Lora Smith LONDON, July 26 -- Boris Johnson has clashed with Brussels over his call for the EU to drop its opposition to a new Brexit deal and return to the negotiating table. In his first statement to MPs as British prime minister, Mr Johnson said he would work "flat out" to secure a new agreement on Britain's withdrawal from the EU. But Brussels responded swiftly, with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker using his first phone call with the new prime minister to say the existing Withdrawal Agreement was "the best and only" deal possible. Mr Johnson said the British government was "turbocharging" preparations for a no-deal break on October 31 if the EU refused to engage. In Brussels, the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier said Mr Johnson's demands were "unacceptable" and accused him of using "combative" language to put pressure on the remaining EU27. A European Commission spokesman said Mr Juncker "listened to what Prime Minister Johnson had to say, reiterating the EU's position that the Withdrawal Agreement is the best and only agreement possible". He said he would be prepared to "analyse any ideas put forward by the United Kingdom, providing they are compatible with the Withdrawal Agreement". The two politicians exchanged mobile phone numbers and agreed to remain in touch "should the United Kingdom wish to hold talks and clarify its position in more detail". Mr Johnson appeared in the Commons chamber to cheers from Tory MPs, still reeling after his brutal purge of Theresa May's cabinet which saw 17 ministers sacked or quit their jobs. He underlined his determination to take Britain out of the EU by the end of October, warning that failure to do so would lead to a "catastrophic loss of confidence" in the political system. Despite the fears of many MPs he is setting Britain on course for a no-deal break, Mr Johnson insisted he would still prefer to leave with a new agreement in place. However he said Mrs May's Withdrawal Agreement – rejected three times by MPs – was "unacceptable" and that the Northern Ireland backstop had to go. "No country that values its independence, and, indeed, its self respect, could agree to a treaty which signed away our economic independence and self government as this backstop does," he said. The comments from Brussels echoed Taoiseach Leo Varadkar who said Mr Johnson's claims he could get a new deal by October 31 were "not in the real world". Mr Johnson, who earlier chaired the first meeting of his new cabinet, insisted the UK side was ready to meet and talk with the EU, "whenever they are ready to do so". "I would prefer us to leave the EU with a deal. I would much prefer it. I believe that is still possible even at this late stage and I will work flat out to make it happen," he said. "For our part, we will throw ourselves into these negotiations with the greatest energy and determination and in the spirit of friendship. "And I hope that the EU will be equally ready and that they will rethink their current refusal to make any changes to the Withdrawal Agreement." At the same time he said he had ordered Michael Gove, the new chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in charge of no-deal preparations in the cabinet office, to "turbocharge" efforts to get the country ready for any eventuality. As well as a major public relations campaign, Mr Johnson said there would be an "economic package" to boost business including changes to tax rules to incentivise investment in capital and research. And he further sought to raise the stakes with the EU, saying he would not nominate a new UK commissioner - although he insisted that this was not intended to prevent the formation of the new commission due at the start of December. However, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn warned Mr Johnson was overestimating the ability of his "hastily thrown together... hard-right cabinet" to deliver a new Brexit deal. "No-one underestimates this country but the country is deeply worried that the new prime minister overestimates himself," he said. "People do not trust this prime minister to make the right choices for the majority of the people in this country when he's also promising tax giveaways to the richest of big business - his own party's funders." However Mr Johnson drew cheers from Tory MPs with an attack on the Labour leader, accusing this "long-standing Euro-sceptic" of "metamorphosing" into a Remainer. He also brushed off a call by the SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford for an immediate general election. "The people of this country have voted in 2015, 2016, 2017 –- what they want to see is this parliament delivering on the mandate they gave us, including him," he said.
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Pete McGee HOCKENHEIM, July 26 -- Vettel's lacklustre form has been under intense scrutiny this season, with his on-form 21-year-old Monegasque teammate Charles Leclerc providing hot competition, and the pressure is mounting. If Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel is feeling the pressure ahead of his home German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, then he knows who to blame. That, the four-times Formula One world champion recognised on Thursday, is because he has always been his own harshest critic. “If I get something wrong and do a mistake, I can’t be happy with that,” the 32-year-old told reporters ahead of Sunday’s race at Hockenheim. “The pressure I put on myself after that is bigger than any external factors. (It’s been) the same as long