Ms sect b 20170604 sunday

B1

SUNDAY, JUNE 4, 2017 Adelle Chua, Editor

Opinion

Joyce Pangco Pañares, Issue Editor

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SHINE SOME SUNLIGHT ON TRUMP’S SWAMP

EDITORIAL

U

THE notion that Donald Trump would “drain the swamp” was always suspect. The then-candidate himself confessed to second thoughts about his pledge shortly after making it.

Still, the speed and extent of his abandonment are stunning.

Not only did Trump hire people with real or potential conflicts of interest, he at first refused to divulge how many or to whom ethics waivers were granted. Only this week did the administration reveal the names of those who have been granted permission not to comply with the administration’s ethics rules, allowing them work on policies that could affect their own financial interests.

Over the last four months, the White House has issued waivers allowing at least 16 staff members to work on policy matters they dealt with as lobbyists, or to interact with their former privatesector colleagues. That compares with three waivers issued to White House staff over the same period by former President Barack Obama, who issued a total of 16 such waivers over eight years.

Real-world decision-making experience is essential to good governance, especially when dealing with complex regulatory matters. Yet ethics waivers should be treated as what they were intended to be: Rare exceptions that allow the government to tap experience it can’t find elsewhere.

Moreover, public trust depends on these waivers conforming to the letter of the law, and according to the Office of Government Ethics, it’s not clear that Trump’s waivers do. That’s in part what’s concerning about the retroactive, undated blanket waiver allowing all White House aides to communicate with news organizations, including communications with former employers or clients.

It also helps if waivers pass the equivalent of a good-government smell test. Consider the one granted to Andrew Olmem, who is to be allowed to communicate with former clients regarding Puerto Rico’s fiscal issues, and reforming the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s treatment of insurers. Olmem was a lobbyist hired by hedge funds to fight efforts by Puerto Rico to restructure its debts. His firm also represented MetLife Inc., which is contesting an appeal filed by the previous administration seeking to reinstate its designation by the FSOC as a systematically important financial institution that requires greater oversight. Given those ties, outside observers could be forgiven for asking whether he will be able to fairly represent the public’s interests.

It’s well and good that these waivers have become public. But what they reveal suggests a need for even greater public vigilance and scrutiny. Bloomberg

LEAVING PARIS

NITED States President Donald Trump said the United States is leaving the Paris Accord—the global agreement signed in December 2015 by 195 countries, each committing to reduce their climate emissions to cap the warming of the globe.

Speaking from the Rose Garden Friday, Mr. Trump had some not-so-rosy words for the rest of the world.

According to the billionaire turned president, the US has had “absolutely tremendous” economic progress since November 8 last year. This was when Americans trooped to the polls the electoral college gave the presidency to him. The stock market has earned $3.3 trillion in value, and a million private sector jobs have been created since then.

Fact checkers would have a field day with the numbers Trump has been tossing around, but this progress is exactly his premise for exiting the climate pact, which now puts the US along the ranks of Syria and Nicaragua.

Essentially, Trump said the Paris Agreement was a scheme that other nations concocted to prevent the US from reaching its full economic potential, even as they themselves reach theirs. It subjects Americans to harsh economic restrictions and, get this, “fails to live up to our environmental ideals.”

“As someone who cares deeply about the environment, which I do, I cannot in good conscience support a deal that punishes the United States—which is what it does —the world’s leader in environmental protection, while

imposing no meaningful obligations on the world’s leading polluters,” Mr. Trump said. He then enumerated what other countries can do to grow their own economies, making it sound as though the agreement was crafted by the entire world with the end in mind of bringing the US down.

Most of the world is aghast, but we cannot say this came as a surprise. Over the past few months, Mr. Trump has betrayed tendencies of denying climate change and that efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions now would have an impact at all in altering what has been painted as a grim scenario.

Now world leaders and US democrats are united in condemning Trump for his decision to pull out of the accord. In an effort to save the day, some US local officials and philanthropists said they would continue financing commitments to the Green Climate Fund—that aspect of the agreement that helps other countries implement clean energy technology.

