Not since the dot-com boom have so many richly valued tech companies gone public in such short succession. But this crop of tech companies is markedly different from those that came up during the late 1990s.
The "progressive" boss can be more insidious than overt bigots, because their reputation and self-mythologizing makes them difficult people to call out.
Faith-based hits like "God's Not Dead" and "I Can Only Imagine" aren't the surprise they used to be. But how will an industry fueled by a sense of neglect handle mainstream acceptance?
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A popular show gives "defector beauties" a chance to tell stories from the North. It's loud and gaudy — and changing the conversation about reunification.
They've not been in the directors' seats for all of them, but you can bet after making "Infinity War" and "Endgame" that the Russo brothers have thought very, very hard about all these story beats and how to pay them off.
Teilya Brunet spent her childhood in and out of foster homes as her mother struggled with addiction. Now, after years of dealing with issues of her own, she's learning to fight back.
Bruce the dog had a really stressful day at work: Anderson, the new guy in accounting, is a gossip and a loud chewer. And Miranda? Oh, Miranda is back on her bullsh*t. You'll never believe what she pulled this time...
We have no idea how this is related to the comics, but we're cautiously optimistic about "Lost" and "The Leftovers" creator Damon Lindelof's take on this universe. "Watchmen" will debut on HBO this fall.
An uncomfortable reminder that nature is swift, unjust and brutal beyond belief — anyways, we hope this week is treating you well! Also, a fun fact: a group of male cheetahs is called a "coalition." Now you (and we) know.
In 2015, one Missouri woman made a different choice. She turned to Satan. That year, "Mary Doe" became the pseudonymous plaintiff at the heart of an audacious legal campaign that was part satire and part earnest fight for civil rights.
North Korea describes its firing of rocket artillery and an apparent short-range ballistic missile over the weekend as a regular and defensive military exercise and ridicules South Korea for criticizing the launches. https://t.co/sHPSlylrAE
The WashPost is reporting Trump is angry with Bolton for trying to lure him into a regime-change war in Venezuela, "what Trump has groused is an interventionist stance at odds with his view that the United States should stay out of foreign quagmires." https://t.co/adOjkpCVap
Chinese negotiators emboldened by perception U.S. was willing to compromise.
The new hard line taken by China in trade talks—surprising the White House and threatening to derail negotiations—came after Beijing interpreted recent statements and actions by President Trump as a sign the U.S. was ready to make concessions, said people familiar with the thinking of the Chinese side.
High-level negotiations are scheduled to resume Thursday in Washington, but the expectations and the stakes have changed significantly. A week ago, the assumption was that negotiators would be closing the deal. Now, they are trying to keep it from collapsing.
Adding to the pressure, the U.S. formally filed paperwork Wednesday to raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25% from the current 10% at 12:01 a.m. Friday. Beijing's Commerce Ministry responded by threatening to take unspecified countermeasures. At a campaign rally in Florida Wednesday night, Mr. Trump said Chinese leaders "broke the deal" in trade talks with the U.S.
WNU Editor: China is playing hardball .... and I think it is a mistake. Their perception that the U.S. will compromise is also a mistake. Either way we will know in the coming days on where this is all heading.
Andrew Marshall leaves behind an American tradition of strategic thinking that will live well beyond him.
When the memorial service for the former defense official Andrew W. Marshall, who recently passed away at the age of 97, was held, an eclectic throng attended. Former senior Cabinet officials, generals (the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff gave one of the eulogies), professors, think tankers, and bureaucrats from several continents showed up. There were historians, anthropologists, economists, journalists, and political scientists. But it was not a gathering of the establishment, for these were the cranky insiders rather than the complacent wielders of authority. And all of us thought of ourselves as members of what is affectionately known as St. Andrew's Prep.
WNU Editor: I would say the Russian military equivalent to Andrew Marshall is General Valery Gerasimov, current Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Federation. Here is an example of some of his work .... The 'Gerasimov Doctrine' and Russian Non-Linear War (In Moscow's Shadows).
The Pentagon could be responsible for 5,000 publicly accessible websites. Or it could be less than half that. Nobody appears to know for sure.
Speaking at a town hall event for employees of the military's main public affairs organization, Army Col. Paul Haverstick said late last month that the number of Pentagon and military branch websites is "undefined."
"Between 2,000 and 5,000 is the estimate," said Haverstick, acting director of the Defense Media Activity, on April 24. "We have less than a third of that."
DMA runs some 825 public websites and blogs for the military, its website says. That includes the Defense Department's flagship public site and the official sites for the Air Force, Navy, Marines, Army Reserve, National Guard, Army Corps of Engineers and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Navy and Textron showed off for the first time a weaponized prototype of a small unmanned surface vessel (USV) designed to revolutionize sea warfare, May 6, 2019. (Military.com photo/Richard Sisk)
The Navy and Textron showed off for the first time Monday a weaponized prototype of a small unmanned surface vessel (USV) designed to revolutionize sea warfare.
