Leaders needed to fix global 'mess', says Kofi Annan Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/leaders-needed-to-fix-global--mess---says-kofi-annan-9492686 12 Dec 2017 08:47PM
Ricky Lim · Singapore Posted on :- 08 Dec 2017 05:19AM (Updated: 08 Dec 2017 05:20AM)
Ricky Lim · Singapore Trump has caused many policies mis-step since he step into the office :- (1) He rescind Paris Climate agreement - cause harm to humanity on Earth - and reap the karma of 4 hurricanes unleashing in US and many forest fire - the latest being in California.
(2) He rescind the TPP and other multi-lateral trade deals. This impede global growth.
(3) He escalate tension with N Korea - even to the brink of nuclear war.
(4) He stir tension in Middle East and evoke emotion of moderate Muslims - by stoking this unnecessary move. This will make it harder for the World - to tackle ISIS threat.
(5) He reinvoke the "Boom and Bust" fiscal policies - that will trigger the vicious cycle of economic boom follow by recession and pile up huge debt of close to $21.4 trillion - and risk default that will shake the World Economy.
(6) He deregulate the banking sector - meant to protect the Lehman brothers collapse, mini-bond collapse and other financial risks.
What else has Trump done anything right since he took office? Like · Reply · Just now
Ricky Lim · Singapore And worst, it will make American interest and people - the target of Muslim's wrath worldwide.
Wonder why Trump is indifferent or don't use his head to think of the consequences on the things he do. Like · Reply · Just now
Ricky Lim · Singapore Obama in his 10 years as President had :- (1) Sign Paris Climate agreement - to roll back global climate from hurting earthlings on Earth. (2) Promote multi-lateral trade deals - and promote Economic growth and prosperity for both US and the World. (3) Get N Korea to the negotiating table to denuclearise. (4) He heal the tension between US and the moderate Muslims worldwide - and this has help to defeat ISIS - without committing large US troop. (5) He stop the World Economic "yo-yo Boom and Bust" cyclic growth and recession vicious cycle with sound monetary policy and fiscal policy by not accumulating huge debt that will bankrupt US. (6) He regulate the banking sector - to prevent unsecure and careless investment in toxic assets with high risk - that cause bankrupt to banks, cause run-on banks and default on depositors money.
Trump take revenge on Obama - and dismantle all the good things that are done by Obama - and unleash economic, political, social demon onto US and the World - just because of his own personal vendetta. Like · Reply · Just now
Ricky Lim · Singapore Ricky Lim · Singapore Posted on :- 10 Oct 2017 01:14AM (Updated: 10 Oct 2017 02:51AM) Trump administration to end Obama climate plan Ricky Lim · Singapore Look like the 4 Hurricane - Irma, Harvey, Maria, Nates --- is not a sufficient karma lesson for Donald Trump and its supporters.
11 Oct 2017 02:48AM (Updated: 11 Oct 2017 05:11AM) 15 dead as wildfires torch California wine country Last month, a massive fire described as the biggest in the history of Los Angeles forced hundreds to evacuate their homes. --
Wonder will Donald Trump and its supporters learn their lesson on Global Climate.
For karma will be relentless ---- for the unrepenting recalcitrant ones.... Like · Reply · Just now
Ricky Lim · Singapore "I am surrounded by devastation and feel lucky it didn't happen to me," Dixon said. US President Donald Trump declared a major disaster in California, freeing up federal funding and resources to help fight the 17 large wildfires in the western state.
--- Donald Trump has not learned his lesson - and karma will be relentless ...... Like · Reply · Just now Like · Reply · 1m
Ricky Lim · Singapore California Governor Jerry Brown has warned that climate change meant the state was becoming increasingly vulnerable and wildfires were becoming the "new normal." "The fire season used to be a few months in the summer," Brown said. "Now it's almost year-long." Brown has been one of the most vocal critics of President Donald Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the Paris accord on global warming, and he renewed his attacks on the administration over its attitude toward climate change. "Nature is not a political game. Nature is the ground on which we stand, it's the air which we breathe," he said. "The truth of the case is that there's too much carbon being emitted, that heat-trapping gasses are building up, the planet is warming and all hell is breaking loose."
Ricky Lim · Singapore Posted on :- 8 Sep 2017 Avatar ricky l 0 seconds ago Donald Trump should say he was damned wrong - calling the Global Warming a hoax and blatantly cancel his commitment in Paris Climate Deal.
