The last time carbon dioxide in the atmosphere consistently matched today's human-driven levels was 14 million years ago

Issam AHMED
Thu, December 7, 2023 

Environmental activists display placards during a demonstration at the venue of the COP28 United Nations climate summit in Dubai (Giuseppe CACACE)

The last time carbon dioxide in the atmosphere consistently matched today's human-driven levels was 14 million years ago, according to a large new study Thursday that paints a grim picture of where Earth's climate is headed.

Published in the journal Science, the paper covers the period from 66 million years ago until the present, analyzing biological and geochemical signatures from the deep past to reconstruct the historic CO2 record with greater precision than ever before.

"It really brings it home to us that what we are doing is very, very unusual in Earth's history," lead author Baerbel Hoenisch of the Columbia Climate School's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory told AFP.

Among other things, the new analysis finds the last time the air contained 420 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide was between 14-16 million years ago, when there was no ice in Greenland and the ancestors of humans were just transitioning from forests to grasslands.

That is far further back in time than the 3-5 million years that prior analyses have indicated.

Until the late 1700s, atmospheric carbon dioxide was about 280 ppm, meaning humans have already caused an increase of about 50 percent of the greenhouse gas, which traps heat in the atmosphere and has warmed the planet by 1.2 degrees Celsius compared to before industrialization.

"What's important is that Homo, our species, has only evolved 3 million years ago," said Hoenisch.

"And so our civilization is tuned to sea level as it is today, to having warm tropics and cool poles and temperate regions that have a lot of rainfall."

If global CO2 emissions continue to rise we could reach between 600 - 800 ppm by the year 2100.

Those levels were last seen during the Eocene, 30-40 million years ago, before Antarctica was covered in ice and when the world's flora and fauna looked vastly different -- for example huge insects still roamed the Earth.

- Ancient plants -

The new study is the product of seven years of work by a consortium of 80 researchers across 16 countries and is now considered the updated consensus of the scientific community.

The team didn't collect new data -- rather, they synthesized, re-evaluated and validated published work based on updated science and categorized them according to confidence level, then combined the highest-rated into a new timeline.

Many people are familiar with the concept of drilling into ice sheets or glaciers to extract ice cores whose air bubbles reveal past atmospheric composition -- but these only go back so far, generally hundreds of thousands of years.

To look further into the past, paleoclimatologists use "proxies": by studying the chemical composition of ancient leaves, minerals and plankton, they can indirectly derive atmospheric carbon at a given point in time.

The researchers confirmed that the hottest period over the past 66 million years happened 50 million years ago, when CO2 spiked to as much as 1,600 ppm and temperatures were 12C hotter, before a long decline set in.

By 2.5 million years ago, carbon dioxide was 270-280 ppm, ushering in a series of ice ages.

That remained the level when modern humans arrived 400,000 years ago and persisted until our species began burning fossil fuels at large scales.

The team estimates that a doubling of CO2 is predicted to warm the planet by 5-8 degrees Celsius -- but over a long period, hundreds of thousands of years -- when increased temperatures have rippling effects through Earth systems.

For example, melting the polar ice caps would reduce the planet's ability to reflect solar radiation and become a reinforcing feedback loop.

But the new work remains directly relevant to policy makers, stressed Hoenisch.

The carbon record reveals that 56 million years ago, Earth underwent a similar rapid release of carbon dioxide, which caused massive changes to ecosystems and took some 150,000 years to dissipate.

"We are in this for a very long time, unless we sequester carbon dioxide, take it out of the atmosphere, and we stop our emissions sometime soon," she said.

ia/bgs

CNN poll: Large majority of US adults and half of Republicans agree with Biden’s goal to slash climate pollution

Ella Nilsen and Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN
Fri, December 8, 2023

Michaela Vatcheva/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Nearly two-thirds of US adults say they are worried about the threat of climate change in their communities, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. More than half are worried about the impact of extreme weather, as the climate crisis touches every region in the form of extreme heat, devastating storms and drought.

Even more want the federal government to do something about it. A broad majority of US adults – 73% – say the federal government should develop its climate policies with the goal of cutting the country’s planet-warming pollution in half by the end of the decade.

That has been the goal of President Joe Biden, who has made tackling the climate crisis a greater priority than any other president, including through billions of dollars in tax subsidies to create more renewable energy infrastructure and help consumers buy discounted electric vehicles, solar panels and energy-efficient appliances. The Biden administration is also crafting and implementing several federal regulations designed to cut pollution from the oil and gas industry, power plants, and gas-powered vehicles.


The polling comes as nations debate the future of fossil fuels at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Vice President Kamala Harris announced at the summit last week that the US would commit another $3 billion to the global climate action fund, and the Biden administration announced new rules to slash emissions of methane – a powerful planet-warming gas – by 80% from the US oil and gas industry.

Cutting US climate pollution is a bipartisan aspiration, the CNN poll finds. Nearly all Democrats say the US should slash its greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2030, and 76% of independents and half of Republicans agree.

American voters could be presented with a stark choice on how their country addresses climate change in the 2024 election; a potential rematch between Biden – who signed the country’s biggest climate investment into law last year – and former President Donald Trump, a climate change denier who has vowed to repeal several of Biden’s signature clean-energy policies.