Textron principal systems engineer Gary Hartman said the display of the 40-foot Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle, docked at the annual Sea-Air-Space Exposition at National Harbor, Maryland, is the first of the boat mounted with a 50-caliber machine gun and a housing for Hellfire missiles.
The weapons display is the outgrowth of the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement signed last year by Naval Sea Systems Command and Textron "to develop and integrate surface warfare payloads onto the Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle."
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will need to keep counterterrorism forces in Afghanistan until there is no insurgency left in the country, the top U.S. general said on Wednesday, suggesting a far longer military presence even after more than 17 years of war.
"I think we will need to maintain a counterterrorism presence as long as an insurgency continues in Afghanistan," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford said during a congressional hearing.
The United States is currently in talks with the Taliban to seek an end to the nearly 18-year-long conflict.
Command Master Chief Jonas Carter poses for a photo after donating to the Navy and Marine Corps Relief Society during a fundraiser kickoff aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. (U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Joseph A.D. Phillips/Released)
A senior Navy official who told sailors to "clap like we're at a strip club" during a visit from Vice President Mike Pence last week has resigned, the service announced Tuesday.
Command Master Chief Jonas Carter of the USS Harry S. Truman stepped down from his position as the ship's enlisted leader and will retire, Capt. Nick Dienna, the commanding officer of the vessel, said in a Facebook post to crew members.
"Onboard USS Harry S. Truman, we measure ourselves by the highest standards of professionalism and personal integrity," Dienna wrote. "I commend Master Chief Carter for having the forthrightness and the courage to uphold this ethos by taking responsibility and holding himself accountable for his comments."
As the US and China continue talks Thursday, both sides are well aware of their strengths and weaknesses
President Trump's morning tweet announcing that the Chinese were coming to Washington to make a deal buoyed US stocks, although a warning that US tariffs will elicit "countermeasures" later in the session reduced gains.
Asset prices moved with every trade rumor. Trading against the news is a mug's game. Investors have to take a position based on conviction and stand or fall with it. I continue to recommend buying Chinese stocks on the dip.
Both sides are coming to the negotiating table in Washington tomorrow in painful awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May at 10 Downing Street in London, Britain May 8, 2019. Mandel Ngan/Pool via REUTERS
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Britain on Wednesday it needed to change its attitude towards China and telecoms company Huawei, casting the world's second largest economy as a threat to the West similar to that once posed by the Soviet Union.
Pompeo questioned the attitude of Prime Minister Theresa May's government towards Beijing and goaded London by saying that the late former British leader Margaret Thatcher, who was known as the Iron Lady, would have taken a much firmer line with China.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) at the White House in Washington, US, January 4, 2019. (Reuters)
Where's the Democratic critique of President Trump's foreign policy? You'd think that with more than 20 Democrats running for President, at least one of them would try to differentiate herself, or himself, from the rest of the field by focusing on the president's role in diplomacy and national security.
It's still early in the campaign. Yet none of the major Democratic candidates has made foreign policy a focus. Instead the politicians are out there talking mostly about climate change, health care, income inequality, student loan forgiveness, national service, drug rehabilitation, racism — anything, it seems, except for geopolitics or grand strategy.
WNU Editor: I am sure they will be articulating their foreign policies soon. But in the meantime they are being eviscerated ....
After more than FIVE HUNDRED rockets were fired by Hamas terrorists at Israel, KILLING 4, not a single Democratic candidate for president has issued a statement or said a word on it.
The Taliban have attacked the Kabul office of a US aid group, killing at least five people and wounding 24.
Militants are believed to have set off a suicide car bomb before entering the offices of Counterpoint International, resulting in a stand-off with Afghan security forces.
All five attackers were also killed in the attack and at least 200 workers were evacuated from the building.
The Taliban said the NGO was involved in "harmful Western activities".
An Iron Dome anti-missile system fires an interceptor missile as rockets are launched from Gaza toward Israel on August 9. (photo credit: AMIR COHEN/REUTERS)
The number of unintercepted rockets and Israeli fatalities sparked inquiry about the effectiveness of Iron Dome.
TEL AVIV (JTA) — After the weekend's fighting between Hamas and the Israeli army, some Israelis have raised questions about the strength of their country's missile defenses.
Over the course of the weekend, Hamas and Islamic Jihad launched nearly 700 rockets from Gaza at Israel, killing four people and injuring more than 200. According to Haaretz, of the 690 rockets launched from Gaza, Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted 240.
The number of unintercepted rockets and Israeli fatalities sparked inquiry about the effectiveness of Iron Dome, and whether Hamas and Islamic Jihad have found a way to thwart the system.
Hamas was quick to declare that it had achieved victory, overwhelming Israeli defenses with concentrated barrages of projectiles.