But the Paris Agreement is not for or against any one country in particular. Named only because it was negotiated and signed in France, it acknowledges common but differentiated responsibilities for each nation. Some had been spewing gases that have fueled their growth for centuries; some are just catching on.

The idea is that this is about the planet, about citizens of the world, some of whom are more vulnerable to the aggregate effects of climate change than others are.

That Trump is a maverick leader is nothing new. That he would take his strange ideas and jeopardize the fate of not just the US but the planet is a bit too much arrogance for a man.

The world will make do, of course, but we wonder how much demoralization and damage can be wrought before Trump realizes he is wrong. Then again, even if he does, it might be a stretch to expect him to come forward and admit his error.

He will probably just change the script.

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DEMOCRACY FACES THE ENEMY WITHIN

By Francis Wilkinson

Even if you defend democracy on the grounds that Trump lost the popular WE’RE past the point of shifting blame. vote, it’s still a lame argument. After all, We know who gave us the presidency what kind of sensible political system of Donald Trump, and it wasn’t Hillary generates 63 million votes for a thuggish incompetent to become its supreme Clinton or Jill Stein or James Comey. leader?

The culprit was democracy.

Democracy was rarely an exercise in smooth sailing. Now, this.

“The choice of Mr. Trump, a man so signally lacking in the virtues, abilities, knowledge and experience to be expected of a president, has further damaged the attractions

of the democratic system,” wrote an exceedingly glum Martin Wolf in the Financial Times this week.

“The soft power of democracy is not what it was. It has produced Mr. Trump as leader of the world’s most important country. It is not an

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Wolf isn’t wrong, of course. If General Electric Co. had gone bonkers and installed Trump as CEO, the smart money would’ve deserted the company, fearing for its future. Yet what’s to stop Turn to B2

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DEMOCRACY...

From B1

Trump from doing far more damage as president?

In an interview with Vox, political scientist Larry Bartels said: History clearly demonstrates that democracies need parties to organize and simplify the political world. But parties don’t make the fundamental problems of democratic control disappear; they just submerge them more or less successfully. When professional politicians are reasonably enlightened and skillful and the rules and political culture let them do their job, democracy will usually work pretty well. When not, not.

Democracy is not working pretty well in the US. Still, while there may be no reason to grant Trump himself patience, the democratic system itself has earned some.

Shashi Tharoor, a longtime United Nations official who is now a member of the Indian parliament, emailed: Every system of government produces uneven results: There have been wise monarchs and feckless ones, capable benign dictators and incompetent ruthless ones, brilliant statesmen in democracies and people who owed their leadership positions to luck (the weakness of the alternatives) or merely inoffensiveness (the least unacceptable candidate).

The strength of democracies is that because their leadership emerges from the will of the public as a whole, the system has a way of accommodating to them and very often, blunting their worst mistakes. Undemocratic systems have nowhere else to turn, and no established way of making the turn.

So however flawed individual leaders may be, the self-correcting mechanisms built into democracy limit how much damage they can do.

The nation’s intelligence bureaucracies and news media are already shaking the foundation of the Trump presidency, leak by damaging leak. Courts are constraining some of the White House’s baser impulses.

Democratic and civil society opposition is fierce, and has been joined by a small but intellectually potent cohort of principled conservatives. Inflection points, from the scheduled testimony next week of former FBI director James Comey to the midterm elections in 2018, present opportunities to educate the public and strengthen resistance.

Whether anything can induce Trump’s Republican enablers to abandon him is unknown.

“If democracy produces a renewed commitment to democracy,” said Harvard historian Jill Lepore in an email, “democracy is working.”

In his book “The Confidence Trap,” political scientist David Runciman pointed to the 1970s as an era in which democracy seemed to be marching haplessly toward failure, yet turned out to be gaining strength.

In an interview with me last year he said: Apparently the Chinese leadership is enjoying watching Trump’s rise, because it seems to confirm all their suspicions of democracy: It’s hucksterism plus stupidity. But in 1974 the Soviet leadership thought Watergate showed that democracy was finished. How could it survive such a scandal?

