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☆ Iraq plants mangrove forest to fight climate disaster
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Essam Al-Sudani | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BASRA, Iraq, June 29 (Reuters) - As Aymen al-Rubaye plants mangrove seedlings in the sprawling tidal flats of southern Iraq, the black smoke rising over the skyline behind him shows the ecological damage that he is toiling to undo. Rubaye, an agricultural engineer, is working for a project started by Iraqi government bodies and a United Nations agency to grow up to 4 million mangrove trees in the Khor al-Zubair mudflats region, located near major oil fields. The tidal flats south of Basra are a baking landscape of water, salt, mud and hazy sky, riven by channels that Rubaye and his team navigate by boat. [1/5]Engineer Ayman Al-Rubaie, 47, plants mangrove trees in the wooded areas of the Shatt Al-Arab River, in Basra, Iraq June 21, 2023. Mangrove plants "can resist these harsh conditions we are passing through" without needing irrigation water, Rubaye said.

Persons: pats, Ayman Al, Essam, Rubaye, Ahmed Albaaj, Angus McDowall, Peter Graff Organizations: United, World Bank, REUTERS, United Arab Emirates, Thomson Locations: BASRA, Iraq, United Nations, Khor, Basra, . Southern Iraq, Kuwait, United Arab

JAKARTA, June 21 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian neighbours of conflict-riven Myanmar must consider imposing measures to hold its military rulers accountable, a United Nations expert said on Wednesday, adding the bloc is "deadlocked" over how to resolve the ongoing crisis. "It is time to consider alternative options to break what has become a deadly stalemate," he said at a press conference in Jakarta. "ASEAN must consider measures to impose accountability on the junta for its grave human rights violations and blatant disregard for implementation of the Five-Point Consensus." In November, an ASEAN leaders' summit issued a warning to Myanmar's junta and concluded a need for "concrete, practical and measurable indicators with a specific timeline." Andrews said the meeting in Thailand "can have the dangerous effect of legitimising the junta and undermining ASEAN unity".

Persons: Thomas Andrews, Andrews, Stanley Widianto, Kanupriya Kapoor, Lincoln Organizations: United, United Nations, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, Thomson Locations: JAKARTA, Myanmar, United Nations, Jakarta, U.S, Indonesia, Thailand

☆ Scathing Report on Police Leaves Minneapolis Reeling 3 Years After Floyd Murder
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Ernesto Londoño | Dan Simmons | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The wounds of Minneapolis are far from healed. Veterans of the city’s Police Department, which has lost more than 300 officers, say they are running on fumes, weary from patrolling under a cloud of suspicion. Three years after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, a Department of Justice report released on Friday concluded that the city’s Police Department was plagued by unlawful conduct, discrimination and mismanagement. In some ways, it was meant as an answer to the death of Mr. Floyd and to years of complaints about policing in this city of 425,000. But the devastating report seemed to bring little closure in Minneapolis, where many remain traumatized and riven by mistrust.

Persons: T.J, Johnson, George Floyd, Floyd, —, Tina Smith Organizations: Veterans, city’s Police Department, Justice, Democrat Locations: Minneapolis, South Minneapolis

☆ Silvio Berlusconi obituary: former Italian PM brought burlesque to politics
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Crispian Balmer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

[1/3] Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi looks on during a news conference at Chigi Palace in Rome, Italy, August 4, 2011. As with his political party, so with his business empire, Berlusconi left no single heir apparent. After Barack Obama was elected the first African-American president of the United States, Berlusconi congratulated him for being "tall, handsome, and suntanned". Berlusconi himself had no regrets about his political career, although he clearly felt he was often betrayed. "But when I come to think about it, I cannot recall the name of a single friend in politics."

Persons: Silvio Berlusconi, Tony Gentile ROME, Brash, ebullient, Berlusconi, Donald Trump, Il Cavaliere, Bettino Craxi, Vladimir Putin, Alan Friedman, Nicolas Sarkozy, BUNGA, Karima El Mahroug, Hosni Mubarak, Veronica Lario, Marta Fascina, Barack Obama, Mark Heinrich, Andrew Heavens, Angus MacSwan Organizations: REUTERS, Chi, AC Milan soccer, Forza Italia, Senate, Roman, Socialist Party, Moroccan, Union, Thomson Locations: Rome, Italy, U.S, Milan, Ukraine, United States

☆ Watched by IMF, Pakistan to present budget amid economic, political crises
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/4] A labourer waits for work while sitting beside push trollies outside a market in Karachi, Pakistan June 8, 2023. Against the backcloth of this political drama, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar is set to deliver his budget speech to parliament after 4:00 pm (1100 GMT) on Friday. Some budget figures were announced earlier this week, including development spending of 1,150 billion Pakistani rupees ($4 billion), and an economic growth target of 3.5% for the coming fiscal year. On Thursday, the International Monetary Fund said that it has been discussing the budget with Pakistan. Pakistan missed almost all of its economic targets set in the last budget, most notably its growth target, which was initially set at 5%, revised down to 2% earlier this year.

