Author: Carlos Gomez

An additional $9 billion of funding to tackle agriculture’s role in the climate crisis was announced on the sidelines of the United Nations climate talks on Friday. The Agriculture Innovation Mission (AIM) for Climate, a joint initiative led by the United States and the United Arab Emirates that debuted at the climate talks in Glasgow two years ago, now has $17 billion to invest in agriculture and food systems innovation. Food systems — all the processes involved in making, shipping and disposing of food — account for about a third of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. Countries have been convening at…

The United States and China wrapped up two days of military talks in Washington on Tuesday, the Pentagon said, the latest engagement since the two countries agreed to resume military-to-military ties. Washington and Beijing are at loggerheads over everything from the future of democratically ruled Taiwan to territorial claims in the South China Sea. Ties are still recovering after the U.S. downed an alleged Chinese spy balloon in February. U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed late last year to resume military ties, severed by Beijing after a visit in August 2022 by then-House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi…

The United States seeks to cut Russia’s oil and gas revenue by 50 percent by 2030 as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine, a top government official said in an interview published Thursday night. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt told the Financial Times that Washington hopes sanctions on oil and gas revenue will hinder Russian President Vladimir Putin from any future military aggression on other countries. The U.S. was among the multiple countries that imposed severe economic sanctions on Russia following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Those moves included placing a price cap on Russian oil exports. While these…

The military announced late Wednesday it was grounding all of its Osprey V-22 helicopters, one week after eight Air Force Special Operations Command service members died in a crash off the coast of Japan. The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps took the extraordinary step of grounding hundreds of aircraft after a preliminary investigation of last week’s crash indicated that a materiel failure — that something went wrong with the aircraft — and not a mistake by the crew led to the deaths. The crash raised new questions about the safety of the Osprey, which has been involved in multiple…

South Africa, Denmark, and the Netherlands have teamed up to launch SA-H2, a $1 billion fund with a mandate to bolster green hydrogen projects in South Africa. The fund will be backed by numerous financiers, including the Dutch investment entity, Invest International, which contributed $50 million.  The rest of the fund is set to be raised over the next two years, with contribution from various financiers, including the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Industrial Development Corporation, and insurance firm Sanlam, with management set to be handled by the Dutch Climate Fund Managers. Speaking at the launch of the fund in…

Among the 11 sectors making up the US equity market, only one has seen its earnings growth upgraded by analysts since the start of the year – communication services. This sector comprises more than the historical telecommunication sector dominated by telephone companies. Today, only 10 per cent of the sector is made up of telecommunication services (including mobile-phone service providers) and 90 per cent is media and entertainment companies, which includes interactive media, social networks, movies, TV shows, advertising and broadcasting. The advertising market accounts for a sizeable part of the sector’s revenues. Having the best earnings momentum has propelled…

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is dispatching White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to Tokyo this week for talks with his counterparts from Japan, Philippines and South Korea. Sullivan will also take part in “the first-ever trilateral meeting of the Japanese, Philippine, and U.S. national security advisers” while in Japan, the White House National Security Council said in a statement Tuesday. The White House offered scant details about Sullivan’s two-day visit that begins Thursday, saying Sullivan and his counterparts “will discuss ways to deepen collaboration on a number of key regional and global issues.” Sullivan’s visit comes after U.S., Japanese…

Senior US military officials said Ukraine faces a tough fight in the ongoing counteroffensive against Russian forces and the campaign to take back territory will likely come “at a high cost”. The US assessment of Kyiv’s counteroffensive came as Chechen fighters said they had deployed to Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine to prevent attacks from pro-Ukraine Russian partisan groups and as Ukrainian military officials on Thursday reported advances along the front line in several locations. “Ukraine has begun their attack, and they are making steady progress. This is a very difficult fight. It’s a very violent fight, and it will likely take a considerable amount of…

Russia views certain alliances, such as AUKUS and QUAD, as unfriendly “because NATO is poking around,” the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, told the media on Tuesday. “It is quite obvious that some alliances and relations are neutral with regard to our country. We take part in certain alliances, for example ASEAN, as invited participants,” he said, recalling the existence of the ASEAN+ format.”Some of the alliances being formed are almost unfriendly towards the countries of the region. This is how we see QUAD, AUKUS and some other alliances, connected with the creation of partnerships with extra-regional…

US homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has a message for migrants that he has been repeating loudly and frequently: “Our border is not open … don’t risk your life and your life savings” to come to the US seeking refuge without invitation. But for millions, hunger, violence and fear ring out louder. Political dysfunction and economic calamity are pushing people from many nations in the western hemisphere in what US president Joe Biden has called the “largest migration in human history”, exacerbated in Latin America and beyond by the coronavirus pandemic. People with tenacity but few means make a hopeful journey mostly across land towards the US-Mexico border. If they beat…