President Obama, who has weighed ruling out a first use of a nuclear weapon in a conflict, appears likely to abandon the proposal after top national security advisers argued that it could undermine allies and embolden Russia and China, according to several senior administration officials.
Mr. Obama considers a reduction in the role of nuclear weapons as critical to his legacy. But he has been chagrined to hear critics, including some former senior aides, argue that the administration’s second-term nuclear modernization plans, costing up to $1 trillion in coming decades, undermine commitments he made in 2009.
For months, arms control advocates have argued for a series of steps to advance the pledge he made to pursue “a world without nuclear weapons.” An unequivocal no-first-use pledge would have been the boldest of those measures. They contend that as a practical matter no American president would use a nuclear weapon when so many other options are available.
Former Defense Secretary William J. Perry said in a recent interview, “It’s the right time,” noting that the pledge would formalize what has been America’s unspoken policy for decades.
But in the end, Mr. Obama seems to have sided with his current advisers, who warned in meetings culminating this summer that a no-first-use declaration would rattle allies like Japan and South Korea. Those nations are concerned about discussion of an American pullback from Asia prompted by comments made by the Republican presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump.
The reclusive, hostile nation has been rushing to perfect missiles that are small, fast, light and surprisingly advanced, according to analysts and military officials. This spring and summer, Pyongyang successfully tested some of these missiles, while earlier efforts had fizzled or failed.
“They’ve greatly increased the tempo of their testing — in a way, showing off their capabilities, showing us images of ground tests they could have kept hidden,” John Schilling, an aerospace engineer and expert on North Korea’s missile program, said in an interview on Friday. “This isn’t something that can be ignored anymore. It’s going to be a high priority for the next president.”
Military experts say that by 2020, Pyongyang will most likely have the skills to make a reliable intercontinental ballistic missile topped by a nuclear warhead. They also expect that by then North Korea may have accumulated enough nuclear material to build up to 100 warheads.
Siegfried S. Hecker, a Stanford professor who has traveled to North Korea and who formerly directed the Los Alamos weapons lab in New Mexico, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, said North Korea’s progress in missile and nuclear development signals that it has gone from seeing unconventional weapons as bargaining chips to “deciding they need a nuclear weapons fighting force.”
The Pentagon warned Congress in a report earlier this year that one of Pyongyang’s latest missiles, if perfected, “would be capable of reaching much of the continental United States.”
"In May, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the Islamic State’s spokesman, released a statement: 'Do you think, America, that defeat is by the loss of towns or territory? Were we defeated when we lost the cities in Iraq and retreated to the desert without a city or a land?' he asked. 'No, true defeat is losing the will and desire to fight.'"
Recocrded April 15, 2011 at Wellspring Sound in Acton, MA. Written by Pat Scanlon; music video by Perpetual Motion Pictures of Ashland, MA. Creative Common
The United States, Russia and China are now aggressively pursuing a new generation of smaller, less destructive nuclear weapons. The buildups threaten to revive a Cold War-era arms race and unsettle the balance of destructive force among nations that has kept the nuclear peace for more than a half-century.
It is, in large measure, an old dynamic playing out in new form as an economically declining Russia, a rising China and an uncertain United States resume their one-upmanship.
American officials largely blame the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, saying his intransigence has stymied efforts to build on a 2010 arms control treaty and further shrink the arsenals of the two largest nuclear powers. Some blame the Chinese, who are looking for a technological edge to keep the United States at bay. And some blame the United States itself for speeding ahead with a nuclear “modernization” that, in the name of improving safety and reliability, risks throwing fuel on the fire.
President Obama acknowledged that danger at the end of the Nuclear Security Summit meeting in Washington early this month. He warned of the potential for “ramping up new and more deadly and more effective systems that end up leading to a whole new escalation of the arms race.”
"Investors must prepare for the possibility of a Great Power conflict between the U.S. and China." "China’s factories are now rapidly producing military capabilities that will eventually rival those of the U.S. The only remaining debate is whether China will achieve parity by 2020, 2030, or later."
"Given these trends, it will not be a surprise to find other up and coming space powers reconfiguring their institutional military missions. What would be a surprise with all this is if peace were still to prevail in the heavens."
