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

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

BEIJING Feb (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - China faces acute environmental and resource strains that threaten to choke growth unless the world's second-biggest economy cleans up, the nation's environment minister said in an unusually blunt warning. In an essay published on Monday, Zhou Shengxian also said his agency wants to make assessing projected greenhouse gas emissions a part of evaluating proposed development projects. That could give China's Ministry of Environmental Protection more sway in climate change issues, an area dominated by agencies whose main interest is shoring up industrial growth. Zhou set environmental worries at the heart of China's next phase of economic development -- a theme in focus at the country's annual parliament session starting on Saturday. "In China's thousands of years of civilisation, the conflict between humanity and nature has never been as serious as it is today," Zhou said in the essay published in the China Environment News, his ministry's official newspaper. "The depletion, deterioration and exhaustion of resources and the deterioration of the environment have become serious bottlenecks constraining economic and social development." Zhou's words highlight the policy struggle in China between stoking growth and taming pollution and resource consumption. On Sunday, Premier Wen Jiabao also said the country should aim for slower, cleaner growth. "This is a crucial time for deciding policy, so he's trying to bring more urgency to getting more teeth for his ministry by making people grasp the huge challenges," said Yang Ailun, the head of climate and energy for Greenpeace China, an advocacy group, speaking of Zhou's essay. Chinese officials often promote the need to maintain fast economic growth to pull hundreds of millions of citizens out of hardship. But Zhou said prospects for growth could be threatened unless smoggy skies, polluted rivers and reckless exploitation of mine reserves are taken much more seriously in setting policy. "PRICE TO PAY" "If we are numb and apathetic in the face of the acute conflict between humankind and nature, and environmental management remains stuck in the old rut with no efforts in environmental technology, there will surely be a painful price to pay, and even irrecoverable losses," said Zhou. China is now the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels and other human activities that scientists say are causing global warming. It is the world's biggest polluter and biggest consumer of resources across a range of other measures. In 2009, nearly 20 percent of the length of China's monitored rivers and lakes had pollution worse than Grade 5, making the water officially unfit for even irrigating crops, according to government statistics. To double the size of the economy between 2000 and 2020 and keep environmental conditions at levels met in 2000, China will have to improve its efficiency in using resources by 4 to 5 times compared to 2000 levels, said Zhou, citing findings of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

China aims to save 75 terawatt hours of power per year, the equivalent of 75 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, by promoting energy-efficient air-conditioners and other home appliances. The government plans to raise the market shares of such appliances to over 30 percent by 2012 by subsidizing sales, the National Development and Reform Commission said. The appliances include air-conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, flat screen television sets, microwave ovens, rice cookers, electromagnetic ovens, water heaters, computer screens and electrical motors. China is widely believed to be the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, the gas from fossil fuels, industry, farming and land clearance that is accumulating in the air, trapping more solar radiation and threatening to overheat the globe. It is drafting a long-term plan for climate change that will focus on raising energy efficiency, developing clean-coal technology and expanding carbon-absorbing forests. The commission has detailed the first batch of makers and types of air conditioners whose sales would be subsidized by 300 yuan ($44) to 850 yuan each by Beijing, a move which would alone save up to 6 terawatt hours of power a year if their market share rises to more than 30 percent from the current 5 percent. A terawatt equals one trillion watts. China has yet to detail subsidies for other household goods. Air conditioning consumes 20 percent of China's power and accounts for nearly 40 percent of power use during peak demand time in summer in cities, according to the commission. China produced more than 70 million air conditioners in 2008 and over 40 percent of them were exported. It also produced nearly 200 gigawatts in electrical motor power last year and over a quarter were shipped abroad. Electrical motors and the systems they drive consume 60 percent of China's power production but less than 2 percent of the motors sold on the domestic market are energy efficient.

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

The Berchtesgadener Land district in Bavaria, which borders Austria, became the latest region to be hit by record rainfall and ensuing floods. Sunday's death brought Germany's death toll to 156 in its worst natural disaster in almost six decades, and the European toll to 183. About 110 people have been killed in the worst-hit Ahrweiler district south of Cologne. More bodies are expected to be found there as the flood waters recede, police say. The European floods, which began on Wednesday, have mainly hit the German states of Rhineland Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia as well as parts of Belgium. Entire communities have been cut off, without power or communications. In North Rhine-Westphalia at least 45 people have died, while the death toll in Belgium stood at 27. The German government will be readying more than 300 million euros ($354 million) in immediate relief and billions of euros to fix collapsed houses, streets and bridges, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz told weekly newspaper Bild am Sonntag. "There is huge damage and that much is clear: those who lost their businesses, their houses, cannot stem the losses alone," he said. There could also be a 10,000 euro short-term relief payment for small businesses affected by the impact of the floods as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier told the paper. Scientists have long said that climate change will lead to heavier downpours. But determining its role in these relentless rainfalls will take several weeks to research at least, scientists said on Friday. NO ELECTRICITY In Belgium, which will hold a national day of mourning on Tuesday, water levels were falling on Sunday and the clean-up operation was underway. The military was sent in to the eastern town of Pepinster, where a dozen buildings have collapsed, to search for any further victims. Tens of thousands of people are without electricity and Belgian authorities said the supply of clean drinking water was also a big concern. Emergency services in the Netherlands remained on alert as water levels are still high throughout the southern province of Limburg where tens of thousands of people have been evacuated. In the southern part of Limburg, water levels in the Meuse river have dropped slightly, making dyke inspections possible. If the structures pass muster, people could be allowed to return home, the regional safety board said. "After the inspection we will speak with the affected towns that are considered safe enough," Hub Haenen of the regional safety board told local L1 radio. He added that a return would be very gradual, possibly even street by street. Tens of thousands of residents in the region have been evacuated in the past three days, while soldiers, firefighters and volunteers helped enforce dykes. The Netherlands has so far only reported property damage from the flooding and no dead or missing people. In Hallein, an Austrian town near Salzburg, powerful flood waters tore through the town centre on Saturday evening as the Salzach river burst its banks, but no injuries were reported. Many areas of Salzburg province and neighbouring provinces remain on alert, with rains set to continue on Sunday. Western Tyrol province reported that water levels in some areas were at highs not seen for more than 30 years. Parts of Switzerland remained on flood alert, though the threat posed by some of the most at-risk bodies of water like Lake Lucerne and Bern's Aare river has eased.

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

WASHINGTON, Jul 29, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The United States and China laid out a shared vision on Tuesday of how to lead the global economy out of recession but had little to show diplomatically from two days of talks on topics from climate change to North Korea. At the conclusion of the first round of what will be an annual "Strategic and Economic Dialogue," the countries agreed to take steps to rebalance the global economy and maintain stimulus spending until economic recovery is secured. They also signed a memorandum on climate change, energy and the environment without setting any firm goals, and pledged their support for free trade. "Laying this groundwork may not deliver a lot of concrete achievements immediately but every step on this path to create confidence and understanding is a very good investment," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a news conference. Perhaps the biggest accomplishment was that both countries agreed they need to reconfigure their economies so that China is less reliant on exports for growth and the United States resumes saving and investment to stop the boom-and-bust cycle. "China will rebalance toward domestic demand-led growth," US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said, while the United States had already learned the "importance of living within our means as a country and at a household level." Clinton lauded the discussions as a symbol of 30 years of progress between two countries with a history of deep diplomatic and ideological divides. Yet there were signs that the two sides were still struggling to bridge the gap. On issues from North Korea to human rights, Clinton said little more than that the two sides had talked. "Human rights is absolutely integral to the strategic and economic dialogue," she said. "We discussed a number of human rights issues, including the situation in Xinjiang, and we expressed our concerns." Clashes broke out in July between ethnic Uighurs and Han Chinese in western China's Xinjiang province, and around 50 Uighurs chanted slogans outside the White House on Tuesday demanding freedom and democracy. CURRENCY PROBLEM Washington at least publicly steered clear of one of the thorniest issues -- urging China to allow its currency to rise faster. However, Beijing did take a sharper tone, warning against letting the dollar slide too far. "As a major reserve currency-issuing country in the world, the United States should properly balance and properly handle the impact of the dollar supply on the domestic economy and the world economy as a whole," Vice Premier Wang Qishan said earlier on Tuesday. The United States would like to see a stronger yuan to help correct trade imbalances, but China remains dependent on its export sector, and would stand to lose from a dollar fall that would reduce the value of its substantial dollar holdings. "The currency issue is to some extent being back-burnered because that's a fundamental problem," Stanley Marcus, a trade expert with law firm Bryan Cave, told Reuters Television. "I think the administration's decided at least for now to subsume (currency) under some larger issues like economic reform, financial reform, and other important issues." With the United States trying to claw its way out of the longest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s and China suffering from a steep drop in demand for exports, a key focus of the talks was on restoring economic stability. Indeed, the economy seemed to be the spot where they found the most consensus, with both sides agreeing to reduce trade imbalances and maintain stimulus spending until economic recovery is assured. The United States is China's best customer for exports, and China is the United States' biggest creditor, holding $802 billion of US Treasury securities as of May 31. Washington needs Beijing to keep buying its debt to finance a budget deficit estimated to hit $1.8 trillion this year. People's Bank of China chief Zhou Xiaochuan said Beijing wanted to make sure the US economy was well on its way to recovery before China withdrew its stimulus spending, which has been widely credited with helping stabilize the world economy. "If we are confirmed that the recovery of the US economy is established and stable, if we see that the United States starts to exit its expansionary fiscal and monetary policy, then China will see what it will do at that time," he said. Obama turned to sports to try to find common ground, quoting Chinese basketball star Yao Ming in his opening statement on Monday. He also presented the Chinese delegation with a signed basketball on Tuesday, China's State Councilor Dai Bingguo said. Dai called the US-China dialogues successful and said the topics discussed included virtually "everything except for going to the moon."

US President Barack Obama on Saturday defended an international climate accord reached in Copenhagen as an "important breakthrough" but stressed that it was only a step toward curbing global carbon emissions. "For the first time in history, all of the world's major economies have come together to accept their responsibility to take action on the threat of climate change," Obama said in a statement after returning from the Danish capital overnight. United Nations climate talks ended with a bare-minimum agreement that fell well short of the conference's original goals after prolonged negotiations failed to paper over differences between rich nations and the developing world. Obama, who brokered an accord at the last moment with China, India, Brazil and South Africa to avoid coming home empty handed, acknowledged that talks had been tough. "After extremely difficult and complex negotiations, this important breakthrough laid the foundation for international action in the years to come," he said, speaking from a snow-bound White House as a winter storm blanketed Washington. "Going forward, we are going to have to build on momentum that we established in Copenhagen to ensure that international action to significantly reduce emissions is sustained and sufficient over time," Obama said. Critics complain the explicit deal struck in Copenhagen to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius provided no details of how this goal would be reached, and that the emission cuts that were promised would be insufficient to get there. Obama has staked significant political capital in pressing for climate change in Copenhagen while simultaneously pushing for healthcare reform back home, and he must contend with an increasingly climate-sceptical American public. A Washington Post-ABC News opinion poll published on Friday found 45 percent of those surveyed approved of his handling of global warming, down from 54 percent in June and 61 percent in April. Obama's broader approval ratings have also dipped as Americans contend with double-digit unemployment as the economy recovers from its worst recession in 70 years, and he sought on Saturday to link job creation with his climate policies. "At home, that means continuing our efforts to build a clean energy economy that has the potential to create millions of new jobs and new industries," he said. "If America leads in developing clean energy, we will lead in growing our economy and putting our people back to work."

If any country can claim to be pitched on the global warming front line, it may be the North Atlantic island nation of Iceland. On a purely physical level, this land of icecaps and volcanoes and home to 300,000 people is undergoing a rapid transformation as its glaciers melt and weather patterns change dramatically. But global warming is also having a profound effect on Iceland economically -- and in many ways the effects have actually been beneficial. Warmer weather has been a boon to Iceland's hydroelectric industry, which is producing more energy than before as melting glaciers feed its rivers. Climate change, stoked by human use of fossil fuels, has also focused attention on Iceland's energy innovations and created demand for its ideas and expertise in fields such as geothermal energy and fuel technology. Scientists from Africa to the Americas are exploring what Icelandic universities and energy researchers are up to. And foreign companies are teaming up with the small island's firms. Two-thirds of electricity in Iceland is already derived from renewable sources -- its plentiful rivers and waterfalls and the geothermal heat that warms 90 percent of Iceland's houses. Some observers say forward-thinking comes naturally on an island where climate change can already be seen in thawing ice and balmier winters. "People are already now planning for a future that will be different from the past," said Tomas Johannesson, a geophysicist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office. "We are in an unusual situation that many of the changes that are happening are maybe more beneficial than for the worse," he added. The increase in waterflow in the island's rivers, because of melting glaciers, is one example. "If you compare the hydrological data about how much energy is in the water for the last 60 years, and then the last 20 years, you see that there is an increase," said Thorstein Hilmarsson of the national power company Landsvirkjun. This extra energy is needed in an economy driven partly by power-intensive industries such as aluminium smelting. But Icelanders know that climate change is not a simple economic equation. "If something serious happens to other nations, this can easily have an effect here. So people are not exactly welcoming these changes," Johannesson said. CREATIVE JUICES Carol van Voorst, U.S. ambassador to Iceland, has made the promotion of energy ventures in Iceland part of her mission. "We're on the ground, we know the players, and we can be helpful in making the links and connections," she said. "You quickly notice how creatively Iceland is using its natural resources," she said. Among the initiatives that have caught her attention are a deep-drilling project to harness underground energy, technology to convert carbon dioxide into fuel and hydrogen-powered rental cars, which went into use in Reykjavik last year. The Iceland Deep Drilling Project, a multi-national venture including Landsvirkjun, will start drilling a hole this year between 4 and 5 km (2.5 and 3 miles) deep to learn about "supercritical hydrous fluid" at temperatures of between 400 and 600 degrees Celsius (750 and 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit). It might take decades to learn how to harness the energy, but it could radically change the way power is generated. Iceland is also pushing hard to become the first nation to break free from the constraints of fossil fuel -- this year, the first hydrogen-equipped commercial vessel was due to start sailing around Reykjavik. Iceland hopes to convert its entire transport system to hydrogen by 2050. RAIN NOT SNOW The flip side of this innovation, however, is concern. Last October, Nordic nations, including Iceland, sounded the alarm about a quickening melt of Arctic ice and said the thaw might soon prove irreversible because of global warming. The U.N. Climate Panel says temperatures are rising more rapidly in the Arctic because darker water and land soak up more heat than reflective ice and snow. Nonetheless, even with higher temperatures, it could take centuries for Iceland's glaciers to melt, the national energy company says. The Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland is Europe's largest and is big enough to cover all of Iceland with 50 metres (160 ft) of water. There are more immediate signs of climate change, though, and these are worrying Iceland's residents. This winter, Reykjavik experienced double-digit swings in temperature, as the normally sub-zero conditions suddenly turned balmy. The capital was flooded. "I don't think it's even a question," said Asta Gisladottir, asked whether the freak weather was caused by global warming. "We're so close to the North Pole," the 36-year-old hotel worker said. "It's just in our backyard." Gisladottir recalled winters during her childhood in the village of Siglufjordur, on the island's north, as very different. Then there was snow from November to April. Now, it is mostly rain. Geophysicist Johannesson, who has studied climate change since the early 1990s, said the evidence was not just anecdotal. "What we see here is an overall warming from a rather cold 19th century," he said. "

While the EU plans to impose carbon dioxide (CO2) taxes on imports of energy intensive goods, critics say the world's biggest gas importer is not targeting suppliers of the fuel hard enough in its methane strategy due to be unveiled this year. This comes despite an unlikely alliance of big oil firms, environmental activists, investors and researchers pushing the bloc to plug this hole in its methane plan and punish gas producers that fail to rein in their emissions. While the EU regulates methane emissions from gas burned in the bloc, it doesn't regulate emissions during the production or transport of gas imported by Europe. That means those emissions don't show up in the tally of greenhouse gases linked to Europe's gas-fuelled power plants, nor are they are counted in the EU's climate goals. The draft methane plan, which may be subject to change, says the European Commission will propose legislation requiring gas firms to better monitor and report methane emissions, but it does not include setting methane standards for imported gas. The Commission, the European Union's executive, declined to comment on unpublished documents. Campaigners say the omission of imported emissions risks undermining the EU's climate policy as methane is 100 times more potent than CO2 when it first goes into the atmosphere. "Setting clear product standard requirements on all gas sold in the EU's internal market is essentially a global climate opportunity with significant potential to curb global methane emissions from oil and gas quickly," said Poppy Kalesi, global energy policy director at the Environmental Defence Fund (EDF). It teamed up with seven European oil firms - BP, Eni , Equinor, Repsol, Royal Dutch Shell , Total and Wintershall DEA - to ask Brussels to address what they see as a blind spot in its climate plans. Sources familiar with the Commission's thinking say it has not shifted its position on regulating methane emissions from imported gas since compiling the draft. Gas production is associated with emissions of methane, which leaches into the atmosphere from leaky pipelines and infrastructure at oil and gas fields. The EU imported about 80% of the gas it consumed last year. Almost three-quarters of its imports came from Russia, Norway and Algeria, with Russia's Gazprom by far the biggest non-EU supplier. Methane is 100 times more powerful than CO2 as a global warming gas, but it degrades while CO2 remains in the atmosphere. Over a 20-year period, methane is 86 times more powerful though that drops to 34 times over 100 years. SATELLITE FINDINGS Analysis of satellite imagery and other aerial surveillance over the past few years has shown that oil and gas industry leaks are responsible for far more of the methane in the atmosphere than previously thought. The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, whose members have 30 trillion euros ($34 trillion) of assets under management, wrote to the Commission in May asking it to propose rules this year to ban gas with a methane leakage rate in upstream supply chains of more than 0.25% by 2025. US lobby groups EDF and the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Florence School of Regulation research centre and the European oil companies also wrote to the Commission in May, recommending "a methane intensity-based performance standard applied to the upstream segment of the supply chains from 2025". Their letter called for: "A procurement standard to be applied from 2025 to incentivise the continual reduction of the methane emissions intensity of the gas entering domestic and import supply chains." A Commission official said by focusing its proposals on monitoring and reporting emissions, the aim was to get a handle on the issue. "The main thing is to get a good picture of where the methane is actually coming from," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Campaigners fear this approach could delay plans to regulate imported emissions and say there is sufficient data to design such policies. Andris Piebalgs, professor at the Florence School of Regulation and a former EU energy commissioner, said any indication that Brussels will integrate international methane emissions into its policy would be a substantial step forward. "Because at this stage, it's not ... much discussed at all." For European oil and gas firms, tackling methane emissions could help them make the case that gas can play a role in Europe's shift to "net zero" emissions by 2050 at a time when investors are increasingly focused on their climate performance. European oil companies that have invested to curb their own methane emissions may also be wary about being undercut by producers outside the bloc who haven't done the same. BENEFIT WIPED OUT Gas is far from being a zero emissions fuel but it produces roughly half the CO2 emissions of coal when burned in power plants and is seen by Eastern European countries such as Poland as a transition fuel to wean themselves off coal. But methane leaks can quickly dent this argument. "When you get to about 3% leakage, the entire benefit of gas as a lower-emissions fuel is entirely wiped out. So we're operating in a relatively small window of gas actually being better than coal," said Frank Jotzo, director of the centre for climate economics and policy at Australian National University. The International Energy Agency says a third of methane emissions from the oil and gas industry could be saved at no net cost, as the captured gas could be sold. However, EU methane standards for gas imports could rile large suppliers, especially if it restricts their access to the European market. "As 40% of EU gas imports stem from Russia, dealing with methane emissions means dealing with Gazprom," said Esther Bollendorff, EU gas policy coordinator at the non-profit Climate Action Network, referring to Russia's state-owned gas producer. Gazprom is Europe's largest gas supplier and owns pipelines transporting the fuel to Europe. Last year, it sold almost 200 billion cubic metres of gas to countries in Europe and Turkey. In a June 10 statement about emissions, Gazprom estimated that 0.29% of the 679 billion cubic metres of gas it moved through its pipelines escaped as methane in 2019 and said this corresponded to the best global practices. Some observers said the slump in EU gas consumption this year during coronavirus lockdowns meant the bloc was less dependent on gas suppliers and was in a stronger position to push them to tackle methane emissions. "The EU has the power now," said Lisa Fischer, senior policy adviser at the climate change think-tank E3G.

European Union leaders reaffirmed ambitious goals to combat climate change on Friday but stressed they must be affordable for governments and industry at a time of economic downturn and market turmoil. A draft final statement at a two-day summit, obtained by Reuters, called for cost-effective and flexible mechanisms to reach energy and climate policy objectives, adding the tell-tale phrase "so as to avoid excessive costs for member states". The leaders pledged to enact the necessary laws within a year to meet their goals of slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and increasing the share of wind, solar, hydro and wave power and biofuels in their energy mix by the same date. But they stressed the need to ensure that the high cost of carbon trading, the EU's central instrument in the fight against global warming, should not drive sectors like steel, cement, paper and aluminium out of Europe or out of business. European Commission Vice-President Guenter Verheugen told Germany's Deutschlandfunk radio that measures would have to be taken to ensure European industries were protected against competition from countries with lower environmental standards. He said Brussels "doesn't rule out that we create some sort of compensation for our industries ... but tariffs are not the idea for that". Instead, importers might be included in the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme to make them bear a share of the cost, he said. After chairing the first day of a two-day summit, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa told a news conference all 27 leaders agreed to adopt a liberalisation of the European energy market in June and a package of measures to fight global warming and promote green energy in December. "We must reach agreement in the first months of 2009 at the latest," said Jansa. GREEN TARIFF? French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was hopeful of reaching a package deal on climate change under France's presidency of the EU in the second half of this year. But several leaders said a deal would be difficult because of conflicting national priorities. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she wanted early guarantees of special treatment for energy-intensive industries such as steel, cement, paper and aluminium, so they could plan investments. Diplomats said other countries backed her. However Britain, Sweden and the Netherlands opposed Merkel's demand that the EU agree in 2009 on conditions for big energy users, saying it would weaken the EU's hand in global negotiations on curbing emissions. "Everybody stated their priorities. Many were quite nervous about liberalisation and carbon leakage," a senior EU diplomat said. "Carbon leakage" occurs when production is transferred to countries with lower environmental standards. Sarkozy told reporters: "The main concern is implementing a mechanism that will hit imports from those countries that don't play the game." But Verheugen said Sarkozy was alone in calling for green import tariffs and had not pressed the issue at the summit. Failure to agree on the details by this time next year would delay EU laws and weaken the bloc in United Nations talks on curbing emissions with other countries, including the United States, in Copenhagen in November 2009. Leaders also approved a watered-down Franco-German plan for a Union for the Mediterranean to boost ties with the EU's southern neighbours after months of bitter wrangling. Highlighting threats to European economic growth, the euro hit another record high above $1.56 on Thursday and oil prices hovered near a peak of $110 a barrel. Jansa said the euro's rise was a "serious issue" but that the summit would not discuss in detail any possible steps to halt the trend. Aside from cutting emissions by at least one-fifth by 2020 from 1990 levels, EU states have agreed to use 20 percent of renewable energy sources in power production and 10 percent of biofuels from crops in transport by the same date. Jansa acknowledged growing debate among scientists and economists about the desirability of the biofuels target, saying: "We're not excluding the possibility that we'll have to amend or revise our goals."

India and China have demonstrated commitment to a climate accord struck in Copenhagen last year and their refusal so far to "associate" with it should not be overblown, the UN's climate chief said on Friday. The Copenhagen Accord reached last year was not legally binding, but over 100 countries have already said they are willing to "associate" with it, which means their names are listed at the top of the document. China and India are yet to say if they will associate or not, but the head of the UN Climate Secretariat, Yvo de Boer, said he was unworried by that. "Both China and India, together with about 60 other countries, have submitted plans or targets on the actions they plan to take. In that sense, I think there is both a political and substantive commitment in the context of the Copenhagen Accord," he told reporters at a UN environment meeting in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian island of Bali. "The Indian prime minister has indicated that he supports the Copenhagen Accord and India has submitted a national action plan in the context of the Copenhagen Accord. India has formulated eight national goals in different areas that are directly relevant to climate change. India is moving forward on this topic at the national level." People should focus less on the Copenhagen Accord and more on finalising the implementation of a legally binding agreement. Only after that, he said, would countries be expected to sign up. India's environment secretary, Vijai Sharma, on Thursday played down his country's reluctance to associate with the accord. "India has gone a step further. We are already taking action," he told reporters. De Boer, a Dutch national, will resign from the UN in July to join consultancy firm KPMG. When asked if he was interested in replacing De Boer as chief, Sharma responded by giving the thumbs up sign. De Boer said on Friday that Europe, Japan and the United States were looking at using existing financial institutions and mechanisms to distribute the $30 billion in climate aid promised by developed to poor countries in Copenhagen. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said on Friday that quick disbursement of this promised money was vital, but Norway's Environment Minister, Erik Solheim, said he was not aware of any progress being made on that front. "It's too much up in the air, still. Time is very short. It must be done in the next two months," he told Reuters.

