economic avenue, she said: “In order to upgrade Bangladesh to a developed and prosperous country by 2041, we have to achieve the target of our five-year plan, Vision 2021 and the United Nations-declared sustainable development goals 2030.” “We have been working on implementing Vision 2021. Vision 2021 aims at transforming Bangladesh into a middle-income country.” Hasina hopes the Bangladesh Development Forum will play a key role in devising strategies for a ‘poverty-hunger-free and prosperous Bangladesh’. “Bangladesh is the country of huge potential. We have the confidence and materials to express ourselves as a dynamic economy before the world.” Bangladesh is currently the 44th largest economy on the basis of GDP and is the 32nd on the purchasing power parity, said the prime minister. “According to international financial analysts, by 2030 and 2050, Bangladesh will become the 28th and 23rd largest economy respectively, based on GDP and purchasing capacity.” Bangladesh will achieve the qualification of graduation out of LDC category at the United Nations Committee for Development Policy’s three-year review meeting in March. “However, as LDC, Bangladesh is currently enjoying a number of benefits which will be discontinued after the graduation. It is possible to make up for it by increasing economic mobility and work preparation. Bangladesh has taken strategic preparations to face its impact,” said Hasina. Bangladesh’s economic activities focus on regional communication and infrastructure, efficiency and employment, technology and institutional strengthening, economic and social equality, women’s empowerment and equal opportunities for everyone, she said. “In the development of ongoing progress, we consider private partnerships including international partner countries and organisations as important,” she said adding the government’s move for 100 economic zones across the country is part of that initiative. Underscoring rapid growth investment, Hasina said a ‘geometric increase’ in productivity can solve the investment limitations of Bangladesh.  The Bangladesh Development Forum brings together 700 delegations representing the government and development partners to discuss issues related to financing for sustainable development goals to help Bangladesh graduate from the least developed countries' group. The two-day event at the Sonargaon Hotel will see sessions on agriculture and extreme climate conditions, creating enabling environment for foreign direct investment, addressing inequality and fostering quality education and ICT. Sessions on addressing violence against women and ensuring women empowerment and improving urban service delivery will be held on the concluding day.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam said on Wednesday that Bangladesh was committed to adopt low-emission development strategies (LEDS) “if the process does not put additional burden on its economy and financial capacity”.He was speaking at the “Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change” at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels.European Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard and Norwegian Minister of Climate and Environment Tine Sundtoft co-chaired the meeting that ministers and representatives of at least 40 countries and international organisations attended.The meeting was divided into four sessions – mitigation in the 2015 agreement, adaptation, means of implementation, and pre-2020 mitigation ambition.According to the foreign ministry, the junior minister spoke as opening speaker at the ‘adaptation to climate change’ session.He said the scopes of renewable energy expansion in Bangladesh were “ample”.It could be significant for the economy of the country in replacing expensive oil based power generators, he said.But he said it would require financial support both from the LDCs and developed countries.Alam also talked about the upcoming climate agreement that would be held next year at the Paris climate conference, and implemented from 2020.It is being negotiated through a process known as the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action. The junior minister said Bangladesh puts emphasis on integrating climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in all relevant sectors.“Bangladesh is considered a good performer in managing disaster and we have gathered many good lessons and practices over the years that can be and have been replicated in the context of CCA (Climate Change Adaptation)”, he said.He said the new agreement must recognise “the long term dynamic nature of adaptation”.Alam said it must “pave the way for adaptation to be based on real life observations, monitoring and analyses of vulnerabilities”.For the new agreement, he also said there must be “adequate and predictable” financial support and technology provision from the more developed countries.Alam left Dhaka for Brussels on Apr 29 and would come back after attending a climate summit in Abu Dhabi on May 4 and 5.According to the foreign ministry, he will leave Brussels for Geneva on Thursday to campaign for a Bangladesh candidate Ambassador Ismat Jahan to the UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) for the 2015-2018 term.

The equivalent of a designer’s final exam, the graduate shows each May are not only an academic rite of passage, but also an opportunity to build a profile, make industry contacts and perhaps even secure future employment. Not this year. As the coronavirus took hold of Europe in March and Britain went into lockdown, the school closed. Lessons went online, and the final show was canceled in favor of a June 17 digital presentation in which each student could show only two looks and a 90-second video. For Ives, 24, an ambitious American who has already founded his own label and been part of the design team at Fenty, Rihanna’s fashion brand, the past two months have been a struggle. “We’ve all done our best to rise to the challenges created by the pandemic, but it has made me ponder some big questions,” said Ives, who has diabetes and who was isolated in his apartment for three months working on his pieces. “One of those is: If I had known four years ago that I would be graduating without the degree show, and would be taught remotely for months on end, would I have reconsidered doing a postgraduate degree?” He’s not the only student to have considered the question. The pandemic has disrupted universities worldwide, forcing a short-term shift to remote learning, raising questions about the future of higher education. Even world-leading institutions face significant staff layoffs and a re-evaluation of projected earnings as international students take stock of the uncertain global climate and the sky-high tuition fees. Many students of all ages, stages and vocations are thinking twice about college, including those interested in a career in fashion. Historically, a degree from a school like Central Saint Martins or Royal College of Art in London, Parsons and F.I.T. in New York, and Royal Academy of Arts in Antwerp, has been an expensive but valuable asset for those looking to enter a notoriously competitive industry. Fashion education, as a business, has boomed over the past decade, in parallel with the industry itself. There are a growing number of courses from established names and new private offerings, like the Condé Nast College of Fashion & Design, dangling specialized courses, a network of peers, and internship opportunities. But the spread of the coronavirus has triggered travel bans and a drop in deposits. “We are being realistic about the fact our revenue will be lower next year,” said Valérie Berdah Levy, director of the Paris campus of the private Italian fashion and design school Istituto Marangoni, whose alumni include Domenico Dolce and Alessandra Facchinetti. Some students are nervous to come to Europe, Berdah Levy said, while others don’t know when their borders might reopen. “We also know that some parents may now face financial difficulties or health issues that impact on their resources and are trying to prepare accordingly,” she said. The adaptations that many art schools made earlier this year, in response to the pandemic, may inform their plans for the fall. According to Zowie Broach, the head of fashion at London’s Royal College of Art, the school is considering changes including concentrating on presentation and research at the start of the academic year and teaching digital skills necessary to create and present work remotely. Broach’s graduates are currently at home creating a RCA2020 “digital discovery platform” — on which each student will have their own page — that will go live between July 16-31. There have been a few silver linings to the new reality, she said: The caliber of speakers from the industry is suddenly much higher. “Anyone can be on Zoom, and as a result we have had some extraordinary speakers that we probably couldn’t have accessed before, and more ambitious debates on how to use corona as a motivator for meaningful industry change,” Broach said. At a recent event, Sir Jonathan Ive, Virgil Abloh and Olafur Eliasson all spoke. Walter van Beirendonck, the head of fashion at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and a designer who was one of the Antwerp Six, created digital “blind dates” for his master’s students with stars from the fashion world like Stephen Jones and Raf Simons. And at the Savannah College of Art and Design this year, in Georgia, fashion and accessory graduates presented their final work virtually to panels from a pool of 50 industry judges including designer Christopher John Rogers and Bruce Pask, the men’s fashion director of Bergdorf Goodman. “Do our students miss being together and touching fabrics?” said Michael Fink, the school of fashion dean at SCAD. “Yes. Did some students struggle to find a rhythm around the challenges of working from home? Yes. But we shifted the emphasis away from simply finished final collections to how designers react to crisis.” Whether fashion students with expectations of a university experience beyond just a degree will value such changes remains to be seen, particularly those students from China. Universities in English-speaking countries, especially Britain, Australia and the United States, have grown increasingly dependent on tuition fees from Chinese students, which are significantly higher than those paid by local students. With continuing travel restrictions and anger rising among Chinese students and parents at the West’s permissive attitude toward public health, there are growing fears that enrollment levels could plummet after more than a decade of growth. “For now, international acceptances are tracking in line with last year,” said Sir Nigel Carrington, vice-chancellor of the University of the Arts London, the collegiate university that includes Central Saint Martins and London College of Fashion. “Still, we are still concerned about where actual enrollments might end up.” Out of a student body of 20,000, roughly 3,000 are Chinese, Carrington said, with an approximately 50:50 split between British and international students across the six colleges. Annual fees for British students are capped by the government at roughly $11,500 dollars, but for international students they rise to around $25,000. But flights to Britain from China (and other countries) are not due to restart until August at the earliest. Despite a delayed start to the fall term, many students are unable to take the language test required by the British government for anyone wishing to work or study in the Britain, because of a backlog in applications. Some scientists are predicting a second wave of coronavirus in the fall. And there are more challenges. A Brexit-related fee hike is coming in 2021, which may drive more students from the European Union to enroll before it takes effect, offsetting the drop in Chinese enrollment — but only in the short term. “We are one of the best art and design institutions in the world and so the demand is still there for our courses,” Carrington said. For less competitive schools, he said, fallout from the pandemic may be much more serious. As universities look to cut costs, many lecturers are now facing unemployment, particularly those on temporary contracts, which have limited benefits. According to an article published in The Art Newspaper on June 22, at British arts universities such layoffs and unrenewed contracts could disproportionately affect women and people of color. At a time when many voices in fashion education are demanding better representation and diversity within their institutions, exactly who teaches students could become an even bigger factor in their decision-making process. “We just don’t know what is going to happen in terms of demand next year despite our selective intake,” said van Beirendonck of the Antwerp school. “At a very basic level, so many young people all over the world are afraid, and all colleges must recognize that. But at the same time, the show must go on — life must go on — and I think for those who are keen to be brilliant fashion designers, school is often a part of their path.” Carrington said that when lockdown measures were eased, graduating students would hopefully be able to gain socially distanced access to workshops over the summer in order to complete their portfolios, a critical component of job searches. But employment opportunities in fashion studios have become even scarcer since the start of the pandemic. Some smaller luxury brands like Sies Marjan and Peter Pilotto have closed their doors in recent months, while many seamstresses and patternmakers have been let go or furloughed by even the largest fashion houses in countries like France and Italy. “I’ve worked inside big companies now, so my plan was to graduate and focus on my label,” said Ives, the Central Saint Martins graduate. “But the risks of doing that in a major recession are huge. I don’t yet know exactly what I’ll be doing, and lots of my peers don’t either.” © 2020 The New York Times Company

The Obama administration on Thursday unveiled a new national security doctrine that would join diplomatic engagement and economic discipline with military power to bolster America's standing in the world. In a formal break with the go-it-alone Bush era, President Barack Obama's strategy called for expanding partnerships beyond traditional US allies to encompass rising powers like China and India in order to share the international burden. Faced with a struggling economy and record deficits, the administration also acknowledged that boosting economic growth and getting the US fiscal house in order must be core national security priorities. "At the centre of our efforts is a commitment to renew our economy, which serves as the wellspring of American power," the wide-ranging policy statement said. Obama's first official declaration of national security goals, due to be released in full later on Thursday, pointedly omitted predecessor George W. Bush's policy of pre-emptive war that alienated some US allies. Laying out a vision for keeping America safe as it fights wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the document formalized Obama's intent to emphasize multilateral diplomacy over military might as he tries to reshape the world order. The administration even reiterated Obama's determination to try to engage with "hostile nations," but warned nuclear-defiant Iran and North Korea it possessed "multiple means" to isolate them if they ignored international norms. The National Security Strategy, required by law of every president, is often a dry reaffirmation of existing positions but is considered important because it can influence budgets and legislation and is closely watched internationally. SEEKS "FISCALLY SUSTAINABLE PATH" Obama, who took office faced with the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, took a clearer stand than any of his predecessors in drawing the link between America's economic health at home and its stature overseas. "We must renew the foundation of America's strength," the document said, asserting that the sustained economic growth hinges on putting the country on a "fiscally sustainable path" and also urging reduced dependence on foreign oil sources. There was no discussion of what has become an emerging consensus in foreign policy circles -- that heavy US indebtedness to countries like China poses a national security problem. But the report did reflect Washington's enigmatic relationship with Beijing, praising it for taking a more active role in world affairs while insisting it must do so responsibly. It reiterated unease over China's military buildup, saying the United States would "prepare accordingly" to ensure its interests and allies are protected. Bush used his first policy statement in 2002 to stake out the right to unilateral and pre-emptive military action against countries and terrorist groups deemed threats to the United States in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Obama's plan implicitly distanced his administration from what became known as the Bush Doctrine and underpinned the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. While renewing previous presidents' commitment to preserve US conventional military superiority, the doctrine laid out on Thursday put an official stamp on Obama's departure from what Bush's critics called "cowboy diplomacy." "We need to be clear-eyed about the strengths and shortcomings of international institutions," the document said. But it insisted the United States did not have the option to "walk away." "Instead, we must focus American engagement on strengthening international institutions and galvanizing the collective action that can serve common interests such as combating violent extremism, stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and securing nuclear materials, achieving balanced and sustainable economic growth, and forging cooperative solutions to the threat of climate change," it said. MESSAGE TO EMERGING POWERS Obama's insistence the United States cannot act alone in the world was also a message to current and emerging powers that they must shoulder their share of the burden. Obama already has been widely credited with improving the tone of US foreign policy -- an achievement noted when he won the Nobel Peace Price in 2009 -- but still is struggling with two unfinished wars, nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea and sluggish Middle East peace efforts. Critics say some of his efforts at diplomatic outreach show US weakness, and they question whether he jeopardizes American interests by relying too heavily on "soft power." Obama's strategy repeated his goal to "disrupt, dismantle, and defeat" al Qaeda but insisted that in the process the United States must uphold and promote human rights. It also rejected torture as a tool of US national security. Obama has reached out to the Muslim world, where the US image under Bush was hurt by the Iraq war, the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and his use of phrases like "war on terror" and "Islamo-fascism." Curbing the threat of "home-grown" terrorism was also listed as a top priority. This comes in the aftermath of the failed Christmas Day bombing of a US airliner and the botched Times Square car bombing attempt earlier this month.

That was the question a cheerful Amazon employee posed when greeting me last week at the opening of a Whole Foods Market in Washington’s Glover Park neighbourhood. She blithely added, “You can also begin shopping by scanning the QR code in your Amazon app.” “Let’s go for the palm,” I said. In less than a minute, I scanned both hands on a kiosk and linked them to my Amazon account. Then I hovered my right palm over the turnstile reader to enter the nation’s most technologically sophisticated grocery store. For the next 30 minutes, I shopped. I picked up a bag of cauliflower florets, grapefruit sparkling water, a carton of strawberries and a package of organic chicken sausages. Cameras and sensors recorded each of my moves, creating a virtual shopping cart for me in real time. Then I simply walked out, no cashier necessary. Whole Foods — or rather Amazon — would bill my account later. More than four years ago, Amazon bought Whole Foods for $13 billion. Now the Amazon-ification of the grocery chain is physically complete, as showcased by the revamped Whole Foods store in Glover Park. For a long time, Amazon made only small steps toward putting its mark on the more than 500 Whole Foods stores in the United States and Britain. The main evidence of change were the discounts and free home delivery for Amazon Prime members. But this 21,000-square-foot Whole Foods just north of Georgetown has catapulted Amazon’s involvement forward. Along with another prototype Whole Foods store, which will open in Los Angeles this year, Amazon designed my local grocer to be almost completely run by tracking and robotic tools for the first time. The technology, known as Just Walk Out, consists of hundreds of cameras with a God’s-eye view of customers. Sensors are placed under each apple, carton of oatmeal and boule of multigrain bread. Behind the scenes, deep-learning software analyses the shopping activity to detect patterns and increase the accuracy of its charges. The technology is comparable to what’s in driverless cars. It identifies when we lift a product from a shelf, freezer or produce bin; automatically itemises the goods; and charges us when we leave the store. Anyone with an Amazon account, not just Prime members, can shop this way and skip a cash register since the bill shows up in our Amazon account. Amazon has tested such automation for more than four years, starting with 24 Amazon Go convenience stores and several Amazon Fresh grocery stores around the country. The palm-scanning technology, known as Amazon One, is also being licensed by others, such as a Hudson convenience store at Dallas Love Field Airport and Shaquille O’Neal’s Big Chicken restaurant at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. Those stores were valuable experiments, said Dilip Kumar, Amazon’s vice president of physical retail and technology. The company is treating Whole Foods as another step in its tech expansion into retail stores, he said. “We observed areas that caused friction for customers, and we diligently worked backward to figure out ways to alleviate that friction,” Kumar said. “We’ve always noticed that customers didn’t like standing in checkout lines. It’s not the most productive use of their time, which is how we came up with the idea to build Just Walk Out.” He declined to comment on whether Amazon planned to expand the technology to all Whole Foods stores. My New York Times colleague Karen Weise, who covers Amazon from Seattle, said the company operated on long time horizons, with the patience and money to execute slowly. That has allowed it to transform labour, retail and logistics over many years, she said. Groceries are just one piece of its ambitions. The Whole Foods in Glover Park has operated for more than 20 years, a cornerstone of a neighbourhood that is within walking distance of Embassy Row and the vice president’s Naval Observatory residence. Four years ago, the store closed over a dispute with the landlord and a rat infestation. Amazon announced last year that it would reopen the store as a Just Walk Out pilot project. The rats may be gone, but not the neighbourhood angst. The renovated store has sparked a spirited local debate, with residents sparring on the Nextdoor community app and a group neighbourhood email list over the store’s “dystopian” feeling versus its “impressive technology.” Some neighbours reminisced about how the store used to invite people to just hang out, with free samples and fluffy blueberry pancakes sold on weekends. Alex Levin, 55, an 18-year resident of Glover Park, said people should not reject the store’s changes. “We need to understand the benefits and downsides of the technology and use it to our advantage,” he said. He added that he had tried tricking the cameras and sensors by placing a box of chicken nuggets in his shopping bag and then putting the item back in a freezer. Amazon wasn’t fooled, and he wasn’t charged for the nuggets, he said. But others said they had found errors in their bills and complained about the end of produce by the pound. Everything is now offered per item, bundle or box. Some mourned the disappearance of the checkout line, where they perused magazines and last-minute grab bag items. Many were suspicious of the tracking tech. “It’s like George Orwell’s ‘1984,’” said Allen Hengst, 72, a retired librarian. Amazon said it didn’t plan to use video and other Whole Foods customer information for advertising or its recommendation engine. Shoppers who don’t want to participate in the experimental technology can enter the store without signing in and pay at self-checkout kiosks with a credit card or cash. As a longtime customer of Glover Park’s Whole Foods, I had missed the dark, cramped and often chaotic store and was excited to explore the changes. But somewhere between the palm scan and the six-pack banana bundles, I began to feel ambivalent. I noticed a sign near the entrance that forbade shoppers to take photos or videos inside. My eyes drifted toward the ceiling, where I noticed hundreds of small black plastic boxes hanging from the rafters. An employee jumped in. “Those are the cameras that will follow you during your shopping experience,” she explained, with no hint of irony. Several workers milled about the entrance to guide customers through check-in, while others stood behind the seafood counter, cheese station and produce areas. Kumar said the stores would always employ humans, but I wondered for how much longer. Amazon, under scrutiny for its labour practices, said employees’ roles might shift over time and become more focused on interacting with customers to answer questions. There were early signs of a more self-service future. At the bakery, I looked for someone to slice my $4.99 Harvest loaf and was directed to an industry-grade bread slicer for customers. A small label warned: Sharp blades. Keep hands clear of all moving parts. Kumar wouldn’t share data on the accuracy of Just Walk Out, so I tested the technology. I picked up an organic avocado and placed it on a pile of nonorganic avocados. After walking around the store, I went back and picked up the same organic avocado. If the cameras and sensors functioned properly, Amazon would be on top of my actions and charge me for the organic avocado that had been misplaced in the conventional bin. When I was ready to leave, I had the option of using a self-checkout kiosk or skipping the process. I decided on the latter and waved my palm again over an exit turnstile. The turnstile’s arms opened. “You should receive your receipt within two to three hours,” an employee at the exit said. I walked out. It felt discomfiting, like I might be mistaken for a shoplifter. An email from Amazon landed in my inbox an hour later. A link sent me to my Amazon account for details. It said my shopping experience had lasted 32 minutes, 26 seconds. My total bill was $34.35 — and I was correctly charged for the organic avocado. © 2022 The New York Times Company

In his closing remarks at the ninth consecutive Global Media Forum on Wednesday, DW Director General Peter Limbourg drew attention to European values. “In discussing our values with others, we receive an important reflection on those values that we in Germany and in Europe consider worth protecting and sharing. But we do not always live up to our own values. “Looking at the sale of arms, the pollution of the environment and in cases of cooperation with corrupt regimes, these are strong reminders that we need to live up to our own values before we can start preaching them to others,” he was quoted as saying by a DW media release. More than 2,000 participants from 110 countries came together in the former West German capital for the three-day annual Global Media Forum. Challenging subjects were addressed under the banner of "Media. Freedom. Values." Many journalists face difficult situations in countries around the world. The role of the media, freedom of expression and the values that need protecting were considered at the conference. German President Joachim Gauck had an inspiring message for the participants of the conference and reminded journalists from around the world of their shared responsibility. Photo: Deutsche Welle “Never before have we had so many possibilities for acquiring information as we have today. But we see at the same time the increasing possibilities for manipulation and disinformation. Photo: Deutsche Welle “For this reason it is so necessary to enshrine the media whose hallmark is one of reliable journalism, one which you can continue to trust,” he urged. One of the most inspiring moments of this year’s Global Media Forum was when Sedat Ergin, editor-in-chief of the Turkish daily newspaper Hürriyet, received the Deutsche Welle Freedom of Speech Award. Upon accepting the award, Ergin said: “Issues related to freedom of expression are increasingly apparent not only in third world countries, dictatorships and monarchies, but also in countries claiming to be democracies. “The European continent is no longer immune to this authoritarian tendency." In his laudation for the Turkish editor, fellow journalist and publisher of the German newspaper "BILD", Kai Diekmann made it abundantly clear: “The freedom of the press is a valuable and noble good. We must not tire of addressing the terrible state of the freedom of the press and opinion in Turkey.” Some reactions from Turkish media close to the ruling party were extreme, a reminder of the pressure which journalists are working under in Turkey. The important role of bloggers and activists in societies without true freedom of speech was on the agenda of the GMF once again. Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef came to Bonn to take part in the award ceremony for The Bobs, awards given out by Deutsche Welle to honour the best international online activists and their work. The German Commissioner for Human Rights Policy Bärbel Kofler joined a panel with bloggers from Bangladesh who are now living under asylum in Germany and other European countries. Attacked by Islamist extremists and offered no protection by their government, journalists whose lives are in danger in their home countries were the topic of a discussion at the Forum aimed at raising more awareness for the need for asylum, the media release said. Journalist and author Martin Walker gave a grim status report of where the future of media may be heading. International speakers on several panels at the conference made it clear that media are at a turning point. The shift to an ever more important role of direct dialogue with people around the world through social media opens new opportunities for journalism. DW’s Director General Limbourg said: “This is an opportunity that media have to seize to be able to truly make a difference.”

That was the question a cheerful Amazon employee posed when greeting me last week at the opening of a Whole Foods Market in Washington’s Glover Park neighbourhood. She blithely added, “You can also begin shopping by scanning the QR code in your Amazon app.” “Let’s go for the palm,” I said. In less than a minute, I scanned both hands on a kiosk and linked them to my Amazon account. Then I hovered my right palm over the turnstile reader to enter the nation’s most technologically sophisticated grocery store. For the next 30 minutes, I shopped. I picked up a bag of cauliflower florets, grapefruit sparkling water, a carton of strawberries and a package of organic chicken sausages. Cameras and sensors recorded each of my moves, creating a virtual shopping cart for me in real time. Then I simply walked out, no cashier necessary. Whole Foods — or rather Amazon — would bill my account later. More than four years ago, Amazon bought Whole Foods for $13 billion. Now the Amazon-ification of the grocery chain is physically complete, as showcased by the revamped Whole Foods store in Glover Park. For a long time, Amazon made only small steps toward putting its mark on the more than 500 Whole Foods stores in the United States and Britain. The main evidence of change were the discounts and free home delivery for Amazon Prime members. But this 21,000-square-foot Whole Foods just north of Georgetown has catapulted Amazon’s involvement forward. Along with another prototype Whole Foods store, which will open in Los Angeles this year, Amazon designed my local grocer to be almost completely run by tracking and robotic tools for the first time. The technology, known as Just Walk Out, consists of hundreds of cameras with a God’s-eye view of customers. Sensors are placed under each apple, carton of oatmeal and boule of multigrain bread. Behind the scenes, deep-learning software analyses the shopping activity to detect patterns and increase the accuracy of its charges. The technology is comparable to what’s in driverless cars. It identifies when we lift a product from a shelf, freezer or produce bin; automatically itemises the goods; and charges us when we leave the store. Anyone with an Amazon account, not just Prime members, can shop this way and skip a cash register since the bill shows up in our Amazon account. Amazon has tested such automation for more than four years, starting with 24 Amazon Go convenience stores and several Amazon Fresh grocery stores around the country. The palm-scanning technology, known as Amazon One, is also being licensed by others, such as a Hudson convenience store at Dallas Love Field Airport and Shaquille O’Neal’s Big Chicken restaurant at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. Those stores were valuable experiments, said Dilip Kumar, Amazon’s vice president of physical retail and technology. The company is treating Whole Foods as another step in its tech expansion into retail stores, he said. “We observed areas that caused friction for customers, and we diligently worked backward to figure out ways to alleviate that friction,” Kumar said. “We’ve always noticed that customers didn’t like standing in checkout lines. It’s not the most productive use of their time, which is how we came up with the idea to build Just Walk Out.” He declined to comment on whether Amazon planned to expand the technology to all Whole Foods stores. My New York Times colleague Karen Weise, who covers Amazon from Seattle, said the company operated on long time horizons, with the patience and money to execute slowly. That has allowed it to transform labour, retail and logistics over many years, she said. Groceries are just one piece of its ambitions. The Whole Foods in Glover Park has operated for more than 20 years, a cornerstone of a neighbourhood that is within walking distance of Embassy Row and the vice president’s Naval Observatory residence. Four years ago, the store closed over a dispute with the landlord and a rat infestation. Amazon announced last year that it would reopen the store as a Just Walk Out pilot project. The rats may be gone, but not the neighbourhood angst. The renovated store has sparked a spirited local debate, with residents sparring on the Nextdoor community app and a group neighbourhood email list over the store’s “dystopian” feeling versus its “impressive technology.” Some neighbours reminisced about how the store used to invite people to just hang out, with free samples and fluffy blueberry pancakes sold on weekends. Alex Levin, 55, an 18-year resident of Glover Park, said people should not reject the store’s changes. “We need to understand the benefits and downsides of the technology and use it to our advantage,” he said. He added that he had tried tricking the cameras and sensors by placing a box of chicken nuggets in his shopping bag and then putting the item back in a freezer. Amazon wasn’t fooled, and he wasn’t charged for the nuggets, he said. But others said they had found errors in their bills and complained about the end of produce by the pound. Everything is now offered per item, bundle or box. Some mourned the disappearance of the checkout line, where they perused magazines and last-minute grab bag items. Many were suspicious of the tracking tech. “It’s like George Orwell’s ‘1984,’” said Allen Hengst, 72, a retired librarian. Amazon said it didn’t plan to use video and other Whole Foods customer information for advertising or its recommendation engine. Shoppers who don’t want to participate in the experimental technology can enter the store without signing in and pay at self-checkout kiosks with a credit card or cash. As a longtime customer of Glover Park’s Whole Foods, I had missed the dark, cramped and often chaotic store and was excited to explore the changes. But somewhere between the palm scan and the six-pack banana bundles, I began to feel ambivalent. I noticed a sign near the entrance that forbade shoppers to take photos or videos inside. My eyes drifted toward the ceiling, where I noticed hundreds of small black plastic boxes hanging from the rafters. An employee jumped in. “Those are the cameras that will follow you during your shopping experience,” she explained, with no hint of irony. Several workers milled about the entrance to guide customers through check-in, while others stood behind the seafood counter, cheese station and produce areas. Kumar said the stores would always employ humans, but I wondered for how much longer. Amazon, under scrutiny for its labour practices, said employees’ roles might shift over time and become more focused on interacting with customers to answer questions. There were early signs of a more self-service future. At the bakery, I looked for someone to slice my $4.99 Harvest loaf and was directed to an industry-grade bread slicer for customers. A small label warned: Sharp blades. Keep hands clear of all moving parts. Kumar wouldn’t share data on the accuracy of Just Walk Out, so I tested the technology. I picked up an organic avocado and placed it on a pile of nonorganic avocados. After walking around the store, I went back and picked up the same organic avocado. If the cameras and sensors functioned properly, Amazon would be on top of my actions and charge me for the organic avocado that had been misplaced in the conventional bin. When I was ready to leave, I had the option of using a self-checkout kiosk or skipping the process. I decided on the latter and waved my palm again over an exit turnstile. The turnstile’s arms opened. “You should receive your receipt within two to three hours,” an employee at the exit said. I walked out. It felt discomfiting, like I might be mistaken for a shoplifter. An email from Amazon landed in my inbox an hour later. A link sent me to my Amazon account for details. It said my shopping experience had lasted 32 minutes, 26 seconds. My total bill was $34.35 — and I was correctly charged for the organic avocado. © 2022 The New York Times Company

Jill Biden has famously been a reluctant player (“It’s kind of surprising, I think, how much commentary is made about what I wear,” she told Vogue). Not for her the strategy of fashion diplomacy, mastered by Michelle Obama, wherein you champion a designer who bridges both your home country and a host country. Not for her the high fashion tactics of Melania Trump, conflating runway with realpolitik. But she has, nevertheless, proved there are a variety of ways to score, as least judging by her first solo trip leading the American delegation at the Tokyo Olympics. During her four days abroad, she not only represented the American industry, wearing a roll call of local designers. She also, perhaps more important, embodied the theme of the Olympics, which was billed as the greenest Games yet with the motto “Be better, together — For the planet and the people.” Biden apparently wore only a single new garment during the entirety of her trip to Japan: the Ralph Lauren navy jacket and pants that were part of the official US Olympic Team uniform, and that she wore in her role as official US Olympic Team booster. Other than that, her clothes were all recycled outfits from her closet. And not just at fun family getaways: At public events. Often very big, photo op-filled, recorded-for-history public events. The red caped Narciso Rodriguez dress she wore when she landed in Tokyo? Worn during a trip with Anthony Fauci to a Florida vaccination site in June. The floral Tom Ford worn to dinner with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan and his wife Mariko? Worn at the G-7 summit in Britain in July. The polka-dot Brandon Maxwell at the opening ceremony? Ditto (that one under the much-discussed “Love” jacket). Not to mention the white Michael Kors dress worn in Tokyo under a Team USA jacket; the dress had made an earlier G-7 appearance under a navy jacket when President Joe Biden and the first lady arrived in Britain. Even the lilac dress that Jill Biden wore to deplane in Honolulu during the last leg of the trip had been seen before. The recycled wardrobe may not seem like a big deal, but it has been practically unheard-of since the turn of the 21st century when it comes to image-making, celebrities and their powerful political or entrepreneurial equivalents. Instead, the constant demand for new content seems to have been equated with new dress — whether on the red carpet, a premiere or an occasion of state. It has been fun to look at, a great guess-the-designer distraction. But it has also had the perhaps unforeseen effect of reinforcing the culture of disposability around fashion that has helped create the glut of stuff everyone now bemoans; of sending the message that every outing deserves its own outfit. That Biden would just say no to this cycle is as big a break with recent tradition as the fact that she is continuing to work as a professor during her time in the White House. And it may be just as important, and maybe even (if people pay attention) influential. She is not rejecting fashion — each look she wore is part of the current New York Fashion Week story, each one from American brands both establishment and up and coming. She’s doing her part to promote local business on the global stage. Rather, by rewearing her clothes, she is underscoring their value; the idea that when you find a garment you love, that makes you feel effective and like the best version of you, you keep it. If it made you feel that way once, it will do so again. That such a garment is worthy of investment for the long term. That it’s as much for the woman inside it as for the watching public. That it is not a throwaway. That you could do it too. That this is something to which we can all relate, whether or not we’re aware of the sustainability side of things. Of course, it’s possible that all this rewearing was just a coincidence. That she was so busy in the run-up to the Olympics (she is definitely very busy and, according to Vogue, she doesn’t have a stylist) she didn’t have much time to think about what she would pack, and just grabbed whatever from her closet. But given it was her first solo trip, which automatically meant more eyeballs, and given its fraught nature — the angst and controversy around the fact these Olympics are taking place at all — such a conclusion seems unlikely. Especially since pandemic restrictions resulted in a shortage of other audience members in the arena, Biden knew she would stand out in the non-crowd. That what she said may not be heard but what she wore would definitely be seen. And though her recycling of styles became apparent during scattered events in the first 100 days of her husband’s administration — and also reflects the climate-focused aspect of the Biden agenda — it may have reached its apogee with this trip. All of which suggests this will now be a defining element of Biden’s time in the East Wing; part of the way she takes the role forward. If so, everybody wins. ©2021 The New York Times Company

President Barack Obama on Thursday assured Canada, his country's biggest trading partner, that he would not pursue protectionist policies, and the two neighbors agreed to cooperate on cleaner energy technology. Obama, on his first trip abroad as president, sought in talks with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to allay Canadian concerns raised by a "Buy American" clause in a $787 billion U.S. economic recovery plan he signed this week. "Now is a time where we have to be very careful about any signals of protectionism," Obama told a joint news conference after several hours of talks with Harper on his one-day visit to Ottawa. "And as obviously one of the largest economies in the world, it's important for us to make sure that we are showing leadership in the belief that trade ultimately is beneficial to all countries," he said. He stressed the United States would meet its international trade obligations and told Harper he wanted to "grow trade not contract it." "I'm quite confident that the United States will respect those obligations and continue to be a leader on the need for globalized trade," Harper said afterward. Harper said he was willing to look at strengthening the environmental and labor provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement, something Obama has said he wants. But the Canadian leader said he did not support renegotiating the agreement, which has boosted trade between the two countries. The two sides announced they would collaborate on environmentally friendly technologies that would help them develop an electricity grid fueled by clean, renewable energy and to tap their vast fossil fuel resources with less pollution. The technology is not cost-effective now. "How we produce and use energy is fundamental to our economic recovery, but also our security and our planet. And we know that we can't afford to tackle these issues in isolation," Obama said, adding there was "no silver bullet" solution. GOING FURTHER ON CLIMATE Environmentalists want Obama to go further and pressure Canada to clean up its oil sands in the western province of Alberta, from which oil is extracted in a process that spews out large amounts of greenhouse gases. "Tar sands create three times the global warming pollution as conventional oil and are not a viable alternative, no matter how the Canadian government and oil industry portray it," said Susan Casey-Lefkowitz of the International Program Natural Resources Defense Council. But with his country facing its worst economic crisis in decades, Obama stressed the importance of Canada as the United States' largest energy provider. Most of the output of the oil sands is destined for U.S. markets. Despite the agreement to stimulate the development of green energy, Harper said it was too early for the countries to talk about a shared strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Obama, who took office last month, campaigned on a pledge to reduce U.S. emissions by 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050. In contrast to a passive approach by his predecessor, George W. Bush, Obama is committed to tackling global warming, but he said climate change initiatives must be balanced against economic considerations in the midst of a worldwide recession. A White House official said the joint U.S.-Canadian green energy initiative would work on "elements like carbon capture and sequestration and the smart grid." Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas blamed by scientists for warming the Earth. Carbon sequestration, which is not yet commercially viable, involves capturing the gas and storing it underground before it enters the atmosphere. On Afghanistan, where Canada has 2,700 troops as part of a NATO-led force fighting a growing insurgency, Obama said he had not asked for more military help. Obama ordered 17,000 new U.S. troops there this week to battle the insurgency. Harper said Ottawa, which plans to withdraw its troops in 2011, would expand economic aid to Afghanistan, already Canada's biggest foreign recipient of aid.

