It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, June 07, 2021
DISASTER CAPITALI$M
Puerto Rico is prone to more flooding than the island is prepared to handle
CREDIT: PHOTO BY SGT. JOSE AHIRAM DIAZ-RAMOS/PRNG-PAO
AUSTIN, Texas -- Puerto Rico is not ready for another hurricane season, let alone the effects of climate change, according to a new study that shows the island's outstanding capacity to produce record-breaking floods and trigger a large number of landslides.
The latest research, appearing in the journal Hydrology, builds on three prior studies led by hydrologist Carlos Ramos-Scharrón at The University of Texas at Austin, whose team began investigating the devastating impact of tropical cyclones on the island after Hurricane Maria in 2017.
The first compared the 2017 hurricane as a rainstorm event to more than a century of cyclones that came before it, finding that Maria produced the highest island-wide daily rainfall amount ever recorded (similar to Hurricane Harvey's impact on Houston). The second found that Maria's rainfall triggered one of the highest number of rainfall-induced landslides ever reported worldwide in similarly sized areas. And the third identified landslides as the main source of the sediment infilling the already limited water storage capacity of the island's main reservoirs.
"We need to stop talking about climate change in future tense. It's already here," said Ramos-Scharrón, associate professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment and the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies. "Climate change projections for the Caribbean suggest longer dry periods interrupted by more intense storms. These storms release large quantities of sediment by landslides, and many of those end up reducing the island's capacity to store water. The combined effect of these climate change projections is for a higher propensity for water scarcity."
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Civil Air Patrol in cooperation with the Air National Guard does an ariel survey over northern Puerto Rico Sept. 26, 2017 after hurricane Maria impacted the island on Sept. 20, 2017. The Civil Air Patrol is part of the Air Force's total force concept.
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US Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Nicholas Dutton
The latest paper, which focused on streamflow levels, draws attention to another glaring issue -- Puerto Rico is not prepared to handle the severe flooding sure to come its way. Flood management and the design of vital infrastructure, such as bridges, largely rely on a calculation of the likelihood that an event of a given magnitude is going to occur. For a particular region, that calculation depends on the history of flooding.
In Puerto Rico, the most current method to make such calculations relies on data collected only up to 1994. Since then, Hurricanes Hortense (1996), Georges (1998) and Maria surpassed bot100-year and 500-year flood marks across the island, with Maria surpassing 500-year levels in five locations.
h Five other tropical storms matched or surpassed 100- and 500-year levels in some specific locations, particularly near the central-eastern end of Puerto Rico, which is most vulnerable due to the westward trajectory of most tropical cyclones and the island's hilly topography.
"Events with these 100- and 500-year metrics just cannot be that common," Ramos-Scharrón said. "If this is not what climate change is supposed to be, then I do not know what it is. It can creep up on you. Puerto Rico needs to adapt its planning tools to the reality of what the island has experienced and scientists are documenting."
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The Adjuntant General of Puerto Rico, Brig. Gen. Isabelo Rivera, and State Command Sgt. Maj. Juvencio Méndez, along with the Governor of Puerto Rico, Hon. Ricardo Rosselló Nevares, and the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico in Washington, Hon. Jennifer González, the director of FEMA in Puerto Rico, Alejandro de la Campa, and the Director of the Authority of Electrical Energy of Puerto Rico, Eng. Ricardo Ramos, realized a reconnaissance flight of the island, Sept. 23, with aid from Puerto Rico National Guard Army Aviation, San Juan, P.R.
CREDIT
Sgt. Jose Ahiram Diaz-Ramos/PRNG-PAO
Papers explore massive plankton blooms with very different ecosystem impacts
IMAGE: THE VIDEO PLANKTON RECORDER BEING RECOVERED AFTER A SUCCESSFUL SURVEY. view more
CREDIT: DAN BRINKHUIS, SCIENCEMEDIA.NL
"The big mystery about plankton is what controls its distribution and abundance, and what conditions lead to big plankton blooms," said Dennis McGillicuddy, Senior Scientist and Department Chair in Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).