It survived, of course, and even thrived, eventually grinding down the Soviet Union. A similar emergence from the Trumpian ashes is possible.

But it is not assured. Wolf is correct to worry that democracy everywhere is undermined by Trump anywhere. Yet with profound exceptions, democracy has been very good both to Americans and the world. Both may yet rally to the cause. Bloomberg

THE SCIENCE OF THE PARIS AGREEMENT

By Pecier Decierdo THIS Thursday, United States President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement. What does this mean for us in the Philippines and the rest of the world?

Here’s the gist of it. The US’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement is going to make global efforts to reduce the magnitude of human-made global warming much more difficult. This threatens to unleash the worst effects of climate change and ocean acidification, both of which the Philippines is extremely vulnerable to.

Let’s unpack that.

The Paris Agreement is an international accord adopted by consensus in Paris in 2015. As of this writing, 148 countries have ratified or acceded to the Agreement. This includes the Philippines, which did so through the Senate last March 14.

The aim of the Agreement is to limit global warming to “well below 2 degrees Celsius” with “efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels.” According to the Agreement, this aim recognizes the fact that limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius “would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.”

As hinted in the language of the aim, the comparison being made is between the average global temperature in the present and that in “preindustrial” times. Scientists have observed that the difference between the two has been steadily increasing over recent years. This steady increase is what’s known as global warming.

Measurements of the average global temperature in 2016 reveal that it was 0.94 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels. This beats the previous

record set by 2015, which was a warming of 0.90 degrees Celsius. Scientists predict the current year to beat last year’s record. This follows an increasing trend observed in recent decades.

While these temperature changes don’t sound like a lot, multiple lines of scientific evidence predict that the observed global warming has already caused measurable changes in the Earth’s overall climate.

What that means is that global warming has already messed up the world’s water cycle, wind systems, cloud distribution, storm formation process, and so on.

The Philippines has been especially vulnerable to these changes in the climate. Recent years have seen many powerful storms and monsoons hit the country. Many climate models suggest extreme weather conditions are made more likely by global warming.

Global warming also causes the polar ice caps to melt, which leads to sea level rise, which contributes to flooding of coastal cities and lowlying islands. In fact, the list of adverse effects goes on.

Because of these, many of the world’s most vulnerable countries fought tooth and nail to include the 1.5-degree Celsius goal in the Agreement. To vulnerable countries such as the Philippines, the difference between 2 degrees and 1.5 degrees is a matter of life and death for our citizens.

To achieve the temperature goals, the Agreement includes the aim to foster “low greenhouse gas emission development.”

Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are gases that trap heat in the atmosphere. They are released during the burning of fossil fuels to produce energy. A large body of scientific evidence implicates GHGs released in the burning of fossil fuels in causing global warming.

The Paris Agreement is the international community’s response to the threat of climate change due to global warming. In signing the Agreement, countries needed to make a pledge to reduce their GHG emissions. That promise will be their initial contribution to the goal of limiting global warming.

Since most of the world’s GHG emissions come from industrialized countries, including the US, it is important for these countries to honor their pledges.

Still, even if all countries honor their pledged emissions reduction, it seems the world is still going to overshoot the goal of “well below 2 degrees.” This is, of course, very bad news for the countries banking on the 1.5-degree limit.

The US pulling out of the Agreement has only made matters far worse. The US is one of the top emitters of GHGs in the world. If it does not join the international community in trying to curb global warming, the battle will be much more difficult. The whole world will be affected.

What this reveals is the borderless nature of some of the most important scientific issues; what happens half a world away will affect us here in the Philippines. It also reveals the cross-generational nature of such issues; future generations will pay the price of Donald Trump’s mistake of pulling the US out of the Agreement.

However, despite the huge blow Trump’s decision dealt on the fight against climate change, there is no room for despair. The next thing we should do is to cut our losses for this round, analyze the situation, and recuperate to fight another day. Giving up is not an option. We are, after all, fighting for the future of the human race.