Now, he is just back from a Hanoi summit with North Korea that collapsed and the cloud has grown darker. While Trump’s much-hyped meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un broke up in disagreement over sanctions linked to Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, testimony from his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who accused him of breaking the law while in office, represented a potentially damaging development for the president at home. Trump faced challenges on other fronts: sensitive talks with China over a trade deal, a slow-rolling crisis in Venezuela, tensions between India and Pakistan and an attempt in Congress to kill his emergency declaration aimed at securing funding for a wall on the border with Mexico. U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller may also end his probe into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election in a matter of days - ensuring that speculation about the role of Trump and his campaign will keep making headlines. Before Trump left for Vietnam, he privately complained that Democrats would go ahead with the Cohen testimony, violating an unwritten rule against attacking the president while he is overseas. He also wished the Mueller report was finished. “He was very unhappy that they were holding the hearings while he was overseas,” said one person who was present and asked to remain unnamed. “He was also very unhappy that the Mueller investigation had not been concluded before he left. He felt that there was a cloud hanging over him.” While at the summit, Trump cut the talks about North Korea’s denuclearization short and the two sides gave conflicting accounts of what happened, raising doubts about the future of one of Trump’s signature initiatives. The White House had included a signing ceremony for a deal on Trump’s public schedule in Hanoi - and then abruptly canceled it. Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo complained about reporters being obsessed with what he tried to dismiss as “process” and said they were “radically uninformed.” “Y’all shouldn’t get hung up on things like that,” Pompeo told reporters traveling with him. As the summit unfolded, Trump kept up to date with Cohen’s testimony from his suite at a Hanoi hotel despite the 12-hour time difference. The conclusion among Trump’s inner circle was that the president came out of the week okay, feeling there was not much new in Cohen’s testimony and that Trump was getting credit for walking away from a potentially bad deal with the North Koreans. “There were no surprises this week,” said Christopher Ruddy, a conservative media mogul and a close friend of the president. “We knew North Korea was a tough nut to crack and that Michael Cohen was going to say a lot of nasty stuff. At the end of the day I don’t think it changes the political climate for President Trump,” Ruddy told Reuters. But the Cohen testimony raised questions among Trump allies about his re-election campaign’s ability to organize a proper response. “Where’s the defense of the president?” former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Trump friend, told ABC’s “This Week” program on Wednesday. Trump will have a friendly audience on Saturday when he addresses the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference in a Maryland suburb of Washington. At the CPAC event on Thursday, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel was quick to defend Trump’s handling of the Vietnam summit. “He walked away rightly because he said we’re not going to take away the sanctions if you not going to de-nuclearize,” she said to applause.

The investors, which include the fund arm of insurer Aviva and several Swedish state pension funds, wrote to the food companies on Sept 23 urging them to respond to the "material" risks of industrial farming and to diversify into plant-based sources of protein. Among the companies targeted were Kraft Heinz, Nestle, Unilever, Tesco and Walmart, a statement by the Farm Animal Investment Risk & Return Initiative, which organized the investor group, said on Monday. "The world's over reliance on factory farmed livestock to feed the growing global demand for protein is a recipe for a financial, social and environmental crisis," said Jeremy Coller, founder of the FAIRR initiative and chief investment officer at private equity company Coller Capital. Pollution from intensive livestock production is already at too high a level, while safety and welfare standards are too low and the industry cannot cope with the projected increase in global protein demand, Coller said. "Investors want to know if major food companies have a strategy to avoid this protein bubble and to profit from a plant-based protein market set to grow by 8.4 percent annually over the next five years," Coller said. The campaign follows an Oxford University study which said $1.5 trillion in healthcare and climate change-related costs could be saved by 2050 if people reduced their reliance on meat in their diet. "Forward-looking companies can move now to encourage more sustainable diets by reducing reliance on meat and growing the market for plant-based protein alternatives. In the process, companies make their own protein supply chains more resilient to future shocks," she said. The other companies written to by FAIRR were General Mills, Mondelez International, Ahold-Delhaize, The Co-operative Group, Costco Wholesale Corporation, Kroger Company, Marks & Spencer, Wm Morrison Supermarkets, Ocado, Sainsbury's and Whole Foods Market.

Dhaka, July 3 (bdnews24.com)--Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed has stressed the need for industrialised nations to provide climate adaptation funds for developing countries, the worst victims of climate change, "without any conditions". Inaugurating the first ever 'SAARC Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change' in Dhaka, he also called on richer nations to transfer better technology so that developing countries can progress toward climate resiliency. "The industrialised economies must provide adaptation funds and facilitate technology transfer without any conditionality," Fakhruddin said. He added that developed nations, the polluters, had an unshakeable responsibility to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, the cause of global warming, within the stipulated time frames. The SAARC climate conference is being held in response to a proposal by Dhaka, as it is feared that a huge portion of Bangladesh's landmass will be inundated owing to rising sea levels caused by global warming. The meeting is expected to adopt a common declaration on action for confronting climate change that will in one way or another affect the entire SAARC region, comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The whole of the Maldives island chain also faces inundation by rising sea levels. "SAARC countries should speak with one voice to ensure that developed countries commit new and additional resources to support our adaptation efforts," Fakhruddin said. The chief adviser announced that Bangladesh was trying to establish an international climate adaption centre to share knowledge and best practices. "The developed countries must make unilateral and unconditional commitment to reduce their emission levels. This is a must to save us from the perils of climate change," he said. Fakhruddin said climate change would cost millions of poor people their livelihoods and intensify the havoc of floods, droughts and salinity. "It will unleash the gravest tragedy in human history, far graver than the 'Black Death' or the atrocities of World War II." "We cannot, and must not, sit idle and let this happen," he said. Echoing the chief adviser, SAARC Secretary-General Sheel Kant Sharma told the meeting: "SAARC believes that the way forward must include, among others, binding greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments by developed countries with effective timeframes." Presided over by the chief adviser's special assistant for environment Devasish Roy, the inauguration was also addressed by foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury.

Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation brought out a rally in the city to mark the World Food Day on Friday. This year's theme of the day is 'Achieving Food Security in Times of Crisis'. Agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury inaugurated the day's events through the rally followed by a procession that started from Khamar Bari, participated among others by agriculturists, scientists, officials and members of the public. Hundreds of school children joined the rally with colourful banners and festoons. The programme was supported by Telefood, a FAO project for eradicating hunger, bdnews24.com and Channel i. A seminar in observance of the day is also being held at Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, attended by agricultural minister Matia Chowdhury. Food and disaster management minister Mohammad Abdur Razzaque and minister of fisheries and livestock Abdul Latif Biswas are also participating in the seminar where FAO Bangladesh representative, AD Spijkers, is the guest of honour. A children's painting competition is scheduled to be held at 3pm at Bangladesh Shishu Academy. A three-day fair on 'Agriculture and Food' will also be inaugurated at the Krishibid Institution premise at 12pm. A similar fair will be held at Depasai village in Somobhat union under Dhamrai upazila. Channel i will telecast the programme live. In the afternoon, prime minister Sheikh Hasina will release postage stamps and envelops commemorating the day. Moreover, the district and upazila administrations around the country are observing the day through holding discussion meetings and rallies. President Zillur Rahman, on the eve of World Food Day on Friday, said proper measures must be taken to ensure food security in a changing climate. In his message on Thursday, Rahman said, "I believe sufficient research and adequate technological innovation and usage can play an important role to produce more food." Prime minister Sheikh Hasina said, "Agriculture is the most affected and vulnerable sector due to climate change. It is absolutely needed to ensure food security by fighting the situation." "Bangladesh achieved self-dependency during the previous Awami League government in 1996-2001. But the succeeding government could not carry the success." The incumbent government is pledged to guarantee food security for all being self-dependent again, the prime minister added. In his message the UN chief Ban Ki-moon said, "Food and nutritional security are the foundations of a decent life, a sound education and, indeed, the achievement of all the Millennium Development Goals." "Over the past two years, volatile food prices, the economic crisis, climate change and conflict have led to a dramatic and unacceptable rise in the number of people who cannot rely on getting the food they need to live, work and thrive. "For the first time in history, more than one billion people are hungry," he added. He said, "At this time of crisis, I encourage all nations to pursue coordinated and comprehensive strategies for agricultural development and effective social protection so that vulnerable people – women and children in particular – can get the food they need for nutritional security and well-being." FAO representative in Bangladesh AD Spijkers said, "The achievement of the MDG 1–to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger–faces the risk of serious setbacks." "It has occurred because of the economic crisis and panicky price hikes that have reduced incomes and access to food of the poor, more severely those in the poorest parts of the globe," he added. Spijkers said, "The government has taken a strong resolve to return to self sufficiency in food by 2012 and to sustain it. The farmers of Bangladesh may rightfully aspire to attain that target. We believe they can, and they will."

Colombia will not sink beneath the waves despite a 5-0 drubbing by Paraguay in the Copa America, coach Jorge Luis Pinto said on Friday. "This is not a catastrophe. A catastrophe is when you can't control the circumstances, such as the climate, the sea...This is not what is happening at the moment," he said. "We haven't been destroyed, neither in a footballing sense, nor a tactical sense nor in our morale. We lost but the world hasn't ended," he told reporters. "We're not down yet, we're going to react." Colombia dominated the early stages of their opening Group C game on Thursday and Alvaro Dominguez missed a 28th minute penalty. Paraguay went ahead two minutes later and the Colombians fell apart in the second half. Curiously, Colombia's defence had been their strong point in the run-up to the tournament conceding two goals in six games. Their next match is on Monday against tournament favourites Argentina, who began with a 4-1 win over United States. "We will make changes. We may vary the style of play and the players," said Pinto. Pinto also compared the match to Colombia's 5-0 win over Argentina in a World Cup qualifier in 1993. "On that occasion, we weren't that good and Argentina weren't that bad," he said, "This game (against Paraguay) reminds me of it."

Unemployment is low, inflation is muted and growth has continued unabated for nearly 10 years. As a college professor, I’m often drawn to giving letter grades, and would give the US economy an A-, with the potential for a better grade if the economic gains had been distributed more evenly. But Trump controls economic policy, not the economy, and so a fairer report card would also assess his actual policies. To provide a nonpartisan appraisal, I’ve reviewed surveys of about 50 leading economists — liberals and conservatives — run by the University of Chicago. What is startling is that the economists are nearly unanimous in concluding that Trump’s policies are destructive. That is why many economists are uneasy about his presidency, even though the economy earns solid grades. TRADE POLICY: F Trump’s protectionist impulses place him squarely at odds with the economic wisdom that tariffs are harmful. Worse, by imposing tariffs on goods like aluminium and steel Trump’s trade policy has also damaged the competitiveness of US manufacturers. None of the economists taking part in the surveys agreed with the claim that these tariffs would “improve Americans’ welfare,” and all of them said global supply chains had made these tariffs more costly than they would have been in the past. The United States started a trade war with China and China quickly retaliated, raising tariffs on American-made goods. Trump also created needless uncertainty with his threat to rip up the North American Free Trade Agreement that binds the United States, Canada and Mexico. The threat yielded a substitute deal that market economists believe will do little more than replicate the previous one, and it is unclear that Congress will pass it. Criticism of Trump’s protectionist instincts is widespread. When he said on Twitter that he was “Tariff Man,” financial markets tanked. An analysis conducted by the president’s own Council of Economic Advisers has reportedly concluded that his tariffs will reduce economic growth. Even by Trump’s own preferred metric, the balance of trade, his policy has failed: The trade deficit has risen to a 10-year high. FISCAL POLICY: D- The logic of fiscal policy is straightforward: In good times, the government should spend less, so that in bad times it can afford to spend more and tax less, helping to support an ailing economy. When private-sector demand falls, government picks up the slack. On this score, Trump’s fiscal policy is a colossal failure. His signature achievement is a $1.5 trillion tax cut that provided stimulus when, arguably, it was least needed. As a result, the budget deficit is atypically high for a healthy economy, and rising government debt will make it hard for fiscal policy to provide a boost when the next downturn hits. Trump might argue that the point of the tax cut wasn’t to provide a short-term stimulus, but rather to promote long-term economic growth. However, economists say that it will fail to do that, too. In a survey before the bill was passed, all but one expert said the tax cut wouldn’t lead gross domestic product “to be substantially higher a decade from now.” Darrell Duffie, the lone dissenter, said it would boost growth, but he added that “whether the overall tax plan is distributionally fair is another matter.” The problem, according to Daron Acemoglu, a prominent macroeconomist, is that while “simplification of the tax code could be beneficial,” that effect would most likely be “more than offset by its highly regressive nature.” Recent data support this pessimism, as the much-promised investment boom the tax cut was supposed to deliver appears not to have materialised. It is worth noting that the one part of Trump’s platform that received a strong endorsement from economists — his promise of infrastructure spending — has languished, despite the possibility of bipartisan support. MONETARY POLICY: C For a president, monetary policy should be simple: Appoint good people, and let the Federal Reserve do its job. Trump has got half of this right. Jerome Powell, his pick for Fed chairman, has so far proven to be adept. In a recent survey, 43 percent of economists gave Powell’s leadership an A, and 51 percent gave him a B (with the remaining 6 percent giving him a C). Trump’s other Fed appointments have been mainstream, yielding a cast of policymakers that Jeb Bush might have appointed had he been elected president. But Trump has dragged down his grade in this category by meddling in ways that have needlessly complicated the Fed’s job. Most industrialised countries, including the United States, have generally insulated monetary policy from political pressure, believing that such independence helps policymakers deliver low and stable inflation. Yet Trump has repeatedly criticised Powell for not setting interest rates lower, and has reportedly raised the possibility of firing him. The president is playing a self-defeating game, because he is making it harder for Powell to deliver low rates without appearing to have been bullied by Trump. DECIPHERING A PUZZLE Trump isn’t just pushing against one or two threads of economic consensus. Instead, his programme is an almost complete repudiation of the orthodoxies endorsed by Democratic and Republican economists. Put the pieces together, and all of this presents a puzzle: If economic policy is so bad, why is the economy doing so well? Perhaps it reflects good luck rather than good judgment. Trump’s luck was to inherit an economy that had been on a steadily improving glide path since about 2010. Charting nearly any economic statistic shows that today’s economic strength represents a continuation of that trend. Even if Trump doesn’t deserve credit for this trajectory, he should get some credit for not knocking the economy off this path. Unless, of course, the real explanation is that the president doesn’t have much effect on economic outcomes. The more frightening explanation is that the downside of Trump’s policies are yet to become evident. The chaos of his administration’s policy process has created uncertainty and probably scared off some investors, although their absence is difficult to measure. In addition, Trump’s unfunded tax cuts are creating a debt that future generations will have to repay. And by undermining the Fed’s independence, he may have made it less effective at fighting inflation. That’s not all. Cutting regulations in the financial sector may help big banks today, but it could increase the chances of future financial crises. Eliminating environmental regulations has probably improved results for some businesses while speeding climate change. And while impeding immigration may have reduced competition for jobs, many economists worry that in the longer run, reducing the number of immigrants will lead to less innovation and growth.Of course, I should admit a final possibility: Perhaps Trump has got it right, and the economists have gotten it all wrong. As a card-carrying economist, I don’t believe this, but it seems that, in equal measure, Trump doesn’t believe what economists say, either. c.2019 New York Times News Service

The British government played an early role in brokering the three-way alliance with the United States and Australia to deploy nuclear-powered submarines in the Pacific, according to officials in London and Washington. The landmark agreement was announced hours after Australia canceled a $66 billion deal for diesel-electric submarines with France, provoking fury in Paris and quiet satisfaction in London. For British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who will meet this coming week with President Joe Biden at the White House and speak at the United Nations, it is his first tangible victory in a campaign to make post-Brexit Britain a player on the global stage. Since leaving the European Union 18 months ago, Britain has cast about for a place in the world. Brexiteers latched on to the phrase “Global Britain,” which always seemed more a marketing slogan than a coherent foreign policy. Yet the deal sealed Wednesday, in which the United States and Britain would supply Australia with the submarines, confirmed Britain’s status as a military power with nuclear expertise, as well as a trusted ally of the United States. It also lent credibility to Johnson’s effort to build a British presence in Asia, a strategy that at first looked mostly like a nostalgic throwback to its imperial past. Now, Britain has negotiated trade deals with Australia, Japan and South Korea, and deployed an aircraft carrier to help the United States keep an eye on China in the South China Sea, where Beijing is asserting its own imperial ambitions by constructing a chain of military installations. “It does for the first time start to flesh out Global Britain,” said Kim Darroch, a former British ambassador to Washington. “We’re starting to build a real presence, in the defense and economic spheres, in that part of the world.” Darroch cautioned that the economic dividends of the deal — how many jobs and how much money would flow to British factories — still had to be worked out with the United States. Joining a far-flung security alliance also imposes costs and expectations on Britain, which is shrinking the size of its military and, like many countries, has had its public finances ravaged by the pandemic. Still, for a country that was treated as little more than an afterthought by Biden in the recent withdrawal from Afghanistan, it was a welcome return to relevance. British officials cited the deal as proof of their ability to move adroitly in a post-Brexit world — in this case, at the expense of a European neighbor. Australia first approached Britain to propose that the British and Americans help it deploy nuclear-powered submarines, according to British officials. The Australians concluded that the diesel models provided in the French deal were not going to be adequate for a future in which China posed an ever greater threat. Britain’s links with the United States on nuclear technology date back to a 1958 defense agreement, so the concept of the two allies working together was not only natural but unavoidable. The United States will provide the highly enriched uranium that powers the submarines’ reactors. Britain and Australia, officials said, made an aggressive sales pitch to Washington that included an exchange between Johnson and Biden in June at the Group of 7 meeting in Cornwall, England. Britain, they said, had to fend off American officials who questioned why Australia could not simply buy submarines directly from the United States. Among Britain’s arguments: Its military protocols are more closely aligned with those of the Australian military, making it easier for the Australians to operate vessels also equipped with British technology. A Biden administration official said the White House never contemplated cutting Britain out of the alliance. “It was largely a technical decision,” said Bates Gill, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute who is based in Sydney. “But it could also have been partially a decision about trustworthiness.” For Johnson, who has made the “special relationship” with the United States the cornerstone of his foreign policy, the submarine deal was compensation for having his views on Afghanistan brushed aside by Biden. Johnson, officials said, wanted the withdrawal to be contingent on conditions on the ground. Regardless of ruffled feathers, Johnson has made it clear that Britain will back Biden on his No. 1 priority: the competition with China. “They’re making choices, and the choices have consequences,” said Thomas Wright, director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, who praised the British approach. To some in Britain, those consequences might not be worth the benefits. Theresa May, Johnson’s predecessor as prime minister, warned that Britain could be dragged into a war with China over Taiwan. In 2016, Johnson argued that leaving the EU would allow Britain to engage more independently with China. That was before Beijing cracked down on Hong Kong, a former British colony. Now, Britain’s China policy looks scarcely different from that of the United States. Johnson hopes to build on Britain’s profile by playing host at a successful United Nations climate-change conference in November in Glasgow, Scotland. But it is not clear how much help he will get from Biden. Britain is pressing the United States to double its contribution to a $100 billion annual fund to help countries mitigate the impacts of climate change. It has yet to do so. Britain, analysts said, may benefit from having a new foreign secretary, Liz Truss, who won praise in her last job for negotiating trade deals in Asia. Johnson demoted her predecessor, Dominic Raab, after he came under fierce criticism for staying on vacation last month in Crete when the Taliban swept into Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. “Liz Truss has her detractors,” said Peter Westmacott, a former British ambassador to Washington. But he said she was “as well placed as anyone to try and add substance to the slogan of Global Britain.” For all of the satisfaction in London, Britain still faces daunting geopolitical realities. The submarine deal is likely to worsen its relationship with France, which is already strained by post-Brexit disputes over fishing rights and migrants crossing the English Channel. The French government’s disdain for Britain was evident in its response to news of the alliance: It recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia but left its envoy to Britain — a gesture, the French media said, meant to convey that it viewed Britain as a bit player in the geopolitical drama. Other analysts said France was particularly irked because it believed the United States was rewarding Britain when it should be punished for leaving the EU. Still, Johnson should not count on smooth sailing with Washington, either. Britain may yet find itself at odds over Northern Ireland, where Johnson is pressing for changes in post-Brexit trade arrangements. On Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on a visit to London, reiterated a warning that if Britain jeopardized the peace in Northern Ireland, Congress would not approve a trade agreement between Britain and the United States. Beyond that, analysts said, Biden’s offhand treatment of Britain on Afghanistan, coupled with the short notice the White House gave France before announcing the security alliance, showed that the United States would pursue its interests without regard to the sensitivities of trans-Atlantic relationships. “The most remarkable thing is how little the Americans are talking about this and how much the Brits are,” said Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the US and the Americas program at Chatham House, a British research institution. “That basic fact captures a lot about the special relationship. Special doesn’t mean equal.” © 2021 The New York Times Company

The risk that deteriorating government finances could push economies into full-fledged debt crises tops a list of threats facing the world in 2010, according to a report by the World Economic Forum. Major world economies have responded to the financial crisis with stimulus packages and by underwriting private debt obligations, causing deficits to balloon. This may have helped keep a worse recession at bay, but high debt has become a growing concern for financial markets. The risk is particularly high for developed nations, as many emerging economies, not least in Latin America, have already been forced by previous shocks to put their fiscal houses in order, the WEF think tank said in its annual Global Risks report ahead of its meeting in Davos, Switzerland. "Governments, in trying to stimulate their economies, in fighting the recession, are (building) unprecedented levels of debt and therefore there is a rising risk of sovereign defaults," said John Drzik, Chief Executive of management consultancy Oliver Wyman, which was one of the contributors to the WEF report. He said higher unemployment levels could follow, with associated social and political risks. The report placed unsustainable debt levels and the looming shadow of the financial crisis among the top three risks, alongside underinvestment in infrastructure -- one of the fastest rising risks -- and chronic diseases such as Alzheimer's and diabetes driving up health costs and reducing growth. Other looming threats including the risk of asset price collapse, risks connected to Afghanistan and a potential slowdown in Chinese growth which could hit employment, fuel social unrest and hurt exports through the region and beyond. CREEPING RISKS The report, highlighting the risk developed nations could overextend "unsustainable levels of debt," said full-blown debt crises would have inevitable social and political consequences, not least higher unemployment. "Government debt levels of 100 percent of GDP -- which is where the United States and the UK are heading -- and higher are clearly not sustainable," said Daniel Hofmann, group chief economist at Zurich Financial Services, a contributor to the report. "There is an inherent risk that investors may take fright, they may question the sustainability of these debt levels -- the result (would be) sovereign debt crises and defaults. "Clearly Dubai and Greece were early warnings that should be heeded," he told a press conference. Worries over Dubai, Ukraine and Greece have spilled over into global markets , and all three look set to remain under pressure, with the threat also high for the Anglo-Saxon economies -- the United States and the United Kingdom. The WEF report said both faced with "tough choices" in the months ahead as they seek to time a "gradual and credible withdrawal of fiscal stimulus so that the recovery is sustained but not so late that fiscal deficits cause fear of sovereign debt deterioration." The report highlighted what it called a "governance gap" -- the gap between short-term pressures on governments and business and the need for long term decisions, not least on issues including health and pension reform and climate change. Too little was being done to address underinvestment in infrastructure, it said, which could hurt food and energy security. The World Bank puts global infrastructure investment needs at $35 trillion for the next 20 years. Greater life expectancy and unhealthy lifestyles would lead to a soaring financial cost from chronic disease, they said, which must be addressed by both developing and developed nations such as through prevention campaigns promoting healthier living. "The biggest risks facing the world today maybe from slow failures or creeping risks," said the report. "because these failures at risks emerge over a long period of time, there potentially enormous impact and long-term implications can be vastly underestimated."

Officials in New York City on Friday postponed a planned clean-up of the downtown Manhattan park where anti-Wall Street protesters set up camp a month ago, averting what many feared could have been a showdown with authorities. Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway said the private owner of Zuccotti Park, Brookfield Office Properties, decided late on Thursday to delay the cleaning, which had been slated to begin at 7 a.m. EDT. He offered no reason for the delay. Protesters celebrated the postponement at the publicly accessible park, where the mood was festive. However, at least seven people were seen being arrested when several hundred people left the park and marched through the downtown financial district. A spokesman for the New York Police Department confirmed there were arrests but did not say how many or provide any details. Many protesters had feared the cleaning would be an attempt to shut down the movement that has sparked solidarity protests in more than 1,400 cities. There were plans for global rallies on Saturday in 71 countries, according to Occupy Together and United for Global Change. Protesters are upset that the billions of dollars in U.S. bank bailouts doled out during the recession allowed banks to resume earning huge profits while average Americans have had scant relief from high unemployment and job insecurity. They also believe the richest 1 percent of Americans do not pay their fair share in taxes. Roughly 1,000 protesters were on hand early on Friday at the New York park, where many had been up all night cleaning it themselves. Throughout the park, big buckets were filled with brooms and mops. Many protesters had packed up their belonging in preparation for the clean-up. "We clean up after ourselves. It's not like there's rats and roaches running around the park," said Bailey Bryant, 28, an employee at a Manhattan bank who visits the camp after work and on weekends. Some at the park feared a clean-up was still in the works as a ploy to evict them. "It's almost too good to be true," said Sofia Johnson, 17, a high school student from Brooklyn, of the postponed clean up. "I think it's still a possibility and in a climate like this, letting your guard down completely seems like a naive thing to do," she said. Brookfield has said conditions at the park were "unsanitary and unsafe," with no toilets and a shortage of garbage cans. Neighbors complained of lewdness, drug use, harassment and offensive odors from the protesters, Brookfield said. Brookfield did not immediately respond to calls for comment on Friday morning. CONSISTENT WITH PARK REGULATIONS Brookfield representatives, escorted by police, handed out notices to the protesters on Thursday to tell them that the park would be cleaned in three stages and would reopen for public use consistent with park regulations. But the rules ban camping, tents or other structures, lying down on the ground, placing tarps or sleeping bags on the ground, and the storage of personal property -- everything the protesters have been doing since they set up on September 17. In announcing the postponement, the deputy mayor said in a statement that Brookfield was "postponing their scheduled cleaning of the park, and for the time being withdrawing their request from earlier in the week for police assistance during their cleaning operation." "Brookfield believes they can work out an arrangement with the protesters that will ensure the park remains clean, safe, available for public use and that the situation is respectful of residents and businesses downtown, and we will continue to monitor the situation," he said. Hundreds of people have been arrested at rallies in New York, and dozens have been arrested in the past couple of weeks from Boston and Washington, D.C., to Chicago, Austin and San Francisco. Solidarity rallies have also sprung up at more than 140 U.S. college campuses in 25 states, according to Occupy Colleges.

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.

When Hillary Clinton made her first trip abroad as secretary of state, she baldly said the United States could not let human rights disputes get in the way of working with China on global challenges. Now that the blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng is under US protection in Beijing, according to a US-based rights group, the United States will find out if China has made the same calculation. Chen's escape after 19 months of house arrest and apparent request for US protection comes at a vexing time for both countries, with diplomats preparing for annual economic and security talks in Beijing this week, and with China's Communist Party trying to contain a divisive political scandal involving a former senior official, Bo Xilai. Assuming it has Chen, it is inconceivable that the United States would turn him over to the Chinese authorities against his wishes, said current and former US officials. That leaves China with a choice - let the broader relationship suffer in a standoff with the United States, or seek a compromise, a scenario analysts, current and former officials saw as probable though by no means certain. "I can't imagine they will tank the relationship," said a senior Obama administration official who spoke on condition that he not be identified. "This isn't the same as a spy plane incident or Tiananmen Square. I do think they will try to manage it." In 2001, relations between Beijing and Washington suffered a plunge after a collision between a Chinese fighter jet and US surveillance plane. The Tiananmen Square incident of 1989, when Chinese troops crushed pro-democracy protesters who had made the square their base, brought ties with Washington to an even deeper nadir. AWKWARD TIMING As of Sunday, the United States has not publicly confirmed reports that Chen fled from house arrest in his village home in Shandong province into the US embassy. China has also declined direct comment on the dissident's reported escape from his carefully watched home. But Texas-based ChinaAid said it "learned from a source close to the Chen Guangcheng situation that Chen is under US protection and high level talks are currently under way between US and Chinese officials regarding Chen's status." The incident will form an unwelcome backdrop for the visit of the US secretaries of state and treasury to Beijing for their Strategic and Economic Dialogue on Thursday and Friday. The reports of Chen's escape also come nearly three months after a Chinese official Wang Lijun fled into the US consulate in Chengdu for over 24 hours, unleashing the Bo Xilai scandal that has rattled the ruling Communist Party months before a once-in-a-decade leadership handover. Chris Johnson, until earlier this month the CIA's top China analyst, said Sino-US relations were "almost approaching a perfect storm," citing the Bo Xilai case, Chen's apparent escape and reports that the United States is considering selling Taiwan new F-16s in addition to upgrading its existing fleet. "For the conspiracy-minded in Beijing, and there are plenty of them, they will see these things as completing the circle of a US containment strategy designed to stifle China's rise," said Johnson, now a Center for Strategic and International Studies analyst. How China's leadership will try to resolve the problem hinges on the balance between such nationalist sentiments and a more pragmatic desire to avoid further disruptions to the Chinese communist party leadership succession this autumn. For now, the scale tips toward a quick, quiet resolution, said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing who specializes in US-China ties. "China does not want to allow this case to have a lot of influence because it is not good for its foreign relations or its domestic politics," said Shi, adding that the countries have too much at stake to cancel this week's meetings. "I don't think the United States will play this card to embarrass China. They still want to influence China on North Korea and Syria. They want to limit this case's impact because they know it is already embarrassing for China." The US and China have found ways to disentangle knotty problems in the past. On April 1, 2001, a mid-air collision between a US Navy EP-3 signals intelligence plane and a Chinese fighter about 70 miles off Hainan island killed a Chinese pilot and forced the US aircraft to make an emergency landing on Hainan. The 24 US crew-members were detained until April 11, and released after a the United States wrote a letter saying that it was "very sorry" for the death of the Chinese pilot and that the EP-3 entered China's airspace the landed without clearance. NO HANDOVER In February 2009, Clinton said that while the United States would keep pushing China on Taiwan, Tibet and human rights, "our pressing on those issues can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crises." Despite the suggestion that human rights might take a back seat, analysts said it was impossible - for reasons of principle and politics - for the United States to sacrifice Chen. "It's inconceivable that they would hand him over against his will," said Tom Malinowski, who worked in US President Bill Clinton's White House and is now Washington director for the Human Rights Watch advocacy group. "Most people in the administration would recognize that that would be completely wrong," he said. "I don't think you even have to get to the politics of it - but if you do get to the politics of it, that is another argument against it." Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has already accused Obama of being weak on China, an attack that would only intensify if the Democratic president were seen to abandon Chen. Analysts and rights activists sketched out two possible scenarios for resolving Chen's case. Under the first, Chen might be released inside China with guarantees about his own safety as well as that of his family and perhaps those who helped him to escape. Under the second, he would go into exile despite what his associates describe as his reluctance to leave China. "We would not force him out without being very, very confident that he would not suffer for his actions, and it's very hard to be confident about that if he remains in China," said Kenneth Lieberthal, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington. "You never know what happens here, but the odds are sooner or later he will be escorted to the airport with assurances that he will be able to get on a plane and leave," he added. "He will not get back into China - probably never - certainly not anytime soon."