March 8, 2015: Gen. Qassem Soleimani, left, stands at the frontline during offensive operations against Islamic State militants in the town of Tal Ksaiba, Iraq. (Reuters)
As intelligence warnings about possible attacks orchestrated by Tehran on U.S. forces stationed in the Middle East reverberate through Washington – prompting the rare advance announcement that a U.S. warship is now being deployed to the region – many are bracing for further escalation.
The new Iranian threat comes just a few weeks after the Trump administration designated Iran's official military, known as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a terrorist organization. Tehran retaliated by classifying all American troops in the region as terrorists.
Wedged deep within the IRGC is arguably its most potent branch – the elite intelligence wing called Quds Force – which itself has been a designated terror group since 2007 and is estimated to be 20,000 strong.
More than half of Russians say the Kremlin should end its military intervention on behalf of Bashar Al Assad
Russian President Vladimir Putin may be facing a crisis of public confidence in his military policies in Syria as new polling data show that fewer Russians than ever support his intervention in the eight-year war.
The figures, released on Monday by one of Russia's only independent polling groups, show that more than half of the population believe the Kremlin should end its military campaign in Syria.
Russia entered the war in September 2015 on the side of Syria's embattled leader, Bashar Al Assad. Regime forces and their allies were losing ground to militants and armed opposition groups until the Kremlin rallied to Mr Al Assad's side and turned the tide of the conflict in his favour.
WNU Editor: I would say that among my Russian family and friends .... about 80% want Russia out of Syria. And this is coming from a group that I know support Putin on most policies. As to what is my take. The war in Syria is going to go on for a few more years, and the costs for Russia will continue. This 50% opinion that Russia should leave will climb to 70% (if not more), and it will be the next Russian President who will decide on what to do with Syria. My prediction. With the exception of the Latakia port, there will be a significant draw-down of Russian troops.
Syrian and Russian warplanes have been escalating airstrikes on the last remaining rebel redoubt in northern Syria. The air raids are as much a message to Turkey as to die-hard rebels and jihadists in the province of Idlib, say analysts.
Russia wants Turkey to do more to remove from the province jihadists fighters once affiliated with al-Qaida, they say.
The U.N. is calling for de-escalation in northwestern Syria, with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urging all parties to recommit to a truce covering opposition-held parts of Idlib, western Aleppo and northern Hama. More than 2.7 million people live in the rebel redoubt, many displaced from other parts of the war-wrecked country.
SEOUL (Reuters) - It was one of the most concrete agreements to come out of the first U.S.-North Korea summit last year, but now the Pentagon says it has given up hope of recovering any more remains of U.S. troops killed in the 1950-1953 Korean War in the near future.
The U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), which works to recover missing American troops around the world, said on Wednesday that it had not heard from North Korean officials since the second U.S.-North Korea summit, held in Hanoi in February, ended with no agreement.
"As a result, our efforts to communicate with the Korean People's Army regarding the possible resumption of joint recovery operations for 2019 have been suspended," DPAA spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Hoffman said in a statement.
"We have reached the point where we can no longer effectively plan, coordinate, and conduct field operations in (North Korea) during this fiscal year, which ends on September 30, 2019."
WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - The diplomatic cable from Beijing arrived in Washington late on Friday night, with systematic edits to a nearly 150-page draft trade agreement that would blow up months of negotiations between the world's two largest economies, according to three U.S. government sources and three private sector sources briefed on the talks.
The document was riddled with reversals by China that undermined core U.S. demands, the sources told Reuters.
* Hassan Rouhani said Iran would defy the 2015 deal unless new terms are agreed * Iran wants help from Europe to defy the U.S. sanctions which returned last year * But the White House warned Tehran to expect more sanctions rather than fewer * Britain also warned of 'consequences' if Iran gives up its nuclear commitments
Iran has been warned to expect more U.S. sanctions 'very soon' as Washington dismissed the Islamic Republic's threat to resume high-level uranium enrichment.
President Hassan Rouhani said today that Iran would stop abiding by the controversial nuclear deal unless new terms were agreed.
Tehran has demanded that the UK, France, Germany, China and Russia help Iran to dodge U.S. sanctions, which were restored last year when Donald Trump quit the pact.
Total global military spending rose 2.6% to $1.8 trillion in 2018, according to new data published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). It is now at its highest level since 1988 and 76% higher than the post cold war low in 1998. Due to the implementation of new arms procurement program under the Trump administration, U.S. military spending grew for the first time in seven years, reaching $649 billion. No other nation comes close to matching that figure and it is nearly as much as the next eight-largest spending countries combined.
Many South Africans have been alienated by corruption scandals and flagging economy
Millions of people have started voting in a landmark general election in South Africa, where the ruling African National Congress party (ANC) is hoping to reverse a slide in support 25 years after the country's first free elections ushered in a new democratic era.
In Alexandra, a poor neighbourhood in Johannesburg, long queues formed at polling stations shortly after they opened at 7am. "If you don't vote, you can't complain afterwards. This election will change so many things," said Neziswa Tshwangana, 34.
