SENIOR US and Chinese generals have increased diplomacy in order to de-escalate the mounting tensions between the two countries in the South China Sea.
VLADIMIR PUTIN has infuriated the British government with his aggressive foreign policy against NATO and Eastern European countries – but it was an attack on UK soil that saw the Russian President feud with Boris Johnson.
LABOUR's crushing defeat in what was referred to as the most important general election in a generation shows what can happen to a party when it "moves so, so far to the left," US presidential candidate Joe Biden has warned.
NORTH KOREA has accused the US of a "provocative act" after Washington called a UN Security Council meeting at which it urged other nations to "act accordingly" in response to threats from Pyongyang.
VLADIMIR PUTIN has left many European leaders furious with his aggressive foreign policy in recent years. But this hostility also transcends to one on one exchanges, as was seen in 2007 when the Russian President brought his Labrador to a meeting with dog-phobic German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who swiped back in defiant fashion.
WHITE HOUSE officials have lashed out at Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi over Donald Trump's impeachment after the US President announced a trade deal breakthrough with China.
The Royal Family is recruiting a new social media maven to run the family’s accounts, according to a new job description. Haven’t you always wanted to persuade the Queen to film a TikTok dance challenge, crown and all?
“It’s knowing your content will be viewed by millions. We are recruiting a Head of Digital Engagement to be based at Buckingham Palace. Apply here,” says a LinkedIn ad which has already prompted more than 200 people to apply. From $60,000 to $66,700 a year — depending on experience — the new head of digital engagement will oversee the royal family’s social media accounts, develop digital strategies and manage a small team of digital media specialists. Other benefits include free lunch and 33 vacation days.
The queen famously sent her first tweet in 2014 while visiting a British museum, having been invited by the director of London’s Science Museum to share the opening of an exhibit on social media. But that doesn’t mean she has time to keep her Facebook status updated day-to-day.
It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R.
And the job doesn’t just mean you’ll get to spend your days crafting appropriately-regal royal hashtags and/or retouching corgi selfies. The ideal candidate, the ad says, has managed high profile social media accounts before and has experience with content management systems and analytics tools. “This is your opportunity to use your digital expertise to deliver the exceptional,” the full ad on the family’s website says.
“With an eye to the future, you’ll work to hone and shape our digital communications through understanding new technologies and stimulating creativity,” it adds. “The reaction to our work is always high-profile, and so reputation and impact will be at the forefront of all you do. And having your work shared around the world will be the biggest reward.”
The Royal Family’s social media accounts include 6.9 million followers on Instagram, about 5 million likes on Facebook and 4.1 followers on Twitter.
Other current vacancies at the palace include a ticket sales and information assistant, a senior IT auditor and a director of royal travel.
Marginalized communities have expressed fears over their future in the U.K. after the recent general election campaign, in which Brexit led the debate and fears over racism were raised. The Conservative Party under the leadership of Boris Johnson won a majority victory in the results announced Friday.
As voters headed to the polls on Thursday, they were faced with a choice between two political parties which have faced accusations of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. The result of the general election was declared on Friday, with the Conservative party winning 365 seats—a land-slide majority and the party’s biggest victory since the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher.
“Among marginalized communities, there is a real angst and fear,” Dr Joe Mulhall, the head of research at Hope Not Hate, a charity campaigning against racism and facism tells TIME. “It was a really ugly campaign. It was very divisive and polarized.” The charity was set up in 2014 after the British National Party (BNP), a far-right party, was winning substantial votes and they saw efforts to stop fascism and racism were failing.
“I know a lot of people in the anti-racist movement felt they couldn’t vote for either of the two main parties,” Mulhall added. “They felt they couldn’t legitimize Labour’s anti-Semitism or the Conservative’s racism and Islamophobia, which is a pretty dire situation to find yourself in.”
Mulhall has researched racism and fascism, a far-right political ideology, in politics for years. There was a time when the charity focused on marginal fringe parties like the BNP and their far-right policies, said Mulhall. “But this time around, more than ever we look at mainstream political parties and that’s because of the normalization of prejudicial politics in the U.K,” he says.
“One of the really scary things about going forward is where does this trajectory lead us?” Mulhall added. “The mainstreaming of prejudice and xenophobic politics is really really worrying. We’ve got a really turbulent few years ahead.”
There has been a rise in the numbers of hate crimes recorded and an increase in levels of discrimination and abuse in the wake of the Brexit referendum in 2016, according to research. More than 70% of the people polled from ethnic minorities now report experiencing racial discrimination compared to just over half before the referendum vote, a survey by Opinium in May this year found.
In the last year, the number of hate crimes recorded by police in England and Wales has increased, while the number of race related hate crimes accounted for around three-quarters of hate crime offenses (78,991 offenses), according to the U.K. Home Office.
The Conservative Party has been accused of Islamophobia; in 2018, Boris Johnson wrote in a newspaper column that Muslim women who wear burkas look “like letter boxes”. More recently, twenty-five sitting and former Conservative councillors were exposed for posting Islamophobic and racist material on social media by media in November. The party suspended the sitting councillors and said it would open an inquiry.
“There is a palpable sense of fear amongst Muslim communities around the country,” Huran Khan, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, said.
“We entered the election campaign period with long-standing concerns about bigotry in our politics and our governing party,” Khan added. “Now we worry that Islamophobia is “oven-ready” for government.”
E.U. citizens who now live in the U.K. have also expressed their fear and distress over the result of the election and what this means for their future post-Brexit. Just this week on Dec. 9, Boris Johnson said that for too long E.U. nationals have been “able to treat the U.K. as though it’s part of their own country.” Citizens of a country within the European Union are entitled to move freely and live in other E.U. countries.
“We’ve had lots of distressed messages this morning from E.U. citizens who don’t feel this government has their interests at heart,” Maike Bohn, the co-founder of the3million, a charity which campaigns for E.U. citizens rights, tells TIME.
“E.U. citizens [living in the U.K.] were helpless bystanders in a vicious election campaign, scapegoated and talked about but not listened to,” Bohn adds. “[The government] has demonized E.U. citizens for electoral gain and has so far not guaranteed their rights.”
The Conservative government’s immigration policy has been under fire and been described as “cruel and sadistic” by a human rights lawyer. In October, a two-year-old girl was facing deportation from the U.K. despite her two parents each holding a British passport. The toddler has since won the right to stay in the country following outrage.
In 2015, the Conservative government was forced to apologize over the “Windrush scandal” after scores of U.K. citizens whose families were originally from the Caribbean were threatened with deportation or lost access to government services.
For the Labour Party, the election results were disappointing, capturing 203 seats, compared to 262 in 2017. The party’s leader Jeremy Corbyn said he will not lead the party in the next election, given the “very disappointing” results, according to the BBC.
There have been criticisms from prominent figures in the Jewish community that anti-Semitism has been allowed to fester in the Labour Party under Corbyn’s leadership. The Chief Rabbi has been critical of Labour and accused them of being “utterly inadequate” in addressing anti-Semitism in the party. Whilst the party has claimed that it has “investigated every single case” of anti-Semitism, there are at least 130 outstanding cases before the Labour party, and thousands more have been reported but remain unsolved, according to the Jewish Labour Movement.
“When he eventually steps back, history will not look kindly on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party,” says Marie van der Zyl, the President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. “Anti-Jewish racism has been allowed to run amok and some at the highest levels of the Party have appeared to collude to protect antisemites.”
Van der Zyl has also urged the next leader of the Labour Party to act quickly against anti-Semitism, in order to solve the “crisis” and move our politics forward.
The Chief Rabbi argues that the country must come together.
“The elections may be over, but concerns about the resurgence of anti-Semitism very much remain,” the Chief Rabbi said. “Islamophobia, racism and other forms of prejudice continue to afflict our communities and… even our political parties.
“It is vital that we now bring the country together,” he added. “We must focus on our shared values and leave all hatred and prejudice far behind us.”
Hope Not Hate have been campaigning up and down the country fighting against racism and hatred. “We won’t give in to this type of politics. So there is hope,” says Mulhall.
There are political wins, and then there are political triumphs. Boris Johnson and his Conservatives pulled off the latter as they demolished their fractured opposition to gain 47 seats and an absolute majority in Commons. Just as important as the majority they secured was the mandate they got from the British people to pursue their Brexit strategy.
Why It Matters:
In case you hadn’t noticed, the U.K. has been politically paralyzed ever since it voted to Brexit in June 2016. This was the country’s third general election in four years, and given the size of Johnson’s victory, it’s the first to provide any clarity on where the Brexit process goes from here. With a Commons majority firmly secured, the U.K. finally has a government empowered enough to take the difficult decisions needed—balancing the conflicting concerns of a domestic British audience against those of lawmakers in Brussels—to “get Brexit done.” While there remain plenty of people on both sides of the Channel who think Brexit remains a colossal mistake, the last three and a half years of political limbo have convinced most Britons that movement in any direction is preferable to the current “will-they or won’t-they” status quo.
Someone who didn’t get that message is Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who instead of running on a clear Brexit platform opted to instead march into political battle with the promise of more negotiations, another referendum, and months/years more of political uncertainty over what form Brexit can or should take. Not helping matters were the party’s radical leftist economic proposals and continued allegations of anti-Semitism, all of which combined to give Labour its worst showing in more than 80 years.
After a decade of austerity politics, the mismanagement of the entire Brexit process and a series of underwhelming Conservative prime ministers, the Labour party should have run the table this election. Instead, they now enter existential crisis mode as they figure out what comes next. Corbyn has already announced plans to resign as Labour leader, the only good piece of news Labour supporters got this week.
What Happens Next:
Brexit is what happens next; mark your calendars for January 31, 2020, when the U.K. formally leaves the EU but continues to abide by EU rules while new trade deals and arrangements between the sides are hammered out in the “transition” phase. The scale of the Conservative victory means Johnson has more freedom to ignore the extremist elements in his own party who were pushing for a decisive “hard” break with the EU; it also means he doesn’t need to be overly conciliatory to more pro-EU elements in Parliament to cobble together a majority to vote through the deal he has already negotiated with Brussels. It’s possible we see a small cabinet reshuffle in the coming days or weeks, followed by a larger one after January 31st.
A victory of this size doesn’t mean Johnson gets to simply do whatever he wants when it comes to Brexit, or even domestic policy for that matter—many of the new seats the Conservatives picked up were formerly held by Labour MPs, and they would very much like to keep those seats in the Conservative fold. And since a portion of those seats are from the North and Midlands that represent large manufacturing bases that rely heavily on low-barrier trade with the EU, signs are now pointing to a somewhat “softer” Brexit. Johnson had promised on the campaign trail that he will not extend the transition period in any way past December 2020, but his party’s over-the-top performance means that he has that option available to him should it come to that.
Johnson has announced that he plans to rule as a “one-nation conservative” going forward, but that is going to be complicated by the Scottish National Party’s (SNP) impressive showing as well, taking 48 of the 59 seats in Scotland that were being contested. Scotland voted 62-to-38 to remain in the EU in the Brexit referendum back in 2016, and the party’s leader Nicola Sturgeon has already begun setting things in motion to hold another Scottish independence referendum as a way to remain in the EU. That’s still a ways away, as any referendum on Scottish independence requires the sign-off of U.K. leadership, but it is now a distinct possibility. And as Johnson’s Brexit agreement with the EU has left Northern Ireland–another of the U.K.’s constituent parts—aligned with EU rules and regulations on food and manufacturing products, there are also worries that Northern Ireland may one day want to bolt as well.
The Key Statistic That Explains It:
Dissatisfaction with Jeremy Corbyn going into elections stood at 76 percent according to Ipsos Mori, making him the least popular opposition leader the firm had ever polled in its history… and explains why Labour just posted its worst showing in 80-plus years. This week’s election results were as much about Corbyn’s failure as Johnson’s triumph. TBD what lesson each party takes away from that.
