US officials are “99.9%” certain that a bomb brought down the Russian airplane over the Egyptian Sinai. The belief rests upon US, British, and Israeli intelligence services, but the Egyptians are still reluctant to accept the verdict since such a finding would jeopardize the tourist industry, one of the most reliablle sources of income for the Egyptian government. Russian teams have been sent to sour the departure area of the Sharm el Sheikh airport, suggesting that the Russians are investigating the possibility that the bomb was placed on the plane by an insider.
Myanmar held its first relatively free election in 25 years. The election was not completely free because Aung San Suu Kyi was not allowed to run, but her party, the National League for Democracy, apparently won the largest number of votes (the final results of the election will not be available for 36 hours). Additionally, about a million Rohingya Muslims were excluded from the vote, a legacy of the hostility toward the minority group by the majority Buddhist population in Myanmar. The problems notwithstanding, the election is a giant step forward for Myanmar.
The World Bank has just issued a new report on the urgent need to address climate change and global poverty in tandem. The global poor will have a very difficult time adapting to climate change and they are already subsisting on the brink of disaster. Issues such as crop failures, water shortages, the rising oceans, and temperature increases will all have negative effects on the 702 million people (9.6% of the total population of the planet) who live in extreme poverty. Climate change could force another 100 million people into the condition of extreme poverty.
World Politics News 
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