The world’s breadbasket is back. Russia and Ukraine signed separate deals with the United Nations and Turkey in Istanbul today that will unblock commercial exports from three southern Ukrainian ports including Odesa—where more than twenty million tons of grain have been held up amid Russia’s invasion of its neighbor. It’s a promising development far beyond just the Black Sea, allowing countries dependent on Ukrainian grain to breathe a sigh of relief following fears of a mounting global food crisis. But how fragile is this wartime deal? And what did Ukraine really gain? Our experts shipped off their takes.
Read more at:
Ukraine can feed the world again. But at what cost? - Atlantic Council
Showing posts with label World. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World. Show all posts
6/27/22
City Living: Vienna named the world’s most liveable city in 2022. These 5 European cities also made the top 10 - by Camille Bello
For the third time in the past five years, Vienna has captured the top spot in the Global Liveability Index, an annual report from The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) published on Thursday.
The top ten rankings were dominated by western European cities, which make up half of those on the list.
Copenhagen follows Vienna in second place, with Zurich taking third place with Calgary in Canada.
Not far behind is Geneva in number six, followed by Frankfurt at seven. Amsterdam secured number nine.
Read more at: Vienna named the world’s most liveable city in 2022. These 5 European cities also made the top 10 | Euronews
The top ten rankings were dominated by western European cities, which make up half of those on the list.
Copenhagen follows Vienna in second place, with Zurich taking third place with Calgary in Canada.
Not far behind is Geneva in number six, followed by Frankfurt at seven. Amsterdam secured number nine.
Read more at: Vienna named the world’s most liveable city in 2022. These 5 European cities also made the top 10 | Euronews
7/26/21
USA: Shades of gold: Why California is a bellwether of the world to come
t rarely rains in California between March and November. But in 2020, with gruesome irony, a huge storm on 16 August brought not just precipitation but a barrage of lightning that sparked hundreds of blazes across the northern part of the state. One of these fires – the enormous August Complex fire in and beyond the Mendocino National Forest – was responsible for the apocalyptic orange sky above San Francisco in early September. Fire-fighting crews drawn from California’s large prison population – a key source of labour for this dangerous and back-breaking work – were unavailable due to corona-virus outbreaks. Fire crews from up the coast could not come to help, as Oregon and Washington were burning too.
Little relief is in store this year. The winter brought scarce rain, and now a severe drought grips California. The mountains are bare of snow, reservoir levels are dropping – depriving the state of hydroelectric power just as heatwaves test the energy grid – and the hillsides are sun-scorched and brown with combustible dry grass. “Hell”, like “paradise”, is a term used far too easily to describe California. Looking to the coming months in the Golden State, however, “hellish” may be hardly an exaggeration. A punishing season of fire has already begun, with three times as much land burned this year as during the same period in 2020, which was itself the worst year on record.
Politically speaking, California is no longer known as the state that launched the careers of Republican presidents Richard Nixon in 1968 and Ronald Reagan in 1980. Now synonymous in the national consciousness with liberalism, it is known for high taxes and ambitious policies on emissions standards. Emerging from the pandemic, California seems eager to renew its reputation as a progressive leader. With coffers flush with federal stimulus money, the new California budget includes cash for the poor, money to cover missed rent during the pandemic, and funding for childcare.
Read more at Shades of gold: Why California is a bellwether of the world to come
Little relief is in store this year. The winter brought scarce rain, and now a severe drought grips California. The mountains are bare of snow, reservoir levels are dropping – depriving the state of hydroelectric power just as heatwaves test the energy grid – and the hillsides are sun-scorched and brown with combustible dry grass. “Hell”, like “paradise”, is a term used far too easily to describe California. Looking to the coming months in the Golden State, however, “hellish” may be hardly an exaggeration. A punishing season of fire has already begun, with three times as much land burned this year as during the same period in 2020, which was itself the worst year on record.
Politically speaking, California is no longer known as the state that launched the careers of Republican presidents Richard Nixon in 1968 and Ronald Reagan in 1980. Now synonymous in the national consciousness with liberalism, it is known for high taxes and ambitious policies on emissions standards. Emerging from the pandemic, California seems eager to renew its reputation as a progressive leader. With coffers flush with federal stimulus money, the new California budget includes cash for the poor, money to cover missed rent during the pandemic, and funding for childcare.