When it comes to climate change, Americans say by a 13-point margin that their views align with Democrats more than Republicans. Much like abortion, climate change is one of the strongest issues for Democrats, CNN’s poll finds.

Americans give Biden a 43% approval rating for his handling of environmental policy, which is several points above his overall approval rating and well above his numbers for handling the economy. But few Americans, only 2%, see climate change as the most important issue facing the country, giving higher priority to the economy and cost of living.

But climate change and clean energy are increasingly intertwined with the economy. Climate change-fueled disasters don’t just impact commerce, they also strike at the heart of the American dream: homeownership.

In some states prone to wildfires and extreme weather, the cost of home and property insurance is skyrocketing. In some cases, insurance companies are dropping coverage all together because the risk is too high. That, in turn, has damaging implications for the housing market and cost of homes, experts have told CNN.

Most US adults say humanity bears a great deal of responsibility to try to reduce climate change but believe the US and Chinese governments and the energy industry are all doing too little to fix the problem.

Americans are also finding less fault with themselves: A somewhat lower 40% of Americans say that people like them hold a great deal of responsibility to reduce climate change. Meanwhile, 58% say that they, personally, are doing the right amount to reduce their impact on the climate crisis, with 37% saying that they are doing too little.

As past polls have found, there is a profound partisan divide over how Americans feel about climate change, and what to do about it, that outweighs other factors such as age and gender. The poll finds Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to say that humanity bears a great deal of responsibility to reduce climate change (77% vs. 42%). And Democrats are 36 percentage points likelier than Republicans to say they’re very worried about the risk of climate change in the communities where they live.

But the fact that human activity is fueling the planet’s warming isn’t lost on Republicans; the poll finds about three-quarters of them think humanity has at least some responsibility to fight climate change.

The poll finds that more than 4 in 10 Americans say they’ve experienced extreme weather over the past year, with most in that group calling climate change a contributing factor. In the past few years, Americans have faced climate-fueled extreme heat, drought and flash flooding that has devastated communities.

The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS from November 1-30 among a random national sample of 1,795 adults initially reached by mail. Surveys were either conducted online or by telephone with a live interviewer. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points; it is larger for subgroups.

ICYMI

Half of Republicans in new poll support Biden push to cut emissions

Nick Robertson

THE HILL
Fri, December 8, 2023 


Among nearly three-quarters of Americans who said in a new poll that they want the federal government to design policies around a goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, half of Republicans joined Democratic respondents, bucking party lines and showing significant support for Biden administration commitments to fighting climate change.

The CNN poll released Thursday found about two-thirds of respondents are worried about the impacts of climate change on their communities, and nearly 60 percent are worried about increasing extreme weather.

The results come as world leaders gather at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai to discuss climate change policy. Negotiations have focused on the fossil fuel industry, but they face setbacks as some nations cling to fossil fuel revenues to support their economies.

Last week, Vice President Harris pledged $3 billion at the summit to help developing countries’ climate policy, including investing in green energy.

The Biden administration has also allocated billions in tax breaks for purchasing electric vehicles, solar panel arrays and appliances, and it has implemented regulations to reduce industrial emissions.

Those policies are popular, the poll found, with about two-thirds of poll respondents saying each of the policy initiatives should either be a top priority of the government or is important.

Despite support for underlying policy, a slight majority still disapprove of how Biden has handled environmental issues, according to the poll. Only 43 percent of Americans and 11 percent of Republicans approve of Biden’s environmental record.

At the same time, another 58 percent of Americans say the federal government isn’t doing enough to fight climate change, with just a quarter saying it is doing “just the right amount” of work.

The CNN poll surveyed about 1,800 people reached by mail last month, with a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.

U.S. climate report issues stark warnings for Midwest ag, health and infrastructure

Kavahn Mansouri
Thu, December 7, 2023

Yunyi Dai/Special to National Public Radio

A new report from the U.S. Global Change Research Program shows rising temperatures, extreme precipitation, drought and other climate-related challenges are intensifying in the Midwest. It paints a picture of major changes to lives and livelihoods, as well as the opportunity to mitigate the impact of global warming,

The fifth National Climate Assessment found as climate conditions worsen, public and environmental health and the economy of the region are all at risk.

“Rising temperatures, extreme precipitation, drought, and other climate-related events in the Midwest are impacting agriculture, ecosystems, cultural practices, health, infrastructure, and waterways,” the report states.

Hotter summers and weather that swings between extreme drought and flooding threaten crops and livestock production throughout the region. On top of that, the report notes milder winters are allowing pests that wreak havoc on crops to expand throughout the region.

The climate analysis warns that without intervention, the Midwestern states that produce roughly one-third of the world’s corn and soybeans will find it more difficult to do so. Those states include Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.

The Mississippi River basin is experiencing more extreme flooding and low river conditions which leads to decreased river flow, more stress on dams and other river-related infrastructure.

Since 1980, flooding alone has caused more than $49 billion in economic damage throughout the Midwest.