as I can remember.” Vettel’s lacklustre form has been under intense scrutiny this season, with his on-form 21-year-old Monegasque teammate Charles Leclerc providing hot competition, and the pressure is mounting. Last year at Hockenheim Vettel started on pole position only to crash out while leading on a track made slippery by rain. That turned out to be the costliest of a series of mistakes in 2018 that undid his title charge, handing Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton — who won in Germany — a lead that the Briton never relinquished. Hamilton is now a five-times champion and well on his way to a sixth title, winning seven of the 10 races so far. Vettel, who won four titles in a row between 2010-13 with Red Bull, has meanwhile looked a shadow of his former self since that mistake. The German has won just once since his Hockenheim heartbreak, at the Belgian Grand Prix last August. Ferrari have been unable to produce a car to match dominant Mercedes this season with the Italian team without a win since now-departed Kimi Raikkonen triumphed in Texas last October. In his fifth season with the glamour team, Vettel is already 100 points behind championship leader Hamilton with no realistic hope of challenging for the title. However, he said the dream of following in boyhood idol Michael Schumacher’s footsteps by becoming a champion for the sport’s oldest and most successful team remained very much alive. Driving for Ferrari despite the weight of expectation that goes with it, he said, was a privilege and not a burden. “I think we all know that Formula One is a world where people are very short-sighted which is also fair and part of the game,” said Vettel. “Obviously this year hasn’t gone the way we wanted after the last two years. “Still, I think things are progressing in the right direction in the big picture.” Lora Smith LONDON, July 25 -- Boris Johnson oversaw one of the most brutal cabinet culls in UK political history tonight, replacing a string of big-name MPs with some of his closest supporters. Within hours of arriving in Downing Street Johnson had appointed Sajid Javid as chancellor, Dominic Raab as foreign secretary, Priti Patel as home secretary, and Liz Truss as international trade secretary. Supporters of his leadership rival Jeremy Hunt were the first to be ousted, with Brexiters Liam Fox and Penny Mordaunt sacked. Hunt will also return to the backbenches after turning down the job of defence secretary, which will be taken by Ben Wallace. Former City lawyer Nicky Morgan returns to the government as culture secretary, opening up the chair of the Treasury Select Committee – largely seen as Westminster’s leading financial watchdog. Andrea Leadsom was appointed business secretary, replacing Greg Clark. Former leadership contender Michael Gove, with whom Johnson fell out during the 2016 race to replace David Cameron, was made chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, while Gavin Williamson returns to the government as education secretary and Amber Rudd takes the work and pensions brief. Her predecessor Esther McVey becomes housing minister. Another leadership contender, Matt Hancock, who backed Johnson after dropping out of the race, remains health and social care secretary. Theresa Villiers is the new environment secretary, while Grant Shapps becomes transport secretary, replacing Chris Grayling. Hardline Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg was appointed leader of the House of Commons, and Rishi Sunak was made chief secretary to the Treasury. Earlier in the day prominent MPs – including Theresa May, Philip Hammond, Rory Stewart, David Gauke and David Lidington – confirmed they were leaving the government. Around 20 ministers have left their posts. As well as making sweeping changes to the Cabinet, Johnson has also installed new faces in Downing Street, with former Vote Leave campaign director Dominic Cummings given a role alongside a slew of other names who worked with Johnson during the 2016 EU referendum. Conservative MP Nigel Evans said: “It’s not so much a reshuffle as a summer’s day massacre”. Ahead of the switch-up, Johnson said he would take personal responsibility for a range of improvements he wanted to see to the UK. “Never mind the backstop, the buck stops here,” he said. With his new Downing Street team looking on, Johnson argued that should the UK leave the EU without an agreement, it would be the fault of Brussels. He said: “I am convinced we can do a deal without checks at the Irish border because we refuse under any circumstances to have such checks and get rid of that antidemocratic backstop.” “It is of course vital that at the same time we prepare for the remote possibility that Brussels refuses any further to negotiate and we are forced to come out with no deal, not because we want that outcome, of course not, but because it is only common sense to prepare [for] it.” Johnson also vowed to withhold all the money agreed in the financial settlement in the event of no deal, saying the amount – in excess of £30bn – would be “extra lubrication”. Aside from Brexit, Johnson made a raft of domestic policy announcements. He pledged an extra 20,000 police on to the nation’s streets, reducing waiting times for people wanting to see a GP, and 20 new hospital upgrades. On social care, the issue which sparked the unravelling of Theresa May’s 2017 general election campaign, Johnson made a firm pledge. “My job is to protect you or your parents or grandparents from the fear of having to sell your home to pay for the costs of care and so I am