Brazil, China, India and South Africa have urged wealthy nations to hand over $10 billion to poor nations this year to help fight climate change. The funds were pledged in a non-binding deal agreed at last December's Copenhagen climate conference. The group - known as BASIC - said the money must be available at once "as proof of their commitment" to address the global challenge. The plea was issued after a meeting of the four nations in Delhi on Sunday. The four nations, led by China, also pledged to meet an end-month deadline to submit action plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Environment ministers and envoys from the four nations met in New Delhi in a show of unity by countries whose greenhouse gas emissions are among the fastest rising in the world. The bloc was key to brokering a political agreement at the Copenhagen talks in December and its meeting in India was designed in part to put pressure on richer nations to make good on funding commitments. "We have sent a very powerful symbol to the world of our intentions," the Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said at a joint press conference after seven hours of talks. The group discussed setting up a climate fund to help nations most vulnerable to the impact of global warming, which it said would act as a wakeup call for wealthier countries to meet their pledges on financial assistance and give $10 billion in 2010. Rich countries have pledged $30 billion in climate change funding for the 2010-12 period and set a goal of $100 billion by 2020, far less than what developing countries had wanted. The group in New Delhi said releasing $10 billion this year would send a signal of the rich countries' commitment. The four said they were in talks to set up an independent fund for the same purpose, but gave no timeline or figure. "When we say we will be reinforcing technical support as well as funds to the most vulnerable countries, we are giving a slap in the face to the rich countries," Brazil's Environment Minister Carlos Minc said through a translator. The non-binding accord worked out at the Copenhagen climate summit was described by many as a failure because it fell short of the conference's original goal of a more ambitious commitment to prevent more heatwaves, droughts and crop failures. China is the world's top CO2 emitter, while India is number four. China was blamed by many countries at Copenhagen for obstructing a tougher deal and has refused to submit to outside scrutiny of its plans to brake greenhouse gas emissions. China has pledged to cut the amount of carbon dioxide produced for each unit of economic growth by 40-45 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels. For India, that figure is up to 25 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels. Xie Zhenhua, deputy head of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission, said the world needed to take immediate action to fight climate change. But in the wake of a controversial exaggeration by the U.N. climate panel on the threat of global warming to the Himalayan glaciers, he called for an "open attitude" to climate science. "(There is a) point of view that the climate change or climate warming issue is caused by the cyclical element of the nature itself. I think we need to adopt an open attitude to the scientific research," he said through a translator. "We want our views to be more scientific and more consistent."

Energy and environment ministers from 20 of the world's top greenhouse gas emitting nations are meeting in Japan to discuss climate change, clean energy and sustainable development. Here are some questions and answers about the G20's fourth meeting focused on tackling climate change, known as the Gleneagles Dialogue. WHO IS ATTENDING? -- Energy and environment ministers from the Group of Eight, (Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States) and emerging economies such as Brazil, China and India. -- The World Bank, International Energy Agency and NGOs. -- Former British prime minister Tony Blair. He initiated the Gleneagles Dialogue in 2005, calling climate change "probably, long-term the single most important issue we face as a global community." WHAT IS THE G20? -- A group of 20 energy and environment ministers comprising member nations of the Gleneagles Dialogue. It is different from the G20 grouping of finance ministers and central bank governors. WHICH COUNTRIES ARE MEMBERS? -- Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, the United States, and the European Union (represented by Slovenia, which holds the rotating presidency). WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT TO THE CLIMATE DEBATE? -- The G20 emits almost 20 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, or about 78 percent of global emissions. G8 nations contribute 45 percent of this, other members contribute 33 percent. -- The U.S. (23 percent) and China (16 percent) are the G20's greatest individual emitters. WHAT'S ON THE MEETING'S AGENDA? -- Host Japan is expected to push for a "sectoral approach" to cutting greenhouse gas emissions after 2012. -- Funding for clean energy projects in developing nations. -- Japan's goal to halve global greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050. Talks will also aim to try to thrash out fair and equitable emissions targets among the major emitters to take into account different levels of economic development among members. -- Technologies for energy efficiency and cleaner energy production. -- WHAT'S THE SECTORAL APPROACH? -- Industries with high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, such as electricity, cement, steel, oil refining and pulp/paper, reduce emissions by using the best available technology. -- Big developing countries such as China, for example, would agree to voluntary GHG intensity targets for each sector (e.g: GHG/tonne of steel). In exchange, they would receive clean technology incentives from developed countries. WHAT COMES NEXT? -- Results of the meeting feed into the G8 leaders' summit to be held on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido in July and could also help guide U.N.-led talks aimed at agreeing a global pact by end-2009 to replace the Kyoto Protocol by 2013. Sources: Reuters, Ministry of the Environment, Japan,

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she wanted to offer developing countries a compromise climate change pact based on population size, but warned on Friday that negotiations will be tough. Merkel, who helped draw up the Kyoto Protocol on climate change as Germany's environment minister in 1997, made global warming and talks over a deal to succeed the protocol the focus of her three-day visit to Japan. "The question is: at what point can we involve developing countries, and what kind of measure do we use to create a just world?" Merkel said in Kyoto, the ancient Japanese capital where the 1997 protocol was agreed. Merkel suggested that developing countries should be allowed to increase their emissions per capita while industrialised national cut theirs, until both sides reach the same level. She brought up the proposal when she met officials in China before travelling to Japan, but the Chinese were sceptical, according to the German delegation. "Once (developing countries) reach the level of industrialised countries, the reduction begins," Merkel said. A similar idea was fielded by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the G8 summit with major developing countries in Germany in June. Under the Kyoto pact, 35 developed nations are obliged to cut emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. Developing nations, many of which have signed the protocol, are not obliged to make any reductions during the pact's first phase -- a concession that saw the United States and Australia pull out of the pact. Both nations, among the world's top per-capita polluters, say it's unfair that big developing nations such as China, India and Indonesia, are excluded and view the pact as bad for their economies. DIFFICULT ROAD AHEAD Many developing countries, in turn, are worried that strict environmental regulations will hamper economic growth. They demand industrialised nations, as chief polluters, bear the brunt of emission cuts. In turn, wealthy nations with relatively small populations and large industries fear a per-capita target could hurt them. Currently, per-capita carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are far higher in rich economies than in their poorer counterparts. The United States produces about 20 tonnes of CO2 a year per capita, Germany 11 tonnes and the European Union an average of 9 tonnes, according to the German government. China, on the other hand, churns out only 3.5 tonnes a year per head. The global average is 4.2 tonnes. Merkel repeated the aim was to halve global CO2 emissions by 2050. "That's a very big goal, but it's the consensus among experts. If we can't reach that, we'll pay for it dearly," she said. "If we don't do anything, we have to expect considerable changes in our climate." The United Nations is holding a major meeting on climate change in December on the Indonesian island of Bali. Backers want delegates to agree to launch talks on a new climate pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which runs out in 2012. Negotiators are aiming to hammer out the new pact by 2009, and Japan plays a crucial role since it is hosting the next G8 summit in Hokkaido in 2008. Merkel pointed out that targets included in the Kyoto Protocol had not been reached. The European Union has only achieved a 1.9 percent cut so far compared to a targeted 8 percent reduction, she said. Emissions have increased in Japan, which had pledged to cut them by 6 percent. About 1,000 delegates from 158 nations are currently meeting in Vienna to discuss global warming.

"This builds on previous executive actions that have cleared the way for job-creating pipelines, innovations in energy production, and reduced unnecessary burden on energy producers," the official said on condition of anonymity. On Wednesday, Trump is expected to sign an executive order related to the 1906 Antiquities Act, which enables the president to designate federal areas of land and water as national monuments to protect them from drilling, mining and development, the source said. On Friday, Trump is expected to sign an order to review areas available for offshore oil and gas exploration, as well as rules governing offshore drilling. The new measures would build on a number of energy- and environment-related executive orders signed by Trump seeking to gut most of the climate change regulations put in place by predecessor President Barack Obama. A summary of the forthcoming orders, seen by Reuters, say past administrations "overused" the Antiquities Act, putting more federal areas under protection than necessary. Obama had used the Antiquities Act more than any other president, his White House said in December, when he designated over 1.6 million acres of land in Utah and Nevada as national monuments, protecting two areas rich in Native American artifacts from mining, oil and gas drilling. The summary also says previous administrations have been "overly restrictive" of offshore drilling. Late in Obama's second term, he banned new drilling in federal waters in parts of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans using a 1950s-era law that environmental groups say would require a drawn out court challenge to reverse. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said during his January confirmation hearing that Trump could “amend” Obama’s monument designations but any move to rescind a designation would immediately be challenged. Last month, Trump signed an order calling for a review of Obama's Clean Power Plan, and reversed a ban on coal leasing on federal lands. In addition to the energy-related orders, Trump is also expected this week to sign an order to create an office of accountability in the Veterans Affairs department. He is also expected to create a rural America interagency task force to recommend policies to address issues facing agricultural states.

After four years of fraught UN talks often pitting the interests of rich nations against poor, imperilled island states against rising economic powerhouses, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius declared the pact adopted, to the standing applause and whistles of delegates from almost 200 nations. "With a small hammer you can achieve great things," Fabius said as he gavelled the agreement, capping two weeks of tense negotiations at the summit on the outskirts of the French capital. Hailed as the first truly global climate deal, committing both rich and poor nations to reining in rising emissions blamed for warming the planet, it sets out a sweeping, long-term goal of eliminating net manmade greenhouse gas output this century. "It is a victory for all of the planet and for future generations," said US Secretary of State John Kerry, who led the US negotiations in Paris. "We have set a course here. The world has come together around an agreement that will empower us to chart a new path for our planet, a smart and responsible path, a sustainable path." It also creates a system to encourage nations to step up voluntary domestic efforts to curb emissions, and provides billions more dollars to help poor nations cope with the transition to a greener economy powered by renewable energy. Calling it "ambitious and balanced", Fabius said the accord would mark a "historic turning point" in efforts to avert the potentially disastrous consequences of an overheated planet. For US President Barack Obama, it is a legacy-defining accomplishment that, he said at the White House, represents "the best chance we have to save the one planet that we've got." The final agreement was essentially unchanged from a draft unveiled earlier in the day, including a more ambitious objective of restraining the rise in temperatures to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, a mark scientists fear could be a tipping point for the climate. Until now the line was drawn only at 2 degrees. In some ways, its success was assured before the summit began: 187 nations have submitted detailed national plans for how they will contain the rise in greenhouse gas emissions, commitments that are the core of the Paris deal. While leaving each country to pursue those measures on its own, the agreement finally sets a common vision and course of action after years of bickering over how to move forward. Officials hope a unified stance will be a powerful symbol for world citizens and a potent signal to the executives and investors they are counting on to spend trillions of dollars to replace coal-fired power with solar panels and windmills. "This agreement establishes a clear path to decarbonise the global economy within the lifetimes of many people alive today," said Paul Polman, the CEO of consumer goods maker Unilever and a leading advocate for sustainable business practices. Polman said it will "drive real change in the real economy". Too much, or not enough? While some climate change activists and US Republicans will likely find fault with the accord - either for failing to take sufficiently drastic action, or for overreacting to an uncertain threat - many of the estimated 30,000 officials, academics and campaigners who set up camp on the outskirts of Paris say they see it as a long-overdue turning point. Six years after the previous climate summit in Copenhagen ended in failure and acrimony, the Paris pact appears to have rebuilt much of the trust required for a concerted global effort to combat climate change, delegates said. "Whereas we left Copenhagen scared of what comes next, we'll leave Paris inspired to keep fighting," said David Turnbull of Oil Change International, a research and advocacy organisation opposed to fossil fuel production. Most climate activists reacted positively, encouraged by long-term targets that were more ambitious than they expected, while warning it was only the first step of many. "Today we celebrate, tomorrow we have to work," European Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said. From the outset, some criticised the deal for setting too low a bar for success. Scientists warned that the envisaged national emissions cuts will not be enough to keep warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius. Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, the last major climate deal reached in 1997, the Paris pact will also not be a fully legally binding treaty, something that would almost certainly fail to pass the US Congress. In the United States, many Republicans will see the pact as a dangerous endeavour that threatens to trade economic prosperity for an uncertain if greener future. Some officials fear US progress could stall if a Republican is elected president next year, a concern Kerry brushed aside. Destinies bound After talks that extended into early morning, the draft text showed how officials had resolved the stickiest points. In a win for vulnerable low-lying nations who had portrayed the summit as the last chance to avoid the existential threat of rising seas, nations would "pursue efforts" to limit the rise in temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), as they had hoped. "Our head is above water," said Olai Uludong, ambassador on climate change for the Pacific island state of Palau. While scientists say pledges thus far could see global temperatures rise by as much as 3.7 degrees Celsius (6.7 degrees Fahrenheit), the agreement also lays out a roadmap for checking up on progress. The first "stocktake" would occur in 2023, with further reviews every five years to steadily increase or "ratchet up" those measures. It softened that requirement for countries with longer-term plans extending to 2030, such as China, which had resisted revisiting its goal before then. And for the first time, the world has agreed on a longer-term aspiration for reaching a peak in greenhouse emissions "as soon as possible" and achieving a balance between output of manmade greenhouse gases and absorption - by forests or the oceans - by the second half of this century. It also requires rich nations to maintain a $100 billion a year funding pledge beyond 2020, and use that figure as a "floor" for further support agreed by 2025, providing greater financial security to developing nations as they wean themselves away from coal-fired power.

Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara has urged his team to show "mental strength and fortitude" at the Twenty20 World Cup after the trauma of Lahore this year when the team bus was attacked by armed militants. "Since Lahore we have accepted there is never a 100 percent guarantee -- that's the way life is," Sangakkara told reporters after his team's warmup match against Bangladesh on Tuesday. "We've got to have the mental strength and fortitude to get on with our business of playing cricket. "With all teams in the current world climate, not just us, security is going to be an issue, in some countries more so than others maybe. But still worldwide there is a threat so our mental comfort depends on certain things being put in place for us and so far we have been very satisfied." Six members of the Sri Lanka team, including Sangakkara, were wounded after gunmen shot at their team bus en route to the Gaddafi Stadium for the second test against Pakistan in March. Six Pakistani policemen and the driver of the bus carrying the match officials were killed. The Sri Lanka team are liaising daily with a national police intelligence cell set up to oversee security for the World Cup in England, which starts on Friday. HEIGHTENED SECURITY World Twenty20 tournament director and former South Africa player Steve Elworthy, 44, held the same role at the 2007 World Twenty20 in South Africa. He said security had become much tighter since Lahore. "The situation has changed and it's now a completely different landscape to then," Elworthy told Reuters. "Without a shadow of a doubt it opened our eyes even more to the hazards facing cricketers and officials. "Our security plan for the event was already at an advanced stage and in place, but something like that made us go back and recheck everything again and do a strategy review." Tournament organisers, as well as the International Cricket Council (ICC), believe they have done as much as they can to keep the players safe. All teams get police convoys to and from matches and when travelling between venues, while there are also dedicated security staff for each side. Elworthy said he could not reveal the exact details of team security. The man heading the event's security is the former chief constable of Devon and Cornwall in south-west England, John Evans, who also advised the Football Association (FA) on security matters. The England team's security head Reg Dickason is also involved, as are the ICC's own independent security consultants. Despite the added attention, Sangakkara said the increased security measures had not distracted his side from cricket. "It feels like just another tournament; they have done a good job at keeping everything low key," Sangakkara said. "We have the opportunity to just concentrate on cricket and that's very nice."

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

Britain has dropped resistance to a mandatory European Union target of drawing 20 percent of power from renewable sources by 2020 and expects EU leaders to set that goal next week, a British official said on Wednesday. Britain was one of several countries, including prominently France, which opposed making legally binding the objective for low-polluting energy sources such as solar and wind power when EU energy ministers debated the issue on Feb 15. It argued at the time that member states should be free to choose how they achieved an agreed unilateral reduction of 20 percent in emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming from 1990 levels. But the official said Prime Minister Tony Blair had accepted after a telephone call with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso the need for a binding target to help establish EU leadership in the worldwide fight against climate change. "Unless you can demonstrate how you intend to get to 20 percent or 30 percent carbon dioxide reductions, it doesn't have credibility with (the media), with the markets or with industry," the official said. Diplomats said Britain's shift would not be enough on its own to persuade other resisters such as France and several central European countries to make the target binding, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will chair the March 8-9 summit, was working hard to clinch agreement. "I do expect it will be binding," the British official said, adding that the EU energy action plan to be adopted by leaders would have to reflect the different energy mixes and routes taken by member states. France has argued that a 20 percent renewables target could force it to diversify away from non-carbon nuclear power, which provides more than three-quarters of its electricity. Other sceptics are concerned about the cost of renewables and scientific arguments that switching to biofuels made from crops could actually generate more CO2 than it eliminates.

The European Union should speedily work out ways to help developing nations fight global warming to avert a "Catch 22" impasse that could brake action worldwide, the UN's top climate change official said on Monday. "This is a priority that all industrialised countries need to get moving on quickly," Yvo de Boer told Reuters of a message he would give to EU environment ministers at a meeting in Brussels later on Monday. About 190 nations agreed in Bali, Indonesia, in December to set, by the end of 2009, a global plan to fight climate change, widening the UN's Kyoto Protocol binding 37 industrialised nations to cut greenhouse gases until 2012. "As Bali indicated, we need some kind of real, measurable and verifiable additional flow of resources," de Boer said. Rich nations should step up aid to help the poor curb rising emissions of greenhouse gases. That in turn would encourage developing states to diversify their economies away from fossil fuels towards cleaner energies. Commitment by developing nations, led by China and India, is in turn a condition for many rich nations, led by the United States which worries about a loss of jobs, to curb emissions. The United States is the only rich nation outside Kyoto. "It's becoming a bit of a Catch 22 -- if you can't generate the resources to engage developing countries...then it makes it difficult for the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia and then possibly the EU to move forwards," he said. "Then things become difficult," said de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Secretariat in Bonn. ' FLOODS, HEATWAVES The EU says it is a leader in fighting climate change that the U.N. Climate Panel says will bring more heatwaves, floods, droughts and rising seas this century. De Boer said promising ideas for new funding include auctioning rights to emit carbon dioxide in the EU and using some of the proceeds to help developing nations. Another option was to increase a levy on a Kyoto project that allows rich nations to invest in cutting greenhouse gases in developing nations. And EU budgets for research and development could help curb climate change. De Boer said he would tell EU ministers: "If you don't generate the resources for developing countries then they won't engage and it will be difficult for you to engage." He also urged French President Nicolas Sarkozy to complete an EU package of climate measures during the French EU presidency in the second half of 2008. In January, the EU Commission outlined proposals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, raising use of renewable energy in power production to 20 percent and using 10 percent of biofuels in transport by 2020. "It's important that under the French presidency in the second half that the package is finalised so that it can go to (the European) parliament," de Boer said. France and Germany last week said that the plan might jeopardise European jobs. "The European Union has stepped into this with eyes wide open. And now it has to deliver" by sharing out the burden, de Boer said. "Signals about how the target is going to be achieved are important for (the EU's) international credibility." -- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on:

Abrams, a rising Democratic Party star, gained a national profile in her failed bid to become Georgia's governor in 2018 and is a leading voting rights advocate in the southern state. Biden, the former US vice president, has vowed to pick a woman to join his ticket and suggested he would consider her as a running mate. "Vice President Biden is the leader America needs — a leader who will restore dignity, competence and compassion to the Oval Office while restoring America's moral leadership around the world," Abrams said in a statement. She praised Biden's commitment to fighting climate change, pushing for an economic recovery for all, and protecting every American's right to vote. "While marginalized communities struggle under Donald Trump's failed leadership and people of color face disproportionate consequences of COVID-19, Joe Biden will take no one for granted," Abrams said. Other candidates likely being considered are Biden's former rivals for the 2020 Democratic nomination, Senators Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren. Others include Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who has gained a high profile leading Michigan amid protests during the coronavirus outbreak and Representative Val Demings of Florida, a key battleground state.

Not to mention global warming, refugees crises and looming famines in some of the poorest places on earth, all amplified by the pandemic. President-elect Joe Biden is inheriting a landscape of challenges and ill will toward the United States in countries hostile to President Donald Trump’s “America First” mantra, his unpredictability, embrace of autocratic leaders and resistance to international cooperation. Biden also could face difficulties in dealing with governments that had hoped for Trump’s reelection — particularly Israel and Saudi Arabia, which share the president’s deep antipathy toward Iran. But Biden’s past as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as vice president in the Obama administration has given him a familiarity with international affairs that could work to his advantage, foreign policy experts who know him say. “President Trump has lowered the bar so much that it wouldn’t take much for Biden to change the perception dramatically,” said Robert Malley, chief executive of the International Crisis Group and a former adviser in the Obama White House. “Saying a few of the things Trump hasn’t said — to rewind the tape on multilateralism, climate change, human rights — will sound very loud and significant.” Here are the most pressing foreign policy areas the Biden administration will face: The Challenge of US-China Relations Nothing is more urgent, in the eyes of many experts, than reversing the downward trajectory of relations with China, the economic superpower and geopolitical rival that Trump has engaged in what many are calling a new Cold War. Disputes over trade, the South China Sea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and technology have metastasised during Trump’s term, his critics say, worsened by the president’s racist declarations that China infected the world with the coronavirus and should be held accountable. “China is kind of the radioactive core of America’s foreign policy issues,” said Orville Schell, director of the Asia Society’s Center on US-China Relations. Biden has not necessarily helped himself with his own negative depiction of China and its authoritarian leader, President Xi Jinping, during the 2020 campaign. The two were once seen as having developed a friendly relationship during the Obama years. But Biden, perhaps acting partly to counter Trump’s accusations that he would be lenient toward China, has recently called Xi a “thug.” The Middle East: Shifts on Israel, Saudi Arabia and Iran? Biden has vowed to reverse what he called the “dangerous failure” of Trump’s Iran policy, which repudiated the 2015 nuclear agreement and replaced it with tightening sanctions that have caused deep economic damage in Iran and left the United States largely isolated on this issue. Biden has offered to rejoin the agreement, which constricts Iran’s nuclear capabilities if Iran adheres to its provisions and commits to further negotiations. He also has pledged to immediately nullify Trump’s travel ban affecting Iran and several other Muslim-majority countries. Whether Iran’s hierarchy will accept Biden’s approach is unclear. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has said the United States is untrustworthy regardless who is in the White House. At the same time, “Iran is desperate for a deal,” said Cliff Kupchan, chair of the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks to US President Donald Trump during the second day of the G7 meeting in Charlevoix city of La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada, Jun 9, 2018. Bundesregierung Handout via Reuters Still, Kupchan said, Biden will face enormous difficulties in any negotiations with Iran aimed at strengthening restrictions on its nuclear activities — weaknesses Trump had cited to justify renouncing the nuclear agreement. German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks to US President Donald Trump during the second day of the G7 meeting in Charlevoix city of La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada, Jun 9, 2018. Bundesregierung Handout via Reuters “The substance will be tough; we’ve seen this movie, and it’s not easy,” Kupchan said. “I think Biden’s challenge is that it will not end up blowing up in his face.” Biden’s Iran policy could alienate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who leveraged Trump’s confrontational approach to help strengthen Israel’s relations with Gulf Arab countries, punctuated by normalisation of diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. How Biden manages relations with Saudi Arabia, which considers Iran an enemy, will also be a challenge. “There’s a very hard square to circle here,” Kupchan said. Trump’s extremely favourable treatment of Israel in the protracted conflict with the Palestinians also could prove nettlesome as Biden navigates a different path in the Middle East. He has criticised Israeli settlement construction in occupied lands the Palestinians want for a future state. And he is likely to restore contacts with the Palestinian leadership. “Benjamin Netanyahu can expect an uncomfortable period of adjustment,” an Israeli columnist, Yossi Verter, wrote Friday in the Haaretz newspaper. At the same time, Biden also has a history of cordial relations with Netanyahu. Biden has said he would not reverse Trump’s transfer of the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv — a relocation that deeply angered the Palestinians. Repairing Relations With Europe and Navigating Brexit While Trump often disparaged the European Union and strongly encouraged Britain’s exit from the bloc, Biden has expressed the opposite position. Like Obama, he supported close US relations with EU leaders and opposed Brexit. Biden’s ascendance could prove especially awkward for Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, who had embraced Trump and had been counting on achieving a trade deal with the United States before his country’s divorce from the EU takes full effect. Biden may be in no hurry to complete such an agreement. While many Europeans will be happy to see Trump go, the damage they say he has done to America’s reliability will not be easily erased. “We had differences, but there was never a basic mistrust about having common views of the world,” Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former prime minister of Norway, told The New York Times last month. Over the past four years, she said, European leaders had learned they could “no longer take for granted that they can trust the US, even on basic things.” Confronting North Korea’s Nuclear Threat Trump has described his friendship and three meetings with Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, as a success that averted war with the nuclear-armed hermetic country. But critics say Trump’s approach not only failed to persuade Kim to relinquish his arsenal of nuclear weapons and missiles, it bought Kim time to strengthen them. Last month the North unveiled what appeared to be its largest-ever intercontinental ballistic missile. “On Trump’s watch, the North’s nuclear weapons program has grown apace, its missile capabilities have expanded, and Pyongyang can now target the United States with an ICBM,” said Evans J.R. Revere, a former State Department official and expert on North Korea. “That is the legacy that Trump will soon pass on to Biden, and it will be an enormous burden.” Biden, who has been described by North Korea’s official news agency as a rabid dog that “must be beaten to death with a stick,” has criticised Trump’s approach as appeasement of a dictator. Biden has said he would press for denuclearisation and “stand with South Korea” but has not specified how he would deal with North Korean belligerence. A Likely Tougher Approach to Russia and Putin Biden has long asserted that he would take a much harder line with Russia than Trump, who questioned NATO’s usefulness, doubted intelligence warnings on Russia’s interference in US elections, admired President Vladimir Putin and said that improving US relations with the Kremlin would benefit all. Biden, who as vice president pushed for sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 — the biggest illegal land seizure in Europe since World War II — might seek to extend those sanctions and take other punitive steps. While tensions with Russia would likely rise, arms control is one area where Biden and Putin share a desire for progress. Biden is set to be sworn in just a few weeks before the scheduled expiration of the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. He has said he wants to negotiate an extension of the treaty without preconditions. A Return to the Paris Agreement and International Commitments Biden has said one of his first acts as president will be to rejoin the Paris Climate accord to limit global warming, which the United States officially left under Trump on Wednesday. Biden also has said he would restore US membership in the World Health Organization, which Trump repudiated in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, describing the WHO as a lackey of China. More broadly, Biden is expected to reverse many of the isolationist and anti-immigrant steps taken during the Trump administration, which are widely seen by Trump’s critics as shameful stains on America's standing in the world. Biden has said he would disband Trump’s immigration restrictions, stop construction of his border wall with Mexico, expand resources for immigrants and provide a path to citizenship for people living in the United States illegally. Nonetheless, many of Trump’s policies had considerable support in the United States, and it remains to be seen how quickly or effectively Biden can change them. The convulsions that roiled American democracy and the divisive election have also sown doubts about Biden’s ability to deliver on his pledges. “There is relief at a return to some kind of normalcy, but at the same time, history cannot be erased,” said Jean-Marie Guehenno, a French diplomat who is a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Program and a former undersecretary general for peacekeeping operations at the United Nations. “The kind of soft power that the United States has enjoyed in the past has largely evaporated.”   ©2020 The New York Times Company