SYDNEY, Dec 24(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - An ancient underground water basin the size of Libya holds the key to Australia avoiding a water crisis as climate change bites the drought-hit nation. Australia's Great Artesian Basin is one of the largest artesian groundwater basins in the world, covering 1.7 million sq km and lying beneath one-fifth of Australia. The basin holds 65 million gigalitres of water, about 820 times the amount of surface water in Australia, and enough to cover the Earth's land mass under half a metre of water, says the Great Artesian Basin Coordinating Committee. And it is slowly topped up with 1 million megalitres a year as rain filters through porous sandstone rock, becoming trapped in the underground basin. "There is probably enough water in there to last Australia's needs for 1,500 years, if we wanted to use it all," says John Hillier, a hydrogeologist who has just completed the Great Artesian Basin Resource Study. But he and other experts warn that access to the basin's water supply is under threat from declining artesian pressure, which forces the water to the surface via bores and springs. If artesian pressure falls too far, due to excessive extraction of water, the ancient water source will be unreachable, except through costly pumping. Lying as much as two km below ground, some parts of the basin are 3 km deep from top to bottom. The basin was formed between 100 and 250 million years ago and consists of alternating layers of waterbearing sandstone aquifers and non-waterbearing siltstones and mudstones. Basin water is extracted through bores and is the only source of water for mining, tourism and grazing in Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia states, and the Northern Territory. The underground water spawns A$3.5 billion (US$2.4 billion) worth of production a year from farming, mining and tourism, says the Great Artesian Basin Coordinating Committee. The mining and petroleum industry extracts 31,000 megalitres of basin water a year, which is used in production or pumped out as a by-product of mining, and is vital for future expansion. Mining giant BHP-Billiton draws about 11,680 megalitres a year from the basin to operate its Olympic Dam gold, copper and uranium mine in South Australia. It would treble water usage under a plan to double production, with the extra water drawn from the basin and a new desalination plant. Swiss-based miner Xstrata Plc is looking at the basin as a water source for what would be Australia's biggest open cut thermal coal mine, at Wandoan in Queensland, which would supply 20 million tonnes a year, with a mine life of 30 years. But the pastoral industry is by far the biggest user, taking 500,000 megalitres a year to water some of Australia's most productive farmlands. Angus Emmott runs a cattle property called Moonbah in central Queensland and relies on basin water in times of drought. "The bores underpin the social and economic value of this huge inland area of Australia where there wasn't permanent fresh water," said Emmott. "With climate change, we will be more reliant on the Great Artesian Basin, so we're morally obliged to make the best use of that water...so we don't waste it." BASIN WATER THREATENED Since it was first tapped in 1878, an estimated 87 million megalitres has been extracted and up to 90 percent of it wasted. As a result of falling water pressure, more than 1,000 natural springs have been lost and one-third of the original artesian bores have ceased flowing. The extraction of ancient basin water into the atmosphere also contributes to Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, releasing 330,000 tonnes of CO2 annually. A 15-year Great Artesian Basin Sustainability project started in 1990 aims to protect the water supply and the hydraulic pressure necessary to access it. Today, there are still some 3,000 bores which pour water into 34,000 km of open bore drains, with 90 percent of the water evaporating in the outback heat. But more than 1,052 bores have now been controlled and tens of thousands of kilometres of open drains removed and pipelines laid, saving 272 gigalitres of water a year. Farmers are now fencing off bores and using mobile telephone, satellite and computer imaging technology to control livestock access to bores and control bore flows. "Bores and springs that had previously ceased to flow have begun to flow again. It's a huge change to land management and has allowed better pasture and stock management," said Emmott. "With the capping and piping programme you don't get the bogging of domestic animals, you don't get the maintenance cost of drains and you don't get soil salination," he said. SUSTAINABLE USAGE Farmers and scientists say it is crucial that more work is done to avoid a water crisis in the Great Artesian Basin as there will be greater demand on basin water in the future. "It is absolutely crucial for the existence of communities that it is looked after," said Emmott. "We realise there is a lot there, but we need to look after it very carefully because it needs such a huge time for recharge that if we lose it now it will not recharge in human lifetimes." A A$17 million long-term sustainability report on the Great Artesian Basin announced this month will look at how to ensure water for future mining, pastoral and environmental development. The global commodities boom in recent years has seen mining activity over the basin increase dramatically and authorities expect the mining industry's extraction will continue to rise. "An expansion in exploration and mining activities in the area will place increased demands on securing groundwater allocations for economic development," said Andy Love, from Flinders University in Adelaide, who will lead the study. "Clearly a balance between development and environmental protection needs to be achieved. However, this is not possible without increased knowledge about the amount of groundwater that can be safely extracted," said Love.

Christian Chapman, 41, compared his feelings during Better.com’s orientation to the head rush of a new relationship. The perks were bountiful, the mission was sound and Chapman, a mortgage underwriting trainer, fell fast and hard. “LGTM!” he and his teammates cheered, which stood for “Let’s Get That Money.” Soon, though, there were red flags. Most notable was a video call last summer when Vishal Garg, the company’s chief executive, unleashed an expletive-laden monologue about beating the competition, prompting Chapman to hit mute and usher his young daughter out of the room. Then, last month, Garg summoned 900 Better.com employees, including Chapman, roughly 9% of his staff, and fired them in a Zoom call that was recorded and shared online. Garg later apologised, but just over one week afterward, the company’s board announced that the founder and chief executive was “taking time off” from his role. For almost two years, couches have been offices. Colleagues are instant message avatars. And a workforce that had shocking changes imposed on it has reconsidered its basic assumptions about how people treat one another in corporate life. “The tolerance for dealing with jerky bosses has decreased,” observed Angelina Darrisaw, chief executive of the firm C-Suite Coach, who saw a spike of interest in her executive coaching services last year. “You can’t just wake up and lead people,” she added. “Companies are thinking about how do we make sure our managers are actually equipped to manage.” The scrutiny of workplace behaviour comes after several years of high-profile conversation about appropriate office conduct. The #MeToo movement propelled dozens of executives to step down after accusations of sexual assault. The Black Lives Matter protests after the killing of George Floyd prompted corporate leaders to issue apologies for past discriminatory behaviours and the lack of racial diversity in their workforces and to pledge to make amends. And increasingly, as people’s work routines have been upended by the pandemic, they’ve begun to question the thrum of unpleasantness and accumulation of indignities they used to shrug off as part of the office deal. Some are saying: No more working for jerks. But it is not illegal to be a jerk, which introduces a hiccup into that mean-colleague reckoning. The definition of a bully is often in the eye of the coffee-fetcher. The pop culture archetype of recent years is the ice queen with standards higher than her stiletto heels, Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly (a thinly veiled Anna Wintour) in “The Devil Wears Prada.” The sort of boss who might ask, of an assistant: “Is there some reason that my coffee isn’t here? Has she died or something?” In real life, jerk behaviour exists on a spectrum of cringe. There is the founder, whose vision and ambition can make it difficult for staff to question his temper — such as Garg, who accused the employees he fired of “stealing” from the company by putting in too few hours. (In response to requests for comment, Better.com pointed to Garg’s early December apology for the way he had executed the layoffs.) There’s the example of Hollywood mogul Scott Rudin, who made critically acclaimed art, and also threw staplers at underlings. (He later apologised.) There’s millennial hustle culture unhinged: Away’s former chief executive, Steph Korey, who demanded loyalty and Slack activity at all hours of the day and night. “I hope everyone in this group appreciates the thoughtfulness I’ve put into creating this career development opportunity,” she wrote in a message telling her staff to stop requesting time off. (Korey apologised, too.) And then there’s the self-determined type, like Oracle’s Larry Ellison, who referred to his own leadership style as MBR, for “management by ridicule.” “You’ve got to be good at intellectual intimidation and rhetorical bullying,” Ellison once said. (He later disavowed this as the strategy of an “inexperienced and insecure” CEO.) Tessa West, a social psychologist at New York University, wrote a field guide to bad personalities, called “Jerks at Work,” that sketches out a handful — the bulldozer, the free rider, the gaslighter and the kiss up/kick downer. Many of her examples are of bosses, who tend to be harder to report. For West, the quest is personal. Her own encounter with a workplace jerk came during graduate school at the University of Connecticut, when a peer resorted to creative forms of sabotage: giving West the wrong time for a meeting so that she would arrive late; calling her clothing overly sexualized. (“I dressed like a California girl,” West said.) Because the comments did not seem clearly in violation of any code of conduct aside from basic manners, West hesitated to escalate the issue. “The climate has changed,” West reflected. “I think we now recognize these behaviours are really inappropriate.” Reporting to work has always meant accepting a variety of unpleasantries: commutes, precoffee chitchat, people who would like you to do what they tell you to do even if it’s not yet 10 a.m. But for some, the past year has rebalanced the power seesaw between worker and boss. Maybe it was the surge of people quitting: A record high 4.5 million Americans voluntarily left their jobs in November. Maybe it was the ebbing will-they-won’t-they tides of return to office plans. Whatever the change, more workers are feeling empowered to call out their managers. “For the entirety of my career, I would hear this phrase, ‘Be your full self at work,’ and that meant wearing a pop of colour,” Darrisaw said. “Now it means making time for meditation with your team, making time for conversations about how the company is showing up to support your community.” Jacquelyn Carter, 26, did not think she was going to quit her job at the start of the pandemic. She was working at a nonprofit in Houston, and she had been taught by her mother, who had worked at the same place for 30 years, that it was important to stick with a team for as long as possible. But the slights started to add up. Some colleagues regularly forgot her name. Others talked over her in meetings. A manager at the organization called an idea of hers “stupid.” And, as a Black woman, she found herself fielding insensitive remarks from white colleagues. “When you get to be home in your own space, you realize, ‘I don’t have to deal with someone passing me in the hallway and commenting on my hair,’” she said. She watched TikToks of other people celebrating their decisions to leave jobs they didn’t like — QuitTok — with its posts featuring Destiny’s Child’s “Bills, Bills, Bills” and Cardi B’s “Money.” One prime example of the genre: A trio of women dance their way offscreen to text that reads: “the company would rather lose 3 reliable hard working employees than fix their toxic management.” Carter decided that a mean colleague was as good a reason as any to leave her employer, so she started looking for new opportunities, and then joined Darrisaw’s firm. The bad-boss-goodbye posts also inspired some to jump from retail to office jobs, including Kristofer Flatt, 23, who used to work at a big-box store in Arkansas. He said his managers ignored his pleas for more protective gear, gave him time-consuming tasks with no explanations — “change the item in that aisle to charcoal, not birdseed” — and questioned his request to take time off for a funeral. In spring 2020, he quit and moved to a corporate job. “If you’re a business leader and you want to recruit the best talent you can, you need to start prioritizing and doing the work of creating conscious culture,” said Janine Yancey, who runs Emtrain, which provides workplace trainings. “Over the last couple decades, companies have not invested as much time and resources in developing leadership and management skills,” she said. “Everyone’s focused on the technical skills, the what, but not necessarily the how.” Yancey used to work as an employment lawyer. But she came to feel that the workplace changes she wanted to see wouldn’t be brought about solely by legal reform, something reaffirmed in 2015 when she watched Ellen Pao lose her gender discrimination lawsuit against the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. “The laws are the bare minimum,” Yancey said. “Society has to change.” Shani Ospina’s work is trying to accelerate that change. She is a professional jerk patroller. An executive coach who works with Strategyzer, a software and consulting company, she conducts 90-minute screenings during the interview process to assess the personality fit of job candidates, helping to enforce the company’s emphasis on being a team player. “What aspect of yourself are you most proud of?” Ospina starts out by asking. Then she gets deeper: “What aspect about yourself would you most like to change?” (She braces for the wince-inducing “I got promoted a year later than I’d hoped.”) Ospina’s process is guided by the idea that most people are petty sometimes, but what separates the average person from the hardcore jerk is the capacity to recognize failures and try to improve. One of Strategyzer’s founders, Alex Osterwalder, says common jerk qualities are blaming colleagues, refusing feedback and talking about people behind their backs. He believes that screening for nonjerkiness is just as important as looking for technical skills. Jerkiness, like incompetency, takes a toll on productivity. And competent jerks who rise through the ranks can have wide-reaching effects, especially in a corporate culture that puts more emphasis on output than on how the work gets done. People get gold stars for performance, not collegiality. Baird, the financial services firm, took the principle a step further by codifying it in policy. Employees are informed during their orientation of the company’s “no asshole rule” — it’s even written into training material. Leslie Dixon, head of human resources, has fired people for violating it. “By putting it out there in print and talking about it when they’re onboarded and throughout their career, it fosters a very open conversation about behaviour that’s not illegal but that can be uncomfortable,” Dixon said. Like the team at Strategyzer, the enforcers of Baird’s policy realize rudeness isn’t an immutable trait. People aren’t fired for slip-ups. Even Beth Kavelaris, director of culture and integration at the company, said she got feedback years ago that helped her rethink her own conduct. “It was from my boss, who said, ‘You’ve got to learn to listen better, Beth,’ and I think I interrupted her while she was telling me that,” Kavelaris recalled. “I’ve gotten better. I haven’t been told that in a long while.” Last month, Garg, who had fired 900 people over Zoom, posted an apology to his Better.com team. “I failed to show the appropriate amount of respect and appreciation for the individuals who were affected,” he wrote, and he pledged to do better. The note concluded with a promise to be transparent and share 2022 goals. His reckoning came at a moment when nearly every company shares the same goal: keeping talent. Nobody can hit metrics if they don’t have a staff. And many are realizing that there’s nothing that thins out a workforce like misbehaviour. Darrisaw, for example, of C-Suite Coach, helps companies assess how they can improve their culture. “Are more people trying to leave certain teams?” she asks clients. “That often tells you what the management style is like.” Sometimes workers can name and shame their meaner colleagues — but in other cases, that job falls to those resigning instead. Which means quitting season might spell trouble for the jerks. ©2022 The New York Times Company

Since the year 1500, more than 320 terrestrial vertebrates have become extinct. Populations of the remaining species show a 25 percent average decline in abundance.The situation is similarly dire for invertebrate animal life."While previous extinctions have been driven by natural planetary transformations or catastrophic asteroid strikes, the current die-off can be associated to human activity, leading to an era of 'Anthropocene defaunation'," explained lead researcher Rodolfo Dirzo, a professor of biology at Stanford University.Across vertebrates, 16 to 33 percent of all species are estimated to be globally threatened or endangered.Large animals - described as megafauna and including elephants, rhinoceroses, polar bears and countless other species worldwide - face the highest rate of decline, a trend that matches previous extinction events, the study noted.Consequently, the number of rodents doubles - and so does the abundance of the disease-carrying ectoparasites that they harbour."Where human density is high, you get high rates of defaunation, high incidence of rodents and thus high levels of pathogens, which increases the risks of disease transmission," Dirzo added.The scientists also detailed a troubling trend in invertebrate defaunation. Human population has doubled in the past 35 years; in the same period, the number of invertebrate animals - such as beetles, butterflies, spiders and worms - has decreased by 45 percent.As with larger animals, the loss is driven primarily by loss of habitat and global climate disruption, and could have trickle-up effects in our everyday lives."Immediately reducing rates of habitat change and overexploitation would help but these approaches need to be tailored to individual regions and situations," Dirzo suggested.According to him, "we tend to think about extinction as loss of a species from the face of Earth but there is a loss of critical ecosystem functioning in which animals play a central role that we need to pay attention to as well."The review was published in the journal Science.

Dhaka, Nov 14 (bdnews24.com)—Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has urged weather-vulnerable countries to collectively air their concern before the UN climate conference in South Africa later this month. The economic cost of climate change is $130 billion and it would increase if adequate and timely steps are not taken, she said, opening the Climate Vulnerable Forum 2011 at a city hotel on Monday. The Climate Vulnerable Forum is one of the most striking new voices on climate change that's emerged since the UN summit in Copenhagen two years ago. "Climate change constitutes a serious injustice and must be acknowledged by the global community," prime minister Hasina added. "We are bearing the brunt of the damage though we made negligible or no contribution to the menace." The first Climate Vulnerable Forum was held in the Maldives capital of Malé in 2009 and the second one in Kiribati last year. The grouping includes small island states vulnerable to extreme weather events and sea level rise, those with immense spans of low-lying coastline such as Vietnam and Bangladesh, and dry nations of East Africa. Hasina lamented that there was no concrete move to support nationally determined adaptation initiatives undertaken by the vulnerable countries. "We see no evidence of direct and easy access to fund and technology," she said, "We have seen no clarity on how the global community would raise funds in the period between 2012 and 2020 towards operationalisation of the Green Climate Fund." The prime minister said before the Nov 28-Dec 917th Conference of the Parties (COP17) in Durban, vulnerable countries should join together to raise their concern in the programme. "In the face of climate change, we need to engage the global partners and forge an effective partnership," she said. United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, who arrived in Dhaka on Sunday on a three-day trip, was the keynote speaker. He said Green Climate Fund needs to be launched in Durban. "Durban must complete what was agreed last year in Cancún," he said, "An empty shell is not sufficient." It was agreed in Cancún, Mexico that the fund would be launched. "Durban must advance a work programme on loss and damage to respond to the needs of countries like Bangladesh that are particularly afflicted by extreme climatic events," he said. "We cannot ask the poorest and most vulnerable to bear the costs." The UN chief expected that the governments would find a compromise on the Kyoto protocol to make a broader comprehensive climate agreement possible in future. Citing an example, he said in 1991 ac cyclone killed 140,000 people while only 4,000 people died in a cyclone in 2007 in Bangladesh. "Volunteers with bullhorns and bicycles helped move more than three million people," he said, "Thanks to the Bangladesh Cyclone Preparedness programme." Bangladesh is recognised as one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world. If sea level increases by two metres, about 30 million Bangladeshis would be displaced from their homes. The Dhaka declaration of climate forum will be adopted at 4:30pm.

The protest by more than 1,000 people snarled rush hour traffic in the Brazilian capital adjacent to the Mané Garrincha National Stadium, the most costly stadium built for the 32-nation sports event that begins in 16 days.Adding to the tension, Indians in traditional tribal dress with bows drawn joined the protesters from the Homeless Worker's movement. The group says building stadiums to host the World Cup was too costly, caused real estate prices to soar and forced lower-income families out of their homes.Brazil is rushing to finish stadiums and urban transport systems in time for the World Cup in a climate of growing civil disobedience by groups of Brazilians who seek to disrupt the event saying its cost was excessive for a developing nation.The World Cup now serves as a backdrop to push for variety of causes, and bus drivers in Rio de Janeiro said on Tuesday they would start a 24-hour strike at midnight while professors marched down Sao Paulo's main thruway to demand a raise.Local soccer fans lined up outside the Brasilia stadium to see the Fifa World Cup Trophy, which is touring the 12 cities hosting the games, but the protest march forced authorities to cancel the trophy display and close the stadium.The Brasilia protest follows a peaceful march led by the same group in Sao Paulo last week. That protest of several thousand held up traffic in South America's business hub and spurred fears that more protests and even violence could disrupt the month-long World Cup when it starts on June 12.A spokesman for the military police said Tuesday's protest started peacefully and that police were trying to contain the march with tear gas and walls of shield-bearing police. But if the demonstrators reached the stadium, they would have to intervene, the spokesman said.Brasilia's stadium will cost 1.9 billion reais ($849.26 million) when the surrounding landscaping is finished after the World Cup, city auditors said in a report published last week, almost three times the price tag first budgeted.Though they have not previously joined anti-World Cup protests, Indians have routinely protested in Brasilia against efforts to change the rules around how Indian reservations boundaries are determined. They invaded Congress while it was in session on several occasions last year.Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff has promised the Homeless Worker's movement that squatters who have gathered around some of the stadiums will receive low-cost government housing. But her government has warned that it will call in troops if necessary to prevent protests disrupting the soccer games.Some 600,000 foreign soccer fans are expected to travel to Brazil for the World Cup.

The ballot is the first major popularity test for the junta led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who has suppressed political activity during the two years since he seized power in a 2014 coup. Ahead of the referendum, polls suggested a small lead in favour of accepting the new constitution, but most voters were undecided. Preliminary results were expected at around 8pm local time. Prayuth has said he will not resign if Thailand rejects the constitution and that an election will take place next year no matter what the outcome. He encouraged Thais to participate after casting his vote on Sunday. "I urge everyone to come out and vote... to decide on the future of the country," Prayuth told reporters at a polling station in northwest Bangkok.  Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha He was heckled by one woman as he spoke to the media. "Can you manage the country? Can you protect the country?" she asked, before being moved away by security personnel. Around 200,000 police were deployed for the vote, and while Thailand's largest political parties rejected the constitution ahead of the vote, there were no signs of protests or trouble. The junta, formally known as the National Council for Peace and Order, has banned all criticism of the constitution and authorities have detained and charged dozens of people who have spoken against it, including politicians and student activists. Decade of turmoil Critics say the charter is the military's attempt to make good on their failure to banish former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his brand of populism from Thai politics after the coup that removed him in 2006. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha Thailand has seen over a decade of political turmoil since Thaksin was ousted. Thaksin lives in self-imposed exile but retains a strong influence, particularly with his rural support base in the north. His sister Yingluck swept to power with an electoral landslide in 2011, and her government was ousted by Prayuth three years later in the 2014 coup.  Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra after casting her ballot. Yingluck, who was banned from politics for five years in January 2015 after a military-appointed legislature found her guilty of mismanaging a rice scheme, also voted on Sunday. "I'm happy that I could still exercise my rights as a (Thai) person," Yingluck told reporters, urging others to go and vote. Thaksin called the charter a "folly" on Thursday, saying it would perpetuate the junta's power and make it impossible to govern Thailand. Reuters interviews with senior officers showed the military's ambition is to make future coups unnecessary through the new charter by weakening political parties and ensuring the military a role in overseeing the country's economic and political development. Under the constitution, which would be Thailand's 20th since the military abolished an absolute monarchy in 1932, a junta-appointed Senate with seats reserved for military commanders would check the powers of elected lawmakers. In the northeastern city of Khon Kaen, around 50 voters queued to vote outside the town's rebuilt city hall, which was burnt down during political unrest in 2010. "I want the country to get better," said farmer Thongyoon Khaenkhaomeng at a nearby polling station in a school. He voted in favour of the constitution because he wanted to see an end to Thailand's divisions, he said. Day laborer Decha Shangkamanee said he had voted against the charter because he disliked the junta, but did not expect the referendum to make much difference. "I know that nothing really changes today with the way the country is ruled," he said. Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra after casting her ballot. "I want the country to get better," said farmer Thongyoon Khaenkhaomeng at a nearby polling station in a school. He voted in favour of the constitution because he wanted to see an end to Thailand's divisions, he said. Day laborer Decha Shangkamanee said he had voted against the charter because he disliked the junta, but did not expect the referendum to make much difference. "I know that nothing really changes today with the way the country is ruled," he said. The vote comes against the back-drop of concern about the health of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88. The military has for decades invoked its duty as defender of the deeply revered monarch to justify its interventions in politics. No reconciliation Whichever way the vote goes, the United Nations would like to see more dialogue between the military and political opponents, said Luc Stevens, the UN chief in Thailand. "There is no reconciliation if one group says 'Lets reconcile on our terms'," he told Reuters ahead of the referendum. "If you don't want to leave anybody behind in this country, you need to think about an inclusive process, an open dialogue, and ensure that people can express their opinion." Two students were detained and charged on Saturday in the northeastern province of Chaiyaphum for handing out leaflets urging voters to vote against the referendum, said Police Colonel Aram Prajit. The ban on campaigning has not stopped the junta from deploying thousands of military cadets to carry a message to Thailand's 50 million eligible voters encouraging them to participate in the referendum. The Election Commission is hoping for a turnout of 80 percent. Amnesty International said on Friday the junta had created a chilling climate ahead of the vote through pervasive human rights violations.

From banana imports to rules for protecting the product names, officials and diplomats were working on Friday on a range of issues ahead of next week's make-or-break ministerial trade negotiations. But trade experts said the significance of next week's Doha round talks goes far beyond the detail of tariff and subsidy cuts, signaling the international community's ability to deal with major problems such as the food crisis. "If governments can't even agree on a trade negotiation I'd like to know what they're going to do in climate change over the next half a decade," World Trade Organisation Chief Economist Patrick Low told a briefing. WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy called the Geneva meeting, which starts formally on Monday and is set to last a week, to push for a breakthrough in the long-running Doha round. The talks have missed repeated deadlines since they were launched in late 2001 to open up world trade and help developing countries export their way out of poverty. But negotiators say there is a new sense of urgency, and even optimism, now. Ministers from about 30 countries aim to clinch the outlines of a deal in the core areas of agriculture and industrial goods next week, to prevent the talks being sidelined by U.S. elections and next year's change in the White House. Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, arriving late on Thursday for talks ahead of the meeting, said any deal had to address the challenges of three "F's" -- finance, food and fuel. "These three "F's" are the backdrop against which these negotiations are being held," he told reporters. OUTLINES OF A DEAL World leaders from U.S. President George W. Bush to Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have called for a deal. A deal will see rich countries like the United States, Japan and EU members open up their markets for food by cutting farm tariffs and subsidies. In return tariff cuts in big emerging countries like India and Brazil will give them more access to markets for industrial goods and services. Once ministers agree the terms of that framework, negotiators will apply the details in the coming months to thousands of tariff lines, and turn to other areas, from fisheries subsidies to rules for unfairly priced imports. The question now is whether ministers can overcome the differences that divide developed and developing countries. France, the European Union's biggest food producer and current holder of its presidency, said the EU had exhausted its scope for concessions in agriculture. "We have a shared objective, to achieve a rebalancing of the concessions the EU has already made," French Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Idrac told a news conference in Brussels. EU trade chief Peter Mandelson said he felt EU governments had strengthened his hand in pressing for more concessions from others in the WTO talks. In the WTO's consensus-driven system each of the 152 members -- rising to 153 next week when Cape Verde joins -- has a veto. Poor countries, pointing to the Doha round's development mandate, say they should have to open their markets less than rich countries. Instead they are being asked to expose subsistence farmers and infant industries to competition while rich countries continue to protect their farmers. Rich countries say they cannot sell a deal at home involving big sacrifices in farm protection unless they can point to real gains in market access in countries such as India and China. And they say some of the biggest gains would come in South- South trade -- developing countries trading with each other. The conventional wisdom, repeated this week in a WTO report on globalization, is that free trade increases prosperity. It creates both winners and losers, but nations as a whole benefit. Many non-governmental organizations challenge that view, arguing that the current Doha proposals will expose poor-country farmers and workers to more poverty, and lock developing countries into dependence on the rich. "It flies in the face of what is being proposed by communities and social movements and takes away the space needed for developing countries to put in place the measures to deal with the crisis," Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute, a U.S.-based thinktank, told a briefing. But Lamy, an austere Frenchman and former EU trade chief, argues forcefully for the potential of a Doha deal to reduce distortions in the world trading system to benefit poor countries. In the long term that would boost food supplies, and in the short term it would boost confidence, he says. "What we can do is give one of the rare signals that there's a bit of good news in the system. I don't see any other front where this is available," he said.

India's greenhouse gas emissions grew 58 percent between 1994 and 2007, official figures released on Tuesday showed, helped up by a largely coal-reliant power sector that nearly doubled its share in emissions. Total emissions rose to 1.9 billion tonnes in 2007 versus 1.2 billion in 1994, with industry and transport sectors also upping their share in Asia's third largest economy and confirming India's ranking among the world's top five carbon polluters. By way of comparison, between 1994 and 2007, India added more than the entire emissions produced annually by Australia. India is still low on per-capita emissions, about a tenth that of the United States. The power sector accounted for 719.30 million tonnes of emissions against 355.03 million tonnes in 1994, while the transport sector's share jumped to 142.04 million tonnes from 80.28 million tonnes during the same period. Industrial emissions rose a little more than 30 per cent during the same period. With agriculture's share in the Indian economy dropping over the past years, emissions from the sector dipped marginally during 1994-2007. The report highlights India's growing role as a key player in the U.N.-led climate negotiations on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol and the need to include big developing nations in global efforts to fight climate change. Figures in the government report, released by Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh at a conference in New Delhi, show India closing in on Russia, now the world's third largest greenhouse gas emitter, at nearly 2.2 billion tonnes in 2007. China is the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases blamed for heating up the planet. The United States is second. Russia's emissions have been growing at a slower pace than those of India, whose energy-hungry economy has been expanding at about 8 percent a year as it tries to lift millions out of poverty. This has propelled investment in coal-fired power stations, steel mills, cement plants and mining, as well as renewable energy. "Interestingly, the emissions of the United States and China are almost four times that of India in 2007," Ramesh told the conference. "It is also noteworthy that the energy intensity of India's GDP declined by more than 30 percent during the period 1994-2007 due to the efforts and policies that we are proactively putting into place. This is a trend we intend to continue," he said. Energy intensity refers to the amount of energy used per unit of gross domestic product. COAL REMAINS CRUCIAL India has also set a carbon intensity reduction target of 20 to 25 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels. Data from 1994 was the last official report to the United Nations on India's emissions because, as a developing country, India is not obliged to make annual emissions declarations to the world body, unlike rich nations. The latest UN emissions data for industrialised nations date to 2007. Although India has announced a new climate plan which identifies renewable energy, such as solar power, as a key element, coal remains the backbone of energy supply in a country where almost half the 1.1 billion population has no access to electricity. The country has 10 percent of the world's coal reserves, and it plans to add 78.7 gigawatts of power generation during the five years ending March 2012, most of it from coal, which now accounts for about 60 percent of the nation's energy mix. Developing nations now emit more than half of mankind's greenhouse gas pollution and that figure is expected to accelerate in the short term even as poorer nations embrace renewable energy and greater energy efficiency. A government-backed report last year projected India's greenhouse gas emissions could jump to between 4 billion tonnes and 7.3 billion tonnes in 2031, but per-capita emissions would still be half the global average.

As wheat and rice prices surge, the humble potato -- long derided as a boring tuber prone to making you fat -- is being rediscovered as a nutritious crop that could cheaply feed an increasingly hungry world. Potatoes, which are native to Peru, can be grown at almost any elevation or climate: from the barren, frigid slopes of the Andes Mountains to the tropical flatlands of Asia. They require very little water, mature in as little as 50 days, and can yield between two and four times more food per hectare than wheat or rice. "The shocks to the food supply are very real and that means we could potentially be moving into a reality where there is not enough food to feed the world," said Pamela Anderson, director of the International Potato Center in Lima (CIP), a non-profit scientific group researching the potato family to promote food security. Like others, she says the potato is part of the solution. The potato has potential as an antidote to hunger caused by higher food prices, a population that is growing by one billion people each decade, climbing costs for fertilizer and diesel, and more cropland being sown for biofuel production. To focus attention on this, the United Nations named 2008 the International Year of the Potato, calling the vegetable a "hidden treasure". Governments are also turning to the tuber. Peru's leaders, frustrated by a doubling of wheat prices in the past year, have started a program encouraging bakers to use potato flour to make bread. Potato bread is being given to school children, prisoners and the military, in the hope the trend will catch on. Supporters say it tastes just as good as wheat bread, but not enough mills are set up to make potato flour. "We have to change people's eating habits," said Ismael Benavides, Peru's agriculture minister. "People got addicted to wheat when it was cheap." Even though the potato emerged in Peru 8,000 years ago near Lake Titicaca, Peruvians eat fewer potatoes than people in Europe: Belarus leads the world in potato consumption, with each inhabitant of the eastern European state devouring an average of 376 pounds (171 kg) a year. India has told food experts it wants to double potato production in the next five to 10 years. China, a huge rice consumer that historically has suffered devastating famines, has become the world's top potato grower. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the potato is expanding more than any other crop right now. Some consumers are switching to potatoes. In the Baltic country of Latvia, sharp price rises caused bread sales to drop by 10-15 percent in January and February, as consumers bought 20 percent more potatoes, food producers have said. The developing world is where most new potato crops are being planted, and as consumption rises poor farmers have a chance to earn more money. "The countries themselves are looking at the potato as a good option for both food security and also income generation," Anderson said. AFFORDABLE RAINBOW OF COLORS The potato is already the world's third most-important food crop after wheat and rice. Corn, which is widely planted, is mainly used for animal feed. Though most Americans associate potatoes with the bland Idaho variety, they actually come in some 5,000 types. Peru is sending thousands of seeds this year to the Doomsday Vault near the Arctic Circle, contributing to a gene bank for food crops that was set up in case of a global disaster. With colors ranging from alabaster-white to bright yellow and deep purple and countless shapes, textures, and sizes, potatoes offer inventive chefs a chance to create new, eye-catching plates. "They taste great," said Juan Carlos Mescco, 17, a potato farmer in Peru's Andes who says he frequently eats them sliced, boiled, or mashed from breakfast through dinner. Potatoes are a great source of complex carbohydrates, which release their energy slowly, and -- so long as they are not smothered with butter -- have only five percent of the fat content of wheat. They also have one-fourth of the calories of bread and, when boiled, have more protein than corn and nearly twice the calcium, according to the Potato Center. They contain vitamin C, iron, potassium and zinc. SPECULATORS AREN'T TEMPTED One factor helping the potato remain affordable is the fact that unlike wheat, it is not a global commodity, so has not attracted speculative professional investment. Each year, farmers around the globe produce about 600 million metric tonnes of wheat, and about 17 percent of that flows into foreign trade. Wheat production is almost double that of potato output. Analysts estimate less than 5 percent of potatoes are traded internationally, and prices are mainly driven by local tastes, instead of international demand. Raw potatoes are heavy and can rot in transit, so global trade in them has been slow to take off. They are also susceptible to infection with pathogens, hampering export to avoid spreading plant diseases. The downside to that is that prices in some countries aren't attractive enough to persuade farmers to grow them. People in Peruvian markets say the government needs to help lift demand. "Prices are low. It doesn't pay to work with potatoes," said Juana Villavicencio, who spent 15 years planting potatoes and now sells them for pennies a kilo in a market in Cusco, in Peru's southern Andes. But science is moving fast. Genetically modified potatoes that resist "late blight" are being developed by German chemicals group BASF . The disease led to famine in Ireland during the 19th century and still causes about 20 percent of potato harvest losses in the world, the company says. Scientists say farmers who use clean, virus-free seeds can boost yields by 30 percent and be cleared for export. That would generate more income for farmers and encourage more production as companies could sell specialty potatoes abroad, instead of just as frozen french fries or potato chips.

SINGAPORE, Nov 15, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - US President Barack Obama said on Sunday the world economy was on a path to recovery but warned that failure to re-balance the global economic system would lead to further crises. Obama was addressing Asia Pacific leaders in Singapore, where officials removed any reference to market-oriented exchange rates in a communique after disagreement between Washington and Beijing over the most sensitive topic between the two giants. The statement from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum endorsed stimulus measures to keep the global economy from sliding back into recession and urged a successful conclusion to the Doha Round of trade talks in 2010. An earlier draft pledged APEC's 21 members to maintain "market-oriented exchange rates that reflect underlying economic fundamentals." That statement had been agreed at a meeting of APEC finance ministers on Thursday, including China, although it made no reference to the Chinese yuan currency. An APEC delegation official who declined to be identified said debate between China and the United States over exchange rates had held up the statement at the end of two days of talks. That underscored strains likely to feature when Obama flies to China later on Sunday after Washington for the first time slapped duties on Chinese-made tires. Beijing fears that could set a precedent for more duties on Chinese goods that are gaining market share in the United States. Obama told APEC leaders the world could not return to the same cycles of boom and bust that sparked the global recession. "We cannot follow the same policies that led to such imbalanced growth. If we do, we will continue to drift from crisis to crisis, a failed path that has already had devastating consequences for our citizens, our businesses, and our governments," Obama said. "We have reached one of those rare inflection points in history where we have the opportunity to take a different path -- to pursue a new strategy for jobs and growth. Growth that is balanced. Growth that is sustainable." Obama's strategy calls for America to save more, spend less, reform its financial system and cut its deficits and borrowing. Washington also wants key exporters such as China to boost domestic demand. YUAN ON THE AGENDA Chinese President Hu Jintao has been under pressure to let the yuan appreciate, but in several speeches at APEC he ignored the issue and focused instead on what he called "unreasonable" trade restrictions on developing countries. One of the key themes when Obama visits China for three days will be the yuan, which has effectively been pegged against the dollar since mid-2008 to cushion its economy from the downturn. Washington says an undervalued yuan is contributing to imbalances between the United States and the world's third-biggest economy. China is pushing for US recognition as a market economy and concessions on trade cases that would make it harder for Washington to take action against Chinese products. China's central bank said last week it will consider major currencies in guiding the yuan, suggesting a departure from the peg. Obama arrived in Singapore late on Saturday, missing most of that day's formal talks and speeches where several leaders suggested the world's largest economy was hampering free trade through policies such as "Buy America" campaigns. APEC is the last major gathering of global decision-makers before a UN climate summit in Copenhagen in three weeks meant to ramp up efforts to fight climate change. Those negotiations have largely stalled, but a US official said Obama had backed a two-step plan by the Danish prime minister to aim for an operational agreement and to leave legally binding details until later. The APEC statement dropped all references to emissions reductions that had been in earlier drafts.