Read more at Shades of gold: Why California is a bellwether of the world to come
2/20/21
Multilaterism: Advancing multilateralism in a populist age - by Thomas Wright
his paper looks at how multilateralists in the United States and Europe are thinking about strengthening a cooperative international order at a time when populism and nationalism are strong forces in many of the major powers. The paper distinguishes between three pathways that multilateralism might take, particularly in Europe: the hitherto dominant incrementalist approach which involves trying to gradually integrate China and other non-Western powers into the order; an “alone in the jungle” approach whereby Europe would operate as a third pole between the United States and China; and a “reinvigorating the free world” approach, with Europe working with the United States to strengthen free and open democracies against authoritarian challenges.
Read more at: Advancing multilateralism in a populist age
Read more at: Advancing multilateralism in a populist age
11/30/20
Germany: Angela Merkel: No-deal Brexit would send a bad signal to the world
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that it would send a bad signal to the world if a Brexit trade deal could not be reached, as an EU negotiating team stayed in London for additional talks.
With just one month remaining for the European Union and the UK to come to an agreement, Merkel told a virtual gathering of parliamentarians from across the continent: "Britain and the EU share common values. If we failed to reach a deal, it would not send a good signal."
Read more at: Angela Merkel: No-deal Brexit would send a bad signal to the world | News | DW | 30.11.2020
With just one month remaining for the European Union and the UK to come to an agreement, Merkel told a virtual gathering of parliamentarians from across the continent: "Britain and the EU share common values. If we failed to reach a deal, it would not send a good signal."
Read more at: Angela Merkel: No-deal Brexit would send a bad signal to the world | News | DW | 30.11.2020
4/6/20
Will COVID-19 Remake the World? by Dani Rodrik
Crises come in two variants: those for which we could not have prepared,
because no one had anticipated them, and those for which we should have
been prepared, because they were in fact expected. COVID-19 is in the
latter category, no matter what US President Donald Trump says to avoid
responsibility for the unfolding catastrophe. Even though the
coronavirus itself is new and the timing of the current outbreak could
not have been predicted, it was well recognized by experts that a
pandemic of this type was likely.
SARS, MERS, H1N1, Ebola, and other outbreaks had provided ample warning. Fifteen years ago, the World Health Organization revised and upgraded the global framework for responding to outbreaks, trying to fix perceived shortcomings in the global response experienced during the SARS outbreak in 2003.
In 2016, the World Bank launched a Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility to provide assistance to low-income countries in the face of cross-border health crises. Most glaringly, just a few months before COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, China, a US government report cautioned the Trump administration about the likelihood of a flu pandemic on the scale of the influenza epidemic a hundred years ago, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide.
In short, COVID-19 may well not alter – much less reverse – tendencies evident before the crisis. Neoliberalism will continue its slow death. Populist autocrats will become even more authoritarian. Hyper-globalization will remain on the defensive as nation-states reclaim policy space. China and the US will continue on their collision course. And the battle within nation-states among oligarchs, authoritarian populists, and liberal internationalists will intensify, while the left struggles to devise a program that appeals to a majority of voters.
Read more at: Will COVID-19 Remake the World? by Dani Rodrik - Project Syndicate
SARS, MERS, H1N1, Ebola, and other outbreaks had provided ample warning. Fifteen years ago, the World Health Organization revised and upgraded the global framework for responding to outbreaks, trying to fix perceived shortcomings in the global response experienced during the SARS outbreak in 2003.
In 2016, the World Bank launched a Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility to provide assistance to low-income countries in the face of cross-border health crises. Most glaringly, just a few months before COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, China, a US government report cautioned the Trump administration about the likelihood of a flu pandemic on the scale of the influenza epidemic a hundred years ago, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide.
In short, COVID-19 may well not alter – much less reverse – tendencies evident before the crisis. Neoliberalism will continue its slow death. Populist autocrats will become even more authoritarian. Hyper-globalization will remain on the defensive as nation-states reclaim policy space. China and the US will continue on their collision course. And the battle within nation-states among oligarchs, authoritarian populists, and liberal internationalists will intensify, while the left struggles to devise a program that appeals to a majority of voters.
Read more at: Will COVID-19 Remake the World? by Dani Rodrik - Project Syndicate
12/14/18
France: Trump presidency "good news" for the world says French author Houellebecq
Trump presidency 'good news' for the world, says controversial French author Houellebecq Controversial French author Michel Houellebecq has again raised eyebrows with a quasi defense of the US president. Under Donald Trump, "America is no longer the world’s leading power," he said, adding: This is "good news for the rest of the world".
Read more:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)