After he vanquished Sen Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, he brought the liberal icon’s ardent supporters into the fold by embracing much of the senator’s platform even as he ran on unifying the country. When moderate Democrats came to call, he used the tones of centrism to assure them of his conciliatory bona fides. But when Biden ventured to the Capitol on Friday to help House Democrats out of their thicket, he had to choose sides. He effectively chose the left. “The way he is governing doesn’t reflect the skills I know he must have from his years as a legislator,” said Rep Stephanie Murphy, who had been one of the moderates demanding an immediate vote on a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill, convinced that was what the president wanted — or at least needed. She called Biden’s refusal to push harder for legislation he had embraced “disappointing and frustrating.” “I’m not clear why he came up to the Hill,” she grumbled. Since the president claimed his party’s nomination last year, he has nurtured the fragile peace between his party’s fractious centre and left by convincing both sides he is their ally. Unified first by their shared disdain for former President Donald Trump, and then by Biden’s adoption of an expansive platform, the two factions remained in harmony into this year. They responded to the pandemic by passing a sweeping stimulus package in the spring. Now the two factions are at loggerheads — one flexing its power but as yet empty-handed, the other feeling betrayed, both claiming they have the president on their side — and the outcome of their battle over Biden’s proposals could determine Democrats’ fate in the midterms and the success of his presidency. That agenda consists of two sweeping domestic proposals resembling a modern Great Society: the “American Jobs Plan,” spending $1 trillion over 10 years on traditional infrastructure like roads, bridges and tunnels; and a bigger and more controversial “American Family Plan,” which the Democrats labelled “soft infrastructure,” including universal prekindergarten and community college, paid family and medical leave, child care and elder care support, and an expansion of Medicare. But liberals feared that moderate Democrats would vote for the infrastructure bill, claim victory and peel away from the social policy measure, so they refused to support the smaller infrastructure bill until the larger social policy package had been passed. Heading into last week, both the moderates and the progressives felt as if they had ironclad promises: the moderates, that a vote on infrastructure would happen before October; the liberals, that the bill, a crucial part of the president’s domestic agenda, was inextricably twinned with their higher priority, the more expansive measure addressing climate change and the frayed social safety net. The liberals, however, used their larger numbers to blockade the infrastructure bill — and they said they did it for Biden. Rep Ilhan Omar, one of the left-wing leaders of the blockade, stood before reporters last week and said the blockaders were the ones “trying to make sure that the president has a success.” “If we pass the infrastructure bill alone, we are not even accomplishing 10% of his agenda,” said Omar, the vote-counter in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a bloc of Democrats nearly 100 strong, who showed their cohesion in last week’s showdown. This enraged both the nine centrist lawmakers who had forced Speaker Nancy Pelosi to promise an infrastructure vote by the end of September, and a larger, quieter group of backbench House Democrats, many from swing districts, who were eager for the president to sign the public works bill and start trumpeting the funding for roads, bridges and broadband in their districts, at a time when Biden’s approval ratings were sagging. “I don’t think it’s good for the Joe Biden administration, and I don’t think it’s good for Democrats,” said Rep Henry Cuellar suggesting that Biden was effectively siding with the left by not lobbying for passage of the infrastructure package. In part, that anger stemmed from Biden’s go-along-to-get-along style. “You got the feeling that Uncle Joe is for everybody, he likes everybody,” said Rep Emanuel Cleaver. Members of the moderate wing were explicit Friday, blaming the liberals but also insisting that they themselves were Biden’s true torch bearers. Rep Josh Gottheimer denounced a “small faction on the far left” that he said had employed “Freedom Caucus tactics” to “destroy the president’s agenda” — a reference to the hard-right faction of the House that bedeviled Republican leaders when they were in charge. “We were elected to achieve reasonable, common-sense solutions for the American people — not to obstruct from the far wings,” Gottheimer fumed in a statement released late Friday night. “This far-left faction is willing to put the president’s entire agenda, including this historic bipartisan infrastructure package, at risk. They’ve put civility and bipartisan governing at risk.” Given the range of the party’s suburbanites-to-socialists coalition, it may have been inevitable that Biden would eventually anger one wing of his party. What was striking, and perhaps equally surprising to both blocs, was that he alienated the moderates who had propelled him to the nomination while delighting the progressives who vociferously opposed him in the primary. The president is not backing off the public works measure so treasured by the moderates. But as he told House Democrats on Friday, he believes it’s “just reality” that the infrastructure legislation will not pass without assurances from two centrist senators, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, that they will support the more wide-ranging bill. Although, as Biden conceded in the Capitol, that will not happen until the more expansive bill is pared back to meet the two senators’ approval. Rep Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. and the head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said her bloc wants to move forward, as does 96% of the Democratic Caucus. It is the 4% — especially Manchin and Sinema — that are the problem. “We understand that we don’t always get to vote on things that we’d like 100%. It’s the other folks, the 4% that are blocking the president’s agenda, the Democratic agenda that we ran on, who need to recognize that.” The decision to keep the fate of each bill tied to the other’s measure amounts to a gamble. Infrastructure was the bird in hand; it passed the Senate with bipartisan bonhomie in August with 69 votes. Together, they are in trouble, which deepens with every new demand by Manchin and Sinema that pulls the social policy bill further from the liberals’ vision. If the two factions cannot agree on that measure, Biden might end up with nothing — a catastrophic blow for his party and its leader. Delaying the infrastructure bill is not, as Rep Dean Phillips put it, “the linear and expeditious path to which most of us would aspire.” Phillips, a well-liked moderate who captured a Republican district in 2018, expressed hope earlier in the week that Biden could serve as a bridge between the party’s factions. But he acknowledged Friday that those chances had “been sadly diminished” in light of what he called the president’s “nothing-burger” of a visit to the Capitol. Rep Stephanie Murphy speaks to reporters outside of the US Capitol in Washington on Thursday, Sept 30, 2021. The New York Times Phillips said he thought both bills would still get done. But privately, other lawmakers from competitive seats were disconsolate that they would not be able to spend the remainder of this fall holding up evidence of bipartisan achievement in Washington. Rep Stephanie Murphy speaks to reporters outside of the US Capitol in Washington on Thursday, Sept 30, 2021. The New York Times Biden is eager to sign both bills. One of his aides Friday likened them to children he loves equally. That has not, though, stopped both factions of the party from claiming that they are the ones seeking to assure passage of his agenda. The result is quite a turnabout. “We are fighting for the Build Back Better agenda,” said Omar, employing Biden’s preferred slogan — which would have been shocking at this time two years ago, when she rallied early to Sanders’ candidacy. Throughout 2019 and in the first months of 2020, Biden was an object of scorn from the left. He was too old, too moderate and an obviously bad fit for an increasingly young, diverse and progressive party, they said, often mocking him in harsh terms. Biden believed liberals were the ones out of step with the Democratic center of gravity. And he effectively proved it by assembling a multiracial coalition that was animated by defeating Trump more than by any bold policy agenda. Yet because his primary had largely centred on ousting Trump and unifying the country, he had little in the way of firm policy plans. And in making peace with progressives after he secured the nomination, he adopted a number of their ideas. That has allowed left-wing Democrats to say, with wide smiles, that they are only trying to fulfill Biden’s vision. The question now is whether his attempt to pass both bills will pay off — or if his decision to not push for quick passage of the infrastructure bill will leave him with a protracted standoff or nothing at all. What is certain, however, is that after Biden’s all-things-to-all-people campaign, he has committed himself to many of the policies that his liberal critics were sceptical he would embrace. “For all of the progressives who kept telling me there was no difference between Joe Biden and Mike Bloomberg,” said Rep Brendan Boyle an early Biden supporter, “where Biden has come down in this internal debate shows how absurd that claim always was.” © 2021 The New York Times Company

As presidents and prime ministers arrive in Glasgow, Scotland, this week for a pivotal climate summit, the outcome will determine, to a large extent, how the world’s 7 billion people will survive on a hotter planet and whether far worse levels of warming can be averted for future generations. Already, the failure to slow rising temperatures — brought on by the burning of oil, gas and coal — has led to deadly floods, fires, heat and drought around the world. It has exposed a gaping chasm between the scientific consensus, which says humanity must rapidly reduce the emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases to avert climate catastrophe, and what political leaders and many corporate executives have been willing to do. “That we are now so perilously close to the edge for a number of countries is perhaps the tragedy of our times,” said Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados. Tensions loom over the 12-day summit. Some poor countries hard hit by climate disasters are holding out for money promised, and yet to be delivered, by the industrialised nations that fueled the crisis. Polluting countries are pressing each other to cut their emissions while jockeying for advantage and wrestling with the impacts on their own economies. Complicating matters, the need for collective action to tackle such an urgent, existential global threat comes at a time of rising nationalism. This makes the talks in Glasgow a test of whether global cooperation is even possible to confront a crisis that does not recognise national borders. “I don’t think you can solve the climate crisis on your own as a nationalist leader,” said Rachel Kyte, a former United Nations official and now dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University. “You depend on the actions of others.” The science is clear on what needs to be done. Emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases driving up global temperatures need to be cut by nearly half by 2030, less than a decade. In fact, they are continuing to grow. The World Meteorological Organization warned last week that the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere had reached a record high in 2020 despite the pandemic and is rising again this year. As a result, the average global temperature has risen by more than 1 degree Celsius since the Industrial Revolution. The scientific consensus says that if it rises by 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, it will significantly increase the likelihood of far worse climate catastrophes that could exacerbate hunger, disease and conflict. Limiting temperature rise to within the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold has become something of a rallying cry for many powerful countries, including the United States. That is not within reach: Even if all countries achieve the targets they set for themselves at the 2015 Paris Agreement, average global temperatures are on track to rise by 2.7 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. The US climate envoy, John Kerry, who had recently described the summit as “the last best hope” last week tried to manage expectations. “Glasgow was never, ever going to get every country joining up in Glasgow or this year necessarily,” he said Thursday. “It was going to galvanise the raising of ambition on a global basis.” The goals of the summit are to have countries nudge each other to rein in their emissions, commit financial support to low-income countries to deal with the impacts, and iron out some of the rules of the Paris Agreement. The agreement stipulated that countries come together every five years to update their climate action plans and nudge each other to do more. The five-year mark was missed because of the pandemic. The climate summit was postponed. Climate disasters piled on. The pandemic is important in another sense. It offers a grim lesson on the prospects for collective action. Countries turned inward to protect their own citizens, and sometimes their own pharmaceutical industries, resulting in a starkly inequitable distribution of vaccines. Half the world’s population remains unvaccinated, mainly in countries of the global south. “We’ve just experienced the worst part of humanity’s response to a global crisis,” said Tasneem Essop, executive director of Climate Action Network, an activist group. “And if this is going to be the track record for addressing the global climate crisis, then we are in trouble. I’m hoping this is a moment of reflection and inflection.” Meanwhile, anger is mounting against official inaction. The streets of Glasgow are expected to fill with tens of thousands of protesters. Who Wants What? The main battle lines shaping up at the Glasgow talks, known as the 26th session of the Conference of Parties, or COP26, have to do with who is responsible for the warming of the planet that is already underway, who should do what to keep it from getting worse and how to live with the damage already done. The venue is itself a reminder. In the mid-19th century, Glasgow was a centre of heavy industry and shipbuilding. Its power and wealth rose as Britain conquered nations across Asia and Africa, extracting their riches and becoming the world’s leading industrial power, until the US took the mantle. The largest share of the emissions that have already heated the planet came mainly from the US and Europe, including Britain, while the largest share of emissions produced right now comes from China, the world’s factory. In some cases, the divisions in Glasgow pit advanced industrialised countries, including the US and Europe, against emerging economies, including China, India and South Africa. In other cases, they set large emerging polluters, like China and India, against small vulnerable countries, including low-lying island nations in the Pacific and Caribbean, which want more aggressive action against emissions. Tensions over money are so profound that they threaten to derail cooperation. In 2010, rich countries had promised to pay $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poor countries address climate change. Some of that money has been paid but the full amount will not materialise until 2023, three years late, according to the latest plan announced by a group of industrialized countries. Even more fraught is the idea of industrialised countries also paying reparations to vulnerable nations to compensate for the damage already done. Known in diplomatic circles as a fund for loss and damage, discussions about this have been postponed for years because of opposition from countries like the US Kerry this week said he was “supportive” of the idea of assisting countries who can’t adapt their way out of climate change, but remained concerned about opening the floodgates of liability claims. Then there are tensions over whether countries are doing their fair share to reduce their emissions. The Biden administration has pledged that the US will slash emissions by about half by 2030, compared with 2005 levels. But President Joe Biden’s ability to reach that target is unclear, as legislation has been watered down and stalled in Congress, partly by a single Democratic lawmaker with ties to the fossil fuel industry. The US has been leaning hard on China to set more ambitious targets in Glasgow. But so far, Beijing has said only that its emissions will continue to grow and decline before 2030. China is wary of the United States’ ability to fulfil its emissions and finance targets, a scepticism only fueled by Biden’s inability so far to get his climate agenda through Congress. Besides, the two countries are locked in bitter tensions over a host of other issues, from trade to defence to cybersecurity. While Biden is in Glasgow, President Xi Jinping of China is likely to appear only by video, precluding any face-to-face discussions. President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil also plans to stay home. President Vladimir Putin of Russia is not going, either, but may offer remarks remotely. India is unlikely to commit to phase out its heavy reliance on coal power to meet its growing energy needs, although it is quickly expanding solar power in its energy mix. The most optimistic diplomats say countries will be forced to come around and cooperate. “Because of the global nature of this threat,” the Danish environment minister, Dan Jorgenson, said, “you will see countries, in their own interest, work with countries they see as their competitor.” What Is Success? No matter what happens at the summit, success in battling climate change will be measured by how quickly the global economy can pivot away from fossil fuels. Coal, oil and gas interests, and their political allies, are fighting that transition. But a transformation is visible. The global use of fossil fuels, which has been on a steady march upward for 150 years, is projected to peak by the middle of this decade, assuming that countries mostly hew to the promises they’ve made under the Paris accord, according to projections by the International Energy Agency. Wind and solar have become the cheapest source of electricity in some markets, coal use is set to decline sharply by midcentury, despite an uptick this year driven by increased industrial activity in China, and electric vehicles are projected to drive down global oil demand by the 2030s. Global temperature rise has also slowed since 2015, when the Paris Agreement was signed. Some see that as evidence that climate diplomacy is working. Most countries are doing what they signed up to do, which is to set their own climate targets and “egg each other on” to do better, said Ani Dasgupta, president of World Resources Institute, a Washington-based research and advocacy group. “The ratcheting up of ambition, we do see it happening,” he said. “It’s not happening fast enough.” From her home in Barbados, Mottley sees another promising sign: pressure on leaders of countries in the global north, as the dangers of climate change increasingly afflict their citizens. That includes the floods that killed nearly 200 people in Germany, Europe’s richest country, and the fires that scorched homes in California, America’s richest state. “It is the populations of the advanced countries coming to the recognition that this is a serious issue that is causing the needle to move,” she said. “It is that kind of domestic political pressure from ordinary people that is going to save the world in my view.” ©2021 The New York Times Company

A free trade agreement with the European Union could create new export opportunities worth $9 billion for Indian industries, EU trade chief Karel de Gucht said on Thursday. De Ducht, on a visit to India, said he expected good progress in the coming months on trade negotiations between the second most populous country in the world and the 27-nation EU. "With India we will conclude a deal that benefits us both, or there will be no deal," De Gucht wrote in an editorial piece published in the Economic Times of India. India began negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU, its largest trading partner, in 2007, but the talks have run into a wall of differences, especially over EU efforts to link trade with sensitive topics which India wants to keep off the table. Disagreements over market access, intellectual property rights, a dispute over generic drugs and the EU's desire to include issues such as climate change and child labour have stalled the talks. De Gucht said he was aware of the difficulties in overcoming some of the hurdles but added an agreement could increase Indian exports to the EU by a third from the current level and Indian firms could also benefits from the opening of services and investment markets. Trade between India and the EU has grown by 16 percent annually and currently stands at 78 billion euros ($106.4 billion), but is still less than one-fifth of the EU's trade with China, India's Asian rival. De Gucht said successful trade deal could make India a much more attractive destination for European investment.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's expected absence from the talks could indicate that the world's biggest CO2 producer has already decided that it has no more concessions to offer at the UN COP26 climate summit in Scotland after three major pledges since last year, climate watchers said. Instead, China will likely be represented by vice-environment minister Zhao Yingmin along with the veteran Xie Zhenhua, who was reappointed as the country's top climate envoy earlier this year following a three-year hiatus. "One thing is clear," said Li Shuo, senior climate adviser with Greenpeace in Beijing. "COP26 needs high-level support from China as well as other emitters." The head of the world's third-biggest source of climate-warming emissions, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has committed to attending the COP26 summit, which runs from Oct 31 to Nov 12. Like other leaders, he will come under pressure from summit organisers to commit to quicker emissions cuts and set a target date to reach carbon neutrality - a target set by Xi for 2060 in a surprise move last year. But China will be unwilling to be seen yielding to international pressure for more ambitious goals, according to one environmental consultant, especially as it grapples with a crippling energy supply crunch at home. Beijing is "already maxed out", said the consultant, speaking on condition of anonymity citing the sensitivity of the matter. Though there has been no official announcement, analysts and diplomatic sources said few had been expecting Xi to attend COP26 in person. He has already missed several high-profile global summits since the COVID-19 outbreak began in late 2019, and didn't physically attend the Global Biodiversity Conference in China's Kunming earlier this month. They also said Xi was unlikely to lend his physical presence - a virtual video appearance remains a possibility - to a meeting that had little prospect of any significant breakthrough, especially after China brushed off US attempts to treat climate as a 'standalone' issue that could be separated from the broader diplomatic disputes between the two sides. Rather than making more concessions, China and India's top priority is to secure a strong financing deal allowing richer countries to meet their Paris Agreement commitment to provide $100 billion per year to help pay for climate adaptation and transfer clean technology in the developing world. Xi did attend the Paris summit in person in 2015. DOMESTIC CONCERNS Although Xi has not travelled outside China since before the pandemic, he has made three major climate announcements on the international stage. His unexpected net zero commitment came in a video address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September 2020. That announcement encouraged enterprises, industry sectors and even other countries to respond with their own net-zero action plans. Xi also said in a message to the US-led Leaders Summit on Climate in April that China would start cutting coal consumption by 2026. And he used this year's UNGA to announce an immediate end to overseas coal financing, a major bone of contention. Like India, China has been under pressure to add more ambition to its updated "nationally determined contributions" (NDCs) on climate change, which are due to be announced before the Glasgow talks begin. However, the revisions are expected to focus on implementing the targets that have already been announced, rather than making them more ambitious. China has repeatedly stressed that its climate policies are designed to serve its own domestic priorities, and will not be pursued at the expense of national security and public welfare. Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based non-government group that monitors corporate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, said China already had enough climate challenges to deal with and has little leeway to go further in Glasgow. "With all the headwinds and all the pledges that have been made, it is important to take stock and consolidate," he said. "It's not enough to put these (commitments) on paper," he added. "We have to translate them into solid actions."

The report found that we are already experiencing those effects of climate change, as the planet has surpassed more than 1 degree Celsius in average warming. Heatwaves, droughts and torrential rains are only set to become more frequent and extreme as the earth warms further. It is the first time that the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has quantified the likelihood of these extreme events in a wide variety of scenarios. The report found that once-in-a-decade heavy rain events are now 1.3 times more likely and 6.7 percent wetter, compared with the 50 years up to 1900 when major human-driven warming started to occur. Previously once-in-a-decade droughts could happen every five or six years. Scientists emphasized that these effects of climate change are already here, with events like the heatwave in the US Pacific Northwest killing hundreds in June and Brazil currently experiencing its worst drought in 91 years "The heatwave in Canada, fires in California, floods in Germany, floods in China, droughts in central Brazil make it very, very clear that climate extremes are having a very heavy toll," said Paulo Artaxo, a lead author of the report and an environmental physicist and the University of Sao Paulo. The future looks even grimmer, with more warming meaning more frequent extreme events. Heatwaves show stronger increases in frequency with warming than all other extreme events. Twice in a century heat waves could happen roughly every six years with 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, a level which the report says could be surpassed within two decades. Should the world become 4 degrees Celsius hotter, as could happen in a high-emissions scenario, those heat waves would happen every one to two years. Carolina Vera, another report author and a physical climate scientist at University of Buenos Aires and Argentina's main agency for science research (CONICET), said there is also an increasing likelihood that multiple extreme weather events could happen at the same time. For example, extreme heat, drought and high winds - conditions that could feed wildfires - are more likely to happen at the same time. A protester carries a sign depicting the earth during the Peoples Climate March near the White House in Washington, U.S., on April 29, 2017. REUTERS The IPCC has a medium or high-level confidence that many important agricultural regions around the world will see more droughts or extreme rain. That includes parts of Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil that are major growers of soybeans and other global commodities. A protester carries a sign depicting the earth during the Peoples Climate March near the White House in Washington, U.S., on April 29, 2017. REUTERS "It is scary, sure, with the risk that fires, heat waves, droughts will affect humans in the form of weather and food insecurity, energy insecurity, water quality and health - mainly in poor regions," said Jose Marengo, a climatologist at the Brazilian Science Ministry's disaster monitoring centre. Marengo was not involved in the IPCC report. For example, regions that are already prone to drought are likely to experience them more frequently, including in the Mediterranean, southern Australia, and western North America, said Friederike Otto, IPCC author and climatologist at University of Oxford. Increased frequency of drought and heavy rain also are not mutually exclusive and are predicted in places like Southern Africa, she said. The projections on extreme weather events laid out in the report reinforce the importance of curbing climate change to the levels laid out in the Paris Agreement, scientists said. "If we stabilize at 1.5 degrees, we can stop them from getting much worse," Otto said.