The family of the accused gunman in the Arizona shooting spree expressed sorrow on Tuesday over the "heinous events" while the congresswoman who was shot in the head showed signs of improvement. In their first public statement, relatives of Jared Lee Loughner, 22, said it was a "very difficult time" and asked for privacy. "There are no words that can possibly express how we feel. We wish there were, so we could make you feel better," read the statement, attributed to "The Loughner Family." The eight-sentence statement did not mention the young man charged in the shooting at a Tucson shopping mall that killed six people, including a federal judge, and injured 14 others. The shooting left Representative Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition but breathing on her own days after a bullet passed through her brain. "We don't understand why this happened. It may not make any difference, but we wish that we could change the heinous events of Saturday," the family statement said. "We care very deeply about the victims and their families. We are so very sorry for their loss." Giffords, a 40-year-old Democrat, was in critical condition at a Tucson hospital but is "holding her own," responding to simple commands and breathing without the aid of her ventilation tube, her doctor said. "She has no right to look this good. We're hopeful," said Dr. Michael Lemole, head of neurosurgery at the University Medical Center. "It's week to week, month to month," he said. "She's going to take her recovery at her own pace." President Barack Obama plans to go to Arizona on Wednesday to attend a memorial service for the dead, which included a 9-year-old girl. In Washington, the House of Representatives was scheduled to vote to condemn the bloody rampage that nearly killed one of their own and stirred debate about the angry politics of recent campaigns. PARENTS DEVASTATED Loughner is being held pending a January 24 preliminary hearing on five federal charges, including the attempted assassination of Giffords. Two young men emerged from the home of the accused gunman in a middle class neighborhood of Tucson and handed out the family's statement to a throng of media waiting outside. A neighbor earlier told local media Loughner's parents, Amy and Randy Loughner, were devastated. "Their son is not Amy and Randy, and people need to understand that. They're devastated. Wouldn't you be if it was your child?" neighbor Wayne Smith, with tears in his eyes, told Phoenix's News Channel Three. A CBS News poll released on Tuesday found a majority of Americans reject the view that inflamed political rhetoric contributed to the weekend shootings in Arizona. The poll found 57 percent of respondents said the harsh political tone had nothing to do with the shooting, while 32 percent felt it did. The rejection of a link was strongest among Republicans, with 69 percent feeling harsh rhetoric was not related to the attack. While the motive for the attack was not apparent, politicians and commentators have said a climate in which strong language and ideological polarization is common may have contributed. Former President Bill Clinton cautioned that public officials should be careful about their language. "We cannot be unaware of the fact that, particularly with the Internet, there's this huge echo-chamber out there," he told BBC News. "Anything any of us says falls on the unhinged and the hinged alike, and we just have to be sensitive to it." Lawmakers in both political parties have called for greater civility in politics, and on Wednesday members of Congress will come together in a bipartisan prayer service. Giffords' colleagues in Congress put most of their work on hold after the shootings, which prompted many of them to reassess their own security. The Republican-led House has postponed a vote to repeal Obama's overhaul of the US healthcare system, which Giffords and other Democrats backed. Loughner is accused of opening fire with a semi-automatic Glock pistol while the congresswoman greeted constituents in a supermarket parking lot. "In a minute, he took away six loved ones, and took away our sense of well-being," Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said in a speech in Tucson. "There is no way to measure what Tucson and all of Arizona lost in that moment." More than 600 mourners gathered at a memorial service for the shooting victims at St. Odilia Catholic Church in Tucson. Arizona state lawmakers passed legislation on Tuesday to keep members of a Kansas fundamentalist Christian church from picketing at the funerals of the six shooting victims. Brewer quickly signed the bill into law. Members of the tiny church have gained notoriety for appearing at military funerals to declare that God had punished the troops because the United States accepts homosexuality. The church members also turned up at the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards.

Rich nations must take the lead in cutting carbon emissions to prevent catastrophic reversals in health and education gains and poverty reduction for the world's poor, says a major global report launched Tuesday. The UN Human Development Report (HDR) 2007-08 also asked developed countries to provide incentives to developing countries to combat the climate change challenge. The HDR 2007-08 is titled "Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world". The report was prepared by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on the basis of the recently-released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Synthesis Report. It set out a pathway for climate change negotiations next week in Bali, Indonesia, and stressed that a narrow ten-year window of opportunity remained to put it into practice. If that window is missed, temperature rises of above two degrees Celsius could see the disappearance of the Himalayan glaciers that provide water and food for over two billion people, the report warned. "The carbon budget of the 21st century -- the amount of carbon that can be absorbed creating an even probability that temperatures will not rise above two degrees -- is being overspent and threatens to run out entirely by 2032," says Kevin Watkins, lead author of the HDR 2007-08. Watkins said: "And the poor -- those with the lightest carbon footprint and the least means to protect themselves -- are the first victims of developed countries' energy-rich lifestyle." The world's richest countries have a historic responsibility to take the lead in balancing the carbon budget by cutting emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050, according to the report. "In addition, they (the rich) should support a new $86 billion global annual investment in substantial international adaptation efforts to protect the world's poor," the report said. Developed countries should also adopt a new mechanism to transfer clean energy technology to developing countries, it added. The report quoting the Bangladesh experience said, every $1 invested in this adaptation initiative protects $2 to 3 in assets that would otherwise be lost during flooding, without mention of the highly damaging implications of flooding for nutrition, health and education that can be avoided. The report argued that with the support of such measures, developing Asian countries -- especially fast growing and industrialising countries like China and India -- should also play their part with total emissions cuts of at least 20 percent by 2050. "The critical challenge for Asia in the face of climate change is to expand access to affordable energy, while at the same time decarbonising growth," says UNDP administrator Kemal Derviş, "International cooperation is vital to unlock win-win scenarios that enhance both the climate security and the energy security that are vital for growth and poverty reduction." The report recommends establishing a Climate Change Mitigation Facility financed by developed countries and designed to provide incentives, including access to clean energy technology, to guide developing countries to a greener development path. "Properly financed technology transfer from rich countries to poor countries has to be the entry price that developed countries pay for their carbon trail," says Watkins. Pathway for Bali 'Fighting climate change' lays out a definitive checklist for all political leaders meeting in Bali in December -- a pathway for a binding and enforceable post- 2012 multilateral agreement that the authors stress will be essential to support the planet and its poorest people against the worst impacts of climate change: 1. Cut emissions from developing countries by 20 percent by 2050 and from developed countries by 30 percent by 2020 and at least 80 percent by 2050, compared to 1990 levels. 2. Create a Climate Change Mitigation Facility to finance the incremental low-carbon energy investment in developing countries, to give them both the means to switch to low emission pathways and the incentive to commit to binding international emission cuts. This would need an investment of $25-50 billion annually. 3. Put a proper price on carbon through a combination of carbon taxation and an ambitious global expansion of cap-and-trade schemes. 4. Strengthen regulatory standards by adopting and enforcing tougher efficiency standards on vehicle, building and electrical appliance emissions. 5. Support the development of low carbon energy provision, recognising unexploited potential for an increase in the share of renewable energy used and the need for urgent investment in breakthrough technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS). 6. Allocate $86 billion or 0.2 percent of northern countries' combined GDP to adaptation of climate proof infrastructure and build the resilience of the poor to the effects of climate change. 7. Make adaptation part of all plans to reduce poverty and extreme inequality, including poverty reduction strategy papers. 8. Recognize carbon sequestration on forests and land as essential parts of a future global agreement and back international finance transfer plans on deforestation as advocated by Brazil among others.

While Ukraine was able to hold a largely peaceful presidential election last month, the situation in the east near the Russian border remains volatile, with armed groups attacking Ukrainian government forces and occupying state buildings."We stand ready to intensify targeted sanctions and to consider significant additional restrictive measures to impose further costs on Russia should events so require," the G7 said in a statement after evening talks in Brussels.German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Western powers would check "again and again" to verify that Russia was doing what it could to stabilize the situation, which erupted in March after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine and annexed it."We cannot afford a further destabilization in Ukraine," Merkel told reporters."If we do not have progress in the questions we have to solve there is the possibility of sanctions, even heavy sanctions of phase 3 on the table," she said, referring to restrictions on trade, finance and energy.So far, the United States and European Union have imposed relatively minor travel bans and asset freezes on dozens of Russian officials in reaction to the seizure of Crimea.Further steps were threatened if the May 25 elections were affected. However, they went smoothly and new President Petro Poroshenko will be sworn in on Saturday.Some saw that as an indication that Russia was being more cooperative, reducing the threat of further sanctions. But Wednesday's statement suggests the West is not yet satisfied that President Vladimir Putin is doing enough to calm the situation.Russia denies it is behind the revolt in eastern Ukraine, where militias allied to Moscow have seized buildings, attacked Ukrainian troops and declared independence. Putin has also defended his right to protect Russian-speaking people.While Putin has been cut out of the G7 - this is the first meeting without Russia since it joined the club in 1997 - he will hold face-to-face meetings with Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Britain's David Cameron at a D-Day anniversary gathering in France later this week.Asked about those bilateral meetings and whether they raised any concerns for President Barack Obama, who has pointedly avoided any contact with Putin, a U.S. official said it wasn't important who Putin met but "what people say in those meetings". Ahead of the G7 summit, Obama met Poroshenko for talks in Warsaw and declared him a "wise choice" to lead Ukraine, part of efforts by the EU and the United States to provide moral and financial support to the new leadership.Poroshenko, a chocolate-industry billionaire, said he would be willing to meet Putin for peace talks on the sidelines of the D-Day commemorations in Normandy although no meeting has been set up."As things stand now, a meeting between me and Putin is not envisaged, but I do not rule out that it could take place in one format or another," he told reporters, adding that he was working on a peace plan for Ukraine that would involve the decentralization of power, local elections and an amnesty.ECONOMICS AND TRADEAs well as foreign policy, the two-day G7 summit will cover economics, trade, climate and energy policy.One of the most sensitive discussions will be over energy security, particularly in Europe, which relies on Russia for around a third of its oil and gas - a fact that gives Moscow leverage over the EU and its 500 million people.European leaders have committed themselves to diversifying away from Russia but doing so will take time and be costly, and may in part depend on the willingness of the United States to supply liquified natural gas to Europe.A separate communique will be released by the G7 leaders after talks on Thursday which will highlight the need to prioritize security of energy supplies."The use of energy supplies as a means of political coercion or as a threat to security is unacceptable," a draft of that statement, seen be Reuters, said."The crisis in Ukraine makes plain that energy security must be at the center of our collective agenda and requires a step-change to our approach to diversifying energy supplies."The economic discussion is not expected to break new ground, instead reiterating that all the G7 members - the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Britain, Japan and Italy - must focus on sustaining economic recovery and tightening regulations to prevent future banking sector problems.The leaders will reaffirm a commitment to completing financial reforms this year including ending "too-big-to-fail" banking.

Xi's speech to political leaders, CEOs and bankers at the World Economic Forum in Davos was a first by a Chinese leader and marked a possible shift in the global political landscape as western democracies struggle with the rise of populist nationalism. China, a one-party communist state that maintains tough restrictions on foreign investment, would seem an unlikely champion of free markets at an event that has become synonymous with global capitalism. But with Trump promising a more protectionist, insular approach and Europe preoccupied with its own problems, from Brexit to terror attacks, China sees an opportunity to fill what could become a vacuum in global economic leadership. Speaking before a vast audience that included U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Xi likened protectionism to "locking oneself in a dark room" and cutting off all "light and air". "No one will emerge as a winner in a trade war," Xi said in the nearly hour-long speech. Real estate mogul and former reality TV star Trump, who will be inaugurated as U.S. president on Friday, campaigned on a promise to confront China more aggressively on trade and renegotiate or ditch multilateral trade agreements. His entourage has accused China of waging economic war against the United States. But Xi pushed back against the accusations of unfair trade practices, saying Beijing would not devalue its currency for competitive advantage, as Trump has repeatedly accused it of doing in the past. Xi also urged all signatories of a landmark climate deal agreed in Paris roughly one year ago to stick to the agreement, a clear message to Trump, who has criticised the deal and indicated he may pull the United States out of it. "Looking to China" In a sign of China's ambitions, more than half a dozen senior Chinese government figures joined Xi in travelling to Davos in the Swiss Alps this week, a bigger and more high-level delegation than in previous years. A large number of WEF panels are focused on Asia, including one entitled "Asia Takes the Lead". "In a world marked by great uncertainty and volatility the world is looking to China," WEF founder and chairman Klaus Schwab said before welcoming Xi to the stage. Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, reacting to Xi's speech on Twitter, said: "There is a vacuum when it comes to global economic leadership, and Xi Jinping is clearly aiming to fill it. With some success." Ian Bremmer, president of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, tweeted: "Davos reaction to Xi speech: Success on all counts. Miles away from any official Chinese speech before". Xi's appearance comes at a time of rising tensions between Beijing and Trump, who broke with decades of precedent last month by taking a congratulatory telephone call from the president of Taiwan, which Beijing sees as part of China. Reuters file photo Last week Trump said America's "One China" policy was up for negotiation, triggering a furious response from state-run Chinese newspapers who said Beijing would be forced to "take off the gloves" if Trump did not change his rhetoric. Reuters file photo Although Xi painted a picture of China as a "wide open" economy, his government has come under mounting criticism from trading partners for its continued restrictions on foreign investments at a time when its state-run firms are aggressively pursuing acquisitions in Europe. In an apparent nod to these criticisms, China's cabinet announced ahead of Xi's speech that it would take steps to ease limits on investment in banks and other financial institutions. But no further details were provided, nor a timetable for their implementation. Some officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested that China was simply manoeuvring to take economic advantage of what appears to be a growing divide between the United States and Europe. Big question mark "Today, I think there is a big question mark as to how China pivots in this world," Bob Moritz, global chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers, told Reuters in Davos. "Will they be more regional or global in their mindset and, more importantly, in their negotiations? It's something we are going to have to watch over the next 12 months." Fears of a hard economic landing in China roiled global markets during last year's WEF meeting. Those concerns have eased but the International Monetary Fund warned on Monday about ongoing risks to the Chinese economy, including its high reliance on government spending, record lending by state banks and an overheating property market. Xi tried to send a reassuring message, saying the economy had entered a "new normal" driven by household consumption. Despite a sluggish global economy, he said China's economy was likely to have grown by 6.7 percent in 2016. But some economists in Davos remain cautious. "China is still one of the biggest risks, and I think the only reason it is not at the top of the list is that the United States has become such a locus of uncertainty," said Kenneth Rogoff, an economist at Harvard University.

South Korea, Asia's fourth largest economy, has pledged to set one of three targets for carbon emissions by 2020, voluntarily joining Kyoto signatories in moving toward a firm commitment to roll back climate change. The government said on Tuesday it would choose a 2020 gas emission target this year from three options: an 8 percent increase from 2005 levels by 2020, unchanged from 2005, or 4 percent below 2005 levels. The country is one of Asia's richest nations and an industrial powerhouse. Emissions doubled between 1990 and 2005 and per-capita emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide based on 2005 levels were 11.1 tonnes, the same as some European nations and the 17th largest among OECD members. "Compared with developed countries, the targets may look mild," said Sang-hyup Kim, Secretary to the President for National Future and Vision at the Presidential Office. "But these are utmost, sincere efforts, reflecting Korea's capabilities." The government estimated each target to cost between 0.3 and 0.5 percent of GDP and will curb emissions by increased use of hybrid cars, renewable and nuclear energy consumption, energy efficiency with light-emitting diodes and smart grids. Rich nations bound by the Kyoto Protocol to curb greenhouse gas emissions are under intense pressure from developing countries to ramp up their targets to cut emissions as part of a broader climate pact under negotiation. Those talks culminate at the end of the year at a major UN gathering in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. Wealthy developing states such as South Korea, Singapore and Mexico have also come under pressure to announce emissions curbs. South Korea's targets are modest compared with developed countries such as the United States and the European Union. Japan and the United States respectively aim to cut emissions by 15 and 17 percent by 2020 against 2005 levels, while the European Union and Britain are each aiming for reductions of 20 and 34 percent by 2020, compared with 1990 levels. China and many developing nations want the rich to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2020 to avoid the worst effects of global warming such as droughts, floods and rising seas.

The World Health Organization (WHO) sharply cut its estimate on Thursday of how many people catch malaria every year, saying rapid urbanization in Asia had destroyed the forest habitats of disease-spreading mosquitoes. In a report, the WHO said 247 million people were infected with malaria worldwide in 2006, the latest period for which figures are available. Its prior estimate, widely cited by governments and drugmakers, was that 350 million to 500 million people were afflicted every year. The new report also reduced the global death toll from the disease from the United Nations agency's previous reading, which was issued three years ago, by about 10 percent. "The change is due primarily to a refinement of calculation methods. It is not known if cases and deaths actually declined between 2004 and 2006," the WHO said in a statement. The report concluded that 881,000 people died from malaria in 2006, compared to previous estimates of "more than 1 million" annual deaths from the disease that kills mostly infants, children, and pregnant women. Malaria has attracted huge sums of public funding in past years, channeled through the WHO as well as other bodies like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Clinton Foundation. The WHO's Roll Back Malaria Partnership has called for a scaling-up of funding for malaria to $3.4 billion a year, from $1.2 billion, to improve access to artemisinin-based drugs and insecticide-treated bed nets that can prevent infection. LARGE-SCALE REVISIONS Attempting to work out the global prevalence of disease is not an exact science, and public health experts are often forced to make large-scale revisions to their estimates. Last year, the WHO cut its estimate for those infected with the AIDS virus to 33 million from 40 million after it received new data about the epidemic in India. And the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month raised by 40 percent its estimate of how many Americans catch HIV each year because it adopted more precise reporting methods. Less than one-third of the WHO's 193 member states have reliable systems to monitor and document diseases such as malaria, whose initial symptoms closely resemble the flu, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan told a news briefing in Geneva. She said the malaria report will now be issued yearly so that decision-makers have up-to-date information on the disease. "With dramatic increases in funding and intense momentum towards reducing the malaria burden in recent years, we have a greater need for reliable information and analysis," she said. Novartis AG's drug Coartem is used to treat malaria, and other pharmaceutical companies including Austria's Intercell are also trying to develop malaria vaccines, though none are expected on the market for several years. Malaria is most prevalent in Africa, where the WHO estimates the number of cases using climate data on heat and humidity that affect mosquito breeding, combined with some sample surveys. Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Tanzania were among the countries with the most malaria deaths in 2006, the WHO said. Outside Africa, the countries most affected included India, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Indonesia.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd celebrated his first 100 days in office by publishing a booklet on his achievements on Friday, and dismissed critics who said nothing much has changed since he took office. Rudd's centre-left Labor Party won elections 97 days ago on Nov. 24, 2007, ending almost 12 years of conservative rule. Rudd officially took power on Dec. 3. But newspapers have begun rolling out stories about Rudd's first 100 days, with some critical that Rudd's government has set up dozens of committees, reviews and inquiries, but has made few hard decisions. "If a camel is a horse designed by a committee, then Australia is at risk of growing humps," Sydney Morning Herald Political Correspondent Phillip Coorey wrote on Friday, in a swipe at Rudd's fondness for setting up committees. Rudd's 55-page book cites his decision to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate, the deployment of extra troops to East Timor, and preparing to pull Australian combat forces out of Iraq, as key achievements. But Rudd told reporters the biggest change to Australia since his election win was his government's apology to Aborigines for historic mistreatment. "When we undertook the apology to parliament ... we were doing something I believe was of long-term and enduring value to the nation," Rudd said. The Sydney Morning Herald said Rudd had averaged one new committee or inquiry every four days since he won office, while the Herald Sun newspaper said Rudd had commissioned at least 47 committees, with 50 more promised during the election campaign. Rudd defended his actions on Friday, saying the former conservative government set up 495 inquiries and reviews in 2005-06 alone. "It is a responsible course of action for an incoming government to say, here are areas where you need to review the future direction," Rudd said. Political analyst Nick Economou, from Melbourne's Monash University, said Rudd had made a good start to government, and had deliberately set out to find some kind of national consensus for his agenda. "I think he is going quite well," Economou said. "He handled the apology stuff with aplomb. He could be sacked tomorrow and he's already carved out a big place for himself in Australian political history -- a good place." He said Rudd's fascination with committees and reviews, including his plans for an ideas summit of 1,000 people in April, were all designed to help the government deliver its plans. "He's got an agenda for what he wants to achieve, but he wants to bring people on board in doing it," he said. "Rudd actually knows where he wants to go, but he wants to find the process to get there, the process that will lead to consensus."

Having invaded Ukraine and deployed its troops in a compliant Belarus, Russia has suddenly extended its military power to the borders of several NATO countries, including the Baltic nations. If Russia succeeds in taking over Ukraine and keeping bases in Belarus, as many experts now expect, its forces will extend from the borders of the Baltics and Poland to Slovakia, Hungary and northern Romania, making it significantly harder for NATO to defend its eastern flank. And only a thin corridor some 60 miles long between Lithuania and Poland separates Russian forces in Belarus from Kaliningrad, the Russian territory on the Baltic Sea that is stuffed with missiles easily capable of flinging conventional or nuclear warheads into the heart of Europe. “The level of risk for NATO has simply and suddenly increased enormously,” said Ian Lesser, a former American official who heads the Brussels office of the German Marshall Fund. “The possibility of conflict with Russian forces in Europe or elsewhere, like the Black Sea, the Sahel, Libya or Syria, could be dangerous and will be an issue for years to come.” “This changes everything for NATO,” said Ian Bond, a former British diplomat who heads foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform. “Russia’s aim is to extinguish Ukraine as a sovereign country in Europe. Now we need to worry about everything, and we need to get serious again.” NATO has already responded in a small way to the Russian buildup, sending some extra troops and aircraft into member states closest to Russia. On Thursday, NATO decided on further, unspecified deployments, and there are serious discussions about finally scrapping the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act, which put limits on NATO deployments in the eastern members and which Russia violated eight years ago when it invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea. “Russia’s actions pose a serious threat to Euro-Atlantic security, and they will have geostrategic consequences,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. “We are deploying additional defensive land and air forces to the eastern part of the alliance, as well as additional maritime assets.” Any discussions with Moscow about redrawing Europe’s security architecture take on a different cast with Russian troops deployed on NATO’s eastern flank. Even if military spending goes up considerably in response to the new Russian invasion, as it did modestly after Russia took Crimea, new and permanent deployments of forces, equipment, planes and even missiles will be a major blow to the past 30 years of relative peace, prosperity and complacency in the alliance. “NATO had been focused on all these important and fashionable things with little to do with its core responsibility, like climate and cyber,” Lesser said. “But we forgot that there are ruthless people out there, and for them, foreign policy is a blood sport.” NATO was already rewriting its 12-year-old strategic concept and debating a replacement for Stoltenberg, who leaves office Oct 1. Now those tasks become ever more pressing. “NATO is already in a mode to think more broadly about its purpose,” Lesser said. But a serious effort to deter a newly aggressive Russia will not be so simple, said Benjamin Hodges, the former commander of US forces in Europe, now with the Centre for European Policy Analysis. Just moving troops and equipment around in a post-Cold War Europe has become far more cumbersome, with some bridges and railways no longer able to handle heavy armour. “Political leaders will be surprised at how long it takes to move stuff given EU road regulations and without special priority” on the German rail system, Hodges said. NATO also lacks significant air and missile defences for a modern air war that, as in Ukraine, starts by hitting significant infrastructure like airports, roads and rail, he said. Just to protect the large US air base at Ramstein, in southwestern Germany, would take an entire battalion of Patriot missiles, he said, “and we have only one Patriot battalion in Europe that’s ours.” Once, the Fulda Gap in Germany was a worry of Cold War strategists, heavily defended by US troops to prevent the Warsaw Pact from rushing tanks from East Germany to the Rhine River. Now the concern is the Suwalki Corridor, a narrow gap that connects Poland to Lithuania that, if captured, would cut off the three Baltic nations from the rest of NATO. The corridor separates Belarus from Kaliningrad, headquarters of the Russian Baltic Fleet and isolated from Russia when the Soviet Union imploded. An emboldened Putin might very well demand direct access from Belarus to Kaliningrad, suggested Robert Kagan of the Brookings Institution in a column for The Washington Post. “But even that would be just one piece of what is sure to be a new Russian strategy to delink the Baltics from NATO by demonstrating that the alliance can no longer hope to protect these countries,” he wrote. “The threat now to Poland becomes acute,” said Bond, recommending that the United States quickly put two heavy battalions in Poland “for a start.” The deployments in the three Baltic states also need to be beefed up, he said. In 2016, NATO agreed to put battalions in Poland and the Baltic nations for the first time. Known as an “enhanced forward presence,” they consist of about 1,100 soldiers each, combat-ready but small, more like tripwires than anything that could slow down a Russian advance for very long. In 2014, NATO also established a “very high readiness joint task force,” currently under the command of Turkey, that is supposed to deploy at short notice against threats to NATO sovereignty. It consists of a land brigade numbering around 5,000 troops, supported by air, sea and special forces, with more reinforcements able to be deployed within 30 days. But the smaller force is essentially untested, and the larger Response Force of which it is the spearhead is only one-quarter the size of the Russian invasion force into Ukraine. The larger force was created in 2002 and was meant to be rapidly deployable, but its 40,000 members are based in their home countries, and gathering them can be a slow exercise. There are also questions about the vow of NATO members to send weapons to Ukraine as it fights the Russians or to help mount an insurgency. Efforts to supply arms to Ukraine by air, rail or road could be intercepted or obstructed by the Russian military, Hodges said, even if the shipments are delivered by contractors and not NATO soldiers. And what country is going to dare support an insurgency knowing that the Russian military is on the other side of the border? In general, the chance of accidental confrontations leading to escalation cannot be ruled out in such a tense atmosphere. Analysts point to the way Turkey shot down a Russian fighter plane near the Syria-Turkey border in 2015. “It didn’t escalate then, but today it very well could,” Lesser said. At the same time, the arms control agreements that tried to keep the Cold War cold are nearly all defunct, raising new threats about deployments of conventional forces and medium-range missiles. Russia has also been extremely active in cyberwarfare, hacking the German Parliament, interfering in the last French election and issuing mounds of local-language disinformation on social media. Altogether, the new threats should reinforce the logic of stronger European Union and NATO cooperation on defense, Lesser said, “and should knock a lot of the politics and theology out of that relationship.” Coordinating with the EU over its areas of strength — like economic sanctions, cyber resilience, energy security and information warfare — can only help both organisations, he said, given that 21 of the EU’s 27 members already belong to NATO, and others, like Sweden and Finland, are closely allied. “We need the Americans,” Bond said. “But we should not drop the idea of European autonomy and more self-reliance.” There are doubts in Europe about whether President Joe Biden will run or win again in 2024 and worries that former President Donald Trump or a Republican more in tune with his isolationist, America-first credo will take office. “Europe will be very exposed, so it must increase military spending and efficiency, filling real capability needs,” Bond said. “All this becomes vital now, and not just a bunch of nice ideas.” © 2022 The New York Times Company

Germany's corporate chiefs are under fire after a police raid on one of the country's most respected bosses on Thursday added to the list of scandals that is shaking the public's faith in its cherished corporate system. The swoop on the home and offices of Klaus Zumwinkel, chief executive of Deutsche Post and a pillar of the establishment, in a probe into suspected tax dodging was the latest shock for Germans already seething over fat-cat pay and golden handshakes. On top of a series of scandals in the last few years which have engulfed Europe's biggest carmaker Volkswagen and Siemens, Germany's biggest corporate employer, commentators warn of political consequences and said the far-left Left party could gain. Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said the potential damage of the Zumwinkel case, which involves individuals rather than the company as a whole, was "considerable". "If the public has something like this as a role model, they'll start having doubts about the economic and social system," said Steinbrueck, a Social Democrat (SPD) in conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel's left-right coalition. The case took on even bigger proportions on Friday when a newspaper reported the investigation could stretch to hundreds of rich and prominent Germans with offshore bank accounts. Germany's post-war identity is founded on its economic and corporate prowess, epitomised by the country's status as the world's biggest exporter and by the number of companies which are world leaders in their sector. Although managers' salaries are still below U.S. and British levels, discontent is growing among Germans who feel they are not reaping the rewards of growth in Europe's biggest economy. Disposable income for lower earners has fallen and the media have launched a campaign over excessive manager pay. Targets have included Juergen Schrempp, the former chief executive of carmaker Daimler who walked off with millions in a pay off and stock options as his merger with U.S. automaker Chrysler unravelled and shareholders lost out. "(Zumwinkel's) case is one which feeds the general suspicion many people have: 'The top people lie and cheat everyone else'," wrote the Sueddeutsche Zeitung in an editorial on Friday. PUSH TO THE LEFT? Although politicians from across the spectrum, including Merkel, have criticised excessive corporate pay, commentators say public anger over what the media calls morally degenerate bosses could lead to more left-wing policies. The growing appeal of the Left party, a group of former communists and disaffected former centre-left SPD supporters, has already pulled the main political parties to the left by forcing the ruling coalition to soften its stance on welfare reforms. "The picture of a number of greedy managers is catastrophic as it spawns a sense of social injustice which can only help the Left party," Klaus Schneider, head of the SdK shareholders' association told Reuters. Former German finance minister Oskar Lafontaine, a co-leader of the Left, wants to increase public spending on pensions, welfare benefits and education. Corruption watchdog Transparency International says there is no objective data to show corruption is increasing in Germany. "But you can say that in the last 10 to 15 years the subject has become far more important in peoples' minds ... there has been a change in the climate," Peter von Blomberg, deputy head of Transparency International Germany, told Reuters. Von Blomberg said Scandinavian countries were something of a model, thanks to open communication channels between citizens and authorities. German firms need to introduce and enforce compliance guidelines and protect whistleblowers, he said. "In Germany there is still quite a distaste for denouncing people -- there are historical reasons for this but I think we may see a discussion about a possible legal framework to protect whistleblowers here," he said.

The European Union and United States will agree at a summit on Monday that climate change is a central challenge that requires "urgent, sustained global action," according to a draft statement seen by Reuters. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on her first trip to Washington since assuming the presidency of the EU, is seeking to convince the Bush administration take concrete steps to curb the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change. Merkel hopes the joint statement will lay the groundwork for a broader deal on combating global warming at a June G8 summit she will host in the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm. "I think on climate and energy efficiency, we've taken a step forward," she told reporters in Washington before her meeting with US President George W. Bush. "We want to use this as a foundation for a broader agreement at the summit between the G8 countries, and perhaps also India and China. The statement on energy security, efficiency and climate change will be presented alongside a broader "Transatlantic Economic Partnership" designed to cut costly non-tariff barriers to trade between the EU and United States. Under that agreement, the partners will agree to harmonize regulatory standards and cooperate in areas like intellectual property, trade security, investment and financial markets. A council led by EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen and White House economic adviser Allan Hubbard will be set up to monitor progress in aligning regulations and present annual reports to EU and US leaders. In addition to the fixed agenda, Merkel and Bush will hold talks on an array of international issues from Iran's nuclear program to Middle East peace. Russian relations have also been thrust to the forefront after a hawkish speech by President Vladimir Putin last week in which he denounced US plans to put a missile shield in central Europe and froze Moscow's commitments under a key arms treaty. Washington says the shield would counter threats from "rogue states" like Iran and North Korea, but Moscow sees it as a threat and encroachment on its former sphere of influence. "I will reiterate the need to talk with Russia about this and the NATO-Russia council is a good forum," Merkel said, denying that it would be the focus of her talks with Bush. German officials have painted the joint declaration on climate change as a rhetorical leap forward for the Bush administration, but the statement does not contain any concrete pledges to take action. The draft says the EU and US are committed to stabilizing greenhouse gases and acknowledges work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, which released a report this month that said rising temperatures were changing the globe and could lead to more hunger, water shortages and extinctions. The draft urges the development and commercialization of advanced technologies to "slow, stabilize and significantly cut" global emissions and promises a joint effort to deliver results at Heiligendamm and work constructively in the run-up to a key U.N. meeting on climate change in Bali, Indonesia in December. On her fourth visit to Washington, Merkel has developed a close relationship with Bush, repairing ties which became badly strained when her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder clashed with the US president over the Iraq war. But with less than six weeks to go until Heiligendamm, she faces a daunting task in persuading Bush to agree to broader, binding international steps to fight climate change. German officials have also expressed concern the escalating Cold War-type showdown between Washington and Moscow over the missile shield and another looming battle over Kosovo independence could overshadow the June 6-8 summit.