Many South Africans have been alienated by repeated corruption scandals and the ANC's continuing failure to deal with a flagging economy, collapsing public services, soaring unemployment and high levels of violent crime. There is also rising anger at the party's failure to hold its officials to account after graft investigations.
Iran announced Wednesday it was partially withdrawing from a landmark nuclear deal, marking a serious escalation in Tehran's faceoff with the United States.
President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech that Iran would reduce its "commitments" to the deal, but would not fully withdraw, amid heightened pressure from the US in recent weeks.
Rouhani said that from this week, Iran will keep its excess enriched uranium and heavy water, rather than sell it to other countries as previously agreed to limit its stockpile.
The President said drastic measures would be implemented unless the remaining signatories of the deal -- Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia -- eased restrictions on Iran's banking and oil sectors in the next 60 days.
The measures include removing caps on uranium enrichment levels, and resuming work on its Arak nuclear facility.
In 1995, after years of losses, Donald Trump reported a negative adjusted gross income of $915.7 million. That gave him a tax deduction so substantial it could have allowed him to avoid federal income taxes for almost 2 decades: https://t.co/FREM0Sj7ixpic.twitter.com/zloWtkJR50
New York Times found that Trump's core businesses, including casinos, hotels and apartments, lost $1.17bn from 1985 to 1994
Donald Trump's businesses lost a total of more than $1bn from 1985 to 1994, enabling him to avoid paying income taxes for eight of the 10 years, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
The newspaper, which said it obtained printouts from Trump's official Internal Revenue Service tax transcripts, found that Trump's core businesses, including casinos, hotels and apartment buildings, lost $1.17bn over a decade.
WNU Editor: President Trump's business difficulties 20 - 30 years ago are well known, including being in debt to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. So why is this a big story now? You tell me. On a side note, there is a remark that he made during this time that I have always remembered. When he started to recover in the 1990s he remarked that when everything was going well, everyone wanted to be with him. But when everything collapsed and he started to ask these same people for help, only two out of a few hundred answered his call. He never mentioned who those two individuals are, but I suspect that if they are still alive today, they would be his most trusted friends.
More News On President Trump's Tax Returns Between 1985 - 1994
More pieces from an F-35 stealth fighter that disappeared in the Pacific have been found, the Japanese defense minister revealed May 7, 2019.
A Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter piloted by Maj. Akinori Hosomi mysteriously vanished from radar on April 9, 2019. The day after the crash, pieces of the tail were found floating on the surface of the water, but the rest of the fifth-generation fighter was nowhere to be found.
WNU Editor: They have retrieved the flight recorder .... Pieces of lost Japanese stealth fighter found (CNN). And while the cause for the crash is still unknown, I am sure they are going to get some answers soon.
It looks like Australia’s central bank could use a proofreader.
Some seven months into its circulation, a new $50 bill (worth roughly US$35) was found to have a tiny typo on it. The bill — which was designed with enhanced anti-counterfeiting features — misspells “responsibility” as “responsibilty” in fine print on its face, according to CNN.
The Melbourne-based Triple M radio station posted photos of the typo on its social media accounts.
We have exclusively revealed that there’s a spelling mistake on the new $50 note this morning after a Hot Breakfast Hot Tip from a listener.
Despite the error, the bills can still be utilized. According to CNN, about 46 million of the bills are already in circulation.
“These banknotes are legal tender and can continue to be used as normal. It does not affect their validity and functionality in any way,” a Reserve Bank of Australia spokeswoman said in a statement to CNN.
The Reserve Bank of Australia told CNN they have been aware of the issue for a few months, and are planning to correct the error in its next batch of printing.
(SEOUL, South Korea) — North Korea on Thursday fired at least one unidentified projectile from the country’s western area, South Korea’s military said, the second such launch in the last five days and a possible warning that nuclear disarmament talks could be in danger.
The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff had no other immediate details, and it wasn’t clear what the North had fired. But some analysts have said that if the North returns to the kind of longer-range banned weapons that it tested in 2017, when many feared a Washington-Pyongyang standoff could end in war, it will be a strong sign that a frustrated North Korea is turning away from diplomacy.
A summit earlier this year between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended in failure. North Korea wants widespread sanctions relief in return for disarmament steps that the United States has apparently seen as insufficient.
Longer-range ballistic missile tests, banned by the United Nations and seen as threatening by surrounding countries, would likely result in more sanctions.
The launch came hours after the North through its state media described its firing of rocket artillery and an apparent short-range ballistic missile on Saturday as a regular and defensive military exercise and ridiculed South Korea for criticizing the launches.
The vice president of Venezuela’s opposition-run parliament was arrested by secret police in Caracas on Wednesday, the first arrest in an apparent crackdown on opposition leaders involved in a failed revolt against Nicolás Maduro last week.