Two new papers explore this question and provide examples of conditions that lead to massive plankton blooms with vastly different potential impacts on the ecosystem, according to McGillicuddy, co-author of both papers. Both papers also point to the importance of using advanced technology--including Video Plankton Recorders, autonomous underwater vehicles, and the Ocean Observatories Initiative's Coastal Pioneer Array--to find and monitor these blooms.
In one paper, Diatom Hotspots Driven by Western Boundary Current Instability, published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), scientists found unexpectedly productive subsurface hotspot blooms of diatom phytoplankton.
In the GRL paper, researchers investigated the dynamics controlling primary productivity in a region of the Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB), one of the world's most productive marine ecosystems. In 2019, they observed unexpected diatom hotspots in the slope region of the bight's euphotic zone, the ocean layer that receives enough light for photosynthesis to occur. Phytoplankton are photosynthetic microorganisms that are the foundation of the aquatic food web.
It was surprising to the researchers that the hotspots occurred in high-salinity water intruding from the Gulf Stream. "While these intrusions of low?nutrient Gulf Stream water have been thought to potentially diminish biological productivity, we present evidence of an unexpectedly productive subsurface diatom bloom resulting from the direct intrusion of a Gulf Stream meander towards the continental shelf," the authors note. They hypothesize that the hotspots were not fueled by Gulf Stream surface water, which is typically low in nutrients and chlorophyll, but rather that the hotspots were fueled by nutrients upwelled into the sunlight zone from deeper Gulf Stream water.
With changing stability of the Gulf Stream, intrusions from the Gulf Stream had become more frequent in recent decades, according to the researchers. "These results suggest that changing large?scale circulation has consequences for regional productivity that are not detectable by satellites by virtue of their occurrence well below the surface," the authors note.
"In this particular case, changing climate has led to an increase in productivity in this particular region, by virtue of a subtle and somewhat unexpected interaction between the physics and biology of the ocean. That same dynamic may not necessarily hold elsewhere in the ocean, and it's quite likely that other areas of the ocean will become less productive over time. That's of great concern," said McGillicuddy. "There are going to be regional differences in the way the ocean responds to climate change. And society needs to be able to intelligently manage from a regional perspective, not just on a global perspective."
The research finding demonstrated "a cool, counterintuitive biological impact of this changing large scale circulation," said the GRL paper's lead author, Hilde Oliver, a postdoctoral scholar in Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering at WHOI. She recalled watching the instrument data come in. With typical summertime values of about 1-1.5 micrograms of chlorophyll per liter of seawater, researchers recorded "unheard of concentrations for chlorophyll in this region in summer," as high as 12 or 13 micrograms per liter, Oliver said.
Oliver, whose Ph.D. focused on modeling, said the cruise helped her to look at phytoplankton blooms from more than a theoretical sense. "To go out into the ocean and see how the physics of the ocean can manifest these blooms in the real world was eye opening to me," she said.
Another paper, A Regional, Early Spring Bloom of Phaeocystis pouchetii on the New England Continental Shelf, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (JGR: Oceans), also was eye opening. Researchers investigating the biological dynamics of the New England continental shelf in 2018 discovered a huge bloom of the haptophyte phytoplankton Phaeocystis pouchetii.
However, unlike the diatom hotspots described in the GRL paper, Phaeocystis is "unpalatable to a lot of different organisms and disrupts the entire food web," said Walker Smith, retired professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science William and Mary, who is the lead author on the JGR: Oceans paper. The phytoplankton form gelatinous colonies that are millimeters in diameter.
When Phaeocystis blooms, it utilizes nutrients just like any other form of phytoplankton would. However, unlike the diatoms noted in the GRL paper, Phaeocystis converts biomass into something that doesn't tend to get passed up the rest of the food chain, said McGillicuddy.
"Understanding the physical-biological interactions in the coastal system provides a basis for predicting these blooms of potentially harmful algae and may lead to a better prediction of their impacts on coastal systems," the authors stated.
