The world can still hope to stave off the worst ravages of climate breakdown but only through a “now or never” dash to a low-carbon economy and society, scientists have said in what is in effect a final warning for governments on the climate.
Greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025, and can be nearly halved this decade, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to give the world a chance of limiting future heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
Tasmania’s Liberal premier Peter Gutwein is quitting politics, saying he has “emptied the tank” during two years of managing the Covid-19 pandemic response.
Gutwein, who led his party to a record third-straight state election win in May 2021, made the shock announcement on Monday afternoon.
“First and foremost I want to thank my family ... for their support and love. No premier does this job alone and my family has been outstanding in their support,” he told reporters in Launceston.
“It’s been an honour and a privilege to serve as Tasmania’s 46th premier. However, the time is now right for me to move on.”
Vladimir Putin has congratulated Hungary’s strongman leader, Viktor Orbán, on his decisive election victory, amid signs that European Union authorities will launch a sanctions process against Budapest that is intended to safeguard EU funds at risk from democratic-backsliding member states.
Two members of the European parliament said they expected the European Commission to launch the “rule of law conditionality mechanism” against Hungary, a legal process that could ultimately switch off billions in EU payments to Budapest.
EU countries that have government-controlled courts and captured state institutions can be deprived of EU funds, but the law has never been tested.
Unions representing parliamentary staff have called for MPs accused of sexual misconduct to be excluded from the Westminster estate while investigations take place, after allegations against the Conservative backbencher David Warburton.
The joint call by unions representing parliamentary workers – Prospect, the FDA, the Public and Commercial Services Union and the GMB - comes after Warburton was accused of sexual harassment as well as alleged cocaine use and potentially failing to declare a loan.
The MP for Somerton and Frome has denied any wrongdoing, and has been taken to a psychiatric hospital. He has lost the Tory whip and is expected to face a series of investigations over the claims.
House select committee seizes momentum as it embarks on final push to conclude evidence-gathering phase of inquiry
The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack is moving to capitalize on new momentum as it embarks on its final push to complete the roughly one hundred remaining depositions and conclude the evidence-gathering phase of the inquiry.
The panel has scored two major wins in recent days: more than six hours of testimony from
Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, and a conclusion by a federal judge that the former president likely committed felonies to overturn the 2020 election.
The Guardian, US Edition
They survived intact for 112m years through scorching summer heat and freezing winters at Utah’s Mill Canyon. But several of the world’s most important and historic dinosaur footprints were damaged beyond repair earlier this year when a construction crew arrived to build a new boardwalk for tourists.
The extent of the harm to the footprints – and those of an ancient crocodile crossing in the canyon near Moab – was detailed in a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) report into the January incident published last week.
According to the bureau, the good news was that the damage was evaluated as minor, and would have been much worse if local residents had not spotted tire tracks from heavy machinery on the ground, resulting in the boardwalk project being immediately halted.
Al Jazeera
The German government is declaring 40 Russian diplomats “undesirable persons”, foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has said, an act that is tantamount to expulsion from the country.
The announcement on Monday follows similar moves by European partners in recent days as a reaction to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Shortly after the German announcement, France said it would expel 35 Russian diplomats as part of a joint European action. Earlier on Monday, Lithuania threw out its Russian ambassador.
Al Jazeera
Sri Lanka’s opposition has rejected an invitation from the president to form a unity government, urging his resignation over the country’s worsening shortages of food, fuel and medicines.
The opposition’s demand on Monday came as anti-government protests continued throughout the country over its worst economic crisis in memory and deepening mistrust in President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s leadership.
Earlier on Monday, the president’s office said he “invites all political parties represented in the parliament to come together to accept ministerial portfolios in order to find solutions to this national crisis”.
Deutsche Welle
It's not easy being Green. No one feels that these days quite like Robert Habeck, the environmentalist party's former co-chief. Now, as Germany's economic affairs and climate action minister, he oversees weapons exports and works to secure energy supply for the country.
Habeck's huge portfolio makes him a central figure in Germany's Zeitenwende, a term for epochal change that his boss, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, used to define the impact that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has had on the country's foreign policy and position in the world.
The Greens came to power in 2021 promising to end the Merkel-era foot-dragging on climate change. Their aspirations got muted somewhat during coalition talks with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), but they managed to move up Germany's phase-out of coal power "ideally" to 2030, from 2038, and aim to go carbon neutral by 2045, instead of 2050.
Duetsche Welle
After two years of mandates, Germans are no longer required by law to wear face masks in shops.
From now on, in all states that do not decide to take a different path, it will be up to individual shop owners to decide whether those in their stores are required to wear masks or not.
The requirement was officially dropped in Berlin on Friday and most states followed Sunday. Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have used the federal government's "hotspot" loophole — requiring measures be in place if infection rates are especially high — to leave mask mandates in place.
Bangkok Post
The manager of Nida Patcharaveerapong has admitted to a false statement charge as police target another man believed to have guided all five people on board the vessel from which the actress plunged to her death on how to finesse their statements to authorities.
Pol Col Jaturon Anurakbundit, chief of Muang district police in Nonthaburi, said on Monday Idsarin “Gatick’’ Juthasuksawat confessed to police that she had given false statements to investigators.
…
Mr Sira said Ms Idsarin had told police the full truth and warned the other four people on the speedboat to tell the truth.
She was one of the five people on the speed boat when Nida, nicknamed "Tangmo", fell into the Chao Phraya River on Feb 24. She was the only one who admitted the allegation pressed by investigators.
NPR
It all comes down to one last game.
The men's NCAA Championship reaches its conclusion tonight as two of college basketballs storied programs face off at 9:20p.m. at the Superdome in New Orleans.
And whether you're wearing baby blue or royal blue, one of these blue-blooded teams will emerge victorious, as the University of North Carolina takes on Kansas for the season finale of this year's March Madness.
The last standing one-seed Kansas looked dominant in their Final Four victory over two-seed Villanova on Saturday.
The team's top-scorers Ochai Agbaji and David McCormack will hope to have a repeat performance as the team chases its fourth national championship, and first appearance since losing to Kentucky in 2012.