announcing now – on the steps of Downing Street – that we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all with a clear plan we have prepared,” he said. Linda Lim TAIPEI, July 25 -- The US military said on Wednesday it sent a Navy warship through the Taiwan Strait, a move likely to anger China during a period of tense relations between Washington and Beijing. Taiwan is among a growing number of flashpoints in the US-China relationship, which include a trade war, US sanctions and China’s increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea, where the United States also conducts freedom-of-navigation patrols. China on Wednesday warned that it is ready for war if there was any move toward Taiwan’s independence, accusing the United States of undermining global stability and denouncing its arms sales to the self-ruled island. The warship sent to the 112-mile-wide (180km) Taiwan Strait was identified as the USS Antietam. “The (ship’s) transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Commander Clay Doss, a spokesman for the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet, said in a statement. “The US Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows,” he added. The voyage risks further raising tensions with China but is likely to be viewed by self-ruled Taiwan as a sign of support from US President Donald Trump’s administration amid growing friction between Taipei and Beijing. The United States has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help provide the island with the means to defend itself and is its main source of arms. China has been ramping up pressure to assert its sovereignty over the island, which it considers a wayward province of “one China” and sacred Chinese territory. On Wednesday, Chinese Defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian told a news briefing on a defence white paper, the first like it in several years to outline the military’s strategic concerns, that China would make its greatest effort for peaceful reunification with Taiwan. Linda Lim DUNGUN, July 25 -- China and Malaysia resumed construction on a massive "Belt and Road" train project in northern Malaysia on Thursday, after a year-long suspension and following a rare agreement to cut the cost by nearly a third to about US$11 billion. The project was initially canceled by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who came to power after a shock election victory in May last year, as he followed through a pledge to renegotiate or cancel "unfair" Chinese mega-projects approved by his predecessor, Najib Razak. But in April, the close trade partners agreed to proceed with the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) at a cost of 44 billion ringgit ($10.7 billion), reducing it from 65.5 billion ringgit. The 640 kilometre line, with China Communications Construction Co Ltd as the lead contractor, will connect Port Klang on the Straits of Malacca with the city of Kota Bharu in northeast peninsular Malaysia. The agreement to resume work on the project had immediately boosted confidence in Malaysia among foreign investors, China's ambassador to Malaysia said at a ceremony in the coastal district of Dungun. Flanked by cranes and trucks parked near a partly completed section of a tunnel, Ambassador Bai Tian spoke of "a great wave" of potential Chinese investors coming to Malaysia for field studies, and he expected many of them to decide to invest. China is debt-heavy Malaysia's biggest trade partner and the countries have close cultural ties too. Ambassador Bai said the completion of the ECRL, expected by December 2026, could more than double the number of Chinese tourists coming in to Malaysia from 3 million last year. Malaysia Rail Link, the project's local partner, said in a statement that up to 70% of the workers will be local and that domestic contractors will get 40% of the civil works. The Belt and Road Initiative has been praised for its potential to speed up economic development in many developing countries, but also criticised for potentially saddling many of them with unsustainable debt. Malaysia's Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng told Reuters on Monday that Beijing had offered them more BRI infrastructure investments and that Kuala Lumpur would consider them "if the pricing is right". Malaysia is already identifying new joint investment opportunities with China along the ECRL corridor, Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke said at the Dungun event. Lora Smith LONDON, July 24 -- Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister-designate, said his government would be very “pro-China”, in an interview with a Hong Kong-based Chinese-language broadcaster shortly before he was chosen to succeed Theresa May on Tuesday. Speaking to Phoenix TV, Johnson backed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s infrastructure-based Belt and Road Initiative and said his government would maintain an open market for Chinese investors in Britain. “We are very enthusiastic about the Belt and Road Initiative. We are very interested in what President Xi is doing [for the plan],” he said. The Brexit campaigner also vowed to keep Britain as “the most open economy in Europe” for Chinese investments. “Don’t forget [we are] the most open international investment [destination], particularly [for] Chinese investment. We have Chinese companies coming in to do Hinkley, for instance, the big nuclear power plant.” Boris Johnson, Britain’s next prime minister, has said he is “very pro-China” in an interview with an international