World needs to declare 'climate emergency' - UN
Environment correspondent
The UN secretary general has called on all countries to declare a climate emergency.
António Guterres was speaking at a virtual summit on the fifth anniversary of the Paris climate agreement,
He criticised rich countries for spending 50% more of their pandemic recovery cash on fossil fuels compared to low-carbon energy.
Over 70 world leaders are due to speak at the meeting organised by the UK, UN and France.
Iran executes dissident journalist for inspiring 2017 protests
Iran has executed a journalist over his role in inspiring nationwide economic protests in 2017, a year after the exile was captured by the country’s Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency said that Ruhollah Zam, 47, was hanged early on Saturday morning. The reports did not elaborate.
In June, a court sentenced Zam to death, saying he had been convicted of “corruption on Earth”, a charge often used in cases involving espionage or attempts to overthrow Iran’s government.
In a year dominated by pandemic, many other dramas unfolded
Not since World War II has a single phenomenon dominated the news worldwide as the COVID-19 pandemic has in 2020
Not since World War II has a single phenomenon dominated the news worldwide as the COVID-19 pandemic has in 2020. In the United States a tumultuous presidential election and a wave of protests over racial injustice also drew relentless coverage.
Overshadowed, to an extent, were other dramatic developments. Among them: China’s crackdown on Hong Kong’s democracy; an apocalyptic explosion in Beirut; the shocking helicopter-crash death of basketball icon Kobe Bryant and his daughter.
Opinion: Where we stand five years after the Paris Agreement
Five years after the 2015 Paris Agreement was negotiated into existence, climate scientist Saleemul Huq says we are living in a climate-changed world.
On December 12, 2015, then-French Foreign Minister and President of the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) Laurent Fabius gaveled through the historic Paris Agreement to uproarious applause in the conference chamber.
I had the good fortune of being in that chamber on that historic night. I was part of that applause. I was witness to a last-minute moment that had hung in the balance throughout the two weeks of intense negotiations.
Why the US bit back at China’s ‘Broken Tooth’
US sanctions on Wan Kuok Koi link his alleged transnational underworld activities to China’s Belt and Road Initiative
Less than a decade ago, Wan Kuok Koi, alias “Broken Tooth”, was incarcerated in a purpose-built top-security detention facility in Macau on charges of involvement in an illegal organization.
Today, he freely runs an apparently highly profitable business empire across Hong Kong, Cambodia, Malaysia, Palau and Myanmar, including the mysterious and controversial Shwe Kokko new city being built in a remote area on the Moei river bordering Thailand.
But those fortunes could soon come crashing down, at least if the US government has its way. On December 9, the US Treasury Department designated Chinese national Wan as “a leader of the 14K Triad, one of the largest Chinese organized crime organizations in the world.”
This was supposed to be a great year for Boris Johnson. Instead, he's stumbled from crisis to crisis
Updated 0507 GMT (1307 HKT) December 12, 2020
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