“That very sharp and punctuated transition in a very short period of time where you’re either feasting or going to famine is a challenge for ecosystems,” said study co-author Jeff Wood, assistant professor of biometeorology at the University of Missouri School.

The climate assessment notes authors of the report have low confidence in the region’s current efforts to mitigate these changes, but Wood said he’s hopeful that can change.

“There has been a lot of interest particularly here in Missouri,” Wood said, pointing to solutions from the USDA like leaving crops out during winter months to prevent soil erosion. “There is interest — it’s growing — but more could be done.”

Read the full assessement here.

At the COP28 climate action conference underway in the United Arab Emirates, the U.S. pledged phase out coal-fired power plants by 2035.

Coal makes up about about 40% of fossil fuel emissions. As recently as 2022, plants in Nebraska and Missouri announced delays in their closure plans.
Health & disparities

The climate assessment also warns a warming climate is worsening public health in the Midwest.

As temperatures rise, respiratory problems and air quality are expected to worsen, according to the report. Indeed, smoke pollution from wildfires, increased pollen production and the production of harmful ground-level ozone gasses have recently afflicted the Midwest.

Earlier this year, Midwest hospitals saw an uptick in respiratory cases as wildfire smoke from Canadian wildfires covered the region.

Additionally, tick-borne illnesses, including Lyme disease and other diseases carried by bugs, are likely to increase as the weather continues to warm.

The assessment’s section about the Midwest points to green infrastructure, heat-health early warning systems, and improved stormwater management systems as elements that could curb the health impacts of climate change.

The report found the U.S. is warming faster than the global average and that the effects of climate change are being felt in every part of the country, citing more extreme weather, drought and wildfires that are becoming more frequent across the country.

What’s more, the report found minority communities are more likely to face challenges due to climate change — especially Black, Hispanic and indigenous communities – because those communities typically live in areas more susceptible to the effects of climate change.

“Climate change affects us all, but it doesn’t affect us all equally,” said climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, one of the authors of the assessment, in an article from NPR.

In the same article, Solomon Hsiang, a climate economist at the University of California, Berkeley and a lead author of the assessment said:

“The research indicates that people who are lower income have more trouble adapting [to climate change], because adaptation comes at a cost.”
Adaption action

Alice Hill, a climate expert with the Center on Foreign Relations, said there’s a reason the U.S. is lagging in the implementation of climate mitigation policies. She said advocates in the U.S. have been calling for a national adaptation strategy for climate change since at least 2013.

“We still don’t have one, and that means we haven’t defined the roles of the federal government, the roles of the state and local governments, and the roles of the private sector,” Hill said as part of an interview about the impact of climate change on housing.

“Resilience to climate change requires all levels of government as well as the private sector to work together to understand the risk, understand which choices are available, and then talk about how we finance the investments in getting ourselves to a position of greater safety,” Hill said.

Outlined in the report are opportunities in the Midwest to push back against climate challenges, including industry investment into “climate-smart” agriculture and federal investment into infrastructure to keep damage from extreme weather at bay.

This story comes from the Midwest Newsroom, an investigative journalism collaboration including St. Louis Public Radio , Iowa Public Radio, KCUR, Nebraska Public Media News, and NPR.

Holly Edgell contributed to this story.

How to adapt to climate change may be secondary at COP28, but it's key to saving lives, experts say

SIBI ARASU
Updated Fri, December 8, 2023 



COP28 Climate Summit
Activists participate in a demonstration for climate adaptation at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 

(AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — As United Nations climate talks enter their second week, negotiators who are largely focused on how to curb climate change have another thing on their plates: how to adapt to the warming that's already here.

Discussions for what's known as the Global Goal on Adaptation — a commitment made in the 2015 Paris Agreement to ramp up the world's capacity to cope with climate-fueled extreme weather — are being overshadowed by negotiations on how the world is going to slash the use of fossil fuels, causing frustration among some climate campaigners in the most vulnerable countries.

Officials and activists from climate-vulnerable nations are pushing for more money to help them deal with scorching temperatures, punishing droughts and deluges and strengthening storms made worse by global warming. Major fossil fuel-emitting countries need to pay vulnerable, developing countries being battered by these events, experts and officials say, to help them avoid catastrophic humanitarian and economic losses.

"The problem is the fact that adaptation is actually the second long long-term goal of the Paris agreement,” said South Africa-based Amy Giliam Thorp of climate think-tank Power Shift Africa. The first goal is a commitment to curb warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.

Climate talks have already pledged millions to deal with the aftereffects of extreme weather events fueled by climate change as part of a loss and damage fund, and over a hundred nations promised to triple renewable energy production globally.

Adaptation hasn't seen similar commitments at the talk so far. At a protest Friday calling for more money for adaptation, climate activist Evelyn Achan from Uganda said that “our countries, our communities are suffering so much.”

“We don’t have the money to adapt to the climate crisis and yet we do not cause the climate crisis, we are least responsible for the climate crisis. So, we're demanding for leaders to put in place adaptation finance,” she said.

Observers say a goal for adaptation is likely to be decided at the summit, but as things stand, it’s set to be only a fraction of what some nations are calling for.