Chinese language broadcaster. Photo: ReutersBoris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister-designate, said his government would be very “pro-China”, in an interview with a Hong Kong-based Chinese-language broadcaster shortly before he was chosen to succeed Theresa May on Tuesday. Speaking to Phoenix TV, Johnson backed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s infrastructure-based Belt and Road Initiative and said his government would maintain an open market for Chinese investors in Britain. “We are very enthusiastic about the Belt and Road Initiative. We are very interested in what President Xi is doing [for the plan],” he said. The Brexit campaigner also vowed to keep Britain as “the most open economy in Europe” for Chinese investments. “Don’t forget [we are] the most open international investment [destination], particularly [for] Chinese investment. We have Chinese companies coming in to do Hinkley, for instance, the big nuclear power plant.” Johnson also stressed that Britain was the first Western country to join the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a move that angered its major ally, the US. Britain became a founder-member of the AIIB – the first Asia-based international bank to be independent from the Western-dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund – with a US$50 million contribution to its special project fund in 2015. Linda Lim BEIJING, July 24 -- Chinese armed forces stationed in Hong Kong can be deployed to maintain public order at the request of the city's government, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has said. PLA spokesman Wu Qian said at a press conference on Wednesday (July 24) that China's military has been closely watching the demonstrations in Hong Kong, especially the protests last Sunday (July 21) that saw Beijing's representative office in the special administrative region being defaced. "We are closely following the developments in Hong Kong, especially the violent attack against the central government liaison office by radicals on July 21," Senior Colonel Wu said at the briefing to introduce China's new defence white paper. "Some behaviour of the radical protesters is challenging the authority of the central government and the bottom line of 'one country, two systems', and that is absolutely intolerable." Responding to a question on how the Chinese military will handle the Hong Kong situation, Col Wu said "Article 14 of the garrison law has clear stipulations", without further elaboration. The Article in Hong Kong's Garrison Law states that the city's government can ask the central government for assistance from the PLA's Hong Kong garrison to maintain public order and for disaster relief. Should Beijing approve, the garrison would send the troops to carry out the specified tasks, and then immediately return to their station. The troops would be under the command of the garrison's highest commander, or an officer authorised by the commander with arrangements made by the Hong Kong government. Col Wu's remarks mirrored earlier comments made by other officials such as the head of Beijing's Liaison Office Wang Zhimin and the Chinese foreign ministry, which said on Tuesday that the "extreme, illegal violence...seriously challenged the bottom line of 'one country, two systems'". Linda Lim It has featured transgender women as showgirls from the beginning, and Alisa was always concerned about the mistreatment they receive from society. "Back then, our transgender showgirls were always perceived with prejudice. In a tourist town like Pattaya, our girls had to carry their staff ID card whenever they went out to protect themselves, to prevent people and the authorities from mistaking them for prostitutes. They were mistreated. And this affected us because, as the executives, we need to be able to take care of them both inside and outside the theatre," said Alisa. "I have always questioned why people have to take issue with someone's gender. And so the idea goes from just staff management to the point where we ask what we can also do about society. Miss Tiffany's Universe was then born to put transgender women in the spotlight."
After the pageant's inaugural year was successfully hosted at the theater, Alisa pushed for a live broadcast of the event in the following year to raise society's awareness about transgender women and their existence. The pageant was first broadcast nationally on ITV channel in 1999. There was no other stage for transgender women at the time. "It was a big hit, as it was something that has never happened before in the country. It really made a stamp that we were the real deal," Alisa recalled. "At the same time, it was very difficult to find sponsors because no one wanted to attach their products to people of the 'third gender'." Miss Tiffany's Universe continued to build its name in two decade-long stages. Alisa said she devoted the first 10 years of the pageant to make people understand who transgender women are, and how different they are from gay men. "And when we reached a certain point, people began to realise who we are and that our girls are gorgeous. But we also want to go beyond that simple acknowledgment. We spent the next 10 years opening doors and opportunities, to send a message that men, women and transgender people are all equally capable. It's not necessary at all to push transgender people to be only make-up artists and showgirls when they have the ability and the desire to do so many other things." Prior to the show, we went backstage to meet some of this year's