Why the sparsely-populated South Pacific islands have become the next US-China contest
Updated 0855 GMT (1655 HKT) June 6, 2022
The island nations that stretch across the South Pacific -- sparsely populated atolls and volcanic archipelagos, known more for tourism than lucrative natural resources -- may not seem, at first glance, to be a major geopolitical prize.
That contest was thrown into sharp focus in recent days, as China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi completed a 10-day tour of eight countries to promote cooperation and a sweeping, regional security and economic proposal with the potential to significantly ramp up Beijing's role in the South Pacific.
Environmentalists join forces to fight ‘carbon bomb’ fossil fuel projects
A coalition of environmental lawyers, investigative journalists and campaigners has launched a group to challenge the “carbon bomb” fossil fuel projects revealed in a Guardian investigation.
After a meeting in May, more than 70 NGOs and activist groups from around the world have formed a “carbon bomb defusal” network to share expertise and resources in the fight to halt the projects and prevent the catastrophic climate breakdown they would cause.
The Guardian investigation identified 195 carbon bombs, gigantic oil and gas projects that would each result in at least a billion tonnes of CO2 emissions over their lifetimes, in total equivalent to about 18 years of current global CO2 emissions. About 60% of these have started pumping.
Blatter, Platini finally going to court in FIFA fraud trial
Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini’s 11-day trial on charges of defrauding soccer governing body FIFA starts Wednesday
Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini’s 11-day trial on charges of defrauding FIFA starts Wednesday — finally bringing the epic downfall of soccer’s former world leaders into criminal court.
The fallout from the case ousted Blatter ahead of schedule as president of FIFA and ended Platini’s campaign to succeed his former mentor. It also removed Platini as president of UEFA, the governing body of European soccer.
In 2015, federal prosecutors in Switzerland revealed their investigation into a $2 million payment from FIFA to Platini from four years earlier. The pair will go on trial in Bellinzona.
The secret race to buy the ocean floor
Private companies are pushing for licenses to commercially mine the ocean floor. And the organization created to protect the deep sea is helping them accomplish this.
Mexico leader to skip Biden's Americas Summit
Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced Monday he would skip the regional Summit of the Americas in the United States due to Washington's failure to invite countries it views as undemocratic.
The White House confirmed that President Joe Biden would not be inviting Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua to this week's summit in Los Angeles.
"I'm not going to the summit because they are not inviting all the countries of America and I think it is necessary to change the policy that has been imposed on us for centuries: exclusion," said Lopez Obrador in his daily press conference.
Tunisia judges strike after mass sackings, Saied ‘interference’
Move is a response to the president’s sacking of 57 judges on Thursday, raising fears of a return to authoritarianism.
Tunisian judges have launched a week-long strike in protest at President Kais Saied’s “interference” in the judiciary, days after he sacked 57 of their colleagues, accusing them of corruption and protecting “terrorists”.
The strike, which began on Monday, is the latest in a series of escalating moves by Tunisia’s politicians, institutions and civil society as the country’s political crisis deepens.
Saied, who dismissed the country’s elected parliament and seized executive power last July, issued a new degree extending his rule over the judiciary after he said he had “given opportunity after opportunity and warning after warning to the judiciary to purify itself” in a televised address.
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