"Whether the explicit recognition of the counterspace race by all governments will make it possible for them to seek a way out of it remains to be seen. For every space power involved, the counterspace race is serious, growing, foreign, and a threat. And so also an opportunity for forging a new order in the heavens."
"The near-simultaneous attacks in Paris that killed at least 127 people were an "act of war" organised by the Islamic State (IS) militant group, says France's President Francois Hollande. • He said the attacks, carried out by eight gunmen and suicide bombers, were "organised and planned from outside". • The targets included bars, restaurants, a concert and a high-profile football match. IS claimed the attacks. • Mr Hollande has declared three days of national mourning. • He has raised the security threat level to its highest point, declared a nationwide state of emergency and vowed to wage a "merciless" fight against terrorists."
‘We would urge the US not to continue down the wrong path,’ a Defense Ministry spokesman says, after USS Lassen passed near a manmade Chinese island." "China's military will take 'all necessary' measures in response to any future US navy incursions into what it considers its territorial waters around islands in the South China Sea, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Thursday. • The statement by colonel Yang Yujun came hours before naval senior US and Chinese were due to hold talks on the manouvres which have heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington. • China strenuously protested on Tuesday when the USS Lassen passed within a 12-nautical-mile (22km) limit around a manmade Chinese island in the South China Sea. Yang offered no details on how Beijing might respond differently in the future. • 'We would urge the US not to continue down the wrong path. But if the US side does continue, we will take all necessary measures according to the need,' Yang said. China’s resolve to safeguard its national sovereignty and security interests is 'rock-solid', he added. • His comments came hours before the US chief of naval operations and his Chinese counterpart were due to hold an hour-long video teleconference, a US official said."
It’s the classic lament of military historians. That armies are always training to fight the last war, when they should be figuring out what war will look like next time. Well, if that’s the case, a book called called “Ghost Fleet” may be the remedy. So vividly does it depict the shape of World War III — and how technologies that are part of our world already from wearable technology to driverless cars to Walmart’s cutting distribution system — may hold the keys to victory or defeat. It’s a novel by the way — fiction — but not really. That’s why it’s the novel everyone in the Pentagon is talking about. This hour On Point: “Ghost Fleet” and the face of warfare in the not so distant future.
"'And unless we work together to defeat the ideas that drive different communities in a country like Iraq into conflict, any order that our militaries can impose will be temporary,' the US president added."
"The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) spotted the powerful TOS-1 Buratino multiple rocket launcher in Luhansk. • Meanwhile, the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France discussed peace efforts in Ukraine, with Paris and Kiev saying the pullout of light weapons would start on Saturday. •Moscow denies arming the rebels. •It also rejects accusations by Ukraine and the West that it is sending heavy weapons to the pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions."
"Given these trends, it will not be a surprise to find other up and coming space powers reconfiguring their institutional military missions. What would be a surprise with all this is if peace were still to prevail in the heavens."
Huge vertical rulers are sprouting beside low spots in the streets here, so people can judge if the tidal floods that increasingly inundate their roads are too deep to drive through.
Five hundred miles down the Atlantic Coast, the only road to Tybee Island, Ga., is disappearing beneath the sea several times a year, cutting the town off from the mainland.
And another 500 miles on, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., increased tidal flooding is forcing the city to spend millions fixing battered roads and drains — and, at times, to send out giant vacuum trucks to suck saltwater off the streets.
For decades, as the global warming created by human emissions caused land ice to melt and ocean water to expand, scientists warned that the accelerating rise of the sea would eventually imperil the United States’ coastline.
Now, those warnings are no longer theoretical: The inundation of the coast has begun. The sea has crept up to the point that a high tide and a brisk wind are all it takes to send water pouring into streets and homes.
Federal scientists have documented a sharp jump in this nuisance flooding — often called “sunny-day flooding” — along both the East Coast and the Gulf Coast in recent years. The sea is now so near the brim in many places that they believe the problem is likely to worsen quickly. Shifts in the Pacific Ocean mean that the West Coast, partly spared over the past two decades, may be hit hard, too.
