REUTERS BRUSSELS — European Union (EU) countries’ energy ministers are set to give final approval on Tuesday to the bloc’s law to end sales of new CO2-emitting cars in 2035, after Germany won an exemption for cars running on e-fuels. The vote comes three weeks later than planned after Germany’s transport ministry lodged last-minute opposition […]Read More

NEWLYWEDS pose for a photographer in front of overflowing garbage bins in a street near the Eiffel Tower as garbage has not been collected due to a strike of garbage collectors against the French government pension reform, in Paris, France, March 27, 2023. — REUTERS PARIS — France faces a new nationwide day of strikes […]Read More

A WOMAN walks on the ice to a measuring point on the Pers Glacier near the Alpine resort of Pontresina, Switzerland, July 21, 2022. — REUTERS GENEVA — Last summer while dozens of Swiss pensioners were campaigning in the Alps to save their fast-melting glaciers, 85-year-old Marie-Eve Volkoff was instead stuck inside her small Geneva […]Read More

RAWFILM-UNSPLASH BERLIN  — Global investments in energy transition technologies must more than quadruple annually to stay in line with commitments made under the Paris climate accord, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) said on Tuesday. Investments in renewable energy technologies reached a record of $1.3 trillion last year but that figure must rise to around […]Read More

FREEPIK THE UNPRECEDENTED fiscal firepower used to protect the vulnerable from the harsh socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic contraction have pushed the average government debt level in the Asia-Pacific region to its highest since 2008. Public debt distress is expected to worsen amid the global economic slowdown, record high inflation, […]Read More

FREEPIK The Stratbase ADR Institute, in partnership with UHC (Universal Health Care) Watch and the Philippine Society of Orphan Disorders (PSOD), held a forum last week titled “Sustaining Gains and Balancing Priorities – Implementation of Rare Disease Act for 2023.” This was the third discussion, since 2022, organized by the same groups. Previous forums provided […]Read More

THE most fundamental questions for all organizations are about numbers. Is there a point when economies of scale are negated by the costs of bureaucracy and alienation? How many people can you admit to a meeting before it becomes a waste of time? What is the optimum size for a committee? Or a panel? Or […]Read More

GIORGIO TROVATO-UNSPLASH THE Federal Reserve (Fed) did the sensible thing at its March Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy meeting, and Chairman Jerome Powell delivered a sensible message, in my view. Financial markets gave it a very dovish interpretation, which to me seems off the mark, and which once again diverges sharply from the Fed’s […]Read More