At plenary remarks on Wednesday, COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber said adaptation “is a key element of climate action" and urged countries to “consider how we can make real progress to address the adaptation finance gap” between what’s been promised and what’s needed.

But Ani Dasgupta, the CEO of the World Resources Institute said he's “concerned” about what will happen to adaptation goals at COP28. “Not much is there,” he said. Dasgupta said he had expected some discussions on adaptation to be ongoing at this stage of climate talks.

“One would have expected to see some vision” with regards to adaptation, said Dasgupta. According to him, negotiators couldn’t agree to something on adaptation that they could give to the ministers. “That’s a worrying sign, so it goes with a blank slate.”

Dasgupta feels that as things stand there is a chance that fossil fuel phaseouts and adaptation goals might be used as a tradeoff on the high tables of global climate diplomacy. “Both of them are needed,” he said.

Mary Friel, Climate Policy lead at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said “not moving forward on adaptation would be a major failure.”

A U.N. report found that developing countries need nearly $400 billion per year to prepare for climate change but only $21 billion was given in 2021. The report also said that an additional $194 to $366 billion is needed with every passing year.

And the longer it takes to act on giving money adaptation, the higher the costs will be in future, Power Shift Africa’s Thorp said.

Negotiations on climate adaptation have been “incredibly frustrating” said Teresa Anderson, global lead of climate justice at Action Aid International, who's in Dubai, United Arab Emirates for the climate talks. “The negotiations haven’t matched the urgency and pace and the type of ambitious commitments we need to see."

The trouble is that adaptation money doesn’t give funders a return on investment, she said.

“Rich countries see mitigation action in their own interest. Wherever it happens in the world, it’s going to benefit everyone, even in the global north. Adaptation efforts and finance will only benefit people in the global south," Anderson said. “The only reason they (rich countries) apparently want to give climate finance is if it’s going to help themselves.”

Rishikesh Ram Bhandary, who tracks climate finance at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, added that the money that has been earmarked for adaptation is also not getting out the door fast enough.

It's having real-life implications for people living on the frontlines of climate change.

Tiwonge Gondwe, a small-scale farmer who grows groundnuts, pumpkins, maize and other crops in Malawi, which is susceptible to droughts and food insecurity, said the land is becoming less fertile each year because of global warming.

“I have never received any funding from my government saying this is the mechanism to adapt to climate change,” she said. “We don’t have food, and it’s increasing hunger and poverty in my country. We need leaders to act now.” ___

Associated Press journalists Malak Harb and Seth Borenstein contributed. ___

Follow Sibi Arasu on X, formerly known as Twitter, @sibi123 ___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

China says Biden plan to shut it out of US battery supply chain violates WTO rules

Joe Cash
Thu, December 7, 2023 

BEIJING (Reuters) — China said on Thursday that Biden administration plans to limit Chinese content in batteries eligible for generous electric vehicle tax credits from next year violate international trade norms and will disrupt global supply chains.

The plans will make investors in the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) supply chain ineligible for tax credits should they use more than a trace amount of critical materials from China, or other countries deemed a "Foreign Entity of Concern" (FEOC).

"Targeting Chinese enterprises by excluding their products from a subsidy's scope is typical non-market orientated policy," said He Yadong, a commerce ministry spokesperson.

"Many World Trade Organization members, including China, have expressed concern about the discriminatory policy of the U.S., which violates the WTO's basic principles," he said.

China's dominant position in the global battery supply chain has prompted United States and European officials to take action over fears that cheap Chinese EVs could flood their markets.

The European Commission is currently investigating whether Chinese manufacturers benefit from unfair state subsidies.

Washington has already passed two laws explicitly excluding investors from being able to benefit from a $6 billion allocation of tax credits for batteries and critical minerals, as well as subsidies of $7,500 for every new energy vehicle produced, should they include FEOCs in their supply chains.

The term applies to China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. The rules will come into effect in 2024 for completed batteries and 2025 for the critical minerals.

President Joe Biden's administration is also proposing tough criteria, including a 25% ownership threshold, for determining whether a company is controlled by a FEOC.

"By establishing 'glass barriers', the U.S. is doing more harm than good to the development of EV technologies and the industry more broadly," He said, warning that the plans would "seriously disrupt international trade and investment".

China accounts for almost two-thirds of the world's lithium processing capacity and 75% of its cobalt capacity, both of which are used in battery manufacturing.

Analysts, though, have questioned whether China's position in global battery supply chains warrants the U.S. and EU rhetoric over the potential risks.

"There is a lot of hyperbole around this. And I'm not sure the measures the EU or the U.S. are considering match the scale of the risk," said Dan Marks, a research fellow for energy security at the Royal United Services think tank.

"What we should be saying is these strategies in Europe and the U.S. are really industrial strategies. They're just about having competitive industries that can survive."

Myanmar's junta wants China's support. Analysts expect 'cautious pragmatism' from Beijing


South China Morning Post
Thu, December 7, 2023

Myanmar's ruling junta has called for China to support its path to stability, a month after it was rocked by renewed clashes with militant groups, but analysts expect "cautious pragmatism" from Beijing.

