CLIMATE CHANGE
Hey, this seems bad maybe:
Global warming is gradually increasing the average temperature of the oceans, but the new research is the first systematic global analysis of ocean heatwaves, when temperatures reach extremes for five days or more.
The research found heatwaves are becoming more frequent, prolonged and severe, with the number of heatwave days tripling in the last couple of years studied. In the longer term, the number of heatwave days jumped by more than 50% in the 30 years to 2016, compared with the period of 1925 to 1954.
As heatwaves have increased, kelp forests, seagrass meadows and coral reefs have been lost. These foundation species are critical to life in the ocean. They provide shelter and food to many others, but have been hit on coasts from California to Australia to Spain.
“You have heatwave-induced wildfires that take out huge areas of forest, but this is happening underwater as well,” said Dan Smale at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, UK, who led the research published in Nature Climate Change. “You see the kelp and seagrasses dying in front of you. Within weeks or months they are just gone, along hundreds of kilometres of coastline.”
Sounds like we should definitely talk about possibly setting up a committee to carefully discuss cost-benefit analyses related to hypothetically endeavoring to take action at some as yet undetermined point.
EUROPE
ALBANIA
Thousands of protesters surrounded the Albanian parliament building in Tirana on Tuesday to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama and his government. Rama and his Socialist Party are facing allegations of corruption and links to organized crime, but so far the PM is resisting opposition demands for an early election.
UNITED KINGDOM
Some enterprising soul mailed homemade bombs at London’s City Airport, Heathrow Airport, and Waterloo Station on Tuesday. None caused any casualties, though the Heathrow device did apparently catch fire when handled by staff, and all three of the bombs were probably too weak to cause any serious casualties. The explosives were in mailer bags, and the Heathrow and Waterloo bombs both featured Irish return addresses.
AMERICAS
VENEZUELA
Juan Guaidó’s new plan for getting rid of Nicolás Maduro appears to be gumming up Venezuela’s public sector:
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido vowed Tuesday to step up the pressure on President Nicolas Maduro as he offered his backing to a potential public sector strike.
The 35-year-old National Assembly leader returned home to a hero’s welcome on Monday, having defied a ban on leaving the country to embark on a 10-day tour of South American allies and remains free after returning despite the threat of arrest by the government.
“They’re drowning in contradictions, they don’t know how to respond to Venezuela’s people,” Guaido told reporters. “They thought the pressure had reached its zenith, but it’s only just beginning.”
On Tuesday, a national holiday, he met public sector union leaders.
“Public sector workers have lost practically all their rights, we have no other option but to call for a civic strike,” said Guaido, without giving further details.
Guaidó remains free after returning to Venezuela on Monday, though there’s still a possibility that Maduro will try to have him arrested.
NICARAGUA
Daniel Ortega’s government and Nicaragua’s political opposition have reportedly agreed on a framework for negotiations aimed at ending the country’s months-long political crisis. Vatican ambassador Waldemar Sommertag will “witness” the talks, which probably means he’ll mediate though the two sides seem to be avoiding that term for some reason. Negotiators have more preliminary details to work out before talks can begin in earnest, and they’re hoping to get that done by the end of the month.
CUBA
The Washington Post’s Emily Tamkin concludes that the Trump administration’s threat to allow US citizens to sue European companies doing business in Cuba is John Bolton’s idea, and suggests that it’s not going to do much to improve US-Europe relations:
The Trump administration’s decision to break with precedent is “largely a function of who has access to the president,” said Michael Dobson, of counsel in Morrison & Foerster’s National Security practice group. That includes, in particular, national security adviser John Bolton.
“If it causes non-U.S. companies to second-guess their activities or add an additional risk premium to existing ventures or upcoming ventures — that seems part of a general pressure campaign aimed at what Ambassador Bolton called the ‘troika of tyranny,’ ” said Dobson, a reference to Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
But Europeans — many of whom joined the United States in recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela after he declared himself the rightful head of the crisis-hit country in late January — may not appreciate that, yet again, the United States has decided to tell other countries where they can do business.
UNITED STATES
Finally, Bolton’s warmongering fingerprints are increasingly evident across the administration’s foreign policy, but more than that he seems to be changing the role of National Security Advisor and not really for the better:
But if Bolton has not always prevailed on issues dear to his heart, it is not for want of trying. He has redefined the job of national security adviser from synthesizer and transmitter of views across the government to arbiter of what he believes the president needs to hear, according to interviews with over a dozen current and former administration officials who discussed his record on the condition of anonymity so they could speak frankly. Bolton declined to be interviewed for this article.
He has cut to a bare minimum meetings in which top national security officials present and vet options for the president. In some cases, he has replaced subject experts detailed to the National Security Council from other agencies with ideological soul mates who have little experience serving at the most senior levels of policymaking.
His approach to the job and the president’s disinclination to read lengthy briefings or consult experts have afforded Bolton vast power over an often disorderly foreign policy process.
“He advocates a position and then challenges people to talk him out of it,” added one senior White House official who works closely with him.
Bolton has also reportedly rebuilt the National Security Council, getting rid of its subject area experts, who are drawn from the bureaucracy and are supposed to be non-political, and replacing them with war crazy ideologues like himself. Bolton hasn’t been winning every battle, but on the two he’s really seemed to be losing–Syria and North Korea–Trump has recently moved closer to Bolton’s position. And if it’s possible for there to be something worse than having Trump in control of US foreign policy, it would be having Trump enthralled to Bolton in control of US foreign policy.
The Foreign Exchanges Companion 