The Key Quote That Sums It All Up:
“Boris Johnson has a mandate to take England out of the EU but he must accept that I have a mandate to give Scotland a choice for an alternative future.” –Nicola Sturgeon, SNP leader. The political drama in the UK continues.
The One Thing to Say About It at a Dinner Party:
For all the ridicule Boris Johnson has received both before and during his premiership—much of it well deserved—he has proven himself to be exactly the kind of ideologically flexible politician that the U.K. needed to break the Brexit impasse.
The One Thing to Avoid Saying About It:
People will try to take lessons from the U.K. elections and apply them to U.S. politics. Don’t be one of those people—Brexit is a particularly unusual political dilemma with no parallel in US politics, and Jeremy Corbyn makes Bernie Sanders look like Tony Blair in comparison.
Reconnaissance of a North Korean launch site indicates that Kim Jong-Un may be preparing to test a long-range ballistic missile, three U.S. intelligence officials who monitor North Korea in different agencies tell TIME. The intelligence comes ahead of a fast-approaching self-declared year-end deadline that Kim set in an April 12 speech for a nuclear deal with the U.S.
In recent weeks, North Korea has reopened its Sohae Satellite Launching Station and resumed testing what U.S. intelligence officials and private experts suspect may be a solid fuel rocket engine that could be used in an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching parts of the U.S. The analysts say the missile test could be thinly veiled as a launch of a satellite so as to avoid the appearance of direct military hostility.
Kim may be gambling, the officials say, that the launch will increase the pressure on Trump to negotiate an agreement to ease economic sanctions on North Korea, while allowing Pyongyang to retain some or all of its nuclear weapons program. A missile launch would be provocative enough to get Trump’s attention, they say, but not risk the kind of ire a nuclear test would spark.
But it’s a high stakes play. If Kim gets it right, some negotiations might resume. If he’s wrong, a rocket could backfire, returning both sides to the rhetorical and economic hostility of Trump’s first year in office and giving the U.S. and its allies little choice but to watch the North advance its nuclear program or risk a military confrontation.
The last 10 days of this month could be decisive, with Kim scheduled to attend North Korean Workers Party meeting and expected to give a New Year’s address. “This is of course the proverbial inflection point,” says David Maxwell, a retired U.S. Army colonel who served extensively in Korea and is now at Washington’s Foundation for Defense of Democracies. It could be the end of the “unconventional experimental top-down diplomacy” that Trump, Kim, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have been attempting, he says.
After an initial round of exchanging insults, the two leaders have met three times, in Singapore, Hanoi and a few feet across the North’s heavily militarized border with South Korea. Nothing has come of those meetings other than photo opportunities, with the U.S. still demanding that Pyongyang give up its nuclear weapons before it can receive any relief from economic sanctions, and Kim continuing to seek recognition as a nuclear power and guarantees that his country will not be attacked. The Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Now Kim has promised the U.S. a “Christmas gift”, and Trump has resumed calling the North Korean leader “Rocket Man”, although the exchanges have not returned to 2017’s threats of “fire and fury.” Indeed, both leaders have left the worst name-calling to their subordinates, with some of Kim’s team calling Trump, who is twice the North Korean dictator’s age, “a heedless and erratic old man” and a “dotard.”
As tensions have mounted this autumn, the Trump administration has also blocked a United Nations Security Council meeting on North Korea’s well-known human rights abuses, a move that drew harsh criticism from Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden and John Bolton, one of Trump’s three former national security advisers, who said North Korea will never relinquish its nuclear weapons unless it is forced to do so.
This week, messages coming from the U.S. have been mixed. Speaking at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies on Thursday, Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell, a retired Air Force general, warned North Korea against resuming any “unfortunate ill-advised behavior.” At a separate United Nations Security Council meeting on North Korea called by the U.S. on Wednesday, American Representative Kelly Craft struck a different note, saying the U.S. is prepared to “simultaneously take concrete steps toward a deal,” a suggestion Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry promptly dismissed.
Taken together, these moves indicate that Trump and Kim haven’t given up on their personal diplomacy, officials say. Trump tweeted last weekend that “Kim Jong-Un is too smart and has far too much to lose, everything actually, if he acts in a hostile way.” Moreover, Trump added, underscoring his personality-based brand of diplomacy, Kim “does not want to void his special relationship with the President of the United States”.
Kim, the U.S. officials say, appears to be betting that Trump is eager for a fourth summit with him next year and may have concluded that he can use a long-range rocket to launch a satellite, even if it sails over U.S. ally Japan.
“Kim is leaving some space for diplomacy,” says Maxwell. “He has two near-term objectives: sanctions relief and recognition as a nuclear power. He is under tremendous internal pressure because he has failed since his summit with Trump in Singapore to get sanctions relief. Kim is not a strategic thinker — he is simply following the Kim family ‘art of the deal’ or playbook which is based on blackmail diplomacy — the use of provocations or increased tensions to gain political and economic concessions.”
Kim appears to have concluded earlier this year that he cannot get what he wants without applying more pressure, not only on Trump, but also on South Korea’s Moon, who is facing an election and is eager to improve relations with the North. When U.S. and North Korean negotiators met in Stockholm in October, the session lasted one day and the North Koreans came armed with a prepared statement denouncing the U.S. for clinging to an “old stance and attitude.”
Kim also must recognize that Trump’s transactional demands that Japan and South Korea pay more to support U.S. forces assisting in their defense and the reduction of joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises are taking a toll on the allies’ faith that Washington will honor its commitments to help defend them. At the same time, relations between Seoul and Tokyo have soured again, and the Trump administration has done little to remedy that. In the past, the U.S. has played a larger part in encouraging both countries to put their history behind them.
“I think the U.S. failure to resolve the issue of North Korea’s nuclear challenge is having a corrosive effect, along with a lot of other things, on the core idea that the U.S. is the indispensable partner for Seoul and Tokyo,” says Jeffery Lewis, an arms control expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California. “North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs are moving a lot faster than most people realize,” says Lewis. “I think 2020 might contain quite a few surprises.”
While it’s possible that Trump may not view a satellite launch as a threat to the continental U.S., some military and intelligence officials do, especially if the new rocket uses a solid-fuel engine. So far, North Korea has relied on liquid-fueled engines for its longest-range missiles, which can be readily detected by spy satellites because they have to be fueled shortly before they are launched, which takes time. The other missing piece of the North’s long-range threat is a reliable re-entry vehicle capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, which a satellite launch would not reveal.
Resuming nuclear testing would be much riskier to both the North’s chances of cutting a deal with Trump and to its relations with China, the officials say, and intelligence satellites so far have not detected preparations for a resumption of nuclear testing. By launching a satellite, even over Japan from a site in western North Korea, Kim may think he can increase the pressure on Trump to resume negotiations without openly violating his April 20, 2018, agreement to halt testing.
But if the North Korean leader has overestimated his leverage, he might resume long-range missile and even nuclear testing, and it’s not clear how Trump might respond to that. As one of the U.S. officials put it: “Kim is more predictable than the President.”
As the U.K. election results trickled through Thursday evening, the disintegration of the Labour Party and its far-left leader Jeremy Corbyn began to make waves across the Atlantic.
In San Francisco, the Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden hinted it was a reason not to trust his more leftwing rivals Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren with the nomination. “Look what happens when the Labour Party moves so, so far to the left,” the former Vice President said at a fundraiser for his 2020 bid, speaking as it was becoming clear Britain’s main opposition party was on the way to its lowest showing in the British parliament since 1935. When the defeat was confirmed, Corbyn, who proudly calls himself a socialist and counts Sanders as a friend and political ally, said he would stand down before the next election.
The temptation to compare Corbyn with Sanders makes sense. They’re both radical left-wingers who have spent a lifetime on the margins, mounting challenges to their parties’ political establishments. And it’s easy to see the parallels between the Brexit referendum in 2016 and Trump’s election a few months later, too — as the President himself has noted. Each was influenced by populist campaigns, and driven by voters from working classes in former industrial regions who felt forgotten and alienated by metropolitan elites. In Britain in 2019, those same groups of voters deserted the Labour Party in droves, allowing the Conservatives to win an overwhelming majority.
But Biden’s comparison stops making sense there, according to experts. “It makes for an easy talking point for Joe Biden, but once you start thinking about it a little bit, there are lots of ways where it’s not comparable,” says Chris Anderson, a professor of comparative political behavior at the London School of Economics.
For one, it’s not clear that Corbyn’s leftwing policies (like higher corporate and income taxes for the rich, and more investment in public services and infrastructure) were the factor that lost him the election. In fact, polling shows those policies were broadly popular among the British electorate. Sixty-four percent of British voters support Labour’s policy of increasing income taxes for people earning over £123,000 ($164,000), according to a survey by YouGov. Policies on spending more on healthcare are popular, too. “If you ask the average U.K. voter, should we spend more money on the National Health Service, you get a resounding ‘yes’,” Anderson says.
The same goes for Sanders’ and Warren’s plans in the U.S, he adds. “If you ask the average American voter, should there be a risk of being bankrupted by medical bills, they would say no, people should be protected. These policies aren’t particularly controversial.”
The Labour policy that had the most significant impact on the race was its approach to Brexit, which has no obvious analog in American politics. Analysts say Johnson’s winning campaign slogan “Get Brexit Done” was a key factor in his victory.
Beyond policy, Corbyn himself was deeply unpopular among voters. His net approval rating among 3,005 U.K. adults on Dec.10 was -30, 16 points lower than Johnson. “To be honest the biggest factor of all in Labour’s defeat was Jeremy Corbyn, who is seen as unpatriotic, indecisive, absolutely incompetent, as weak, and quite frankly soft on terrorism, security and crime,” says Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London.
Neither Sanders nor Warren have those associations among U.S. voters. In a Gallup poll of 1,500 Americans in 50 states published on Nov.15, Warren had a net rating of -5 while Sanders had +1 (the poll had a ±3 margin of error). “What we know about Jeremy Corbyn was that he was a deeply unpopular opposition leader, the most unpopular we’ve had since we began polling.” Anderson says. “I would imagine that none of the Democratic candidates would be as deeply unpopular as Corbyn is with average voters.”
Another plank of Biden’s argument was that not only were Corbyn, Sanders and Warren cut from the same cloth, but their opponents—Johnson and Trump—are, too. “You’re also going to see people saying, my God, Boris Johnson, who is kind of a physical and emotional clone of the President, is able to win,” Biden said Thursday night.
It’s true that, in a Trump-like manner, Johnson’s political capital has been largely unaffected by the insulting comments about women, Muslims, black people, Britain’s colonial history, and more that he has made in his past. It’s also true that he has embraced populist campaigning, regularly telling outright lies for political gain with few repercussions.
But Johnson at least claims to be a “one nation” Conservative. On the steps of 10 Downing Street on Friday, he called on the U.K. to “find closure and let the healing begin” after the result. His manifesto promised an end to the years of austerity pursued by his party (even if its pledges didn’t go all the way to replacing what the party had cut), and not only accepted the existence of the climate crisis but pledged a net zero carbon economy by 2050.
Trump, on the other hand, denies that man-made climate change exists at all and has moved to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris agreement on limiting greenhouse gas emissions. His loyal supporters are further apart from other voters than ever, Anderson says, in part because of the ongoing efforts by Democrats to impeach him.
While Britons have undoubtedly been polarized by Brexit, they are not divided along party lines in the same way as voters are in the U.S. In 2019, some U.K. voters who had never voted Conservative chose to lend their votes to Johnson to resolve the issue — something the U.K. Prime Minister acknowledged in his acceptance speech.
In short, few believe the lessons for U.S. Democrats in the U.K. election are anything but limited. “This is super helpful to Biden. This is why he’s talking about it. It’s a way of saying ‘Bernie is an extremist, he can’t win, stay away from him,’” says Anderson. “There’s a kernel of truth in that to beat Donald Trump you need to appeal to middle-of-the-road voters, but beyond that, it’s much too facile a comparison.”
Through policies and power, leaders from New Zealand, France, India, China and the U.S. influenced the world more than any others in 2019. Here’s why these six were so important this year.