Pecier Decierdo is resident physicist and astronomer of The Mind Museum.

AMERICA’S PARIS EXIT IS ALL POLITICS

By Leonid Bershidsky AMID the indignation at President Donald Trump’s decision to take the US out of the Paris agreement on fighting climate change, it’s easy to forget that when the deal was being discussed in 2015, US Secretary of State John Kerry— who now has joined the indignant chorus—insisted it shouldn’t be a binding treaty: Otherwise the Obama administration would have to submit it to the Senate, which would immediately kill it.

It was European Union nations, in particular France, that insisted on a binding agreement—and, in the end, largely failed to achieve that goal. The agreement did not require ratification by the US Senate because it’s essentially a long-winded statement of intent to work toward mitigating climate change. All it requires nations to do is submit emission-cutting plans and, if they’re wealthy, to help poorer countries meet their (rather nebulous) obligations under the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change. Trump was wrong when he said in his withdrawal speech that the US faced a “massive legal liability if we stay in.” In practical terms, not much was expected from the US. Not much has changed now that the expectation level has been reset to nothing—the US merely gave its European allies another rude shove to demonstrate they were on their own.

Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein tweeted that Trump’s decision was “a setback for the environment and for the US leadership position in the world.”

The latter is apparent. French President Emmanuel Macron, who usually tweets in his mother tongue, unleashed an Englishlanguage tweetstorm. He called on US engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs disappointed with

Trump’s decision to move to France and insisted it was time to “make our planet great again.” Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni signed a joint statement condemning Trump’s move and shot down his suggestion that the Paris deal would be renegotiated.

In response, an unnamed US administration official told the Washington Post that the Europeans’ disappointment was “a secondary benefit” of leaving the Paris accord.

After a disastrous trip to Europe, where Trump quickly wore out his welcome and left the impression that he wasn’t a reliable partner, his administration is doubling down on its contempt for the transatlantic alliance. That causes apprehension in Europe, but also encourages it to try a more independent course aimed at reducing US hegemony. China appears to relish the rift; it has sided with Europe, announcing it would uphold the Paris deal.

Blankfein’s assertion that Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris accord would hurt the environment is, however, less of an obvious truth.

Trump’s rejection of domestic policies aimed at preventing climate

change—and not his exit from the toothless Paris accord—is likely to hurt the environment in the US, temporarily freezing emissions at more or less the current level.

Globally, though, this effect will be offset by huge progress in China and India, seen as holdouts when the Paris deal was being discussed.

According to a report released last month by three European research and consulting institutions— NewClimate Institute, Climate Analytics and Ecofys—the two big developing economies are likely to be the main drivers of the global resistance to climate change. In China, carbon-dioxide emissions appear to have peaked more than 10 years ahead of its Paris commitment.

Last year, two-thirds of the 5.4 percent electricity demand growth was met with power from renewable sources.

With current policies, which China shows no intention of dropping, the country will overperform compared with Paris commitments. So will India. The two countries together are likely to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by at least 2 billion tons by 2030, compared with forecasts made just last year. Compared with the same forecasts, Trump’s policies will

increase emissions by 400 million tons of carbon dioxide.

“The recent, highly adverse rollbacks

by President Trump are unlikely to have a major impact on global emissions by 2030,” the report concluded.

One reason is that US goals under Barack Obama weren’t all that ambitious to start with. According to the European climate researchers, the Clean Power Plan and other Obama policies would have led, by 2025, to an emission reduction of 10 percent compared with the 2005 level. If the plan is stopped, emissions will be 7 percent lower than in 2005.

Even under Obama, the US government had different priorities than the European sponsors of the Paris agreement. The Environmental Protection Administration’s budget, which declined under Obama, is about 0.2 percent of total spending, compared with more than 15 percent that routinely goes to defense; Germany actually spends more on environmental protection than on defense. So the US government was never going to have much impact on climate change. It’s private business and specific states and cities, with tightening environmental regulations, that have been preventing emissions increases in recent years. Gas is still cheaper to use in energy generation than coal, and because sustainable energy is increasingly competitive thanks to technological progress. Trump is powerless to change that by exiting a rather loose international pact.