Dear The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull MP, Prime Minister of Australia,
The following is an open letter signed by 154 Australian atmospheric, marine, environmental, biological and medical scientists, including several leading climatologists, for your and your government’s attention.
There is no Planet B
In July 2016, global temperatures soared to the hottest in the 136 years of the instrumental record, 0.1℃ warmer than previous warm Julys in 2015, 2011 and 2009. It followed a succession of rising temperatures, moving from 0.42℃ above average in 2000, to 0.87℃ above average by 2015.
Developments in the atmosphere-ocean system reported by major climate research organisations (including NASA, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the US National Snow & Ice Data Center, the UK Met Office Hadley Centre, the Tyndall Centre, the Potsdam Institute; the science academics of dozens of nations; and in Australia the CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology) include:
A rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels to 404.39 parts per million (ppm; as of July 2016), an average rise of 3.08 ppm per year. This rate is unprecedented in the geological record of the past 55 million years, and is tracking towards the stability threshold of the Antarctic ice sheet, estimated at around 450ppm atmospheric CO₂.
The rise in greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere and oceans is leading to an increase in extreme weather events relative to the period 1950-60, including tropical storms such as those in Fiji, Vanuatu and the Philippines, with lives lost and damage estimated in the billions of dollars. In Australia the frequency of extreme weather events has been increasing, and since 2001 the number of extreme heat records has outnumbered extreme cool records by almost three to one for daytime maximum temperatures, and around five to one for night-time minimum temperatures.
Impacts on a similar scale are taking place in the ocean, where the CO₂ rise has caused an increase in acidity from pH 8.2 to 8.1 already. The pH is predicted to decrease to 7.8 by 2100, affecting coral reefs and the marine food chain.
Ice sheet melt rates have been increasing and the rate of sea-level rise has been accelerating, from roughly 1.7mm per year over the past century to 3.2mm per year between 1993 and 2010, and to about 3.5mm per year today. This threatens low-lying islands, deltas and lower river valleys where billions of people live – a problem that is compounded by increased variability of river flows in terms of floods and draughts.
We are concerned that global warming, amplified by feedbacks from polar ice melt, methane release from permafrost, and extensive fires, may become irreversible, including the possible collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, a crucial component of the global climate system that transfers heat from the tropics to the North Atlantic.
According to James Hansen, NASA’s former chief climate scientist, “burning all fossil fuels would create a different planet than the one that humanity knows“. Joachim Schellnhuber, Germany’s chief climate scientist, has summed up the situation by saying: “We’re simply talking about the very life support system of this planet.”
We note your broad agreement with this point, in light of your 2010 statement that:
…we are as humans conducting a massive science experiment with this planet. It’s the only planet we have got… We know that the consequences of unchecked global warming would be catastrophic… We as a human species have a deep and abiding obligation to this planet and to the generations that will come after us.
While the Paris Agreement remains unbinding and global warming has received minimal attention in the recent elections, governments worldwide are presiding over a large-scale demise of the planetary ecosystems, which threatens to leave large parts of Earth uninhabitable.
We call on the Australian government to tackle the root causes of an unfolding climate tragedy and do what is required to protect future generations and nature, including meaningful reductions of Australia’s peak carbon emissions and coal exports, while there is still time.