Xi Jinping, President of China
Illustration by Nigel Buchanan for TIME
On Oct. 1, a parade of tanks, troops and nuclear missiles rolled through Beijing to mark 70 years since the founding of the People’s Republic. Standing before the Forbidden City, abode of emperors, China’s Xi Jinping vowed, “No force can stop the Chinese people and the Chinese nation forging ahead.”
Quite a few have tried this year. Nearly 2 million took to the streets to demand democratic reform in semiautonomous Hong Kong, where anti-Beijing candidates won a landslide in district elections. The trade war with the U.S. squeezed China’s growth to a three-decade low. The detention of over a million Muslims in the province of Xinjiang prompted condemnation by the U.N.
None have dented Xi’s resolve. Through propaganda and censorship, the Communist Party he leads has helped Xi turn external pressure into internal strength. His “China Dream” of returning his nation to “center stage” is battered but undiminished.
Still, there’s no denying that the tenor of China’s foreign relations changed in 2019. This was the year Xi went from strongman to bogeyman. In March, the E.U. branded China a “systemic rival.” In July, FBI Director Christopher Wray called the threat to society posed by China “diverse and wide and vexing.” Washington has demonized Chinese telecom firm Huawei and passed legislation in support of Hong Kong’s protesters. A bill still under consideration would sanction Chinese officials for “barbaric” human-rights abuses in Xinjiang, where 1 million Muslims have been detained.
And yet, Muslim leaders from Pakistan’s Imran Khan to Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman court Chinese investment. In November, Xi sipped wine with French President Emmanuel Macron in Shanghai before signing $15 billion worth of bilateral deals. And Taylor Swift opened Alibaba’s extravaganza for Singles Day, where $38 billion was spent.
The missiles and tanks were real enough. But Xi’s power, and fate, remains with what stands behind him: the capitalist might of communist China. —Charlie Campbell
As America’s least orthodox Chief Executive rounds the corner into an election year, he is polishing his list of achievements. Trump has used the power of his office to roll back regulations, drive through a corporate tax cut and boost military spending. He takes credit for supercharging an economy that’s driven unemployment to record lows. He has also continued an uncharacteristically disciplined effort to reshape America’s federal courts, using Republican control of the Senate to appoint conservative judges who will define the laws of the land for a generation.
And yet the Trump presidency may well pivot on his forays into a world that typically interests him the way a shop window does—in passing and for his reflection in it. The year began, after all, in suspense over special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s actions to help Trump’s 2016 campaign. The dense final report was, in its detail, damning: Mueller presented at least 10 times the President may have attempted to obstruct the probe, a criminal offense. But Trump claimed “complete exoneration” on the marquee allegation, that he had sought assistance from a foreign power on his effort to win election. And then, the day after Mueller testified on Capitol Hill, Trump telephoned the leader of another foreign country, Ukraine, and sought assistance on his effort to win re-election by investigating Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son. Thus did the year draw to a close with the U.S. House of Representatives preparing articles of impeachment that, even if voted down in the Senate, will define Trump in history. The question is: Will that matter in the realms the incumbent values most? There is still no person whom taxi drivers, news anchors, hairstylists, foreign leaders and voters talk about more. And for Trump, that may be enough. —Brian Bennett
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
Illustration by Mercedes Debellard for TIME
The temperature in Washington changed on Jan. 3 when Nancy Pelosi picked up the gavel and became Speaker of the House for a second time. President Donald Trump has yet to recover.
For two years, Trump had benefited from a subservient Republican Congress. Pelosi quickly made clear that divided government would be a different story. Taking the reins in the midst of the longest government shutdown in history, she refused to cave to Trump’s demand for a border wall, waiting him out—and canceling the State of the Union address—until he surrendered. Over the ensuing months, she served as the unorthodox President’s foil, using her mastery of the powers of the Legislative Branch to hold Trump in check.
For much of the year, Pelosi battled the left nearly as much as the right, frustrating progressive activists and far-left members by steering her party toward the center. Even as she’s overseen an unprecedented slate of investigations into the Executive Branch, she’s tried to find ways to work with Trump where possible. At the White House’s request, Pelosi passed a $4.6 billion border bill with funding for the immigration detention centers the left considers concentration camps, and later negotiated a two-year budget agreement that increases military funding. She’s kept trying to make deals with Trump on prescription-drug pricing and infrastructure, even as the President has repeatedly walked away from the table. Of the more than 300 bills the House has passed that sit on the Senate’s doorstep, more than 275 are bipartisan.
On Dec. 10, Pelosi announced the House’s articles of impeachment of Trump. An hour later, she unveiled an agreement on the President’s plan to update the North American Free Trade Agreement. The split screen epitomized her yearlong high-wire act. Pelosi resisted Democrats’ calls for impeachment until the Ukraine scandal forced her hand. As the year ends, the results-oriented leader finds herself in just the situation she’d tried to avoid: a partisan impeachment of a President unlikely to be chastened by it. The founders’ vision for checks and balances has forced her into a historic confrontation, with unforeseeable consequences. “If we had not done this,” she tells TIME, “just think of how low our democracy would have sunk.” —Molly Ball
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India
Illustration by Tracie Ching for TIME
For decades after the British departed the Indian subcontinent, its history was one of painful cleavings. The 1947 Partition is a bland label for a division that produced two countries, 15 million refugees and at least a million deaths. When Pakistan, founded as a Muslim homeland opposite a secular India, itself split in two, the war that created Bangladesh in 1971 undid the assumption that a common faith alone could bind a nation. But in 2019, Narendra Modi began his second term in office having revived the premise in India.
In May, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a months-long election in a landslide that established Modi as the most powerful Prime Minister in more than a generation. But as Modi has consolidated power, India’s Muslims—who make up 14% of the country’s population—are questioning whether they count as Indian anymore. The BJP exalts Hindu nationalism, the identity politics of a religious majority that has been emergent for decades but for which Modi’s unprecedented majority marks a historical high watermark.
When the Dalai Lama spoke with TIME in the Himalayan foothills where he lives in exile from Tibet, he repeatedly praised India’s tradition of multifaith harmony. The country’s 1.3 billion people include not only Hindus and Muslims, but also Christians, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. But Modi has abandoned that tradition, becoming instead a hero to Hindu extremists. In August, the Prime Minister revoked the constitutional autonomy of Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, imposing a curfew and imprisoning political leaders. His government is pushing through new measures that could make it easier to imprison and deport Muslims who cannot prove their Indian citizenship, even if they have lived in the country for generations.
Abroad, however, Modi retains the image etched early in his first term, of a populist economic reformer toting a yoga mat. In September a crowd of some 50,000 attended a “Howdy Modi” rally in Houston, with President Trump in the front row. But India’s renown as the world’s largest, most vibrant democracy is being tested by Modi’s divisive politics. Now, with an enormous mandate, he can govern almost as he pleases. —Billy Perrigo
Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand
Illustration by Viktoria Savenkova for TIME
The gesture was simple, but the effect was profound. Less than 24 hours after a far-right extremist massacred 50 worshippers in two Christchurch mosques in March, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern put on a black hijab to meet members of the Muslim community, hear their fears and share in their grief. In one photograph of the encounter, the young leader’s brow is lightly creased and her mouth turned down, an uncanny expression of empathy mixed with strength. The obscenity of the slaughters has been compounded by being livestreamed. But here was a still frame that, as it spread beyond the heartbroken island nation, would endure as an emblem of compassion, tolerance and resolve.
When Ardern took power in October 2017 at the age of 37, it was as the world’s youngest female leader. She advanced a range of progressive policies, with a particular focus on the environment. Under Ardern, New Zealand’s government banned single-use plastic bags, planted 140 million trees and passed a bill to set a net-zero target for CO emissions by 2050. She also extended paid parental leave and took six weeks off herself after giving birth while in office—a rare example of a head of state taking parental leave of any length.
Yet it was in her response to tragedy that Ardern emerged as an icon. The purpose of terrorism is to scare and divide. And so the Prime Minister reassured and united. She immediately made herself available to her fellow citizens, particularly those who felt most vulnerable. She kept attention focused on the affected by refusing to utter the killer’s name. And she channeled the grief and rage of her country into meaningful change, pushing through reforms of gun laws only days after the attack.
New Zealand votes again in 2020, and despite Ardern’s popularity her party is trailing in the polls. While she remains in power, she is intent on using it against the scourge of far-right extremism, urging fellow heads of state to join the Christchurch Call, a pledge to work together to stem terrorist content online. But whatever the election brings, the world has seen what leadership looks like. —Dan Stewart
Emmanuel Macron, President of France
Illustration by Shana Levenson for TIME
When Emmanuel Macron was elected in May 2017, he strode into his victory celebration not to the sounds of “La Marseillaise” but to Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” the anthem of the European Union. Now, halfway through his five-year term, the French President has finally emerged as the de facto leader of the Continent.
With German Chancellor Angela Merkel drifting toward retirement, and Britain searching desperately for Brexit, the French leader has seized on seemingly every simmering transnational issue as though he were an indispensable part of its solution: climate, global trade, Iran sanctions, Russian aggression and China’s superpower rivalry.
A theater actor in his high school days, this year Macron has cast himself as a global decision-maker. In November, he bluntly pronounced NATO dysfunctionally “brain dead,” again suggesting that the E.U. needs its own military alliance. In Beijing that same month, he reviewed Chinese troops with President Xi Jinping and sealed trade and climate deals, rendering the E.U.’s new trade commissioner a bit player.
Feeling empowered in Europe, Macron also seems to be done with courting President Donald Trump. During a joint press appearance in London on Dec. 2, Macron turned the tables on his U.S. counterpart, cutting short an offhand comment about ISIS fighters. “Let’s be serious,” Macron snapped, with a hint of exasperation that left Trump uncharacteristically flustered.
At home, however, Macron faces enduring fury. Having struggled through the violent protests of the Yellow Vest revolt of 2018, he is back to his reform agenda, vowing to end sweetheart pension deals that France can no longer afford. He was rewarded with the biggest national strikes in many years in December, and a full-blown resurgence of the Yellow Vests may be on the horizon. Among the hundreds of thousands of strikers who poured into the streets, some of them chanted “Macron dégage!” or “Macron out!”
Voters will get their chance to make that a reality in 2022. Until then, France’s President will be busy cementing the role he always saw for himself—at the helm of Europe. —Vivienne Walt
China and the U.S. agreed on the text of a phase one trade deal that includes the removal of tariffs on Chinese goods in stages, Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen said, as President Donald Trump confirmed that some levies will be reduced and said the next round of talks will start immediately.
China will increase imports from the U.S. and other countries, Wang said at a briefing in Beijing Friday. Vice Chairman of the National Reform and Development Commission Ning Jizhe added that the specifics of agricultural purchases would be released later, as the text of the agreement is still under review.
The comments were China’s first response to a deal signed off by Trump on Thursday that would halt higher tariffs planned for Dec. 15 and represent the first phase in defusing the trade war that’s shaken the global economy.
Trump tweeted, “we have agreed to a very large Phase One Deal with China. They have agreed to many structural changes and massive purchases of Agricultural Product, Energy, and Manufactured Goods, plus much more. The 25% Tariffs will remain as is, with 7 1/2% put on much of the remainder…”
…..The Penalty Tariffs set for December 15th will not be charged because of the fact that we made the deal. We will begin negotiations on the Phase Two Deal immediately, rather than waiting until after the 2020 Election. This is an amazing deal for all. Thank you!
By keeping much of the existing tariffs in place, Trump told reporters later Friday that the U.S. would have leverage in the next round of talks.
“We’ll use them for future negotiations on the phase-two deal,” Trump said, adding that his administration was planning to wait until after the 2020 election for the next step. “They’d like to start them sooner than that, and that’s OK.”
U.S. stocks initially rallied, with the S&P 500 Index jumping to a record, but were little changed after the announcements. The world’s two largest economies have been in a trade war for about 18 months involving nearly $500 billion in products shipped between the two nations.