So while the political fireworks following Trump’s speech appear justified—the US hasn’t dissed Europe as much, and hasn’t been as careless about its international role, under any post-World War II president—the fight against climate change hasn’t suffered much of a setback. It will survive Trump.

Bloomberg

WHERE INTOLERANCE IS HIGHEST ON RELIGION, CULTURE, RACE

By Michael Winfrey and Samuel Dodge AT A time when media headlines point to a spike in global intolerance, here’s some good news: Most people around the world don’t say they believe any single race, religion or culture is better than another.

That was the finding of a multination WIN/Gallup International poll conducted at the end of last year and published this week. The majority of people and more than half of the 66 countries surveyed say there’s no such thing as racial, religious or cultural superiority. But the issue divides many, and a handful, all of which are troubled nations with developing economies, says superiority does exits.

“Overall the global tolerance towards racial, religious and cultural differences is a dominating norm,” Kancho Stoychev, president of Gallup International Association, said in a statement. “Exceptions from this norm are occurring in countries, nations or regions with serious internal or external conflicts.”

The findings provide some ground for optimism even amid an increase in news reports of attacks linked to intolerance. Since last week, a man shouting anti-Muslim slogans killed two people in Portland, Oregon, a suicide bomber killed 22 people at a concert in Manchester, England and gunmen shot dead 26 Christian Copts in Egypt’s Minya province.

The survey also coincides with a report released this week by the

The findings provide some ground for optimism even amid an increase in news reports of attacks linked to intolerance.

Institute of Economics and Peace that said despite conflicts in the Middle East, terrorism in Europe, and the rise of nationalist parties, the world is actually becoming more peaceful. At the same time, that report found the US dropped most in rankings among peaceful countries.

According to the Gallup

International survey, national majorities that agreed or strongly agreed that superiority exists were more likely to share that belief across the categories of religion, race and culture. The eight countries where that was most the case were Paraguay, Bangladesh, the Palestinian territories, Ghana, Lebanon, Nigeria, Indonesia and Macedonia.

The countries where people most disagreed with the idea that there is superiority in the three categories included Sweden, France, Iceland, Latvia, Spain, Argentina, Canada and Portugal. In the US, 23 percent of people agreed or strongly agreed that some races are superior to others, compared with 73 percent who disagreed or strongly disagreed.

Almost a third said some religions are

better than others, and 36 percent said some cultures are superior.

The poll was conducted from October to December 2016 among 66,541 people, about 1,000 people in each country. It was carried out by phone, in person, or online and had a margin of error of 3 to 5 percentage points.

The main reasons that spread feelings of superiority are probably sharp internal conflicts, significant external instability and an expectation of outside intervention, and deep transformations within societies, Gallup International said.

“It is evident that all those countries which feel stable and not threatened show low levels of religious, cultural or racial superiority. And vice versa,” it said. Bloomberg

World COURT FREES DAUGHTER OF S. KOREAN ‘RASPUTIN’ SEOUL, South Korea—The daughter of South Korea’s “Rasputin,” whose lavish lifestyle in Europe saw her caught up in the country’s snowballing influencepeddling scandal, was freed Saturday after being extradited from Denmark.

Chung Yoo-Ra is the equestrian daughter of Choi Soon-Sil, the close confidante of impeached ex-president Park Geun-Hye and the woman at the heart of the scandal which toppled Park.

Choi -- dubbed “the female Rasputin” for her strong influence over Park -- is on trial along with the ex-president.

Chung was arrested on a Korean Air flight from Amsterdam early Wednesday and was escorted off the plane at Incheon by a team of prosecutors to face a handful of journalists and television cameras.

Prosecutors say cash for Chung’s equestrian training came from electronics giant Samsung, which had handed over the money as part of an attempt to curry favor with her powerful mother.