There is no Planet B.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Christine Adams-Hosking, Conservation planner, University of Queensland
Associate Professor Stephen Adelstein, Medical scientist, University of Sydney
Professor Ross Alford, Tropical ecologist, James Cook University
Dr Wallace Ambrose, Archaeological anthropologist, ANU
Dr Martin Anda, Environmental engineer, Murdoch University
Dr Marion Anderston, Geochemist, Monash University
Professor Michael Archer, Paleontologist, UNSW Australia
Dr Leanne Armand, Marine Researcher, Macquarie University
Professor Patricia Armati, Medical scientist, University of Sydney
Professor Owen Atkin, Plant respiration researcher, ANU
Professor Elaine Baker, Marine scientist, University of Sydney
Associate Professor Cathy Banwell, Medical scientist, ANU
Dr Andrew Barnes, Aquatic animal health researcher, University of Queensland
Dr Fiona Beck, Renewable energy researcher, ANU
Dr Tom Beer, Climatic and environmental change researcher, CSIRO
Professor Andrew Blakers, Photovoltaics/energy storage researcher, ANU
Professor Phillip Board, Medical scientist, ANU
Professor Justin Borevitz, Plant geneticist, ANU
Dr Caryl Bosman, Environmental planning researcher, Griffith University
Professor David Bowman, Forestry researcher, University of Tasmania
Dr Timothy Broadribb, Plant Scientist, University of Tasmania
Dr Helen Brown, Environmental health researcher, Curtin University
Dr Tim Brown, Medicine and environment researcher, ANU
Professor Ralf Buckley, Conservation/ecotourism researcher, Griffith University
Dr Florian Busch, Plant scientist, ANU
Dr Jason Byrne, Urban design researcher, Curtin University
Professor Maria Byrne, Marine and developmental biologist, University of Sydney
Dr Martina Calais, Renewable energy researcher, Murdoch University
Associate Professor Craig Carter, Engineering and IT researcher, Murdoch University
Dr Phill Cassey, Ecologist, Adelaide University
Professor Carla Catterall, Ecologist, Griffith University
Dr Juleen Cavanaugh, Biomedical scientist, ANU
Professor Fred Chow, Plant biologist, ANU
Associate Professor David Cohen, Geochemist, UNSW Australia
Professor Steven Cooper, Evolutionary biologist, SA Museum
Professor Rod Connolly, Marine scientist, Griffith University
Professor Jann Conroy, Plant scientist, Western Sydney University
Dr Lucy Coupland, Medical scientist, ANU
Dr Joseph Coventry, Solar energy researcher, ANU
Dr Chris Creagh, Physicist, Murdoch University
Professor Patricia Dale, Environment/planning researcher, Griffith University
Dr Armanda Davies, Planning geographer, Curtin University
Dr Ian Davies, Forestry fire management researcher, ANU
Dr Kirsten Davies, Ethno-ecology and environmental law researcher, Macquarie University
Dr Robert Davis, Vertebrate biologist, Edith Cowan University
Professor Keith Dear, Global health researcher, ANU
Dr Fjalar de Haan, Sustainability researcher, University of Melbourne
Professor Hans Peter Dietz, Medical scientist, Penrith Hospital
Professor Bob Douglas, Medical scientist, ANU
Associate Professor Mark Douglas, Medical scientist, University of Sydney
Dr Jen Drysdale, Climate and energy researcher, University of Melbourne
Professor Angela Dulhunty, Medical scientist, ANU
Professor Robyn Eckersley, Climate change governance researcher, University of Melbourne
Dr Elin Charles Edwards, Environmental geographer, University of Queensland
Professor David Eldridge, Evolutionary biologist, UNSW Australia
Professor David Elsworth, Environmental ecologist, Western Sydney University
Associate Professor Jason Evans, Climate change researcher, UNSW Australia
Dr Isabelle Ferru, Medical scientist, ANU
Professor Tim Flannery, Climate Council
Professor Barry Fox, Ecologist, UNSW Australia
Dr Evan Franklin, Solar energy researcher, ANU
Dr Diego Garcia-Bellido, Paleontologist, University of Adelaide
Dr Stephen Garnett, Conservation and sustainability researcher, Charles Darwin University
Dr John Gillen, Soil scientist, ANU
Dr Andrew Glikson, Paleoclimatologist, ANU
Dr Susan Gould, Climate change researcher, Griffith UNiversity
Professor Colin Groves, Anthropologist, ANU
Dr Huade Guan, Hydro-meteorologist, Flinders University
Professor Neil Gunningham, Global governance researcher, ANU
Dr Asish Hagar, Medical scientist, UNSW Australia
Dr Nina Hall, Sustainable water researcher, University of Queensland
Dr Willow Hallgren, Atmospheric scientist, Griffith University
Dr Elizabeth Hanna, Environmental health researcher, ANU