The deal text, which comprises nine chapters, includes sections on intellectual property, forced technology transfer, food and agricultural products, finance, currency and transparency, boosting trade, bilateral assessment and dispute resolution, according to Chinese officials.
Both sides agreed to finish the final stages such as legal review and translation as soon as possible and work on arrangements for the final signing, said Wang.
First announced by Trump on Oct. 11, the interim deal with China offers a short-term political victory for the president and will allow him to claim that his tariffs have paid dividends, at the risk of being accused of postponing tougher issues like China’s industrial subsidies. Unfolding along with the trade news on Friday was the House Judiciary Committee’s recommendation to impeach Trump.
For Beijing, reducing even some of the tariffs that have been imposed since last year represents a win for President Xi Jinping, who is also facing pressure to not give in to the other side.
“Without doubt, to implement the agreement, our imports of American agricultural goods will increase significantly,” Vice Agriculture Minister Han Jun said.
Trump told reporters he thought Chinese purchases of agricultural goods would hit $50 billion “pretty soon.”
–– With assistance from Sharon Chen, James Mayger, Josh Wingrove and Katia Dmitrieva.
(MADRID) — Officials from almost 200 countries hunkered down for another night of talks late Friday as a U.N. climate meeting in Madrid went into overtime without agreement on key issues.
Chile, which is chairing the talks, said negotiators would continue working on two fronts trying to get deals on aid for poor countries affected by climate change and international carbon markets.
“Today is the day when we must show the world that we are capable of delivering the agreements that are needed to tackle the unprecedented challenge before us,” Chilean official Andrés Landerretche told a roomful of exhausted reporters in the Spanish capital after two weeks of talks.
Landerretche said there was “some optimism” but added that the Paris agreement’s so-called Article 6, which sets the rules for trading in emissions vouchers, “requires more work in order to come to a cleaner text.”
“We’re going to remain in the premises as long as it takes,” said Landerretche. “And that could take well into the night or early hours of tomorrow.”
European Union countries and others have said they would prefer not to finalize rules on international carbon markets rather than to approve ones that could undermine efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Economists say allowing companies and rich countries to invest in carbon-cutting measures such as forest protection in poor countries could become a vital tool for lowering emissions, provided the markets are transparent and there is no double counting.
“We are all looking for a compromise,” Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s top official in charge of climate issues, said earlier Friday. “But there is no way, no way, we could accept a compromise that jeopardizes environmental integrity. Just no way.”
Landerretche hinted that if the issue isn’t fully resolved, some parts could be deferred till next year.
“Maybe we arrive at a general agreement on Article 6, a principal agreement and leave the technicalities for some inter-sessional period, maybe,” he said. “But it’s not something that we are entertaining at the moment”
Another topic still on the table concerns financial support for poor countries that suffer the effects of climate change, from stronger storms to droughts and sea level rise.
In 2013, countries agreed a tentative system to channel such aid, known as the Warsaw International Mechanism, or WIM. But some rich countries, particularly the United States, have resisted attempts to hold them formally accountable for the impact their greenhouse gas emissions have on the climate, prompting criticism from developing nations.
“The U.S. government is the largest humanitarian donor in the world,” a State Department official said Friday. “The WIM should be a constructive space to catalyze action on the wide range of loss and damage issues.”
“A divisive conversation on blame and liability helps no one,” said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the ongoing negotiations.
President Donald Trump has formally triggered the United States’ withdrawal from the 2015 Paris climate accord, a process that will be completed Nov. 4, 2020 — a day after the next U.S. presidential election.
The move means the United States, the world’s second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after China, will be excluded from many of the negotiations at next November’s climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland.
As host next year, Britain will have to tackle any issues left over from Madrid and the more daunting task of getting countries to agree to tougher emissions targets, even as it continues to negotiate its exit from the European Union.
Dozens of countries have already said they will submit more ambitious emissions targets next year, though analysts say the commitments made so far aren’t enough.
Scientists have calculated that global emissions have to drop 7.6% annually, starting next year, if the Paris accord’s goal of keeping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century is to be achieved.
Environmental groups staged protests inside and outside the venue in Madrid to express their frustration at the slow pace of the talks.
Vega Minsson, an activist with Fridays for Future Sweden, criticized the lack of progress.
“We’re not here for your entertainment,” she said, adding: “If you want a future, you’d better act to the message we’re preaching and not just listen”
But observers said the protesters’ demands didn’t seem to be having an effect on the negotiations.
“They’re moving at a snail’s pace,” said Helen Mountford of the Washington-based environmental think tank World Resources Institute. “There’s a lot of breakdown in trust among negotiators and, to be frank, quite a bit of self-interest coming into the room when actually we need to globally move forward together to really tackle this climate crisis.”
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
(KAPURTHALA, India) — Reports rolled in with escalating urgency — pills seized by the truckload, pills swallowed by schoolchildren, pills in the pockets of dead terrorists.
These pills, the world has been told, are safer than the OxyContins, the Vicodins, the fentanyls that have wreaked so much devastation. But now they are the root of what the United Nations named “the other opioid crisis” — an epidemic featured in fewer headlines than the American one, as it rages through the planet’s most vulnerable countries.
Mass abuse of the opioid tramadol spans continents, from India to Africa to the Middle East, creating international havoc some experts blame on a loophole in narcotics regulation and a miscalculation of the drug’s danger. The man-made opioid was touted as a way to relieve pain with little risk of abuse. Unlike other opioids, tramadol flowed freely around the world, unburdened by international controls that track most dangerous drugs.
But abuse is now so rampant that some countries are asking international authorities to intervene.
Grunenthal, the German company that originally made the drug, is campaigning for the status quo, arguing that it’s largely illicit counterfeit pills causing problems. International regulations make narcotics difficult to get in countries with disorganized health systems, the company says, and adding tramadol to the list would deprive suffering patients access to any opioid at all.
“This is a huge public health dilemma,” said Dr. Gilles Forte, the secretary of the World Health Organization’s committee that recommends how drugs should be regulated. Tramadol is available in war zones and impoverished nations because it is unregulated. But it is widely abused for the same exact reason. “It’s a really very complicated balance to strike.”
Tramadol has not been as deadly as other opioids, and the crisis isn’t killing with the ferocity of America’s struggle with the drugs. Still, individual governments from the U.S. to Egypt to Ukraine have realized the drug’s dangers are greater than was believed and have worked to rein in the tramadol trade. The north Indian state of Punjab, the center of India’s opioid epidemic, was the latest to crack down. The pills were everywhere, as legitimate medication sold in pharmacies, but also illicit counterfeits hawked by street vendors.
This year, authorities seized hundreds of thousands of tablets, banned most pharmacy sales and shut down pill factories, pushing the price from 35 cents for a 10-pack to $14. The government opened a network of treatment centers, fearing those who had become opioid addicted would resort to heroin out of desperation. Hordes of people rushed in, seeking help in managing excruciating withdrawal.
For some, tramadol had become as essential as food.
“Like if you don’t eat, you start to feel hungry. Similar is the case with not taking it,” said auto shop welder Deepak Arora, a gaunt 30-year-old who took 15 tablets day, so much he had to steal from his family to pay for pills. “You are like a dead person.”
___
Jeffery Bawa, an officer with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, realized what was happening in 2016, when he traveled to Mali in western Africa, one of the world’s poorest countries, gripped by civil war and terrorism. They asked people for their most pressing concerns. Most did not say hunger or violence. They said tramadol.
One woman said children stumble down the streets, high on the opioid; parents add it to tea to dull the ache of hunger. Nigerian officials said at a United Nations meeting on tramadol trafficking that the number of people there living with addiction is now far higher than the number with AIDS or HIV.
Tramadol is so pervasive in Cameroon scientists a few years ago believed they’d discovered a natural version in tree roots. But it was not natural at all: Farmers bought pills and fed them to their cattle to ward off the effects of debilitating heat. Their waste contaminated the soil, and the chemical seeped into the trees.
Police began finding pills on terrorists, who traffic it to fund their networks and take it to bolster their capacity for violence, Bawa said.
Most of it was coming from India. The country’s sprawling pharmaceutical industry is fueled by cheap generics. Pill factories produce knock-offs and ship them in bulk around the world, in doses far exceeding medical limits.
In 2017, law enforcement reported that $75 million worth of tramadol from India was confiscated en route to the Islamic State terror group. Authorities intercepted 600,000 tablets headed for Boko Haram. Another 3 million were found in a pickup truck in Niger, in boxes disguised with U.N. logos. The agency warned that tramadol was playing “a direct role in the destabilization of the region.”
“We cannot let the situation get any further out of control,” that alert read.
Grunenthal maintains that tramadol has a low risk of abuse; most of the pills causing trouble are knock-offs, not legitimate pharmaceuticals, and American surveys have shown lower levels of abuse than other prescription painkillers. The company submitted a report to the WHO in 2014, saying that the abuse evident in “a limited number of countries,” should be viewed “in the context of the political and social instabilities in the region.”
But some wealthy countries worried about increasing abuse also have acted to contain the drug.
The United Kingdom and United States both regulated it in 2014. Tramadol was uncontrolled in Denmark until 2017, when journalists asked doctors to review studies submitted to regulators to support the claim that it has a low risk for addiction, said Dr. Karsten Juhl Jorgensen, acting director of the Nordic Cochrane Centre and one of the physicians who analyzed the materials. They all agreed that the documents did not prove it’s safer.
“We know that opioids are some of the most addictive drugs on the face of the planet, so the claim that you’ve developed one that’s not addictive, that’s an extraordinary claim, and extraordinary claims require evidence. And it just wasn’t there,” said Jorgensen. “We’ve all been cheated, and people are angry about that.”
Jorgensen compares claims that tramadol is low risk to those made by American companies now facing thousands of lawsuits alleging misleading campaigns touting the safety of opioids unleashed the U.S. addiction epidemic.
Stefano Berterame, a chief at the International Narcotics Control Board, said there is a critical difference: The crisis is not as deadly as the American one, which began with prescription opioids and transitioned to heroin and fentanyl. Tramadol does not as routinely cause the respiratory depression that leads to overdose death.
But it is mostly afflicting poor nations, where overdose statistics are erratic, he said, so the true toll of tramadol is unknown.
___
The United Nations established the International Narcotics Control Board in 1961 to spare the world the “serious evil” of addiction. It has since tracked most opioids.
Tramadol’s exemption means authorization isn’t required as the drug moves across borders. Its easy availability also leads to confusion about what tramadol even is, experts say. In many countries, it is thought to be a mood enhancer or treatment for depression and post-traumatic stress. Some take it to improve sexual stamina or endure grueling labor.
Grunenthal synthesized tramadol in the 1960s, as the company was embroiled in scandal over its marketing of the sedative thalidomide, which caused extreme birth defects in thousands of babies whose mothers took it. Tramadol was initially believed to have a low risk of abuse because initial trials studied injected tramadol, the most potent route for most opioids. But researchers later found that tramadol releases a far more powerful dose taken orally because of how it is metabolized by the liver.
Tramadol’s worldwide market quickly expanded in the 1990s. In 2000, the WHO, which assesses medications and recommends scheduling, noted reports of dependence. A committee has reviewed the drug numerous times since, recommended it remain under surveillance but declined to add international regulation.
There is no alternative to tramadol, said Forte, the committee’s secretary. It is the only opioid available in some of the world’s most desperate places; relief organizations rely on it in war zones and natural disasters. It is used extensively not because it is a particularly good medication, he said. The most effective opioid is morphine, but morphine is strictly controlled and countries in crisis fear abuse. Tramadol became the default precisely because it’s uncontrolled.
The WHO is analyzing whether any other drug could take its place but have so far found none. Meanwhile, Forte said, the agency is working with battered nations to ferret out counterfeits.