However, a Seoul court ordered her released Saturday.

“It is difficult to accept the reason and the need for her arrest,” the Seoul Central District Court said, turning down the prosecution’s request to formally arrest the 21-year-old. AFP

SRI LANKA TARGETS UNAUTHORIZED BUILDERS AFTER MONSOON DEATHS COLOMBO, Sri Lanka—Sri Lanka announced plans Saturday to prosecute a slew of companies and individuals behind illegal construction projects blamed for landslides and flooding that have killed at least 211 people following heavy monsoon rains last week.

The urban development ministry said they will press criminal charges against those illegally occupying marshlands earmarked to absorb flood waters and structures blocking canals and storm drains.

“Much of the destruction was due to people building on mountain slopes after cutting down trees and blocking waterways,” a ministry spokesman said.

Prosecutors will kick off proceedings Monday in Colombo against 18 individuals and companies, he said, as authorities prepare to launch a nationwide campaign to remove illegal structures.

There are some 10,000 unauthorized structures in the capital alone, according to the spokesman.

Decades of illegal construction have worsened the flooding by blocking drains and eliminating natural rainwater stores, including marshland.

The official Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said the death toll from last week’s rains that triggered landslides and flooding rose to 211 after more bodies were discovered under tons of mud.

Among those killed were 45 school children. Over 90 people were still listed as missing while another 72 remained in hospital. AFP

UN SLAPS SANCTIONS ON NORTH KOREANS U

NITED NATIONS—The UN Security Council on Friday imposed sanctions on 18 North Korean officials and entities as the United States vowed to respond to Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear tests “through other means, if necessary.”

The council unanimously adopted a US-drafted resolution that put North Korea’s suspected spy chief, 13 other officials and four entities on the UN sanctions blacklist, hitting them with a global travel ban and an assets freeze.

“The Security Council is sending a clear message to North Korea today: Stop firing ballistic missiles or face the consequences,” US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the council.

“Beyond diplomatic and financial consequences, the United States remains prepared to counteract North Korean aggression through other means, if necessary,” she added.

China, Pyongyang’s ally, backed the sanctions but renewed its ap-

peal for dialogue to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi described current tensions as “complex and sensitive” but added that there was “a critical window of opportunity” to return to “the right track of seeking a settlement through dialogue and negotiations.”

“It is incumbent on all parties concerned to exercise restraint and do more to ease tension and build mutual trust, instead of the contrary,” Liu added.

Among those added to the sanctions blacklist was Cho Il-U, believed to be the head of foreign espionage for Kim Jong-Un’s regime.

The other 13 included senior of-

ficials from North Korea’s Workers’ Party and heads of trading firms tasked with securing purchases for Pyongyang’s military programs.

The strategic rocket force of the North Korean army, two trading firms and the Koryo Bank, linked to a party office that manages Kim’s finances, were also hit by an assets freeze.

The resolution however did not contain some of the biting sanctions that the US administration had floated last month, such as an oil embargo, a ban on maritime shipping, trade restrictions and curbs on North Korean workers abroad.

The 18 names will be added to the current blacklist of 39 individuals and 42 North Korean entities already under UN sanctions.

North Korea has carried out two atomic tests and dozens of missile launches since the beginning of last year in its quest to develop a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the continental United States.

For weeks, the United States has

been negotiating with China on new measures to ratchet up the pressure on North Korea but Beijing has insisted on the need to open dialogue.

The United States has said it is willing to talk to North Korea if it halts its missile and nuclear tests.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre said the resolution served as “a warning” to North Korea of tougher sanctions to come unless it changes course and halts its tests.

“If it continues this dangerous path, we will have no other choice but to reinforce the pressure, again and again,” Delattre said.

The Security Council adopted two sanctions resolutions last year to ramp up pressure on Pyongyang and deny Kim the hard currency needed to fund his military programs.

