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David Bowie gets a rewrite; 'was there life on Mars?'. PHOTO: JPL-Caltech / Nasa
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Martian methane emissions suggested the possibility of microbial life
- Fingers were pointed at China after a Cambodian building collapsed
- A quarter of a million Czechs rallied against PM Andrej Babis
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Encephalitis deaths climbed past 150 in India's poorest state
- A united opposition sent Erdoğan's AKP packing in Istanbul
- Jony Ive, the man who designed the original iPhone, left Apple
- An attempted putsch left Ethiopia's army chief dead
- The U.S. Supreme Court passed the buck on gerrymandering laws
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Republican Oregon lawmakers fled the state to avoid a climate vote
- Scientists revealed that Parkinson's develops in the gut
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The party is just getting started. PHOTO: AFP
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Late in the week world leaders gathered in Osaka for the annual G20 summit. Xi Jinping arrived with the confidence of someone who will soon be the most powerful person on earth, Donald Trump brought his trademark tactfulness, and Jair Bolsonaro's entourage packed nearly 40kgs of cocaine for the conference. What should be a solemn and constructive discussion about the fate of the world is already shaping up to be exhibit A in a rebuttal of the 'Great Men of History' argument.
Pomp and acrimony
At its inception two decades ago, the G20 (19 major economies and the EU) was intended to be a conference for central bankers to talk shop. And so it started as a retreat where the chief national bean-counters could assemble to ponder the greater mysteries of monetary theory and its application. It was a nice idea, but one that ignored the reality that everything else (i.e., culture, politics, the environment) lives downstream of economics. In other words, it quickly became clear that these meetings carried hefty global consequences. And so, spurning that early exclusivity, the money started inviting their friends: trade lawyers, finance ministers, foreign ministers, and even the heads of government and state.
Usually the only people who get excited about G20 summits are the protestors. Not so this year. There has been growing public interest in just what the leaders (elected or otherwise) are up to. As liberal democratic ideals, globalisation, and accountability recede around the world; people have started to view these summits with scepticism. And there's a lot on the agenda, including a trade war that's hamstrung the global economy, the swiftly worsening effects of climate change, and the ongoing question of how to deal with Trump.
Trade bores
The U.S. president's arrival was heralded with a customary broadside aimed at one of America's allies. Trump reached into his grab bag of international grievances and blasted India on Twitter for its unacceptable tariffs (with capitalised 'T's no less). On Thursday evening Trump and the US contingent sat down for a working dinner with the Australians. Overawed Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison appears to have skirted his goal of standing up to Trump. He was pressured by the US to consider stronger sanctions against Iran, and talked up Australia's shared history of military exploits with the US. But even though Trump's attention is nothing if not fleeting, the trade war continued to be on everyone else's mind.
For a summit intended to strengthen the global financial system, the G20 is doing a poor job of halting the downwards spiral of the Sino-American trade war. "Trade peace-talks" collapsed in May, with blame apportioned to all parties. Unilateral tariffs continue to eat away at the notion of a rules-based trade system and there seems to be no relief in sight. The Trump-Xi tête-à-tête will be watched with interest, though a pause – let alone solution – is likely out of reach. China's economy, the president surmised, was "going down the tubes". For their part the Chinese aren't even entertaining the idea of a back-down until Trump rescinds his ban on Huawei.
The International Monetary Fund has done the sums: a continued trade war will wipe 0.5% off global GDP next financial year. If that percentage doesn't elucidate a visceral response, maybe the raw numbers will – it's a decline of $455b. The IMF's Christine Lagarde described this as a "delicate moment". Indeed.
The gulf between us
Then there is Iran. The European Union and its allies have doubled-down on saving what's left of the 2015 nuclear deal in the face of U.S. aggression. But there is about as much chance for a breakthrough on Iran as there is on climate change (where American negotiators have waged a bitter and lonely campaign to weaken the language of the G20 statement on climate). Theresa May is completing her lap – it's not quite a victory lap is it – of the world stage and has made it clear she'll demand that Vladimir Putin hand over the two Russian military intelligence agents responsible for the Salisbury poisonings. She may as well ask him to withdraw from Crimea.
All of this seems like little more than a two-day carnival of elaborately-staged pantomimes, champagne-fuelled receptions, and numbingly empty statements. Perhaps that's why the Brazilian delegation tried to smuggle in enough cocaine to enliven a small city (we weren't joking about that). Meanwhile, the problems on the agenda continue to manifest as real and present dangers for billions of people who are not invited to such soirées. More on them below.
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. PHOTO: Albert Gea / Reuters
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Update: world still on fire
Europe is withering under a 'Saharan bubble' of extreme heat that has crossed the Mediterranean. In Spain and France – two countries used to soaring summer highs – the mercury reached 44°C. The bone-dry forests of northern Spain have ignited already; 500 firefighters are battling what is believed to be Catalonia's worst wildfire in two decades. On the French Mediterranean coast three elderly people died from thermic shock after plunging their overheating bodies into too-cold waters. 60% of cars have been banned from driving in France's major cities in a bid to break the self-reinforcing loop of pollution and hot air. Last year parts of Greece were incinerated. This year the weather has been described as "hell".