The call came on Wednesday, when China's top diplomat Wang Yi met Myanmar's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Than Swe in Beijing ahead of a regional summit.

"Myanmar still faces many domestic challenges and hopes to continue to receive support and help from China to achieve domestic peace and stability," Than Swe told Wang, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

Wang Yi and Than Swe hold talks ahead of a regional summit in the Chinese capital. Photo: Xinhua 

Wang said China would not interfere in Myanmar's internal affairs, but hoped the country could "achieve national reconciliation" and "continue its political transformation process under the constitutional framework as soon as possible".

Multiple armed groups launched a coordinated offensive in late October across Myanmar's northern provincial administrations of Shan State, Kachin State and the upper Sagaing Region.

China's southwestern province of Yunnan shares a 2,000km (1,250-mile) border with Myanmar's Shan and Kachin states.

Analysts said that while Beijing was willing to support regional stability, it would not intervene in Myanmar's situation beyond the need to tackle telecoms scams that have targeted Chinese nationals.

Andy Mok, a senior research fellow at the Beijing-based Centre for China and Globalisation, said the Chinese approach to Myanmar's political situation "leans towards advocating stability while respecting sovereignty".

"While China maintains its principle of non-interference, it indicates a willingness to offer strategic support, balancing regional security interests."

Than Swe's call was the first public request made by Myanmar's military government for China to assist in its political situation. Beijing has stepped up cooperation with the junta, as well as armed ethnic groups in the country's north, in order to crack down on cybercrime.

According to Kalvin Fung Ka-shing, who conducts research on Southeast Asian politics at Waseda University in Tokyo, the junta is trying to strengthen ties with China, as well as India and Russia, after losing ground in the northern states from the rebel offensive.

He said the junta "might want to secure Beijing's friendship in hopes of isolating the ethnic armed organisations from diplomatic backing".

On Wednesday, Wang said the two countries should work together to eradicate the "cancer" of online gambling and electronic fraud, adding that they had already "achieved remarkable results" on telecoms scams and "effectively deterred criminals".

Last month Myanmar handed over 31,000 telecoms fraud suspects to China, including 63 "financiers" and ringleaders of crime syndicates that Beijing's public security ministry says swindled Chinese citizens out of large sums of money.

According to the Chinese statement, Than Swe said Myanmar attached great importance to developing relations with China and was willing to deepen bilateral cooperation in various fields.

Fung said Beijing's "top priority" was to prevent the conflicts in Myanmar's northern Shan State from spilling over the border.

"Beijing has tried to mediate the ethnic conflicts, and the Chinese special envoy plays an important role in that respect," he said, referring to Deng Xijun, who met two junta ministers in September.

Koh King Kee, president of Malaysian think tank the Centre for New Inclusive Asia, said the junta was becoming more reliant on China given its isolation from the West and the region.

He said the junta needed China's help "to act as a mediator to broker a truce with the ethnic armed alliance in order to sustain its regime, as China has considerable influence over the alliance".

Koh said the military government was "in danger of collapse" amid attacks from the armed groups.

Members of an ethnic armed forces group, one of the three militias known as the Three Brotherhood Alliance, check weapons allegedly seized from a Myanmar army outpost in Shan state, Myanmar. File photo: The Kokang online media via AP alt=Members of an ethnic armed forces group, one of the three militias known as the Three Brotherhood Alliance, check weapons allegedly seized from a Myanmar army outpost in Shan state, Myanmar. 

File photo: The Kokang online media via AP>

"China is unlikely to intervene directly ... but will exercise its influence to help maintain peace and security in Myanmar and ensure that cyber scam activities don't re-emerge under the patronage of the military regime," he said, adding that many cybercrime operations headquartered in the border regions were destroyed by the ethnic armed alliances.

According to Swaran Singh, an international relations professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, Beijing has sought to distance itself from the junta over the years and has been "very cautious" lately given its concerns over telecoms fraud and online gambling.

"So what we see is cautious pragmatism determining China's engagement with Myanmar," Singh said.

In Beijing on Wednesday, Wang also met his Thai counterpart, Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara, and again stressed the need to combat cybercrime.

"The two sides should maintain a stable and unimpeded system of production and supply chains, jointly crack down on transnational crimes such as online gambling, telecoms fraud and human trafficking, and push for new development of China-Thailand relations," Wang said, according to official news agency Xinhua.

Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY REDUX
Sen. Mike Lee calls on the US to withdraw from the United Nations

Derick Fox

KTVX
Thu, December 7, 2023 



SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R) introduced a bill to Congress on Wednesday, Dec. 6 which called for the complete withdrawal of the United States from the United Nations.

The bill, titled Disengaging Entirely from the United Nations Debacle (DEFUND) Act, would see the U.S. stop participating in U.N. peacekeeping operations including providing funding, personnel and equipment. it would also see diplomatic immunity in the U.S. revoked for U.N. employees and officers

The bill further prohibits the U.S. from re-entering an agreement with the U.N. without the consent and ratification of the Senate after it withdraws. In addition to a complete withdrawal from the United Nations, Lee’s DEFUND Act would also see the United States withdraw from the World Health Organization.