Massive blooms of the colonial stage of this and similar species have been reported in many systems in different parts of the world, which Smith has studied. These types of blooms probably occur about every three years in the New England continental shelf and probably have a fairly strong impact on New England waters, food webs, and fisheries, said Smith. Coastal managers need to know about these blooms because they can have economic impacts on aquaculture in coastal areas, he said.
"Despite the fact that the Mid-Atlantic Bight has been well-studied and extensively sampled, there are things that are going on that we still don't really appreciate," said Smith. "One example are these Phaeocystis blooms that are deep in the water and that you are never going to see unless you are there because satellites can't show them. So, the more we look, the more we find out."
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Both of these studies were carried out as part of the National Science Foundation-funded Shelfbreak Productivity Interdisciplinary Research Operation at the Pioneer Array involving partners at WHOI, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Wellesley College, and Old Dominion University. Additional support has been provided by the Dalio Explorer Fund.
For more information, see the video "Life at the Edge: Plankton Growth at the Shelf Break Front," produced by ScienceMedia.nl for WHOI.
About Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930, its primary mission is to understand the ocean and its interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate an understanding of the ocean's role in the changing global environment. WHOI's pioneering discoveries stem from an ideal combination of science and engineering--one that has made it one of the most trusted and technically advanced leaders in basic and applied ocean research and exploration anywhere. WHOI is known for its multidisciplinary approach, superior ship operations, and unparalleled deep-sea robotics capabilities. We play a leading role in ocean observation and operate the most extensive suite of data-gathering platforms in the world. Top scientists, engineers, and students collaborate on more than 800 concurrent projects worldwide--both above and below the waves--pushing the boundaries of knowledge and possibility. For more information, please visit http://www.whoi.edu
A Regional, Early Spring Bloom of Phaeocystis pouchetii on the New England Continental Shelf
Authors: Walker O. Smith Jr.1,2*, Weifeng G. Zhang3, Andrew Hirzel3, Rachel M. Stanley4, Meredith G. Meyer1, Heidi Sosik3, Philip Alatalo3, Hilde Oliver3, Zoe Sandwith3, E. Taylor Crockford3 , Emily E. Peacock3, Arshia Mehta4 , and Dennis J. McGillicuddy Jr.3
Affiliations:
1 Virginia Institute of Marine Science, William & Mary, Gloucester Pt., VA, USA
2 School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
3 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA
4 Department of Chemistry, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA
*Corresponding author
Diatom Hotspots Driven by Western Boundary Current Instability
Authors: Hilde Oliver1*, Weifeng G. Zhang1, Walker O. Smith, Jr.,2,3, Philip Alatalo1, P. Dreux Chappell4, Andrew Hirzel1, Corday R. Selden4, Heidi M. Sosik1, Rachel H. R. Stanley5, Yifan Zhu4, and Dennis J. McGillicuddy, Jr.1
Affiliations:
1Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA
2Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William & Mary, Gloucester Point, VA, USA
3School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
4Department of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA USA 5Department of Chemistry, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA *Corresponding autho
Climate warming to increase carbon loss in Canadian peatland by 103 per cent
Carbon loss in Canadian peatland is projected to increase by 103 per cent under a high emission scenario, according to new research led by scientists from the University of Waterloo.
The results of the study, which was published today in Nature's Communications Earth & Environment journal, reinforces the urgent need for a comprehensive understanding of peatlands as evolving sources of atmospheric CO2 in a warming world.
Peatlands, which are a type of wetland, are some of the most valuable ecosystems globally. In addition to their role in preserving biodiversity and minimizing flood risk, they store approximately one-third of the world's terrestrial organic carbon, despite only covering an estimated three per cent of the continents.
The researchers believe the study, which had Faculty of Engineering student Arash Rafat as lead author, has implications for future climate policy. Even under the lowest radiative forcing scenario, peatlands will act as a source of CO2 during the non-growing season (NGS) throughout the remainder of the 21st century. This reinforces the hypothesis that climate warming has the potential to increase peatland CO2 emissions during the NGS across various northern regions from around the world.