Karma is catching up on him.
He should apologise and vow to rejoin his commitment in Paris Climate Deal. Reply 0 0 ricky l ricky l 25 seconds ago Never fool Nature.
Never don't believe in Karma.
Never call Global Warming a hoax and abuse it, Donald Trump - for it return to teach you a lesson - good and proper.
ricky l ricky l 3 seconds ago For the karma, the sin of harming humanity on Earth - is extremely heavy - for absconding the commitment on Paris Climate Agreement.'
Hence, the karma backlash from Nature - is so ferocious .............. -- else Donald Trump don't believe - and still insist that Global Warming is a hoax ....................... Like · Reply · 1m
Ricky Lim · Singapore Trump has incurred the wrath of karma of the 4 Great Earth Elements - Fire, Earth, Wind, Water (火，土，风，水）。 Like · Reply · 1m
Leaders needed to fix global 'mess', says Kofi Annan
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"Honestly speaking, we are in a mess," UN chiefs Kofi Annan told AFP in an exclusive interview ahead of Tuesday's climate talks in Paris. (Photo: AFP/Joel Saget)
12 Dec 2017 08:47PM
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PARIS: Former UN chiefs Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon have lashed out at the state of global leadership in the age of Donald Trump, warning a nuclear war could be triggered by accident.
"Honestly speaking, we are in a mess," Annan told AFP in an interview ahead of Tuesday's (Dec 12) climate talks in Paris.
"In the past when we went through this sort of crisis, you had leaders who had the courage and the vision to want to take action, to understand that they needed to work with others," he said.
At a time of growing US isolationism - Trump has announced plans to leave the Paris climate deal agreed two years ago on this day - Annan urged leaders to cooperate better on fighting terrorism, migration and global warming.
"Today, leaders are going in the wrong direction," he said. "Leaders are withdrawing."
He expressed particular concern over escalating tensions with North Korea, warning: "One miscalculation, one mistake and we are all victims".
"It may not be a deliberate decision to start a nuclear war," he added, adding that inflammatory rhetoric - without mentioning Trump or North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un by name - was not helping.
Ban, who like Annan spoke to AFP as part of The Elders group of senior statesmen and women, blasted Trump's climate stance as "politically short-sighted and misguided".
"The richest and most powerful country" in the world is disengaging from a historic deal that "even countries like Syria" have signed, Ban said.
"We are seeing more and more troubles and conflicts still continuing, because of the lack of global commitment and global vision," he added.
STEP FORWARD, MACRON?
Lakhdar Brahimi, the former UN Syria envoy who joined the interview with former Irish president Mary Robinson and Norway's first female premier Gro Harlem Brundtland, said Europe could step into the bigger global role vacated by Trump - at least in the Middle East.
French President Emmanuel Macron in particular, he suggested, appears willing to shoulder more responsibility: this week's climate talks are his latest bid to play a lead role in global affairs.
"I think Europe certainly has a role and a capacity to play a role, and the important leaders in Europe. Definitely one of them is President Macron," Brahimi told AFP.
The United States has "absolutely" disqualified itself as a broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, he added.
"They have now announced with this statement 'We are not going to mediate anymore'. And the thing is, I think someone should step in because this problem is not going to go away."
As a new round of peace talks gets under way in Geneva this week, Brahimi - who like Annan quit as the UN's Syria envoy in frustration over years of deadlock - said he hoped this time things might be different.
"I think we have come now much closer to the realisation that indeed there is no military solution. There is some hope there," he said.
"The other thing is that there was fear that Syria would break up as a country. It does seem that the unity of Syria can be preserved if people really start working for a political solution."
Source: AFP/ec Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/leaders-needed-to-fix-global--mess---says-kofi-annan-9492686
Trump loses his big bet on Alabama US Senate race
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Republican Roy Moore looks downcast after losing the race for the US Senate. (Photo: AFP)
(Updated: )
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WASHINGTON: In backing Roy Moore in Alabama's U.S. Senate race even though the candidate faced allegations of sexual misconduct with teenage girls, President Donald Trump made a risky bet: and lost big.
The victory by Democrat Doug Jones over the Republican Moore in the Alabama special election on Tuesday was a catastrophe for Trump, portending a Democratic wave next year that could cost Republicans control of one or both houses of Congress.