Legitimate tramadol remains a lucrative business: market research estimates the global market amounts to around $1.4 billion, according to Grunenthal. The medication long ago lost its patent protection. It is now manufactured by many companies and sold under some 500 brand names. Grunenthal markets it as Tramal as well as Zaldiar, tramadol combined with paracetamol. In 2018, those products brought in 174 million euros ($191 million), according to the company’s annual report.
“Our purpose at Grunenthal is to develop and deliver medicines and solutions which address the unmet needs of patients with the goal of improving their quality of life,” the company wrote in a statement that said it acknowledges opioids pose a risk of abuse and addiction. “”We do so with the highest ethical standards.”
Grunenthal also sells other opioids and is expanding around the world. The Associated Press this year revealed executives were swept up in an Italian corruption case alleging they illegally paid a doctor to promote the use of opioids.
The company has campaigned to keep tramadol unregulated. It funded surveys that found regulation would impede pain treatment and paid consultants to travel to the WHO to make their case that it’s safer that other opioids.
Spokesman Stepan Kracala said regulation would not necessarily curtail illicit trade and could backfire: Some desperate pain patients turn to the black market if no legal options exist. Egypt’s long struggle with tramadol abuse is an example, he said. The country enacted strict regulation in 2012 and a later survey found some suffering from cancer using counterfeit tramadol for relief.
Kracala also pointed to regulatory decisions as proof of tramadol’s comparable safety: The U.S. in 2014 added tramadol to its list of controlled substances but included it in a lesser category than opioids like oxycodone or morphine, signaling it is less risky.
There are growing calls to change that.
The Mayo Clinic hospital in Minnesota worked to reduce opioids prescribed post-surgery as the American epidemic escalated, said surgeon Cornelius Thiels. Doctors there started shifting patients to tramadol because it was billed as safer. But Thiels and his colleagues analyzed prescription data and were surprised to find patients prescribed tramadol were just as likely to move on to long-term use.
They published their findings this year to alert authorities, he said: “There is no safe opioid. Tramadol is not a safe alternative. It’s a mistake that we didn’t figure it out sooner. It’s unfortunate that it took us this long. There’s a lot more that we need to learn about it, but I think we know enough that we also can’t wait around to act on this.”
___
Indian regulators knew the massive quantities manufactured in the country were spilling over domestically and countless Indians were addicted. But S.K. Jha, responsible for the northern region of India’s Narcotics Control Bureau, said he was shocked to learn in 2018 that tramadol from India was ravaging African nations. They realized then they needed to act, he said.
India regulated tramadol in April 2018. Regulators say exports overseas and abuse at home came down. But they acknowledge that the vastness of the pharmaceutical industry and the ingenuity of traffickers makes curtailing abuse and illegal exports all but impossible. Tramadol is still easy to find.
Jyoti Rani stood on her front steps and pointed to house after house where she said tramadol is still sold in her neighborhood of narrow roads and open drains, where school-aged boys sit hunched over the street in the middle of a weekday.
Rani’s addiction began with heroin. When her 14-year-old son died, she fell into depression.
“I wanted to kill myself, but I ended up becoming an addict,” she cried. A doctor prescribed tramadol to help kick the habit — instead, she formed a new one. She locked herself in her room, not eating or taking care of her two children. Rani used tramadol until she ran out of money and entered treatment. Now her family tells her she’s her old self again.
The crackdown on tramadol coincided with the opening of dozens of addiction clinics that administer medicine and counseling to more than 30,000 each day.
“We are trying our level best,” Jha said, “but it’s a challenge for all of us.”
Countries’ efforts to control tramadol on their own often fail, particularly in places where addiction has taken hold, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
India has twice the global average of illicit opiate consumption. Researchers estimate 4 million Indians use heroin or other opioids, and a quarter of them live in the Punjab, India’s agricultural heartland bordering Pakistan, where some of the most vulnerable are driven to drugs out of desperation.
Amandeep Kaur was pregnant when her husband died of a heart attack. She turned to the sex trade to make ends meet. She wanted not to feel, and a fellow sex worker suggested tramadol. She had no idea she’d get addicted, but eventually needed three pills to get through the day.
“If I didn’t have it I felt lifeless, my body ached as if I was going to die,” she said, and joined the line stretching from the addiction clinic’s doors.
___
This story was produced with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
___
Associated Press journalist Rishi Lekhi contributed to this report.
“Get Brexit Done.” That was the slogan repeated on every billboard, pamphlet and doorstep during the Conservative Party’s campaign for the U.K. election, held on Thursday.
And when the results came through overnight, it was clear those three words had helped win Boris Johnson’s party an overwhelming majority, with at least 364 seats in parliament up from 318 two years ago, the party’s biggest victory since the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher.
The “Get Brexit Done” slogan “obviously played a part” in Johnson’s victory, says Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London, “partly because it appealed to leavers but also because it appealed to some remainers who are sick to the back teeth of Brexit and want to get it over with.”
The additional seats won by the Conservatives largely came from the “red wall,” a swath of largely ex-industrial, working class areas traditionally held by the Labour Party — but also ones where people overwhelmingly voted to leave the European Union at the Brexit referendum in June 2016.
Three and a half years later, Britain is still a member of the European Union, despite Brexit overwhelming the news cycle. The U.K. parliament has repeatedly voted against any withdrawal deal with the E.U., even after Johnson secured a new agreement in October.
Many of the people in those leave-voting northern towns, and elsewhere in the country too, were frustrated at the apparent inability of Britain’s political class to make Brexit happen — and so the Conservatives did everything they could to tap into that frustration.
Focus groups conducted by The Guardian newspaper a week before the election found the strategy of zeroing in on Brexit was breaking through in key marginal constituencies. An Opinium poll taken on Dec. 10-11 found 39% of respondents wanting to pass the Brexit bill Johnson secured with the E.U. in October, and only 15% wanted a further delay (another 30% wanted Brexit to be canceled altogether).
The Conservatives’ clarity of message on Brexit contrasted starkly with Labour, who after years of internal disagreement over Brexit, eventually came out in support of holding a second Brexit referendum if elected, with remaining in the E.U. being one option. They also committed to delaying Brexit in order to renegotiate a better deal. In televised debates ahead of Thursday’s vote, voters in the studio audience criticized the party for having an unclear Brexit position.
It’s not hard to see why, says Bale. “If you compare the two parties, the message discipline exercise by the Conservative Party was incredibly impressive relative to the very diffuse, very confusing signaling coming out of the Labour party.”
Nevertheless, “Get Brexit Done” was a deliberate oversimplification. Britain will be legally out of the European Union by the end of January if lawmakers vote to ratify Johnson’s exit deal, (a virtual guarantee now that Johnson has such a large majority,) but the next stage of Brexit negotiations, on trade, are still yet to come. “It was an illusion,” says Bale, “but a pretty powerful one that Boris Johnson created.”
The slogan wasn’t the first time that the Brexit-supporting wing of the Conservative Party has utilized catchy, focus group research-based messaging to win a national vote. “Take Back Control” was the slogan of the victorious “leave” side during the 2016 Brexit referendum, and the man thought to have coined it, Dominic Cummings, is now one of Boris Johnson’s senior advisers in Downing Street.
“We can’t be certain ‘Get Brexit Done’ was all him,” says Bale. “But given his genius for coming up with slogans that encapsulate a message that resonates with target voters, it wouldn’t be surprising.”
“No one could possibly dispute that it is the will of the British people to get Brexit done,” said Boris Johnson in his victory speech around 7 a.m. local time. “But first, let’s get breakfast done.”
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The educator expense deduction is an adjusted gross income deduction for teachers and other education professionals for up to $250 in out-of-pocket expenses.
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FDI and FPI are two of the most common routes for investors to invest in an overseas economy, retail investors should familiarize themselves with each.
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Representing interests in financial matters can be different than communicating wishes with doctors so it is important to designate directives appropriately.
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Understand how a Roth 401k retirement savings account can be used to pay for tuition, what criteria must be met, and the consequences of early withdrawal.
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Unbundling is the process by which a company with several lines of business retains core businesses and sells off subsidiaries, product lines or assets.
The Dow Jones U.S. Total Market Index is a market-capitalization-weighted index maintained by Dow Jones Indexes, providing broad coverage of U.S. stocks.
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Production efficiency describes a maximum capacity level in which an entity can no longer produce more of a good without lowering the production of another.
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A mid-cap fund is a type of investment fund that focuses its investments on companies with a capitalization in the middle range of listed stocks in the market.
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Bastar University Result 2019 Released: Hello Students!!. Bastar University has released the results for various Courses. Students who have been appeared for those examinations can check the Bastar University Result from the official website of the University. Recently, the University has published the results of M.A, M.Sc, B.Sc, B.com PART-I, II, III, B.Sc PART-I, II, III supply results and other Courses results are available here. It will be great if students visit the official portal of Bastar Vishwavidyalaya regularly. Students will get all the updates related to the result immediately. Here we have provided a direct link to check the results from the below table. Keep in touch with our website to know the results on time.
Bastar University Result 2019
Bastar University has declared the UG/ PG Exam Results 2018-19. So, all the Students appeared for B.Sc, B.com PART-I, II, B.Sc Part -II, III, B.A supply results and all other Bastar University Course wise Results in here. Also, get all your Regular, Supplementary and Bastar University Revaluation Result 2019 direct link on this page. All the Students can also check the Bastar University Annual Exam Result. Students who are anxiously waiting for Bastar University Final Result 2019 need to pay attention to the information provided here. Also, we used to update the Upcoming University result link, it will work once will release it officially. Hence, Scroll down the entire page and get the Results of Bastar University here.
Bastar Vishwavidyalaya (BVV) or Bastar University, is a State University located in Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh, India. It is a teaching-cum-affiliating university which affiliates 30 colleges and has 10 University Teaching Departments (UTD). The Bastar University was established and incorporated by Chhattisgarh Vishwavidyalaya Adhiniyam No. 18 of 2008 on September 2, 2008. The BVV motto is to enhance the capacities of the disadvantaged and preserve the human values for a future generation, The doctoral studies have been proposed to be started at the Bastar University and the new courses like Hindi, English, politics and Tourism and Hospital management are coming up.
Bastar University Supply/Revaluation Results
Students are waiting for the results if they scored well they will lead to next year. But if they will not get more marks they can apply for the Revaluation Results. Once they applied for the Examination, the higher level Examiner will check the paper again. They can get the revaluation results within the time. Also if they still get fail marks, they can apply for the supplementary examination. For each and every semester Students can apply for the revaluation after the announcement of the main examination results. The Bastar University will take a week or more to process the exam papers to announce the Bastar University Revaluation Results. Do stay updated with the University to know about the Revaluation Exam Results.
Bangalore University Results 2019 for UG/PG Semester Examination is released on 18th November 2019 at bangaloreuniversity.ac.in. As recently the Bangalore University has conducted the Semester Examination for all the Under Graduate and Post Graduate Courses. Those Students who have attended the Semester Examination do stay in touch with our webpage. We will give you the regular updates regarding the Bangalore University Exam Results 2019-20 for all Semester. Moreover, we have included steps to download the Bangalore University Results 2019 in this article. Students can make use of this article and can also check the Bangalore University Revaluation Results without any confusion.
Bangalore University Results 2019
Bangalore University has successfully conducted the Last Semester Examination. Currently, Students are waiting for the results, Yes, now Bangalore University has released the result for Bachelor of Education Exam March 2019. Also, this is an opportunity to predict the students’ individual performance. With the help of the Results, Students will lead to the next Semester. Bangalore University has published the Results and Time Table for the upcoming Examination. We have updated all the information regarding the Examination from this Website. Students can check Time Table, Results, News and any updates from this page recruitment.guru We advise the Students to keep checking on this page to get all the latest updates.