"Our research offers important insights into how Canada's northern peatlands will react to climate warming, especially during the non-growing season," said Fereidoun Rezanezhad, a professor in Waterloo's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. "As the climate warms, it is important to understand to what degree this will impact peatland ecosystems and their release of CO2 emissions - especially in areas of greatest warming, which include peatlands in northern regions and during the NGS."
To improve our ability to predict NGS CO2 emissions from northern peatlands under current and future climate change, a team of Waterloo's Water Institute researchers led by Ecohydrology Research Group professors Rezanezhad and Philippe Van Cappellen worked with professor William Quinton of Wilfrid Laurier University, professor Elyn Humphreys of Carleton University, and research scientist Dr. Kara Webster from the Canadian Forest Service Great Lakes Forestry Centre.
The team developed a machine-learning model to determine that changes in soil temperature and photosynthesis are the primary drivers of changes in net carbon flux. To predict future NGS CO2 emissions, the team developed the model using a continuous 13-year dataset of eddy covariance flux measurements from a peatland site located in Ottawa, Canada called the Mer Bleue Bog.
"The projected 103 per cent increase in peatland carbon loss by 2100 under a high radiative forcing scenario will constitute a strong positive climate feedback loop," said Rafat, who engaged in the research during his co-op term in the Waterloo's Faculty of Science. "In this climate feedback loop as the climate warms, peatlands release greenhouse gases, which in turn contributes to further climate warming."
Results 1 - 10 of 692 — Great trail to walk for all ages amd levels. Lots of different trails and circuits to take and maps are located at path intersections for easy ...
Meet Australia's largest dinosaur -- Australotitan, the southern titan!
IMAGE: AUSTRALOTITAN COOPERENSIS KONSTANTINOV. view more
CREDIT: (C)EROMAN MUSEUM
What's as long a basketball court, taller than a b-double and has just stomped into the record books as Australia's largest dinosaur? It's time to meet Australotitan cooperensis - a new species of giant sauropod dinosaur from Eromanga, southwest Queensland.
Australotitan, "the southern titan", has been scientifically described and named by Queensland Museum and Eromanga Natural History Museum palaeontologists.
It is estimated to have reached a height of 5-6.5 metres at the hip and 25- 30 metres in length and sits within the top 10-15 largest dinosaurs world-wide, representing Australia's entry into the largest species to have ever walked the Earth.
The fossilised skeleton was originally nicknamed 'Cooper' after Cooper Creek, when first discovered in 2007 by the Eromanga Natural History Museum. It now represents the largest species of dinosaur ever found in Australia.
The scientific publication marks a seventeen-year long culmination of the joint effort between Queensland Museum and Eromanga Natural History Museum palaeontologists, fossil preparators, geologists, and countless volunteers.
"Australotitan adds to the growing list of uniquely Australian dinosaur species discovered in Outback Queensland, and just as importantly showcases a totally new area for dinosaur discovery in Australia," Dr Hocknull said.
"To make sure Australotitan was a different species, we needed to compare its bones to the bones of other species from Queensland and globally. This was a very long and painstaking task."
Dinosaur bones are enormous, heavy and fragile, and are kept in museums 100s-1000s of kilometres apart, making scientific study very difficult. For the first time, the team used new digital technology to 3-D scan each bone of Australotitan and compare them to the bones of its closest relatives. These scans will form part of the museum's digital collection that is powered by Project DIG, a partnership between Queensland Museum Network and BHP.
"The 3-D scans we created allowed me to carry around 1000s of kilos dinosaur bones in a 7kg laptop. Better yet, we can now share these scans and knowledge online with the world," Dr Hocknull said.
The study found that Australotitan was closely related to three other Australian sauropods that lived during the Cretaceous Period (92-96 million years ago).
"We compared the three species found to the north, near Winton, to our new Eromanga giant and it looks like Australia's largest dinosaurs were all part of one big happy family.