contestants. Each of them came to Miss Tiffany's with hopes and dreams, some of which were quite unexpected. Contestant No.16 Nutchuda Lumphun, 25, said she wishes to become a member of parliament to represent and develop her hometown in Nakhon Phanom province. "On my own, I'm just a small person. But now as one of the Top 30 contestants, I consider myself a success. And if I can go even further, I'll have a bigger voice to speak for my province," said Nutchuda, who works as an actress and MC. Contestant No.22 Sasipichaya Pakdee said she's also here in hopes of making her voice louder. Onstage, she publicly advocated a law that would allow transgender people to legally change their gender and title. This is her second time at the pageant. Pete McGee TOKYO, July 24 -- Nissan Motor Co. plans to cut more than 10,000 jobs globally as part of efforts to turn around its business, company sources said Tuesday. The number, which represents around 10 percent of its global workforce, is much bigger than an earlier estimate. In May the Japanese carmaker said it would cut 4,800 jobs. Nissan's group net profit hit a nine-year low in the year through March, hit by weak sales of its cars in the U.S. market, and the Japanese automaker has projected it will nearly be halved in fiscal 2019. Also, since the arrest in November of its former Chairman Carlos Ghosn over alleged financial misdeeds, Nissan has been struggling to restructure its management team and ties with Renault SA, its biggest shareholder. The additional reduction in workforce, including through early retirement options, is expected to be announced by the Yokohama-headquartered automaker on Thursday, when it releases earnings figures for the April to June period of this year. Some factories in South America and other regions where Nissan has low profitability are likely to be subject to the reduction plan, while it may try to streamline output in Japan. As of March this year, Nissan and its group companies had about 139,000 employees, according to its financial report. Nissan has acknowledged it was overstretching to meet numerical targets, such as by relying on incentives, in the U.S. market. It has been reviewing the expansionist business strategy spearheaded by Ghosn, who built the three-way alliance also involving Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and led an auto group that was the world's second largest last year in terms of vehicle sales. In fiscal 2018, Nissan saw its global vehicle sales fall 4.4 percent to 5.52 million units, including a 9.3 percent decline in the United States to 1.44 million units and a 14.9 percent drop in Europe to 643,000 units. Lora Smith PARIS, July 24 -- The French capital is going through its driest period in almost 150 years and temperatures across Europe continue to reach extreme levels, leaving scorched fields and farmers frustrated by another spell of bad weather. In the east German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Christa-Maria Wendig is worried these once-rare droughts are becoming common. She plans to give up planting rapeseed in the coming months because of the dry weather and the heatwave stunted her ripening corn crop. 'Our ponds are empty and the meadows withered,' she said. As temperatures keep climbing across Europe this week, peaking on Thursday in Paris and London, the effects of extreme weather are becoming clearer. This summer has already seen raging wildfires in Portugal and Spain, falling water levels on Germany’s Rhine River and irrigation restrictions in France. Day-ahead electricity prices in France hit a five-month high Tuesday. In Paris, temperatures are forecast to hit 42°C. Electricite de France SA plans to halt two nuclear reactors at Golfech this week, as the Garonne river becomes too warm for cooling the plant. The company, which produces about three-quarters of France’s power, has said it will prepare nuclear plants to operate in more severe heatwaves in the coming decades amid a changing climate. In agriculture, the heatwave is having the biggest impact on corn fields, which are in a key growth stage. Yields will drop sharply if beneficial rains don’t arrive soon, said German grains handler Agravis Raiffeisen AG. Winter wheat and barley are already being collected and escaped most of the bad weather. Some farmers in France and Germany may harvest corn early as silage to build up their animal-feed supplies for the winter, rather than collecting the crops as grain to sell on the market, said Laurine Simon, an analyst at consultant Strategie Grains. Forage stocks are already low after last year’s drought, and Paris corn futures are up about 10% since late May. Lora Smith LONDON, July 23 -- A prominent British think-tank said on Monday that economic prospects for the UK are deteriorating as a new prime minister is about to be installed in Westminster. The National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) warned there is a one-in-four chance the country has already entered a technical recession, and a disorderly no-deal Brexit in October could lead to a "severe downturn" in the economy within the next six months - and with it, a fall in living standards. Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to officially step down on Wednesday. The name of the new prime minister - elected by 160,000 members of the Conservative Party - will be announced on Tuesday. It is widely expected to be former mayor of London and ex-foreign secretary Boris Johnson, who is running against his successor, Jeremy Hunt. Both Johnson and Hunt have promised to renegotiate May's deal with the European Union, particularly the controversial backstop protocol of the withdrawal agreement, aimed at avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland. Both have promised to take the UK out of the EU without a deal by the new October 31 deadline should EU officials insist the withdrawal agreement is not up for renegotiation, as they have done so far. The recently elected president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, restated this position last week, while conceding the EU would remain open to considering a further Brexit delay "for a good reason". In its latest quarterly forecast, NIESR predicted even if a no-deal Brexit is avoided, the UK economy will see a one percent growth in 2019 and 2020, revised down from the 1.5 percent figure it predicted earlier this year as the March Brexit deadline loomed. An orderly no-deal scenario - involving temporary contingency measures aimed at minimising disruption - would lead to a stall in growth in 2020. Pete McGee BANGKOK, July 23 -- Racing team Scuderia Toro Rosso, part of the Red Bull Formula 1 network, will have the help of PTT Oil and Retail Business (OR) in supporting the Thai-British driver Alex Albon Ansusinha. Jiraphon Kawswat, president and chief executive of OR, which sponsors Alex, and Matthew Strachan of Scuderia Toro Rosso made the announcement at PTT headquarters on Tuesday. Alex becomes the sole Thai national currently competing in Formula 1 and only the second Thai ever to have competed, the first being Prince Birabongse Bhanudej Bhanubandh, who gained global fame among racing fans as “Prince Bira” back in the 1950s. PTT Lubricants, an OR brand, has been sponsoring Alex since he started in Formula 2 last year. Thanks to outstanding performance, he’s been selected for Scuderia Toro Rosso’s F1 team this year. Jiraphon said OR hopes its sponsorship deal gives Alex the chance to show off his skills at the world’s leading racing events and put Thailand back on the global F1 map. “I’m really grateful to PTTOR and PTT Lubricants and look forward to representing them around the world,” Alex said. “To be able to count on their support moving forward is really significant and I’m relishing the chance to work closely with them in the future. I’m incredibly honoured and happy to welcome PTTOR to the Toro Rosso family. Albon is currently in 12 position in the F1 standings after 10 of the 21 races for the season, scoring points in Bahrain (9th place 2 pts), China (10th place 1 pt) and Monaco (8th place 4 pts). His next race will be the German GP at on July 29-29. Jiraphon said OR aims to help earn Thai products recognition as global brands and has been supporting various national and international motorsport events, providing opportunities for Thai drivers to gain experience at high-profile competitions on the global stage. Events supported by OR include the Thailand Super Series and BRIC Superbike by PTT Station. Since last year, OR and PTT have also been the main official sponsors of MotoGP, dubbed the world’s most challenging motorbike race and currently called PTT Thailand Grand Prix. Lora Smith LONDON, July 23 -- Boris Johnson is expected to be elected leader of Britain's governing Conservative Party and the country's next prime minister on Tuesday, tasked with following through on his "do or die" pledge to deliver Brexit in just over three months' time. Mr Johnson and his rival, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, have spent the last month criss-crossing the country seeking to win over the less than 200,000 Conservative Party members who will choose Britain's new leader. Voting closed at 1600 GMT on Monday (midnight Singapore time) and the result is due to be announced on Tuesday morning (Tuesday evening Singapore time). The winner will formally take over as prime minister on Wednesday afternoon, succeeding Mrs Theresa May, who stepped down over her failure to get Parliament to ratify her Brexit deal. Mr Johnson, a former London mayor who resigned as foreign minister a year ago over May's Brexit plans, is the clear favourite to replace her, with several polls putting him on course to win with around 70 per cent. He will inherit a political crisis over Britain's exit from the European Union, currently due to take place on Oct 31. Mr Johnson must persuade the EU to revive talks on a withdrawal deal that it has been adamant cannot be reopened, or else lead Britain into the economic uncertainty of an unmanaged departure. The only deal on the table has been rejected three times by Parliament and many lawmakers - including pro-EU rebels in the Conservative Party - are also vowing to block Mr Johnson trying to take Britain out of the EU without a deal. Lora Smith HELSINKI, July 23 -- A new paper published by researchers form the University of Turku in Finland suggests that even though observed changes in the climate are real, the effects of human activity on these changes are insignificant. The team suggests that the idea of man made climate change is a mere miscalculation or skewing the formulas by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Jyrki Kauppinen and Pekka Malmi, from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Turku, in their paper published on 29th June 2019 claim to prove that the “GCM-models used in IPCC report AR5 fail to calculate the influences of the low cloud cover changes on the global temperature. That is why those models give a very small natural temperature change leaving a very large change for the contribution of the green house gases in the observed