- Iran said it was in touch with big powers to reopen talks soon on its nuclear programme, but Washington and the European Union denied this and urged Tehran to show it was ready to engage. A year after the last talks fell apart, confrontation is brewing over Tehran's nuclear work, which the United States and other countries say is focused on developing atomic weapons. Iran dismisses the accusation. Manage your wealth in the current financial climate Learn how to get the most out of your ISA & avoid common mistakes The EU is preparing to intensify sanctions against Iran with an embargo on its economically vital oil exports. EU diplomats said on Wednesday member governments had also agreed in principle to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank, but had yet to agree how to protect non-oil trade from sanctions. Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, used for a third of the world's seaborne oil trade, if it cannot sell its own crude, fanning fears of a descent into war in the Gulf that could inflame the Middle East. Iranian politicians said U.S. President Barack Obama had expressed readiness to negotiate in a letter to Tehran, a step that might relieve tensions behind recent oil price spikes. "Negotiations are going on about venue and date. We would like to have these negotiations," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters during a visit to Turkey. "Most probably, I am not sure yet, the venue will be Istanbul. The day is not yet settled, but it will be soon." Washington denied there were any new discussions underway about resuming talks, but declined to comment on whether Obama had sent a letter to Tehran. "There are no current talks about talks," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Wednesday. "What we are doing, as we have said, is making clear to the Iranians that if they are serious about coming back to a conversation, where they talk openly about their nuclear programme, and if they are prepared to come clean with the international community, that we are open to that," Nuland said at a media briefing. White House spokesman Jay Carney declined to comment on the reports about a letter, telling journalists: "We don't discuss specific ... diplomatic communications." The United States is pushing countries to reduce the volume of Iranian oil they buy in line with a new sanctions law Obama signed on December 31 that targets Tehran's ability to sell crude oil. The State Department denial was echoed by a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, representing the six world powers trying to engage with Iran. "There are no negotiations under way on new talks," he said in Brussels. "We are still waiting for Iran to respond to the substantive proposals the High Representative (Ashton) made in her letter from October." SERIOUS NEGOTIATIONS British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Iran had to be ready for serious negotiations. "It is significant that when we are discussing additional sanctions in the European Union an offer of negotiations emerges from Iran," he said. "We will not be deterred from imposing additional sanctions simply by the suggestion there may be negotiations. We want to see actual negotiations," he told a news conference in Brazil. "In the absence of such meaningful negotiations, of course, the pressure for greater peaceful but legitimate pressure will continue," he said, referring to a meeting on Monday of EU ministers that will discuss an oil embargo on Iran. Tehran denies wanting nuclear bombs, saying its enrichment work is for power generation and medical applications. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said on Wednesday only that the U.S. military was fully prepared to deal with any threats by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz. Ashton wrote to Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili to stress that the West still wanted to resume talks but Iran must be ready to engage "seriously in meaningful discussions" about ways to ensure its nuclear work would be wholly peaceful in nature. The Islamic Republic has insisted in sporadic meetings over the past five years that talks focus on broader international security issues, not its nuclear programme. PROTRACTED IMPASSE The last talks between Iran and the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - along with Germany stalled in Istanbul a year ago, with the parties unable to agree even on an agenda. Since then, a U.N. nuclear watchdog report has lent weight to concern that Iran has worked on designing a nuclear weapon. EU foreign ministers are expected to approve a phased ban on imports of Iranian oil at the meeting on January 23 - three weeks after the United States passed a law that would freeze out any institution dealing with Iran's central bank, effectively making it impossible for most countries to buy Iranian oil. "On the central bank, things have been moving in the right direction in the last hours," one EU diplomat said on Wednesday. "There is now a wide agreement on the principle. Discussions continue on the details." Iran has said it is ready to talk but has also started shifting uranium enrichment to a deep bunker where it would be less vulnerable to the air strikes Israel says it could launch if diplomacy fails to curb Tehran's nuclear drive. Western diplomats say Tehran must show willingness to change its course in any new talks. Crucially, Tehran says other countries must respect its right to enrich uranium, the nuclear fuel which can provide material for atomic bombs if enriched to much higher levels than that suitable for power plants. Russia, a member of the six power group that has criticised the new EU and U.S. sanctions, said the last-ditch military option mooted by the United States and Israel would ignite a disastrous, widespread Middle East war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking during a visit to the Netherlands on Wednesday, repeated his view that "Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, period." Earlier in the day, his Defence Minister Ehud Barak said any decision about an Israeli attack on Iran was "very far off". THREATS, FRIENDSHIP China, which shares Russia's dislike of the new Western moves to stop Iran exporting oil, said U.S. sanctions that Obama signed into law on December 31 had no basis in international law. Iranian politicians said Obama had written to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responding to Tehran's threat to close the Strait of Hormuz if sanctions prevent it selling oil. Several members of Iran's parliament who discussed the matter on Wednesday said it included the offer of talks. "In this letter it was said that closing the Strait of Hormuz is our (U.S.) 'red line' and also asked for direct negotiations," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted lawmaker Ali Mottahari as saying.

“She got the invitation of the G7 who are the movers and shakers of the world. So it’s a matter of pride for us,” he said while speaking at an Iftar programme for journalists who cover foreign affairs in Bangladesh. The ruling Awami League’s central sub-committee on international affairs hosted the Iftar on Saturday with the party’s General Secretary Obaidul Quader as chief guest. Sub-Committee Chairman Ambassador Mohammad Zamir, International Affairs Secretary Shammi Ahmed, members of the sub-committee Barrister Shah Ali Farhad and Nadia Choudhury were also present, among others. The prime minister is in Canada now to attend the G7 outreach session at the invitation  of her Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau. This is the third time Hasina being a leader of a developing country has been invited by this elite club which Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali had termed “unprecedented”. Hasina attended the meeting in 2016 in Japan and in 2001 in Italy. “This is the recognition of the prime minister’s strong role in world peace and development,” Ali said before she left Dhaka on Thursday. It is also the recognition of her “thoughts, philosophy, and steps” in addressing climate change, women and children affairs and the blue economy, the foreign minister said. France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US are the other members of the grouping. The prime minister will speak on ‘strengthening resilience through integrated adaptation planning, emergency preparedness and recovery’. She will have a bilateral meeting with Trudeau on Sunday before returning to Dhaka on Tuesday. The Awami League’s sub-committee on international affairs introduced themselves with the journalists during the Iftar as the committee has been formed recently. Shammi Ahmed urged the journalists to be constructive while criticising the government activists.

A supermarket tycoon with a multimillion-dollar fortune is the favorite to win Panama's presidential election on Sunday as voters look for assurances their economy can weather the global economic crisis. Pro-business conservative Ricardo Martinelli, 57, has a double-digit lead in opinion polls over ruling party leftist Balbina Herrera, who has an anti-US past and old ties to a former military strongman that rankles with some voters. President Martin Torrijos' Revolutionary Democratic Party, or PRD, has strong support among lower-income voters but its popularity has sagged as prices of staples like milk and bread have soared in recent months and crime has spiked. "We're tired of promises," said teacher Jose Cedeno, 52, who spends a chunk of his $900-a-month salary on increasingly expensive food. "Prices haven't stabilized." Fueled by luxury apartment construction, US-Asia trade through the country's famous canal and a robust banking sector, Panama's dollar economy has led Latin America with near or above double-digit growth for the last two years. Analysts expect growth to fall to 3 percent or less this year as credit dries up, canal traffic drops and activity in Panama's Caribbean free-trade zone slows, another concern for voters fed up with high inflation and widespread crime. Martinelli had a 14-point lead over Herrera in an April 23 poll and just needs to get more votes than his rival to win even if he falls short of 50 percent. A Martinelli victory would contrast with a shift to the left in much of Latin America in recent elections. A US-educated and self-made businessman who owns Panama's largest supermarket chain and is a former minister of Panama Canal affairs, Martinelli has promised massive infrastructure spending to create jobs if he wins. Martinelli said on Friday he wanted to impose a flat tax of between 10 or 20 percent, raising tax rates on the banking and insurance sectors but lowering them for small-business owners. His self-financed campaign budget dwarfed Herrera's and images of the white-haired magnate helping at a banana plantation and tossing bags of garbage into a truck on an urban collection route highlighted his attempt to win support from poorer voters usually faithful to the PRD. A charity he runs that funds education also helped. "He has a lot, he's not going to steal. He's rich, but he's one of the rich who gives to the poor," said Ercilia Ramos, a poor 60-year-old cattle farmer. BUSINESS FRIENDLY The PRD's Herrera clashed with Washington when she led protests against former U.S. President George H.W. Bush when he visited Panama after a 1989 US invasion ousted military dictator Gen. Manuel Noriega. Herrera, 54, has had trouble distancing herself from old links to Noriega, who is in a Florida prison serving a sentence for drug trafficking and money laundering. He has said he hid in Herrera's home from US soldiers during the 1989 invasion. She says now she would maintain close US relations and her campaign proposals are similar to Martinelli's. Both candidates say they will tackle crime and inflation while helping the poor with education and infrastructure, although neither is expected to run up a big budget deficit. Foreign investors say they doubt either would upset Panama's economy or investment climate. "Panama is a very good place to do business. It is a very easy place to come and go, governments usually don't interfere," said Roger Khafif, the developer of the $450 million Trump Ocean Club in Panama City. "We don't really think ... whoever wins will be a detriment to our business." An agricultural engineer turned politician with stints as a mayor, a lawmaker and as housing minister, Herrera was one of six siblings raised in a rough Panama City neighborhood by a single mother who cleaned houses for a living. Her past appeals to voters like Maria Zuniga, who gives pedicures on the street and sees Herrera as hard on crime. "Things will surely change because she's a tough woman." A third candidate, former President Guillermo Endara, 72, trails far behind in polls with about 5 percent support. Panamanians will also elect a new legislature on Sunday.

The European Union and Southeast Asian states agreed on Thursday to boost political and economic cooperation, but military-ruled Myanmar remained an obstacle to a full-blown free trade pact. Foreign ministers meeting in the German city of Nuremberg adopted a declaration on Enhanced Partnership in which they agreed to cooperate more closely in security, energy, environmental and development issues. It included a pledge to promote cooperation against terrorism, money laundering, cyber crime and drug trafficking as well as to work more closely on tackling climate change. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he was impressed by the way relations between the two sides had developed, not only on economic and trade issues, but also in politics. "I was very, very happy that a group of countries which are not China or India, but are an important group of countries, do have such a communality of thinking with the European Union," he told reporters. Analysts say ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Nations) regards better ties with Europe as a way to balance China's growing might and it also wants to emulate the European Union's success by establishing its own single market by 2015. The EU is looking to tap the potential of a 10-nation region with a population of 500 million via a free trade pact, but this has been held up by ASEAN's insistence on including Myanmar in any deal. The European Union has maintained sanctions on Myanmar since its military rulers ignored a 1990 election victory for the main pro-democracy party. EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Walder said the EU wanted to see ASEAN countries press for improvement of human rights in Myanmar, including the release of opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. "We want to see Burma/Myanmar change," she said. Pending a full EU-ASEAN trade deal the EU is pursuing bilateral cooperation pacts with Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and eventually Vietnam. "We have clearly said that we would like to go for a free trade agreement between the two blocs (but) we will have to start working with the different countries," Ferrero-Waldner said. While the agreement with Indonesia could be finalised within a month, issues remain to be resolved with Singapore and the military takeover in Thailand has imposed a block there. The EU aims for a similar pact with Vietnam, where it highlights human rights problems as well as trade frictions. EU officials stress though they have a rights dialogue with Hanoi that does not exist with Myanmar.

A Nigerian court freed on bail former militia leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari on Thursday, meeting a demand by armed groups who have disrupted oil production and kidnapped expatriate workers in the Niger Delta. The release of Asari, who is on trial for treason, comes after rebel groups in the delta freed hostages, declared a truce and said they were willing to try a dialogue with the government of newly inaugurated President Umaru Yar'Adua. Their peace moves remain tentative, however, and the effect of the killings of eight suspected militants by troops during an attempted attack on an oil well in Bayelsa state in the delta on Tuesday was not yet clear. Asari's lawyer applied for bail on health grounds and prosecutors did not oppose the application. "I'm convinced the accused is not playing to the gallery. The accused is ordered to be released on health grounds," said Justice Peter Olayiwola. The judge added that Asari should not hold any political rally or engage in any political activities and his movements should be reported to the security services. The Supreme Court had denied Asari bail last Friday after a 20-month legal process, arguing he represented a threat to national security. Prosecutors had steadfastly opposed his release until now. Activists close to nascent peace negotiations between the government and the delta rebels said Thursday's court decision was the result of a political deal. Asari has been in detention since September 2005 and his trial has dragged on from one adjournment to the next. There were several unsuccessful attempts by elders from his Ijaw ethnic group to broker a deal to get him out. The climate changed after the swearing-in of Yar'Adua, who used his inaugural speech on May 29 to call for a ceasefire in the delta. Since then, powerful state governors from the region have publicly called for Asari's release. Ijaw activists said Thursday's ruling would boost efforts to pacify armed rebels demanding local control over oil revenues and compensation for oil spills in the impoverished delta. "This was part of what we've been demanding. The action is in the right direction," said Ifeanyi Jonjon, head of the Ijaw Youth Council. The Ijaw are the most populous ethnic group in the delta. "Asari can be used to reach out to the freedom fighters and redirect them away from carrying guns and towards peace," he said. Asari, who has lost a lot of weight in detention and has complained of ill treatment by the State Security Services, was not present in court but his supporters were jubilant. "This is good news for anyone with a business in the Niger Delta. It will pour cold water on the situation. Asari is key to bringing peace to the delta," said Emmanuel Diffa, an Ijaw elder who has been campaigning for Asari's release.

Global inflation pressures intensified at the start of this year, combining with slower growth to put central bankers in a bind about how to keep prices in check without tipping their economies into recession. In the United States, where the Federal Reserve has slashed interest rates since a global credit crunch gripped the economy last August, data on Friday showed the Fed's favoured gauge of underlying US inflation rose by 0.3 percent in January after a 0.2 percent gain in December, while the overall annual rate rose to 3.7 percent from 3.5 percent. In the euro zone, where the European Central Bank has so far declined to follow the Fed's rate-cutting lead, preliminary data for several countries in February showed inflation holding well above the ECB's 2 percent target ceiling in major economies. February inflation was running at an annual rate of 2.9 percent in Germany, at 3.1 percent in Italy, and at a record 4.4 percent in Spain. In Belgium, inflation jumped to 3.64 percent -- the highest rate since July 1991. In Japan, annual inflation held at a decade-high 0.8 percent in January, but with other data pointing to an economic slowdown, the Bank of Japan was still seen potentially cutting rates from an already very low 0.5 percent this year. Ken Wattret, chief euro zone market economist at BNP Paribas, said the euro zone was likely to see uncomfortably high levels of headline inflation in the coming months. "The ECB is caught in a very awkward position, which is that the economic growth outlook is deteriorating, and deteriorating fast in my opinion, but inflation is not getting better quickly enough," he said. European Central Bank Governing Council member Axel Weber said on Wednesday market expectations that the ECB will cut interest rates from the current 4 percent fail to consider the dangers of higher inflation. NO US "STAGFLATION" Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday the United States was not headed toward 1970s-style "stagflation" but acknowledged inflation could complicate efforts to spur the economy. Friday's US core personal consumption expenditure price index, or PCE, underlined the conflicting pressures on central banks to support growth as the banking sector reels from writedowns on high-risk debt, while seeking to hold inflation in check. The Fed, which has already cut rates by 2.25 percentage points to 3 percent since last September, is widely expected to keep cutting. "Data shows that inflation pressures are beginning to uptick, but this is not going to change the view the next move by the Fed will be an interest rate cut," said Matthew Strauss, currency strategist at RBC Capital in Toronto. In updated economic forecasts released last week, the US central bank lowered its outlook for 2008 growth by a half point to between 1.3 percent and 2 percent, citing the prolonged housing slump and bottlenecks in credit markets. In Japan, much stronger-than-expected housing construction and household spending data released on Friday eased some concern that Japan may follow the United States into recession. The Japanese central bank has been looking for inflation to return after years of battling deflation. "The price trend will be similar in all developed countries. Inflation is high at the moment, but it will ease in the future," said Yoshimasa Maruyama, an economist at BNP Paribas in Tokyo. In Europe, the ECB's task has been made harder by a series of above-inflation pay demands from trade unions in Germany, the region's largest economy, which the central bank fears could shift up inflation expectations and feed further wage demands. However, the ECB is also wrestling with a weakened euro zone growth outlook. A business climate indicator for the euro zone, based on a survey of corporate managers, fell more than expected in February to its lowest level in two years. CORE EURO ZONE INFLATION EASES A breakdown of euro zone January price data showed core inflation, which excludes volatile energy and food costs, eased to 1.7 percent in January from 1.9 percent in December. The preliminary euro zone figure for February is due on March 3 and was being forecast at an unchanged 3.2 percent. "The fact that core inflation remains muted should give the ECB some leverage to start easing rates very soon," said David Brown, chief European economist at Bear Stearns. The headline euro zone inflation rate accelerated to 3.2 percent in January from 3.1 percent in December. Wattret at BNP Paribas thought the ECB would soon look beyond the headline inflation rate and focus on the risks to growth in the euro zone, where a rise in the euro to a record high versus the dollar is making life hard for exporters. Most economists in the latest Reuters poll expect the ECB to cut rates twice this year, but think any imminent move looks less likely as inflation stays high.

Pakistan completed a clean sweep of Zimbabwe in all three formats of the game, with a victory in the second Twenty20 in an exciting, last-ball finish in Harare. Zimbabwe's chase - thanks to controlled bowling from Pakistan - did not have any momentum until the final over, when Tatenda Taibu attacked. With 20 runs required off six balls, Taibu smacked the first delivery for a six over long-on to set the tone for a fighting finish. His feisty running ensured two runs off each of the next four deliveries and left him with six to get off the last ball, reports ESPNcricinfo. Sohail Khan held his nerve and bowled a low, full toss wide outside off stump. Taibu had backed away to the leg side and was not even able to play a shot. It brought an anti-climatic end to a chase that Zimbabwe allowed to get too big for them, when it should not have. Vusi Sibanda and Chamu Chibhabha began with the right intent, Sibanda opening the innings with a gorgeously straight drive for four. They scored a boundary off each of the first four overs but did not rotate the strike enough, and the required run-rate rose. Chibhabha tried to break the shackles when Saeed Ajmal came on, looking to loft over long on, but was caught by a backpedalling Yasir Shah outside the circle. Ajmal's opening wicket maiden put the brakes on Zimbabwe's chase and they stayed on until the final over. Sibanda frustration grew and he was dismissed by a good Hafeez catch at point while attempting a big hit. Hafeez's Midas touch with both bat and ball was evident and he bowled Cephas Zhuwao with a straight delivery. He also claimed the wickets of Hamilton Maskadza, who gifted him a catch in his follow through, and Brendan Taylor, who was caught by Misbah-ul-Haq at midwicket. With Zimbabwe's chase unravelling, big-hitting Charles Coventry flung his bat at the first three Junaid Khan deliveries he faced. Two of them went for four and the third he bottom-edged onto his stumps. Elton Chigumbura was able to play a few forceful shots, driving down the ground and pulling with relative ease, but was bogged down by bowling that was too good for him to smash out of the ground. Pakistan's bowlers did not panic, even when it went down to the last over. Taibu had to marshal both Prosper Utseya and himself but in the end, Sohail had the final say. Zimbabwe, however, had put on an improved display in the field, bowled better lengths and took all the catches they were offered to keep Pakistan to under 150. Taylor was innovative with his bowling changes and, after opening with a spinner, introduced Chibhabha in the third over. Chibhabha struck when Asad Shafiq tried to launch a length ball for six but was caught by Chigumbura at long-on. Two balls later, Rameez Raja was caught at short fine leg. Kyle Jarvis, who bowled better lengths than he did in the previous couple of matches, banged in a short ball and Raja, late on the pull, and gifted Ray Price a simple catch. The hosts inflicted a third early wound on Pakistan when Shoaib Malik was caught behind off Chigumbura, after slashing at wide delivery. Hafeez rode the tide and played another important innings, targeting the spinners in particular. While Hafeez was at the crease, Umar Akmal could afford to be watchful, especially against Chigumbura, who bowled a controlled spell dotted with slower balls. Price eventually got Hafeez, who lofted towards long-on but just did not have enough on it to clear the boundary. Hafeez's departure resulted in the runs, and more importantly, the boundaries drying up and Pakistan only scored 36 runs in the last five overs. Akmal was run out returning for a second, caught well short of his crease by a Chigumbura throw, and big-hitting Tanvir was bowled by Jarvis. Jarvis was solid at the death and made good use of yorkers, a delivery he is close to perfecting.

The year 2010 saw Musa Ibrahim become the first Bangladeshi to fly the red and green flag at the peak of the Mount Everest. Bangladeshi scientists also took the lead to sequence the jute genome. In the contrary, the fall in Dhaka stocks and fund siphoning allegation against Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took some gloss off what was an eventful year. The ten most discussed news picked by bdnews24.com read like this: MT EVEREST SCALED May 23. This day may not carry much importance to many millions in the world, but for Bangladeshis, it can easily be marked as one of the most joyous days as the country, along with Musa Ibrahim fulfilled a dream by summiting the Mount Everest. North Alpine Club president Musa studied at Dhaka University and BRAC University. He hails from Lalmonirhat. JUTE GENOME SEQUENCED Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on June 16 disclosed in parliament that Bangladeshi researchers, Dhaka University's biochemistry and biotechnology departments, led by Dr Maqsudul Alam, have successfully done genome sequencing of jute which will contribute to improving jute fibre. The discovery is billed to help 'the golden fibre' regain its lost glory because the researchers say the sequencing will let jute grow amid the hostile weather due to the climate change. YUNUS CONTROVERSY Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus was thrown into controversy over allegations that he had diverted millions of dollars from Grameen Bank fund keeping the Norwegian donors in the dark and then trying to hush up the matter. On Nov 30, the Norwegian state television NRK aired the documentary, 'Caught in Micro Debt', made by Danish investigative journalist Tom Heinemann. The documentary made the fund transfer issue public 12 years after the incident. bdnews24.com was the first to break the story in Bangladesh on Dec 1. Yunus invited the media on Sunday to settle the debate over 'channelled fund'. Grameen Bank, however, said that the issue had been set to rest by the Norwegian government and the bank in 1998. Prime minister Sheikh Hasina and some other ruling party leaders slammed the Grameen Bank chief and ordered investigations. HIJACKED SHIP MV Jahan Moni was the latest in the long list of ships hijacked by Somali pirates in the dying days of the year. The Bangladeshi ship was hijacked in the Arabian Sea on Dec 5 off the Indian coast of Kochin. There are 26 Bangladeshis, including 25 crew, on board of the ship that has been taken to the Somali coast. The government has been urged to negotiate with the Somali pirates by paying ransom. Family members of the captured crew demanded immediate government action to rescue them. Foreign minister Dipu Moni, two weeks ago, told journalists that no state could pay ransom in any case. The owner of the ship said talks with Somali pirates are underway. On the other hand, Somali pirates released a German ship after getting a ransom of $ 5.5 million last week. The ship was captured in May. STALKERS ON THE PROWL Sexual harassment of women started to hit the front pages of newspapers since stalkers ran over Mizanur Rahman, a college teacher of Natore, in October. Mizanur died on Oct 22. Hecklers continued their violence by killing Chanpa Rani Bhowmik for her protest against harassment of her daughters in Faridpur on Oct 26. It was not the end as Rupali Rani of Sirajganj committed suicide after being kidnapped by an eve-teaser on Nov 1. The government, very much concerned over the incidents, and asked by the High Court, amended relevant law to try stalkers in mobile courts which started to operate in early November. STOCKS A sudden meltdown of share prices at the end of the year threw the financial market of the country into a spin. Several records of exchange increased general peoples' interest to invest in the capital market. Investors continued to push up the price of shares until general index at the Dhaka Stock Exchange plummeted in the second week of December and lost over 500 points in a single hour, just two days after it reached all time high. Frustrated, angry and agitated investors took to the street at least twice in the last month as the market showed signs of downturn. On December 8 and 19, protesting investors mashed windows, hurled bricks and bottles on the police as market experienced record fall in a single hour and highest fall in a single day. EDUCATION POLICY The country got a fully fledged education policy for the first time in its history. The National Education Policy was passed in the cabinet on May 31 and in parliament on Dec 7. Several Islamic parties protested the policy alleging that the opportunities of religious education have been reduced in it. The government, denying the allegation, is working on the implementation of the policy. Primary education will be extended to class VIII and Secondary School Certificate exam will be eliminated once the new education policy is implemented. Text books and exam systems will be changed and madrasa education will also be modernised by the policy. ANTHRAX Anthrax panicked people in the middle of the year when at least 500 were affected in several districts. At one stage, the government declared red alert. Cattle testing started on a large scale across the country, including border areas through which foreign cattle enter in. Demand of cattle meat slumped suddenly and the government declared the country anthrax-free early in October. Butchers alleged that poultry traders spread the panic to make windfalls. Livestock state minister Abdul Latif Biswas echoed their voice and said the government will investigate the matter. BIMAN TAILSPIN Operations of the national carrier grounded to halt when pilots called strike on Oct 26. The shutdown, enforced by the younger pilots, was eventually withdrawn after a meeting with prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Oct 29 and the Biman Bangladesh Airlines was saved from flying into the sunset. Biman suspended four pilots including the acting president and general secretary of pilots' association BAPA on Oct 25. BAPA decided on an immediate strike protesting the decision. Within that evening, 53 pilots called in sick. On Oct 20 the 116-member strong BAPA gave a 24-hour ultimatum to Biman to meet their 5-point demand, including the cancellation of the Biman order to increase retirement age of pilots from 57 to 62 years. The pilots also threatened not to carry out any duty beyond their contract with Biman if the demands were not met.

Trump, a Republican, has alleged widespread voter fraud in the Nov 3 election without providing evidence. Although he has not acknowledged Biden’s victory since the former vice president clinched the Electoral College more than two weeks ago, Trump’s announcement on Monday was the closest he has come to admitting defeat. The Trump campaign’s legal efforts to overturn the election have almost entirely failed in key battleground states, and a growing number of Republican leaders, business executives and national security experts have urged the president to let the transition begin. Biden won 306 state-by-state electoral votes - well over the 270 needed for victory - to Trump’s 232. Biden also leads by over 6 million in the national popular vote. He has begun naming members of his team without waiting for government funding or a Trump concession. But Democrats have accused the president of undermining US democracy with his refusal to accept the results. On Monday, the General Services Administration, the federal agency that must sign off on presidential transitions, told Biden he could formally begin the hand-over process. GSA Administrator Emily Murphy said in a letter that Biden would get access to resources that had been denied to him because of the legal challenges seeking to overturn his win. That announcement came shortly after Michigan officials certified Biden as the victor in their state, making Trump’s legal efforts to change the election outcome even more unlikely to succeed. ‘BEST INTEREST OF OUR COUNTRY’ Trump and his advisers said he would continue to pursue legal avenues, but his tweet served as a sign that even the White House understood it was getting close to time to move on. “Our case STRONGLY continues, we will keep up the good ... fight, and I believe we will prevail! Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same,” Trump said in a tweet. A Trump adviser painted the move as similar to both candidates getting briefed during the campaign, and said the president’s tweet was not a concession. A statement by the Biden transition said meetings would begin with federal officials on Washington’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, along with discussions of national security issues. I want to thank Emily Murphy at GSA for her steadfast dedication and loyalty to our Country. She has been harassed, threatened, and abused – and I do not want to see this happen to her, her family, or employees of GSA. Our case STRONGLY continues, we will keep up the good...— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 23, 2020   I want to thank Emily Murphy at GSA for her steadfast dedication and loyalty to our Country. She has been harassed, threatened, and abused – and I do not want to see this happen to her, her family, or employees of GSA. Our case STRONGLY continues, we will keep up the good... “This is probably the closest thing to a concession that President Trump could issue,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. The move by the GSA means Biden’s team will now have federal funds and an official office to conduct his transition until he takes office on Jan 20. It also paves the way for Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to receive regular national security briefings that Trump also gets. Two Trump administration officials told Reuters the Biden agency review teams could begin interacting with Trump agency officials as soon as Tuesday. FOREIGN POLICY TEAM TAKES SHAPE Earlier on Monday, Biden named the top members of his foreign policy team, tapping trusted aide Antony Blinken to head the State Department and John Kerry, a former US senator, secretary of state and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, to serve as his special climate envoy. Biden, who has said he would undo Trump’s “America First” policies, also named Jake Sullivan as his national security adviser and Linda Thomas-Greenfield as US ambassador to the United Nations - both with high-level government experience. The 78-year-old Democrat is assembling an administration from his home in Delaware as he prepares to lead a country facing its greatest public health crisis in living memory. He is also likely to tap former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to become the next Treasury secretary, said two Biden allies, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel decision that was not yet public. Biden took a step toward reversing Trump’s hard-line immigration policies by naming Cuban-born lawyer Alejandro Mayorkas to head the Department of Homeland Security.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world on Wednesday to agree to work out a new climate treaty by 2009 and said detailed greenhouse gas cuts can be worked out after UN talks in Bali. Entering a dispute pitting the United States against the European Union and some developing nations, Ban said the overriding goal of the Dec. 3-14 meeting was to agree to launch negotiations on a pact to succeed the current Kyoto Protocol. Ban told more than 120 environment ministers that climate change was the "moral challenge of our generation" and said there was a "desperate urgency" to act to curb rising seas, floods, droughts, famines and extinctions of wildlife. "The time to act is now," Ban told the ministers, split over the ground rules for agreeing to launch formal negotiations on a new long-term global treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions, expanding the 37-nation Kyoto pact to all countries. Washington is leading opposition at talks of any mention of scientific evidence of a need for cuts in greenhouse gases of 25 to 40 percent by 2020 below 1990 levels as part of the guidelines for negotiations. "Practically speaking this will have to be negotiated down the road," Ban said, echoing a view given by Washington. "We have two years' time before we can conclude an international deal on this issue." Still, he also said that countries should respect a finding by the U.N. climate panel that a range of 25-40 percent was needed to avert the worst impacts of climate change. ROADMAP "You need to set an agenda -- a roadmap to a more secure climate future, coupled with a tight timeline that produces a deal by 2009," he said. The United Nations wants a new pact adopted at a meeting in Copenhagen in late 2009. The United States, supported by Japan, Canada and Australia, says that even a non-binding mention of a 25-to-40 percent range could prejudge the outcome of negotiations. "We don't want to be pre-determining what will come out of this process," said Paula Dobriansky, US Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs. But the European Union insisted that rich nations needed to show they were leading by example to convince developing nations, such as China and India, to start braking the rise of their surging emissions from burning fossil fuels. "I don't need a paper from Bali that says we will just meet again next year," German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said. "If you want to go a long way you need to know the starting point and where you want to go." Ban called on all nations, including the United States, to show flexibility. He also said the threat of global warming had a "silver lining" because creative solutions could create jobs and ease poverty in developing nations from Africa to Asia. Earlier, Australia's new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd handed formal papers to Ban ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, isolating the United States as the only rich nation without binding caps on greenhouse gas emissions under the U.N. deal stretching to 2012. Rudd, whose Labor Party won a landslide election victory last month, said Australia was already suffering from climate change -- ranging from a drying up of rivers to disruptions to corals of the Great Barrier Reef. "What we see today is a portent of things to come," he said. The talks are set to wrap-up by Friday or early Saturday and traditionally annual U.N. climate meetings feature hard-bargaining and all-night sessions. The United Nations wants a deal in place by the end of 2009 to give parliaments three years to ratify and help guide billions of dollars of investments in everything from solar panels and wind turbines to coal-fired power plants. It took eight years for enough countries to ratify Kyoto for it to come into force in 2005, a process that was slowed in 2001 by Washington's decision not to sign up. A failure of Bali to agree to start talks would sour chances of a successor to Kyoto. Apart from Australia, 36 Kyoto nations have promised to cut emissions by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. The United States argues Kyoto would hurt its economy and wrongly excludes 2008-12 targets for big developing nations.

China is willing to make its voluntary carbon emissions target part of a binding UN resolution, a concession which may pressure developed countries to extend the Kyoto Protocol, a senior negotiator told Reuters. UN climate talks in Mexico's Cancun beach resort hinge on agreement to cement national emissions targets after 2012 when the current round of Kyoto carbon caps end. China's compromise would depend on the United States agreeing to binding emissions cuts and an extension of Kyoto, which binds the emissions of nearly 40 developed countries, except the United States which didn't ratify it. Developing nations want to continue the protocol while industrialized backers including Japan, Russia and Canada want a separate agreement regulating all nations. China has previously rejected making its domestic emissions goals binding, as they are for industrialized nations now. "We can create a resolution and that resolution can be binding on China," said Huang Huikang, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's envoy for climate change talks. "Under the (UN Climate) Convention, we can even have a legally binding decision. We can discuss the specific form. We can make our efforts a part of international efforts." "Our view is that to address these concerns, there's no need to overturn the Kyoto Protocol and start all over again." The proposal was a "gamechanger," said Jennifer Morgan at the Washington-based World Resources Institute. "This is a very constructive and useful statement by China and points to a way forward for an agreement in Cancun." "The devil is in the details but this is a promising development," said Alden Meyer from the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists. At a briefing later, China's chief negotiator Xie Zhenhua said that China's targets could be brought under the Convention. "Developing countries can voluntarily use their own national resources to make their own voluntary emissions commitments, and these commitments should be under the Convention." "COMPROMISE" Huang said China would not shift from demanding that new emissions targets are contained within an extended Kyoto. Beijing has long insisted that its efforts were binding only domestically and could not be brought into any international deal. "In the past, China may have said that there'd be no linking and we will act voluntarily without attaching any conditions, but now after all this is an international effort and can be fully part of that. This is a kind of compromise," he said. "We're willing to compromise, we're willing to play a positive and constructive role, but on this issue (Kyoto) there's no room for compromise." Developing nations, including the world's top carbon emitter China, agreed at a summit in Copenhagen last year to take voluntary steps to curb the growth of their emissions. China's pledge was to reduce its "carbon intensity" -- the amount of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), emitted for each dollar of economic growth. It plans to reduce this by 40-45 percent by 2020 compared to 2005. Huang said that intensity target could be reflected in a resolution.

The government said on Thursday it would cut the tax relief on pension savings for around 100,000 higher earners, in a move designed to raise 4 billion pounds a year and help reduce a record budget deficit. The move follows the scrapping of child benefits for higher earners last week and may provide political cover for the coalition government to say its cuts are fair when Chancellor George Osborne presents his spending review on Oct 20. The government also said on Thursday that it would abolish, merge or reform 481 semi-independent agencies, proposals likely to cost thousands of jobs. This follows reports on tackling government waste and charging higher university fees this week, all of which help set the scene for the government to cut most departmental budgets by a quarter or more. In view of the tough economic climate, even the queen is making cutbacks. A spokeswoman said on Thursday that the Queen has cancelled a planned Christmas party at Buckingham Palace given the difficult circumstances facing the country. The Treasury said in a statement on its website that it would cut the annual allowance for tax-privileged pension savings to 50,000 pounds from 255,000 pounds starting in April 2011. It said this would affect 100,000 people, 80 percent of whom earn more than 100,000 pounds. It will also cut the lifetime allowance to 1.5 million pounds from 1.8 million pounds from April 2012, raising in total 4 billion pounds a year. The pensions reforms may well infuriate many higher earners, who make up the traditional support base of Osborne's Conservative Party, the senior partners in the coalition government that took office in May. Many newspapers have already gone to war with the government over its plans to scrap child benefit for anyone earning over 44,000 pounds. Treasury officials insist that the moves are fair and unavoidable, and that this will become apparent when people see what is coming on Oct 20. Osborne is expected to take an axe to the welfare bill. Business groups welcomed the changes to the legislation, saying they could have been much worse. "Today's announcement is not as bad as feared. The government had considered making the annual allowance as low as 30,000 pounds," said John Cridland, CBI Deputy Director-General. But the opposition Labour Party said the moves would hit some families on modest incomes. "Under our plans, no-one earning under 130,000 pounds would lose out," said David Hanson, a Labour treasury spokesman. "Now everyone's at risk because the government is taxing on the basis of people's wish to save for a pension, rather than because they are high earners."