"We found that Australotitan was the largest in the family, followed by Wintonotitan with big hips and long legs, whilst the two smaller sauropods, Diamantinasaurus and Savannasaurus were shorter in stature and heavily-set." Dr Hocknull said along with the description of Australotitan, the study has also revealed a swathe of new discoveries in the area awaiting full scientific study.
"Over the last 17-years numerous dinosaur, skeletons have been found, including one with an almost complete tail. The discovery of a rock-shelf, almost 100 metres long, represents a sauropod pathway, where the dinosaurs walked along trampling mud and bones into the soft ground," Dr Hocknull said. "Discoveries like this are just the tip of the iceberg. Our ultimate goal is to find the evidence that tells the changing story of Queensland, hundreds of millions of years in the making. A grand story all scientists, museums and tourists can get behind."
Minister for Arts Leeanne Enoch said the exciting new discovery helps to cement Queensland as Australia's dinosaur capital.
"Discoveries like Australotitan tell the story of a time when dinosaurs roamed Queensland," Minister Enoch said.
"Queensland Museum experts have been on the ground, sharing their knowledge with regional museums and helping to preserve and better understand the diverse paleontological hi story of our state.
"These unique outback discoveries are supporting Queensland as we deliver our economic recovery plan creating local jobs in regional and cultural tourism." Robyn Mackenzie, General Manager of Eromanga Natural History Museum said it's an exciting culmination of a major amount of work.
"Finding Cooper has changed the course of our lives and led to the establishment of the Eromanga Natural History Museum," Ms Mackenzie said.
"Working with Queensland Museum to formally describe Cooper has helped put our little town of Eromanga in Quilpie Shire South West Qld on the map. Australotitan is just the start, we have many more discoveries awaiting full scientific study.
"It's amazing to think from the first bones discovered by our son, the first digs with the Queensland Museum, through to the development of a not-for-profit museum that runs annual dinosaur digs, all have helped us to get to this point, it's a real privilege."
Queensland Museum Network CEO Dr Jim Thompson said this represented the first dinosaur discovery in this corner of south-west Queensland.
"In the early 2000s Australia was at the beginning of a dinosaur-rush,with a number of significant new species of dinosaurs and megafauna being discovered in the past 20 years. Australia is one of the last frontiers for dinosaur discovery and Queensland is quickly cementing itself as the palaeo- capital of the nation - there is still plenty more to discover," Dr Thompson said.
"I am proud that Queensland Museum palaeontologists have been part of many of these amazing discoveries and are leaders in their fields."
The new paper was published recently in PeerJ - the Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences
Dr. Scott Hocknull and Robyn McKenzie (IMAGE)
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3D reconstruction Cooper humerus 2015.
CREDIT
(C) Rochelle Lawrence
Link to the Published Version of the article (quote this link in your story - the link will ONLY work after the embargo lifts): https://peerj.com/articles/11317/ your readers will be able to freely access this article at this URL.
Media Enquiries: media@qm.qld.gov.au Christine Robertson, Senior Media Officer, 3153 4451/0417 741 710 Kylie Hay, Senior Media Officer, 3153 4450/0434 565 852
About Australotitan cooperensis Hocknull et al., 2021 ("Cooper" - Australia's largest dinosaur)
Name: Australotitan cooperensis Pronounced: Australo - titan ; cooper - en - sis Meaning: Southern Titan from the Cooper (Cooper Creek) Found: West of Eromanga, South-west Queensland, Australia Age: Approximately 92-96 million years ago. Cretaceous Period, Cenomanian - Turonian Epoch. Size: Based on the prepared remains of Australotitan cooperensis, it's estimated that the species could reach 25-30 metres long and 5-6.5 metres high (ground to hip). Type: Giant titanosaurian sauropod (long-necked, plant-eating sauropod) Formation: Winton Formation, Eromanga Basin.
ABOUT SAUROPODS:
Sauropod dinosaurs were herbivores and had very long necks, long tails, small heads and four thick, pillar-like legs. They are known for their enormous size and includes some of the largest animals to ever have lived on land.