Those resolutions provided for significant curbs on North Korea’s coal exports, a major source of revenue, restrictions on banking and mandatory searches of all cargo to and from North Korea. AFP

IN BHUTAN. Japan’s Princess Mako speaks with delegates at the Changlingmethang National Archery ground in Thimphu on Saturday. Princess Mako, the oldest of Japan Emperor Akihito’s grandchildren, is on a nine-day official visit to Bhutan. AFP

MALAYSIA OFFERS CASH FOR BEST ‘GAY PREVENTION’ VIDEO

‘TALLINN MANUAL 2.0’ BECOMES RULEBOOK FOR CYBERWAR TALLINN, Estonia—With ransomware like “WannaCry” sowing chaos worldwide and global powers accusing rivals of using cyberattacks to interfere in domestic politics, the latest edition of the world’s only book laying down the law in cyberspace could not be timelier.

The Tallinn Manual 2.0 is a unique collection of law on cyber-conflict, says Professor Michael Schmitt from the UK’s University of Exeter, who led work on the tome.

Published by Cambridge University Press and first compiled by a team of 19 experts in 2013, the latest updated edition aims to pin down the rules that governments should follow when doing battle in virtual reality.

The manual was among the hot topics this week as over 500 IT security experts from across the globe gathered at NATO’s Cycon cyber security conference in Tallinn. AFP

B3

SUNDAY, JUNE 4, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

ROAD NETWORK. Motorists drive on an interchange in Chongqing, southwest China, on Saturday. The interchange is made up of five layers and 20 ramps, and goes in eight different directions. AFP

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—The Malaysian government is offering cash prizes of up to $1,000 for the best videos explaining how to “prevent” homosexuality, according to a competition launched on the health ministry’s website.

Activists on Saturday said the move will further spread fear among Malaysia’s LGBT community, as conservative attitudes chip away at the Muslim-majority nation’s one-time reputation for moderation and tolerance.

Contestants are invited to submit a video clip addressing various categories including gayness or “gender confusion,” and offering suggestions as to how these could be “prevented or controlled.”

Winners will receive between 1,000 and 4,000 ringgit ($235 to $940) after the competition closes at the end of August, the ministry’s website said.

The short video clips need to focus on “prevention, control and how to get help” as well as “issues and consequences.”

The guidelines described the overall theme of the video contest as: “Value Yourself, Healthy Lifestyle Practice.”

“Each work will be judged on originality, content, concept and creativity and quality production by a panel of judges appointed by the

organizers,” according to the health ministry’s website.

“The very fact that they lump LGBT people under a category called ‘gender confusion’ shows that the authorities are very much confused themselves,” Pang Khee Teik, a well-known local activist, told AFP. “It is mind-blowing that a government agency wants the whole country to be sucked into its confluence of confusion.”

Participants in the competition can also make videos about sex and the internet, or sexual health.

A health ministry spokesman declined to comment. AFP was unable to immediately contact other health ministry officials.

Homosexuality is forbidden in Malaysia, where laws criminalizing sodomy can result in imprisonment, corporal punishment and fines.

Pang said LGBT people have difficulty accessing good medical services in Malaysia due to a distrust of health care authorities.

“This kind of contest will only add to the confusion and distrust and fear,” he warned.

Nisha Ayub, Malaysia’s most prominent LGBT activist, said health authorities were initiating hatred and discrimination against the community in Malaysia. AFP

B4

SUNDAY, JUNE 4, 2017 Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor / Jimbo Gulle, Issue Editor

World

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

CALIFORNIA PLOTS TO FIGHT ‘AWOL’ PREZ TRUMP

PRESENCE. Antonio Banderas attends the Miami Fashion Week Benefit Gala at Dupont Building on Friday in Miami, Florida. AFP

S

MATTIS REASSURES US ASIAN ALLIES

INGAPORE—Pentagon chief Jim Mattis moved to reassure Asian allies Saturday that the United States could work with China on reining in North Korea’s nuclear weapons program without compromising its opposition to Beijing’s continued “militarization” of the South China Sea.