The payments, which started in July and amounted to hundreds of dollars a month for most families, have helped millions of American families pay for food, rent and child care; kept millions of children out of poverty; and injected billions of dollars into the US economy, according to government data and independent research. Now, the benefit — an expansion of the existing child tax credit — is ending, just as the latest wave of coronavirus cases is keeping people home from work and threatening to set off a new round of furloughs. Economists warn that the one-two punch of expiring aid and rising cases could put a chill on the once red-hot economic recovery and cause severe hardship for millions of families already living close to the poverty line. “It’s going to be hard next month, and just thinking about it, it really makes me want to bite my nails to the quick,” said Anna Lara, a mother of two young children in Huntington, West Virginia. “Honestly, it’s going to be scary. It’s going to be hard going back to not having it.” Lara, 32, lost her job in the pandemic, and with the cost of child care rising, she has not been able to return to work. Her partner kept his job, but the child benefit helped the couple make ends meet at a time of reduced income and rising prices. “Your children watch you, and if you worry, they catch on to that,” she said. “With that extra cushion, we didn’t have to worry all the time.” The end of the extra assistance for parents is the latest in a long line of benefits “cliffs” that Americans have encountered as pandemic aid programs have expired. The Paycheck Protection Program, which supported hundreds of thousands of small businesses, ended in March. Expanded unemployment benefits ended in September and earlier in some states. The federal eviction moratorium expired over the summer. The last round of stimulus payments landed in Americans’ bank accounts in the spring. Relative to those programs, the rollback in the child tax credit is small. The Treasury Department paid out about $80 billion over six months in the form of checks and direct deposits of up to $300 per child each month. That is far less than the more than $240 billion in stimulus payments issued on a single day last March. Unlike most other programs created in response to the pandemic, the child benefit was never intended to be temporary, at least according to many of its backers. Congress approved it for a single year as part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, but many progressives hoped that the payments, once started, would prove too popular to stop. That didn’t happen. Polls found the public roughly divided over whether the program should be extended, with opinions splitting along partisan and generational lines. And the expanded tax credit failed to win over the individual whose opinion mattered most: Sen Joe Manchin, who cited concerns over the cost and structure of the program in his decision to oppose President Joe Biden’s climate, tax and social policy bill. The bill, known as the Build Back Better Act, cannot proceed in the evenly divided Senate without Manchin’s support. To supporters of the child benefit, the failure to extend it is especially frustrating because, according to most analyses, the program itself has been a remarkable success. Researchers at Columbia University estimate that the payments kept 3.8 million children out of poverty in November, a nearly 30% reduction in the child poverty rate. Other studies have found that the benefit reduced hunger, lowered financial stress among recipients and increased overall consumer spending, especially in rural states that received the most money per capita. Congress in the spring expanded the existing child tax credit in three ways. First, it made the benefit more generous, providing as much as $3,600 per child, up from $2,000. Second, it began paying the credit in monthly installments, usually deposited directly into recipients’ bank accounts, turning the once-yearly windfall into something closer to the children’s allowances common in Europe. Finally, the bill made the full benefit available to millions who had previously been unable to take full advantage of the credit because they earned too little to qualify. Poverty experts say that change, known in tax jargon as “full refundability,” was particularly significant because without it, one-third of children — including half of all Black and Hispanic children, and 70% of children being raised by single mothers — did not receive the full credit. Biden’s plan would have made that provision permanent. “What we’ve seen with the child tax credit is a policy success story that was unfolding, but it’s a success story that we risk stopping in its tracks just as it was getting started,” said Megan Curran, director of policy at Columbia’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy. “The weight of the evidence is clear here in terms of what the policy is doing. It’s reducing child poverty and food insufficiency.” But the expanded tax credit doesn’t just go to the poor. Couples earning as much as $150,000 a year could receive the full $3,600 benefit — $3,000 for children 6 and older — and even wealthier families qualify for the original $2,000 credit. Critics of the policy, including Manchin, have argued that it makes little sense to provide aid to relatively well-off families. Many supporters of the credit say they’d happily limit its availability to wealthier households in return for maintaining it for poorer ones. Manchin has also publicly questioned the wisdom of unconditional cash payments and has privately voiced concerns that recipients could spend the money on opioids, comments that were first reported by The Wall Street Journal and confirmed by a person familiar with the discussion. But a survey conducted by the Census Bureau found that most recipients used the money to buy food, clothing or other necessities, and many saved some of the money or paid down debt. Other surveys have found similar results. For one of Manchin’s constituents, Lara, the first monthly check last year arrived at an opportune moment. Her dishwasher had broken days earlier, and the $550 a month that she and her family received from the federal government meant they could replace it. Lara, who has a 6-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son and whose partner earns about $40,000 a year, said the family had long lived “right on the edge of need” — not poor but never able to save enough to withstand more than a modest setback. The monthly child benefit, she said, let them step a bit further back from the edge. It allowed her to get new shoes and a new car seat for her daughter, stock up on laundry detergent when she found it on sale and fix the brakes on her car. “None of the dash lights are on, which is amazing,” she said. Some researchers have questioned the policy’s effectiveness, particularly over the long term. Bruce D Meyer, an economist at the University of Chicago who studies poverty, said that whatever the merits of direct cash payments at the height of the pandemic-induced disruptions, a permanent policy of providing unconditional cash to parents could have unintended consequences. He and several co-authors recently published a working paper finding that the child benefit could discourage people from working, in part because it eliminated the work incentives built into the previous version of the tax credit. “Early on, we just wanted to get cash in people’s hands — we were worried about a recession; we were worried about people being able to pay for their groceries,” Meyer said. Now, he said, “we certainly should be more focused on the longer-term effects, which include likely larger effects on labour supply.” Analyses of the data since the new child benefit took effect, however, have found no evidence that it has done much to discourage people from working, and some researchers say it could actually lead more people to work by making it easier for parents of young children to afford child care. “There’s every reason to believe that in the current labour market, the child tax credit is work-enabling, and no evidence to the contrary has been presented,” said Samuel Hammond, director of poverty and welfare policy at the Niskanen Center, a research organisation in Washington. Hammond said the child benefit should also have broader economic benefits. In a report last summer, he estimated that the expansion would increase consumer spending by $27 billion nationally and create the equivalent of 500,000 full-time jobs. The biggest effect, on a percentage basis, would come in rural, mostly Republican-voting states where families are larger and incomes are lower, on average. Some Republican critics of the expanded child tax credit, including Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, have argued that it has essentially done too much to increase spending — that by giving people more money to spend when the supply chain is already strained, the government is contributing to faster inflation. But many economists are sceptical that the tax credit has played much of a role in causing high inflation, in part because it is small compared with both the economy and the earlier rounds of aid distributed during the pandemic. “That’s a noninflationary programme,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at accounting firm RSM. “That’s dedicated toward necessities, not luxuries.” For those receiving the benefit, inflation is an argument for maintaining it. Lara said she had noticed prices going up for groceries, utilities and especially gas, stretching her budget even thinner. “Right now, both of my vehicles need gas, and I can’t put gas in the car,” she said. “But it’s OK, because I’ve got groceries in the house, and the kids can play outside.” © 2022 The New York Times Company

The killing of Benazir Bhutto sends the United States back to square one in its search for a Pakistan that is a stable, democratic partner in a fight against Islamic extremism, analysts said on Thursday. Possible consequences of the assassination range from widespread street rioting by her followers to the nightmare scenario for Washington of Pakistan eventually becoming a nuclear-armed, unstable Islamic state. Financial investors, who already factor in Pakistan's considerable political risk, said the killing itself was not surprising but that continuing instability would boost the risk. Stephen Cohen of the Brookings Institution called Bhutto's death a "blow to the idea of a liberal, moderate Pakistan" that made him fear for that country. "Its further decay will affect all of its neighbors, Europe, and the United States in unpredictable and unpleasant ways," the South Asia expert wrote in an essay. "It is probably too late for the United States to do much either: we placed all of our bets on (President Pervez) Musharraf, ignoring Benazir's pleas for some contact or recognition until a few months ago," Cohen added. The United States invested great energy and political capital to secure the return of the 54-year-old exiled former prime minister to Pakistan in October. It convinced Musharraf to give up his role as military leader and accept elections and a power-sharing arrangement with her. Now, Washington faces "a disaster on every account," from dimmed hopes of a democratic transition to the risk of more attacks by emboldened radicals, said Frederic Grare, a South Asia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "The leaders of the mainstream parties are being assassinated. That weakens the parties and does not augur well for any reestablishment of democracy in Pakistan," he said. STREET VIOLENCE, NUCLEAR SAFETY U.S. President George W. Bush urged Pakistanis to honor Bhutto "by continuing with the democratic process for which she so bravely gave her life." Other U.S. officials said Washington hoped Islamabad would stick to plans to hold elections, slated for Jan. 8. Anthony Cordesman, security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Bhutto's death made a very unstable political situation much worse. "There's no figure that we can work with who has the same immediate ability to try to create political stability and a climate in which you can have legitimate elections, bring back the rule of law and bridge the gap that had developed between Musharraf and the Pakistani people," he said. Analysts warned that in a country prone to conspiracy theories and passionate politics, fingers would point in all directions over the assassination amid grief and anger that could spill into violence. "The number one concern right now is to maintain calm in the streets of Pakistan," said Lisa Curtis of the Heritage Foundation. She said it would be unwise for Musharraf to impose emergency rule to accomplish that aim. Other analysts questioned the wisdom of relying on Musharraf to fight terrorism. "If he can't protect a leading politician in a fairly secure garrison city, how can he tackle the problems in the remote tribal areas, where al-Qaeda and the Taliban are reportedly thriving?" asked Win Thin, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. A perennial question during crises in Pakistan is the security of the country's nuclear arsenal. US officials said there was no change in an assessment offered last month, amid strife over Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule, that the weapons were secure. Cordesman of CSIS said Islamabad had received US help and studied other country's policies to ensure maximum safety for its nuclear facilities. "But is there transparency that allows anybody on the outside to make some kind of categorical statement about the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons? Anybody who did that may discredit themselves," he said.

Russia's opposition said on Tuesday they feared Vladimir Putin had decided to use force to smother their protests after riot police detained hundreds of demonstrators challenging his presidential election victory. After three months of peaceful anti-Putin protests, police hauled away more than 500 people, including opposition leaders, who attended unsanctioned protests in Moscow and St Petersburg on Monday or refused to leave after a rally that was permitted. The police intervention sent a clear signal that Putin is losing patience with opponents demanding more democracy, openness and political reforms, and will crack down if they step out of line. "Fear of his own people, the animal fear of losing power, and a reliance on the police baton - this is what we are seeing," Boris Nemtsov, a liberal opposition leader, wrote in a blog. Novelist Boris Akunin, who has helped organise the protests, said he no longer believed the next rally - planned for Saturday - could pass off without trouble. "It is absolutely clear that the period of peaceful rallies and marches is over. I see no need to organise any march on March 10 because it will lead to a clear display of aggression by the authorities," he said. The police said they had acted in accordance with the law and Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, defended the intervention. "The opposition action consisted of two parts, legal and illegal. In both cases, the police acted with the highest professionalism and acted legitimately and effectively, within the competence of the law," he said. After four years as prime minister, Putin returned to the presidency after capturing almost 64 percent of the votes in Sunday's election. He was president from 2000 to 2008. The restraint shown by many officers, even as they bundled protesters into vans, suggested that Putin is determined not to give his critics the chance to depict him as a dictator ready to suppress any challenge to his authority. Witnesses said that although some protesters were hurt, and one said her arm had been broken, police seemed intent on avoiding casualties at the main protest on Moscow's Pushkin Square, often the scene of Soviet-era dissident protests. But reporters said police used tougher tactics against a group who tried to protest at Lubyanka Square, in front of the headquarters of the Federal Security Service, successor to the Soviet-era KGB. Protesters were also dragged roughly away in St Petersburg, Putin's home town. Foreign investors are worried that clashes could break out between police and protesters, undermining the investment climate and denting prospects for reforms which they say are needed to reduce Russia's reliance on energy exports. Russian stocks suffered their biggest daily fall in three months on Tuesday after ratings agency Fitch warned of the dangers of confrontation. Both the main dollar-based and rouble-traded stock indexes fell by more than 3 percent. ALLEGATIONS OF FRAUD The pattern appears clear: Putin will allow a few isolated protests, the place and time of which is agreed with the authorities, as a safety valve for disillusionment among mainly urban demonstrators with his 12-year domination of Russia. He could also offer some conciliatory gestures to appease the opposition. In one such move, the Kremlin has ordered a review of 32 criminal cases including the jailing of former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the refusal to register a liberal opposition group which has been barred from elections. But Putin, a former KGB spy, will do his utmost to prevent what he regards as more radical protesters undermining his return to the Kremlin for a third term as president. Dissent will be dealt with forcefully. "We saw fear in the eyes of the dictator. We saw weakness. We saw a man who is unsure of himself," Ilya Yashin, an opposition leader, told the rally at Pushkin Square after Putin shed a tear in his victory speech on Sunday. "Has war begun? Why have they brought troops into the centre of our capital? Why the riot police? Who does he want to wage war with? Who is he protecting himself against?" The US ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, said on Twitter that the arrests were troubling and freedom of assembly and speech were universal values. This earned him a rebuke from Russia's Foreign Ministry in a tweeted reply. It said the Russian police had shown far more restraint than US officers clearing anti-capitalist protesters from sites in the United States. The United States has called for an independent and credible investigation into all allegations of voting irregularities in the election. Several European countries have also signalled their concern over the allegations of cheating but at the same time underlined a desire to keep working with Russia. International monitors said there had been some improvements from a parliamentary poll on December 4 which observers said was marred by irregularities, but the vote was still unfair and heavily skewed to favour Putin. Russia's Foreign Ministry said the observers' report was balanced overall but it took issue with several criticisms, although it did not say what they were. Many Russians have lost hope of elections being fair and Putin introducing change. "I used to love Putin, like any woman who likes a charismatic man. But now I think he is getting senile. Nobody can stay in power forever," Vasilisa Maslova, 35, who works in the fashion trade, said at Pushkin Square.

The reversal of protocol struck Daschle, who was new in the job, as gracious. “I said, ‘Bob, I’m really humbled that you insist on coming to my office; I’m the junior guy, so I should come to your office,’ ” Daschle recalled Sunday after learning that Dole, 98, had died. “And he said, ‘No, when I come to your office, I can always decide when the meeting is over.’ ” The remark was classic Bob Dole — witty and straight to the point. And the story is a reminder of Bob Dole’s Washington. Dole, a Kansas Republican who overcame the poverty of the Great Depression and grievous injuries suffered during World War II, brought his prairie values and no-nonsense manner when he arrived in Washington in 1961. Over the next 35 years — through eight years in the House, 27 in the Senate and three failed attempts to win the presidency — he operated in a city that was conducive to his instincts as a deal maker. It is perhaps trite to reminisce about and romanticise a “bygone era” in Washington, when politicians of opposing parties fought by day and socialised with one another at night. There was plenty of partisanship — some of it every bit as bitter as what exists today — during Dole’s time in the Capitol. But there also is no denying that the climate was different, and the facts speak for themselves: Both as a senator and as the Republican leader, a job he held from 1985 until 1996, Dole reached across the aisle to help push through a string of bipartisan legislation, such as a bill to rescue Social Security, the Americans with Disabilities Act and a measure to overhaul the welfare system. Among his proudest accomplishments was teaming up with George McGovern, the liberal Democrat from South Dakota, to revamp the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called food stamps. They continued to work together on nutrition issues after they both left the Senate. “People believed in working with each other, and they kept their word,” Sen Patrick J Leahy, who counted Dole as a friend, said Sunday. He recalled the close ties between George J Mitchell Jr, the Maine senator who preceded Daschle as the Democratic leader, and Dole. “When George Mitchell was leader, he’d go down to Dole’s office two and three times a day and vice versa,” Leahy said. “And I recall they both said the same thing about the other: ‘He never surprised me.’ You don’t see that happen today.” Not only that, Mitchell and Dole had dedicated phone lines on their desks that let them communicate directly with the touch of a button, one aide recalled. The button came in handy in November 1994, when Republicans won back the majority. Mitchell, who had not sought reelection, asked that Dole be alerted that he was coming to his office to congratulate him. Dole sent a quick message back that he didn’t want Mitchell to make the humbling trek and that Dole would instead go to his office, a gesture that Mitchell and his team regarded as decent and thoughtful. “He operated in a different era, when the idea of bipartisanship was very much in vogue and politicians understood that in a democracy you simply have to work, not just with your fellow party members, but with people from the opposite side or the other side of the aisle,” said Robert Dallek, the presidential historian. “He was masterful at that.” That is not to say that Dole lacked sharp elbows or conservative ideology. Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House who is widely credited with ushering in Washington’s era of partisan warfare, said he worked closely with Dole to push through tax cuts and to defeat President Bill Clinton’s plan for universal health care. In an interview Sunday, Gingrich likened Dole to the current Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, an object of loathing for Democrats. “I think there’s a lot of parallels between Dole and McConnell,” Gingrich said. “They’re both creatures of the Senate; they’re both very, very good tactically. They both understand how to stop things, and they understand how to get things done.” Despite their partnership, Dole could not embrace Gingrich’s bomb-throwing style. When Gingrich and House Republicans refused to pass federal spending bills, forcing the government to shut down in 1995, Dole took to the Senate floor to declare that he had had enough. “We ought to end this,” Dole said at the time. “I mean, it’s gotten to the point where it’s a little ridiculous as far as this senator is concerned.” In Washington, Dole and his wife, Elizabeth Dole — who later became a senator and ran for president herself — were seen as a power couple, the embodiment of the city’s institutions. Robert Dole came to stand for World War II and the Greatest Generation, and an earlier era of dignity and honour. He was the driving force behind the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, and could often be found greeting veterans there. “He was in a sense Mr America,” said Dallek, the historian. “He came from the heartland, and he stood for a kind of shared values.” In 1996, Dole left the Senate — an institution in which he had served for more than a quarter century — to run for president. Washington was changing. Gingrich was at the height of his power. Clinton would later be impeached over his affair with an intern, Monica Lewinsky, exacerbating the growing partisan tensions. But when Dole, who at that point was the Senate’s longest-serving Republican leader, went to the chamber to deliver a speech announcing his departure, the old ways of the Capitol were still intact. “That day he announced he was leaving the Senate, almost every Democratic senator was on the floor,” Leahy said. “Now, he was going to go out to run against Bill Clinton. And when he finished speaking, we all stood and applauded and applauded.” © 2021 The New York Times Company

The worst February cold spell Europe has seen in decades may last until the end of the month, leading meteorologists said, raising the prospect of further deaths and an extended spike in European spot gas prices. "We do have higher confidence in a change by mid-February, but not to milder weather," Leon Brown, a meteorologist at The Weather Channel in Britain, told Reuters. "February will probably remain a cold month right to the end." The cold and heavy snowfall has killed hundreds of people across Europe. The temperature in some eastern countries has plummeted to nearly minus 40 degrees Celsius. More than 130 villages remained without electricity in Bulgaria on Wednesday and the army was delivering food and medicines, the Defence Ministry said. Bulgaria declared Wednesday a day of mourning for eight people who died after melting snow caused a dam to burst, flooding an entire village. Two people are missing. The European Union's crisis response chief Kristalina Georgieva said the worst of the flooding was yet to come. In Bosnia, authorities reported five more deaths from the cold and snow on Wednesday, taking the total to 13. In Serbia, where 13 people have died and 70,000 are cut off by snow, authorities urged people to remove icicles from roofs after a woman in Belgrade was killed by falling ice. An energy official in Serbia said while demand for electricity had soared, ice was hampering production in some hydro-power plants and coal trains were struggling to run. A Croatian radio station said high winds had deposited fish from the Adriatic sea onto the island of Pag. "Instead of going fishing or to the market, people are taking their shopping bags and collecting fish on the shore," Zadar radio reported. NO EARLY THAW Cold polar air from northern Russia flanking an area of high pressure has prevented warmer weather from moving in across the Atlantic over Europe, plunging a wide swathe of the continent into sub-zero temperatures for much of the past 10 days. Officials from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), speaking in Geneva this week, did not rule out the possibility of cold temperatures lasting for the rest of February. Omar Baddour, who coordinates the WMO's climate data monitoring programme, said there was a chance the pressure system might start lifting next week, but said it could remain until the end of the month. A difference in pressure between Europe and the Arctic known as a "negative Arctic oscillation", part of the cause of the freezing weather, is expected to take two or three weeks to return to equilibrium, Baddour said, meaning there may be no early thaw. While the phenomenon of the high-pressure system itself is not unusual, the dramatic turn to below-normal temperatures after weeks of mild weather took experts by surprise. "It's actually quite unique and a bit baffling how this winter has developed," Brown said. "It's unusual for it to develop so suddenly and have it become a persistent block toward the end of January and February." The cold spell is the strongest one to happen in the month of February in 26 years, said Georg Mueller, a forecaster at Point Carbon, a Thomson Reuters company. "It was in 1986 when we had the last similarly severe cold weather (in February)," Mueller said. The sheer size of the current Siberian blocking pattern has made it difficult to predict how it will move, Brown said. "In this instance this big blocking of cold air ... seemed to influence the way the winds behaved rather than the other way around," he said. "We didn't expect the cold block to become so persistent and then move westward." Computer models are having trouble making forecasts for when the system will clear out of Europe, Brown said. The cold snap has driven British gas prices up to their highest levels since 2006, hitting above 100 pence per therm on Tuesday, a surge of more than 15 percent. Russia curtailed gas exports to Europe last week as demand reached all-time highs, forcing countries like Italy to increase imports from Algeria and extract stored gas. Protracted cold temperatures and increased domestic demand could force Russia to cut its exports to Europe again.

Two senior US government officials are arriving in Dhaka on Wednesday to meet government officials, community and civil society leaders working in the field of women's rights. The two officials – Democrat Congresswoman Betty McCollum and ambassador-at-large for global women's issues Melanne Verveer – will also promote US policy on women, health and education during their visit, according to a press release issued by the US embassy on Tuesday. McCollum and Verveer will engage with Bangladesh government officials and non-government organisations on issues such as maternal and child health, improving access to education for girls, child marriage, gender-based violence, human trafficking, and the role of women in fighting climate change. McCollum, a Democrat serving her sixth term in the US Congress, recently introduced legislation that declares child marriage to be a human rights abuse. She advocates elimination of child marriage as a US foreign policy goal, the release says. In addition, the legislation would require the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department to collect and publicise data on the prevalence of child marriage and its impact on key US development goals. In her capacity as director of the Department of State's office on global women's issues, Verveer coordinates foreign policy issues and activities relating to political, economic and social advancement of women across the world. Verveer will leave for Nepal on January 6 while McCollum will stay in Bangladesh till January 10, according to the media release.

Her call came at a High-level Meeting of the Plenary of the UN General Assembly on rehabilitation of refugees and migrants at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday, Press Secretary to the Prime Minister Ihsanul Karim told bdnews24.com. She said that the rights of the refugees and migrants had to be secured in all situations, irrespective of their status, adding that protection and promotion of their rights were equally essential to achieve a harmony across diverse societies in the world. She also commended UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for convening the first-ever Summit on Refugees and Migrants. Observing that mutual trust and respect, shared responsibility and inclusiveness are critical to address the refugee crisis, the prime minister called on countries for reaching 'a general agreement on these universal principles'. At the opening of the summit, delegations from across the world had also adopted the landmark New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. It contains bold commitments both to address current issues and to prepare the world for future challenges, including, to start negotiations leading to an international conference and the adoption of a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration in 2018, as well as, to: # Protect the human rights of all refugees and migrants, regardless of status. This includes the rights of women and girls and promoting their full, equal and meaningful participation in finding solutions; # Ensure that all refugee and migrant children are receiving education within a few months of arrival; # Prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence; # Support those countries rescuing, receiving and hosting large numbers of refugees and migrants: # Work towards ending the practice of detaining children for the purposes of determining their migration status; # Find new homes for all refugees identified by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as needing resettlement; and expand the opportunities for refugees to relocate to other countries through, for example, labour mobility or education schemes; and # Strengthen the global governance of migration by bringing the International Organization for Migration (IOM) into the UN system.​ Sheikh Hasina on Monday also told the plenary session that the world must seize this 'historic opportunity' and deliberate on a robust, ambitious and action-oriented blueprint to deal with large movements of refugees. "This needs to be done within a broader development context." Underlining several aspects of migration governance, the prime minister said migration must be appreciated as a reality and freedom enhancer for greater good. She proposed a Global Compact on Migration to address some of the long-standing gaps in migration governance, and said that this agreement must build on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The proposed compact on migration would capture elements and modalities that are ambitious and enforceable, yet balanced and flexible, she added. She said promotion of tolerance and understanding was crucial for accommodating migrants and refugees. Hasina also mentioned that the compact will have to take into account the protection need of millions displaced by climate change. She said Bangladesh, as the current Chair of the Global Forum on Migration and Development, would be happy to contribute to the development of the agreement. Before joining and addressing the plenary session, the prime minister had held a meeting with State Counsellor and Foreign Minister of Myanmar Aung Saan Suu Kyi. Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Janet Scotland also called on her at the UN headquarters.​

Australian leader John Howard risks becoming the first prime minister to lose his own seat at an election in 78 years, as he battles to save his conservative government from defeat in next month's poll. Electoral boundary changes to his safe Sydney seat of Bennelong have made it marginal, with a swing of around 4 percent -- or about 3,000 votes -- enough to defeat him. An increase in Asian migrants to the area, with Chinese and Koreans now representing 20 percent of voters, is also seen as working against Howard, 68, who is seeking a fifth term in office in the national election on Nov. 24. "When he is in an election he has used the race card and we (do) not need that sort of leadership," said Jason Koh, editor of the local Korean newspaper Hoju Donja. Koh said many Chinese and Korean voters believed Howard had played the "race card" with his tough stance against boatpeople, a tactic that helped him win the last election in 2004. Unlike previous elections, the opposition Labor party has chosen a high-profile candidate, former television and news magazine journalist Maxine McKew, to challenge Howard in the harbourside seat he has held since entering parliament in 1974. McKew, who only moved into the electorate a few months ago, leads Howard in opinion polls and with betting agencies. Aware he is fighting for political survival in his own backyard, Howard has repeatedly reminded his constituency that he does not take Bennelong voters for granted. He has also altered his electioneering tactics and is spending a lot more time in Bennelong, say local residents, pressing the flesh on weekends and attending community events. ROWDY RALLY Last Saturday's Granny Smith Apple Festival, normally a subdued community fair, turned into a rowdy election rally when Howard and McKew turned up. Brandishing placards and balloons, hundreds of supporters of both candidates waged a vocal battle. John Booth, editor of the community newspaper The Weekly Times, said it was the first time in 21 years that Howard had attended the festival. "He is opening things he has not done for years. He realises he is in a real fight," said Booth, who believes Howard will lose his seat. "The people I speak to, people who say they voted for him last time, say it is time for a change." Bennelong is named after one of the most notable Aborigines in Australian history, who was taken to England in 1792, and covers some of Sydney's more affluent, leafy northern suburbs. When Howard first won the seat it was a conservative, middle class electorate, but over the years it has changed in nature, expanding west to incorporate more working class Labor suburbs. The issues resonating in Bennelong are similar to those on the national campaign -- economic management, the Iraq war, climate change and new work place laws. But where Bennelong differs is with its Asian-Australian voters, some 12,000 Chinese and 5,000 Koreans. Immigration and Australia-Asia relations are important issues in the seat, where half the residents were either born overseas or their parents were. Bennelong's Asian voters remember 1988 anti-immigration comments by Howard when he was in opposition and his government's wooing of supporters of anti-immigration politician Pauline Hanson at the 2001 election, said Koh. "Mr Howard has a long history of divide and rule ... and many people are suspicious," he said. In contrast, Booth said Labor has promoted its Asian credentials, wheeling out a former state politician and his Asian wife and leader Kevin Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat. Rudd's ability to conduct a fluent discussion with Chinese President Hu Jintao at a recent Asia-Pacific summit in Sydney apparently won him many fans in the city's Asian communities. "The Korean and Chinese vote is big enough to decide who wins, John Howard or Maxine McKew," said Koh.

In Gwinnett County, Georgia, four precincts — out of 156 — suffered prolonged technical delays, while some voting machines in South Carolina lacked power or the devices needed to activate them. There was also some confusion in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, which includes Pittsburgh, where at least four polling places were changed in the past two days. Voters who went to a polling place in Chandler, Arizona, a Phoenix suburb, found the doors locked and a legal notice announcing that the building had been closed overnight for failure to pay rent. (Officials later reopened the location.) In Houston, a worker was removed from a polling site and faced an assault charge amid a racially charged dispute with a voter, The Houston Chronicle reported. Problems with casting ballots are a regular feature of election day, and making sense of them could take days and weeks. But the number of calls to voting hotlines maintained by a collection of advocacy groups quickly outpaced those received in the last midterm election of 2014. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonprofit group that oversees 20 election call centres, said that as of 5 pm Tuesday, it had received 24,000 phone calls, compared with 14,000 at the same time four years ago. Four states — Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Texas — stood out as particularly problematic, said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee. Any issues experienced this year are more likely to jangle an electorate already unnerved by the fraught 2016 election, whose aftermath has been picked over amid concerns of Russian interference and President Donald Trump’s repeated warnings, without evidence, of widespread voter fraud. Tensions have also been exacerbated amid a fierce battle over how easily Americans can register, vote early and gain access to polling sites. Election experts point to declining enforcement of rights for minority voters since the Supreme Court struck down the core of the 1965 Voting Rights Act five years ago. Various problems led to extended hours at locations in several states. In Texas, a judge ordered nine polling locations in Harris County to remain open an extra hour after civil rights organisations complained. A coalition of groups was seeking the same in Maricopa County, Arizona. And, in Georgia, a local judge kept several sites in Gwinnett County open, including the Annistown Elementary School, where voting was extended by more than two hours. A handful of precincts were also held open for several hours in Fulton County, which includes much of Atlanta. One of the precincts was Forbes Arena, which hosted a rally last Friday featuring Democratic candidate for governor Stacey Abrams and former President Barack Obama. Georgia’s elections system was a highly contentious issue during the campaign between Abrams, who was seeking to become the first African-American woman elected governor in any state, and Brian Kemp, her Republican opponent, who is also the secretary of state and thus the state’s chief elections administrator. Abrams and her allies accused Kemp of trying to suppress the vote through overzealous interpretations of state laws and procedures. Kemp argued that he was simply trying to make it “hard to cheat,” and called accusations of voter suppression a “farce.” Although long lines were reported at some polling places, other Georgia voters moved in and out with ease. “It’s been very smooth all day long,” Kemp said Tuesday afternoon, adding: “We’re getting the normal questions of people calling asking where do they go vote, are they registered. Nothing unusual at all.” But some Georgia voters had a much different experience. At Annistown Elementary School in Snellville, Georgia, in Gwinnett County, voters reported standing in line for hours amid problems with voting machines. One resident, Ontaria Woods, said it took her nearly five hours to vote after arriving around 7 am, when the polls opened. After about 30 to 45 minutes, poll workers alerted those standing in line to an issue with the ExpressPoll voting machines, she said. “People were not surprised,” she said. “Of course, the term ‘voter suppression’ was used many, many times.” Several voters declined provisional ballots after worrying that they would not be counted, she said, and some left to buy food and water from a Walmart. The machines were finally fixed around 11 am, and Woods cast her ballot about 45 minutes later before heading to work — hours late. Gwinnett, a rapidly diversifying patchwork of suburbs near Atlanta, has long been a Republican stronghold, but Hillary Clinton carried the county in 2016. A spokesman for the county government, Joe Sorenson, said the four problematic precincts reported issues with the system that creates voter access cards for Georgia’s electronic polling system. A judge extended hours at several locations in the county, including one that was to remain open until 9:25 pm, well past the planned 7 pm close. Bradford Berry, the general counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, said, “We need to make sure that the machines that are breaking down in Georgia are not in certain parts of town, and not in others.” Although county elections officials appeared at fault for some of the issues in Georgia, a spokeswoman for Abrams’ campaign, Abigail Collazo, put the blame on Kemp. “We’re incredibly inspired by how many Georgians are turning out to vote and are staying in line to cast their ballot, despite the fact that some polling locations were not properly prepared by the secretary of state’s office,” Collazo said in a text message. In Arizona, voting-rights monitors reported major delays at some sites because of problems with printing ballots. The complaints centered in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous county, where a shift from local polling places to regional voting centers caused chaos two years ago. Voters at the regional centres were being turned away or endured long waits after printers that produce ballots tailored to their home precincts malfunctioned, according to Common Cause, which was monitoring polling problems. Clarke said the Maricopa County problems were “among the most significant we’ve seen today” and involved unusually large numbers of minority voters. In four of the afflicted voting centres, registered minority voters — Latinos, African-Americans and Native Americans — outnumbered white voters by roughly 15,700 to 2,800. In South Carolina, a spokesman for the State Election Commission said problems with malfunctioning voting machines were limited. “These issues were attributable to human error in preparation of the system, and in most cases, were resolved earlier this morning,” the spokesman, Chris Whitmire, said in an email. The Justice Department deployed election monitors to 35 jurisdictions in 19 states, but Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, drew concern among Democrats for emphasising fraud as well as civil rights. “We are dealing with a very different climate in 2018,” said Karen Flynn, the president of Common Cause. “We do not have a Department of Justice that is working hand in hand with our network to be solving these problems, we don’t have the protections of the Voting Rights Act, and we have a president that is putting out messages that can feel threatening to many voters.” In El Paso, Texas, the federal Border and Customs Protection agency abruptly cancelled an exercise along the Mexico border Tuesday morning after civil-rights groups and Democratic leaders complained of voter intimidation. The crowd-control exercise would have taken place near a border crossing adjacent to the heavily Latino Chihuahuita neighborhood, and less than a half-mile from a polling station used by Latino voters. “It was just really ham-handed and insensitive at the minimum — and possibly worse,” said Nina Perales, the voting rights legal director at the Mexican American Legal Defence and Educational Fund. Not all problems were as sinister as some feared. A viral video at a polling site in Columbus, Ohio, showed a voter casting an electronic ballot for the Republican candidate for governor, Mike DeWine. But the paper record in the video shows a vote cast for DeWine’s Democratic opponent, Richard Cordray. The account that posted the video on Facebook claimed it showed a “rigged” machine. A spokesman for the Franklin County Board of Elections, Aaron Sellers, said that the machine in question had been experiencing a paper jam, which caused a previous voter’s paper record to print. The voter was allowed to recast her ballot on a working machine, but the video was shared thousands of times on Twitter, often by people referring in their profiles to QAnon, a sprawling pro-Trump conspiracy theory.   c.2018 New York Times News Service

Such shifts have cheered critics concerned about his campaign positions while angering some supporters. But Trump also sometimes modified positions during the campaign, so the Republican president-elect could change stances again before or after he takes office on Jan 20. The following are some of his changing positions: Prosecuting Hillary Clinton To chants from crowds of "Lock her up," Trump said during the campaign that if he won the election, his administration would prosecute his Democratic rival over her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, and over what he said were abuses of her position with regard to her family's charitable foundation. During the second presidential debate on Oct 9, he said he would appoint a special prosecutor and seek to jail Clinton if he won. Asked during a New York Times interview on Nov 22 about reports that he no longer wanted to prosecute Clinton, Trump said, "I want to move forward, I don’t want to move back. And I don’t want to hurt the Clintons. I really don’t." However, he said "no" when asked if he was definitively taking the idea of investigating Clinton off the table. Climate change Trump has called global warming a hoax and during the campaign he said he wanted to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris Agreement among almost 200 nations, which came into effect on Nov 4. Instead, he said he would push ahead and develop cheap coal, shale and oil. On Nov 12, a source on his transition team said Trump's advisers were considering ways to bypass a theoretical four-year procedure for leaving the climate accord. Asked in the Times interview on Nov 22 if he was going to take America out of the world's lead of confronting climate change, Trump said, "I have an open mind to it. We’re going to look very carefully." Asked if he believed human activity causes climate change, he said, "I think there is some connectivity. There is some, something. It depends on how much." Healthcare During the campaign, Trump said he would repeal President Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care Act. He called Obamacare a "disaster" and said he would replace it with a plan that would give states more control over the Medicaid health plan for the poor and allow insurers to sell plans nationally. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Nov 11, Trump said he was considering keeping parts of the law, including provisions letting parents keep adult children up to age 26 on insurance policies and barring insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. "Either Obamacare will be amended, or repealed and replaced," Trump told the Journal. Immigration On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly promised to build a wall along the US-Mexican border to curb illegal immigration and that Mexico would pay for it. He also said he would deport millions of illegal immigrants and proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country as a means of countering terrorism. He never retracted this but in the later stages of the campaign, rephrased it as a proposal to temporarily suspend immigration from regions deemed as exporting terrorism and where safe vetting cannot be ensured. In an interview with CBS program "60 Minutes" that aired on Nov 13, Trump said he really planned to build a wall. However, asked if this could be a fence, he said it could be part wall, part fence. "For certain areas I would (have a fence) but certain areas, a wall is more appropriate. I’m very good at this - it’s called construction," he said. Asked about deporting illegal immigrants, he told CBS that the initial focus would be on those immigrants who are "criminal and have criminal records," who he said probably numbered 2 million and possibly even 3 million. Waterboarding During the campaign, Trump said the United States should revive use of waterboarding and "a lot more" when questioning terrorism suspects. Waterboarding, an interrogation tactic that simulates drowning, is widely regarded as torture and was banned under President Barack Obama. In the Nov 22 Times interview, Trump said he had been impressed when he asked Marine General James Mattis, a potential pick for defense secretary, about waterboarding and Mattis replied, "I’ve always found, give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers and I do better with that than I do with torture." While the response had not made him change his mind, Trump said, it had impressed him that the use of waterboarding was "not going to make the kind of a difference that maybe a lot of people think."