The stakes in Alabama were that high. Democrats already were confident they had a strong chance to retake the U.S. House of Representatives in next year’s congressional elections. Jones' narrow victory increases their once-long odds of retaking control of the Senate as well.
If Democrats were to recapture both chambers, they would serve as a check on Trump’s agenda and might even initiate impeachment proceedings against him.
"That Republicans lost in one of the most Republican states in the nation is a wake-up call no matter how flawed their candidate was," said Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist and former aide to Democrat Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
Democrats never expected to have a chance in Alabama, where they had not won a U.S. Senate race in 25 years. But the combination of Trump’s unpopularity, the sexual misconduct allegations that erupted against Moore in November, and Trump's enthusiastic support of him anyway gave them the opportunity, experts said.
“Trump was the one who got Jones within firing range, and Moore allowed Jones to win,” said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia.
Even as Democrats lost several special congressional elections this year, they consistently showed higher levels of turnout and engagement, which is attributable to Trump, Kondik said.
TRUMP REFERENDUM?
The Alabama race showed there were limits both to Trump’s endorsement power and his judgment.
Even as senior Republicans urged Trump to abandon Moore, the president decided instead in the campaign's final days to throw the full weight of his office behind him. In the end, that was not enough, and early turnout reports suggested that many Republicans stayed home.
Moreover, despite the sexual misconduct allegations against Moore, the race near the end increasingly seemed to become about the president. Moore’s camp this week said the contest was specifically a referendum on Trump and his presidency.
“It is Donald Trump on trial in Alabama,” Dean Young, a strategist for Moore, told ABC News.
Trump congratulated Jones on Twitter "on a hard fought victory" and added: "Republicans will have another shot at this seat in a very short period of time."
The loss was also a body blow to Steve Bannon, Trump’s former top strategist, who backed Moore in the primary against the Republican incumbent, Luther Strange, because he viewed Moore as a more reliable ally.
Bannon also frequently characterized the race as less about Alabama and more about furthering Trump’s economic nationalist agenda.
Bannon is looking to wage an insurgency against the Republican establishment in the 2018 congressional elections, particularly Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who condemned Moore after several women accused him of unwanted sexual contact when they were in their teens and he was in his 30s.
Moore, 70, has denied the allegations, and Reuters has not independently verified them.
ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT
Beyond Moore, Bannon is supporting anti-establishment candidates such as Kelli Ward in Arizona, Danny Tarkanian in Nevada and Kevin Nicholson in Wisconsin, all of whom oppose McConnell staying on as Senate leader.
Bannon also may ultimately support challenges against sitting Republicans in Mississippi and Wyoming.
But Moore’s loss seems certain to dampen that effort, and Republicans who fear losing control of Congress may be even less likely to back outsider candidates who may turn off mainstream voters.
It is now an open question whether Trump will inject himself into more Republican primaries, given his setback in Alabama.
“When you nominate candidates who are unqualified and an embarrassment to the party, you run the risk of ruining your entire brand,” said Josh Holmes, a Republican consultant and close ally of McConnell.
Bannon’s supporters say rank-and-file Republican voters are more likely to blame McConnell, not Bannon, for the loss in Alabama, arguing that McConnell and his well-resourced Senate Leadership Fund did nothing to help Moore.
McConnell “actively opposed the Republican candidate in Alabama and threatened our Senate majority by helping to put a liberal Democrat in that seat,” said Andy Surabian, a former Bannon protégé who now advises a pro-Trump advocacy group, Great America Alliance.
Even with the Alabama win, Democrats face a significant challenge next year if they are to take control of the Senate. They must defend 10 incumbents in states that were won by Trump and they must gain two seats currently held by Republicans. Their best opportunities to secure those seats lie in Arizona and Nevada, and perhaps Tennessee.
Democrats need 24 seats to retake the House, but that is viewed as a more realistic goal because of the number of congressional districts where they are competitive, particularly in suburban areas.
Brian Walsh, president of another pro-Trump group, America First Policies, said Trump could not be blamed for Moore’s loss, arguing that the president's late endorsement almost won the race for Moore, a deeply flawed candidate.
“He was trying to push a boulder up a hill,” Walsh said.
(Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Caren Bohan and Peter Cooney)
Source: Reuters
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/trump-loses-his-big-bet-on-alabama-us-senate-race-9495030
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