The pandemic has profoundly disrupted the largest public transit system in America, throwing it into financial turmoil. But getting more people on public transportation will be a crucial component of New York City’s plan to become carbon neutral by 2050. The system needs to grow — right at a time when it is facing a sharp decline in ridership and revenue. Subway rides, bus rides and car trips in New York City fell drastically last March as coronavirus cases surged and the city entered a mandatory lockdown. Some residents who could afford to left the city for second homes or rentals in the suburbs. Many employees switched to remote work and have not yet returned to their offices. Keeping the city’s buses and subways moving has been crucial for transporting medical and essential workers, but, with fewer riders, the city’s public transit organisation is facing its worst budget crisis in history. “We are still in a severe fiscal crisis caused by the pandemic,” said Shams Tarek, deputy communications director at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates many of the subways, buses and trains in the New York metro area. “But we’re optimistic about the future, given the support we’ve received in Washington. We expect ridership to gradually return to the system — it’s not a matter of if, but when — and we will continue to power New York’s recovery.” Before the pandemic, New York City’s subways were the city’s most popular mode of transit. There were nearly 1.7 billion turnstile swipes in 2019. But last March, ridership fell 90% and has only recovered to a third of what it was before the pandemic. Transportation researchers attribute New York City’s drop in public transit riders to the shift to remote work and say that the dip in tourism may also be contributing to fewer subway rides. “There’s a difference in travel right now,” said Hayley Richardson, a senior communications associate at TransitCenter, a nonprofit group that advocates for public transportation in New York City. “White-collar workers are not going to the office, fewer people are taking trips for entertainment. There’s just less movement around the city.” But subway ridership has not fallen equally in every neighbourhood. Subway stations in higher income neighbourhoods have seen much larger declines in ridership than lower income neighbourhoods. With offices shuttered, midtown Manhattan stations now see just a small fraction of their previous riders. In January, turnstile entries to the Times Square 42nd Street station hovered around 19% of what they were the year before. Neighbourhoods in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, which are home to more people of colour and families with lower annual income than most parts of Manhattan, are also home to many of the city’s essential workers — and have retained more of their subway riders. Those subway stations report closer to 40% of their prepandemic ridership. A look at how neighbourhood wealth has affected NYC public transit ridership during the pandemic. The New York Times The citywide decline in subway riders has wiped out the transit budget. Since last spring, the MTA has been operating on $8 billion in coronavirus relief payments from the federal government and an additional $3 billion in short-term loans. But that money will soon run out. The MTA will require an additional $8 billion by 2024 to avoid dramatic service cuts and layoffs. A look at how neighbourhood wealth has affected NYC public transit ridership during the pandemic. The New York Times The high costs of sanitization and investments in worker protections have also compounded financial problems for the organization. Systemwide, the MTA spent $371 million on pandemic-related costs in 2020 and expects to spend close to that same amount each year through 2024. Station and train cleaning efforts require closing the subway system overnight, which reduces service in the early morning hours. In the early days of the pandemic, it seemed all but impossible to follow social distancing guidelines while staying safe on New York’s crowded buses and subways. Those initial fears of infection may have spurred car purchases. And some former riders may still be avoiding transit for fear of contracting the virus, though transmission risks are lower than offices or classrooms if all passengers wear masks and practice social distancing. “Despite the fact that all of the subsequent studies have failed to show a link between COVID transmission and transit, that idea was difficult to dislodge once it got into people’s minds,” Richardson said. Bus ridership dropped precipitously in March, but rebounded faster than subway ridership. “The majority of bus riders during the pandemic were essential workers,” said Jaqi Cohen, the campaign director for the Straphangers Campaign, which advocates for public transit riders. In March, the MTA implemented rear-door boarding on buses to keep passengers distanced from drivers until plastic partitions could be installed around the driver’s seats. On local buses, the fare box is near the front door, so the policy effectively eliminated fares on those routes. When those partitions were completed in September, fares were reinstated and ridership dropped a second time. “The fact that bus ridership is only down 40% really says so much about what role the city’s bus system plays as sort of the workhorse and getting essential workers where they need to go and, you know, getting people to doctor’s appointments and grocery stores,” Richardson said. Bus riders are more likely to be older, people of colour or immigrants than subway riders, according to Richardson. The MTA has also introduced three new bus routes to serve riders during the overnight subway closures and increased service along its busiest routes. Yasmin Asad, who commutes from her home in Queens to classes at Brooklyn College, used to travel by subway but now prefers taking the bus. Along her stretch of the A line, there are longer waits on the platform and more time stopped on the tracks between stations, but buses come more frequently than they used to. That makes social distancing easier because if one bus is full, passengers don’t have to wait long for the next one. “You can respect the social distancing guidelines without running late,” Asad said. Car travel was quicker to recover than any form of public transit, though fewer people are making trips than before the pandemic, according to analyses by INRIX and StreetLight Data, two firms that specialize in mobility data. In New York City, morning rush hour on highways has subsided. With less driving overall, the city’s roadways have fewer traffic jams and higher vehicle speeds. The traffic analysis showed that the daily surge in vehicle traffic is more spread out throughout the day and into the afternoon, likely because of an increase in home deliveries and more New Yorkers running errands during the afternoon. As New York City reopens, the increase in driving will lead to bottlenecks and slower speeds. “We cannot depend on single-occupancy vehicles to function as a city,” Cohen said. “There’s only so many cars that can be on the road in New York before the streets have hit total gridlock.” For New York City to hit its climate goals, it will be critical for more people to use public transit, bikes or walking to commute than before the pandemic. When offices and businesses begin to reopen, more flexible remote options for workers could also be friendly for the planet. Transit experts also say that existing tools and policies could encourage commuters to embrace low-emissions modes of transportation. Bike shares and bike sales are experiencing a boom in the city, which could help reduce transit emissions, but cycling advocates say continued investment in bike paths and protected lanes will be key for keeping people on their bikes as commuting returns to its post-pandemic normal. Congestion pricing, which the city passed in 2019 but has yet to implement, could discourage car commuting and the fees could generate $1 billion each year to fund public transit. Dedicated bus lanes would also increase bus speeds, making public transit a more attractive option. Despite the current public transit crisis, many transit experts say the pandemic will create a temporary decline in ridership, not a lasting trend. “The fundamental conditions that created our commuting patterns have not shifted because of the pandemic,” said Matthew Raifman, a doctoral student in environmental health at the Boston University School of Public Health. “If you think of a place like New York City, the challenges around owning a car, like parking and traffic, will not have gone away after the pandemic, and the benefits of biking to work or taking public transit will also still be there.” © 2021 New York Times News Service

The River Thames burst its banks on Wednesday, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of homes in the university city of Oxford in Britain's worst floods for 60 years. About 350,000 people faced two weeks without running water and insurance companies said the bill could soar to 3 billion pounds ($6.2 billion). Farmers say harvests have been badly hit and that farm animals in flood-hit areas could die unless water supplies are restored soon. Visiting the worst-hit area in Gloucestershire, western England, Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged more cash for stricken areas and more tankers and bottled water to ensure supplies. Oxford became the new frontline when rivers feeding into the Thames spilled over into its streets, forcing police to evacuate 250 homes. Aerial pictures showed flood waters not far from some of the city's historic college buildings. Heavy rain is expected overnight and Environment Agency officials warned that the river had not yet peaked. As the flooding spread along the river, officials said Queen Elizabeth's residence at Windsor Castle was not threatened and no property flooding was expected in London -- although heavy storms could always cause flash flooding. "There are six severe flood warnings in place. It looks as if we are going to get up to 20 millimetres (0.8 inch) of rain across the board tomorrow," an Environment Agency spokesman said. COUNTING THE COST The insurance bill for floods in June and July could hit 3 billion pounds, insurers say, sparking fears of price hikes. Milk shortages hit some areas with flooded roads making collections from dairy farms impossible. The rain brought harvesting of barley and rapeseed to a halt in many regions. One power substation in Oxford was closed as a precaution, after it was partially flooded at the weekend, but customers have not been cut off because supplies were re-routed. Sandbags were piled up to protect other substations in the area. Economists say the floods will trim back economic growth and are likely to trigger a short-term spike in food prices, but the overall economy is likely to weather the storm in the long run. One beneficiary of the bad weather was the airline industry. British Airways said seat bookings for long flights were up as holidaymakers escaped the British summer. "We need to invest more in preventing floods," Brown told parliament. Less than a month into the job as Britain's new premier, he said everything had to be looked at from infrastructure and drainage to where utilities were located. In a stark reference to how 21st century weather had changed, finance minister Alistair Darling said: "Climate change is not a passing trend. "It is a reality we must factor into everything we do. If we do not, threats to our everyday life -- like the floods this week -- risk becoming common."

The agreement commits nations to work on a broad and legally binding treaty that would not only aim to improve recycling and clean up the world’s plastic waste, but would encompass curbs on plastics production itself. That could put measures like a ban on single-use plastics, a major driver of waste, on the table. Supporters have said that a global plastics treaty would be the most important environmental accord since the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, in which nations agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Negotiators are now set to meet this year for the first of many rounds of talks to hammer out the details of a treaty on plastics, with a target of sealing a deal by 2024. “We are making history today,” said Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s climate and the environment minister and president of the United Nations Environment Assembly, which took place for the past week in Nairobi, Kenya. In an earlier interview, he said that, given Russia’s war in Ukraine, it was particularly significant that “this divided world can still agree on something, based on science.” The sheer volume of plastics the world produces is difficult to comprehend. By one measure, the total amount ever produced is now greater than the weight of all land and marine animals combined. Only 9% has ever been recycled, the UN Environment Program estimates. Instead, the bulk is designed to be used just once (recycling symbols are no guarantee of recyclability) after which it ends up in landfills, dumps, the natural environment or is incinerated. Scientists say plastics cause harm throughout their life cycle, releasing toxic as well as planet-warming greenhouse gases during production, landfill and incineration. Plastics, which are manufactured from fossil fuels, caused 4.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2015, one recent study estimated, more than all of the world’s aeroplanes combined. Wednesday’s agreement drew heavily from a joint proposal submitted by Peru and Rwanda, reflecting how, in recent years, developing nations have been at the forefront of efforts to tackle plastics pollution. Rwanda, for example, more than a decade ago adopted strict bans on the import, production, use or sale of plastic bags and packaging. “Plastic pollution is a planetary crisis, a threat that affects all of us,” Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya, the Rwandan environment minister, said at the meeting. “The real work now begins.” In much of the world, the task of collecting, sorting and recycling plastics often falls to informal waste pickers who work among fires and toxic vapours for little pay. In a landmark move, the agreement in Nairobi for the first time formally recognised the importance of waste pickers in the plastics economy. “We waste pickers have to be involved in this process,” said Silvio Ruiz Grisales of Bogotá, Colombia, who began working at dump sites at the age of 12. Now he is a leader in the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Waste Pickers, a group that advocates for better pay, working conditions and recognition. “We work the trash 12, 14 or 16 hours a day,” he said. “It’s a poverty trap.” Among other requisites, Wednesday’s agreement specifies that any global treaty must be legally binding, and that it must address the full life cycle of plastics, from production to disposal, recycling and reuse. Delegates said they hoped to model the treaty on the Paris climate accord, under which countries set binding targets but are able to meet those goals using a range of policies. The treaty must also address packaging design to cut down on plastic use, improve recycling and make technical and financial assistance available to developing nations. According to Wednesday’s agreement, it must also address microplastics, the tiny plastic debris created by the breakdown of plastics over time. Microplastics have been detected by scientists in deep ocean waters, shellfish, drinking water and even falling rain. In the course of negotiations, some of those points faced objections from countries including the United States, Japan and India, according to three people close to the talks who were not authorised to speak publicly about negotiation details. Japan had initially submitted a competing resolution focused on marine plastics. India threatened to derail negotiations on the final day, urging that any action needed to be on a “voluntary basis,” according to a list of demands privately submitted by India’s delegation and reviewed by The New York Times. A reference to concern over chemicals in plastic was taken out of the agreement after objections from delegations including the United States, the three people said. But in a victory for supporters of stronger policies against plastics, Wednesday’s agreement mentions the importance of considering plastic pollution’s risk to human health and the environment. Monica P. Medina, an assistant secretary of state who headed the US delegation in Nairobi, told delegates that the agreement was “the beginning of the end of the scourge of plastics on this planet.” She added, “I think we will look back on this as a day for our children and grandchildren.” The Japanese delegate, Yutaka Shoda, ultimately hailed the agreement. “The important thing is that we are united in developing an international, legally binding instrument,” he said. The Indian delegation did not respond to requests for comment. A global plastics pollution treaty would add to existing, albeit limited, global agreements that address trade in plastic waste. In 2020, more than 180 nations agreed to place limits on exports of plastic waste to poorer countries from richer ones under a framework known as the Basel Convention. The United States has yet to sign on to the new rules, and the Basel Action Network, an environmental watchdog, has said violations are rampant. Tadesse Amera, an environmental researcher based in Ethiopia and co-chair of the International Pollutants Elimination Network, a nonprofit group, said a focus on the health and climate effects of plastics was critical. “When we talk about plastics, we’re really talking about chemicals and carbon,” he said. The role of the private sector — for example, industry’s contribution to the technical and financial assistance to developing nations — is likely to be one big point of debate in the treaty negotiations. In the United States and elsewhere, the cost of recycling is typically borne by cash-strapped municipal governments, as opposed to manufacturers. But there has been a move among environmental groups to require that producers shoulder more of the cost. “Africa is not a major producer of chemicals or plastics,” Amera said. But companies are flooding the continent with plastic “with no thought about after-use,” he said. “That should be the responsibility of the producer or importer.”

As the war of words threatened to spin out of control, Merkel and other senior German politicians stressed the importance of Germany's Atlantic ties, with Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel suggesting the spat was just a rough patch. Trump took to Twitter early in the day in the United States to attack Germany, a day after Chancellor Angela Merkel ramped up her doubts about the reliability of Washington as an ally. "We have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military. Very bad for U.S. This will change," Trump tweeted. The tit-for-tat dispute escalated rapidly after Trump, at back-to-back summits last week, criticised major NATO allies over their military spending and refused to endorse a global climate change accord. On Sunday, Merkel showed the gravity of her concern about Washington's dependability under Trump when she warned, at an election campaign event in a packed Bavarian beer tent - that the times when Europe could fully rely on others were "over to a certain extent". Those comments, which caused shock in Washington, vented Europe's frustration with Trump on climate policy in particular. And while German politicians sided with Merkel, Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel signalled that it was time for cooler heads to prevail. "The United States are older and bigger than the current conflict," he said, adding that relations would improve. "It is inappropriate that we are now communicating with each other between a beer tent and Twitter," he said in Berlin. Merkel had already begun finessing her message on Monday, stressing that she was a "convinced trans-Atlanticist", a message she repeated after a meeting with visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Berlin. But Martin Schulz, leader of Gabriel's center-left Social Democrats, was less emollient earlier in the day when he told reporters Trump was "the destroyer of all Western values". He added that the US president was undermining the peaceful cooperation of nations based on mutual respect and tolerance. In Rome, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said he agreed with Merkel that Europe needed to forge its own path. "This takes nothing away from the importance of our trans-Atlantic ties and our alliance with the United States. But the importance we put on these ties cannot mean that we abandon fundamental principles such as our commitment to fight climate change and for open societies and free trade," he said.

Tides affect the speed at which an Antarctic ice sheet bigger than the Netherlands is sliding toward the sea, adding a surprise piece to a puzzle about ocean levels and global warming, a study showed on Wednesday. The Rutford Ice Stream of western Antarctica slips about a meter (3 ft) a day toward the sea but the rate varies 20 percent in tandem with two-week tidal cycles, it said. And the effect is felt even on ice more than 40 km (25 miles) inland. "We've known that (twice-daily) tides affect the motion of ice streams but we didn't know it happened on this two-weekly time scale," said Hilmar Gudmundsson, an Icelandic glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey. Tides rise and fall about twice a day but also vary in a two-week cycle of high "spring" tides, when the sun and the moon are aligned with the Earth, and low "neap" tides, when they are at right angles to the planet. "For such a large mass of ice to respond to ocean tides like this illustrates how sensitively the Antarctic Ice Sheet reacts to environmental changes," he said of a report published in the scientific journal Nature. The speed of other ice streams may also change with tides. Computer models of how Antarctica's ice may be affected by rising seas and global warming, widely blamed on human use of fossil fuels, will now have to factor in tides, he said. "We have to be careful when we make measurements that we know that an ice stream can speed up or slow down -- that's just part of its dynamics and natural variability," he told Reuters. Some past scientific reports have wrongly interpreted changes in the rate of the ice slide as part of longer-term shifts, he said. Gudmundsson said the speed of the Rutford ice when it left solid ground to become part of the floating Ronne Ice Shelf in the Weddell Sea was fastest just before spring tides at 1.2 meters a day and slowest before neap tides at 0.9 meters. Even 40 km inland, at a height of almost 200 meters above sea level, the ice's daily speed varied between 1.07-0.95 meters. "That was the furthest inland measurement but I expect the tidal effect could be felt 75 km inland," he said. Gudmundsson said it was unclear whether a projected long-term rise in world sea levels, like a rising tide in slow motion, might accelerate a run-off of ice from Antarctica. Around Antarctica, the tidal effect may be strongest around the Ronne Ice Shelf, where there is a big twice-daily rise and fall in tides. The Rutford Ice Stream is bigger than the Netherlands or US states such as Maryland or Hawaii. "The next thing to do is to follow up and to measure this on other ice streams," he said. "If the sea level changes ... we want to know how sensitive the system is." Climate scientists who advise the United Nations project that seas will rise by 9 cm and 88 cm by 2100 because of a warming they say will also spur more droughts, heatwaves, desertification and floods.

- the age of green economics," Ban said. "Businesspeople in so many parts of the world are demanding clear and consistent policies on climate change -- global policies for a global problem," he said.

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

World leaders and top officials on Monday renewed pledges to help Africa dramatically reduce poverty, but African governments told rich nations they are lagging on previous promises of increased aid. In a political declaration after a U.N. meeting on Africa's development needs, countries pledged to mobilize resources to end poverty, hunger and underdevelopment. "We stress that eradicating poverty, particularly in Africa, is the greatest global challenge facing the world today," they said. The meeting expressed concern that commitments by rich industrialized nations of doubling aid to Africa by 2010 will not be reached, while also welcoming new aid flows from emerging economies and the private sector. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the meeting on Africa to draw attention to a danger that the region would fail to meet U.N.-agreed Millennium Development Goals set in 2000 to halve global poverty by 2015. Ban urged concerted global action, warning that not one African country was on track to meet all of the goals, although he noted some progress on health and education. He said soaring food and fuel prices and the effects of climate change on food production were new challenges that could set African countries back. Ban said it would take $72 billion a year to help Africa. "This price tag may look daunting but it is affordable and falls within existing aid commitments," he said, noting that the world's industrialized countries spent an estimated $267 billion last year on agricultural subsidies alone. A $700 billion rescue plan announced by the U.S. government for troubled Wall Street firms is 10 times the annual aid Ban called for in his speech. African Union Chairman and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said while he was concerned that the financial crisis in markets could escalate, wealthy countries had made commitments to help Africa and should keep them. "We want the developed nations to perform their moral obligation of assisting the poor," Kikwete said at a news conference. "We want the developed countries to deliver on the rest of their commitments that they have not honored." He said money was especially important at a time when many African economies are growing at their strongest levels in five years and need more roads, railway lines and electricity. "Where there is a will, there is always a way," Kikwete said. "There may not be easy answers but I believe the U.S. will overcome the crisis." UNDEVELOPED WEALTH African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka said a slowdown in growth in developed countries would affect Africa, especially if demand for its commodities declined sharply. "This crisis is serious, but frankly, I hope it doesn't lead to reduced efforts to help developing countries because that would be a disappointment," said Kaberuka. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Africa was at a turning point but needed to guard against running up debts that would require cancellation later by rich countries. "Let us not set the stage today for a new debt crisis in 2030," Sarkozy said. He questioned why some new lenders restricted funding to investment in projects when Africa needed budget support. Large emerging lenders like China are ramping up financing for power and transport projects in Africa, most of it in countries endowed with natural resources. "Europeans and Africans have agreed on untying aid. Why then go back on this principle with donors from other continents?" Sarkozy said, without naming China. China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said it was important to respect the sovereignty of African nations and assistance should be geared to Africa's basic and long-term needs. "To achieve long-term development, African countries must rely on their own capacity," he said, adding that China planned to increase its assistance to Africa in agriculture, education, health and clean energy development. Jeffrey Sachs, a development campaigner and professor at New York's Columbia University, said the $72 billion a year needed for Africa "is not an outlandish price tag." "The U.S. Congress is about to vote $1 trillion for Wall Street this week," he told a U.N. panel. "That is no joke, and shows money is there when it's an emergency."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned on Friday that the global economic crisis could lead to a political crisis and social unrest and called on the world's leading economies to act. "I am concerned that if we do not properly address this issue swiftly, this may develop rather alarmingly into political instability, into a political crisis," the U.N. chief told diplomats in Moscow. Ban, who was speaking less than a week before he attends a crisis meeting of leaders of the G20 group of industrialised and developing nations in London, spoke of the impact of the economic crisis on Russia and Eastern Europe. Latvia's government collapsed last month after a wave of protests, while Greece, Bulgaria and Lithuania have seen popular anger explode into riots. "Looking around the world we see a growing list of political instability. If we do not manage it properly, this crisis, I am concerned that this crisis may develop into global political instability," he said. "If life goes much like this and harder ... social unrest will surely increase," he said. "That is why in London I will speak out forcefully for action to prevent the potential catastrophe in human development." The head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, on Monday said the crisis would push millions into poverty and unemployment, risking social unrest and even war. Ban used his Moscow speech to call on countries to use anti-crisis stimulus packages to help fight climate change. "My answer is it would be very smart to invest a certain proportion of this stimulus package in green growth and by doing this we can catch two birds with one stone," he said. "If we are going to spend trillions of dollars on the global stimulus packages let us be smart and tackle climate change at the same time."

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

Rich and poor differed on Sunday over how to open up trade in green goods, with Brazil fearing a major US-EU proposal raised on the fringes of climate talks in Bali was a protectionist ruse. Officials from 32 nations, including 12 trade ministers, are meeting for the first time on the sidelines of an annual UN climate conference, opening a new front in the global warming battle. About 20 finance ministers will also meet on Indonesia's resort island of Bali on Monday and Tuesday. Pakistan and Brazil voiced reservations on Sunday over a move to cut tariffs on clean technologies, such as wind power and solar panels, meant to help reduce the cost of curbing greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. They suspect the measure's real intention is to boost exports from rich nations. Brazil, a big producer of biofuels from sugar cane, has said the proposal did not include biofuels nor biofuels technologies. "The protectionism is like the serpent's head. The serpent will always try put its head up," Brazil's Minister of External Relations, Celso Luiz Nunes Amorim, said in Bali. "What are we here for? Are we here to make three things mutually supportive, development, trade and climate change, or are we here to discuss about protectionist ways to slow down the process?" Pakistan objected to the US-EU proposal because most developing nations don't have the money or know-how to build competitive green goods. "This is obviously against us, because we have not the capacity to produce goods in the environmental friendly way," said Pakistan's Ambassador to Indonesia, Ali Baz. About 190 countries are meeting at a luxury Indonesian beach resort in Dec. 3-14 talks to try to launch negotiations on a broader climate change pact to succeed or replace the Kyoto Protocol from 2013. Kyoto only binds 36 industrialised countries to emissions curbs between 2008-2012. World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy said developing countries, such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, were leaders in some clean technologies and would benefit from free trade in environmental goods. CARBON TAXES He also said trade rules could be tweaked to help curb the output of greenhouse gases, for example taking into account carbon taxes and subsidies, or minimum environmental standards. But that would have to be under the framework of an international climate change pact, he said. "The relationship between international trade and indeed the WTO and climate change would be best defined by a consensual, international agreement on climate change that successfully embraces all major polluters," Lamy said. The Bali climate talks aim to find ways to include outsiders such as top carbon emitters the United States and China in the fight against rising greenhouse emissions scientists say will lead to more droughts, floods, heatwaves and rising seas. Developing nations say rich countries need to do more to cut their own emissions, blaming Europe, the United States, Japan and other industrialised nations for much of the man-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to date. On Saturday, a draft proposal at the UN-led talks said all nations must do more to fight climate change, and rich countries must make deep cuts in emissions to avoid the worst impacts. The four-page draft, written by delegates from Indonesia, Australia and South Africa as an unofficial guide for delegates, said developing nations should at least brake rising emissions as part of a new pact. In Europe, several thousand protesters demanding urgent action on global warming held street marches on Saturday. German authorities turned off the lights for five minutes at 8 p.m. (1900 GMT) at tourist sites including Berlin's Brandenburg Gate as part of a government-backed campaign to raise awareness of environmental issues. In London, posters carried a picture of US President George W Bush and the words "Wanted for crimes against the planet". -- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/