Edgar Zambrano reportedly refused to get out of his car when it was approached by intelligence agents. The car was towed, with him inside, to Caracas’ notorious El Helicoide prison, the Guardian reports.
Zambrano was reportedly on the scene when opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who declared himself the interim president of Venezuela in January, called on the military to revolt against Maduro. Mass protests ensued with supporters from both sides taking to the streets, but a large scale military defection failed to materialize.
“Edgar Zambrano has been detained. He was one of the main [leaders] of the coup,” Maduro’s second-in-command, Diosdado Cabello, said on television, according to the Guardian.
Guaidó said on Twitter that Zombrano had been “kidnapped.”
Opposition leaders and international officials also condemned the arrest.
“The arbitrary detention of First VP Edgar Zambrano by Maduro’s oppressive security forces in Venezuela is illegal and inexcusable,” tweeted Kimberly Breier, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the State Department.
At least 10 National Assembly officials are facing prosecution for crimes ranging from treason to civil rebellion for participating in the uprising, reports the Guardian.
Venezuela has been locked in a political standoff since Guaidó, head of the National Assembly, declared himself the country’s interim president after Maduro, who was first elected President in 2013, was re-elected in 2018 in what many believe to be a sham election.
The U.S. and several other countries have recognized Guaidó as the legitimate leader of Venezuela.
(SINGAPORE) — Singapore reportedly has passed a law criminalizing publication of fake news and allowing the government to block and order the removal of such content.
The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Bill passed Wednesday night by a vote of 72-9, a lawmaker with the opposition Worker’s Party, Daniel Goh, said on Twitter.
The law bans falsehoods that are prejudicial to Singapore or likely to influence elections and requires service providers to remove such content or allows the government to block it. Offenders could face a jail term of up to 10 years and hefty fines.
Opponents in Parliament said it gave government ministers too much power to determine what was false and broadly defined public interest.
The Strait Times newspaper reported Law Minister K. Shanmugam said the orders to correct or remove false content would mostly be directed at technology companies, rather than individuals who ran afoul of the law without intent.
Human Rights Watch sharply criticized the law. It is a “disaster for online expression by ordinary Singaporeans” and a “hammer blow” against the independence of online news portals, said Phil Robertson, the group’s deputy Asia director.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong last month defended the proposed law,saying many countries had them and that Singapore had debated the issue for two years. He rejected criticism the law could further stifle free speech in Singapore, which already has stern laws on public protests and dissent.
“They criticized many things about Singapore’s media management, but what we have done have worked for Singapore. And it is our objective to continue to do things that will work for Singapore. And I think (the new law) will be a significant step forward in this regard,” he said on a visit to Malaysia.
Speaking at the same news conference, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad warned such laws were a double-edged sword that could be abused by governments to stay in power.
Malaysia’s own fake news ban was rushed into law by the government Mahathir’s coalition ousted in a shock election result in 2018. Mahathir has promised to try to repeal the law, though a first attempt to do so failed.
U.S. officials are pausing efforts to recover the remains of American solders who went missing in the Korean War, citing a lack of cooperation from North Korea after a failed summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jung Un in late February.
“We have reached the point where we can no longer effectively plan, coordinate, and conduct field operations in the DPRK during this fiscal year,” the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) said in a statement to NPR. The DPAA’s fiscal year ends at the end of September.
North Korea had been actively working with the U.S. on recovery efforts since U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jung Un discussed the topic at their historic first summit in Singapore last year. A week after the summit, North Korea handed over 55 boxes of remains to the U.N. But since Trump and Kim’s second summit in Hanoi ended abruptly with no deal, DPAA officials say their North Korean counterparts have stopped communicating, according to NPR.
The DPAA says they are now “assessing possible next steps in resuming communications,” for the 2020 fiscal year according to NPR.
The agency plans to shift gears and focus on identifying remains already in their possession. In 2019, remains of more than a dozen soldiers, most of which were found decades ago, have been identified, reports NPR.
Almost 7,700 soldiers were left unaccounted for after the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953, according to the DPAA’s website. Approximately 5,300 of those are estimated to be in North Korea.
Between 1990 and 2005, North Korea returned 229 caskets containing U.S. soldier remains. The remains of an additional seven soldiers were turned over in 2007.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations secretary-general said the world must dramatically change the way it fuels factories, vehicles and homes to limit future warming to a level scientists call nearly impossible.
That’s because the alternative “would mean a catastrophic situation for the whole world,” António Guterres told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview.
Guterres said he’s about to tour Pacific islands to see how climate change is devastating them as part of his renewed push to fight it. He is summoning world leaders to the U.N. in September to tell them “they need to do much more in order for us to be able to reverse the present trends and to defeat the climate change.”
That means, he said, the world has to change, not in small incremental ways but in big “transformative” ways, into a green economy with electric vehicles and “clean cities.”
