President Trump advised to stop tweeting about son’s 2016 meeting with Russians, and EU to rally against US sanctions on Iran.
Former UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson accused of Islamophobia
Former British foreign secretary Boris Johnson is being accused of Islamophobia after he made derogatory comments about Muslim women, The Guardian reports.
Johnson, in a column for The Telegraph, wrote that Muslim women in burqas looked like letter boxes and accused them of being “bank robbers”. “He said that he was against bans on face-covering veils in public places, but added that they looked ‘absolutely ridiculous’,” BBC reported. Johnson also wrote that he expected his constituents to remove face coverings when talking to him at MP meet and greets.
According to the BBC report, MPs of the opposition Labour party accused Johnson of “stoking Islamophobia to boost his ambitions of becoming the next Conservative leader”.
China bans film over comparisons between President Jinping & Winnie the Pooh
The new Winnie the Pooh movie, based on the story of author A.A. Milne’s son Christopher Robin, has been denied release in China where social media comparisons between the beloved cartoon and President Xi Jinping have inspired similar crackdowns in the past too, Sky News reported.
#Chinese government blocks meme that compares Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh and #Obama to #Tiger! pic.twitter.com/HsP0RQ03DA
— Alfredo Medellín (@AlfredoMedelln) June 16, 2013
In fact, the Communist party in China has reportedly blocked images of the honey-loving bear to prevent bloggers from using it to mock Xi.
Capping off a ludicrous day in diplomacy- Abe as despondent Eeyore, Xi as sanctimonious Pooh trending on Weibo #APEC pic.twitter.com/bxtX2Z6M4N
— Haidi Lun Stroud-Watts 伦海迪 (@HaidiLun) November 10, 2014
Trump advised to stop tweeting about 2016 Trump Tower meeting
President Trump has been advised to stop tweeting about the meeting between his top advisers and Russians at Trump Tower in 2016, CNN reports. It was suggested that his constant tweeting brought more importance and attention to the topic, even if his followers did not believe in the allegations, the report added.
On 5 August, President Trump had reacted against articles by CNN and The Washington Post that said the President was perturbed about son Trump Jr.’s exposure in the Russia investigations. The President had tweeted that the allegations were fabricated and the meeting was conducted to get information on a political opponent.
Trump Jr. had initially sought to mislead the authorities, claiming that the meeting primarily concerned Russian adoption policy. However, with the emergence of more details, he released a new statement stating that there was a possibility to get incriminating information on Clinton and the Democratic Party.
European Union to check US sanctions on Iran
The European Union has made its intentions clear to check the fallout of US President Donald Trump’s renewed sanctions on Iran, according to Reuters.
It marks a collective effort by the EU to preserve crucial negotiations reached with Iran on its nuclear programme. Both China and Russia have agreed to uphold their commitment to the pact. They have sought to engage with Iran, especially its oil and gas exports, to restore financial flows into the country.
The European Union has been formulating a statute to protect companies doing business with Iran from the effects of the US sanctions and penalties.
‘Trump started the trade war and now he has to justify it’
Chinese daily The Global Times offers an analysis of the US-China trade war.
#Trump started this stupid trade war, and now he has to constantly prove to the American people that he’s right in doing so. That is where he's weak : @HuXijin_GT #VideoFromChina pic.twitter.com/UHG5IVD953
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) August 6, 2018
On the highway to ‘Hothouse Earth’?
Scientists and researchers claim that climate change can soon lead to boiling temperatures and towering seas, the BBC reported.
Climate researchers claim that rising temperatures may convert some of Earth’s protective natural forces into its enemies. For example, about 4.5 billion tonnes of carbon is soaked in by Earth’s land, oceans and forests, creating carbon sinks. However, the report adds, “as the world experiences warming, these carbon sinks could become sources of carbon and make the problems of climate change significantly worse”.
The authors said it was urgent to greatly accelerate the transition towards an emission-free world economy, saying the current warming goal — restricting temperature rise to two degrees below the pre-industrial average — may not be enough to thwart a ‘Hothouse Earth’ situation.
In a ‘Hothouse Earth’ period, global temperatures will be higher than anything experienced before in the past 1.2 million years.