Persons: Akhtar Soomro, Shehbaz, Imran Khan, Ishaq Dar, Esther Perez Ruiz, Khan, Gibran Peshimam, Simon Cameron, Moore Organizations: REUTERS, IMF, Reuters, International Monetary Fund, Pakistan, Thomson Locations: Karachi, Pakistan, Akhtar Soomro ISLAMABAD

☆ Europe is struggling with a precarious water situation ahead of another drought-riven summer
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

European policymakers are battling to get to grips with a growing water crisis ahead of what researchers fear could be yet another climate crisis-fueled summer of drought. Water resources in Europe are growing increasingly scarce because of the deepening climate emergency, with record-breaking temperatures through spring and a historic winter heatwave taking a visible toll on the region's rivers and ski slopes. Reservoirs in Mediterranean countries like Italy have fallen to water levels typically associated with summer heatwaves in recent weeks, threatening agricultural production, while protests have broken out over water shortages in both France and Spain. It comes as temperatures are poised to climb through summer and many fear Europe's already "very precarious" water problem could get even worse. "We are actually getting problems with the water supply here — we have to think about this."

Persons: Europe's, Torsten Mayer Organizations: Arenas, Arenas del Rey, Austria's University of Graz, European Union, University of Graz Locations: Arenas del, Granada, Spain, Europe, Italy, France, Germany, Austria

LONDON, June 1 (Reuters) - Even if the U.S. dollar's singular dominance as global currency of choice is in fact ebbing, it may not automatically lead to a weaker dollar exchange rate - and could periodically mean the opposite. The big advantage of large dollar reserve holdings alongside wide commercial usage and trade in dollars overseas was clear. But the issue is typically read in markets as a reason to bet on a weakening dollar exchange rate - or even to pump alternatives such as gold or crypto tokens. Of course, that was a global economy riven with fixed dollar exchange rate pegs that supercharged the transmission of Fed policy, most of which have since been dismantled. That may be a world many countries prefer if they are sure of viable alternatives - but may not mean a weaker dollar.

Persons: chomping, Alan Greenspan's, Janet Yellen, Yellen, Mike Dolan, Kirsten Donovan Organizations: Federal, OASIS, Fed, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Reuters, Twitter, Thomson Locations: U.S, United States, Washington, China, Ukraine, Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa, Iran, Venezuela, outflows

The case stems from the estate of Gianni Agnelli, the celebrated Fiat boss who was a symbol of Italy's post-war economic boom and died two decades ago. The second pact covered what would happen to the estate of Margherita's mother Marella, who died only in 2019 aged 91. Italian law prohibits such inheritance pacts. Dicembre is at the heart of a web of companies spanning the vast Agnelli family investments. Giovanni Agnelli BV in turn has a 53% controlling stake in listed Exor, which owns stakes in Stellantis, Ferrari and Juventus.

[1/5] A plane carrying British nationals, who were evacuated from Sudan, arrives at the Larnaca International Airport, in Larnaca, Cyprus, April 27, 2023. REUTERS/Yiannis KourtoglouLARNACA, Cyprus, April 27 (Reuters) - Britain had evacuated around 900 of its citizens from Sudan through Cyprus as of early afternoon Thursday and urged those remaining in the conflict-riven country to grasp an opportunity to leave during the final hours of a cease fire. The airlift of British nationals began on Tuesday. By early afternoon, around 900 people had arrived at the Cypriot airport of Larnaca on British Royal Air Force flights, sources at the airport said. She said she had to leave her husband Ghassan, a non British passport holder, and other members of her family behind.

☆ Trump, other 2024 hopefuls seek NRA's blessing amid spate of shootings
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Alexandra Ulmer | Thomson Reuters | U.S. National Affairs Correspondent Who Spent Four Years In Venezuela Covering President Maduro'S Administration | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A number of hopefuls, including Trump's closest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, are deliberating if and when to jump into the 2024 race to challenge the former president for the nomination. Trump, whom the NRA enthusiastically backed in 2016 before he was even officially declared the Republican presidential candidate, will address gun aficionados in person on Friday. DeSantis, and other White House hopefuls, Nikki Haley and Senator Tim Scott, will do so by video message. Trump's campaign website says he will "always defend your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms," but does not provide detailed policy proposals. For some fervent NRA members, however, neither Trump nor DeSantis are committed enough to the cause.