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

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

The company is developing autonomous tractors, a goal that equipment companies like Case IH, John Deere and Kubota are chasing as well. But the business model of Bear Flag, based in Sunnyvale, California, has a twist — it does not build the tractors. Instead, it adapts the sensors and actuators needed for driverless plowing to existing tractors produced by major manufacturers. That step is not as sci-fi as it might seem. From equipment automation to data collection and analysis, the digital evolution of agriculture is already a fact of life on farms across the United States. Auto-steer systems, which use GPS receivers to keep rows straight and avoid gaps or overlap, are available for equipment ranging from tractors to harvest combines to sprayers with 100-foot-wide booms. Precision seeders and fertilizer systems can be satellite-guided to accuracy of an inch or less. The difference: For the most part, those operations still depend on an operator at the controls. “Autonomous operation will be a service in agriculture before it’s a product,” said Igino Cafiero, Bear Flag’s chief executive, during a break from his work in a test field of cilantro about 60 miles southeast of the company’s headquarters. The company’s niche is providing secondary tillage, deploying its equipment after a harvest is complete to prepare the fields for the next planting. The need for driverless farming equipment is intensifying, Cafiero said, because of a crushing labour shortage, which drives up wages and worker mobility. Tractors equipped with Bear Flag technology are able to work fields around the clock, without a driver, using sensors similar to those in autonomous road vehicles under development: lidar, radar and digital video. tractor in autonomous mode on a farm in Hollister, Calif, Aug 30, 2019. From equipment automation to data collection and analysis, the digital evolution of agriculture is already a fact of life on farms across the United States. The New York Times The sensory devices provide more than what Cafiero calls situational awareness, vital for safe operation where workers and livestock may be nearby, also collecting data on the land to improve efficiency. While Bear Flag pursues expanding capabilities to tasks like planting and spraying that have long demanded human supervision, it also plans to expand to the labour-intensive harvest duties of crops including tree nuts and row crops. tractor in autonomous mode on a farm in Hollister, Calif, Aug 30, 2019. From equipment automation to data collection and analysis, the digital evolution of agriculture is already a fact of life on farms across the United States. The New York Times The drive to increase productivity is urgent in all phases of agriculture. Feeding a world population expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 faces dire challenges, according to the summary of a UN report released in August. The effects of climate change — extreme weather, soil loss, migration pressures — will strain land and water resources, potentially disrupting food supplies. Yet growing crops has historically been an uncertain enterprise, a livelihood that increasingly depends on forecasts of weather conditions, commodity prices and complex factors like maturity index and projected yield. Agriculture is seen as an industry ideally suited to large-scale data collection and analysis, and technology companies more closely associated with databases and computer hardware are seeing opportunities. IBM, for example, made its move into the cloud — not the virtual data repository, but the puffy ones in the sky — in 2016 with the purchase of The Weather Co., bringing supercomputer prowess to what once depended on the centuries of record-keeping by trusted prediction tools like The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Jeff Keiser, a manager for agribusiness solutions at The Weather Co., knows more than agriculture analytics. He also farms corn and soybeans in Indiana, where he has encountered many of the same conditions as the wide range of food producers who can make use of IBM’s Watson Decision Platform for Agriculture. “With the cold spring followed by high temperatures and a lot of rain, it’s been a very challenging year,” Keiser said. “I got some planting done in April, but it wasn’t finished until June.” The decision platform, which will mark its first anniversary in October, is designed to ingest data from satellite imagery and from sensors on farm equipment that monitor, among other things, seed counts, nutrient levels and fertilizer flow, said Cameron Clayton, chief executive of The Weather Co. A sensor-equipped farm of 1,000 acres requires vast analysis and storage capabilities on the scale of what IBM can provide. With more than 2 million acres of farmland around the world covered, the platform provides hyperlocal six-month weather predictions based on satellite and atmospheric data. The system makes extensive use of IBM’s experience in artificial intelligence to build management models for corn, soybeans, wheat, barley and other crops. Each model takes IBM six months to a year to assemble and accounts for issues that include pest control and fertilizer requirements. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution: The models are tailored to the specific crops, geared to produce longer potatoes for french fries or barley for malting in beer production. Humans are not becoming obsolete on the farm by any means, a point that Cameron, raised on a New Zealand sheep farm, is sensitive to. “We make recommendations,” he said. “We don’t want to be in the business of full automation.” IBM’s intent, rather, is to provide farmers with a dashboard of controls. A farmer inspecting field conditions can take an image from a smartphone or iPad, automatically uploaded to the decision platform, to diagnose crop health. The system provides a quick analysis and suggested remedy, sort of a WebMD service for crops. The longer-term goal is to deliver real-time growing advice; partnerships with equipment makers also hold the potential to make better use of sensors, equipment monitoring and drones to make remote inspections less labour-intensive. The benefits of automation scale down to some smaller growers as well. Penny Gritt Goff, the third-generation operating manager of Gritt’s Midway Greenhouse in Red House, West Virginia, takes advantage of computerised monitoring to keep tabs on temperature, humidity, nutrient levels and other conditions for 3 acres of hydroponic greenhouses where lettuce grows in flowing water and tomatoes are raised in a bed of coconut husks. The computer system can send alarms when it gets too hot inside the greenhouses, but it also takes action on its own, spreading a shade cloth covering to cut down on sun exposure (or retain heat in the winter), opening and closing vents, and regulating irrigation. “The automated controls narrow the chances of failure,” Goff said, and lessen the need for some aspects of the operation’s human monitoring. “We could add more advanced equipment, but at this size it’s not economically feasible.” Will tomorrow’s digital farmers spend more of their long days at the keyboard than in the field or the barn? You might think things are headed that way, given that a recent convention of the National FFA Organisation (what used to be called the Future Farmers of America) devoted display space to its FFA Blue 365 initiative, an online educational platform, and tech advances in areas that include beekeeping and autonomous vehicles. A focus of the organisation, which has 700,000 members of mainly high-school age, is to prepare them for the coming transformation in agriculture, according to Blaze Currie, a senior team leader for the FFA. But the goal is not so much to promote the changes as to teach the mechanisms to accomplish efficiency advances like remote monitoring of an irrigation system. “When innovations are introduced on the farm, it’s often the younger generation of operator who gets handed the new technology,” Currie said, noting that when a sales representative arrives with a device like a field monitoring drone, he’s often directed to the family’s next generation of farmer, a digital native. “Give him the drone,” the conversation typically ends. © 2019 New York Times News Service

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

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

TIANJIN, China, 7 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - China said on Thursday it will not bow to pressure to rethink a key climate change treaty and was preparing to cope with a "gap" in the pact after 2012 if rich nations fail to add new greenhouse gas goals in time. Envoys from 177 governments are holding week-long talks in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin on the shape of a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, the UN's main weapon in the fight against climate change. Kyoto's first phase, which binds about 40 rich nations to meet emissions targets, expires in 2012 and it is not clear on what happens after that, worrying investors who want long-term certainty on climate policies and financing. "Of course, now we're discussing the legal issues if it happens," said Su Wei, a senior Chinese climate change negotiator, referring to a possible gap in Kyoto. "I think that from a practical angle that is necessary, but it seems a bit early, prejudging the negotiations," he added. The United Nations has been stepping up efforts to convince countries to avoid a gap after 2012 and to ensure certainty for the UN's $2.7 billion carbon market that is part of Kyoto. This is a game of bargaining "chicken" between rich economies and emerging powers that could trouble a higher level meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in less than two months intended to lay the foundations for a new, legally binding climate deal. Talks have snagged on distrust between rich and poorer nations, especially over how to share reducing emissions, called "mitigation", to avoid dangerous climate change, which could trigger more extreme weather, crop failures and rising seas. "In order to square the circle, mitigation is still a key issue," said Vicente Paulo Yu, a development expert attending the talks for the Philippines. "We have to get something from developed countries in terms of their commitments and something in terms of developing countries' actions." Nearly all wealthy countries have signed up to legally binding emissions goals under Kyoto, with the big exception of the United States, which refused to become a party. Developing nations, including the world's top carbon emitter China, are obliged to take voluntary steps to curb the growth of their emissions. The United States and other rich nations want a new global pact to do away with that either-or division to reflect the surge in emissions from the developing world, now accounting for more than half of mankind's annual greenhouse gas emissions. SHARING THE BURDEN "It's about trust and about sharing the burden of emissions reductions," said Nina Jamal, a climate policy campaigner observing the talks in Tianjin. "If we don't have progress on the mitigation agenda, there might be a risk that the other negotiation topics would be delayed." Talks last year failed to agree on a binding treaty and climaxed in a bitter meeting in Copenhagen, which produced a non-binding accord that later recorded the emissions vows of participant countries. The question now is whether those pledges are formalised under Kyoto or under a new treaty. Under a new deal, rich nations want China and other big emerging emitters to bring their domestic reduction efforts under firmer international vetting. Su told Reuters his government would not bend to Western demands and was reluctantly thinking about how to handle the likelihood that the first phase of Kyoto could expire with no full legal extension to replace it. Su said rich nations were to blame for failing to offer make greenhouse gas vows for Kyoto in time to ensure a seamless extension of the agreement from 2013. "Even if Cancun makes no decision on the developed countries' emission targets in the second phase (of Kyoto), then after Cancun we'll accelerate the process. I think that at the most we can't delay it beyond a year."

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

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

Climate change presents a tough choice for governments determined both to fight global warming and tackle the rising cost of living. Climate measures inflate energy costs by putting a price on burning fossil fuels and also stoke food bills by using farmland and crops to produce renewable fuels. Now near-record oil and food prices coupled with a global economic slowdown have triggered unrest in several countries and demands to ease taxes on fuels and free up farmland for food. "This important part of the global economy, food and energy, has been grossly distorted due to under-pricing of water and (carbon-free) air," Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz told Reuters. The fight against climate change made higher food prices inevitable, he said. "People will have to adjust." Officials from more than 170 countries this week tried to forge a new climate pact in UN talks in Germany that included steps such as emissions trading and taxes to break emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide, which will increase energy costs. A summit in Rome tried on Thursday to unlock aid for the world's starving and many there blamed record food prices on climate policies which supported using vast quantities of the world's crops for bio-fuels. Cutting US and European farm and bio-fuel subsidies would reduce food bills, but there was no alternative to taxes on fossil fuels like oil to cut greenhouse gases, Stiglitz says. A record oil price is already triggering street protests in Europe and unease in America and India. This threatens support for a climate fight that this week includes the first US Senate debate of a climate change bill. "The state of the US economy, it's obviously slowed, makes discussion much more difficult," said chief US climate negotiator Harlan Watson on Tuesday, a day after the White House said it would veto the bill. The slowdown and the prospect of "earth-shaking" gasoline prices were making Americans nervous, especially given the uncertainty of future benefits from reducing warming, he said. Climate policies aim to curb emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels. But utilities pass on to consumers the extra costs of carbon taxes, emissions permits and supplying expensive solar power. UBS analyst Per Lekander estimated the European Union's emissions trading scheme accounted for 15-20 percent of European power prices. Renewable energy policies contributed about 2 percent but were set to rise rapidly under ambitious EU goals. "Clearly there's an inflationary aspect," he said. UN scientists and renowned economists like Nick Stern say the climate fight will cost fractions of a percent in annual growth, but that is averaged over the long-term with much more impact in the near term than later. FOOD AND WATER The costs of major food commodities are climbing, with prices of rice, corn and wheat at or near record highs. This has provoked protests and riots in some developing countries where people may spend more than half their income on food. Climate change affects food in two ways, directly through events such as exceptional droughts, and via a policy response which has diverted food crops into making bio-fuels like ethanol, meant to be less carbon-emitting than gasoline. The price link is debated -- Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer estimated that US bio-fuels' consumption of corn was responsible for just 3 percent of global food price rises. Aggressive US bio-fuels targets will raise conventional ethanol production to more than double current levels, a US state department official told Reuters on Wednesday. "Say you double that to 6 percent (food price impact), it's still by no means the driving force, which is oil, the weather and emerging market demand," the official told Reuters. Climate change can also add to household bills through water. Global "very dry areas" have more than doubled since the 1970s, according to a Citi report published in January. The result is businesses spending more money to increase supply, through desalination plants, new pipes or lower demand via water meters -- costs which they may pass to consumers. "In Las Vegas, where they have very little water, consumers are likely to pay," said Dan McCarthy, president of the water business of US-based Black & Veatch, referring to a continuing drought in the Colorado River basin.

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

With oil above $100 a barrel and Arctic ice melting faster than ever, some of the world's most powerful countries -- including the United States and Russia -- are looking north to a possible energy bonanza. This prospective scramble for buried Arctic mineral wealth made more accessible by freshly melted seas could bring on a completely different kind of cold war, a scholar and former Coast Guard officer says. While a US government official questioned the risk of polar conflict, Washington still would like to join a 25-year-old international treaty meant to figure out who owns the rights to the oceans, including the Arctic Ocean. So far, the Senate has not approved it. Unlike the first Cold War, dominated by tensions between the two late-20th century superpowers, this century's model could pit countries that border the Arctic Ocean against each other to claim mineral rights. The Arctic powers include the United States, Russia, Canada, Denmark and Norway. The irony is that the burning of fossil fuels is at least in part responsible for the Arctic melt -- due to climate change -- and the Arctic melt could pave the way for a 21st century rush to exploit even more fossil fuels. The stakes are enormous, according to Scott Borgerson of the Council on Foreign Relations, a former U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant commander. The Arctic could hold as much as one-quarter of the world's remaining undiscovered oil and gas deposits, Borgerson wrote in the current issue of the journal Foreign Affairs. Russia has claimed 460,000 square miles (1.191 million sq km) of Arctic waters, with an eye-catching effort that included planting its flag on the ocean floor at the North Pole last summer. Days later, Moscow sent strategic bomber flights over the Arctic for the first time since the Cold War. "I think you can say planting a flag on the sea bottom and renewing strategic bomber flights is provocative," Borgerson said in a telephone interview. SCRAMBLING AND SLEEPWALKING By contrast, he said of the U.S. position, "I don't think we're scrambling. We're sleepwalking ... I think the Russians are scrambling and I think the Norwegians and Canadians and Danes are keenly aware." Borgerson said that now would be an appropriate time for the United States to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which codifies which countries have rights to what parts of the world's oceans. The Bush administration agrees. So do many environmental groups, the U.S. military and energy companies looking to explore the Arctic, now that enough ice is seasonally gone to open up sea lanes as soon as the next decade. "There's no ice cold war," said one U.S. government official familiar with the Arctic Ocean rights issue. However, the official noted that joining the Law of the Sea pact would give greater legal certainty to U.S. claims in the area. That is becoming more crucial, as measurements of the U.S. continental shelf get more precise. Coastal nations like those that border the Arctic have sovereign rights over natural resources of their continental shelves, generally recognized to reach 200 nautical miles out from their coasts. But in February, researchers from the University of New Hampshire and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released data suggesting that the continental shelf north of Alaska extends more than 100 nautical miles farther than previously presumed. A commission set up by the Law of the Sea lets countries expand their sea floor resource rights if they meet certain conditions and back them up with scientific data. The treaty also governs navigation rights, suddenly more important as scientists last year reported the opening of the normally ice-choked waters of the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. "Of course we need to be at the table as ocean law develops," the US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It's not like ocean law is going to stop developing if we're not in there. It's just going to develop without us."

Britain said on Tuesday it did not support proposed punitive trade measures threatened by the European Commission against countries that do not sign up to greenhouse gas emissions cuts. Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said proposals on Monday from European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso that importers may have to obtain emissions permits equivalent to those of the European competitors "might look like trade barriers." "We believe in global trade, we want more of it in the future, not less, and that is good for the European economy," Wicks told BBC radio. "So we are against any measures which might look like trade barriers." "There is always the danger that the protectionists in Europe ... could use this as a secret weapon... to bring about protectionism." Brussels is due to announce on Wednesday a raft of new climate change policies, to kick in from 2013, aiming to boost low carbon-emitting businesses while trying not to harm traditional high-polluting industries such as steel. The European Commission is eager not to harm European business and the wider economy by taking on tough carbon emissions targets that are not matched elsewhere -- for example in the United States, India or China. With this in mind, Barroso told a business audience in London on Monday the Commission might also "require importers to obtain allowances (emissions permits) alongside European competitors." Wicks said there was a potential issue if European industries were tied to much tougher and more expensive emissions requirements when those in other countries were not. "We need to look at that," Wicks said. "But I think we would favour a more sensitive approach." "We put our faith in international agreements," he added. "We need more and more countries to take carbon seriously and to initiate schemes like emissions trading schemes. That would be our approach." Asked specifically about Britain's efforts to increase energy generation from renewable sources such as wind and solar, Wicks said Britain accepted it needed "a step change -- almost a revolution -- in terms of bringing forward renewables". He said there was "no doubt" Britain would meet its share of the European Union target on renewables, due to be set on Wednesday, but admitted London may have to buy a "small proportion" of that target from other countries.

India will unveil in June a national plan to deal with the threat of global warming, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday, but it will not commit to any emission targets that risk slowing economic growth. Singh's Council on Climate Change will look at setting up a venture capital fund to promote green technologies, increasing energy efficiency and combating the possible impact of climate change on millions of India's poor. "India is prepared to commit that our per-capita carbon emissions will never exceed the average per-capita emissions of developed industrial economies," Singh told a summit on sustainable development in New Delhi. Those emission levels could be brought down further as and when the worst emitters in the developed world cut back on their emissions, he said. India, whose economy has grown by 8-9 percent annually in recent years, is one of the world's top polluters and contributes around 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions as its consumption of fossil fuels gathers pace. But as a developing nation, India is not yet required to cut emissions -- said to be rising by between 2 and 3 percent a year -- under the Kyoto Protocol, despite mounting pressure from environmental groups and industrialised nations. In December, world nations including India and top polluters China and the United States agreed to launch two years of talks on a broader global pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions to replace Kyoto once that pact expires at the end of 2012. Kyoto binds 37 rich nations to curb emissions during the pact's first commitment period of 2008-2012. Developing nations are excluded. According to U.N. data, India's per-capita emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, were 1.2 tonnes in 2004, compared with 20.6 tonnes for the United States for the same year. "CLIMATE JUSTICE" Officials said the new national plan will not include any overall emissions targets. India says it must use more energy to lift its population from poverty and that its per-capita emissions are a fraction of those in rich nations, which have burnt fossil fuels unhindered since the Industrial Revolution. "We cannot continue with a global development model in which some countries continue to maintain high carbon emissions," Singh said, calling for "climate justice". Singh also made a strong pitch for an equitable global regime for transfer of green technology, saying such a measure was in the interest of developed nations. "The world will have to...in the next two years create a consensus for cooperation that involves finance and technology support to countries for adaptation," he said. The prime minster's council, which includes ministers, environmentalists, industrialists and journalists, is likely to consider ways to increase energy efficiency without undermining growth and bolster the contribution of renewable energy sources. It will also ponder ways to combat the effects of global warming, which threatens the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people on the Indian subcontinent by melting glaciers that feed major rivers and causing frequent floods, droughts and heat waves. Singh also said India should look at its energy policy to see whether it was contributing to environmental degradation. "Are we encouraging overuse of resources through misdirected subsidies?" the prime minister said, calling for a debate on the energy pricing policy that is so often driven by populist political considerations. "What are the long-term costs of the short-term benefits we seek from such policies? "We need a much wider national debate on such issues."

NEW DELHI, Tue Jul 28, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - India's booming economy has huge potential to shift to a low-carbon future but needs a little hand-holding by rich nations to keep it on the right path, a top Indian climate change negotiator said. About 500 million Indians, or about half the population, do not have access to electricity and relying on fossil fuels such as coal to expand the power grid was unsustainable and unwise, Dinesh Patnaik told Reuters in an interview. India needed to follow a different development path than rich nations' heavy reliance on coal, oil and gas. "If we continue the same way as they (developed countries), there are not enough fossil fuels. So we have to grow in a more efficient way," he said. "Just imagine if we can provide those 500 million people with electricity which does not use fossil fuels? What a huge achievement." But he said India needed technology and resources to become more efficient or run the risk of deploying cheaper coal-fired power in the short-term. He pointed to coal-fired power costing 2.5 rupees per kilowatt/hour, versus 5 rupees for wind and 10 for solar. "All we're asking is that in this endeavour hold our hand while we're growing so that we can achieve our growth and not be derailed by a lack of resources and technology." Recognising the huge potential from solar, the government has made this a centrepiece of its climate change policy and is set to unveil in September a target of generating 20 gigawatts of electricity using solar energy by 2020. HUMMERS TO FIESTAS Patnaik, joint-secretary in the foreign ministry, also urged rich nations to rein in conspicuous consumption as part of a global effort to fight climate change. "When someone in the U.S. has to make a sacrifice it goes from a Hummer to a (Ford) Fiesta. For us, it's the difference between having a meal and not eating or a house with electricity and no electricity." Developing nations, led by China, now emit more than half of mankind's greenhouse gas emissions and getting them to commit to reductions is seen by rich nations as crucial to agreeing a broader climate pact at U.N. talks at the end of the year. Patnaik said rich nations needed to do much more in pledging funds for climate change adaptation in poorer nations as well as ways to reduce their emissions and to give them the technology to cut their carbon pollution. "We have to move to a low-carbon path. All we're asking is give us the technology and the implementing financing," he said, adding that while economic growth was 7-8 percent, India's emissions growth rate was 3-4 percent because of existing energy efficiency steps. But the problem was that financing from wealthy nations would only come in "if they see an advantage". "Developed countries have been giving the excuse that they would not be able to raise taxes to provide deep funds that are required. "What we have been saying is that if you have to rely on private finance then the only way to do it is to take higher emission reduction targets in the range of more than 40 percent by 2020 (from 1990 levels)." In return, private firms are given tax incentives to invest in developing nations for low-carbon projects. This would lead to significant sums in carbon finance and investment in clean-energy technology, Patnaik added. "The point is that a high level of emissions reductions with offsets in developing nations would bring in technology, finance and mitigation all together."

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

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

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

The United Arab Emirates plans to start building a multi-billion-dollar green city in the desert in the first quarter of this year, as the oil producer looks to become a pioneer of alternative energy. The zero-carbon, zero waste city -- actually a town of up to 15,000 residents -- is being steered by Masdar, an initiative set up by the Abu Dhabi government to develop sustainable and clean energy. It is one of a string of projects that the world's fifth-largest oil exporter is eyeing as it looks to reduce some the world's highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions, Masdar's Chief Executive Sultan al-Jaber told Reuters. "We will break ground on the city in the first quarter," Jaber said. Taking old cities from the Arab world as inspiration, the plans show narrow streets, squat buildings and no cars. Solar panels will act as awnings to shelter pedestrians from the sun. Transport will be futuristic travel pods that do not consume gasoline. Solar and wind energy will power the city and its water desalination plant. "We recognise the carbon footprint of the UAE and are working on a number of fronts to help reduce our emissions. Our objective is to make Abu Dhabi the centre of the future of energy." According to a U.N. Development Programme report issued last year, UAE greenhouse gas emissions were 34.1 tonnes per head in 2004, the third highest in the world after Qatar and Kuwait and well above U.S. per capita emissions of 20.6 tonnes. The alternative energy projects also aim to place the UAE at forefront of the future energy industry after oil and enhance its reputation at a time of growing concern over climate change. Jaber declined to estimate the cost of building the city in the harsh desert climate, but said it would be above previous estimates in local media of $5 billion. It will be part funded by the Abu Dhabi government with partners investing the rest. The city will house around 14,000 to 15,000 people and have workspace for around 50,000, he said. UK architects Fosters & Partners, famed for such designs as Berlin's Reichstag and London's Wembley Stadium, are the master planners. The first stage of construction should be finished in 2009 and the entire city completed in 2016, Jaber said. Masdar aims to build a 30 megawatt solar power plant to power the construction and intends to attract companies working on clean and sustainable energy to the city. The earliest stage involves the construction of a graduate research institute dedicated to alternative energy. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is collaborating with Masdar on development of the institute. Masdar is working with the World Wildlife Fund to ensure the city meets WWF principles of sustainability, Jaber said. CARBON CAPTURE, INVESTMENT Masdar plans to develop a nationwide network of carbon capture and storage projects (CCS) to pump greenhouse gases into oilfields, reducing emissions while boosting oil output. CCS, an as yet commercially unproven technology, should free up natural gas that is now reinjected to push oil out of oilfields. The UAE needs the gas for power generation to meet rising demand as petrodollars fuel an economic boom. Canada's SNC-Lavalin is finalising a feasibility study for the project and Masdar hopes to have a better idea of how to proceed by the second quarter this year, Jaber said. Masdar is investing in energy and sustainable technology companies through a $250 million clean technology fund. The fund is a joint venture with Credit Suisse and the UK's Consensus Business Group, which invests in companies that may have technology that can be commercialised in the UAE in future. "We have been investing in early stage companies, mainly solar and wind, we've invested in a number of them," he said. Abu Dhabi is one of seven emirates in the UAE, and holds over 90 percent of the country's oil reserves.

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."

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

The ICE engines currently made in Munich will be produced in BMW's factories in Austria and the UK in future, production chief Milan Nedeljkovic said, though cars using the engines will still be assembled at the Munich plant. Still, by 2023 at least half the vehicles produced in Munich would be electrified - either battery electric or plug-in hybrid, the company said. BMW has set itself a target for at least 50 percent of new global car sales to be electric by 2030, and CEO Oliver Zipse said at a conference last week the company would be ready with an all-electric offering if any market banned ICEs by then. The i4 battery-electric car was made on a joint assembly line with ICE and hybrid models such as the BMW 3 Series Sedan and Touring, the company said, a shift that cost 200 million euros ($233 million) of investment in production infrastructure. A similar mixed assembly line is already under way at the automaker's Dingolfing plant, which produces the BMW iX alongside hybrid and ICE models. The new model will be prioritised in decision-making over where to allocate scarce chips, the plant chief Peter Weber said. The company was well-stocked in other raw materials, Nedeljkovic added. BMW has previously said it expects to produce 70,000 to 90,000 fewer cars than it could have sold this year because of the chip shortage that has plagued automakers worldwide. It also committed to reducing emissions from transport logistics at the Munich plant, the company's biggest, to zero in the next few years, without giving a specific date. This will be achieved by making greater use of rail transport and battery-powered trucks to transport vehicles in and around the plant, it said.

