A Vietnamese company is no longer seeking American financial support to build a coal-fired power plant in Vietnam, bringing to an abrupt end a closely watched test of whether Washington…
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A Vietnamese company is no longer seeking American financial support to build a coal-fired power plant in Vietnam, bringing to an abrupt end a closely watched test of whether Washington would back international projects that could potentially contribute to climate change.
On Thursday, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, a lender run by the American government, said the Vietnamese state-controlled company, PetroVietnam, had withdrawn its application for financial support.
The lender, also known as the Ex-Im Bank, takes on the financial risk for American companies exporting high-value equipment and merchandise as a way to help companies in the United States win valuable international business.
US President Donald Trump has reiterated that the issue of Jerusalem is off the negotiating table after his decision to declare the city as the capital of Israel and move the US embassy to the holy city from Tel Aviv.
“By taking Jerusalem off the table I wanted to make it clear that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and as for specific boundaries, I would support what both sides agreed to,” Trump told newspaper Israel Hayom on Sunday.
Trump’s comments echoed those he made during his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuat the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last month.
The annual letter from Bill and Melinda Gates usually paints a rosy view, with carefully curated success stories from the battle against global disease and poverty, and praise for new technologies backed by the Gates Foundation.
But for this year, the co-founders of the world’s richest philanthropy have instead opted to answer a selection of critical and skeptical questions about the foundation’s work and the power it wields.
Among them: “Why don’t you give more in the United States?” “Does saving kids’ lives lead to overpopulation?” And “Is it fair that you have so much influence?”
Fifteen years ago, on Feb. 15, 2003, somewhere between 6 million to 11 million people turned out in at least 650 cities around the world to protest the United States’ push to invade Iraq. It was the largest anti-war protest and remains the largest one-day global protest the world has ever seen.
Today, there are still 5,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq and continued war on terror operations in close to a dozen other Middle Eastern, Central Asian and African nations. The war is ongoing. The anti-war movement, practically speaking, is not. What happened?
On Saturday around 11 a.m. in Oakland, California a fire broke out in a semi-official homeless encampment in the city’s Fruitvale district, destroying the tents and belongings of roughly 20 people. Just by luck there were no injuries in that incident. However, another fire broke out in a West Oakland camp on Monday, killing one man.
The specific causes of both fires remain unknown. Police at the scene of the Fruitvale fire decided it was not intentionally set and are likely to leave it at that. Under the conditions homeless people face, more fires and more fatalities are inevitable.
The annual letter from Bill and Melinda Gates usually paints a rosy view, with carefully curated success stories from the battle against global disease and poverty, and praise for new technologies backed by the Gates Foundation.
But for this year, the co-founders of the world’s richest philanthropy have instead opted to answer a selection of critical and skeptical questions about the foundation’s work and the power it wields.
Among them: “Why don’t you give more in the United States?” “Does saving kids’ lives lead to overpopulation?” And “Is it fair that you have so much influence?”
The Gates also address the impact of President Donald Trump and his policies, a topic about which both have been largely circumspect.
Kazim Ali was born in the United Kingdom to Muslim parents of Indian, Iranian, and Egyptian descent. He received a BA and MA from the University of Albany-SUNY and an MFA from New York University. His books encompass several volumes of poetry, including Sky Ward, winner of the Ohioana Book Award in Poetry; The Far Mosque, winner of Alice James Books’ New England/New York Award; The Fortieth Day; All One’s Blue; and the cross-genre text Bright Felon. His novels include the recently published The Secret Room: A String Quartet. Among his books of essays is Fasting for Ramadan: Notes from a Spiritual Practice. Ali is an associate professor of Creative Writing and Comparative Literature at Oberlin College. His new book of poems, Inquisition, and a new hybrid memoir, Silver Road: Essays, Maps & Calligraphies, will both be released in 2018. Learn more at his website. Photo by Tanya Rosen-Jones.
A new report, Billionaire Bonanza 2017, shows that the three wealthiest Americans — Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Bill Gates of Microsoft, and investor Warren Buffet — have more wealth than the bottom half of all U.S. households combined. “If left unchecked, wealth will continue to accumulate into fewer and fewer hands,” says Josh Hoxie, report co-author. “The time to reverse this trend is past due.” Hoxie, a former staffer for Vt. Sen. Bernie Sanders, is director of the Project on Opportunity and Taxation at the Institute for Policy Studies and co-editor of Inequality.org. He discusses America’s new oligarchy, how the 2017 Republican tax overhaul will rob the middle class to pay the rich, and how citizens can push back.