Associate Professor David Harley, Epidemiologist, ANU
Professor Robert S. Hill, Paleobotanist, University of Adelaide
Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Marine climatologist and Great Barrier Reef researcher, University of Queensland
Professor Geoff Hope, Archaeologist and natural history researcher, ANU
Associate Professor Michael Howes, Environmental scientist, Griffith University
Professor Lesley Hughes, Climate change and species researcher, University of Adelaide
Dr Paul Humphries, Environmental scientist, Charles Sturt University
Professor Phillip Jenning, Energy researcher, Murdoch University
Professor Darryl Jones, Behavioural ecologist, Griffith University
Dr Hugh Jones, Medical scientist, University of Western Australia
Dr Jochen Kaempf, Physical oceanographer, Flinders University
Professor Jeffrey Keelan, Medical scientist, University of Western Australia
Professor Peter Kershaw, Biogeographer and botanist, Monash University
Dr Carsten Kulheim, Plant physiologist, ANU
Professor Rakkesh Kumar, Medical scientist, UNSW Australia
Dr Lori Lach, Rainforest conservationist, James Cook University
Professor Barry Lacopetta, Medical scientist, University of Western Australia
Professor Trevor Lamb, Medical scientist, ANU
Professor Tony Larkum, Plant biologist, University of Technology Sydney
Dr Annie Lau, Geography and environmental management researcher, University of Quensland
Professor Bill Laurance, Tropical environment and sustainability researcher, James Cook University
Associate Professor Fred Leusch, Soil, water and energy researcher, Griffith University
Professor Andrew Lowe, Plant conservationist, University of Adelaide
Dr Fabio Luciano, Medical scientist, UNSW Australia
Professor Justin Marshall, Marine biologist, University of Queensland
Dr Melanie Massaro, Ecologist and ornithologist, Charles Sturt University
Associate Professor John F. McCarthy, Resource environment researcher, ANU
Dr Allison McInnes, Plant biologist, UTS
Associate Professor Andrew McKenzie, Landscape planning researcher, University of Canberra
Dr Kathryn McMahon, Environmental researcher, Edith Cowan University
Professor Andrew Millington, Land change scientist, Flinders University
Professor Angela Moles, Evolutionary ecologist, UNSW Australia
Professor Renee Morris, Medical scientist, UNSW Australia
Professor Barbara Norman, Urban planning researcher, University of Canberra
Professor Nikos Ntoumanis, Behavioural medicine researcher, Curtin University
Dr Bradley Opdyke, Climate historian, ANU
Professor Richard G. Pearson, Marine and tropical biologist, James Cook University
Dr Barrie Pittock, Climate scientist, CSIRO
Dr Jason Potas, Medical scientist, ANU
Professor Susan Prescott, Medical scientist, University of Western Australia
Dr Lynda Prior, Climate researcher, University of Tasmania
Dr Thomas Prowse, Biologist, University of Adelaide
Professor Marie Ranson, Molecular biologist, University of Wollongong
Professor Steve Redman, Medical scientist, ANU
Associate Professor Tracy Rogers, Evolutionary ecologist, UNSW Australia
Professor Chris Ryan, Eco-innovation researcher, University of Melbourne
Dr Oz Sahnin, Climate change researcher, Griffith University
Associate Professor Peter Sainsbury, Climate and health researcher, University of Sydney
Professor David Sinclair, Medical scientist, UNSW Australia
Dr Tom Sobey, Medical scientist, UNSW Australia
Professor Will Steffen, Climate change researcher, ANU
Professor Peter Steinberg, Marine scientist, UNSW Australia
Associate Professor Christian Stricker, Medical scientist, ANU
Professor Ian Suthers, Marine biologist, UNSW Australia
Associate Professor Sue Taylor, Medical scientist, University of Western Australia
Dr Sebastian Thomas, Sustainability researcher, University of Melbourne
Dr Andrew Thomson, Solar researcher, ANU
Associate Professor Thomas Thorsten, Marine biologist, UNSW Australia
Associate Professor Ian Tibbetts, Marine Scientist, University of Queensland
Professor David Tissue, Plant ecophysiologist, Western Sydney University
Professor Matthias Tomczak, Oceanographer, Flinders University
Mr Shane Toohey, Medical scientist, University of Western Australia
Dr Gail Trapp, Medical scientist, UNSW Australia
Professor Patrick Troy, Human ecologist, ANU
Professor Tom Trull, Antarctic, oceans and atmosphere researcher, CSIRO
Professor David Tscharke, Medical scientist, ANU
Professor Chris Turney, Antarctic climatologist, UNSW Australia