One day, Macron was wooing President Donald Trump over a long, private lunch. The next he was flying in the Iranian foreign minister for unannounced talks. He seized the role as chief defender of the global climate, telling Brazilians to get themselves a new president. He even prompted a surprise diplomatic opening on Iran from Trump, even if both initiatives hit early headwinds Tuesday. Macron missed no opportunity to wring every advantage from his role as host of the summit in the southern resort city of Biarritz. It gave him the perfect stage to pursue his ambition, both grandiose and self-serving, to position France, and himself, as candidates to fill the vacancy left by Trump’s retreat from traditional Western values. With Trump deepening US isolation on major global issues, and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on a glide path out of power, Macron has become the leading champion of European unity and multilateralism. Macron clearly wanted to use the G-7 forum to show the world that neither are dead letters. He also wanted to show off himself. The Élysée Palace offered several news outlets behind-the-scenes access to the French president during the summit. Macron organised the events to avoid the missteps that have produced undiplomatic outbursts from Trump in the past. His lunch with Trump on Day 1 established that this forum was for two leaders as much as it was for seven, as did the leaders’ joint news conference at the summit’s end. Those touches went far in sating the US president’s ego, even as they effectively elevated the two men to the status of first among equals. But Macron’s objective appeared to be not so much showing up his American counterpart as reasserting the efficacy of the European approach to global problems. He said as much last week, telling journalists that the summit was a way to demonstrate that the “European civilisation project” was an “answer” in a world searching for “global stability.” “If we can’t redefine the terms of our sovereignty, we can’t defend our project,” Macron said to reporters before leaving for Biarritz. “Man is at the heart of the project,” he said, adding that the “relationship to the dignity of man, to humanism” was “the foundation of European civilisation.” In the context of global diplomacy, that means eschewing the threats, bullying and humiliation favored by Trump and what Macron called the “nationalist-sovereignists” in favor of multilateral diplomacy and a refusal to demonise adversaries. Macron’s domestic stock, only lately creeping up after being battered by months of Yellow Vest protests, has improved further after what the French media characterised as a successful summit. He “managed to be at the forefront and sometimes at the centre of some of the hottest diplomatic issues of the day,” said Bruno Tertrais, deputy director of the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris. Macron came out of the G-7 meeting “as well as any head of state can,” Tertrais said, adding that he had “appeared as someone who can achieve results on the key multilateral issues.” “It does establish its credentials as a global leader for multilateralism and liberal values,” Tertrais said of the summit. “I’m actually quite favorably impressed.” Not everyone was as enamored of the presumptive French role, however. Early in the weekend Trump’s aides complained that the agenda that Macron set focused more on what they called “niche issues” like climate change than on global economic challenges. In a dispute that has grown personal, President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil demanded an apology from Macron on Tuesday before he said Brazil could consider an aid package of more than $22 million to fight fires in the Amazon offered by leaders at the summit. Last week, Bolsonaro mocked Macron’s wife and said the French president was treating Brazil “as if we were a colony.” Macron had responded by saying that he hoped Brazilians would soon get a “president who behaves properly.” There was also little doubt that, try as he might to play the role of global standard-bearer, Macron would not get far without allies — particularly on issues like trade and climate change — and that their ranks were thinning. Macron “seemed dynamic,” but relatively alone, said Nicolas Tenzer, who teaches at Sciences Po, a leading university for political science in Paris. Tenzer said that Macron had ‘‘a better grasp of the issues” than Trump or Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, but added that, with the German chancellor nearing the end of her tenure, ‘‘he’s the only one.” “It’s a great advantage, and also a source of solitude.” On the Iranian question in particular, Macron appeared to be nudging Trump in a new direction. He got Trump to swallow the surprise visit of an Iranian official, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in the midst of a conflict that has escalated in recent months with a string of episodes involving oil tankers and drones near Iran. He even got Trump to agree, in principle, to a possible meeting with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran. Such a meeting would be the first between American and Iranian leaders since the Tehran hostage crisis of 1979-81, though Rouhani said that he would not sit down with Trump until Washington ended its economic sanctions. “It’s the beginning of something,” Macron said. Macron was careful to offer guarded praise for the US position, which he said “creates pressure, and conditions for a better agreement.” And he got Trump to say he was against “regime change” in Iran, reassuring European officials who have been worried about the worst for months. On the economic front, Macron said a major issue for him was “Can we pacify international commerce?” It was “an error in reasoning” to engage in “commercial war and isolationism,” Macron said. And again, he got Trump to sound notes on the trade war that were far more conciliatory toward China than over preceding days. It was in his handling of Trump, the declared enemy of multilateralism and unabashed wrecker of summits, that Macron showed his greatest agility. The relationship has had its ups and downs over the past two years, with the French president’s early efforts to woo his American counterpart proving spectacularly unsuccessful and eroding his popularity back home. The leaders clashed as recently as November, when Macron denounced nationalism in a speech at events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I and Trump responded with a scathing series of Twitter posts that highlighted the French leader’s low approval rating. This time was different. Macron’s technique was evident as the two men stood side by side at the final news conference: Macron appeared always respectful, sharply curbing his own tendency for long-winded, abstract explanations that might have irritated Trump. Nor did Macron launch into the numbing detail on secondary issues with which he battered French journalists at a later news conference. And he went out of his way to praise a leader who has been openly mocked by a number of his counterparts. “We’ve worked very closely, with lots of energy, with President Trump these last days,” Macron said at the news conference. “And we’re going to continue to work together in the coming months. We’ll be side-by-side in all of these fights.” That one-on-one lunch he organised for Trump — aides only joined at the end — evidently went far to mollify the US president. Trump spoke effusively about the meeting afterward. “We had a lunch that lasted for quite a while, just the two of us,” Trump said. “It was the best period of time we’ve ever had. We weren’t trying to impress anybody, just each other.”   c.2019 The New York Times Company

US President Joe Biden will attend a meeting of the G7 advanced economies in person in Britain in June, where he is expected to focus on what he sees as a strategic rivalry between democracies and autocratic states, particularly China. Daleep Singh, deputy national security adviser to Biden and deputy director of the National Economic Council, said the G7 meeting in Cornwall would focus on health security, a synchronised economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic, concrete actions on climate change, and "elevating shared democratic values within the G7." "These are like-minded allies, and we want to take tangible and concrete actions that show our willingness to coordinate on non-market economies, such as China," Singh, who is helping to coordinate the meeting, told Reuters in an interview. "The galvanising challenge for the G7 is to show that open societies, democratic societies still have the best chance of solving the biggest problems in our world, and that top-down autocracies are not the best path," he said. Singh said Washington has already taken strong actions against China over human rights abuses in Xinjiang, but would seek to expand the effort with G7 allies. Joint sanctions against Chinese officials accused of abuses in the province were announced last month by the United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada. China denies all accusations of abuse and has responded with punitive measures of its own against the EU. Singh said details were still being worked out ahead of the meeting, but the summit offered an opportunity for US allies to show solidarity on the issue. "We've made our views clear that our consumers deserve to know when that the goods they're importing are made with forced labour," he said. "Our values need to be infused in our trading relationships." Washington, he said, would be looking for the G7 to take clear steps "to elevate our shared values, as democracies and, and those certainly apply to what's going on Xinjiang." Activists and UN rights experts say at least 1 million Muslims have been detained in camps in Xinjiang. The activists and some Western politicians accuse China of using torture, forced labour and sterilisations. China says its camps provide vocational training and are needed to fight extremism. The White House said on Friday that Biden will travel to the United Kingdom and Belgium in June for his first overseas trip since taking office, including a stop at the G7 Summit in Cornwall, UK, from June 11-13.

The world should at least halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 with rich nations taking the lead, according to a first draft text on Friday seeking to break deadlock on a new climate pact at U.N. talks. The 7-page document omits figures for how many billions of dollars the rich nations should give developing nations to help them shift to green energies and cope with the impact of global warming, such as desertification and rising sea levels. "Parties shall cooperate to avoid dangerous climate change," according to one text, proposed by Michael Zammit Cutajar of Malta, who chairs talks on long-term action by all nations at the December 7-18 meeting on a new climate pact in Copenhagen. The text offers a range for global cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, of either at least 50, 85 or 95 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels. More than 110 world leaders will attend a closing summit on December 18. The numbers were bracketed, showing there is no agreement. The text also offered options for rich nations' cuts in emissions starting at 75 percent and ranging to more than 95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said the documents marked a "step change" in the negotiations. "It's time to focus on the bigger picture," he told reporters. Developing nations led by China and India have in the past rejected signing up for a halving of world emissions by 2050 unless rich nations first take far tougher action to cut their emissions and provide funds to help the poor. "We are still considering the text," said Kemal Djemouai, an Algerian official who chairs the group of African nations. Alden Meyer, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said there were huge gaps in the text. "I don't think developing countries will accept a global goal for 2050 without more on long-term funding," he said. But he said it was a good basis for future work.

Australia's conservative government is preparing a major advertising campaign on climate change as it tries to win back voter support ahead of looming elections, Prime Minister John Howard confirmed on Tuesday. With backing for his ruling coalition at record lows after 11 years in office, Howard said the government had yet to approve the ads, to be run after he decides how to price carbon pollution in order to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is emerging as a key election issue after a seven-year drought across much of the country. Polls show up to 80 percent of voters are concerned about it. Centre-left Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd has promised to sign the Kyoto Protocol, and slash the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming, if he wins power later this year. On Tuesday, Rudd labelled Howard "a rolled gold climate change denier", prompting a prime ministerial warning that the government's response to climate change and carbon trading was the nation's most crucial economic decision in a decade. "I am not a climate change sceptic, I am a climate change realist," Howard told parliament, adding that Rudd's plan to cut greenhouse emissions by 60 percent by 2050 was "driven by extreme ideology and not common sense". Rudd has spent the past week grilling Howard about the advertising campaign, which he said would be called "Climate Clever" and feature an old lady boiling water for a cup of tea. Rudd said the taxpayer-funded ads were being market-tested, and the campaign would include a letter from Howard to Australian households to explain government policies. Under Howard, Australia has joined the United States in refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which sets limits on carbon emissions for developed countries but imposes no caps on carbon pollution from developing countries. Australia is the world's largest coal exporter, and obtains 85 percent of its own electricity from coal-fired power stations. Howard has regularly said that capping greenhouse emissions would hurt the national economy and lead to job losses. Now, though, he is poised to overturn his long-held opposition to carbon trading. On Thursday, the government is due to receive a report on how it can price carbon emissions without hurting the country's coal industry or economy. "This will be an Australian report, for Australian conditions, to preserve the strength of the Australian economy and make sure we protect Australian jobs," Howard said. Carbon trading sets caps on pollution for companies and puts a price on carbon emissions, providing a financial incentive for firms to clean up pollution so they can sell leftover allocations to others. Australia's next election is due any time from August, but is widely expected to be called for late October or November, after Howard hosts world leaders at September's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Sydney. The latest polls show the government trailing Labor by about 17 points on a two-party basis, where minor party votes are distributed to the main parties to ultimately decide the winner. Last week Howard told coalition lawmakers the government would be annihilated if the current polls translated into the election result.

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

Just three months after winning re-election on November 6, the Democratic president has a narrow window to push through policy priorities on the economy, immigration reform, and gun control.Analysts say he has roughly a year before Washington turns its attention to the 2014 mid-term elections, which could sweep more Republicans into Congress and accelerate the subsequent "lame duck" status that defines presidents who are not running for office again."He basically has a year for major legislative accomplishments because after the first year you get into the mid-term elections, which will partially be a referendum on his presidency," said Michele Swers, an associate professor of American government at Georgetown University.Obama's speech at 9:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday (0200 GMT Wednesday) will be a chance for the president to build momentum within that tight time frame."I don't want to say it's the last important speech he's going to give, but the window for a second-term president is fairly narrow," said Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman under former Republican President George W. Bush.With unemployment still high and massive "sequester" spending cuts looming, administration officials say Obama will use the address before a television audience of millions to press Congress to support his proposals to boost the economy.The White House is eager to show Obama's commitment to the economy is as great as it is to immigration and gun reforms, and he is expected to spend most of his speech reviving a theme that dominated his 2012 campaign: helping the middle class."You will hear ... an outline from him for his plan to create jobs and grow the middle class," White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday."His principal preoccupation as president has been the need to first reverse the devastating decline in our economy and then set it on a trajectory where it's growing in a way that helps the middle class, makes it more secure, and makes it expand."ECONOMY, LEGACYThe likelihood of passing new short-term economic initiatives that require government spending in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives is low, said Jeffrey Bergstrand, a finance professor at the University of Notre Dame and a former Federal Reserve economist."What will probably surface is something similar to what he proposed in 2011 and never got through," he said, referring to proposals that would give grants to state and local governments as well as boost spending on infrastructure and research.Obama is also expected to call for comprehensive trade talks with the 27-nation European Union.The White House has signaled Obama will urge U.S. investment in infrastructure, manufacturing, clean energy and education, despite Republican opposition to increased government spending and a political divide over how to tame the U.S. budget deficit.Obama's advisers argue that his push for immigration reform is also an economic issue, and momentum for change is stronger there than it is for the president's other policy priorities.Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American who is championing immigration reform - albeit with a more restrictive process of legalization than Obama supports - is slated to give his party's response to Obama's speech.The debate over immigration will also play out in the balconies of the House of Representatives, where non-lawmakers will sit to listen to the speech. Representative Luis Gutierrez of Illinois plans to bring a man who is fighting deportation as his guest to the speech.Prospects for success on gun control are in doubt, but the president is likely to use his speech to seek more support for proposals he laid out last month after the Newtown, Connecticut, school-shooting massacre.After giving prominent mention to the fight against climate change and equality for gays in his inaugural address, supporters will be disappointed if he fails to lay out details in those two areas. Obama could advance both issues through executive orders, circumventing Congress and doing more to bolster his legacy."A second-term State of the Union is usually written with an eye on history books and I'm sure the president is thinking about what his legacy is going to be," said Doug Hattaway, a Democratic strategist and former adviser to Hillary Clinton.Iran's nuclear ambitions and the festering civil war in Syria may present Obama with the toughest foreign policy tests of his second term, but they are likely to receive little attention in his speech.He might raise concerns about cyber attacks, which have hit a succession of major US companies and government agencies in recent months.Obama will travel to three states in the days after his speech to sell his proposals to the public.

Global warming could re-make the world's climate zones by 2100, with some polar and mountain climates disappearing altogether and formerly unknown ones emerging in the tropics, scientists said on Monday. And when climate zones vanish, the animals and plants that live in them will be at greater risk of extinction, said Jack Williams, lead author of a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "What we've shown is these climates disappear, not just regionally, but they're disappearing from the global set of climates, and the species that live in these climates really have nowhere to go as the system changes," said Williams, a geographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Previous studies have raised the concern about species extinctions in specific areas -- such as the cloud forest of Costa Rica or the Cape region in South Africa -- but this is the first to predict this global change, Williams said in a telephone interview. As Earth warms, predicted to happen by up to 15 degrees F (8 degrees C) at some latitudes by the end of this century, climate zones are likely to shift away from the equator and toward the poles, the study said. "It's those climates near the poles or at the tops of mountains that are being pushed out...," Williams said. "It's getting too hot." Polar bears and ring seals, which depend on Arctic ice, could be among those species threatened by the shifting of climate zones, Williams said, but the study did not specifically address the fate of these animals. As polar climate zones disappear, new zones will be created in the parts of the world that are already the hottest, the study predicted, using models of climate change. The change in temperature is likely to be greater in the Arctic and Antarctic because when snow and ice melt, their ability to reflect sunlight goes away too, accelerating the warming effect. However, because normal fluctuations in temperature and rainfall are smaller in the tropics, even small changes in temperature can make a big difference in this warm region, co-author John Kutzbach, also of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in a statement. Williams attributed the warming to the building of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. A report in February by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that with 90 percent probability, human activities are responsible for the warming of the planet.

The leaders of India and China meet this week to try to boost trade and soothe tensions between two nations accounting for more than a third of humanity and crucial for driving global economic growth. Wen Jiabao's three-day visit from Wednesday is the first by a Chinese premier in four years. He will be accompanied by more than 400 business leaders. "Economic ties constitute literally the bedrock of our relations... Both sides are keen to further enhance mutually beneficial trade and are looking at new initiatives," said an Indian foreign ministry spokesman. China's ambassador to India said he was hopeful that free trade talks could start, but there is some scepticism in New Delhi that Beijing may only want to dump cheap manufactured goods on India's booming $1.3 trillion economy. While the two are often lumped together as emerging world powers, China's GDP is four times bigger than India's and its infrastructure outshines India's dilapidated roads and ports, a factor that makes New Delhi wary of Beijing's growing might. "Relations are very fragile, very easy to be damaged and very difficult to repair. Therefore they need special care in the information age." China's envoy to India, Zhang Yan, told reporters in New Delhi. While India and China have cooperated on global issues such as climate change, they have clashed over China's close relationship with Pakistan and fears of Chinese spying. A longstanding border dispute also divides them. Reuters Insider: link.reuters.com/zac59q India fears China wants to restrict its global reach by possibly opposing its bid for a permanent U.N. Security Council seat or encircling the Indian Ocean region with projects from Pakistan to Myanmar. But India knows it must engage China as both nations exert their global clout. Wen's trip comes a month after U.S. President Barack Obama's visit. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron also visited India this year. Assistant Chinese Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue said on Monday that everything would be up for discussion during the Dec. 15-17 visit to New Delhi. Wen then travels straight to Pakistan, India's nuclear armed rival, for another two nights. "No issues are off the table," Hu told reporters in Beijing on Monday, adding the visit was to expand bilateral trade, increase cooperation and promote regional peace and stability. China and India plan to sign a series of business deals, including one agreed in October for Shanghai Electric Group Co to sell power equipment and related services worth $8.3 billion to India's Reliance Power. India has sought to diversify its trade basket, but raw materials and other low-end commodities such as iron ore still make up about 60 percent of its exports to China. In contrast, manufactured goods -- from trinkets to turbines -- form the bulk of Chinese exports.

European Union leaders committed themselves on Friday to adopt ambitious legislation within one year to fight climate change and promote green energy sources, EU president Slovenia said. "We adopted the timeframe and the principles for the climate change and energy package," Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa told a news conference after a summit at which leaders pledged to enact laws by March 2009 to meet goals of slashing greenhouse gas emissions.

Some thought Fauci was slighting the president, leading to a vitriolic online reaction. On Twitter and Facebook, a post that falsely claimed he was part of a secret cabal who opposed Trump was soon shared thousands of times, reaching roughly 1.5 million people. A week later, Fauci — the administration’s most outspoken advocate of emergency measures to fight the coronavirus outbreak — has become the target of an online conspiracy theory that he is mobilising to undermine the president. That fanciful claim has spread across social media, fanned by a right-wing chorus of Trump’s supporters, even as Fauci has won a public following for his willingness to contradict the president and correct falsehoods and overly rosy pronouncements about containing the virus. An analysis by The New York Times found more than 70 accounts on Twitter that have promoted the hashtag #FauciFraud, with some tweeting as frequently as 795 times a day. The anti-Fauci sentiment is being reinforced by posts from Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, a conservative group; Bill Mitchell, host of far-right online talk show “YourVoice America”; and other outspoken Trump supporters such as Shiva Ayyadurai, who has falsely claimed to be the inventor of email. Many of the anti-Fauci posts, some of which pointed to a seven-year-old email that the doctor had sent praising Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state, have been retweeted thousands of times. On YouTube, conspiracy-theory videos about Fauci have racked up hundreds of thousands of views in the past week. In private Facebook groups, posts disparaging him have also been shared hundreds of times and liked by thousands of people, according to the Times analysis. One anti-Fauci tweet Tuesday said, “Sorry liberals but we don’t trust Dr. Anthony Fauci.” The torrent of falsehoods aimed at discrediting Fauci is another example of the hyperpartisan information flow that has driven a wedge into the way Americans think. For the past few years, far-right supporters of Trump have regularly vilified those whom they see as opposing him. Even so, the campaign against Fauci stands out because he is one of the world’s leading infectious disease experts and a member of Trump’s virus task force, and it is unfolding as the government battles a pathogen that is rapidly spreading in the United States. It is the latest twist in the ebb and flow of right-wing punditry that for weeks echoed Trump in minimising the threat posed by the coronavirus and arguably undercut efforts to alert the public of its dangers. When the president took a more assertive posture against the outbreak, conservative outlets shifted, too — but now accuse Democrats and journalists of trying to use the pandemic to damage Trump politically. “There seems to be a concerted effort on the part of Trump supporters to spread misinformation about the virus aggressively,” said Carl Bergstrom, a professor of biology at the University of Washington who has studied misinformation. Adding that Fauci is bearing the brunt of the attacks, Bergstrom said: “There is this sense that experts are untrustworthy, and have agendas that aren’t aligned with the people. It’s very concerning because the experts in this are being discounted out of hand.” The Trump administration has previously shown a distaste for relying on scientific expertise, such as when dealing with climate change. But misinformation campaigns during a pandemic carry a unique danger because they may sow distrust in public health officials when accurate information and advice are crucial, said Whitney Phillips, an assistant professor at Syracuse University who teaches digital ethics. “What this case will show is that conspiracy theories can kill,” she said. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases did not respond to a request for comment on the misinformation being directed at Fauci, who has said he plans to keep working to contain the coronavirus. “When you’re dealing with the White House, sometimes you have to say things one, two, three, four times, and then it happens,” Fauci said in an interview with Science magazine this past week. “So, I’m going to keep pushing.” The online campaign is an abrupt shift for Fauci, an immunologist who has led the institute since 1984. He has long been seen as credible by a large section of the public and journalists, advising every president since Ronald Reagan and encouraging action against the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. In recent weeks, much of the online discussion of Fauci was benign or positive. Zignal Labs, a media analysis company, studied 1.7 million mentions of Fauci across the web and TV broadcasts from Feb. 27 to Friday and found that through mid-March, he was mainly praised and his comments were straightforwardly reported. Right-wing figures quoted Fauci approvingly or lauded him for his comments on shutting down travel to and from China, Zignal Labs said. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during a coronavirus briefing at the White House in Washington, March 26, 2020. Fauci, the administration’s most outspoken advocate of emergency virus measures, has become the target of claims that he is mobilising to undermine the president. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times) In the White House briefings on the coronavirus, he often spoke plainly of the severity of the situation, becoming something of a folk hero to some on the left. Then Fauci, who had been a steady presence at Trump’s side during the briefings, did not appear at the one March 18. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during a coronavirus briefing at the White House in Washington, March 26, 2020. Fauci, the administration’s most outspoken advocate of emergency virus measures, has become the target of claims that he is mobilising to undermine the president. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times) A hashtag asking “Where is Dr. Fauci?” began trending on Twitter. Several Facebook fan groups dedicated to praising his medical record called for his return. The first accounts tweeting #FauciFraud also appeared, although their volume of posts was small, according to the Times analysis. Two days later, Fauci put his head in his hand at the White House briefing after Trump’s remark on the “Deep State Department.” His gesture — some called it a face palm — caught the attention of Trump’s supporters online, who saw it as an insult to the president. Anti-Fauci posts spiked, according to Zignal Labs. Much of the increase was prompted by a March 21 article in The American Thinker, a conservative blog, which published the seven-year-old email that Fauci had written to an aide of Clinton. In the email, Fauci praised Clinton for her stamina during the 2013 Benghazi hearings. The American Thinker falsely claimed that the email was evidence that he was part of a secret group who opposed Trump. That same day, Fitton of Judicial Watch posted a tweet linking to a different blog post that showed Fauci’s email on Clinton. In the tweet, Fitton included a video of himself crossing his arms and saying, “Isn’t that interesting.” It was retweeted more than 1,500 times. In an interview, Fitton said, “Dr. Fauci is doing a great job.” He added that Fauci “wrote very political statements to Hillary Clinton that were odd for an appointee of his nature to send.” The conspiracy theory was soon shared thousands of times across Facebook and Twitter. It was also taken up by messaging groups on WhatsApp and Facebook run by QAnon, the anonymous group that claims to be privy to government secrets. On YouTube, far-right personalities began spouting that Fauci was a fraud. By Tuesday, online and television mentions of Fauci had declined but had become consistently negative, Zignal Labs said. One anti-Fauci tweet last Sunday read: “Dr. Fauci is in love w/ crooked @HillaryClinton. More reasons not to trust him.” Facebook said it proactively removed misinformation related to the coronavirus. YouTube said that it did not recommend the conspiracy-theory videos on Fauci to viewers and that it promotes credible virus information. Twitter said it remained “focused on taking down content that can lead to harm.” Phillips, the Syracuse assistant professor, said the campaign was part of a long-term conspiracy theory propagated by Trump’s followers. “Fauci has just been particularly prominent,” she said. “But any public health official who gets cast in a conspiratorial narrative is going to be subject to those same kinds of suspicions, the same kinds of doubt.” That has not stopped Fauci from appearing on the internet. On Thursday, he joined a 30-minute Instagram Live discussion about the coronavirus hosted by basketball star Stephen Curry. In the session, Fauci, with a miniature basketball hoop behind him, conveyed the same message that he had said for weeks about the outbreak. “This is serious business,” he said. “We are not overreacting.” ©2020 The New York Times Company

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 12, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Instead of sidelining the fight against climate change, the global credit crisis could hasten countries' efforts to create 'green growth' industries by revamping the financial system behind them, the UN climate chief said on Friday. But that would depend on governments helping poor countries -- who are key to saving the planet's ecology -- tackle their problems, instead of spending most available money on rescuing the financial world, Yvo de Boer told reporters. De Boer said the financial "earthquake" that has seen markets plunge worldwide in recent weeks could damage UN-led climate change talks, but only "if the opportunities that the crisis brings for climate change abatement are ignored." "The credit crisis can be used to make progress in a new direction, an opportunity for global green economic growth," de Boer, who heads the Bonn-based U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told a news conference. "The credit crunch I believe is an opportunity to rebuild the financial system that would underpin sustainable growth ... Governments now have an opportunity to create and enforce policy which stimulates private competition to fund clean industry." De Boer said a successful outcome to climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009 would create new markets, investment opportunities and job creation. But he warned that "if available global capital is used primarily to refloat the financial world, we literally will sink the futures of the poorest of the poor. "And I hope that the credit crunch will not mean that people in the South will have to wait for those in the North to have repaid their credit card debts and mortgages before attention is again turned to the South." Without reaching out a hand to developing countries, it would be very difficult to make advances on the rest of the environmental agenda, De Boer said. Environment ministers will meet in two months' time in Poznan, Poland, to prepare for the Copenhagen summit, which is due to agree on a new global-warming accord to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Ministers in Poznan must make clear they were "willing to put financial resources, the architecture, the institutions in place that will allow developing countries to engage in a global approach on both mitigation and adaptation," he said. Funding did not have to all come from governments and he foresaw "an approach where we very much use the market". De Boer said the financial crisis had not so far affected the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism, which allows rich countries to offset their carbon footprints by investing in clean energy projects in developing countries.