The name Sauropoda was coined by OC Marsh in 1878 and is derived from the Greek meaning 'Lizard Foot'
They are one of the most recognisable groups of dinosaurs in the world.
Fast facts about Australotitan:
Largest skeletal remains of a dinosaur ever to be discovered in Australia.
Based on skeletal measurements, Australotitan is within the top 10-15 largest dinosaurs world-wide.
Australotitan is a titanosaurian sauropod. Titanosaurians are one of the last remaining sauropod groups in the Cretaceous Period and also were the largest ever land -dwelling animals.
Fossils of Australotitan was found on a tributary of the famous inland river system, Cooper Creek in the Cooper/Eromanga Basin and this is where the nickname came from
Titanosaurians have been found across the globe, however, little is known of the Australian dinosaur species world.
Australotitan comes from the Winton Formation, one of the largest geological layers in Australia from the time of the dinosaurs.
Australotitan is closely related to other sauropod species found in the Winton Formation, Diamantinasaurus, Wintonotitan and Savannasaurus.
Determining the mass of Australotitan is very difficult. Scientists estimate it weighed between 23,000 - 74,000 kg, possibly as much as 67,000 kg.?
About:
PeerJ is an Open Access publisher of seven peer-reviewed journals covering biology, environmental sciences, computer sciences, and chemistry. With an emphasis on high-quality and efficient peer review, PeerJ's mission is to help the world efficiently publish its knowledge. All works published by PeerJ are Open Access and published using a Creative Commons license (CC-BY 4.0). PeerJ is based in San Diego, CA and the UK and can be accessed at peerj.com
PeerJ - the Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences is the peer-reviewed journal for Biology, Medicine and Environmental Sciences. PeerJ has recently added 15 areas in environmental science subject areas, including Natural Resource Management, Climate Change Biology, and Environmental Impacts. peerj.com/environmental-sciences
Across its journals, PeerJ has an Editorial Board of over 2,000 respected academics, including 5 Nobel Laureates. PeerJ was the recipient of the 2013 ALPSP Award for Publishing Innovation. PeerJ Media Resources (including logos) can be found at: peerj.com/about/press
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
Saudi Human Rights UK foreign secretary urged to intervene in Saudi Arabia death penalty cases
Mustafa Hashim al-Darwish and Abdullah al-Huwaiti face the death penalty for crimes they reportedly committed while minors UK foreign minister Dominic Raab met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday (AFP)
The relatives of two men awaiting execution in Saudi Arabia have asked British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to press for their release while he visits the kingdom.
Last Thursday, a Saudi court upheld the death sentence of Mustafa al-Darwish, who was detained as a child in 2015 for allegedly participating in anti-government riots in the Shia majority Eastern Province.
According to court documents, Darwish was subjected to prolonged pre-trial detention, torture and a grossly unfair trial.
Darwish's relatives said on Monday that there was an "immediate risk" of his death sentence being carried out.
"We received the tragic news that the supreme court has upheld the death sentence on Thursday after desperately trying to obtain information for months," they said, speaking through the human rights organisation Reprieve, as quoted by The Times on Monday. Saudi man arrested as a child could face execution despite reforms: HRW Read More »
"Courage from Mr Raab in raising Mustafa's case could ensure that his execution does not go ahead."
Raab met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday, where he said the two discussed "shared interests including trade, Iran and climate change".
It was not mentioned whether the foreign secretary brought up the issue of minors facing the death penalty.
The second man at risk of the death penalty is Abdullah al-Huwaiti, who was convicted on murder and armed robbery charges by a criminal court in October 2019 when he was 17, along with five other defendants.
Huwaiti says he was forced to confess to the alleged crimes under torture and his family claim that CCTV evidence shows he was not at the scene.
UN human rights experts have also expressed "deep concern" over Huwaiti's status on death row. They said he was convicted of a "crime allegedly committed when he was a minor and is now facing execution following a trial marred by torture allegations".