Guterres said he will ask leaders to stop subsidizing fossil fuels. Burning coal, oil and gas triggers warming by releasing heat-trapping gases.
He said he wants countries to build no new coal power plants after 2020. He wants them to put a price on the use of carbon. And ultimately he wants to make sure that by 2050 the world is no longer putting more greenhouse gases into the air than nature sucks out.
Global temperatures have already risen about 1.8 degrees (1 degree Celsius) since the industrial age began. The issue is how much more the thermometers will rise.
In 2015, the world’s nations set a goal to limit global warming to no more than 0.9 degrees (0.5 degrees Celsius) from now. Most scientists say it is highly unlikely, if not outright undoable, to keep man-made climate change that low, especially since emissions of heat trapping gases are rising, renewable energy growth is plateauing, and some countries’ leaders and voters are balking. A panel of scientists the U.N. asked to look at the issue ran computer models for more than 500 future scenarios, and less than 2% achieved those warming limits.
Guterres said the wholesale economic changes needed to keep the temperature from rising another degree or more may be painful, but there will be more pain if the world fails.
“If you don’t hang on to that goal, what you’ll achieve is a total disaster,” the secretary-general said in his 38th floor conference room.
If countries only do what they promised in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, it would be catastrophic because the world would warm by another 4.5 degrees (2.5 degrees Celsius), Guterres said, adding “that is why we need to dramatically accelerate… what everybody knows needs to be done.”
Yet, globally the trends are going the other way. University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck said it looks unlikely that the world could prevent another 1.8 degrees (1 Celsius) of warming, let alone 0.9 degrees.
And in an odd way that gives the U.N. chief optimism.
Because as disasters mount and deaths increase, the public, especially youths, will realize that warming is “a dramatic threat to the whole of humankind,” Guterres said.
So the worse it gets, the more people will demand change, he said.
That’s why he’s about to visit the islands of Fiji, Tuvalu and Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean, which he said is hit hardest by climate change.
Guterres said he wants to use the determination and moral authority of the people who live on the threatened islands to convince world leaders to make necessary change.
Here are some excerpts from the 25-minute interview with Guterres, who said he used to love steak houses but now only goes once every three months because livestock contribute significantly to warming. The questions and answers have been edited for clarity and length:
Q: How can you be optimistic?
A: That is the paradox. Things are getting worse. Temperatures are rising faster than expected. We see the Arctic melting. We see glaciers disappearing. We see corals bleaching. We see biodiversity being dramatically threatened. So things are getting worse and worse. But the political will has been slow. We need to reverse this trend. We need to make people understand that this is not sustainable. And the reason why I’m optimistic is that I feel that more and more people are convinced of that. And as more and more people are convinced of that, I believe governments will feel the need to increase their political will which at this present moment is still lagging behind.
You have seen the fantastic attitude of young girls and boys making a strike in favor of climate action. You see more and more business and communities assuming responsibilities.
Q: Can you fight climate change and biodiversity loss at the same time?
A: Climate change is a major threat to biodiversity. It’s because of climate change that species are disappearing. So we need at the same time to be concerned with the climate action… with our oceans… to make sure that we keep the richness of a planet that was created by God. And I don’t believe God would be very happy to see many of his creatures disappearing.”
Q: How do you see the United States and the Trump administration on climate?
A: In the United States I disagree with the policies that the government has implemented. But I see fantastic attitudes and fantastic developments in what is done by large businesses, by cities, by the civil society. I can see the United States a country with an enormous potential to achieve what needs to be achieved for us to be able to defeat climate change.
Archie, who was first introduced to the public Wednesday, is technically supposed to take on his father’s earldom, according to Marlene Koenig, an author and expert on British and European royalty. If the palace confirms that Archie will not be known as an earl, it means one thing: The Duke and Duchess wanted it that way. “This is just their attitude that they want a normal life for their children,” Koenig tells TIME.
If he’s to be known as just Archie, and not Archie, Earl of Dumbarton — which is his father’s subsidiary (honorary) title — it’s another signal that his parents are going to uphold the family’s privacy.
Now the closest to the throne in the male line without a title, it’s likely that Archie, who is seventh in line to the crown, will never have royal engagements, duties or patronages, Koenig says. Even though Queen Elizabeth II is the matriarch and leader of the family, this wasn’t her decision.
“The Queen might not like it, but she’s pretty fair about what her family wants to do,” Koenig says. “She understands that [Harry and Meghan] will want to have a much more normal life.”
“Their Royal Highnesses have taken a personal decision to keep the plans around the arrival of their baby private,” the royal family said in a statement. “The Duke and Duchess look forward to sharing the exciting news with everyone once they have had an opportunity to celebrate privately as a new family.” Days later, the royal family has not shared with avid royal fans where Meghan chose to give birth.