3rd Semester of M.A in Political Science, History, Philosophy, M.Sc. in Psychological Counselling; 1st & 3rd semester of M.Sc. in Life Science; 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th & 9th semester of Integrated Biological Science Examinations held in the month of December 2018
Bangalore University, or BU, is a public state university is located in Bengaluru in the state of Karnataka, India. Bangalore University is the largest university in South-Asia. Faculties of the Civil Engineering, Geology, Geography, Mathematics, Zoology, Botany and Microbiology have been involved in making Bio-park a reality. Rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharging are a part of Bio park as also aquaculture and ornithology. It has 43 Post Graduate Departments, a Postgraduate Centre at Kolar, (Started during 1994-95), three constituent colleges, 665 affiliated colleges (of which 115 have PG Courses) and several other Centres and Directorates of higher learning and research under its purview. At present, the university offers 50 Post Graduate Courses and Employment Oriented Diploma and Certificate Courses.
Bangalore University Supply/Revaluation Results
Those students who have attended the regular examination under Bangalore University and still failed. Here comes one more opportunity to clear the examination. To increase the scoring along with that students to fail in the previous examination will get a chance to clear through Revaluation Exams Bangalore University Results. For each and every semester Students can apply for the revaluation after the announcement of the main examination results. The Bangalore University will take a week or more to process the exam papers to announce the Revaluation results. Do stay updated with the Bangalore University Official Website to know about the Latest Revaluation Exam Results.
RMLAU Results 2019 Declared:Dear Folks !!Students of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University its time to check out your examination results. The RMLAU University, Ayodhya has released the semester exam results for the Under Graduate and Post Graduate Courses. Colleges affiliated under the Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University can check out the semester examination results from the below section. Students can also download the RMLAU Results with Mark Sheet in Pdf format from the Official Website. We have attached the direct links to download for the Results 2019-20.
RMLAU Results 2020 – Download Here
Here is great news for those who are studying under the Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University, Ayodhya. The University board has released the examination results according to the semester wise. This article is a complete attachment of RMLAU Results with Mark Sheet. Students can download the complete set of 1st, 2nd & 3rd-year-semester exam results from the below section. RMLAU Results 2019 is listed out for M.P.ED, M.B.B.S, M.A, B.C.A, B.B.A and also Various Other Courses. However, Students can check the exam wise latest RMLAU Results 2019 from the below sections of this page.
About Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University, Ayodhya
Dr. Rammanohar Lohia Avadh University was established in the year 1975 by the government of Uttar Pradesh. It is also known for Avadh or Awadh University. The university is spread over an area of 112.24 acres in the National Highway in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh. It has a total of 23 buildings including Administrative & others. As per the recent scenes, The university has more than 400 affiliated colleges spread over in the 10 districts of Faizabad, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Ambedkarnagar, Barabanki, Baharaich, Balrampur, Shravasti, Amethi and Gonda. The honorable Governor of Uttar Pradesh will act as Chancellor of the University & there are 15000+ students who have been studying in the university.
Regular/Supplementary Results for RMLAU
Students, those who have not cleared/ got low marks the University examinations can apply for the Revaluation. This is is a chance for the students to increase their marks in subjects in which they have scored low marks. If students have written the main exam well and still got a low score or having doubts in the correction of the exam paper it is a choice to increase their marks. Currently, the University has released the revaluation results for UG, PG with all-region Students. So Students can check the Revaluation results from the official website as well as on this recruitment.guru page. Also, we have provided a direct link to get the Supplementary/Revaluation Results.
Bharathiar University Results 2019: Have you done your semester examination on various Degree courses under the Bharathiar University. Then its time to check out your BU Results for CPP, BU-CCII, M.Phil/Ph.D. and Other Courses. The University has updated the semester examination results for the Under Graduate and Post Graduate Courses. All the Students can check out the complete section to download the Bharathiar University Exam Results 2019-20.
Bharathiar University Results 2019-20
Students of Bharathiar University, its time to check out your semester examination results. Get to know the Updated results for the UG/ PG & Diploma Courses. Bharathiar University has a rule that candidates should have passed with 30% of marks in UG/ Diploma Courses and for the PG/ Diploma Courses, the maximum passing mark would be 50% for each paper. Once the results are updated on the university page we will update it here. Just by clicking down the below link, applicants can download the complete set of examination results from our webpage. Candidates do stay updated with our page so that you may get to know the complete details about the Bharathiar University Results 2019 & other important details.
Latest Bharathiar University Semester Examination Results 2019-20
Name of Examination
Result Link
School of Distance Education May 2019 Examinations – Revaluation Results
Bharathiar University is a state-owned university of Tamilnadu which is located in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu.the university was established in 1982 than after it has given the name of Tamil poet i.e, Subramania Bharatiyar by the Bharathiar University act of 1981 and it was recognized by the Universities Grants Commission in 1985. It has a total of 110 affiliated colleges wherein 11 Government colleges, 5 Constituent Colleges, one PG Extension Centre, 16 aided colleges and 88 Self Financing Colleges.
Bharathiar University was ranked 20 overall in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework of 2018 and 13 among universities. Honorable Governor of Tamilnadu will act as Chancellor of the university and Thiru. Mangat Ram Sharma, IAS is the Vice-chancellor of the Bharathiar University. Hence, know more details from the official site of Bharathiar University.
Bharathiar University Revaluation Results
Those students who have attended the regular examination under Bharathiar University and still failed. Here comes one more opportunity to clear the examination. To increase your scoring along with that students to fail in the previous examination will get a chance to clear through Revaluation Exams. Students can apply for the revaluation after the announcement of the main examination results. Bharathiar University will take a week or more to process the exam papers to announce the Revaluation results. Do stay updated with this webpage to know about the Bharathiar University Revaluation Results 2019.
Jammu University Results 2019: Hello Students!! This is the right time to check your results, those who have appeared for the Jammu University Examination. Students those who are studying under the Jammu University can check their result from the official website of the University i.e, Jammu university.in. Currently, Jammu University has announced the results for various examinations. Students can check the University Exam Results 2019 with the help of the below Details. Here we have provided a direct link to verify the Exam Results. Students can click the direct link to know their Exam Results.
Jammu University Results 2019 – Download Here
Here on this page, we have updated the latest Jammu University Exam Results. Students can verify and download the results from the official website of the University as well as on this page they can check their results with the help of the link provided in the below table. University Provides Various Under Graduate (UG), Post Graduate (PG), Diploma, Certificate, Language and many other types of Courses, for all those Students can check their results on this page. Also, we will be providing the link for the Jammu university result, it will be work once the University will be announcing it officially. We advise the Students to keep in touch with our page to get the latest updated information about the Jammu University Exam Results.
The University of Jammu also known as Jammu University was established in 1969 by the Government of Jammu & Kashmir. It was established by the act of state legislature which split the Jammu and Kashmir University into the separate University of Jammu & University of Kashmir. Jammu University is the first university that received the ISO-9001 Certification. At the initial stage of this university has 7 campuses even now it is the same. The university provides all kinds of Graduate, Post Graduate & Doctoral courses to its students. The main campus of Jammu University is located at Baba Saheb Ambedkar Road in Jammu. The university has affiliated with 157 colleges which offer all kinds of Graduate & Post Graduate Courses.
Jammu University Supply/Revaluation Results
Students have appeared for the Jammu University Examination can check their results, if they got low grades, still Students can apply for the Revaluation. The higher level Examiner will check the results and announce the Revaluation results. Still, if any students will get low marks again they can write the exam. For that, they should apply for the Supplementary Examination. For each and every semester Students can apply for the revaluation after the announcement of the main examination results. Students can keep in touch with the University website to know more information about the Revaluation Results.
NEERI Recruitment 2019 – Apply Online/Offline| 95 Project Assistant Level 1,2 Vacancies. National Environmental Engineering Research Institute has announced a Job Notification to hire 95 Candidates for the Project Assistant Level 1,2 Job Vacancies. Candidates who are waiting for the Central Govt Jobs from Uttar Pradesh State can apply for this Posts through Online/Offline Process. Applicants can start applying for the Posts and the last date to submit the application form through Online/Offline is 23rd December 2019 & 31st December 2019.
Selected candidates may need to work in any District of Uttar Pradesh. Aspirants will be hired on contract basis work and based on the annual performance the contract period may be terminated or extended. Check the eligibility details and then apply for the vacancy before the last date. Read further to know more about the NEERI Project Assistant Jobs 2019.
Eligibility Criteria for NEERI Project Assistant Jobs 2019
Educational Qualification:
Category
Educational Qualification
Project Assistant Level II
Degree in M.Sc Chemistry/ Environmental Science
Project Assistant Level II
M.Sc Microbiology/ Biotechnology
Project Assistant Level I
B.Sc Physics/Chemistry/Microbiology/ Biochemistry
Age Limit:
Aspirants must know that as per NEERI Recruitment 2019 Notification, you must possess below the age to fill the available Vacancies in NEERI Jobs for the Project Assistant Post.
Project Assistant Level-II Maximum Age Limit – 30 Years
Project Assistant Level-I Maximum Age Limit – 28 Years
Application Fee:
Refer to NEERI Project Assistant Recruitment Notification to know about application fee details.
Applicants will be shortlisted by the NEERI Recruitment Board and called for the further selection process. The selection procedure for the Project Assistant NEERI Job involves the following steps:
Interview.
Important Instructions for NEERI Project Assistant Recruitment 2019
Candidates are requested to carry a set of attested copies of documents Proof of date of Birth, Educational Certificate, Experience Certificate, etc. Along with the original Certificates when they come for the Interview.
The shortlisted applicants are required to appear for a Personal Interview before the Selection Committee on 09th January 2020 to the following Address:
About the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI)
The CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) is a research institute and found by the Government of India. It has established in Nagpur in 1958 with a focus on water supply, sewage disposal, communicable diseases and to some extent on industrial pollution and occupational diseases found common in post-independent India. NEERI is a pioneer laboratory in the field of environmental science and engineering and part of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
The National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur was established in 1958 as Central Public Health Engineering Research Institute (CHERI) when environmental concerns have limited to human health with a focus on water supply/sewage disposal/ communicable diseases and to some extent on industrial pollution and occupational diseases. The chemical and biological solutions to address these problems were simple, though challenging.
Mumbai University Results 2019 declared for B.M.M, Master of Education on 12th December 2019. Check out the updated Mumbai University Semester wise Exam results 2019-20 details from the below section. We have updated the University Exam Results from the official website. As the University Board has released the first half 2019 results. The current page is fully equipped with the results of all courses like T.Y.B.A., B.Arch, M.A and soon. Hence, Check other information on Mumbai University Results in the below sections of this page. Check out more information on the official website i.e,mu.ac.in.
Mumbai University Exam Results 2019-20
As that the University of Mumbai has released the semester wise examination results through Pdf format. Those candidates who wish to check down their results can check it out here. The Mumbai University has updated the results for B.M.M, Master of Education (CBCS) and also various other courses on 12th December 2019as a recent update. Students of Mumbai University check the updated and previously released examination results from the below section. Also, stay in touch with our recruitment.guru page to get the recent updates about the Mumbai University Results 2019.
Latest Mumbai University Exam Results 2019
Name of the Examination
Release Date
Results Link
BACHELOR OF MASS MEDIA (B.M.M.)(SEM-VI)(CBSGS)(75:25)(R-2017)(7 GRADE)
Mumbai University is one of the oldest universities in Maharashtra & Mumbai city as well. It was established on 18th July 1857. The Mumbai University is also known for MU. Most of the people usually called it as MU. It offers Bachelor’s, Master & Doctoral courses. along with these courses, it also offers Diploma courses, Certificate courses in multiple disciplines like Arts, Commerce, Science, Medical & Engineering. The Mumbai University has 3 main campuses across Mumbai city and one it out of the city.
wherein the Fort campus carries out only administrative works. There are 711 colleges affiliated to the university as per the 2011 census. But it increased to 762 now. When we discuss Key people of the university, The Honorable Governor of Maharashtra giving services as Chancellor of the university. While Mr.Suhas Pednekar is Vice-Chancellor of the Mumbai University.