Last April, Saudi King Salman issued a royal decree ending death sentences for crimes committed as a minor, instead making the maximum sentence 10 years in a juvenile detention facility.
Still, rights groups have raised concerns about its implementation and previously warned that several youths still face the death penalty.
What every G7 country wants as world leaders set to meet in Cornwall this week
EXPLAINED
Each leader will use the summit to raise issues such as Northern Ireland, global coronavirus vaccinations and climate targets
Global leaders are due to meet at the G7 summit in Cornwall (Photo: Reuters/Toby Melville)
World leaders will gather in the UK this week for the G7 summit, where they will discuss the biggest issues the world is facing today including economic recovery, health emergencies and the climate crisis.
US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet in Cornwall between 11-13 June alongside Prime Minister Boris Johnson and leaders from Japan, Canada, Italy and France who make up the G7 (Group of Seven).
While talks will focus on the global recovery from the pandemic, each leader will use the summit to raise to issues such post-Brexit plans for Northern Ireland, global coronavirus vaccinations, taxes on multinationals and climate targets.
The freshest exclusives and sharpest analysis, curated for your inbox
Here’s what the world leaders will call for at the G7 summit:
UK
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will urge leaders to vaccinate the world against Covid-19 (Photo: WPA Pool/ Getty/ Justin Tallis)
Mr Johnson will urge world leaders to commit to vaccinating the global population by the end 2022, as he pushes for a watch system to catch new Covid-19 variants before they can plunge countries back into lockdown.
He is calling on his counterparts to “rise to the greatest challenge of the post-war era” by “vaccinating the world by the end of next year”, in a move he said would be the single greatest feat in medical history.
He is also expected to urge global leaders to replicate the UK’s target to reach net zero emissions by 2050, as he will be seeking commitments from leaders to kickstart a green industrial revolution and build climate-resilient economies.
The Prime Minister has invited leaders from Australia, India and South Korea as he seeks to “intensify cooperation between the world’s democratic and technologically advanced nations”.
He said he wants to use the G7 and the upcoming COP26 climate talks, which will take place in Glasgow in November, to “build back better” from the pandemic and “create a greener, more prosperous future”.
The US President pledged to affirm his “special relationship” with the UK when he meets with Mr Johnson at the G7 summit for the first time since he took office.
“This trip is about realising America’s renewed commitment to our allies and partners,” Mr Biden wrote in the Washington Post on Saturday 5 June.
US President Joe Biden seeks to affirm ‘special relationship’ with the UK at the G7 summit (Photo: Reuaters/ Kevin Lamarque)
Mr Biden, who is proud of his Irish heritage, will also warn Mr Johnson not to renege on the Northern Ireland protocol, which keeps the province in both the UK’s customs territory and the EU’s single market.
Mr Biden and his counterparts are also expected to support a landmark global deal to set a minimum global corporate tax rate of at least 15 per cent.
The decision reached by G7 finance ministers on Saturday 5 June could potentially hit giant tech companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon.
He will push allies to add pressure on China over allegations of forced labour in Xinjiang province, home to the Muslim Uighur minority, while seeking to maintain Beijing as an ally in the climate change fight.
Germany
It will be last G7 summit German Chancellor Angela Merkel will attend before she steps down after an election in September.
Mrs Merkel is set to hand Mr Johnson an ultimatum over the Northern Ireland protocol, along with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Climate change will also be on the agenda after Mrs Merkel set out plans for Germany’s new stronger target to cut emissions to net-zero by 2045.
France
The French President had previously proposed in February that wealthy countries inEurope and elsewhere should set aside 5 per cent of its Covid-19 vaccines for distribution in Africa.
Mr Macron had also encouraged G7 leaders to increase their funding for Covax, the United-Nations backed scheme aiming to supply low and medium income countries with coronavirus vaccines.
He had wanted the UK to invite the Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya to the summit to speak at one of the “outreach” sessions, during which outside figures can address the G7 leaders.