Dhaka, Sep 30 (bdnews24.com)— Inflation, especially food prices, and climate change are emerging as the major challenges for Bangladesh to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), according to a study. The 'Social Watch Report 2010' also identified debt servicing, poor revenue collection and the downward flow of foreign direct investment as the other obstacles. Dhaka-based research arm Unnayan Shumunnay launched the report on Thursday. The study says that Bangladesh remained in a dismal 61, as it was ten years ago, in its Basic Capabilities Index (BCI), which takes into account deaths among children under five, maternal child health and education. Among the South Asian nations Pakistan has made significant improvement, moving to 65 from 55 in 2000. Nepal and India have improved their positions while Sri Lanka tops the region with a score of 99. The report states that MDGs are still viewed as political objectives, evident from the fact that the global defence spending is 49 percent higher than what the developing nations received as aid. To achieve the MDGs around the world by 2015, it would require $100-120 billion a year, less than 0.5 percent of the global GDP, says the Social Watch study. Quoting a study of Jubilee Netherlands, the study states that Bangladesh would need annual assistance of $ 7.5 billion— five times what it gets at present to achieve the MDGs. Touching on climate change, it said that despite being a "minuscule polluter", Bangladesh is an enormous victim of climate change. "The country's contribution to greenhouse gas emission is less than one-fifth of 1 percent of the world total," reads the report. According to Social Watch, climate change will relentlessly challenge the country's ability to achieve higher economic growth and cut poverty at expected pace.

Modi did not elaborate on those fears in his speech delivered virtually to the Sydney Dialogue, a forum focused on emerging, critical and cyber technologies. But authorities in India and elsewhere have flagged the dangers of cryptocurrencies being used by terrorist groups and organised crime, and the destabilising risk they posed to national economies. After extolling the opportunities presented by cyber age technology, Modi sound a note of caution regarding digital currencies. "Take cryptocurrency or Bitcoin, for example. It is important that all democratic nations work together on this and ensure it does not end up in the wrong hands, which can spoil our youth," Modi said. Indian officials currently drafting regulations are likely to propose a ban on all transactions and payments in cryptocurrencies, while letting investors hold them as assets, like gold, bonds and stocks, the Economic Times newspaper reported on Wednesday. Modi chaired a meeting to discuss India's approach to cryptocurrencies on Saturday, and the Economic Times said his cabinet could receive the draft regulations for review within two to three weeks. In September, regulators in China banned all cryptocurrency transactions and mining of cryptocurrency. Bitcoin, the world's biggest cryptocurrency, is hovering around the $60,000-level, having more than doubled its value since the start of this year. India's digital currency market was worth $6.6 billion in May 2021, compared with $923 million in April 2020, according to blockchain data platform Chainalysis.

Paul Eckert Asia Correspondent WASHINGTON, Dec 27 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The killing of Benazir Bhutto sends the United States back to square one in its search for a Pakistan that is a stable, democratic partner in a fight against Islamic extremism, analysts said on Thursday. Possible consequences of the assassination range from widespread street rioting by her followers to the nightmare scenario for Washington of Pakistan eventually becoming a nuclear-armed, unstable Islamic state. Financial investors, who already factor in Pakistan's considerable political risk, said the killing itself was not surprising but that continuing instability would boost the risk. Stephen Cohen of the Brookings Institution called Bhutto's death a "blow to the idea of a liberal, moderate Pakistan" that made him fear for that country. "Its further decay will affect all of its neighbors, Europe, and the United States in unpredictable and unpleasant ways," the South Asia expert wrote in an essay. "It is probably too late for the United States to do much either: we placed all of our bets on (President Pervez) Musharraf, ignoring Benazir's pleas for some contact or recognition until a few months ago," Cohen added. The United States invested great energy and political capital to secure the return of the 54-year-old exiled former prime minister to Pakistan in October. It convinced Musharraf to give up his role as military leader and accept elections and a power-sharing arrangement with her. Now, Washington faces "a disaster on every account," from dimmed hopes of a democratic transition to the risk of more attacks by emboldened radicals, said Frederic Grare, a South Asia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "The leaders of the mainstream parties are being assassinated. That weakens the parties and does not augur well for any reestablishment of democracy in Pakistan," he said. STREET VIOLENCE, NUCLEAR SAFETY U.S. President George W. Bush urged Pakistanis to honor Bhutto "by continuing with the democratic process for which she so bravely gave her life." Other U.S. officials said Washington hoped Islamabad would stick to plans to hold elections, slated for January 8. Anthony Cordesman, security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Bhutto's death made a very unstable political situation much worse. "There's no figure that we can work with who has the same immediate ability to try to create political stability and a climate in which you can have legitimate elections, bring back the rule of law and bridge the gap that had developed between Musharraf and the Pakistani people," he said. Analysts warned that in a country prone to conspiracy theories and passionate politics, fingers would point in all directions over the assassination amid grief and anger that could spill into violence. "The number one concern right now is to maintain calm in the streets of Pakistan," said Lisa Curtis of the Heritage Foundation. She said it would be unwise for Musharraf to impose emergency rule to accomplish that aim. Other analysts questioned the wisdom of relying on Musharraf to fight terrorism. "If he can't protect a leading politician in a fairly secure garrison city, how can he tackle the problems in the remote tribal areas, where al-Qaeda and the Taliban are reportedly thriving?" asked Win Thin, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. A perennial question during crises in Pakistan is the security of the country's nuclear arsenal. U.S. officials said there was no change in an assessment offered last month, amid strife over Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule, that the weapons were secure. Cordesman of CSIS said Islamabad had received U.S. help and studied other country's policies to ensure maximum safety for its nuclear facilities. "But is there transparency that allows anybody on the outside to make some kind of categorical statement about the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons? Anybody who did that may discredit themselves," he said.

As wheat and rice prices surge, the humble potato -- long derided as a boring tuber prone to making you fat -- is being rediscovered as a nutritious crop that could cheaply feed an increasingly hungry world. Potatoes, which are native to Peru, can be grown at almost any elevation or climate: from the barren, frigid slopes of the Andes Mountains to the tropical flatlands of Asia. They require very little water, mature in as little as 50 days, and can yield between two and four times more food per hectare than wheat or rice. "The shocks to the food supply are very real and that means we could potentially be moving into a reality where there is not enough food to feed the world," said Pamela Anderson, director of the International Potato Center in Lima (CIP), a non-profit scientific group researching the potato family to promote food security. Like others, she says the potato is part of the solution. The potato has potential as an antidote to hunger caused by higher food prices, a population that is growing by one billion people each decade, climbing costs for fertilizer and diesel, and more cropland being sown for biofuel production. To focus attention on this, the United Nations named 2008 the International Year of the Potato, calling the vegetable a "hidden treasure". Governments are also turning to the tuber. Peru's leaders, frustrated by a doubling of wheat prices in the past year, have started a program encouraging bakers to use potato flour to make bread. Potato bread is being given to school children, prisoners and the military, in the hope the trend will catch on. Supporters say it tastes just as good as wheat bread, but not enough mills are set up to make potato flour. "We have to change people's eating habits," said Ismael Benavides, Peru's agriculture minister. "People got addicted to wheat when it was cheap." Even though the potato emerged in Peru 8,000 years ago near Lake Titicaca, Peruvians eat fewer potatoes than people in Europe: Belarus leads the world in potato consumption, with each inhabitant of the eastern European state devouring an average of 376 pounds (171 kg) a year. India has told food experts it wants to double potato production in the next five to 10 years. China, a huge rice consumer that historically has suffered devastating famines, has become the world's top potato grower. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the potato is expanding more than any other crop right now. Some consumers are switching to potatoes. In the Baltic country of Latvia, sharp price rises caused bread sales to drop by 10-15 percent in January and February, as consumers bought 20 percent more potatoes, food producers have said. The developing world is where most new potato crops are being planted, and as consumption rises poor farmers have a chance to earn more money. "The countries themselves are looking at the potato as a good option for both food security and also income generation," Anderson said. AFFORDABLE RAINBOW OF COLORS The potato is already the world's third most-important food crop after wheat and rice. Corn, which is widely planted, is mainly used for animal feed. Though most Americans associate potatoes with the bland Idaho variety, they actually come in some 5,000 types. Peru is sending thousands of seeds this year to the Doomsday Vault near the Arctic Circle, contributing to a gene bank for food crops that was set up in case of a global disaster. With colors ranging from alabaster-white to bright yellow and deep purple and countless shapes, textures, and sizes, potatoes offer inventive chefs a chance to create new, eye-catching plates. "They taste great," said Juan Carlos Mescco, 17, a potato farmer in Peru's Andes who says he frequently eats them sliced, boiled, or mashed from breakfast through dinner. Potatoes are a great source of complex carbohydrates, which release their energy slowly, and -- so long as they are not smothered with butter -- have only five percent of the fat content of wheat. They also have one-fourth of the calories of bread and, when boiled, have more protein than corn and nearly twice the calcium, according to the Potato Center. They contain vitamin C, iron, potassium and zinc. SPECULATORS AREN'T TEMPTED One factor helping the potato remain affordable is the fact that unlike wheat, it is not a global commodity, so has not attracted speculative professional investment. Each year, farmers around the globe produce about 600 million metric tonnes of wheat, and about 17 percent of that flows into foreign trade. Wheat production is almost double that of potato output. Analysts estimate less than 5 percent of potatoes are traded internationally, and prices are mainly driven by local tastes, instead of international demand. Raw potatoes are heavy and can rot in transit, so global trade in them has been slow to take off. They are also susceptible to infection with pathogens, hampering export to avoid spreading plant diseases. The downside to that is that prices in some countries aren't attractive enough to persuade farmers to grow them. People in Peruvian markets say the government needs to help lift demand. "Prices are low. It doesn't pay to work with potatoes," said Juana Villavicencio, who spent 15 years planting potatoes and now sells them for pennies a kilo in a market in Cusco, in Peru's southern Andes. But science is moving fast. Genetically modified potatoes that resist "late blight" are being developed by German chemicals group BASF . The disease led to famine in Ireland during the 19th century and still causes about 20 percent of potato harvest losses in the world, the company says. Scientists say farmers who use clean, virus-free seeds can boost yields by 30 percent and be cleared for export. That would generate more income for farmers and encourage more production as companies could sell specialty potatoes abroad, instead of just as frozen french fries or potato chips.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, keen to show off her skills as a mediator two months before a German election, achieved her primary goal at the meeting in Hamburg, convincing her fellow leaders to support a single communique with pledges on trade, finance, energy and Africa. But the divide between Trump, elected on a pledge to put "America First", and the 19 other members of the club, including countries as diverse as Japan, Saudi Arabia and Argentina, was stark. Last month Trump announced he was pulling the United States out of a landmark international climate accord clinched two years ago in Paris. "In the end, the negotiations on climate reflect dissent – all against the United States of America," Merkel told reporters at the end of the meeting. "And the fact that negotiations on trade were extraordinarily difficult is due to specific positions that the United States has taken." The summit, marred by violent protests that left the streets of Hamburg littered with burning cars and broken shop windows, brought together a volatile mix of leaders at a time of major change in the global geo-political landscape. Trump's shift to a more unilateral, transactional diplomacy has left a void in global leadership, unsettling traditional allies in Europe and opening the door to rising powers like China to assume a bigger role. Tensions between Washington and Beijing dominated the run-up to the meeting, with the Trump administration ratcheting up pressure on President Xi Jinping to rein in North Korea and threatening punitive trade measures on steel. Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time in Hamburg, a hotly anticipated encounter after the former real estate mogul promised a rapprochement with Moscow during his campaign, only to be thwarted by accusations of Russian meddling in the vote and investigations into the Russia ties of Trump associates. Putin said at the conclusion of the summit on Saturday that Trump had quizzed him on the alleged meddling in a meeting that lasted over two hours but seemed to have been satisfied with the Kremlin leader's denials of interference. Trump had accused Russia of destabilizing behavior in Ukraine and Syria before the summit. But in Hamburg he struck a conciliatory tone, describing it as an honor to meet Putin and signaling, through Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, that he preferred to focus on future ties and not dwell on the past. "It was an extraordinarily important meeting," Tillerson said, describing a "very clear positive chemistry" between Trump and the former KGB agent. In the final communique, the 19 other leaders took note of the US decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord and declared it "irreversible". For its part, the United States injected a contentious line saying that it would "endeavor to work closely with other countries to help them access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently." French President Emmanuel Macron led a push to soften the US language. "There is a clear consensus absent the United States," said Thomas Bernes, a distinguished fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. "But that is a problem. Without the largest economy in the world how far can you go?" Jennifer Morgan, executive director at Greenpeace, said the G19 had "held the line" against Trump's "backward decision" to withdraw from Paris. On trade, another sticking point, the leaders agreed they would "fight protectionism including all unfair trade practices and recognize the role of legitimate trade defense instruments in this regard." The leaders also pledged to work together to foster economic development in Africa, a priority project for Merkel. VIOLENT PROTESTS Merkel chose to host the summit in Hamburg, the port city where she was born, to send a signal about Germany's openness to the world, including its tolerance of peaceful protests. It was held only a few hundred meters from one of Germany's most potent symbols of left-wing resistance, a former theater called the "Rote Flora" which was taken over by anti-capitalist squatters nearly three decades ago. Over the three days of the summit, radicals looted shops, torched cars and lorries. More than 200 police were injured and some 143 people have been arrested and 122 taken into custody. Some of the worst damage was done as Merkel hosted other leaders at for a concert and lavish dinner at the Elbphilharmonie, a modernist glass concert hall overlooking the Elbe River. Merkel met police and security force after the summit to thank them, and condemned the "unbridled brutality" of some of the protestors, but she was forced to answer tough questions about hosting the summit in Hamburg during her closing press conference.

The controversial government proposal follows huge pro-democracy protests last year in one of the greatest challenges to Beijing's Communist Party rule since the former British colony returned to Chinese control in 1997. Analysts said the blueprint, which lawmakers will vote on early in summer, could stir political tensions again after a lull of several months. However, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying told reporters before the blueprint was officially tabled that the political climate in the city could be less accommodating in the future. "As of now, we see no room for any compromise," he said. "To initiate any political reform process is not easy. If this proposal is vetoed, it could be several years before the next opportunity," Leung said. Hundreds of flag-waving protesters gathered outside the Legislative Council. A large group waved Chinese flags in support of the proposal, saying Hong Kong must move forward. A smaller group held yellow umbrellas, which have become a symbol of the democracy movement. They demanded "true universal suffrage" and called for Leung to step down. Democratic lawmakers wearing yellow crosses on black shirts, some carrying yellow umbrellas, walked out of the chamber after the government's presentation. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators blocked major roads in four key districts in the city last year, demanding Beijing grant a truly democratic vote and open nominations for Hong Kong's next chief executive in 2017. Their pleas were ignored and police forcefully cleared away the last of the protest encampments in mid-December. The blueprint for the proposal that the public vote on two or three candidates pre-selected by a 1,200 member pro-Beijing nominating committee was first outlined by China's parliament, the National People's Congress, last August. The Hong Kong government stood by that blueprint, offering no concessions to win over democratic lawmakers who have vowed to veto it when the government seeks formal approval. The opposition camp holds a one-third veto bloc, but Beijing-backed Leung said he remained hopeful that four or five democrats could be persuaded to change their minds. Democracy activists who launched last year's "Occupy" movement describe a vote without open nominations as "fake democracy". While Hong Kong is part of China, it is governed as a special administrative region, which means it has a different legal system and freedoms not permitted in the mainland.

Loose regulation, now blamed for ills ranging from the US financial crisis to imports of tainted Chinese goods, is drawing increasing fire from opponents of the Bush administration's environment program. In the final months of President George W. Bush's two terms in office, criticism about the use of regulation instead of legislation to craft environmental policy has grown louder. That is amplified by the campaign for the U.S. presidential election on November 4, with both Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama staking out environmental positions at odds with the current administration. The environment is important to U.S. voters but ranks far below their top concern, the economy and jobs, according to a sampling on PollingReport.com. A CNN poll in July found 66 percent said the environment was important or very important in choosing a president, compared with 93 percent who said the same about the economy. On a broad range of environmental issues -- climate-warming carbon emissions, protecting endangered species, clean air and water preservation, the cleanup of toxic pollution -- opponents in and out of government have taken aim at the White House for failing to tighten some rules and loosening others. "The Bush administration's long-standing efforts to weaken environmental regulations to benefit narrow special interests come with a terrible cost," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who has led the charge. "If you can't breathe because the air is polluted, you can't go to work. If your kids can't breathe, they can't go to school." Frank O'Donnell, of the advocacy group Clean Air Watch, agreed, saying that "the hallmark of Bush administration policy on the environment is a lack of regulation." One Capitol Hill staffer familiar with legislation on global warming accused the Bush administration of actively seeking to undermine measures to limit greenhouse gas emissions that spur climate change. "They were the biggest obstacle to progress," the staffer said. "They did everything possible to ensure that nothing would happen." James Connaughton, who heads the White House Council on Environmental Quality, vehemently disagreed, saying the Bush administration has equaled or exceeded the environmental accomplishments of its predecessors, sometimes through regulation and other times by the use of incentives. Connaughton took aim at states, notably California, for setting high environmental standards but failing to meet them. He specifically faulted Congress for failing to reinstate the Clean Air Interstate Rule, which would have curbed power plant pollution, after a federal appeals court rejected it in July. EMISSIONS AND POLAR BEARS Bush promised to regulate carbon emissions when he ran for president in 2000 but quickly reversed course once in the White House, saying any mandatory cap on greenhouse gases would cost U.S. jobs and give an unfair advantage to fast-developing economies like China and India. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April 2007 that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had the power to regulate greenhouse gases as pollutants if they posed a danger to human health. The EPA delayed a decision on the so-called endangerment finding, making it highly likely that any regulatory action will be left to Obama or McCain when the winner of November's election takes office in January. The Bush administration's record on designating endangered species has drawn widespread scorn from conservation groups. So far, it has listed 58 species under the Endangered Species Act, compared with 522 under President Bill Clinton and 231 under President George H.W. Bush, the current president's father, who served only one term in office. For one high-profile species, the polar bear, the Bush administration waited until May 14, one day before a court-ordered deadline, to list the big white bears as threatened by climate change. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said then that the listing would not curb climate change. He noted he was taking administrative and regulatory action to make sure the decision was not "abused to make global warming policy." The U.S. Chamber of Commerce praised the decision, calling it a "common sense balancing" between business and environmental concerns. At a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on September 24, Boxer accused the Bush administration of trying to undermine the mission of the EPA and the Interior Department to protect public health and the environment.

As the treaty reached the 50-year landmark, the Franco-German partnership has transcended beyond the European Union space to Bangladesh. The first collocated Franco-German embassy in the world is under construction in Dhaka. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius will fly into Dhaka together on Monday on a daylong visit to give the relations a boost. The visit would take place ahead of the November climate conference in Paris. They would also attend the historic topping-off ceremony of the under-construction joint embassy at Baridhara. This would be the first embassy worldwide jointly built and operated by France and Germany, German Ambassador in Dhaka Thomas Prinz told bdnews24.com on Sunday, before the arrival of the ministers. He said with its “interwoven elements of differently coloured facade elements, the external structure of the building will hint at a DNA and symbolise the close ties between the two countries”. Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, who would receive his two counterparts at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at around 8am, termed this visit “historic”. “Such a (joint) visit has never taken place before,” he had said earlier. Ali would accompany the two leaders on their visit to the southern Patuakhali district to see ongoing projects to cope with the effects of climate change. The foreign ministry officials said they would attend a working lunch hosted by Ali at the state guest house Padma, before meeting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Ganabhaban. They would leave Dhaka at night after attending the topping-off ceremony at the new joint embassy. The German ambassador said this embassy project went back to the ‘joint declaration’ on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Elysée Treaty in January 2004. The joint declaration highlighted the decision of building a joint embassy “to have a stronger network of diplomatic and consular services of both countries”. The foundation stone was laid in 2013 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty. The Elysée Treaty as a symbol of reconciliation outlined the future of a Franco-German friendship, cooperation, and partnership. Ambassador Prinz said Germany was “a committed” member of the European Union. “We believe in the shared values of the Union and acknowledge the official motto united in diversity, as an essential principle of our cooperation.” “The Franco-German friendship is particularly strong and is at the core of a functioning European Union,” he said. France and Germany both supported Bangladesh during the 1971 War of Independence from Pakistan. Germany is the biggest single-country trading destination for Bangladesh in the EU where all products enjoy duty-free market access. Both France and it cooperate with Bangladesh on various international issues ranging from sustainable development, climate change preparedness to culture and human rights. The visit also carries significance in the global context as the German envoy said “challenges become more and more complicated and – in a lot of cases – international”. For example, he said, to fight against climate change, only if the international community united “we stand a chance to solve this great challenge – by negotiating an ambitious, comprehensive and legally binding agreement at the climate conference in Paris in December”.

Leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada vowed on Monday to fight the spread of the H1N1 swine flu and combat climate change but differed on trade disputes at their "three amigos" summit. US President Barack Obama, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper met against a backdrop of an economic downturn in each country with a US rebound key to a regional improvement. Obama and Harper said their governments would share information as each faces the possibility of a predicted upsurge in the H1N1 virus this autumn. "H1N1, as we know, will be back this winter," Calderon said at a joint news conference. "We are getting prepared, all three countries, to face in a responsible manner this contingency and abate its impacts for our people." All three leaders vowed to respect the North American Free Trade Agreement that unites their countries in trade, but differed on some issues. Harper raised with Obama Canada's concerns about the "Buy American" provisions in the $787 billion U.S. economic stimulus plan that the Canadians fear could shut out Canadian companies. Canada is the United States' largest trading partner. Obama said it was important to keep in perspective the fact that no sweeping protectionist measures have been imposed and that the "Buy American" provisions were limited to the stimulus and have "in no way endangered the billions of dollars in trade between our two countries." Calderon, who is trying to persuade Obama to resolve a cross-border trucking dispute to allow Mexican trucks to transit into the United States, said all three leaders believe it is essential to abide by NAFTA and to "resolve the pending topics" impeding greater regional competitiveness. Obama had made clear to Calderon that he was working with the US Congress to resolve what he considers to be legitimate safety concerns with Mexican trucks. He said the United States, Mexico and Canada should take steps to avoid protectionism, saying "we need to expand that trade, not restrict it." The three leaders issued a statement on joint efforts to combat climate change with an eye toward a global summit on the topic in Copenhagen in November. "We, the leaders of North American reaffirm the urgency and necessity of taking aggressive action on climate change," they said.

LOS ANGELES, Mon Jan 26,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - With California facing a $42 billion deficit in the current economic downturn, a glum Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has warned that the Golden State is on the brink of insolvency. More people have left California than any other US state over the past year, some disenchanted with snarled traffic, scarce jobs and some of the highest taxes in the nation. Add the prospect of still higher taxes and fewer public services, and normally sunny Californians have little to celebrate. Still, experts say the most populous US state and the world's eighth-largest economy is well placed to rise again and that this crisis could spur major changes in the economy that will pay dividends in the long term. Abundant natural resources, big ports, access to the Pacific Rim, a large, relatively young work force, entrepreneurial draw and tech-oriented industries augur well for the future, economists and historians say. "The prophets of doom and gloom are just not looking at the reality of California," said Jerry Nickelsburg, senior economist at the UCLA Anderson Forecast. "The government has created kind of a mess and that's a problem to be solved, but the negatives are actually fairly small. I think you can expect a lot of good out of California," he said. The typically upbeat Schwarzenegger made international headlines this month when, instead of delivering his usual cheery "state of the state" speech, he issued a short, bleak message about California's roughly $1.5 trillion economy. "A ROCK UPON OUR CHEST" "California is in a state of emergency," said the former actor and bodybuilder, whose second term ends next year. "Addressing this emergency is the first and greatest thing we must do for the people. The $42 billion deficit is a rock upon our chest and we cannot breathe until we get it off." Controller John Chiang then told Californians he would delay sending out $3.7 billion in tax refunds and other payments because the state was running out of money. The dismal state of the state would have been hard to imagine in California's post-World War Two golden years, when incomes were rising, land was plentiful, homes were affordable and wide-open freeways stretched in all directions. The good times came to a screeching halt with the 1973 OPEC recession, said Dowell Myers, a professor of urban planning and demography at the University of Southern California, and in some ways they have never really returned. At the heart of California's problems, economists say, is the government's heavy reliance on personal income taxes, which produces wild swings in revenue as its coffers overflow in good years and dry up in leaner times. California is a pioneer state famous for its entrepreneurial spirit. But an entrepreneur who might make $2 million in boom times could go bust in a recession. A big reason for the state's reliance on income taxes is Proposition 13, a voter-approved change to the state Constitution that limits property tax increases and requires any plan to boost taxes to receive the approval of at least two-thirds of the legislature. The 1978 measure was credited with sparking anti-tax sentiment in other states and assisting Ronald Reagan's election as U.S. president two years later. Legislators have responded by burdening state residents with some of the highest income and sales taxes in the country. Economists say the state has long needed to fix that revenue roller-coaster ride and are hopeful that this crisis will force leaders to face the music. They also place little long-term significance on the number of people moving out, saying it is misleading to compare absolute numbers with other states when California's population is so much larger. 'LONG OVERDUE REASSESSMENT' Moreover, California's population is actually still growing thanks to immigration and births, and the state's relatively young work force may give it an edge as baby boomers retire. California's population could hit 60 million by 2050, according to some projections, six times 1950's 10.5 million people and 60 percent more than the current 38 million. Hard-hit by the mortgage crisis and foreclosures, home prices dropped 35 percent in 2008 in Southern California -- making home ownership realistic for young families in California for the first time in nearly a decade. The unemployment news has been grim, with the state's jobless rate in December rising to a 14-year high of 9.3 percent, above the national average of 7.2 percent. The rate is approaching the one posted during the recession in the early 1990s, when California's economy suffered from gutted aerospace payrolls and unemployment rose to nearly 10 percent. But the state remains a leader in green energy, biotechnology, aerospace and other industries that are expected to fare well in the world economy and create new job markets. "What people may think is that you can't really solve the problems in California until you totally wreck the train," Myers said. "You have to shake them up, wake them up. The outlook is very hopeful right now because this crisis is forcing a long-overdue reassessment." Jessica Gould, a 25-year-old graduate student at USC who moved from Atlanta and fell in love with the mild climate, natural beauty, health-conscious lifestyle and anything-goes culture, is optimistic. "I am hoping we make some changes," Gould said. "(The budget mess) does concern me, to be honest. But you are going to face problems anywhere and there are so many other things I get from living here, I guess it's a small price to pay."

An American-Saudi firm owned by two members of the Saudi royal family is going to set up 450MW combined cycle power plants in Bangladesh. Houston-based Energy Holdings International, Inc would build the first plant in Bibiyana and the second at Fenchugang at an estimated cost of $200 million each, says a press release of PRNewswire. Saudi Princes Abdullah Al-Saud and Bader Al-Saud, two young entrepreneurs, are the co-owners of the company. EHII has received a number of enquiries from other companies for their desire to participate in these plants and future development in Bangladesh including Siemens, according to the release. The company was in a serious dialogue with Siemens to become a partner and supply turbines, said EHII Vice-Chairman Jalal Alghani. EHII Chairman John W Adair in a letter to shareholders said, "The initial 450mw combined cycle plant is only a stepping stone to other power plant opportunities within the country." Earlier, in June Saudi multi-billionaire Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal had shown interest to invest in Bangladesh's power and tourism sectors. The Saudi tycoon was given Power Point presentation highlighting the investment scenario in Bangladesh, opportunities for investment in the Public Private Partnership projects, and tourism and power sector, and climate change challenges after the meeting. The Prince, owning $18 billion, is currently ranked 29th in the Forbes magazine's list of billionaires. He visited Bangladesh earlier in 2005 when he wished to buy Sonargaon Hotel.

This move will ensure “greater well-being of the people of the region”, the foreign ministry said. Mahmud was speaking at the inaugural session of the ‘Water Innovation Summit 2015’ in New Delhi, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries and the Water Institute of India. He stressed on the “centrality” of water in the larger canvass of security and sustainable human development. Bangladesh and India face abundance of water during the monsoon and scarcity during dry season. “If an integrated approach is taken to manage the waters of the entire basin, the region would be able to harness the huge potentials of its water resources,” Mahmud said. The water resources minister also stressed on the need for construction of a barrage in the Ganges inside the Bangladesh territory to ensure availability of fresh water in the southern parts of Bangladesh and to contain the adverse effects of climate change. Calling for early signing of the Teesta water-sharing agreement, the minister said solution to water issues would help achieve development and stability in the region. He also met his Indian counterpart Uma Bharati on Monday, the foreign ministry said. On the interlinking of rivers in India, Bharati said India would not take any projects that might affect Bangladesh. She also accepted invitation to attend the next JRC meeting to be held in Bangladesh.

Former UN chief Kofi Annan said on Thursday he would head a new green group bankrolled by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates to help reverse Africa's declining food production and double output. "I am honoured today to take up this important post and join with my fellow Africans in a new effort to comprehensively tackle the challenges holding back hundreds millions of small-scale farmers in Africa," Annan told a news briefing. The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa said Annan would be its first chairman. The Alliance was set up last year with an initial $150 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. The group, which is an African initiative, will help small-scale farmers and their families across Africa fight poverty and hunger through sustainable increases in farm productivity and incomes from its base in Nairobi, Kenya. Annan said the group will work with governments and farmers to strengthen local and regional agricultural markets, improve irrigation, soil health and training for farmers, and support the development of new seed systems better equipped to cope with the harsh African climate. He said the group would not seek to spearhead the use of genetically modified seeds, which have been a controversial subject in some African countries, but would work to boost disease resistance of existing seeds on the continent. "We are going to rely on varieties available in Africa and not rely on genetically modified seeds," he said at the World Economic Forum for Africa in Cape Town. "I hope in 10-20 years it will be possible to double if not triple, agricultural productivity. It is not just a dream, it is a dream that will be backed up with action," he said. The Alliance said it backed the vision laid out in the African Union's Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which seeks a 6 percent annual growth in food production by 2015. The group said it will try to replicate farms changes that boosted agricultural productivity in Asia and Latin America. During his tenure at the United Nations, Annan often drew attention to the link between Africa's failing agriculture systems and its persistent hunger and poverty. In the past five years alone, the number of underweight children in Africa has risen by about 12 percent, he said. Annan, a Ghanaian, last year ended a 10-year term as UN secretary-general.