temperature.” Thus, in order to come to the results matching the actual climate change the IPCC has to “use a very large sensitivity to compensate a too small natural component. Further they have to leave out the strong negative feedback due to the clouds in order to magnify the sensitivity.” In addition, Kauppinen and Malmi claim that their paper proves that “the changes in the low cloud cover fraction practically control the global temperature.” The authors argue that the IPCC has used computational results which can not be considered experimental evidence, and site this as the reason for contradictory conclusions. “The IPCC climate sensitivity is about one order of magnitude (i.e. 10 times) too high, because a strong negative feedback of the clouds is missing in climate models. If we pay attention to the fact that only a small part of the increased CO2 concentration is anthropogenic, we have to recognise that the anthropogenic climate change does not exist in practice, write Kauppinen and Malmi. “The major part of the extra CO2 is emitted from oceans, according to Henry‘s law. The low clouds practically control the global average temperature. During the last hundred years the temperature is increased about 0.1℃ because of CO2. The human contribution was about 0.01℃.” The paper has been criticised for not being peer reviewed and other climate scientists have refuted the conclusions reached by Kauppinen and Malmi. Critics have said that in addition to not being peer reviewed, Malmi and Kauppinen fail to provide correct physical explanation, have not linked to- or sited to enough sources to support their claims and although they denounce climate models, they use one themselves to prove their own points. In a previous paper by the same scientists published last December, they discuss the effects of cloud cover and relative humidity on the climate change. In a separate study, Japanese scientists have also suggested a much more important role for low clouds cover caused by an increase in cosmic rays resulting form the weakening of the earths magnetic filed. Prof. Masayuki Hyodo and his team Yusuke Ueno, Tianshui Yang and Shigehiro Katoh from the University of Kobe in Japan in their paper published this month in propose that the “umbrella effect” is the main factor behind climate change. “When galactic cosmic rays increased during the Earth’s last geomagnetic reversal transition 780,000 years ago, the umbrella effect of low-cloud cover led to high atmospheric pressure in Siberia, causing the East Asian winter monsoon to become stronger. This is evidence that galactic cosmic rays influence changes in the Earth’s climate.” “The Intergovernmental IPCC has discussed the impact of cloud cover on climate in their evaluations, but this phenomenon has never been considered in climate predictions due to the insufficient physical understanding of it”, comments Professor Hyodo. “This study provides an opportunity to rethink the impact of clouds on climate. When galactic cosmic rays increase, so do low clouds, and when cosmic rays decrease clouds do as well, so climate warming may be caused by an opposite-umbrella effect. The umbrella effect caused by galactic cosmic rays is important when thinking about current global warming as well as the warm period of the medieval era.” Scientists have suspected that the Earth’s magnetic filed is showing signs of flipping. The magnetic filed is moving erratically out of the Canadian Arctic and towards Siberia so unpredictably that it has taken scientists by surprise so that they need to update the model they released only four years ago. Linda Lim SEOUL, July 23 -- South Korean jets fired warning shots after a Russian military plane violated South Korea's airspace on Tuesday, Seoul officials said, in the first such incident between the countries. Three Russian military planes initially entered South Korea's air defense identification zone off its east coast before one of them entered the country's territorial sky, the South's Defense Ministry said. South Korean fighter jets then scrambled to the area to fire warning shots, a ministry official said, requesting anonymity due to department rules. The Russian plane left the area but it returned and violated the South Korean airspace again later Tuesday, the ministry official said. He said the South Korean fighter jets fired warning shots again. Each time, the Russian plane didn't return fire, the official said. It was the first time a Russian military plane violated South Korean airspace, according to South Korean officials. The airspace the Russian plane violated was above a group of South Korean-held islets roughly halfway between South Korea and Japan that has been a source of territorial disputes between them. Russia isn't a party in those disputes. The three Russian planes had entered the South Korean air defense identification zone with two Chinese military planes. But it wasn't immediately known whether the two countries deliberately did so, according to the South Korean official. Before their joint flights with the Russian planes, the Chinese planes entered South Korea's air defense identification zone off its southwest coast earlier Tuesday, according to the South Korean official. Chinese planes have occasionally entered South Korea's air defense identification zone in recent years. South Korea's Defense Ministry said it plans to summon Russian and Chinese Embassy officials later Tuesday to register formal protests. |
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April 2024
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