COP21: Paris climate deal is 'best chance to save planet'
The climate deal reached in Paris is "the best chance we have to save the one planet we have", US President Barack Obama has said.
He said it could be a "turning point" for the world to take on the challenge of a low-carbon future.
China, the world's biggest polluter, also hailed the deal. But some campaigners said it did not go far enough to protect the planet.
The Paris pact aims to curb global warming to less than 2C (3.6F)
Nearly 200 countries took part in tense negotiations in the French capital over two weeks, striking the first deal to commit all nations to cut emissions.
The agreement - which is partly legally binding and partly voluntary - will come into being in 2020.
'Almost nothing binding'
Describing the agreement as "ambitious", President Obama said: "Together, we've shown what's possible when the world stands as one."
"In short, this agreement will mean less of the carbon pollution that threatens our planet and more of the jobs and economic growth driven by low-carbon investments."
The luxury hotel, the family of the top Moscow prosecutor and Russia’s most notorious gang
Video by anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny links family of general prosecutor Yuri Chaika with wife of mobster behind notorious massacre
What could possibly link an ultra-luxury spa hotel on the Aegean Sea in Greece, the most violent criminal gang in Russia’s living memory, and a web of prosecutors in the country, leading right up to the family of the general prosecutor?
According to the latest investigation by Russia’s anti-corruption campaigner,Alexei Navalny, and his team, the sons of the country’s general prosecutor, Yuri Chaika, have amassed a huge business empire, thanks at least in part to their father’s position and their ability to keep regional prosecutors onside.
It also alleges that the sons’ business associates have ties to the Tsapok gang, which terrorised the town of Kushchevskaya in southern Russia until arrests were made following a massacre that shocked the country.
Syria in 2016 will be like the Balkans in 1914 as explosive violence breaks out on an international scale
The cost of intelligence failures is rising as the Middle East enters a more violent phase
The CIA analyst is confident about what is likely to happen in Syria. He says that “Assad is playing his last major card to keep his regime in power”. He believes that the Assad government will step up its efforts to prove that its enemies “are being manipulated by outsiders”. The probable outcome is a split within Syria’s ruling elite leading to Assad being ousted, though he admits that there is no obvious replacement for him.
The reasoning in the CIA special analysis, entitled “Syria: Assad’s Prospects”, is sensible and convincing, though overconfident that Assad’s days are numbered. The extent of this overconfidence is highlighted by a glance at the date of the document, which is 17 March 1980, or 35 years ago, and the President Assad, whose imminent political demise is predicted as likely, is not Bashar al-Assad but his father, Hafez al-Assad, who died in 2000. The analysis was released by the CIA under the Freedom of Information Act in 2013.
Fear, Anger and Hatred: The Rise of Germany's New Right
For years, a sense of disillusionment has been growing on the right. Now, the refugee crisis has magnified that frustration. Increasingly, people from the very center of society are identifying with the movement -- even as political debate coarsens and violence increases. By SPIEGEL StaffMartin Bahrmann, a local politician in the Saxon town of Meissen, was just preparing to speak in a council debate on refugee shelters when a ball-point pen ricoched off the back of his head. It was a cheap, plastic writing utensil -- blue with white writing.
As a member of the business friendly Free Democrats (FDP), Bahrmann's seat in the regional council is at the very back and the visitors' gallery is just behind him. The pen must have come from somebody in the audience. When Bahrmann turned around, he found himself looking at a sea of hostile faces. Although there were around 80 visitors in the gallery, nobody admitted to having seen who threw the pen. On the contrary: The FDP representative and his colleagues were later insulted as being "traitors to the German people."
Banksy mural of Steve Jobs in Calais migrant camp to be protected
December 13, 2015 - 11:16AMPierre Savary
Lille, France: British graffiti artist Banksy's mural of late Apple founder Steve Jobs as a refugee on a wall in the Calais migrant camp and two other Banksy works in other parts of the city will be protected, local authorities say.
The Banksy mural depicts a life-size Jobs carrying a shoulder bag and an early model Apple computer on a wall at the entrance to the Calais camp, surrounded by migrants' tents. Pictures of the murals are posted on Banksy's website.
Authorities in Calais, northern France, said on Saturday they planned to shield the murals with glass or transparent plastic panels.
"We found out about the presence of this artwork on Friday and have decided to protect it, so it is not damaged," a Calais city spokeswoman said.
Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart told local newspaper Nord Littoral that the artwork was an opportunity for Calais.
"It is very good, and it has a message," she said.
IRRADIATED
The hidden legacy of 70 years of atomic weaponry: At least 33,480 Americans dead
Will the nation’s new nuclear age yield more unwanted fallout?
JACKSON, S.C. Byron Vaigneur watched as a brownish sludge containing plutonium broke through the wall of his office on Oct. 3, 1975, and began puddling four feet from his desk at theSavannah River nuclear weapons plant in South Carolina.
The radiation from the plutonium likely started attacking his body instantly. He’d later develop breast cancer and, as a result of his other work as a health inspector at the plant, he’d also contractchronic beryllium disease, a debilitating respiratory condition that can be fatal.
“I knew we were in one helluva damn mess,” said
Vaigneur
, now 84, who had a mastectomy to cut out the cancer from his left breast and now is on oxygen, unable to walk more than 100 feet on many days. He says he’s ready to die and has already decided to donate his body to science, hoping it will help others who’ve been exposed to radiation.
No comments:
Post a Comment