Further north the heat has even tested the infrastructure and public health planning. In Germany, stretches of the famed autobahn had to be closed after the road surface melted. And rail tracks have buckled under the beating sun. June temperature records have been well and truly broken. Is it any wonder that EU negotiators are demanding the strongest possible language in the G20 statement on climate change?
This comes in the same week that the United Nations released a damning report on the effect of climate change on global inequality. Unsurprisingly, wealthy countries will be able to buy their way out of harm's way by spending billions on projects to ameliorate the effects of extreme heat, rising seas and unpredictable weather events. Poorer countries will be left to the mercy of a burning and sinking world with acute food and water shortages. The U.N. described this as a "climate apartheid". The poorest 3.5b people on this planet are responsible for just 10% of the world's emissions but will soon have to choose between death or migration. And we all know how wealthy nations feel about migration.
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A tragedy that recalls another. PHOTO: Julia Le Duc / AP
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Names to remember
Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and Angie Valeria. The young Salvadoran father and his daughter – not yet two years old – were discovered face down on the bank of the Rio Grande this week. Óscar swam across the treacherous border with his child first, planning to leave her safely on American soil while he returned for his wife. But Angie Valeria followed him back into the water; prompting him to chase after her as she was swept away. The pair were found a kilometre downstream, daughter tucked into her father's shirt for safety.
This image – haunting does not begin to describe it – will linger in our collective memory long after their names fade away. Just as the 2015 photograph of a crumpled three-year-old's body alone on a Turkish beach is instantly recognisable, but the name Alan Kurdi barely registers. These images will become more common as the next wave of global migration dwarfs the last. 70 million people are forcibly displaced worldwide. And policymakers can barely conceive of humane solutions today. What happens when the world faces one hundred million, or two hundred million, or three hundred million climate-change refugees?
We didn't urge you to commit Oscar and Angie's names to memory for the sake of a political pot-shot, but because such awareness is crucial for bridging the gap between policies and their effects. America's immigration policy is what it is: the will of the American public expressed through their elected representatives. But every failure of imagination and policy in Osaka – or Geneva, or Brussels, or Turtle Bay – leads directly to a real and substantial personal outcome, like this one.
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Simply extraordinary. PHOTO: Kyrgyz Space Program
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Pushing the envelope
Despite its official-sounding title, the Kyrgyz Space Program is not an apparatus of the Kyrgyzstani government. Rather, it is a group of 11 young Kyrgyz women, aged 17-25, who have banded together to put a satellite into space. This enterprising collective has taught itself all the physics and aeronautical engineering necessary in order to achieve this lofty goal. And now the 11 have received a modicum of support from abroad, especially from a Nasa rocket scientist named Camille Wardrop Alleyne. Sadly, rigid patriarchal beliefs in their home country have prompted little more than trolling.
Half the piggybank
A group representing nearly 500 of the world's largest investors – representing half the world's invested capital, some $34t – have penned an open letter to G20 nations urging "decisive action" on climate change. Money talks. Now let's see if it walks.
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Even More of the Best of Times
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A chance to say goodbye to this virus. PHOTO: BSIG / UIG
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Look, it's been a grim edition of The Wrap. It'd be remiss to end on a dark note as well. So here's some more good news.
The end of cervical cancer
Regular readers of The Wrap will know the importance of the British and Australian human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine trials. The groundbreaking work to overcome HPV – the precursor to cervical cancer – has gone from strength to strength. Australia is on track to become the first country to eliminate HPV in its entirety, and Britain will not be far behind. Now the World Health Organisation is looking to press forward with an ambitious new target: no more than four cases of HPV per 100,000 women. Each year more than a quarter of a million women die of cervical cancer and the HPV vaccine can drastically reduce that.
The future is that way
For the first time in its history, America's coal power generation has been overtaken by renewables. In April wind and solar contributed 23% to the national grid compared to coal's 20%. As one energy expert said, "the fate of coal has been sealed, the market has spoken". Regardless of how much political heft remains in the hands of the fossil fuel lobbies, it's clear what the future of energy looks like.
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Quote of the week
"BORING!"
– Trump's response to the first Democratic debate. Credit where credit's due: this was the correct take.
Headline of the week
Hacker used $35 computer to steal restricted NSA data
– AFP
Special mention
Women who come forward at great personal cost to expose powerful men who have sexually assaulted them. Specifically, E. Jean Carroll and Toufah Jallow. They are braver than troops – read their stories.
Some choice long-reads
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EDITOR'S NOTE: This weekend we implore you to visit your local library and borrow a copy of Thor Hanson's 'Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees'. That is all.
Tom Wharton
@trwinwriting
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