Lee said the DEFUND Act confronts “imperative issues” of national sovereignty and fiscal accountability.

Palestinian Authority working with US on postwar plan for Gaza - Bloomberg News

Reuters
Updated Fri, December 8, 2023 

Palestinians inspect the site of Israeli strikes in Khan Younis

(Reuters) -The Palestinian Authority is working with U.S. officials on a plan to run Gaza after the war is over, Bloomberg News reported, citing Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.

The preferred outcome of the conflict would be for the Hamas militant group which controls Gaza to become a junior partner under the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), helping to build a new independent state that includes the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, Ramallah-based Shtayyeh said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Thursday.

"If they (Hamas) are ready to come to an agreement and accept the political platform of the PLO, then there will be room for talk. Palestinians should not be divided," Shtayyeh said, adding that Israel's aim to fully defeat Hamas is unrealistic.

Israel has vowed to wipe out Iran-backed Hamas after the Islamist militants attacked Israeli towns and villages on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and dragging about 240 hostages back into Gaza, according to Israel's count.

"The fact that this is what the Palestinian Authority is suggesting only reinforces my policy: the Palestinian Authority is not the solution," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a social media post in response to Shtayyeh's remarks.

More than 17,170 Palestinians have been killed and 46,000 wounded since Israel began bombarding Gaza in response to the cross-border rampage, according to the Gaza health ministry.

(Reporting by Baranjot Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates, William Maclean)

BACK TO PRE ROE

Missouri lawmakers propose allowing homicide charges for women who have abortions

DAVID A. LIEB and GEOFF MULVIHILL
Fri, December 8, 2023 

FILE - Abortion-rights supporters take part in a protest Thursday, May 30, 2019, in St. Louis. Some Republican state lawmakers have proposed a measure that would allow women who have abortions to be charged with homicide. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)


JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Some Missouri lawmakers are renewing a call for the state to take an anti-abortion step that goes further than prominent anti-abortion groups want to go and that has not gained much traction in any state so far: a law that would allow homicide charges against women who obtain abortions.

Republicans in both the state House and Senate have introduced bills to be considered in the legislative session that begins next month to apply homicide laws on behalf of a victim who is an “unborn child at every stage of development.”

The bills would offer exceptions if the suspect is a woman who aborts a pregnancy after being coerced or threatened, or an abortion is provided by a physician to save the life of the pregnant woman.


“To me, it’s just about protecting a baby’s life like we do every other person’s life,” state Rep. Bob Titus, a first-term Republican who is sponsoring one of the measures, told The Associated Press. “The prosecution is just a consequence of taking an innocent human life.”

Titus said no charges would need to be brought under the bill, so long as people abide by the law already on the books that makes Missouri one of 14 states with bans in effect on abortions at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions.

Titus said he has not discussed his bill with legislative leaders and did not base it on any model legislation, though it is aligned with a bill by Republican state Sen. Mike Moon, who represents the same area in southwestern Missouri.

Two groups are trying to get measures on ballots in Missouri in 2024 to legalize abortion in more cases. One would bar the government from infringing on abortion rights during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. The other, being crafted by moderate Republicans, would scale back restrictions to a lesser degree.

Abortion-related measures could be before voters in several states next year. Since last year, voters have sided with abortion rights in all seven states where the questions have been on the ballot.

The abortion landscape in the U.S. has been shifting quickly since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2022 overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling and ended a nationwide right to abortion.

Most Republican-controlled states have adopted bans or restrictions and most Democrat-run states have taken steps to protect access.

Prominent anti-abortion groups have generally opposed measures that would subject women who get abortions to charges.

Still, identical legislation was introduced earlier this year in Missouri and similar bills were introduced in 2023 in other states including Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky and South Carolina. None was advanced by a legislative committee.

The Kentucky measure died after it was opposed by the state's Republican attorney general and legislative leaders. At the time, GOP House Speaker David Osborne said the Republican majority in his chamber had never contemplated passing an abortion ban without any exceptions.

In South Carolina, more than 20 GOP lawmakers signed on as sponsors of a bill that would have classified abortion as homicide. As the bill garnered attention, several lawmakers withdrew their support. Lawmakers later adopted a ban on abortions when cardiac activity can be detected, generally around six weeks into a pregnancy – and often before women realize they are pregnant.

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Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

Missouri Republicans propose bills to allow murder charges for people who get abortions

Kacen Bayless
Fri, December 8, 2023





Reality Check is a Star series holding those in power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email tips@kcstar.com.

Missouri Republican lawmakers are pushing a pair of bills that would allow for women to be charged with murder for getting an abortion in the state.

The pieces of legislation would give fetuses the same rights as human beings, which would allow for criminal charges to be filed against anyone who gets an abortion, helps someone get an abortion or provides abortion care in the state, which implemented a near-total ban on the procedure after last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Republicans state Sen. Mike Moon from Ash Grove and state Rep. Bob Titus from Billings pre-filed the bills last Friday ahead of next year’s legislative session, which begins next month.

