The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued its latest report on climate change, and its forecast is pretty grim. The thrust of the report is that climate change is already occurring and that the world really has to focus not simply on how to mitigate the changes, but also to manage them. On the issue of food production and fresh water, those areas of the world that are currently being affected can only look forward to a much more difficult future. This essay in the Economist is a very intelligent and measured analysis of the report–sober but not hysterical.
French President Francois Hollande has changed some of the ministers in his government after municipal elections in which his party lost substantial ground. The right-wing National Front took a number of municipalities, playing upon anti-immigrant sentiment in France as well as dismay over the slow but steady deterioration of the French economy. Hollande has not been able to establish his credentials and has one of the lowest favorable ratings of any post-World War II French leader. It is hard to imagine the European economy gaining any steam unless the French economy were to pick up.
North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire as the US and South Korea conducted joint military operations near the demilitarized zone. It is not unusual for North Korea to try to disrupt those activities, but the exchange of fire is a clear escalation of traditional activities. Moreover, the exchange comes on the heels of a North Korean threat to test another nuclear weapon despite the UN’s demand that it cease those tests. It seems as if we’re in for another round of North Korean challenges to its neighbors.
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