Mumbai University Revaluation Exam Results 2019-20
Candidates of Mumbai University those who have undergone the Semester Examination for the courses conducted by the University it time for you check out exam results. Students who failed in the regular examination can go for the second chance which is called Revaluation Results. This revaluation results will also help in increasing the scorecard obtained in the regular examination. This Revaluation is only for those who wish that their examination paper should be evaluated once again. As soon as the main exam results are released the University Board will announce the revaluation dates. Students those wish can apply for the revaluation. Do have a regular update with the official website of the University as that the Mumbai University Board releases the Revaluation Results within a few week’s interval gaps.
PSTCL Recruitment 2019: Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSTCL) is inviting online applications from eligible candidates for the post of Assistant Engineer. There are a total of 20 vacancies for the said posts. Interested candidates can check eligibility and other details below and start applying from 13th December 2019. The last date to apply for PSTCL recruitment is 24th December 2019. You can download the application form below. All details are available below.
PSTCL Recruitment 2019-20
Candidates make sure not to wait till the last minute to apply for PSTCL Recruitment. You can find all the eligibility details below. Refer to the official notification below for more information. A link to the official notification and website is available below for further reference. If you are looking for Punjab Government Jobs, make use of this opportunity.
Overview of PSTCL Jobs 2019
Name of the Organization
Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited (PSTCL)
The details of the vacancy as given in the PSTCL Recruitment 2019 is as below
Assistant Engineer (AE) – 20
Eligibility Criteria for PSTCL Recruitment 2019
Candidates interested in PSTCL Jobs can check their eligibility with the details below to apply online.
Academic Qualification:
Candidate must have completed BE/ B.Tech/ BSc degree in Electrical Engineering and Electronics Engineering and secured 60% marks
Candidate must have cleared GATE exam in 2019
Read the official notification for more details on PSTCL Careers.
Age Limit:
The age limit as on 1st January 2019 is given as
Minimum – 20 Years
Maximum – 37 Years
Upper age limit is relaxation is available as
SC/ ST/ BC Candidates – 5 Years
PH Candidates – 10 Years
Read the official notification for more details on PSTCL age limit
Selection Process:
GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering 2019) scorecard of 2019 only
If more than 1 candidate has secured the same marks sin GATE, the merit shall be determined by their age. The candidate with higher age will be placed at a higher merit
Shortlisted candidates will be called for Document verification
Refer to the official website for more details on the PSTCL selection process
Pay Scale for PSTCL AE/OT Recruitment 2019:
Rs. 16,650/- to Rs. 39,100/- + Grade Pay Rs. 5,800/-
Refer to the official website for details on the pay scale for PSTCL Jobs
PSTCL Online Application Fee:
General/ OBC candidates – Rs. 1,200/-
SC/ EWS Candidates – Rs. 480/-
PWD Candidates – Rs. 600/-
Extra bank charges will be applied
Mode of Payment:
Online fee depositing process in State Bank of India (SBI) through SB collect system
How to apply for PSTCL Recruitment 2019?
Visit the official website @ www.pstcl.org
Find the advertisement for the post of Assistant Engineer (you can use the link below)
Read the notification carefully
Make sure you are eligible for PSTCL recruitment
Open the application form
Duly fill in all the details in the form and make sure there are no errors
Submit the application form before the last date
Take a print out of the application form
Generate SBI challan
Deposit the fee at any State Bank of India branch online or through cash through challan
General Information :
Candidate must have good knowledge of the Punjabi language (Passed Punjabi in at least 10th std or equivalent)
The candidate can be placed in Punjab or any under place in India under the jurisdiction of PSTCL
The venue, date and time for the document verification will be informed personally through the registered email id only
RCUB Result 2019 Released: Students who are pursuing their degree under the Rani Channamma University Belagavi have great news here. RCUB University Examination Results are released for all the courses. Candidates can get all UG/PG RCUB Examination Results from the below section. Students can get the complete details regarding the Exam dates and Result dates from this site easily. Students can check out the Rani Channamma University Belgavi Results 2019 at the rcub.ac.in. official website.
Those who are searching up for the updated and latest Rani Channamma University Belagavi Semester Exam Results can check it out here. We people from Recruitment.guru has collected all the updated results from the official website and updated it here. As the Rani Channamma University Belagavi has released the results for all UG/PG Semester Exams do click on the below link and get the RCUB Result 2019. Just click on the below-given link and enter the register number and select the semester you wanted to get the results. All students can check the result of Odd and Even been from the link given below. Students can visit this web portal and keep on pouring to get more details about the RCUB Result 2019.
Before the Rani Channamma University came into being in 2010, Karnataka University KRCPG Centre of Karnatak University, Dharwad was functioning at Belagavi. The said Karnatak University PG Centre was established at Belagavi in the year 1982, to provide an opportunity to develop access to the students for higher education hailing from North Karnataka Region. At present, the Rani Channamma University is offering 9 PG courses at Vidyasangam Campus Belagavi, in the school of Arts, Education, Social Science, Science, Commerce, and Management. The courses in Social Science include Economics, Sociology, Social Work and Arts includes Kannada and Marathi. In Science the university offers M.Sc in Physics, Mathematics, and chemistry and in Applied it offers Geography, Library and information science. School of Business and Economics offers a Master's Degree in Commerce and Management.
RCUB Regular/ Supplementary Examination Results
Those students who have attended the regular examination under the Rani Channamma University Belagavi and still failed. Here comes one more opportunity to clear the examination. To increase your scoring along with that students to fail in the previous examination will get a chance to clear through RCUB Revaluation Exams Results. For each and every semester Students can apply for the revaluation after the announcement of the main examination results. The Rani Channamma University Belagavi will take a week or more to process the exam papers to announce the Revaluation results. Do stay updated with the RCUB University Official Website to know about the Revaluation Exam Results.
MUMBAI: In an unprecedented move, the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) has asked the country's top audit firms to submit details of all clients and the audit findings related to them. The biggest audit firms in the country have been told to submit details about the audit processes, the number of clients, details of fees, the non-audit work done for these clients and details of audit qualifications on financial accounts. NFRA is the national audit regulator and part of the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA).People with direct knowledge of the matter said the information submitted to NFRA would cover almost all the top companies and banks, both listed and unlisted, in the country. "NFRA is seeking too much information, some of the information is too sensitive and we need time to provide it to the regulator," the audit head of one of the top Indian firms said.NFRA, said another person in the know of the development, may be planning to introduce stricter regulations for auditors. The elaborate questionnaire sent to them could be a part of such a move, the person said.NFRA, which has taken over all the powers from Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to regulate auditors, could make regulations stricter for the audit firms."The focus is to create stricter regulations on the conflict of interest issue and to ensure that auditors are truly independent while giving audit opinion. Auditors work for the public at large, not necessarily for a company," said another person in the know of the development. He added that there have been complaints that some audit firms also provide other services such as IT platform implementation and advice on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for the company they audit."There seems to be a lot going on. Bigger players have some issues, smaller players seem to be having different problems," he said.All the top firms including KPMG, EY, Deloitte, PwC, Grant Thornton and BDO have been asked to submit the details. An email questionnaire sent to five of these firms did not elicit any response.Spokesperson of BSR & Co, part of KPMG, said the firm is fully cooperating with NFRA on this matter. "The firm is constantly strengthening its quality processes, incorporating various learnings from experiences."One of the audit heads of a large audit firm said that while the focus seems to be on the big boys some of the smaller audit firms also need to be under scrutiny. "Just look at the way they operate," he said, "You have firms that have one big client and almost all their revenues come from that client, so how do you expect them to have independence?" he asked.Another CEO of a rather small audit firm said that qualifications given by the auditor too could create problems for a firm. "What we have seen is that most auditors are merely giving qualifications rather than taking a stand on an issue. NFRA asking details around this could mean that there could be some regulations on this particular issue, which may be a concern."An audit head with a multinational firm said that some of the questions could create problems for a few firms. One of the questions asks whether any part of the fees was accepted in any other currency and the rate of conversion used.The development follows NFRA finding faults with Deloitte Haskins & Sells (DHS), the auditors of ILFS Financial Services Limited (IFIN), on Thursday in regards to complying with the standards of accounting. The NFRA investigation report said, "the audit firm did not have adequate justification for issuing the audit report asserting that the audit was conducted in accordance with the SAs (standards of accounting)."NFRA is investigating auditing failures in some of the top companies recently.Audit regulators globally follow such processes to achieve their objectives. NFRA is separately investigating some of the major audit failures in firms including IL&FS, ITNL, Infosys and PMC Bank, said people in the know.The ICAI used to carry out quality review of some accounts every year, but seldom was any firm slapped with a fine. NFRA in April had asked ICAI to back off from investigating auditors in the IL&FS case and took it over.
NEW DELHI: The government aims at approving proposals worth Rs 20,000 crore over the next two weeks, under the partial credit guarantee scheme for non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and home finance companies (HFCs), for further boosting consumption in the economy — which is seeing a six-year low growth rate — as the move will propel retail lending.Detailing measures taken by the government, including support to NBFCs and HFCs, credit expansion of public sector banks, clearing dues of public sector units, reforms in capital markets and higher refund of taxes, chief economic advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian said that 17 proposals worth Rs 7,657 crore were cleared within two days of the scheme getting Cabinet approval."Together, these four are intended to bring more cash flow and foster consumption in the economy. The government has focused on hearing all the views, including those of the public sector units on enabling retail credit by supporting NBFCs and HFCs, which are very important for credit and consumption in the economy," he said.About Rs 4.47 lakh crore had been sanctioned to NBFCs and HFCs to support retail lending, while Rs 60,314 crore of capital has been infused into PSU banks. Lenders have disbursed Rs 2.2 lakh crore to corporates and Rs 72,985 crore to MSMEs.The Cabinet has allowed public sector banks to purchase high-rated pooled assets — rated BBB+ or higher — from 'financially sound' entities under the scheme to temporarily address liquidity or cash flow mismatch issues of otherwise solvent NBFCs or HFCs, without them having to resort to distress sale of their assets. The Cabinet also approved amendments to the insolvency law, which proposes to bar government agencies from attaching assets of an insolvent debtor undergoing bankruptcy resolution for prior offences, making such stressed assets more attractive to potential buyers.Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government has been very 'quick-footed' on bringing about changes to the insolvency and bankruptcy code (IBC), even when the latest amendments to the Bill were not approved by Parliament in the winter session."The government has been very quick-footed each time to respond to the developing situation of the public domain, where cases of NCLT or resolution are happening. Each time that we come up with amendments, we hope to have them passed at the earliest in the Parliament," she said, but did not comment whether the government would take the route of issuing an ordinance to get the bill into effect.Another measure aimed at improving consumption was personal tax refunds which rose to Rs 1.57 lakh crore till date this fiscal, compared with Rs 1.23 lakh crore last fiscal, showing an increase of 27%, revenue secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said.Meanwhile, corporate rate tax cut to 15% and approval of Rs 25,000-crore realty fund for stalled housing projects, had led to increase in investor confidence, with record foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows of $35 billion in the first half of this financial year, versus $31 billion the same time last year.