Dr Tania Urmee, Renewable energy technologist, Murdoch University
Professor René Vaillancourt, Plant geneticist, University of Tasmania
Professor John Veevers, Earth scientist, Macquarie University
Professor Charlie Veron, Marine scientist, Australian Institute of Marine Science
Professor Phil Waite, Medical scientist, UNSW Australia
Dr Elaine Walker, Physics and energy researcher, Murdoch University
Dr Hayden Washington, Environmental researcher, UNSW Australia
Professor David Watson, Water and society ecologist, Charles Sturt University
Dr Scarla J. Weeks, Biophysical oceanographer, University of Queensland
Professor Adrian Werner, Hydrologist, Flinders University
Mr Peter Weiske, Medical and environmental scientist, ANU
Dr Jonathan Whale, Energy researcher, Murdoch University
Associate Professor George Wilson, Wildlife management researcher, ANU
Dr Phillip Zylstra, Forests and fire researcher, University of Wollongong
Andrew Glikson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.
"Over the last year, relations between Russia and the United States have deteriorated to a level not seen since the days of the Cold War. Are we in Cold War 2.0? This special issue of the Bulletin offers a remarkable collection of top-rank experts and their deeply considered views on the US-Russia relationship and the unique enigma named Vladimir Putin. It's an issue that should (and will) be read by national leaders around the world—and by the citizens who must hold them to account, if the world is to avoid the danger and waste of another Cold War. • Let us know what you think of the issue. • John Mecklin • Editor-in-Chief"
"Boulder, Colo. — IMAGINE a future in which humanity’s accumulated wisdom about Earth — our vast experience with weather trends, fish spawning and migration patterns, plant pollination and much more — turns increasingly obsolete. As each decade passes, knowledge of Earth’s past becomes progressively less effective as a guide to the future. Civilization enters a dark age in its practical understanding of our planet. • To comprehend how this could occur, picture yourself in our grandchildren’s time, a century hence. Significant global warming has occurred, as scientists predicted. Nature’s longstanding, repeatable patterns — relied on for millenniums by humanity to plan everything from infrastructure to agriculture — are no longer so reliable. Cycles that have been largely unwavering during modern human history are disrupted by substantial changes in temperature and precipitation. • As Earth’s warming stabilizes, new patterns begin to appear. At first, they are confusing and hard to identify. Scientists note similarities to Earth’s emergence from the last ice age. These new patterns need many years — sometimes decades or more — to reveal themselves fully, even when monitored with our sophisticated observing systems. Until then, farmers will struggle to reliably predict new seasonal patterns and regularly plant the wrong crops. Early signs of major drought will go unrecognized, so costly irrigation will be built in the wrong places. Disruptive societal impacts will be widespread."
The United States is the world’s leading military space power. But the future of that status is not assured in an era characterized by a return to great power competition, which is reflected also in the counterspace race in which both China and Russia are moving rapidly to seek an edge. In the face of a foreseeable relative decline in its power, the United States is determined to not just reinforce but also distinguish its space-based advantages from its competitors.
Some of the ways the U.S. is doing so are clear. The Department of Defense (DOD) is dedicating over $2 billion on space control capabilities that “address potential threats” to U.S space assets. It is also talking openly about its Strategic Capabilities Office, with the mission of rapid development and fielding of capabilities.
Other ways are less evident, but have deeper long-term implications for sustaining an edge over rivals. The U.S. is tapping into the emerging commercial frontiers marked by the intersecting surge of small satellites and big data. There is the Defense Innovation Initiative, whose stated aim is to connect industry with DOD. This is not just about research and development planning. Under this initiative, the military is also reaching out to the industrial base in an effort to speedily leverage commercially-driven space technology products.
