1 Global protests over climate change (Roger
Harrabin on BBC) Street protests demanding urgent action on climate change have
attracted hundreds of thousands of marchers in more than 2,000 locations
worldwide. The People's Climate March is campaigning for curbs on carbon
emissions, ahead of the UN climate summit in New York next week.
In Manhattan, organisers said some 310,000 people
joined a march that was also attended by UN chief Ban Ki-moon. Earlier, huge
demonstrations took place in Australia and Europe. "This is the planet
where our subsequent generations will live," Mr Ban told reporters.
"There is no 'Plan B' because we do not have 'Planet B'."
New York hosted the largest of Sunday's protests,
drawing more than half of the 600,000 marchers estimated by organisers to have
taken part in rallies around the world. Another protest, another climate
conference - will this time be any different? Well, the marches brought more
people on to the streets than ever before, thanks to the organisational power of
the social media site Avaaz.
Next year world leaders are due to show up in Paris
to settle a global climate deal based not on a bitterly-contested chiselling
negotiation in the middle of the night, but on open co-operative offers of action
to tackle a shared problem. But some big players may continue the game of
climate poker, holding back their offers until they see what else is on the
table. So there is no guarantee that Ban's idea will work - but at least for
weary climate politics watchers it will be a change.
2 ‘Dubai World debt restructuring soon’ (Khaleej
Times) One of Dubai’s top government officials has said that he expects state-owned
conglomerate Dubai World to reach a deal on renegotiating its debt repayment
schedule in the near future.
“I can say for sure we will reach it. It is there
and you will hear about it soon,” Shaikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman
of Dubai’s Supreme Fiscal Committee, who is also President of Dubai Civil
Aviation Authority and Chairman and CEO of Emirates airline and Group, said when
asked whether Dubai World has reached a deal with creditors.
Returning confidence has led to a number of new
projects to be announced, including plans to build the world’s largest Ferris
wheel and the world’s largest shopping mall. Shaikh Ahmed added that many of
the new residential projects which have been announced were needed to help
boost supply and dampen big increases seen in prices. Property price rises, at close to 30 per cent
year-on-year, were among the highest in the world during 2013 and the first
part of 2014.
3 Obesity is Africa’s new crisis (Ian Birrell in The
Guardian) Fat is no longer just a developed world problem. Today more people in
poorer countries go to bed each night having consumed too many calories than go
to bed hungry – a revelation that underlines the breakneck pace of change on
our planet. A landmark report by the Overseas Development Institute earlier
this year showed that more than one-third of the world’s adults are overweight
– and that almost two-thirds of the world’s overweight people are found in low
and middle-income nations.
The number of obese or overweight people in
developing countries rose from 250 million to almost 1 billion in under three
decades, and these rates are rising significantly faster than in rich nations. South
Africa typifies this alarming new trend, with nearly double the average global
obesity rates, and according to another report has become the world’s third
fattest nation.
Nearly two-thirds of the population is overweight
and, unlike in the developed world, the problem afflicts more women than men.
Incredibly, 69.3% of South African females display unhealthy levels of body fat
and more than four in 10 are clinically obese (defined as having a BMI higher
than 30). More than half the women in Botswana and one in eight Nigerian men
are also obese, while Egypt saw one of the fastest rises among women.
A host of parasitical industries have grown up to
feed off the obesity crisis, from quack diets and hypnotism at one end of the
spectrum to fitness boot camps and bariatric surgery at the other. Television
has also got in on the act, with reality shows encouraging people to turn their
lives around by exercising and improving diet.
This is a global crisis. There are attempts to
grapple with this crisis: restricting trans-fatty acids in Denmark, imposing
taxes on fizzy drinks in Mexico, even fines for employers of overweight staff
in Japan. But perhaps most frighteningly, not one of the 188 nations studied
managed to reduce obesity levels over the period studied. Truly, as the
fast-food joints and shopping malls of South Africa show, this has become a
global health and social crisis of gargantuan proportions.
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