☆ DeSantis to travel to Israel ahead of likely 2024 White House bid
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( James Oliphant | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The trip, which is being billed by DeSantis’ office as a trade mission, follows a longstanding tradition for Republicans seeking the White House but comes at a particularly volatile moment. “At a time of unnecessarily strained relations between Jerusalem and Washington, Florida serves as a bridge between the American and Israeli people,” DeSantis said in the release. As Florida's governor, DeSantis has vowed to be a staunch ally of Israel and led a trade delegation there in 2019. The White House said it had no comment on DeSantis’ plans, while maintaining administration officials have been regularly in touch with the Israeli government during the crisis. DeSantis is widely expected to enter the 2024 race once the Florida Legislature concludes its current session in early May.

☆ Cyclone in Peru causes major flooding, at least six dead
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The government has declared a state of emergency as it seeks to bring relief to regions of Peru hard hit by the cyclone known as Yaku, which include Lambayeque, Piura and Tumbes. Early on Friday, the National Institute of Civil Defense (INDECI) said flooding caused by Yaku had claimed six lives. [1/5] Machinery is used to repair a bridge destroyed by rains and floods caused by direct influence of Cyclone Yaku, in Piura, Peru March 11, 2023. Peru has been riven by instability and anti-government protests over the past few months since Congress removed former President Pedro Castillo from power in December. His replacement, President Dina Boluarte, visited parts of northern Peru on Saturday as the government delivered humanitarian aid to areas badly hit by the cyclone.

☆ Beaten and divided, Italy's centre-left seeks new leader
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Crispian Balmer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] Centre-left Democratic Party (PD) supporters gather during the electoral campaign closing event of Enrico Letta, secretary of PD, in Piazza del Popolo, ahead of the general election, in Rome, Italy, September 23, 2022. REUTERS/Guglielmo MangiapaneSummary Italy's PD looking to recover after 2022 election defeatParty seeks ninth leader in just 16 yearsModerate regional president faces young left-wingerROME, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Italy's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) will chose a new leader this weekend who it hopes can pull the group out of a tail spin and provide a credible challenge to the nationalist prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. PD supporters will have to pick between two starkly different candidates who offer opposing views on how to revive the party after a string of crushing election defeats. He promotes himself as a sound administrator and proven vote winner, who would seek cross-party alliances to defeat the ruling right-wing coalition. Makeshift voting booths are being set up across the country and PD officials hope at least a million people take part.

"This result consolidates the centre-right and strengthens the work of the government," Meloni wrote on Twitter. However, fears inside the coalition that support might crumble for Meloni's two main partners proved unfounded. The result offered no comfort to the centre-left camp, comprising the Democratic Party (PD), the 5-Star Movement and so-called Third Pole, which is riven by mutual loathing. Italy's electoral laws at both a national and regional level favour parties that combine forces meaning Meloni's opponents face years in the wilderness unless they learn to work together. Reporting by Crispian Balmer and Angelo Amante; Editing by Gavin Jones and Hugh LawsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Five killed in gun attack on Cameroon farm workers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Amindeh Blaise Atabong | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

YAOUNDE, Feb 10 (Reuters) - At least five banana plantation workers were killed and several wounded on Friday in Cameroon’s Southwest region that is riven by separatist violence, a union leader said. The unidentified assailants shot at a truck carrying employees of Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) - the country's largest state-owned agro-industrial firm whose workers have previously been targeted by Anglophone armed separatists fighting for an independent state. The ambush took place at around 5:30 p.m. local time near the town of Tiko after the labourers finished their work, said Gabriel Mbene Vefonge, president of the Cameroon Agricultural and Allied Workers Trade Union (CAAWOTU). They killed three other workers who were sitting in front before shooting sporadically," Vefonge told Reuters by phone, confirming that five were killed in total. Since then, thousands have been killed in the central African state, and rebels and government troops have taken turns to commit grievous atrocities.

☆ Cracks begin to show in India's Himalayan building spree
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Krishn Kaushik | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +12 min

"Modern connectivity is also a guarantee of national security," Modi said at an election rally at a border village in October, where he said the new transport links would bring development to remote regions. India's ministries of highways and railway, which own the state-run companies building the road and rail projects, also did not respond. Hundreds of homes have sunk and cracked in an Indian tourist town close to the Himalayan border with China. Eight of the families neighbouring Butola have now left the village, their homes riven with cracks, villagers told Reuters. Officials halted road construction work near the town, fearful of a bigger collapse.

☆ Factbox: Who is Russia's new war commander Gerasimov and why was he appointed?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Gerasimov's deputies will be Army General Sergei Surovikin, the previous theatre commander, appointed three months ago and nicknamed "General Armageddon"; Army General Oleg Salyukov; and Deputy Chief of the General Staff Colonel-General Alexei Kim. "Now the General Staff is directly and uncompromisingly responsible for absolutely everything," said Semyon Pegov, a Russian military blogger who uses the name Wargonzo. Gerasimov was appointed chief of the general staff and deputy defence minister by Putin on Nov. 9, 2012, three days after Putin's long-time ally Sergei Shoigu was made defence minister. Gerasimov played key roles in Russia's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and in Russia's game-changing military support for President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian Civil War. Gerasimov was born on Sept. 8, 1955, in Kazan, rising through the ranks from Russia's tank forces to graduate in 1997 from the Military Academy of the General Staff.