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

KABUL, Sun Mar 1, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - An Afghan presidential contender has criticized President Hamid Karzai's call for the election to be brought forward from August to April, saying the earlier date would not give other candidates time to campaign. Karzai's decree on Saturday calling for the poll to be held much sooner than almost anyone sees as practically possible was a deft political maneuver, analysts say, to force opposition groups to concede he can stay in office after a May deadline set by the constitution. The decree puts the young Afghan democracy in uncharted constitutional territory and puts Karzai at odds with the election commission, which set August 20 as the date for polls, and his US backers who supported the commission's decision. The United States "supports the underlying principles articulated by President Karzai" but still believed August would be a better time to hold elections in a secure environment, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan to try to secure the elections in August against the strong threat from Taliban insurgents. Bringing the polls forward would not give the troops time to even arrive in the country. Other candidates would also be put in a disadvantage, said presidential contender Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai. "All candidates and influential figures have been trying to get ready for the campaign in the month of August, but a sudden change to the decision and holding the elections in the month of April will create certain problems," he told Afghan television late on Saturday. Karzai's decree said the election should be held according to the constitution. That states the president's term ends on May 21 and new polls to elect his successor must be held between 30 and 60 days before that, giving April 21 as the last possible date. LEGITIMACY Opposition leaders had said Karzai's position would be illegitimate if he remained in office beyond May 21. The Independent Election Commission (IEC) said a spring election would be impossible because it would have to be organized during the harsh Afghan winter when many areas are inaccessible and people in those areas would be disenfranchised. "Before deciding the election date, the Independent Election Commission took into account all aspects including funding, security and the wide participation in the polls, and also climate," IEC deputy chief Zekria Barakzai told Reuters. He said the commission had not yet received an official copy of the decree. "We are waiting to receive the presidential decree and then we will evaluate it and make our decision," he said. Top of the list of problems for early polls would be the Taliban insurgency raging across much of the south and east up to the fringes of the capital, Kabul. The extra troops Obama ordered deployed in spring were meant to boost security by August. NATO said it was too early to comment on whether its 56,000-strong force in Afghanistan would be able to secure an election in the next three to seven weeks. Afghan security forces are to take the lead in providing security for the vote. "It is a fresh presidential decree and we are working on a plan," said Defense Ministry spokesman Zaher Murad. Ahmadzai, a senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, also said only the Supreme Court had the right to interpret the constitution. According to the electoral law, at least 120 days must also be given to organize the polls, meaning there is not enough time to hold them in April. Hafiz Mansur, the head of one of the two main opposition groups, said his party believed in the constitution but it should not be exploited to "create chaos, disorder and hold the elections unfairly," he told Afghan television. Ahmadzai called for a large meeting of Afghan political leaders to decide on how best to hold a free and fair election.

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

Canada on Monday became the first country to announce it would withdraw from the Kyoto protocol on climate change, dealing a symbolic blow to the already troubled global treaty. Environment Minister Peter Kent broke the news on his return from talks in Durban, where countries agreed to extend Kyoto for five years and hammer out a new deal forcing all big polluters for the first time to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Canada, a major energy producer which critics complain is becoming a climate renegade, has long complained Kyoto is unworkable precisely because it excludes so many significant emitters. "As we've said, Kyoto for Canada is in the past ... We are invoking our legal right to formally withdraw from Kyoto," Kent told reporters. The right-of-center Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which has close ties to the energy sector, says Canada would be subject to penalties equivalent to C$14 billion under the terms of the treaty for not cutting emissions by the required amount by 2012. "To meet the targets under Kyoto for 2012 would be the equivalent of either removing every car truck, all-terrain vehicle, tractor, ambulance, police car and vehicle off every kind of Canadian road," said Kent. Environmentalists quickly blasted Kent for his comments. "It's a national disgrace. Prime Minister Harper just spat in the faces of people around the world for whom climate change is increasingly a life and death issue," said Graham Saul of Climate Action Network Canada. Kent did not give details on when Ottawa would pull out of a treaty he said could not work. Canada kept quiet during the Durban talks so as not to be a distraction, he added. "The writing on the wall for Kyoto has been recognised by even those countries which are engaging in a second commitment," he said. Kyoto's first phase was due to expire at the end of 2012 but has now been extended until 2017. Kent said Canada would work toward a new global deal obliging all major nations to cut output of greenhouse gases China and India are not bound by Kyoto's current targets. The Conservatives took power in 2006 and quickly made clear they would not stick to Canada's Kyoto commitments on the grounds it would cripple the economy and the energy sector. The announcement will do little to help Canada's international reputation. Green groups awarded the country their Fossil of the Year award for its performance in Durban. "Our government is abdicating its international responsibilities. It's like where the kid in school who knows he's going to fail the class, so he drops it before that happens," said Megan Leslie of the opposition New Democrats. Canada is the largest supplier of oil and natural gas to the United States and is keen to boost output of crude from Alberta's oil sands, which requires large amounts of energy to extract. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers CAPP.L said all major emitters had to agree to cuts so that Canada did not put itself at a disadvantage. Canada's former Liberal government signed up to Kyoto, which dictated a cut in emissions to 6 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. By 2009 emissions were 17 percent above the 1990 levels, in part because of the expanding tar sands development. Kent said the Liberals should not have signed up to a treaty they had no intention of respecting. The Conservatives say emissions should fall by 17 percent of 2005 levels by 2020, a target that CAPP president David Collyer said would oblige the energy sector to make sacrifices. "It's a stretch and we'd be kidding ourselves if we said it wasn't," he told Reuters.

The rate of destruction of the world's three largest forests fell 25 percent this decade compared with the previous one, but remains alarmingly high in some countries, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said. A report entitled The State of the Forests in the Amazon Basin, Congo Basin and South East Asia, was released to coincide with a summit in the Congo Republic bringing together delegates from 35 countries occupying those forests, with a view to reaching a global deal on management and conservation. The Amazon and the Congo are the world's first and second biggest forests, respectively, and its third biggest -- the Borneo Mekong -- is in Indonesia. They sink billions of tonnes of carbon and house two thirds of the world's remaining land species between them. The study found that annual rate of deforestation across the three regions, which account for more than 80 percent of the world's tropical forests, was 5.4 million hectares between 2000 and 2010, down a quarter from 7.1 million hectares in the previous decade. Statistics showed that forest destruction in the Congo basin had remained stable but low over the last 20 years, whilst in South East Asia the rate of deforestation more than halved. Countries which had previously had high levels of forest loss, such as Brazil and Indonesia, have had some success tackling the problem through better conservation awareness and government policy said the report's author, Mette Wilkie. But she suggested this was no cause for complacency, especially of the threat from farming. "Deforestation is higher than it ought to be," Wilkie told Reuters. "The Amazon basin has large scale land conversion for farming and crops, Congo has small scale conversion, mainly for subsistence farming, whilst South East Asia is a mixture." Indonesia's forests in particular have been ravaged by clearing for palm oil crops in the past, although the government last month signed a 2-year moratorium on forest clearing, part of a carbon offset deal with Norway worth $1 billion. Ecuador, Burundi and Cambodia had the highest rates of forest loss whilst Rwanda, Vietnam and the Philippines were amongst countries which had seen their forests grow in recent years, according to the study. Wilkie said growing global demand for food, expected to rise by 70 percent by 2050, would put more pressure on these ecosystems. REDD+, a fund in which richer countries pay poorer nations to protect their forests in an effort to tackle climate change, will be crucial to future success. "$4 billion dollars has been pledged to REDD+, it's a huge amount of money for forests for the first time, it's important we make good use of it," she said, adding it would take time to develop effective strategies to balance the demands of conservation with the needs of poor countries to provide food security. Only 3.5 percent of the forest areas surveyed are currently under effective forest management according to the study's findings. Brazil, which has the largest forest area of any country in the world, has an important role to play in driving the protection process, according to Fernando Tatagiba, an analyst from the Brazilian environment ministry, because of its growing financial muscle and improved forest management programmes. However he said more needed to be done and that deforestation, mainly to accommodate the country's booming agricultural sector, remained too high. "The challenge we have is to continue producing, because our agriculture is hugely productive, but without cutting the forests down," he told Reuters, adding this could be achieved by using 150 million hectares of unused degraded forest rather than clearing new areas.

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

The ‘breakbone fever’ caused by the bite of the aedes aegypti mosquito had baffled doctors and was a cause of great concern when it first appeared in the early 2000s. But it subsequently became a seasonal fever with doctors having proper guidelines, and people coming to know about the disease. “There is nothing to panic. It’s very normal now, and everyone knows about this,” said Dr Md Tito Miah, an associate professor of medicine at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital. But he cautioned inappropriate management can trigger fatal bleeding, advising people not to take medicines other than paracetamol without prescriptions during fever. The government’s disease monitoring agency, IEDCR, has been following the trend of dengue fever. Its director Prof Mahmudur Rahman said the trend was “normal” so far. “Many factors can influence the rise of dengue fever, such as climate change and the breeding of the vector mosquito,” he told bdnews24.com, citing 2013 as a critical year when there were cases every month. Usually June to September is the season of this fever, but it can be prolonged. The first case this year was reported in June, and the government’s control room has recorded 89 cases so far. “There may be some more patients. But our surveillance gives us a clear picture about the trend of the disease and it shows nothing to trigger panic,” Prof Rahman said. Dhaka South City Corporation on Sunday held a meeting on how they would generate awareness about the disease. Chief Health Officer Brig Gen Md Mahbubur Rahman told bdnews24.com that they had decided to campaign through folk songs and the media for awareness. Health Officer of Dhaka North City Corporation Dr Emdadul Haque told bdnews24.com that they would meet on Monday. “But we have already decided to monitor hospitals. We’ll collect dengue patients’ addresses from hospitals and strengthen our activities in the areas where they live,” he said. The city corporations have routine programmes for sanitising the breeding grounds of mosquitoes. General awareness is necessary as the dengue-causing aedes mosquito usually breeds in a small collection of clean water in and around houses, such as inside a flower vase. The symptoms of dengue are sudden high fever, severe headache, pains behind the eyes, muscle and joints. The severity of the joint pain has given dengue the name ‘breakbone fever’. “If the fever is accompanied or followed by cough and runny nose, it is unlikely to be dengue,” Dr Miah of DMCH said.

OSLO, Sep 29,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Europe is warming faster than the world average and governments need to invest to adapt to a changing climate set to turn the Mediterranean region arid and the north ever wetter, a study showed on Monday. Europe's mountains, coasts, the Mediterranean and the Arctic were most at risk from global warming, according to the report by the European Environment Agency and branches of the World Health Organization and the European Commission. "Global average temperature has increased almost 0.8 C (1.4 F) above pre-industrial levels, with even higher temperature increases in Europe and northern latitudes," it said. Europe had warmed by 1.0 C. Northern Europe would get wetter this century while more of Europe's Mediterranean region might turn to desert, based on trends already under way, it said. European heatwaves like in 2003, during which 70,000 people died, could be more frequent. "Annual precipitation changes are worsening differences between a wet northern part of Europe and a dry south," it said. That meant a need to review everything from irrigation to the ability of southern rivers to help cool nuclear power plants. Among other impacts, seas were rising in a threat to coasts, some fish stocks had moved 1,000 km north in the past 40 years -- pushing cod not caught by trawlers away from the North Sea -- and two-thirds of Alpine glaciers had vanished since 1850. A few in Europe were getting benefits, such as northern farmers with longer growing seasons for crops. The report urged Europe to do more to adapt to the impacts of climate change, such as protecting people from insect-borne diseases or safeguarding coasts from higher seas. So far, most adaptation has focused on easing more river floods. "Implementation of adaptation actions has only just started," said Jacqueline McGlade, head of the Denmark-based European Environment Agency. "We need to intensify such actions and improve information exchange on data, effectiveness and costs," McGlade said. The report also said that Europe had a moral obligation to help people in developing nations adapt to a changing climate. The world's governments have agreed to work by the end of 2009 a new treaty to fight climate change. But financial turmoil and economic slowdown may dampen willingness to invest in billion-dollar climate projects. RISING SEAS Seas are likely to rise by 18 to 59 cms (7 to 23 inches) by 2100, according to the U.N. Climate Panel, and could keep rising for centuries if ice sheets of Greenland or Antarctica thaw. In Europe, 4 million people and 2 trillion euros ($2.9 billion) in assets would be at risk from flooding from higher seas by 2100, from the Baltic states to Greece, the report said. Recent estimates indicated that losses from rising seas could total up to 18 billion euros a year by 2080 but spending of 1 billion a year -- on everything from dikes to raising beach levels -- could cut losses to about 1 billion a year, it said. Hurricane Katrina in the United States in 2005 caused about $80 billion in losses. The European Union aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, or by 30 percent if other big economies join in. The report suggested setting up a new European Clearing House to help distribute information on impacts, vulnerability and impacts of climate change.

Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan on Aug 15, the country - already struggling with drought and severe poverty after decades of war - has seen its economy all but collapse, raising the spectre of an exodus of refugees. The video conference, which is due to start at 1 pm (1100 GMT), will focus on aid needs, concerns over security and ways of guaranteeing safe passage abroad for thousands of Western-allied Afghans still in the country. "Providing humanitarian support is urgent for the most vulnerable groups, especially women and children, with winter arriving," said an official with knowledge of the G20 agenda. The U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres is due to join the summit, underlining the central role given to the United Nations in tackling the crisis - in part because many countries don't want to establish direct relations with the Taliban. Italy, which holds the rotating presidency of the G20, has worked hard to set up the meeting in the face of highly divergent views within the disparate group on how to deal with Afghanistan after the chaotic US withdrawal from Kabul. "The main problem is that Western countries want to put their finger on the way the Taliban run the country, how they treat women for example, while China and Russia on the other hand have a non-interference foreign policy," said a diplomatic source close to the matter. China has publicly demanded that economic sanctions on Afghanistan be lifted and that billions of dollars in Afghan international assets be unfrozen and handed back to Kabul. It was not clear if this would even be discussed on Tuesday. While US President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Europe's G20 leaders were expected to take part in the meeting, Chinese media reported that President Xi Jinping would not participate. It was also not clear if Russian President Vladimir Putin would dial in. Afghanistan's neighbours Pakistan and Iran have not been invited to the virtual call, but Qatar, which has played a key role as an interlocutor between the Taliban and the West, will join the discussions, a diplomatic source said. The virtual summit comes just days after senior US and Taliban officials met in Qatar for their first face-to-face meeting since the hardline group retook power. Tuesday's meeting comes less than three weeks before the formal G20 leaders’ summit in Rome on Oct. 30-31, which is due to focus on climate change, the global economic recovery, tackling malnutrition and the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

Children will, on average, suffer seven times more heatwaves and nearly three times more droughts, floods and crop failures due to fast-accelerating climate change, found a report from aid agency Save the Children. Those in low- and middle-income countries will bear the brunt, with Afghan children likely to endure up to 18 times as many heatwaves as their elders, and children in Mali likely to live through up to 10 times more crop failures. "People are suffering, we shouldn't turn a blind eye... Climate change is the biggest crisis of this era," said Anuska, 15, sharing her experience of more heatwaves, intense rain and crop losses in her country, Nepal. "I'm worried about climate change, about my future. It will almost be impossible for us to survive," she told journalists. Save the Children did not fully identify Anuska and others who spoke alongside her for protection reasons, it said. The research, a collaboration between Save the Children and climate researchers at Belgium's Vrije Universiteit Brussel, calculated the lifetime exposure to a range of extreme climate events for children born in 2020 compared to those born in 1960. Also published in the journal Science, the study is based on emissions reduction pledges made under the 2015 Paris climate accord, projecting that global temperatures will rise by an estimated 2.6-3.1 degrees Celsius above preindustrial times. This would have an "unacceptable impact on children", Save the Children said. "The climate crisis is a child rights crisis at its core," said Inger Ashing, chief executive of Save the Children. "We can turn this around - but we need to listen to children and jump into action. If warming is limited to 1.5 degrees, there is far more hope of a bright future for children who haven't even been born yet," she added. FUTURE AT STAKE The UN climate science panel warned in August that global warming is dangerously close to spiralling out of control and will bring climate disruption globally for decades to come. National pledges to cut emissions so far are inadequate to limit global temperature rise to "well below" 2C above preindustrial times, and ideally to 1.5C, as about 195 countries committed to under the 2015 Paris Agreement. Save the Children's report found that, if global warming is kept to 1.5C, additional lifetime exposure of newborns to heatwaves would drop by 45% and by nearly 40% for droughts and floods compared with the current projected level. "This is what's at stake when governments head to the COP26 global climate talks in Glasgow in November. These children's lives and future are all at stake," said Erin Ryan, a report author and Save the Children advisor. Children from the Philippines to the Solomon Islands spoke of how increasing climate disasters left them vulnerable, affecting their mental health and disrupting their education. "I was traumatised - it was really depressing," said Chatten from the Philippines, who was just eight when his home was destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, one of the most powerful tropical cyclones in history that killed over 6,300 people. "Everything was at its worst during those times - I don't want anyone to experience that," said the teenager, now 16. Others said youth should pressure governments for change. "I really want to see world leaders take action because this is putting everyone at risk," said Ella, 14, from Australia.

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

The win stunned Australian election analysts — polls had pointed to a loss for Morrison’s coalition for months. But in the end, the prime minister confounded expectations suggesting that the country was ready for a change in course after six years of tumultuous leadership under the conservative political coalition. “I have always believed in miracles,” Morrison said at his victory party in Sydney, adding, “Tonight is about every single Australian who depends on their government to put them first. And that is exactly what we are going to do.” The election had presented Australia, a vital US ally, with a crucial question: Would it remain on a rightward path and stick with a political coalition that promised economic stability, jobs and cuts to immigration, or choose greater action on climate change and income inequality? By granting Morrison his first full term, Australians signaled their reluctance to bet on a new leader, choosing to stay the course with a hardworking rugby lover at a time when the economy has not suffered a recession in nearly 28 years. “Australians are just deeply conservative — wherever possible, we cling to the status quo,” said Jill Sheppard, a lecturer in politics at the Australian National University. “While we want progress on certain issues, we don’t like major upheavals.” The triumph by Morrison, an evangelical Christian who has expressed admiration for President Donald Trump, comes at a time of rising tension in the Asia-Pacific region. A trade war between the United States and China has forced longtime U.S. allies like Australia to weigh security ties with Washington against trade ties with Beijing. Judd Deere, White House deputy press secretary, said Trump had called to congratulate Morrison. “The two leaders reaffirmed the critical importance of the long-standing alliance and friendship between the United States and Australia, and they pledged to continue their close cooperation on shared priorities,” Deere said. The conservative victory also adds Australia to a growing list of countries that have shifted rightward through the politics of grievance, including Brazil, Hungary and Italy. Morrison’s pitch mixed smiles and scaremongering, warning older voters and rural voters in particular that a government of the left would leave them behind and favor condescending elites. The candidate Morrison defeated, Bill Shorten, leader of the center-left Labor Party, offered an alternative path for Australia: a return to more government intervention on climate change and the economy, and intensified skepticism about the United States and Trump. Shorten, despite being the face of the political opposition for six years, was not an easy sell to voters. His personal approval ratings never matched Morrison’s, and he relied on the more popular and diverse members of his party to score points with the public. On Saturday night, he conceded defeat and said he would no longer serve as opposition leader. “I know you’re all hurting,” he told supporters in Melbourne. “And I am, too.” Morrison, who kept policy proposals to a minimum during the campaign, rode a singular message to victory: that the Labor Party’s plans to raise spending to bolster public health programs, education and wages would blow up the budget and end Australia’s generation-long run of economic growth. Ignoring the turmoil that has led his coalition to churn through three prime ministers in six years, he promoted his center-right Liberal Party as a steady hand on the tiller, and made promises of cheaper energy and help for first-time homeowners. The intraparty tumult came to a head in 2018 when the Liberals’ right flank ousted Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. He was toppled in August after his moderate plan to address carbon emissions was rejected by his coalition’s right wing as going too far. The party coup soured many Australians on the country’s political system and helped contribute to a degree of voter apathy and anger that colored Saturday’s election. The campaign was short — just over a month, as is the standard in Australia. And Morrison’s effort was defined mainly by energy, with folksy events and handshakes for voters, coupled with stiff criticism of Shorten and a determination not to take no for an answer. His combative style was especially clear during the second of three televised leadership debates, when he stepped close to Shorten, who accused him of being a “space invader.” To those who opposed Morrison, it was a sign of his bullying tendencies; to those who supported him, it was seen as evidence of passion and conviction. He portrayed himself “as the good bloke, the good father, the buddy, the mate that Australians would like to have,” said Patrick Dumont, professor of political science at the Australian National University. Morrison is a veteran politician who has occasionally sought out a provocative role on hot-button issues. He entered Parliament in 2007, representing a suburb of Sydney. As immigration minister in 2013, he proudly embraced a “stop the boats” policy that denied asylum-seekers arriving by sea the right to apply for settlement in Australia. Under Turnbull, he served as treasurer, appearing in Parliament at one point with a lump of coal to deliver a message to those demanding stronger action on climate change. “Don’t be afraid,” he told lawmakers, without mentioning that the coal had been shellacked to keep his hands from getting dirty. “Don’t be scared.” Though he has an image as a political brawler, Morrison has proved adept at the insider politics of Canberra, Australia’s capital. He was a loyal foot soldier under Turnbull until the party pushed to oust the prime minister, at which point Morrison successfully offered himself up as an alternative. In August, he became Australia’s fifth prime minister in five years — a sign of how volatile the country’s politics has been over the past few years. The fact that Morrison, 51, escaped punishment from Australian voters for his actions during the party coup surprised many experts. “I think we’re just getting used to the politics of the absurd,” said Susan Harris-Rimmer, a law professor at Griffith University in Queensland. “It just seems like it’s been a long time since politics was normal anywhere.” Morrison, however, rode a wave of conservative support. The coalition of the Liberal and National parties maintained seats in closely contested suburbs from Perth to Melbourne, and picked up support across rural areas. In the northeastern state of Queensland, which stretches from Brisbane to the tropics near the Great Barrier Reef, several Liberal Party candidates won handily. That suggested that in the battle over the proposed Adani coal mine, which would be among the largest in the world if it receives final government approval, voters favored immediate concerns about jobs over the risks of climate change. The Liberal Party did suffer some setbacks. Tony Abbott, the divisive former prime minister, lost his race in a Sydney suburb, where voters demanded more action on climate change. He was one of several conservatives who had argued that most Australians were not willing to trade immediate needs for more distant global concerns. “It’s clear that in what might be described as ‘working seats,’ we are doing so much better,” he said in his concession speech. “It’s also clear that in at least some of what might be described as ‘wealthy seats,’ we are doing it tough, and the Green left is doing better.” Morrison, who has been cautious on climate change, arguing that current policy is enough, can now claim that his mix of enthusiasm and his appeal to working-class economic stability — focused on “a fair go” for all — is what Australians wanted. Australian voters ultimately stuck with what they knew, while also tilting toward personality. They rejected policies that would have altered the financial status quo, including efforts to cut back on tax perks for older and wealthier voters, and went along with the more energetic politician. As Morrison said at his campaign launch, “When I get determined, I get very determined.” c.2019 New York Times News Service

The proposal, titled "Unmask temporal trade-offs in climate policy debates," would create a two-digit measurement system the scientists likened to blood pressure readings in medicine, which show the pressure on blood vessels both during heartbeats and in between them. It would help scientists and policymakers account for the fact that some greenhouse gasses last longer than others in the atmosphere. "Different gases have widely different lifetimes in the atmosphere after emission and affect the climate in different ways over widely different timescales," said co-author Michael Oppenheimer, a geosciences professor at Princeton. The system would show the effects of greenhouse emissions on a 20-year scale and a 100-year scale. Having a measurement that shows both numbers, the scientists argued, would let governments and other institutions trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow global warming decide which policies would be best in the short term and which should be adopted longer term. It would also help in disputes between opposing advocacy groups. For example, according to the researchers, advocates for using natural gas as an energy source base their arguments on a 100-year timescale. But their opponents, activists lobbying against natural gas, use a 20-year timescale to show the effects of burning natural gas on the climate. An overwhelming majority of scientists believe gas emissions like carbon dioxide, which is produced from burning fossil fuels, are contributing to global climate change, triggering sea level rise, droughts and more frequent violent storms. For the two-value proposal to be successful, the scientists argued, it would have to be widely adopted, not only by individual government agencies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but also by international bodies like the United Nations and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change. Science is a weekly, peer-reviewed journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