The UK government is set to unveil plans on Thursday to improve Britain's poor record on recycling its rubbish and reduce its dependency on "environmentally disastrous" landfill sites, Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw said. The government has been looking at a series of positive incentive schemes for residents, such as financial rewards, the minister added. The government's new Waste Strategy, to be revealed by Environment Secretary David Miliband, will outline how it plans to meet tough European Union rules on reducing the amount of rubbish buried in landfill sites in England. A government consultation document last year proposed increasing the level of recycling and composting of household waste from 27 percent today to 40 percent by 2010 and 50 percent by 2020. Britain is near the bottom of Europe's recycling league, with only Greece and Portugal recycling less, according to figures from the Institute for Public Policy Research and the Green Alliance. Campaigners want the government to introduce a rising level of charges for rubbish collections to encourage householders to recycle more. Last year's consultation found strong support among the public for some form of variable charging, but there was also concern that extra costs could lead to a rise in fly-tipping. Bradshaw told the BBC that the "important thing for the government is that we increase our recycling levels and reduce our dependency on landfill which is an environmental disaster if we don't do that". "It wastes things that could be recycled or used to create energy and it creates methane," he said. But the minister said collection times should remain the responsibility of local authorities. Moves by some councils to switch to fortnightly collections has caused widespread anger among householders. The environmental group Friends of the Earth said there should be legally binding recycling targets for businesses. It also said government proposals in the consultation to build more incinerators to burn waste instead of burying it would be a backward move -- incinerators produce more climate-changing carbon dioxide than gas-fired power stations.

Nelson Banya Harare, June 7 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Zimbabwean police detained opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Friday for the second time this week after blocking him from reaching a campaign rally for the June 27 presidential run-off vote. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change accuses President Robert Mugabe of trying to sabotage Tsvangirai's campaign in order to preserve his 28-year hold on power. Tsvangirai was released from the police station at Esigodini, 40 km (25 miles) southeast of Zimbabwe's second largest city Bulawayo, a few hours after being stopped by armed police at a roadblock. The party called Tsvangirai's detention "a shameless and desperate act." "The regime must let the president do that which the people of Zimbabwe have mandated him and the MDC, to help restore the dignity of the people of Zimbabwe," it said in a statement. It said police had banned several planned campaign rallies because authorities could not guarantee the safety of party leaders, adding that it would lodge a High Court action to prevent police interference in the campaign. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena blamed the opposition for the incident on Friday, saying the MDC convoy crashed through a roadblock. Tsvangirai, who beat Mugabe in a March 29 election but failed to win the majority needed to avoid a second ballot, was detained on Wednesday and questioned by police for eight hours. On Thursday, police stopped and held five U.S. and two British diplomats for several hours after they visited victims of political violence. Zimbabwe also barred relief agencies from doing work in the country, suffering economic ruin. AID BAN U.S. Ambassador James McGee, among those detained on Thursday, accused the government on Friday of using food aid to try to win votes. "We are dealing with a desperate regime here which will do anything to stay in power," he told a video conference call from Harare. Washington has blamed the diplomats' detention firmly on Mugabe's government. The United States and former colonial power Britain say Zimbabwe is trying to intimidate Tsvangirai's supporters. France's foreign ministry also said on Friday it was "extremely worried by the climate of intimidation and violence." The opposition says 65 people have been killed in violence since the first round of voting. Mugabe blames his opponents. Mugabe's government suspended the work of all international aid agencies in the southern African nation on Thursday, saying some of them were campaigning for the opposition. Britain and the European Union demanded the lifting of the ban. U.N. officials said it would increase suffering and CARE, one of the agencies whose work has been suspended, said millions of aid-dependent Zimbabweans were at risk. EU aid commissioner Louis Michel said: "I am deeply distressed to think that hundreds of thousands of people who depend on aid from the European Commission and others for their very survival now face an even more uncertain future." Zimbabwe, once one of Africa's most prosperous countries, has seen food production plummet since 2000 when Mugabe's government began seizing thousands of white-owned farms as part of a land redistribution program to help poor blacks. Many of the farms have ended up in the hands of Mugabe loyalists, and the country now faces chronic food shortages. It has had to rely on handouts and imports to feed its people. Mugabe blames sanctions imposed by Western countries for the collapse of the once prosperous economy. The opposition says he ruined Zimbabwe through mismanagement. The Southern African Development Community, a regional grouping of 14 nations, including Zimbabwe, is sending observers to monitor the run-off.

a series of anti-poverty targets set at the UN in 2000 – he painted a mixed picture and called for efforts to help those most in need. "Our Millennium Goals remain achievable – so long as we help the poorest nations break free of the traps that ensnare them." The secretary-general also said the UN Human Rights Council must "live up to its responsibilities as the torchbearer for human rights consistently and equitably around the world." Ban, who since last week has been conducting intensive diplomatic activities on key global issues and crises, offered a ringing endorsement of multilateralism. "An increasingly interdependent world recognises that the challenges of tomorrow are best dealt with through the UN. Indeed, they can only be dealt with through the UN," he said. Some 193 speakers are expected to participate in this year's general debate, including more than 70 heads of State and nearly 30 heads of government. The debate is scheduled to continue until 3 October. The opening of the assembly's general debate follows high-level meetings in recent days on climate change, the Darfur conflict, Iraq, Afghanistan and the situation in the Middle East. Ban is also expected to conduct bilateral meetings with over 100 heads of State or government or ministers during the next two weeks.

NEW DELHI, Dec 28, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Japan's prime minister, who has promised to forge a new place for east Asia in international diplomacy, opened three days of talks in India on Monday focusing on engineering a further thaw in relations and boosting trade. Yukio Hatoyama took office in September after 50 years of almost uninterrupted rule by the conservative, pro-US Liberal Democratic Party, but has since seen his popularity ratings slide to 50 percent in a survey published on Monday. Japan and India, Asia's largest and third largest economies, have been working at improving ties since Japan slapped sanctions on India in response to its 1998 nuclear tests. Hatoyama launched his visit by meeting Indian industrialists, including Tata group chairman Ratan Tata and Reliance Industries head Mukesh Ambani, at a Mumbai hotel which was one of the targets attacked by gunmen in November 2008. He was due later to hold talks with his Indian opposite number, Manmohan Singh. India, long a top recipient of Japanese aid, wants details of Hatoyama's foreign policy, particularly Tokyo's attempts to pursue a foreign policy more "independent" of Washington and improve ties with China, New Delhi's longtime rival. New Delhi will want to know more about India's place in Hatoyama's proposed East Asian community with a single currency, inspired by the 27-nation European Union. "Yukio Hatoyama ... is unlike any other Japanese leader that the Indian side has dealt with in the past decade," wrote Siddharth Varadarajan, a senior editor at The Hindu newspaper. "Hatoyama's vision of an East Asian Community and his desire to work with China provides India and Japan with an opportunity to build their bilateral relations on ground firmer than the quicksand of 'balance of power'," he said. That was a reference to a view in New Delhi that looks at Japan as a hedge against a rising China. BOOSTING TRADE, MILITARY TIES Trade, analysts say, is one way of cementing that partnership underscored by closer recent military ties and Japanese support for last year's landmark U.S.-India civilian nuclear deal. "The two sides...are in the process of concluding discussing a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA)," said India's foreign ministry spokesman, Vishnu Prakash. Twelve rounds of talks on the agreement had already taken place, he said. Japan is India's sixth largest investor. Bilateral trade, more than $12 billion in 2008-09, is targetted to climb to $20 billion by next year. Hatoyama's talks in India could also focus on climate change policies -- with the two countries on opposite sides of the debate, particularly on expanding the scope of Japanese support for renewable energy projects in India. Indian officials said the sides would also discuss Japan's offer to train former Taliban fighters as part of a $5 billion Japanese aid package for Afghanistan. India remains uncomfortable about co-opting the Taliban into any power structures in Kabul. Hatoyama's government will likely seek to present the visit as a success as domestic criticism rises. Last week he approved a record trillion dollar budget, which will further inflate Japan's massive debt as the government struggles with the weak economy. Japanese voters are also expressing growing doubts about Hatoyama's ability to make tough foreign policy decisions, and the arrest of two former aides has spurred calls for more explanation of a scandal over false political funding records.

Bennett met later in the afternoon with the prince’s father, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, the head of state in Bahrain, a tiny but strategically located Gulf state. Bennett also met with Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, the commander of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain; several Bahraini ministers; and members of Bahrain’s Jewish community, to whom he gave a shofar, a Jewish ceremonial horn. “Our goal in this visit is to turn it from a government-to-government to a people-to-people peace,” Bennett told the crown prince, “and to convert it from ceremonies to substance.” “To substance, exactly,” Prince Salman replied, describing the meeting as “cousins getting together.” The Israeli government simultaneously announced an agreement with Bahrain to finance joint business projects in the fields of climate-related technology, manufacturing and e-commerce. The trip to Bahrain by Bennett, the first official visit by an Israeli prime minister to the country, showcased the growing strength of ties between Israel and several Arab governments over the last 18 months. Since 2020, Israel has established formal diplomatic relations for the first time with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, re-established relations with Morocco, and improved them with Sudan. For years, the vast majority of the Arab world refused to normalize relations with Israel as long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remained unresolved. Bennett arrived in Bahrain on Monday night, descending from his plane to a red carpet lined by a guard of honor, a greeting that highlights how priorities have changed for some countries in the region. For Bahrain, the containment of Iran and its armed proxies throughout the region — a goal shared with Israel — now appears to be of greater importance than an immediate resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, particularly as Iran accelerates its nuclear enrichment. Bahrain will for the first time host an Israeli military officer as part of a regional alliance, an Israeli official confirmed Tuesday. The goal is to ensure freedom of navigation and international trade in the Persian Gulf, following several attacks by Iran and its proxies on ships in the area. Bahrain’s invitation to Bennett also hinted at growing acceptance of Israel’s role in the region by Saudi Arabia, the most influential state in the Arab world and a major Iranian rival. Officially, Saudi officials deny that the kingdom plans to follow Bahrain by normalizing ties with Israel. The kingdom has also denied that the de facto Saudi ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, hosted a secret summit meeting in 2020 with Bennett’s predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was still in office at the time. But Saudi support is crucial for Bahrain — Saudi troops rushed to Bahrain in 2011 to help its government crush an uprising, and the Saudi government bailed out the Bahraini economy in 2018 — and analysts say that Bahrain, as a Saudi proxy, does little without its agreement. “Bahrain is always looking up to Saudi Arabia as their big brother that always stands by them in times of difficulties,” said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, an Emirati political scientist and expert on Gulf politics. Abdulla added, “There is more coordination than many people would assume between Bahrain, Saudi Arabia” and other Gulf States. Leading Saudis have also made statements about Israel and the Palestinians that would have been unthinkable until only recently. In 2018, Prince Mohammed made headlines by asserting that Israelis had a right to their own land. Two years later, another Saudi prince, Bandar bin Sultan, criticized the Palestinian leadership as failing ordinary Palestinians. Saudi movie theaters are currently showing a feature film, “Death on the Nile,” that stars an Israeli actress, Gal Gadot, who was widely criticized in the Arab world for her public support of Israeli military action in Gaza. Ties are also warming between Israel and the two Arab countries with which it had previously forged an uneasy peace, Egypt and Jordan. President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt drew notice in Israel on Monday when he made a show of publicly greeting a visiting Israeli government minister, Karine Elharrar, in front of hundreds of other Arab dignitaries. But if bonds between governments are strengthening, the sentiment among the general public in the Arab world is lagging. Polling suggests a majority of Arabs do not support the recent diplomatic thaw with Israel. In Bahrain, where dissent is carefully contained, photos and videos posted to social media on Tuesday showed small groups of demonstrators protesting against the Bahraini government and Israel. International rights watchdogs say Bahrain has no free news media and that its judges are appointed by the royal family. The Khalifa family is a Sunni Muslim dynasty that has ruled Bahrain since 1783, presiding over a mainly Shia citizenry, whose members say they suffer systemic sectarian discrimination. Exiled Bahraini rights activists noted that Bennett’s visit fell on the 11th anniversary of the 2011 uprising, and they called it a betrayal of the Palestinian national movement and an endorsement of Israel’s policies toward it. “It feels like a damning insult,” said Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, advocacy director at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, a London-based campaign group. “This is the most important date in Bahrain’s recent history, when Bahrainis stood up against an autocracy — and 11 years later they have invited the head of an apartheid state.” © 2022 The New York Times Company

Which side are you on? It is a question that European leaders have studiously sought to avoid since former President Barack Obama first articulated that America should “pivot” resources and attention to Asia as part of its rivalry with China. European leaders hoped that the relationship between the two superpowers could remain stable and that Europe could balance its interests between the two. Then the Trump administration sharply raised the temperature with China with tariffs and other trade barriers. And now the Biden administration Wednesday announced an alliance between the United States, Britain and Australia that would help Australia deploy nuclear-powered submarines in the Pacific — and, in doing so, also tore up a $66 billion deal for Australia to buy a French fleet of diesel-powered subs. “Europeans want to defer the moment of truth, to not make a choice between the two,” said Thomas Gomart, director of the French Institute of International Relations, or IFRI. “The Biden administration, like the Trump one, is provoking the moment of choice.” France was enraged. Yet if it was a humiliation — as well as the cancellation of a lucrative defence deal — it possibly did have a silver lining for France’s broader goals. French President Emmanuel Macron has been Europe’s loudest proponent of “strategic autonomy,” the idea that Europe needs to retain a balanced approach to the United States and China. “We must survive on our own, as others do,” said Josep Borrell Fontelles, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, echoing the French line. The French embarrassment — the Americans also announced the submarine deal with little if any warning — came after the disastrous fall of Afghanistan. European allies were furious with the Biden administration, blaming the Americans for acting with little or no consultation and feeding Macron’s argument that the United States is no longer an entirely reliable security partner. “The submarines and Afghanistan, it reinforces the French narrative that you can’t trust the Americans,” said Ulrich Speck of the German Marshall Fund in Berlin. But whether France will succeed in turning this bilateral defeat into a way to promote strategic autonomy is doubtful, analysts suggest. “Many Europeans will see this as a transparent way for the French to leverage their own interests,’’ said Robin Niblett, director of Chatham House, the London-based research institution. Even so, there seems little doubt that Europe’s balancing act is becoming trickier to maintain. “Europe needs to think hard about where it sits and what it does,” said Rosa Balfour, director of Carnegie Europe. A Europe that spends more on defence is to be desired, but it also needs allies — including Britain and the United States, she said. And a Europe that does more to build its own security capacity “is the best way to be listened to more by its partners,” she added. The new alliance, known as AUKUS, is an effort to integrate Australia and Britain into the broader American effort to create a security deterrent to China. For Australia, which has seen its once-strong relations with Beijing deteriorate, America and Britain provide a much stouter deterrent to China in the Indo-Pacific, analysts agree, than could the deal with France. “It’s sending a very big signal to Beijing, which is useful for the US, but especially useful to Australia,” said Ian Lesser, acting director of the German Marshall Fund and head of its Brussels office. “And the weight of that signal is important because of who the partners are.” Lesser also questioned why the American moves in the Pacific have to be interpreted as a zero-sum equation in which Europe’s importance is diminished. “I don’t see any diminution of American interest and commitment to European security in the wake of Afghanistan or the moves in Asia,” he said. The biggest issue for the EU may be finding the political will for strategic autonomy, a point made by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her state of the EU address earlier on the day the new Asian alliance was announced. France may be pushing autonomy, but whether the rest of the European bloc has an appetite for it — and for creating greater distance from Washington — is uncertain. “France could end up isolating itself,” Speck of the German Marshall Fund said, noting that in nearly every region where France has security concerns — including Russia, the Sahel and even the Indo-Pacific — the United States continues to be a critical partner. There are deeper questions about America’s future reliability as a security partner, especially if the conflict with China turns kinetic, which is part of Macron’s argument, Lesser said. “For all the US commitment to Europe, if things go wrong in the Indo-Pacific, that would change the force structure in Europe pretty fast.’’ In Poland, a strong American ally in the EU and NATO, the reaction to the new alliance was more positive, focusing not on a pivot away from Europe “but on the US, with the British and the Australians, getting serious about China and also defending the free world,” said Michal Baranowski, who heads the German Marshall Fund office in Poland. At the same time, he said, Poles see another case where the supposedly professional, pro-European Biden administration “again doesn’t consult and shoves European allies under the bus,” he said. “This time the French, but for us, it was Nord Stream 2, when we were thrown under the bus for Germany,” he said. That was a reference to Biden’s decision to allow the completion of a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, bypassing Ukraine and Poland, that was a priority for European powerhouse Berlin. “The US will say again that ‘We’re building strong alliances, with Germany and Australia,’” Baranowski said. “But who suffers? Other allies.” As for relations with China, Europeans would prefer not to have Beijing in a rage, said Balfour of Carnegie Europe. “European allies have been more uncomfortable with more hawkish positions on China” and “keenly aware of the need to talk to China about climate and trade,” she said. So if Europe can keeping talking to Beijing without being portrayed by China as having joined a security pact against it, that could be helpful, she said. “If there is a silver lining to this, it will be if the European Union is capable of playing this card diplomatically, and avoid painting the world as for or against China, which is the rhetoric Beijing is pushing.” ©2021 The New York Times Company

Greenpeace urged European Union and African leaders meeting in Lisbon over the weekend to take urgent measures to stop the destruction of African forests which cause carbon emissions responsible for climate change. "Leaders in Lisbon have to exercise political muscle and immediately support a halt to deforestation in Africa," said Stephan Van Praet, coordinator for the Greenpeace International Africa Forest Campaign. Trees soak up carbon dioxide -- the main greenhouse gas -- as they grow and release it when they rot or are burnt. According to the United Nations, deforestation accounts for around 25 percent of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide -- roughly the same amount of carbon dioxide produced by the United States, the world's largest polluter. "It's clear they have to take urgent measures," he said. Greenpeace activists unveiled a banner at Lisbon's Vasco da Gama tower on Friday that read: "Save the Climate-Save African forests." Stephan Van Praet said Greenpeace would continue with its campaign over the weekend in Lisbon. Europe should also adopt legislation to prevent illegal timber from being imported into its market to bolster the continent's credibility in the fight against climate change and forest destruction, he said. "If Europe wants to be responsible in the international market, they should start at home," he said. The EU has set a goal of cutting emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 as part of a drive to mitigate the consequences of climate change, which could mean more heatwaves, more disease, rising seas and droughts.

He says he will reenter the Iran nuclear deal, assuming the Iranians are willing to reverse course and observe its limits. He would sign up for another five years of the only surviving nuclear arms treaty with Russia and double down on US commitments to NATO after four years of threats from President Donald Trump to withdraw from the alliance that guided the West through the Cold War. At the same time, Biden says he will make Russia “pay a price” for what he says have been disruptions and attempts to influence elections — including his own. But mostly, Biden said in a statement to The New York Times, he wants to bring an end to a slogan that came to define a United States that built walls and made working with allies an afterthought — and, in Biden’s view, undermined any chance of forging a common international approach to fighting a pandemic that has cost more than 1.2 million lives. “Tragically, the one place Donald Trump has made ‘America First’ is his failed response to the coronavirus: We’re 4% of the world’s population, yet have had 20% of the deaths,” Biden said days before the election. “On top of Trump embracing the world’s autocrats and poking his finger in the eye of our democratic allies, that’s another reason respect for American leadership is in free fall.” But it is far easier to promise to return to the largely internationalist approach of the post-World War II era than it is to execute one after four years of global withdrawal and during a pandemic that has reinforced nationalist instincts. The world does not look remotely as it did when Biden last engaged it from the White House four years ago. Power vacuums have been created, and filled, often by China. Democracies have retreated. The race for a vaccine has created new rivalries. So while foreign allies may find Biden reassuring — and smiled when they heard him say in a town-hall meeting that “‘America First’ has made America alone” — they also concede that they may never fully trust that the United States will not lurch back to building walls. In interviews in the past several weeks, Biden’s top advisers began to outline a restoration that might be called the Great Undoing, an effort to reverse course on Trump’s aggressive attempt to withdraw to US borders. “Whether we like it or not, the world simply does not organise itself,” said Antony J. Blinken, Biden’s longtime national security adviser. “Until the Trump administration, in Democratic and Republican administrations, the United States did a lot of that organising, and we made some mistakes along the way, for sure.” Now, however, the United States has discovered what happens “when some other country tries to take our place or, maybe even worse, no one does, and you end up with a vacuum that is filled by bad events.” Blinken acknowledged that for those allies — or opponents of Trump — looking to reset the clock to noon on Jan. 20, 2017, “it’s not going to happen.” Those who have known Biden for decades say they expect him to move carefully, providing reassurance with a few big symbolic acts, starting with a return to the Paris climate accord in the first days of his administration. But substantive rebuilding of US power will proceed far more slowly. “He’ll inherit a situation which both gives him enormous latitude and, oddly, constrains him,” said Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations and a longtime friend of Biden’s. “Clearly, what Trump did by executive order can be undone by executive order.” But “any act that requires Senate approach or any new use of force, absent a clear provocation, will be pretty much off the table,” he added. At 77, Biden has his own back-to-the-future vision of how to dispense with “America First”: “This is the time to tap the strength and audacity that took us to victory in two world wars and brought down the Iron Curtain,” he wrote in Foreign Affairs in March. Yet in a campaign in which foreign policy was rarely mentioned, Biden was never pressed on how the current iteration of superpower competition differs from what he remembers from early in his political career. He never stated what kind of “price” he had in mind for President Vladimir Putin of Russia to pay, though one of his longtime foreign policy advisers, Jake Sullivan, offered a bit of detail. Just before Election Day, he said that Biden was willing to impose “substantial and lasting costs on perpetrators of the Russian interference,” which could include financial sanctions, asset freezes, counter cyberattacks and, “potentially, the exposure of corruption by the leaders of foreign countries.” That would signify a hardening in US policy. But it would also involve steps that the Obama administration considered taking in its last six months, when Biden was vice president, and never carried out. The sharp change on Russia offers a glimpse of the detailed planning that Biden’s transition team, organised late last spring, has engaged in to reverse Trump’s approach to the world. It has built a foreign policy team of formal and informal advisers, largely drawn from midlevel and senior Obama administration officials who are poised to return. There are timelines for opening negotiations, reentering treaties and early summit meetings. But their plans show some notable breaks from the Obama administration’s strategy. Biden is clearly rethinking positions he took in the Senate and in the White House. American soldiers at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan on Nov. 28, 2019. President-elect Joe Biden argued during the early days of the Obama administration for a minimal force focused on a counterterrorism mission in the country. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times) The most vivid example, officials say, will come in rethinking China strategy. His own advisers concede that in the Obama years, Biden and his national security team underestimated the speed with which President Xi Jinping of China would crack down on dissent at home and use the combination of its 5G networks and its Belt and Road Initiative to challenge US influence. American soldiers at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan on Nov. 28, 2019. President-elect Joe Biden argued during the early days of the Obama administration for a minimal force focused on a counterterrorism mission in the country. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times) “Neither carrots nor sticks have swayed China as predicted,” Kurt Campbell, who served as the assistant secretary of state for Asia, and Ely Ratner, one of Biden’s deputy national security advisers, wrote in a Foreign Affairs article in 2018 that reflected this shift. “Diplomatic and commercial engagement have not brought political and economic openness. Neither US military power nor regional balancing has stopped Beijing from seeking to displace core components of the US-led system.” China is just one arena — though probably the most important — where Biden’s long-held views will come into first contact with new realities. Afghanistan and the Use of US Force Robert Gates, the defence secretary who served both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, described Biden as “impossible not to like” because he was “funny, profane and humorously self-aware of his motormouth.” But Gates also famously declared that Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” That assessment included Biden’s view on Afghanistan — where he argued, in the early days of the Obama administration in 2009, for a minimal force focused on a counterterrorism mission. Gates later recalled in his memoir that Biden was convinced that the military was trying to put the squeeze on the president to send more troops for a war the vice president thought was politically unsustainable. Biden was overruled — by Obama, who nearly doubled the force size in Afghanistan in 2009 before moving to a drawdown. But what was once a setback for Biden has now become something of a political asset: Trump’s effort to cast him as an advocate of “endless wars” fell flat. Biden, according to Sullivan, “wants to convert our presence to a counterterrorism capability” aimed at protecting the United States by keeping al-Qaida forces or the Islamic State group from establishing a base in Afghanistan. “It would be limited and targeted,” Sullivan said. “That’s where he was in 2009, and that is where he is today.” Confronting Russia In the Cold War, Democrats were often portrayed as the party of appeasement to Moscow. Biden is the first Democrat to turn the tables: He is neither dismissive of the Russian threat as Obama was when he debated Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee in 2012, nor is he eager to bring a big red “reset” button to Moscow, as Hillary Clinton did in her opening days as secretary of state. In the campaign, Biden seized on the US intelligence assessment that Russia preferred Trump, telling reporters in Nevada that “Putin knows me, and I know him, and he doesn’t want me to be president.” He is probably right: After details of the extent of the Russian interference in 2016 became clear, followed by Trump’s unwillingness to confront Putin, Democrats have become the party of Russia hawks. For most of the campaign, Biden assailed Trump for “cozying up to dictators” and describing how, if elected, he was prepared to punish Russia. As president, Biden will have to deal with a Russia whose arsenal includes 1,550 deployed nuclear weapons and a raft of tactical nuclear weapons that it has been deploying freely, even before Trump exited the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. How would Biden end the downward spiral? He would start with a five-year extension of New START, Blinken said, because the treaty lapses 16 days after inauguration. Then he would seek to expand the treaty to other types of weapons and perhaps more countries. And he would play on Putin’s growing economic fragility. “We will deter, and impose costs for, Mr. Putin’s meddling and aggression,” Blinken said. “But there’s a flip side” to dealing with Moscow, he added. Putin is “looking to relieve Russia’s growing dependence on China,” Blinken said, which has left him in “not a very comfortable position.” That suggests the Biden administration could try to use the suspicions that Moscow and Beijing have of each other to split the two superpowers — just as President Richard Nixon used it, in reverse, to win his opening with China nearly 50 years ago. On Iran, a Resurgent Crisis “Oh, goddamn,” Biden fumed in the Situation Room in the summer of 2010, according to participants in the meeting, as news began to leak that a highly classified effort by the United States and Israel to destroy Iran’s nuclear program with a cyberweapon — later called “Stuxnet’’ — was about to be exposed because the computer code was being replicated around the world. “It’s got to be the Israelis. They went too far.” A decade later, that effort to undermine the Iranian nuclear effort appears to be the birth of a new age of conflict, one in which Biden was a key player. He favored the covert effort, because he was looking for any way to slow Iran’s progress without risking war in the Middle East. He later told colleagues that he believed the covert program helped bring the country to the negotiating table for what became the Iran nuclear deal five years later. Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a NATO leaders meeting at The Grove hotel and resort in Watford, England on Dec. 4, 2019. President-elect Joe Biden would like to double down on American commitments to NATO. (Al Drago/The New York Times) Now Biden says the first step with Iran is to restore the status quo — which means reentering the deal if Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is willing to return to production limits announced in 2015. But it won’t be that simple. The Iranians have indicated there will be a higher price to pay for Trump’s breach. And some of the key restrictions on Iran begin to lift soon: The first phase of an arms embargo expired in October, clearing the way for the Russians and the Chinese to begin resuming sales. And there will soon be a new Iranian president, with unknown effects on potential talks. Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a NATO leaders meeting at The Grove hotel and resort in Watford, England on Dec. 4, 2019. President-elect Joe Biden would like to double down on American commitments to NATO. (Al Drago/The New York Times) Biden’s aides say that returning to the deal that Trump exited “shifts the burden” back on Tehran. “If Iran decides it’s not going to come back into compliance,” Blinken said, “we’re in a much stronger position to elicit support from allies and partners” who are now blaming Trump for starting the crisis by rejecting an agreement the United States had already made. The China Challenge In 2012, Biden was the host when Xi came to Washington. The vice president praised the guest from Beijing as a rising reformer who was “prepared to show another side of the Chinese leadership.” Biden was among those to celebrate China’s inevitable but “peaceful rise,” followed by assurance that trying to contain its power was a fool’s errand. By this year, he had revised his view. “This is a guy who is a thug,” Biden said. So during the campaign, he went after Trump for “fake toughness” and argued that “Trump lost a trade war that he started.” What he meant was that the Trump-era tariffs on Chinese goods were ultimately underwritten by American taxpayers in the form of government subsidies to compensate farmers and others who lost sales. Biden has said little about how he would push back. And even if he settles the long-running arguments over agricultural goods and the theft of intellectual property by Beijing, Biden will face challenges never discussed when Xi was visiting eight years ago: managing technological inroads by firms like Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, and TikTok, the app that has seized the imaginations and phones of 100 million Americans. Biden has suggested that the Trump crackdowns might continue — though surrounded by more skilful diplomacy to bring European and other allies on board. “God only knows what they’re doing with information they’re picking up off of here,” he said of the Chinese. “So as president, I will go into it very deeply. I’ll get the cyberexperts in with me to give me what is the best solution to deal with it.” Complicating the issue is Biden’s insistence that, unlike Trump, he will put values back at the centre of foreign policy, including how to approach the US-China relationship, a milder echo of Bill Clinton’s pledge in the 1992 race to take on “the butchers of Beijing.” Presumably that means making China pay a price for Xi’s controls on dissent, including the national security laws that led to detention camps in Xinjiang, arrests of dissidents in Hong Kong and the ouster of foreign journalists who were the last bastion of independent reporting in China.   ©2020 The New York Times Company

US technology and other companies flooded the government on Tuesday with an estimated 200,000 visa applications for highly skilled foreign workers in what has become an annual lottery for just 65,000 visas. The competition is for so-called H-1B visas, which allow U.S. companies to employ foreign guest workers in highly specialized jobs for three years. The visas can be extended for an additional three years. The U.S. government last year was overwhelmed with about 120,000 applications on the first day that applications were accepted for H-1B visas, leaving many job candidates out of luck. One of those applicants left out in the cold last year was Sven, a German national working as a civil engineer in San Diego. Sven, who asked for his last name to be withheld due to privacy concerns, will try his luck again at the H-1B visa lottery this year but he understands that the odds are long. "It would be like the hitting the jackpot," said the 33-year-old, who studied at a German university for eight years to get a civil engineering degree. "When I found out how many people applied in two days last year, I was shocked." The company he works for has supported his efforts, paying attorney's fees and providing information to the government. Sven is frustrated, however, that the decision about whether he works in America or not comes is determined by luck. This year, the odds of getting an H-1B visa could be even slimmer. Experts said they expected about 200,000 applications on Tuesday, the first day U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) begins accepting the visa petitions for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, 2008. "The people we've offered jobs to are really subject to the whims of a lottery," said Jack Krumholtz, managing director of federal government affairs for Microsoft Corp. Last year, the USCIS closed the application window after two days and pooled the petitions, granting the visas by a computerized lottery system. The agency said the applicants got the same shot at getting selected. But tech companies say the huge demand for the visas shows the need for the industry to tap into foreign resources. "This leaves Cisco and other U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage if we cannot access the best and the brightest workers," said Heather Dickinson, a spokeswoman for network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc. Companies who specialize in science, technology, engineering and technology fields say the current system is a Catch 22: the United States is not producing enough homegrown job candidates and won't let companies bring them in, either. "Getting this right is important for the U.S. to maintain competitiveness," Krumholtz said. "It goes to our economic well-being." "A BAD JOKE" Jacob Sapochnick, a San Diego immigration lawyer, said he's submitting about 150 applications this year on behalf of employers and workers in the high tech, scientific and marketing fields, and even one for an executive chef. Last year, Sapochnick submitted about 200 applications and about half were granted visas. This year the situation is even more unknown, he said, because the USCIS has said it won't close the application window for five business days. He said he expects about 300,000 applications to be submitted over the five days. "It's almost like a bad joke," Sapochnick said. The National Association of Manufacturers called for "a permanent fix" to address the need for highly skilled employees in manufacturing and other sectors. There wasn't always such a mismatch in supply and demand. In 2000, the quota for H-1B visas was raised to 195,000 per year and was rarely reached, but as the tech boom faded, the quota was reduced to 65,000. Tech companies have lobbied Congress to raise the quota but labor groups oppose a change, arguing that doing so would hurt U.S. employees' job prospects. Krumholtz said roughly one-third of Microsoft's U.S.-based employees have required some form of visa assistance. Last year, Microsoft submitted about 1,200 applications for H-1B visas and was granted about 900, he said. This year, Microsoft is trying to improve its chances in the lottery by filing about 1,600 applications. "We've got between 3,000 and 4,000 core openings at Microsoft we're trying to find people for," Krumholtz said. But he said the company's internal immigration staff expects it will "at best" get about 40 percent, or 640 visas, approved. Bob Gaynor, a Boston-based attorney who specializes in immigration law, said his clients applying for H-1B visas this year are worried about their chances in the computer selection process. Gaynor, who represents dentists, intellectual property experts, engineers and accountants from India, Australia and Germany, among other countries, said he expected about 200,000 applications to flood the system on Tuesday. "It's sad," Gaynor said. "These people really contribute to the business climate of the country."

The agreements were signed at the Economic Relations Division in Dhaka on Thursday. Kazi Shofiqul Azam, secretary of ERD, and Manmohan Parkash, country director of ADB, signed the agreements. Of $350 million, a $100 million grant will support the displaced people in Cox’s Bazar camps, a $25.44 million grant will enhance the use of solar-powered pumps in irrigation, and $225 million loan will enhance quality and relevance of secondary education, according to the statement. “The grant assistance project has been prepared, processed and approved at an extraordinary speed in two months after ADB received a request for grant assistance from the government of Bangladesh in May 2018,” said Parkash on grant for supporting the displaced people in Cox’s Bazar. On the secondary education project, he said, “The assistance will further support the government’s secondary education reform to prepare youths to meet the requirements of a rapidly developing economy.” “The environment friendly SPV irrigation can replace diesel systems to enhance energy security, reduce environmental pollution, and mitigate climate change,” he said on the solar-power project. The ADB’s $100 million grant project will support the displaced people sheltered in camps in Cox’s Bazar focusing on water supply and sanitation, disaster risk management, energy and roads. The project will rehabilitate roads within the camps to connect essential food distribution and storage centres, and provide emergency access. It will also resurface the road from Cox’s Bazar to Teknaf and other critical sections. The $25.44 million funding will support installation of at least 2,000 off-grid solar photovoltaic pumping systems in areas without electricity access with an estimated 19.3 megawatts-peak of solar capacity. By replacing diesel pumping systems with off-grid solar photovoltaic pumps, the project is expected to result in a reduction of 17,261 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. The secondary education project, scheduled to be completed in 2023, is supporting the government’s comprehensive secondary education development program, backed by development partners in a harmonized manner. The government envisages an increase of about 3.5 million secondary school students by 2023, requiring an additional 145,000 teachers and 10,000 more schools. The $225 million ADB assistance will develop a competency-based curriculum, promote the use of ICT in teaching and strengthen classroom assessment.