"London — ARCHAEOLOGY has long been exploited as a political tool. Hitler used artifacts and symbols to manufacture a narrative of Aryan racial superiority. The Islamic State proves its zealotry by destroying evidence of ancient history. Underwater archaeology — the world of shipwrecks and sunken cities — has mostly avoided these kinds of machinations, though. Since no one lives beneath the sea, leaders haven’t found many opportunities for political gains from archaeological sites there. • That is, until now. • In the past few years, politicians in Canada, Russia and China have realized that they can use shipwrecks on the sea floor to project their sovereignty into new maritime territories. And this politicized abuse of science is putting the world on a path toward conflict. • For decades, global powers have been engaged in a race to exploit lucrative marine resources, from oil to fisheries to control of strategic waterways. But they have faced a challenge: How can a country claim new territory despite the restrictions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea? It turns out that “historical ties” to resource-rich regions can conveniently help to contravene international law."
The day after the terrible news of mass killing in Paris, more than one person asked me, “What is happening to humanity?” Today, with the video of a teen killed in the street in Chicago, the question comes again. And right alongside it, on this day before Thanksgiving, the question of how we keep our own humanity in a fraught time of fear and anger. We reached out to famed novelist, essayist, moral thinker Marilynne Robinson – author of “Gilead” and more – to talk with us about exactly that. She’s with us. This hour On Point, Marilynne Robinson, on faith, hope and hanging on to our humanity now.
"Global temperatures are set to rise more than 1C above pre-industrial levels in 2015, according to the UK's Met Office." "Figures from January to September this year are already 1.02C above the average between 1850 and 1900. • If temperatures remain as predicted, 2015 will be the first year to breach this key threshold. • The world would then be half way towards 2C, the gateway to dangerous warming."
"BEIJING — China on Tuesday accused the United States of committing a 'deliberate provocation' by sending a Navy destroyer into waters claimed by Beijing, adding that such actions would force China to speed up its building program in the South China Sea. • 'China will firmly react to this deliberate provocation,' Lu Kang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a regularly scheduled news conference. He added, 'China will not condone any action that undermines China’s security.' The American ambassador, Max Baucus, was called to the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday evening and told by the deputy foreign minister, Zhang Yesui, that the United States should stop 'threatening Chinese sovereignty and security interests,' the national broadcaster CCTV said. Mr. Zhang delivered a 'solemn representation and strong protest,' CCTV said."
"Russia has launched rocket strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria from its warships in the Caspian Sea, 1,500km (932 miles) away, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu says. • He said four warships launched 26 sea-based cruise missiles on 11 targets, destroying them. • Meanwhile, Syrian ground troops have launched an offensive under Russian air cover, Syrian officials say. • Russia denies claims that its week-long strikes mainly hit non-IS targets."
"BEIRUT, Lebanon — In a second day of raids in Syria, Russian warplanes carried out a new round of airstrikes on Thursday that once again — contrary to Moscow’s assertions — appeared to be targeting not the Islamic State but a rival insurgent coalition. •Russia sent more than 50 aircraft on about 30 sorties over Syria on Thursday, using drones and satellites to identify targets, said Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry. They were able to deploy quickly, he said, because ammunition and other supplies had been stockpiled at the Tartus naval base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, Russia’s only military site outside the former Soviet Union. •Russia’s entry into the Syrian conflict, which started on Wednesday with a bombing attack on Syrian opposition fighters, has been angrily condemned by United States officials. They fear that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is using their shared goal of defeating the Islamic State as a pretext for weakening other opponents of Syria’s embattled president, Bashar al-Assad. Mr. Putin says that Mr. Assad is a bulwark against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL; President Obama says that Mr. Assad must go, though perhaps in a 'managed transition' to a new government."
"Demonstrating a new level of tension with Israel, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority declared Wednesday that it was no longer bound by the Oslo Peace Accords and subsequent agreements that formed the basis for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. • In his annual General Assembly speech, Mr. Abbas accused Israel of having violated the accords and subsequent agreements that outline security, economic and other arrangements. He asserted that there was no reason that the Palestinians should remain faithful to them as long as the Israelis were not. • 'We cannot continue to be bound by these signed agreements with Israel and Israel must assume fully all its responsibility as an occupying power,' Mr. Abbas said."
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