Mumbai: Maruti Suzuki calls it the best offer of the year and Tata Motors says the best in a decade; for Hyundai Motor India, it is a December delight.Automakers are offering record high discounts in the last month of 2019. These offers, ranging from 5% to 15% and continued through the year for most, may well be in its last leg, said industry executives, as the Bharat Stage-IV stock that the companies are trying to liquidate before the new emission standards come into place is fast depleting. Several of the companies are set to increase prices from January. 72574240 This is indeed the best time to buy, said Sashank Srivastava, the executive director for sales and marketing at Maruti Suzuki. "We have almost sold out our BS-IV stock. The discount levels are some of the highest (where the options are still available); this is not sustainable. Price hikes will inevitably come from January on various counts — emission norms, safety norms, currency fluctuations...," he told ET.Typically, automakers offer the highest discounts of the year in December. The month accounts for around 8% of the total industry sales volume and last year, sales growth was flat at 2.38 lakh units in December.Maruti Suzuki, the nation's largest carmaker, is offering discounts of Rs 37,000-89,000. The least discount is on the EECO and the highest is on the Vitarra Brezza. Hyundai's offers range from Rs 20,000 to as much as Rs 2 lakh for the Elantra and Tuscon.Tata Motors vehicles can be purchased with a discount of ?77,500 on the hatchbacks to as much as ?2.25 lakh on the Hexa.Vikas Jain, the national sales head at Hyundai Motor India, said the current offers were among the highest in the year and should support retail sales growth in the ongoing month. However, "the wholesale number of the industry may vary with production plan and inventory status of individual company", he added.Many buyers are holding on to their purchase in the expectation of a fire sale of vehicles ahead of the introduction of BS-VI standards in April, as the market had witnessed in March 2017 for two-wheelers amid the transition to BS-IV from BS-III at the time. However, a low inventory and rising proportion of BSVI vehicle in the total production will reduce the extent of the fire-sale prospect, particularly for large volume vehicle, industry executives said.But it may still happen for few low-volume vehicle, often said as "dead" stock in dealer parlance.Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations president Ashish Kale said enquiry levels in December had shot up and it appeared to be a normal December month — when demand is typically strong. "We are hoping for a strong conversion in the second half of December. With the BS-IV stock running out, the pressure to give discounts will ease," he said.
New Delhi: NEC Corporation is aiming to more than double its revenue from India to $1 billion in five years led by offshore support centres, smart city project and 5G."Right now, we are at $400 million and look forward to increasing that to $1 billion in five years… India is one of the focus areas and a key strategic market," Takashi Niino, president and CEO, NEC Corporation, told ET in an exclusive interaction.Asked if he was content with the company's performance over the last few years, he said, "We are on the right path but need to speed up. We are expanding manpower to enable the growth journey."Niino said the company plans to hire 14,000 employees over the five years to support growth in India and the US, Europe and Asia. The company currently has 6000 employees in India.NEC is looking to utilise India as the hub for its offshore support and product development for global markets, Niino said, adding that the manpower expansion will also include R&D expansion. "Manpower expansion will help with offshore software development capabilities, airport solutions, one ID based on biometrics and artificial intelligence not only for the Indian market but to support Western and Asian countries," he said. "Both Indian and Japanese governments discussed how to target business outside India. We are participating in the Aadhaar project. That's sort of a business model…is necessary to promote this type of solutions in developing countries."
NEW DELHI: Streaming services Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hotstar are helping to drive a sharp spike in sales for online food delivery entities, ready-to-eat products and single-serve snacks, led by orders from 'screenagers' binge watching shows on these over-the-top (OTT) platforms even as dining-in slows."OTT platforms with video on demand are driving up ordering-in and ready-to-eat consumption at home," said Ashu Phakey, vice president and business head (frozen foods) at ITC. "Clearly, the proliferation of OTT is playing a role in driving up the ready-to-eat category."With cheap data plans, viewership of online videos has proliferated to an estimated 300 million-plus users in India, a number that's forecast to touch 550 million by FY23, according to a KPMG-Eros report released three months ago. Indians spend as much as 70 minutes every day on OTT platforms and typically watch a web series in three days as against the global average of four days, the report showed."Studies have shown spikes in ordering on weekends between 10 pm and 1 am, which is also the time for binge watching on OTT platforms. This has extended the traditional prime time that ended around 10 pm," Phakey said.The surge is even more evident for restaurants, with fine-dining and quick service outlets reporting faster growth in home delivery, which has resulted in aggregators Swiggy and Zomato also reporting swift growth. While Zomato's latest reported numbers are 1.25 million orders a day, Swiggy's is estimated at between 1.4 million and 1.6 million.It's an unexpected development for restaurateurs who have been trying to improve the dine-in experience to lure customers back to their outlets and now have to tweak their strategies."It's true that Netflix and other such platforms are our biggest competitor now and these are rapidly redefining changing consumer preferences of dining," said Priyank Sukhija, chief executive officer of First Fiddle Restaurants, which runs Lord of the Drinks and Tamasha. "Many consumers prefer staying indoors and ordering in since they are watching shows on OTT platforms."Speciality Restaurants, the operator of Mainland China and Oh! Calcutta, has stepped up focus on delivery, as has Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality.72576326 "OTT platforms are surely one of the factors driving delivery of food. In metros and tier-1 cities, this change is clearly visible," said Speciality Restaurants managing director Anjan Chatterjee.Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality, the owner of Smoke House Deli and Social, has started delivery-only brands such as Boss Burger, Hung-Li and Del Italia."OTT provides an alternative for home entertainment and is among the key factors that have triggered a spike in delivery, the others being convenience and traffic," said Riyaaz Amlani, Impresario's managing director.Another category that's benefiting from binge-watchers is packaged foods in single serves or multiple singles or bigger food packs."Screenagers (teenagers and other consumers glued to screen devices) are driving a good amount of consumption on account of such viewing," said Mayank Shah, category head at biscuits giant Parle Products. "Such consumers, even on multiple screens at the same time, are consuming food at home instead of going out, as a result of which our premium brands are picking up."He said multiple single-packs of brands such as Milano, Black Bourbon and Choco Rolls are growing 1.5 times that of regular packs of the same brands, which he attributed to being directly proportional to screen time.
Can one look at the past and tell what is going to happen in the future? The answer is NO.Then what's the point in studying history if it has no predictive power? For the longest time I've been misinterpreting the quote: "History does not repeat, but it rhymes."I used to believe it means events may not occur exactly like they did in the past, but something similar might happen. That is perhaps an incomplete way to look at history.Then what should we look at when we study historical events? It doesn't matter how frequently or rarely an event occurred in the past. What matters is, when it occurred, how did people react to it. This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase – "history rhymes."It has been studied in behavioral experiments, that as humans we still rely on our animal instincts when we react to events. Something we've been doing for millions of years. In a given historical event, it is always interesting to observe how people acted when they found themselves in that situation.Imagine being an investor during the dotcom boom or during the infrastructure boom just before the global financial crisis of 2008.No matter how experienced we may have been, if we do not participate in such a rally, it is natural to occur to us that there is something we are missing and perhaps our ability to invest and make money has diminished.That, when the whole world is getting paper rich, overnight!Let's transport ourselves to the current times. Is there a bubble in quality stocks? Is there a bubble in private equity, VC or pre-IPO stocks? These questions are natural and can help us define our own sense of value, which we give to future cash flows of these businesses. They also help us to define our behaviour when we come across such valuations.Countless books and articles have been written on what happened to the majority of dotcom investors. So the behaviour to participate in inflated valuations may seem stupid in hindsight. Not only does such a dilemma occur from time to time, but it also forces us to feel that it can end badly for us as well if we follow in those footsteps.What if someone who has not studied history ends up participating in such an inflated market?The justifications they may provide to themselves for their actions would matter more than the eventual fate of that investor. This is where history rhymes and provides the blueprint for the excuses that people provide when they act using only their instinct.So, how can we learn from history?One way to learn from history may be to repeat the past behaviour in a controlled manner and let our instincts play out. We can't ignore our emotions, nor can we control them. All we can do is commit small amounts of money and monitor our emotions while making these decisions and document them for future reference. That way we may enjoy the momentary benefits of the historical event and yet live long enough to learn from our own fate.
By Chandan Taparia NSE Nifty opened gapup for a second consecutive session on Friday and headed towards the 12,100 level. The index has gained 265 points to 12,098 in three straight sessions of gains. It formed a bullish candle on the daily scale today and formed higher highs and higher lows from the second session. The index, which formed a strong bullish candle on the weekly scale, is just 72 points away from its lifetime high of 12,158, and a small followup could extend the rally. Now, Nifty has to hold above the 12,035 zone to extend momentum towards 12,250-12,300 zone, while on the downside, support exists at 12,000 and then 11,950. On the monthly options front, maximum Put open interest was at 12,000 followed by 11,500 strike, while maximum Call OI is at 12,000 followed by 12,200 strike. We witnessed major Put writing at 12,000 and 12,100 strikes, while Call unwinding was at 12,000 and 11,900 strikes. Option data suggests a wider trading range between 11,900 and 12,200 levels for the next coming weeks. India VIX fell 0.37 per cent to the 13.30 level. Lower volatility could continue to provide support to the index to attract fresh buying interest. Bank Nifty continued its positive momentum for a third session and headed towards the 32,100 level. The index is near its lifetime high after forming a bullish candle on daily and weekly scales. The banking index has seen strong recovery of 1,100 points in the last three sessions from 31,000 to 32,100, and regained the price consolidation of the last couple of sessions. The index formed a bullish setup and a hold above 31,700 could take it towards 32,157 and then 32,500. On the downside, important support exists at 31,400. Nifty futures gained 1.02 per cent to the 12,151 level. Builtup of long positions were seen in Tata Elxsi, Mindtree, Tata global, Hindalco, Motherson Sumi, Union Bank of India and Tata Motors while shorts in Apollo Hospital, Jindal Steel, Indigo, Bharti Airtel and Dr Reddy's.(Chandan Taparia is Technical & Derivative Analyst at MOFSL. Investors are advised to consult financial advisers before taking an investment calls based on these observations)
Bengaluru: Wipro 3D, the additive manufacturing (AM) business of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering (WIN), have jointly with the Indian Institution of Science (IISc) have developed the country's first industry grade metal additive 3D printing machine. This 3D printing machine works on selective electron beam melting technology and offers higher build rate, better thermal management, higher part density as well as superior mechanical properties, said the company .The machine's benchmarking is underway and likely to be completed in the near future, said the company. "The country's first Electron Beam melting powder bed fusion 3D printer, symbolizes Wipro 3D's constant effort to indigenise,expand and industrialize additive technology," said Ajay Parikh, vice president and Business Head, Wipro 3D. Even though metal 3D printing is still evolving both in India and global markets; the country is emerging as a player in application engineering for 3D-printed components and systems. For instance, Wipro 3D is engaged in building certain aerospace components for India, including a thruster for a satellite engine. Aerospace and defence sectors have seen use plastic 3D printing in the country. Apart from Wipro 3D, Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) 3D printed a plastic replica of the Kaveri engine, engine model and is exploring making components using additive technology. "We are impressed with the speed that IISc has achieved working with Wipro 3D, to execute the project, for such a cutting edge technology development programme. We commend Wipro 3D and IISc for participating actively in nation building exercise. We expect IISc and Wipro 3D to keep maturing the platform as we go forward so that it can compete globally," said A R Sihag, secretary, Department of Heavy Industry (DHI). Anurag Kumar, Director, IISc, said he was "happy to see its collaboration with Wipro 3D culminating in this product development".
FM Nirmala Sitharaman says haven't discussed GST hikes yet Giving a presentation, chief economic advisor Krishnamurthy V Subramanian said within just two days, as many as 17 proposals for the purchase of NBFC assets worth Rs 7,657 crore have been approved by the state-run banks under the government's partial guarantee scheme.
No recovery yet! Exports drop 0.34% in November, reflect economic gloom A 3.7% year-on-year fall in brent crude oil prices has contributed to a drop in both exports and imports of petroleum.With this, overall goods exports in the April-November period contracted 2% to $211.9 billion, while imports shrank 8.9% to $318.8 billion.
Express IT Awards: AI will bring social impact, says S Ramadorai While new technologies threaten conventional jobs and demand new skill sets suited for future jobs, Ramadorai said that the problem-solving skills are the most important for innovating solutions for the everyday problems.
School of Distance Education May 2019 Examinations – Revaluation Results
NEERI Recruitment 2019 – Apply Online/Offline | 95 Project Assistant Level 1,2 Vacancies. National Environmental Engineering Research Institute has announced a Job Notification to hire 95 Candidates for the Project Assistant Level 1,2 Job Vacancies. Candidates who are waiting for the Central Govt Jobs from Uttar Pradesh State can apply for this Posts through Online/Offline Process. Applicants can start applying for the Posts and the last date to submit the application form through Online/Offline is 23rd December 2019 & 31st December 2019. 
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