After the exercises, the class comes back together to debate whether the nation lived up to what the state of Michigan calls “core democratic values,” such as equality, liberty and diversity. For decades, the values have been the heart of the state learning standards in social studies, a doorstop of a document that guides what teachers of history, civics, economics and geography cover in their lesson plans. “I’m really proud of my students,” Debowski said. “They can handle the complexity.” So she was angry last year when she learned of a proposed revision of the state standards, in which the word “democratic” was dropped from “core democratic values,” and the use of the word “democracy” was reduced. The changes were made after a group of prominent conservatives helped revise the standards. They drew attention to a long-simmering debate over whether “republic” is a better term than “democracy” to describe the US form of government. That the two sides in that tussle tend to fall along party lines, each preferring the term that resembles their party name, plays no small part in the debate. But members of the conservative group also brought to the table the argument that K-12 social studies should be based on a close, originalist reading of the United States’ founding documents. They contended that the curriculum ought to focus more on the nation’s triumphs than its sins. And they pushed for revisions that eliminated “climate change,” “Roe v Wade” and references to gay and lesbian civil rights. After a local publication, Bridge Magazine, reported the changes, the backlash in this political swing state was intense. In response, the state brought a broader group of Michiganders into the process to redraft the standards, which will be presented to the state Board of Education on Tuesday. The board, an elected body with eight members, will then vote on whether to adopt the document. “Social studies is not rocket science,” said Jim Cameron, who led the committee’s work. “It’s more difficult.” — Defining American Values The United States, unlike many other developed nations, lacks a national curriculum that defines what students should know. Each of the 50 states can create its own learning standards. These documents are closely examined. While schools can teach material not included in them, they shape the content in standardized tests, and many educators rely heavily on the standards as they craft lesson plans. Student teachers are trained to use them. Activists have long seen influencing state standards as an effective way to shape the next generation of voters. In 2010, conservatives on the Texas Board of Education removed the word “democracy” as a description of US government, prompting protests. Georgia has also debated the term, eventually settling, in 2016, on standards that use the phrase “representative democracy/republic.” The Michigan conservatives — who prefer “constitutional republic” — say their arguments are historical, not partisan. “When you read Article IV, Section IV, it says you’re guaranteed a republican form of government,” said Patrick Colbeck, a Republican former state senator, citing the US Constitution. While the founders were indeed skeptical of direct democracy, mainstream historians, political scientists and legal scholars say the United States is both a representative democracy and a republic — and that there is no contradiction between those terms. A democracy is government by the people, who may rule either directly or indirectly, through elected representatives. A republic is a form of government in which the people’s elected representatives make decisions. Some of the country’s political processes, like ballot referendums, are more democratic than others, like the Electoral College. Grappling with that complexity is key to understanding US government, according to social studies experts. The Michigan Department of Education invited Colbeck to participate in the standards-writing process after he submitted a 13-page critique of a 2015 draft of the document. Colbeck, a former aerospace engineer who became active in politics through the Tea Party movement, saw liberal bias throughout the standards. Asked to name the influences on his view of American history, Colbeck cited Dinesh D’Souza, the right-wing commentator, and a radio talk show hosted by Levon R. Yuille, a pastor and anti-abortion activist. “I wanted to make sure there was a seat at the table for a conservative worldview,” Colbeck said. After the proposed revisions garnered local media attention, hundreds of people flocked to community meetings to voice their outrage about what they considered conservative bias. Thousands more registered their objections online. Debowski, the eighth-grade social studies teacher, was among those against replacing “democratic values” with “core values.” She was capable, she said, of explaining the difference between party names and political concepts. “It belittles my subject,” she said. Many of the students who protested were less worried about terminology than about the way the standards dealt with gender and race. Alex Hosey, a 16-year old high school sophomore in East Lansing, objected to what had been left out, such as any mention of redlining, which contributed to the racial segregation of Michigan cities. “Hiding our nation’s sins isn’t the right way to do it,” he wrote in a letter to the state Board of Education. “Teach us about everything — the good and the bad, so we can learn to think for ourselves.” — Back to the Drawing Board Under fire, the state education agency asked for volunteers to help rewrite the standards yet again — for the third time in five years. Out of 144 people who applied, 116 were selected. They included teachers, college professors, parents, students and retirees. They were placed on subcommittees dealing with every aspect of the document, from American history, civics and economics to “bias review,” and sorted through thousands of pages of public comments. They added depth to sections on indigenous peoples’ history. Roe v Wade, climate change and gay and lesbian rights were all restored. The bias review committee suggested the terms “enslaved people” or “enslaved Africans” instead of “slaves.” The overall goal was that every Michigan student — a third of whom are nonwhite — would be able to “see themselves” in the social studies standards, said Marsha Lewis, a Detroit assistant principal and a chairwoman of the bias review group. But in the days before the document was to be sent to the state Board of Education, fundamental questions about how to describe US government and citizenship had not been resolved. It was not just that some Democratic-leaning committee members liked the term “democracy” while some Republican-leaning members preferred “republic.” The debate was really about bigger disagreements that transcended party lines: about how to deal with populism and protest, and about whether the United States is a unified entity of citizens or a conglomeration of groups divided by race, class, language and other identities. On March 7, the heads of all the subcommittees gathered at the Historical Society of Michigan in Lansing to go through the draft one last time. The laptop screen of the head writer, a district social studies consultant named Dave Johnson, was projected onto the wall as he made last-minute revisions in a Google document. Should “responsible citizenship” be replaced with “civic participation,” in an effort to include students in the country illegally? Were elementary school students ready to learn about the right, stated in the Declaration of Independence, to “alter or abolish” a government? “There’s a treason clause in the US Constitution,” said Michael Libbee, a professor of geography at Central Michigan University. “It’s only treason until it works,” replied Ellen Zwarensteyn, executive director of the Michigan Centre for Civic Education. In the end, “alter or abolish” was included, though the number of mentions was greatly reduced. The writers replaced many, but not all, instances of the word “citizenship” with “civic life” or “civic participation.” After lunch, Cameron, the committee leader and a state education consultant, tacked to the walls poster pages of handwritten suggestions from African American and Asian-American community groups. Among their suggestions were to add references to Korematsu v. the United States, the Supreme Court case that allowed Japanese internment during World War II. They also asked for mentions of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Flint water crisis, the #MeToo movement and Black Lives Matter. Zwarensteyn took careful notes. Some of the most rigorous debates had occurred on the civics subcommittee she helped lead, where Michael Warren, a circuit court judge, was a strong conservative voice. Warren preferred the term “first principles” to “democratic values,” and had pushed for the civics standards to be based on a close reading of the founding documents. The list of core values that the standards writers eventually agreed on was “equality; liberty; justice and fairness; unalienable individual rights (including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness); consent of governed; truth; common good.” And after months of sometimes bitter debate, the group decided these values could still be called “democratic.” As part of a compromise, the nation’s political system would be referred to primarily as “American government,” but also, in some instances, “constitutional government” and — yes — “democracy.” Korematsu and the Flint water crisis made it into the standards. Redlining, the Chinese Exclusion Act, #MeToo and Black Lives Matter did not. Neither did James Madison, to the consternation of Warren. Colbeck, the former state senator who had helped write the previous draft, was displeased. Calling the nation a democracy was not “politically neutral and accurate,” he said. There will still be time for public comment and revision. Education officials plan to introduce the new standards in “listen and learn” meetings across the state this spring. If the Board of Education, which after November’s election went from a 4-4 partisan split to a 6-2 Democratic majority, votes to adopt the document, the state will begin training teachers on how to use the new standards. Then, most likely in the next decade, policymakers will outline new priorities for Michigan schools, and they will ask educators and experts to rewrite the standards once again. The process of retelling the nation’s history — deciding what gets left out and who is heard from — never ends. c.2019 New York Times News Service

Istanbul has been dropped from a list of nine cities set to hold 'Live Earth' concerts for climate change awareness because of a lack of interest and security concerns, organizers said on Tuesday. Former U.S. presidential candidate and environmental campaigner Al Gore came to Istanbul this month to announce Istanbul would join London, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and other cities for a round-the-world series of concerts on July 7. But organizers said on Tuesday that the government bodies and sponsors it had approached were not interested because of security concerns ahead of general elections on July 22. "Unfortunately Live Earth Istanbul could not be a priority for several people and institutions because our country is in an election marathon and because of terror and security (problems)," the Turkish organizers said in a statement. Violence between Kurdish separatist guerrillas and security forces has escalated in recent months while last month a suicide bomber carried out a deadly attack on an Ankara shopping centre. Istanbul is booked to host a series of high-profile conference and concerts in coming weeks.

After two weeks of final negotiations and several all-night sessions, the sustainable development agenda of 17 goals and a declaration that covers implementation and review were agreed by consensus to replace eight Millennium Development Goals. There was a standing ovation and cheering by diplomats when the agenda was agreed. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Chef de Cabinet Susana Malcorra described the agreement as "historic" but warned that the work ahead is immense. "The sheer size, the depth and the complexity of this agenda challenges all of us, challenges the United Nations," she said. Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN AK Momen told bdnews24.com they placed 19 proposals on food security, energy security, technology transfer, protection of environment, balanced development, poverty alleviation, and several other issues. “We worked relentlessly to get proposals on the agenda. We are very happy that the 193 states agreed to accept 15 of our proposals,” Momen said. The eight Millennium Development Goals had helped focus attention on the needs of poor nations for the past 15 years. The new Sustainable Development Goals will aim to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty, reduce inequality within and between states, achieve gender equality, improve water management and energy, and take urgent action to combat climate change. Meeting the goals would cost between $3.3 trillion (£2.11 trillion) and $4.5 trillion a year in state spending, investment and aid, analysts say, an amount roughly equivalent to the United States 2016 federal budget of $3.8 trillion. More than 100 countries agreed on a framework in Ethiopia last month to bankroll the sustainable development goals by mobilising domestic resources such as taxes, leverage private investment and channel foreign assistance. World leaders will meet from Sept 25-27 at the United Nations in New York to formally adopt the new sustainable development agenda. Pope Francis will address the United Nations before the summit starts.

Negotiators at climate talks in Bali on Friday struggled to break a deadlock over US objections to goals for cutting emissions by dropping a reference to a non-binding 2020 target in draft text. But the European Union insisted the two-week talks, due to end on Friday, should set stiff 2020 guidelines for rich nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions despite US opposition. The 190-nation Bali talks are seeking the ground rules for launching two years of negotiations for a global pact to fight climate change to succeed the Kyoto Protocol after its first phase ends in 2012. "We continue to insist on including a reference to an indicative emissions reduction range for developed countries for 2020," European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said. "Let me underline once again that the Bali roadmap must have a clear destination," he said. He did not restate, however, an EU demand for a reference to cuts of 25 to 40 percent cuts below 1990 levels by 2020. A copy of the latest compromise draft, obtained by Reuters, retains an ambition for global greenhouse gas emissions to peak in the next 10-15 years and to fall well below half of 2000 levels by 2050. But it drops the 25-40 percent range for rich nations by 2020. Another suggested text, however, retains a 25 to 40 range for 2020. The texts, drafted by hosts Indonesia for debate by environment ministers on Friday, say developed countries should take the lead in driving cuts in emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases. The European Union wants a range to guide talks on a pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012 and to prove to poor nations such as China and India that the rich countries are committed to leading. It was not clear if the United States and other countries would agree to either text. The United States, the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases, says any emissions goals in the final text would prejudge the outcome of talks. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said delegates had "a political and historical responsibility" to reach a deal on a global climate pact by late 2009. 2020 VISION The United Nations wants the Bali talks to launch formal negotiations on a deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, to be agreed by 2009, as the world faces rising seas, more extreme droughts and floods and spread of disease. Two years would also give governments time to ratify the new deal by the end of 2012 and give markets clear guidelines on how to make investments in clean energy technology. The EU wants an emissions goal in Bali to give certainty to its rapidly growing carbon trading scheme. The 27-nation bloc has already committed to emissions cuts by 2020. Green groups criticised the United States. "The US is behaving like passengers in first class in a jumbo jet who believe that a catastrophe in economy class will not affect them," said Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth International. He added: "If we go down, we go down together." Kyoto caps greenhouse gas emissions of all industrial nations except the United States until 2012. Developing nations are exempt from Kyoto's 2008-2012 first phase and say that before they sign up to any broader agreement, rich countries, particularly the United States as the world's top greenhouse gas emitter, should take the lead in cuts. On other issues, the Bali talks made progress on Friday by agreeing steps to slow deforestation. Trees store carbon dioxide as they grow. "The agreement on deforestation is a good balance between different countries views and is one of the substantial achievements of this conference," Dimas said. He said the agreement launched pilot projects, which would tackle deforestation and forest degradation, and contribute harder proposals in a broader climate pact in 2009. Despite opposition to Kyoto, the United States plans to join a new treaty, meant to be agreed in Copenhagen in late 2009 with participation of developing nations led by China and India. "If it were up to me we would have done more quicker but when you look back on history...America has always done what's right," said Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York.

With rich countries contracting far more doses of various coronavirus vaccines than poorer ones, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said it was up to the United States to retake its place as "an engine of the world" and help. "The world will face this year one of the biggest challenges to vaccinating humankind. This will require a lot of solidarity, a lot of cooperation and quite a lot of resources," Borrell told Reuters in an interview. "This is the first global crisis in which the American leadership has been missing and the world needs American leadership," Borrell said, pledging EU support to Washington. In a pandemic that has killed almost 400,000 Americans and threatened the US economy, President Donald Trump's handling of the virus has been criticised at home, weakening any broad international response. Borrell also proposed rebuilding transatlantic ties after the Trump era, describing his 'America First' approach as governing by Twitter. "Only with two things, the US coming back to the climate agreement and rejoining the nuclear deal with Iran, the world will much better and more secure," he said on Trump's last full day as president. "After governing by tweeting, maybe we can go to governing using another way of communication, defining positions and taking into the account the problems and interests of others," Borrell said from his office in the European Commission. SAVE TIME Trump filed to withdraw the United States, the top historic greenhouse gas emitter and leading oil and gas producer, from the Paris Agreement in November 2019. Under President Barack Obama, the United States had promised a 26-28% cut in US greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 from 2005 levels. Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy speaks during an interview with Reuters in Brussels, Belgium January 19, 2021. Reuters Borrell also said Washington would save time by rejoining the Iran nuclear deal that Trump quit in 2018, rather than seeking to negotiate a new arms control accord. Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy speaks during an interview with Reuters in Brussels, Belgium January 19, 2021. Reuters Asked what first steps the Biden administration could take, Borrell said: "Stop threatening sanctions against everybody who is part of the economic relationship with Iran." EU governments, which hailed the agreement in 2015 as critical to stopping Iran from building a nuclear bomb, say Trump's broad economic sanctions on Iran have provoked Tehran into breaking the deal's restrictions. Borrell, a Spaniard and a veteran of European politics at 73, said he would invite Biden's nominee for Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, to an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers on March 4-5 in Lisbon to restart cooperation after four years in which the Trump administration sought to sideline the 27-nation bloc. Borrell listed other issues where Washington and Brussels could bring change, including in shaping digital regulation, as well as on China. He defended the EU's decision to agree an investment pact with Beijing in late December, before Biden took office, saying it should not be seen as a diplomatic victory from China. "We are not in a permanent rivalry (with China). We are at the same time partners, we have to share, to work together," he said.

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

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

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

Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who is touting his foreign policy credentials, got tangled up briefly on Tuesday on which Islamic extremist group Iran is accused of supporting. McCain, at a news conference in the Jordanian capital of Amman, accused Iran of supporting the Sunni extremist group al Qaeda in Iraq. U.S. officials believe Iran has been backing Shi'ite extremists in Iraq, not a Sunni group like al Qaeda. "Well, it's common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al Qaeda is going back into Iran and is receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran. That's well known and it's unfortunate," McCain said. Connecticut Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, traveling with McCain on a swing through the Middle East and Europe, whispered in his ear and McCain quickly corrected himself. "I'm sorry; the Iranians are training the extremists, not al Qaeda. Not al Qaeda. I'm sorry," McCain said. Democrats quickly jumped on McCain, a strong backer of President George W. Bush's troop build-up in Iraq. "After eight years of the Bush administration's incompetence in Iraq, McCain's comments don't give the American people a reason to believe that he can be trusted to offer a clear way forward," said Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney. McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said McCain "misspoke and immediately corrected himself." "Democrats have launched political attacks today because they know the American people have deep concerns about their candidates' judgment and readiness to lead as commander in chief," Rogers said. McCain's next stop was Europe on Wednesday where Bush has been heavily criticized for a perceived "go it alone" approach on a wide range of international issues. Before his arrival in London, McCain wrote in the Financial Times that the United States must be a "model country" and work with others to tackle challenges such as terrorism and global warming. The newspaper said McCain distanced himself from what allies see as the unilateralism of the Bush administration, promising to "listen to the views and respect the collective will of our democratic allies." In a column in the newspaper, McCain promised to renew the "mutual respect and trust" between the United States and Europe and vowed to put America at the forefront of international efforts to tackle climate change. "When we believe that international action is necessary, whether military, economic or diplomatic, we will try to persuade our friends that we are right. But we, in return, must also be willing to be persuaded by them," McCain wrote.

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

More climate change campaigners are expected to arrive on Monday to join protests against expansion plans at Britain's Heathrow airport. The protesters began arriving at the "Camp for Climate Action" on Sunday, erecting marquees and setting up toilets on land north of Heathrow, one of the world's busiest airports. They say they have "legally occupied" the site, which is on the route of a proposed third runway at Heathrow and is around 800 metres (yards) from the headquarters of airport operator BAA, owned by Spanish construction and services group Ferrovial . Organisers say up to 3,000 people will attend the week-long demonstrations due to start on Tuesday with "24 hours of mass action" promised for next Sunday. "It will be direct action -- we will cost the aviation industry dearly," the group said on its Web site. "It will be civil disobedience -- we will act within the bounds we set not those of BAA lawyers." A similar camp last year close to the Drax power station in Yorkshire by 400 protesters led to 40 arrests. The Heathrow protest is expected to cause disruption during one of the busiest times of the year for the airport, which is due to be used by 1.5 million passengers during the week. Mark Bullock, managing director of Heathrow Airport, said many of them would be "innocent families going on their summer holidays". He said BAA had "always accepted the right of protesters to protest lawfully" but those using the airport had rights too. "We believe that there is an important debate to be had over climate change, but we do not believe direct action against the airport is appropriate," he said. Gemma Davis, a spokeswoman for the Camp for Climate Change, said disruption to passengers was not the main aim. "We're not here to try to disrupt passengers; we're here to try to disrupt BAA," she told the BBC, but conceded that disruption to airport users would be an unintended consequence. "Climate change is the biggest issue going. If we don't take action now on climate change then we're really facing an enormous catastrophe," she added. BAA won a court injunction on Monday barring one group of environmental activists from taking disruptive action during the protests, but peaceful and lawful protests can still go ahead. The High Court ruling has restricted the actions of Plane Stupid, one of the organisers of the protest. BAA had tried to ban people from four different groups. Environmental umbrella group AirportWatch said that would have hit millions of its members in its affiliated bodies, which include groups as diverse as Greenpeace, the National Trust and Friends of the Earth. BAA runs London airports Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick, and four other airports in Britain.

TOYAKO, Japan, Tue Jul 8, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - G8 nations, papering over deep differences on how to set goals to combat global warming, said on Tuesday they would work toward a target of at least halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 with other participants in UN talks. In a communique released during a summit in northern Japan, the Group of Eight leaders agreed that they would need to set mid-term goals to achieve the "shared vision" for 2050, but gave no numerical targets. The European Union's executive welcomed the communique, saying it kept negotiations on track for a global deal in 2009. "This is a strong signal to citizens around the world," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said, adding that the EU's benchmark for success had been achieved. But critics outside the rich nations' club slammed the deal. Environmental campaign group WWF said the leaders had ducked their responsibilities. "The G8 are responsible for 62 percent of the carbon dioxide accumulated in the Earth's atmosphere, which makes them the main culprit of climate change and the biggest part of the problem," WWF said shortly after the communique was issued. "WWF finds it pathetic that they still duck their historic responsibility...," the campaign group said in a statement. Last year, the G8 -- Japan, Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Russia and the United States -- agreed to "seriously consider" a goal of halving global emissions by mid-century. The European Union and Japan had been pressing for this year's summit to go beyond that, and Brussels wanted clear interim targets as well. But US President George W Bush has insisted that Washington cannot agree to binding targets unless big polluters such as China and India rein in their emissions as well. South African Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said he feared this year's communique was actually a step backward. "While the statement may appear as a movement forward, we are concerned that it may, in effect, be a regression from what is required to make a meaningful contribution to meeting the challenges of climate change," van Schalkwyk said. The statement puts the focus of fighting global warming on U.N.-led talks to create a new framework for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. The U.N. talks are set to conclude in Copenhagen in December 2009. FOOD AND FUEL Global warming ties into other big themes such as soaring food and fuel prices being discussed at the three-day summit at a plush mountain-top hotel on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, where 21,000 police have been mobilized. In another statement released on the second day of the summit, the leaders expressed strong concern about sky-high food and oil prices, which they said posed risks for a global economy under serious financial strain. The group also made a thinly veiled call for China to let the yuan's tightly controlled exchange rate appreciate to help reduce global financial imbalances. "In some emerging economies with large and growing current account surpluses, it is crucial that their effective exchange rates move so that necessary adjustment will occur," the G8 said in the statement. The leaders also agreed to bring major oil producers and consumers together in a new forum to discuss energy security. One diplomat said it would also be a venue to talk about output and prices. The price of food and of oil, which hit a record high of $145.85 a barrel last week, is taking a particularly heavy toll on the world's poor. A World Bank study issued last week said up to 105 million more people could drop below the poverty line due to the leap in food prices, including 30 million in Africa. To help cushion the blow, officials said the G8 would unveil a series of measures to help Africa, especially its farmers, and would affirm its commitment to double aid to $50 billion by 2010, with half to go to the world's poorest continent. The summit has become a magnet for protesters and although Japan has been effective at cracking down on any demonstrations -- helped by the remote location of the summit -- a few thousand have managed to hold small protests several km (miles) away. A group of demonstrators marched to the sound of music and drums on Tuesday, holding signs saying "Smash the G8 summit" and "Free G8 political prisoners". Tomoyuki Sueoka, a 25-year-old graduate student, said: "G8 nations do not have the right to decide the policies of the world. This is not democratic. They talk about poverty and food shortages but they are simply talking about business." The summit wraps up on Wednesday with a Major Economies Meeting comprising the G8 and eight other big greenhouse gas-emitting countries, including India, China and Australia.

Thousands of people made homeless by the deadliest cyclone in 16 years scrambled for cover after rumours spread that a tsunami was about to hit the devastated coastline, officials and reporters said Friday. "People squatting under the sky for a week after the cyclone killed thousands began running to and fro, looking for safe grounds on Thursday night to escape the unfounded tsunami," said a journalist in the coastal Barisal district. "No one knows who spread the false alarm, and why, that followed a rise in water levels at sea and rivers," journalist Aroop Talukder said. Weather officials said it was just a normal high tide, but it scared traumatised cyclone survivors many of whom are still not getting any relief a week after the Nov 15 cyclone, due to horrendous logistical difficulties and the scale of devastation. As the scare died down at dawn on Friday, thousands of people were seen lining up along highways waiting for relief trucks to come by, said Reuters cameraman Rafiqur Rahman in Swarankhola, an area badly mauled by the cyclone. "Men, women and children also crowded on the river banks and often ran into the water to grab food packets handed by government and private relief operators," he said on Friday. Cyclone Sidr killed around 3,500 people and left thousands injured or missing, officials said. In some areas, the survivors were still retrieving human and animal corpses, they said. Another 2 million people have been displaced, officials and aid workers say. COLD AND FOG A massive military-led relief operation is under way to provide food, medicine, clothes, blankets and safe water to survivors that has been pouring in from all over the world. Countries, institutions and charities have offered $200 million in aid so far. Survivors are collecting whatever they can from their devastated homes to build shelters, especially to protect them from early winter cold and fog, adding to their misery from hunger and disease. Bangladesh's army-backed interim government said two U.S. C-130 cargoes planes will help the Bangladesh air force deliver supplies to remote areas in a day or two, and two U.S. Navy ships carrying helicopters and marines will arrive over the weekend. "We are about to mount a very big and well-coordinated relief effort shortly," said one disaster management official. Cyclone Sidr was the strongest since a 1991 cyclone killed around 143,000 people. Officials and experts say a much better cyclone preparedness and advance warning system helped save thousands of lives this time. "As responses to disasters have improved, and as some shelter infrastructure has been put in place, death tolls have become smaller," said Xian Zhu, World Bank Country Director in Bangladesh. "But Bangladesh remains extremely vulnerable, the more so as climate change adds to its burden," Preliminary estimates show more than 5 million people in 30 districts were affected by the storm. Half of them need life-saving emergency assistance for the next two to three months, said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

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