But the Government said there were no plans to invite “further national participants to the G7 Summit”, adding that the leaders would discuss “Belarus’ reckless and dangerous behaviour” following the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk last month.
It will also be Mr Macron’s last G7 before a 2022 election in France.
Italy
The Government said Mr Johnson spoke with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi last week to discuss the importance of “securing concrete action” on issues like global access to vaccines and tackling climate change at the G7 meeting.
A statement from 10 Downing Street said: “The leaders discussed the prospects for global economic recovery from the pandemic and collaboration between the UK and Italy on security issues.”
Sharing his support for the tax on multinationals, Mr Draghi described it as a “historic step towards a fairer and more equitable society for our citizens”.
It will be the Italian PM’s international debut at the G7 summit, along with Mr Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
Japan
Japan has faced anger from China after it joined the European Union in voicing concerns over tensions in the South and East China Seas where there are territorial and maritime disputes.
The joint statement by the EU and Japan echoed comments made by G7 foreign ministers after they urged Beijing to refrain from ramping up tensions amid concern about open conflict with Taiwan.
Meanwhile, Mr Suga said earlier this year that G7 leaders gave unanimous support for his bid to hold the Tokyo Olympics this summer. However, Japan is under pressure to end its financial support for coal development overseas and invest in renewable energy, while all other G7 members were united in calling for an end to such financing.
Canada
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country will work with its international partners to “keep people healthy, create jobs and opportunity, grow the middle class, fight climate change and strengthen democratic values”.
In a statement last week he said the G7 summit will also focus on “finding coordinated approaches to promoting international rules and human rights, democracy, and gender equality”.
However, opposition figures have urged Mr Trudeau to improve Canada’s climate record, claiming it is the only G7 country that has increased emissions every year since the Paris Agreement.
LONDON (Reuters) -Shares in U.S. technology giants barely reacted on Monday to a landmark global minimum corporate tax deal agreed between the world’s richest nations, with analysts saying it will take the backing of low-tax nations to have any meaningful impact on the companies’ bottomlines.
The Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies agreed on Saturday to back a minimum global corporate tax rate of at least 15% and the focus now shifts to the G20 countries for a wider agreement on the new tax proposals. Analysts say the tax deal wouldn’t hurt companies unless it’s agreed with tax-haven countries such as Ireland, whose economy has been booming with the influx of billions of dollars in investment from multinationals due to lower taxes.
In morning U.S. trading, shares of Apple, Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet GOOGL.O dipped 0.2% to 0.5%, while Facebook edged up 0.1% and Microsoft rose 0.6%. The benchmark S&P 500 index was down 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq was little changed.
Europe’s tech stocks index slipped 0.1%.
“The details of the implementation are still to be ironed out and potentially further watered down,” said Marija Vertimane, senior strategist at State Street Global Markets.
Dublin, which has resisted European Union attempts to harmonize its tax rules, is unlikely to accept a higher minimum rate without a fight.
“I would treat the current proposal as a small positive for the market,” Vertimane added pointing to levies being lower than what was initially discussed.
Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel Corp in Charlottesville, Virginia, called it “neutral” for the market.
While any tax hike is “negative to the way people value stocks,” the agreement could indicate that U.S. President Joe Biden will be less aggressive in seeking an increase of the U.S. corporate tax rate to 28%, Tuz said.
“They might reduce the maximum they were trying to seek, which in general I would think would be a better thing for a lot of U.S. companies,” Tuz said. “The great majority probably do not operate outside the U.S. The large ones do, but plenty don’t.”
The G7’s proposals are seen targeting technology companies that sell services remotely and attribute much of their profits to intellectual properly held in low-tax jurisdictions.
“The immediate market implications are likely to be minimal,” said Ian Williams, economics & strategy research analyst at Peel Hunt.
“No G7 nation currently charges that low a rate and the details, including agreement from numerous smaller countries, require plenty of work.”
Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan and Sagarika Jaisinghani; additional reporting by Lewis Krauskopf Editing by Rachel Armstrong, William Maclean and Bernadette Baum