Katie Nicholl, the author of Harry and Meghan: Life, Loss and Love, says the lack of a royal title “speaks volumes for the future they have planned,” but is also in no way surprising. She went on to say that Duchess’ American nationality has, for its part, already made a positive impact on the monarchy. “The marriage in itself signals change in so many ways,” Nicholl tells TIME. “We’ve seen them re-write the royal script, and I don’t see that ending as they become parents.”
But we can’t pin it all on Meghan Markle, who has used her global platform to raise her voice about feminism. Prince Harry has always made it known that he planned for his children’s privacy, even while he was only dating Meghan. In a 2017 interview with Newsweek, he said that he even liked to do his own grocery shopping. “I am determined to have a relatively normal life,” he said, “and if I am lucky enough to have children, they can have one too.”
Though Archie was only just born, the stage is now set for his life as a royal away from the spotlight. “You’re going to see them on the balcony and things like that, but they’re going to be encouraged to have their own lives,” Koenig says, though it’s likely the Sussex children will “follow in their parents footsteps” through charity work––something both the Duke and Duchess have been passionate about in their work.
From a historical perspective, Koenig, who has been researching the monarchy for decades, feels it’s “disappointing” that the grandchild of a future king (Prince Charles) will not have a royal title of any kind. But this choice is not unprecedented. Princess Anne, Queen Elizabeth’s daughter, opted for her children not to hold the titles they could have had, Nicholl explains. Zara and Peter Phillips, her children with her first husband, Mark Phillips, bear no royal titles at all. In royal press releases, their names are styled as any other commoners’.
The Duke and Duchess’ apparent decision to keep Archie as a more private royal is also something the monarchy has actually been moving toward. In the 1990s, there was a big push for a smaller monarchy, Koenig says, and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie of York––the children of Queen Elizabeth’s second son, Prince Andrew––became “the first blood princess to not be working royals.”
However, despite his lack of title, Archie will always be entitled to the earldom.
And when Prince Harry passes on his title at his death, Archie, being the first-born son, will automatically become the Duke of Sussex. Still, that ruling could change when Prince Charles—often credited as a royal in favor of keeping the monarchy small—becomes king, Koenig says.
As with all royals, the world will wait to see what they do with their positions—whether Archie’s name is styled as an earl or not.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, shared the news Wednesday that they named their new royal baby Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, hours after introducing him to the public earlier in the day.
Unlike his cousins, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis — the children of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge — Archie will not be a prince, and will likely be referred to as Master Archie as he grows up.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s choice in name marks a step away from royal tradition and symbolizes an effort by the royal family to become modern, says Cleveland Evans, a former president of the American Name Society and psychology professor at Bellevue University.
Archie is the nickname for Archibald, a name that dates back to Middle Ages-era Scotland. Meaning “genuine” and “bold.” Archibald was an aristocratic name in Scotland, Evans says. It’s not exactly the same case with its diminutive, Archie, which is a wildly popular name in the United Kingdom, according to Evans.
In 2017, Archie was no. 18 on the top 100 boys’ names in England and Wales, he says. Similar sounding names like Alfie, Charlie, Freddie and Teddy have also ranked in the top name choices on the list.
“The choice definitely shows their personality, but also to a certain extent, the changes in the royal family as a whole, where things have become — especially since Princess Diana’s death — more open,” Evans says, referring to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. “They probably want to modernize it and want the royal family to be seen as regular people, which is why they’d choose a name like Archie, which at the moment is a regular, everyday British boy’s name.”
The meaning behind Harrison
Archie’s second name, Harrison, which is typically used as a last name or surname, is also a bold choice for the royal couple, according to Evans. “It’s highly unique to the royal family that they would use something that is basically a surname as part of the child’s given name,” he says.
The name Harrison comes from an English surname that means “son of Harry.”
Harrison was no. 34 on the top 100 boys’ names for 2017 in England and Wales. In the U.S., the name has ranked at 148th among most popular male names from 2010 to 2017. Notable people named Harrison include the actor Harrison Ford, the former Beatle George Harrison and former U.S. President William Henry Harrison.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s decision to stop at two names for the baby is also a rare choice—Archie’s prince and princess cousins each carry three names, while his father and uncle, Prince William, each have four. The practice of giving royal babies three or four names was part of a longtime tradition of memorializing or honoring others in the royal family, according to Evans.
Evans says that Americans are likely to be more surprised by the choice in name than Brits, because Archie is not a popular pick in the United States. The name has not appeared in the top 1,000 popular names in any year since 2000, according to the Social Security Administration. Americans are likely to be reminded of fictional characters like Archie Bunker of the 1970s sitcom All in the Family or Archie Andrews from the Archie comics.
But all told, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have chosen a name that could help their son move easily among society’s ranks in the future, according to Evans.
“It makes them a part of the general British culture in that they have picked a name which is actually popular for babies in England at the moment,” he says.
The two figures were first spotted by a photographer who arrived early on the scene, with a telephoto lens through the gates of a Yangon prison on May 7. One man’s signature thick-rimmed glasses confirmed it: The award-winning Reuters journalists whose arrest had become a global cause were finally free.
