Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Six In The Morning Wednesday 26 May 2021

 

Court orders Shell to slash CO2 emissions in landmark climate ruling

Updated 1433 GMT (2233 HKT) May 26, 2021


A Dutch court has ruled that Royal Dutch Shell must dramatically reduce its carbon emissions in a landmark climate decision that could have far reaching consequences for oil companies.

The company must slash its CO2 emissions by 45% by 2030 from 2019 levels, according to a judgment from a district court in The Hague on Wednesday. That includes emissions from its own operations and from the energy products it sells.
This is the first time that a court has ruled a company needs to reduce its emissions in line with global climate goals, according to Friends of the Earth Netherlands, an environmental campaigning group that brought the case against Shell (RDSA).



Did Jordan’s closest allies plot to unseat its king?

Alleged sedition and a royal family feud may have been driven by a broader plan to reshape the Middle East


The phone call that shook the Jordanian government came in the second week of March this year. On the line to the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) in Amman was the US Embassy, seeking an urgent meeting about a matter of national importance. The kingdom’s spies were startled. Danger was brewing on the home front, they were told, and could soon pose a threat to the throne.

Within hours, the GID had turned its full array of resources towards one of the country’s most senior royals, Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, a former crown prince and half-brother of the king, whom the Americans suspected was sowing dissent and had begun rallying supporters. By early April, officials had placed Hamzah under house arrest and publicly accused the former heir and two close aides of plotting to unseat King Abdullah.

Belarus president claims Ryanair plane bomb warning came ‘from Switzerland’

Swiss government said it had ‘no knowledge’ of bomb threat

Oliver Carroll

Moscow Correspondent


Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko has claimed warnings about a bomb on the passenger plane came from Switzerland, in his first public remarks since the Ryanair hijacking,

Mr Lukashenko was speaking to a group of MPs and officials in Minsk on Wednesday morning. He also said reaction to the incident showed Europe was acting with its domestic enemies to destabilise Belarus.

“As we predicted, ill-wishers from outside and inside the country, have changed their methods of attacking us,” he said.

Syria elections: Polls open as Western countries slam 'illegitimate' vote

Voters were heading to polling stations across Syria, in what the US, Germany and other European countries have slammed as a sham election orchestrated by President Bashar Assad.

Syria's polling stations have opened on Wednesday across government-held areas in a presidential election set to give President Bashar Assad a fourth seven-year term.

The vote, dismissed as a sham by the opposition and Western countries, is the second presidential election since the country's conflict began a decade ago. 

You can vote for the candidate of your choice. As long as it's Bashar al Assad.

From lab-made embryos to organs: the ethics of stem cell science

The questions that scientists have to weigh as they navigate the ethics of fast-moving stem cell research can sometimes sound like science fiction.

Embryo-like structures concocted in a lab from skin tissue can help researchers peer into the "black box" of early human development.

Meanwhile, new frontiers in transplant and disease research could be opened by studies that introduce human cells into animals, or those creating tissue from stem cells that mimics organs, like kidneys and even brains.

Ireland recognises Israel’s ‘de facto annexation’ of Palestine

Gov’t now set to vote on amendment that, if passed, would expel the Israeli ambassador to Ireland and impose sanctions against Israel.

The Irish government has supported a parliamentary motion condemning the “de facto annexation” of Palestinian land by Israeli authorities, in what it said was the first use of the phrase by a European Union country in relation to Israel.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said on Tuesday that the motion, brought forward by opposition party Sinn Fein, “is a clear signal of the depth of feeling across Ireland”.






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