1 France to ban oil, gas production at home (San
Francisco Chronicle) France's government has unveiled a law to ban all
production and exploration of oil and natural gas by 2040 on the country's
mainland and overseas territories. The move is largely symbolic, however, as
France's oil and gas production represents just 1 percent of national
consumption — the rest is imported.
Current drilling permits will not be renewed,
according to the bill formally presented in a Cabinet meeting. France currently
has 63 oil and gas drilling projects on its territory. The ban, which the
government claims is a world first, is part of a larger plan to wean the
country's economy from fossil fuels, encourage clean energy and fulfill
France's commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement to curb global warming.
The bill, which was described by Environment
Minister Nicolas Hulot, also includes a definitive ban on all shale gas exploration
and extraction. Until now, only hydraulic fracturing, a process known as
fracking, was banned. All other potential methods are now to be prohibited as
well.
Hulot had announced in July that France will stop
producing power from coal — now 5 percent of its total output — by 2022. France
also wants to reduce the proportion of the power it gets from nuclear energy to
50 percent by 2025 from the current 75 percent.
2 India fears twin-front war with Pak, China (The
Guardian) India’s army chief as said the country should be prepared for a
potential two-front war given China is flexing its muscles and there is little
hope for reconciliation with Pakistan.
General Bipin Rawat referred to a recent 10-week
standoff with the Chinese army in the Himalayas that ended last week. He said
the situation could gradually snowball into a larger conflict on India’s
northern border. Rawat said Pakistan on the western front could take advantage
of such a situation.
The Press Trust of India news agency quoted Rawat’s
remarks at a seminar organised by the Center for Land Warfare Studies, a
thinktank in New Delhi. India fought a war with China in 1962 and three wars
with Pakistan, two of them over control of Kashmir, since securing independence
from Britain in 1947. All three countries are nuclear powers.
Rawat said credible deterrence did not take away the
threat of war. “Nuclear weapons are weapons of deterrence. Yes, they are. But
to say that they can deter war or they will not allow nations to go to war, in
our context that may also not be true,” the news agency quoted him as saying.
His comments came a day after India’s prime
minister, Narendra Modi, and China’s president, Xi Jinping, agreed on a
“forward-looking” approach to Sino-India ties, putting behind the Doklam
standoff.
3 Asda to axe hundreds of jobs (BBC) Asda is to axe
hundreds of jobs at its West Yorkshire head office and a further site in the
East Midlands as part of a major cost-cutting drive. About 300 jobs are to go
at Asda House in Leeds and George House in Leicester the chain said, with job
descriptions to a further 800 roles changed.
The grocery giant said its home offices needed to
"adapt how they operate to support our stores". A spokesperson for
Asda said: "In recent years, the competitive landscape in retail has
changed significantly and Asda has been no different.
Figures for 2016 showed like-for-like sales were
down 5.7% compared with the previous year. The chain is the third-largest UK
supermarket behind Tesco and Sainsbury's according to market researcher Kantar
Worldpanel, but has been hurt by the rise of German discounters Aldi and Lidl.
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