☆ Sean Hannity confronts Lauren Boebert for opposing McCarthy as speaker, asking: 'Is this a game show?'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Fox News host Sean Hannity challenged Rep. Lauren Boebert on Wednesday. He criticised her refusal to back Rep. Kevin McCarthy's House speaker bid. The GOP's failure to elect a House speaker has tipped the party into uncertainty. Like we're gonna pick Jim Jordan one day, Trump the other day?" The battle over the House speaker position has turned usually staunch political allies against each other.

Jailed for graft in 2018 - the year right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro was elected - Lula's convictions were overturned in 2019, allowing him to oust Bolsonaro in October's election. The more ideological Lula who emerged from jail in 2019 should not be a cause for concern, friends and allies said. Lula's spokesman Jose Chrispiniano said the president supported fiscal responsibility and believes that strengthening the economy is the best way to combat poverty. "Good morning, President Lula," his devotees would chant as the day began, followed by "Good night, President Lula," as he went to bed. From his 15-square-meter cell on the third floor of the Federal Police headquarters in Curitiba, Lula set about reorganizing the PT and managing his legal defense.

☆ Pioneering U.S. television journalist Barbara Walters dead at 93
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Bill Trott | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] Television personality Barbara Walters arrives for the premiere of the film "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" in New York September 20, 2010. "I asked Yeltsin if he drank too much, and I asked Putin if he killed anybody," Walters told the New York Times in 2013. "These two men were really quite brutal to me and it was not pleasant," Walters told the San Francisco Examiner. The New York Times called her "arguably America's best-known television personality" but also observed that "what we remember most about a Barbara Walters interview is Barbara Walters." Walters' three marriages - to businessman Robert Katz, theatrical producer Lee Guber and television executive Merv Adelson - ended in divorce.

☆ The Biggest Debates and Opinions in 2022 - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +30 min

Opinion The 22 Debates That Made Us Rage, Roll Our Eyes, and Change Our Minds in 2022Debating is what we do here at Times Opinion. To many, she was an icon: She ruled for 70 years, presided over the transition from empire to commonwealth and served as a living link to the generation that won World War II. (Though Ben Bernanke, a former Fed chairman himself, wrote in The Times that that wasn’t going to happen.) The United States and its European allies poured weapons and aid into Ukraine, but how was this going to end? As 2022 draws to a close, the fighting continues and peace talks look as distant as ever — which probably means that the debates will continue.

☆ Elon Musk has divided Silicon Valley friendships in the same way Donald Trump divided American families, according to former Facebook executive
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Tom Dotan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Musk's fans and critics in Silicon Valley find it increasingly hard to get along, according to Alex Stamos, Facebook's former CISO. Stamos, who helped oversee content moderation at Facebook during the turbulent post-2016 election period, compared the situation to Donald Trump's divisiveness. "There's a scary impulse in the valley right now [to defend Musk]," Stamos said. "The fact that he has become this pied piper for otherwise serious people...it feels in Silicon Valley like after Trump was elected and families got a little riven." Stamos also predicted that as the Musk-Twitter experiment continues to unravel, Musk's Silicon Valley supporters will recant their position if his free-for-all approach results in real-world consequences.

Sinema herself, however, said she would not caucus with the Republican Party, according to an interview Politico published on Friday. It will be up to Senate Democrats to foil Republican initiatives. Sinema and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin have kept Washington in suspense over the last two years as they repeatedly withheld needed votes for legislation sought by Biden. Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) walks from her hideaway office to the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. August 2, 2022. Just this week, Sinema and Republican Senator Thom Tillis unveiled an immigration reform plan that is getting bipartisan attention in the Senate.

☆ China’s Xi Jinping to Meet Arab Leaders in Milestone for Middle East Ties
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Stephen Kalin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday will attend a summit of Arab leaders billed as a milestone for relations with the Middle East, an energy-rich region riven by conflict that is witnessing growing competition between Beijing and Washington—long the region’s dominant security force. After meeting Saudi leaders on Thursday and elevating bilateral relations to the highest level, Mr. Xi will now gather with the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries and the broader 22-member League of Arab States. The meetings are expected to produce broad agreements but few big policy shifts. A free-trade agreement with the Gulf, talked about for years, could make progress.

☆ Sen. Sinema leaves Democratic Party to become independent
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Reuters Editorial | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

PoliticsSen. Sinema leaves Democratic Party to become independentPostedMaverick U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona is leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent, she said on Friday, adding drama to the 100-member chamber riven by deep political divisions. This report produced by Chris Dignam.

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