“A senior executive at U.S. risk advisory firm Kroll has been barred from leaving mainland China for the past two months, heightening concerns about the risks foreign companies face when doing business in the country,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Month: September 2023 (Page 1 of 4)
2023 is expected to be the warmest in human history as climate change accelerates.
France 24 | Channel News Asia | »
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 2,500 migrants died or went missing in the Mediterranean between January 1 and September 24.
The U.N. refugee agency said Thursday that some 186,000 migrants and refugees arrived in southern Europe so far this year, the vast majority in Italy.
More than 11,600 children crossed to Italy without their parents or legal guardians between January and mid-September. Last year, about 7,200 unaccompanied or separated children made the crossing.
Considering an average room rate of €175 per person, the increase will translate into an increase in the night’s cost, rising from €15.25 to €21.80 by 2024, reports SchengenVisaInfo.com.
Fortune »
“Look, I’m a soldier. I’ve been faithful and loyal to the Constitution of the United States for 44 and a half years, and my family and I have sacrificed greatly for this country, and my mother and father before them. And, you know, as much as these comments are directed at me, it’s also directed at the institution of the military, and there’s 2.1 million of us in uniform, and the American people can take it to the bank that all of us, every single one of us, from private to general, were loyal to that Constitution and will never turn our back on it, no matter what. No matter what the threats, no matter what the humiliation, no matter what.”
– Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley on CBS’ 60 Minutes
» The Guardian | DW | CBC
CBT News »
An unexpected side effect of the chip shortage is that drivers who kept their car for longer than they’re used to are going to the competition to try something new, reports Autoblog.
Washington Post » Facebook/Meta repeatedly failed to take down videos and posts of Indian Hindu nationalist leaders that openly called for the killing of Indian Muslims and did not publish an outside law firm’s report that highlighted their failures.
For decades, throngs of cars clogged the cobblestone streets of Pontevedra’s downtown, making this seaside city on Spain’s northwestern tip a hard place to live. Smog, loud noise and narrow walkways drove young families away from a region struggling with a shrinking and aging population.
Family physician turned mayor Miguel Fernandez Lores managed to halt the bleeding by closing many streets to car traffic. Now Pontevedra is a model of success in a growing global movement that’s trying to reclaim streets for pedestrians.
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International Energy Agency (IEA) »
https://www.iea.org/reports/oil-market-report-september-2023
Russian oil export revenues surged by US$1.8 billion to US$17.1 billion in August, as higher prices more than offset lower shipments. Led by a decline in product shipments, total Russian oil exports eased by 150 kb/d last month, to 7.2 mb/d, 570 kb/d below a year-ago.
Shipments to China and India slumped to 3.9 mb/d from 4.7 mb/d in April and May but accounted for more than half the total volumes.
Who is financing the Russian invasion of Ukraine?
Russia is one of the world’s top three crude oil producers, vying for the top spot with Saudi Arabia and the United States. Russia relies heavily on revenues from oil and natural gas, which in 2021 made up 45% of Russia’s federal budget.
Russia was the world’s largest fossil fuels exporter in 2021.
Meanwhile, energy demand in India (and China) is growing rapidly with major implications for the global energy market and world security.
Reference »
- Reuters » India’s Russian oil buying scales new highs in May
- The Hindu Business Line » Russian crude accounted for 40% of India’s oil imports in February
by Conner Griffith, 2022
Composed of over 1000 engravings from the 19th century, Still Life is a meditation on subject/object dualism. The film explores the idea that we live in a world of objects and a world of objects lives within us. Working with this encyclopedia of prints as a sort of language, a story of consciousness emerges.
It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.
Charlie Munger
World Alzheimer’s Day is celebrated every year on 21 September.
World Alzheimer’s Day is important for creating awareness, empowering caregivers, promoting solidarity, fostering research, and advocating the patients. It is a day to show support, and improve the lives of Alzheimer’s patients and their families.
Analysis of data gathered using cutting-edge methodology – including detailed satellite images and measurements from more than 1,400 ground monitoring stations – reveals a dire picture of dirty air, with 98% of people living in areas with highly damaging fine particulate pollution that exceed World Health Organization guidelines. Almost two-thirds live in areas where air quality is more than double the WHO’s guidelines.
The worst hit country in Europe is North Macedonia. Almost two-thirds of people across the country live in areas with more than four times the WHO guidelines for PM2.5, while four areas were found to have air pollution almost six times the figure, including in its capital, Skopje.
…
Traffic, industry, domestic heating and agriculture are the main sources of PM2.5 and the impact is often felt disproportionately by the poorest communities. »
Anne Frank, a young Jewish German teenager, journaled her experiences as she and her family hid for two years in an attic during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II.
Anne and her family were apprehended in 1944, and Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.
Her diary, which was first published in 1947, has since been published in more than 70 languages, and used in schools around the world for decades to educate students on the the Holocaust.
History is repeating itself. This time the USA.
A Texas middle school teacher has been fired after assigning an unapproved illustrated version of Anne Frank’s Diary to her eighth grade reading class. Per a report from KFDM, a spokesperson for Hamshire-Fannett ISD, located south of Beaumont, released a statement confirming the teacher was sent home on Wednesday after reading a passage from Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation in which Frank wrote about male and female genitalia. An investigation into the incident has since ensued.
Meanwhile
Ariana Grande, Guillermo del Toro, Mark Ruffalo and Amanda Gorman are among the over 175 actors, entertainers, authors, activists and others who have signed an open letter calling on Hollywood to use their influence to oppose book bans.
The letter, spearheaded by Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton and published via the political advocacy organization MoveOn Political Action, calls out books bans in US schools as “restrictive behavior” that is “antithetical to free speech and expression”. It also emphasizes the “chilling effect” the bans, often implemented at the local level, can have “on the broader creative field”.
“We have to be truthful, not neutral,” she urged. “I would make sure that you don’t just give a platform … to those who want to crash down the constitution and democracy.”
It’s an important call to action. But so far, the American press is failing to meet its responsibility to adequately emphasize the stakes of the coming election.
Livestock farming takes a heavy toll on the environment and excessive meat consumption can carry health risks. The Financial Times asks if governments should introduce a meat tax.
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Finland is a world leader when it comes to early years education. Childcare is affordable and nursery places are universally available in a system that puts children’s rights at the centre of decision-making.
Now the country is applying the same child-first thinking to paternity-leave policies in an attempt to tackle gender inequality in parenting. The Guardian’s Alexandra Topping travels to Helsinki to find out why the UK pre-school system lags so far behind and whether it really is easier to be a parent in Finland.
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