The bills, both called the “Abolition of Abortion in Missouri Act,” do not state explicitly whether getting an abortion in another state would be illegal. While abortion is banned in Missouri in nearly all circumstances, the procedure is still available in bordering states Kansas and Illinois.

The bills do allow for a “duress” defense if a woman is charged with murder for getting an abortion. They also do not allow for criminal charges for “lawful” medical procedures performed by a doctor and if an abortion is performed to save the patient’s life or if a doctor accidentally aborts a fetus during a life-saving procedure.

The Republican-led bills come as abortion rights advocates in Missouri try to get a measure restoring some form of abortion on the state ballot in 2024.

The legislation indicates that some Missouri Republicans are pushing forward on expanding the state’s near-total ban on abortion in the next legislative session even as the ban has been criticized for ushering in a chaotic and uncertain era for women and doctors.

While Missouri remains staunchly conservative, abortion rights remain popular. Polling conducted last year by Saint Louis University and British pollster YouGov showed that a majority of Missourians were in favor of some level of legal abortion and disagreed with the state’s ban on abortion.

“While the mainstream anti-abortion movement tries to publicly distance themselves from the politically and socially unpopular insistence to criminally punish people for accessing abortion care, these bills are a stepping stone for a small fringe group of extremists to intentionally criminalize people seeking abortions,” said Mallory Schwarz, the executive director of Abortion Action Missouri.

Schwarz, in a statement, pointed to a group called Abolish Abortion Missouri, which she said was behind the bills. This group, she said, “is also the source of threatening harassment targeted at abortion patients, providers, and Abortion Action Missouri clinic escorts on a daily basis.”

The bills, Schwarz said, create new ways to police people based on their pregnancy outcomes, arguing that “pregnant people around the country are being targeted, prosecuted, and jailed in instances of abortion and even miscarriages.”

If Missouri lawmakers approve Titus’ bill, it would go into effect if signed by Republican Gov. Mike Parson. Moon’s bill would have to be approved by Missouri voters.

Titus, in a phone interview, said the “taking of an innocent is the taking of innocent life,” arguing that the goal of his bill was not about punishing anybody. But, he said, “if you’re going to treat babies as humans and people then the penalties for taking an innocent life should be commensurate with that.”

“That a mother would take her own child’s life to me is unconscionable,” he said. “I’m not a mother but I have ten children and I value them greatly. It’s inconceivable that a mother would knowingly do that. If it’s not an act of murder, then what is it?”

Moon did not respond to calls and requests for comment on Thursday.

While advocates are pushing for an abortion rights proposal in 2024, they have not unified behind one version of the measure and face a tight deadline to get it on the ballot.

Both Republican-led bills will face a steep climb during this year’s legislative session as the state’s abortion ban faces intense criticism and has energized abortion rights supporters. They also don’t have the backing of at least one prominent anti-abortion lobbyist in Jefferson City, Sam Lee. One of the state’s top anti-abortion groups, Missouri Right to Life, also opposed a nearly identical bill from Moon last session.

“There is nothing pro-life whatsoever about legislation that would allow the death penalty for a woman who undergoes an abortion or any other person who performs an abortion on her,” Lee said in a text to The Star.

If the bills get committee hearings, Lee said, “we will vigorously testify against them and strongly urge other members of the legislature to vote them down.”

Moon, a hard-right senator, is known for his extreme and fringe views within the General Assembly, including comments this year suggesting that children as young as 12 should be able to get married as he pushed legislation that would ban gender-affirming care for minors.

With the upcoming 2024 election in November, the issue of abortion rights and the state’s ban on the procedure could be major flashpoints during next year’s legislative session which begins Jan. 3.

Another Republican, state Rep. Brian Seitz from Branson also pre-filed a bill that would give fetuses the same protections as human beings — but his bill does not explicitly address criminal actions.

Missouri Democrats have also pre-filed bills to repeal the state’s ban on abortion or to clarify that the ban does not affect access to birth control.

Canada's opposition filibusters overnight against PM Trudeau's carbon tax

Fri, December 8, 2023 

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks as Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre listens during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa

By Steve Scherer

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's main opposition Conservative Party forced the House of Commons to sit overnight in a filibuster that it says will end when Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau drops his carbon pricing system that it blames for fueling inflation.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre brought bags of fast food to his caucus after midnight and stood to move motions to "axe" the carbon tax until 6 a.m. ET (1100 GMT) - all of which failed.


Trudeau and much of the Liberal caucus also voted through the night to defeat the Conservative motions and slowly make progress on the passage of budget-related legislation that funds the various government departments.

"We have successfully killed a day of government business," Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer told reporters on Friday, his eyes puffy from lack of sleep.

"We are voting against the budget. We're just doing it in a little bit of a different way this time to highlight the fact that Justin Trudeau is going to radically increase the carbon tax," Scheer said. The carbon tax is set to increase over time.

Poilievre would win a majority if a vote were held today, polls show, and he has gathered momentum by accusing Trudeau of failing to protect Canadians from cost-of-living increases. Inflation exceeded 8% last year but in October it was just a notch above 3%. An election is not due until 2025.

The federal carbon tax, in effect since 2019, is Trudeau's signature climate policy and is intended to discourage use of fossil fuels and accelerate a switch to clean energy.