There was little ambiguity about what happened to these two bright young reporters who dared to expose atrocities committed by their country’s notorious military. They were set up, convicted of possessing “official secrets” and sentenced to 7 years in prison after a trial broadly considered a farce. On Tuesday, they were freed by a pardon from Myanmar President Win Myint.
“I’m really happy and excited to see my family and my colleagues,” Wa Lone said in brief remarks outside the prison gates. “I can’t wait to go to my newsroom.” Photos and videos of the reporters’ emotional reunion with their wives and young daughters went viral. One captured the first time Wa Lone ever held his infant daughter as a free man. His wife, Pan Ei Mon, discovered she was pregnant shortly after his arrest.
Like most good news in Myanmar, it came with a caveat. Their case was a major test of the country’s quasi-civilian government, led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, which it failed at every turn. Rights advocates say press freedom in the country is even worse than it was upon their arrest, and other journalists have already taken on board the chilling message that if they report critically on the military, the government won’t help them. “The military punished these journalists to intimidate others,” says Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division for Human Rights Watch. “They wanted to let everyone know that, ‘Hey, we can come after you, too.’”
At every turn, the case set off alarm bells for other journalists. In what appears to have been a sting operation, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested on the night of Dec. 12, 2017 after accepting an invitation to have dinner with police at a private restaurant in Yangon. They were in the midst of a damning investigation into a massacre of 10 Rohingya boys and men in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where the military has been accused of genocide against the stateless Muslim minority. Police handed them some documents, and they left the restaurant. Before they could even examine the contents, they were arrested and held incommunicado for about a week.
In the ensuing trial, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were charged with breaking a law called the “Official Secrets Act,” a colonial-era provision that criminalizes so much as intending to share anything authorities want to conceal. A police witness testified that officers were ordered to “trap” Wa Lone, and that the both of them were caught in a “set up.” Nonetheless, they were convicted on Sept. 3, 2018, and sentenced to seven years behind bars.
It’s no wonder why authorities wanted to hide what these reporters knew about Rakhine. While they were still on trial, Reuters editor-in-chief Stephen J. Adler decided that the story of the massacre they had uncovered was too important not to publish. The rest of the world agreed with him; in April, Reuters’ body of work on the Rohingya crisis was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. “We felt the world needed to see this story,” Adler told Washington Post columnist Jason Rezaian, who himself was jailed in Iran for 544 days and has been a vocal advocate for the Reuters journalists. “Our reporters in prison were fully supportive of the decision,” Adler said. “And this is what we do.”
It’s tempting to see the release of these reporters as a victory in the worsening global struggle between independent media outlets and the governments who wish to control and stifle them. At least 251 journalists were jailed in 2018, one of the worst annual totals on record. But advocates for the two men say this is a battle won, not the war. It’s generally agreed that the Myanmar government would not have freed them on its own; it took 18 months of sustained, concerted international pressure to get two innocent men out of prison, while scores of other journalists there and across Asia remain behind bars. “I don’t think the government of Myanmar deserves any credit for this, they’re still the villains,” says Robertson, of Human Rights Watch. “But what it shows is that if you can generate enough international pressure, you can actually win the day.”
Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex announced their first child’s name on Wednesday, sharing the news that their son will be called Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor following a photo call.
As for the new royal baby’s title, unlike Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis — the children of William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge — Harry and Meghan’s baby boy is not a prince. Unless Queen Elizabeth II issues a Letters Patent declaring otherwise (like she did for Will and Kate’s kids.)
“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are pleased to announce they have named their first born child: Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor,” the couple’s official Instagram account captioned a shot of Meghan introducing Archie to the queen on Wednesday. “This afternoon Their Royal Highnesses introduced Her Majesty The Queen to her eighth great-grandchild at Windsor Castle. The Duke of Edinburgh and The Duchess’ mother were also present for this special occasion.”
The name Archie is certainly not a traditional choice for Harry and Meghan as it’s not the name of a past British monarch or even a past member of the British royal family. As of now, it’s unclear why Harry and Meghan chose the name Archie for their son.
Leading up to the name announcement, Ladbrokes odds had Alexander at 4/1, Spencer at 5/1, James at 6/1, Arthur at 7/1 and Theodore at 8/1.
Meghan gave birth to the baby boy, who weighs 7 pounds and 3 ounces, on Monday, the couple announced on their Instagram page. Prince Harry, speaking to cameras on the grounds of Windsor Castle on Monday, said “this little thing is absolutely to die for.”
Royals fans have been speculating over the new royal baby name since Kensington Palace announced that Markle was pregnant with the couple’s first child on Oct. 15. “Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Sussex is expecting a baby in the Spring of 2019,” the palace said in a statement.
Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Sussex is expecting a baby in the Spring of 2019. pic.twitter.com/Ut9C0RagLk
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