"We're not axing the tax," Trudeau told reporters in the House on Friday.

Canadians receive quarterly rebates to make the carbon tax revenue neutral, but Trudeau offered in October a three-year carve-out for home heating oil under pressure from Liberal lawmakers on the Atlantic coast.

That move appeared to confirm the Conservative view that the carbon tax was a burden on households and reignited debate over the policy.

Voting on the government supply legislation is about half over, Scheer said, so the filibuster is not likely to last into next week. The House will close on Dec. 15 for the holidays.

"Mr. Poilievre continues to gaslight Canadians for clickbait," Liberal House leader Karina Gould told reporters.

"They are literally trying to shut down the government, which is the page out of the extreme-right Republican handbook in the United States. Canadians have seen the dysfunction in Washington. They don't want that here in Ottawa."

(Reporting by Steve Scherer; Additional reporting by Dale Smith; Editing by Richard Chang)

Liberals, NDP criticize Poilievre's absence during late-night House sitting

CBC
Thu, December 7, 2023 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre addresses the National Conservative Caucus in Ottawa on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press - image credit)

The Liberals and NDP are criticizing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre for being absent from the House of Commons as his party works to delay government legislation.

Poilievre said Wednesday his MPs will pitch "thousands of amendments" to legislation to keep Parliament sitting over Christmas if the Liberal government doesn't scrap parts of its carbon tax.

"You will have no rest until the tax is gone," Poilievre said in a message to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Liberal MPs.

The Tories are forcing delays by prompting 135 votes in the House, most of them on the government's estimates. The party said this will result in round-the-clock voting that likely will last until Friday evening and stall the Liberal agenda.

Poilievre held a fundraiser in Quebec on Thursday evening before spending time with members of the Montreal Jewish community at a synagogue that was recently hit by Molotov cocktails, a spokesperson told CBC News on background.

That didn't stop MPs from taking note of his absence from the House on Thursday evening. Some began chanting "Where is Pierre?" at the Conservative benches.

Conservatives responded with chants of "Where is Trudeau?" — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was also absent. Deputy Speaker Chris d'Entremont promised to have MPs removed if the chanting continued.

Karina Gould, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons rises during question period in the House of Commons, in Ottawa, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023.

Karina Gould, leader of the government in the House of Commons, rises during question period on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Speaking to reporters before the voting marathon began Thursday evening, Government House Leader Karina Gould criticized Poilievre for his absence.

"Here he is yesterday claiming to Canadians that he's going to hold this government to account," she said. "Well, let's see if he shows up to vote."

Rules adopted in the wake of the pandemic allow MPs to vote virtually through an app; Poilievre, Trudeau and other MPs did that a number of times on Thursday evening. Poilievre's spokesperson told CBC the Conservative leader will be participating in every vote.

NDP House Leader Peter Julian also spoke to reporters about Poilievre's absence.

"The fact that Mr. Poilievre doesn't even have the courage to be here with the members of Parliament that are here all night shows how artificial his latest blocking tactic is," Julian said.

The Conservatives maintain they will carry out their obstruction tactics until the Liberals lift the carbon tax from all home-heating energy sources, pass a bill to grant carbon tax relief to some farmers and exempt all First Nations from the carbon levy, as some chiefs have demanded.

Poilievre put forward a motion calling on the government to meet those demands on Thursday but it was defeated.

Senate set to vote on carbon tax bill

The late-night House sitting comes as the Senate is set to have a final vote on a carbon tax carve-out bill that has been a lightning rod for controversy in the upper chamber.

Bill C-234 would remove the carbon tax from most natural gas and propane used on farms — other farm fuels like diesel and gasoline are already exempt under the Liberal tax regime. It's expected to be put up for a third vote in the Senate on Thursday evening.

The Conservative private members bill was passed in the House — without the support of the governing Liberal Party — without much fanfare. But the bill began to receive more attention after the Liberals announced a three-year carbon tax exemption for heating oil.

Conservatives used the Liberal exemption as a rallying point to call for C-234 to pass.

The ensuing debate in the upper chamber resulted in accusations of bullying and harassment by some senators.

The Senate voted 40-39 to amend the bill to limit the exemption only to propane used for grain drying. If the bill is passed with the amendment, the carbon tax would still apply to heating barns and greenhouses.

Ben Lobb, the MP who brought forward the bill, said Wednesday that he was "disappointed" with the Senate's change.

Ben Lobb, Conservative MP-elect for Huron-Bruce.

Conservative MP Ben Lobb, who sponsored Bill C-234, said the Senate's amendment was disappointing. (CBC News)

"The amendment that was passed last night in a way guts the bill and really diminishes the opportunity that was there, so close to have a good result for Canadian farmers," the Ontario MP told reporters.

Sen. Pierre Dalphond, who proposed the amendment, defended the change.

"The amendment rests on the fact that alternatives and efficiencies are readily available to reduce emissions related to heating and cooling of farm buildings, as compared to grain drying," he said in a media statement.

If the bill passes the third reading in the Senate, it will go back to the House for MPs to consider the changes made by the upper chamber.