President Donald Trump -- who frequently denounced China on the campaign trail -- has turned to Beijing to help pressure Pyongyang, prompting broad concerns that America will go easy on China’s maritime activities.

Longstanding partners are also jittery that Trump has seemed indifferent to traditional alliances, and have interpreted his pulling out of a trans-Pacific trade deal and the Paris climate accords as signs of broader American disen-

gagement.

Mattis, arguably Trump’s most important statesman as the new president tries to slash the State Department, tried to reassure allies on all counts.

“In the security arena, we have a deep and abiding commitment to reinforcing the rules-based international order, a product of so many nations’ efforts to create stability,” Mattis said in Singapore at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a major defense summit for countries from

the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

Calling North Korea’s nuclear ambitions a “threat to us all,” Mattis asked the international community to come together on the issue.

It is “imperative that we do our part each of us to fulfill our obligations and work together to support our shared goal of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula,” Mattis said.

“The Trump administration is encouraged by China’s renewed commitment to work with the international community toward denuclearization,” Mattis said.

Pyongyang on Monday testfired another rocket, the latest in a series of launches and atomic tests that have ratcheted up tensions over its quest to develop weapons capable of hitting the United States -- something Trump has

said “won’t happen.”

The defense chief spoke directly to concerns America might grant concessions to China to ensure cooperation on North Korea, saying the issue was not “binary” and that the United States would continue to pressure Beijing elsewhere.

“Artificial island construction and indisputable militarization of facilities on features in international waters undermine regional stability,” Mattis said, calling China out over its “disregard for international law” and “contempt for other nations’ interests.”

The US Navy on May 25 conducted a “freedom of navigation” operation in the South China Sea, when the USS Dewey guidedmissile destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands. AFP

ANTI-BREXIT VOTERS FACE TOUGH CHOICE

FAN LOYALTY. A British and Irish Lions fan attends the rugby match between New Zealand’s Provincial Barbarians and the British and Irish Lions at Toll Stadium in Whangarei, New Zealand on Saturday. AFP

LONDON—For the 48 percent of British voters who backed staying in the European Union in last year’s referendum, choosing a candidate to represent them in the upcoming election is proving extremely difficult.

Some, like 45-year-old Tom Glover, are planning to vote for the centrist Liberal Democrats -- a minor opposition party that is very pro-European.

“I’ve never voted for the Lib Dems in my life, but I will this time,” the computer engineer and staunch Europhile told AFP in the City, London’s business hub.

Glover was seduced by the Liberal Democrats’ promise to hold a second referendum at the end of Brexit negotiations on whether to accept the terms of the deal, or reject them and stay in the bloc.

“The leader (Tim Farron) isn’t the most charismatic in my opinion but the idea that they would try their best to stay in Europe is enough for me to vote for them,” he added.

But few think like Glover and, despite unexpectedly receiving the backing of the respected weekly magazine The Economist, the Liberal Democrats continue to languish in the polls.

The party only has seven percent of voting intentions in a recent poll by YouGov -- which interviewed 1,875 people on May 30 and 31.

That was well behind the ruling Conservative Party on 42 percent and the

main opposition Labour Party on 39 percent.

Long-time supporter Benjamin, 31, said he would not vote for the Lib Dems despite being anxious over Brexit as his partner is European and his industry is dependent on business with Europe.

“It’s just that they are not going to win. There is no point,” he told AFP. For the pension fund employee, it is crucial to block Prime Minister Theresa May from leading the Brexit negotiations.

“I don’t believe she or the Conservatives are doing what is best for the UK,” he said, arguing that “it would be better to have a Labour government.”

According to YouGov, 53 percent of “Remainers” -- those who voted to stay in the bloc -- intend to vote for the main opposition party led by Jeremy Corbyn, even though his campaign to stay in the EU was lackluster and he is now promising Brexit.

But the party’s pledge to respect the outcome of the referendum while also negotiating a “close relationship” with the EU resonates well with “Remainers.”

Forty-eight percent of them believe “the government has a duty to carry out” Brexit, according to a YouGov poll from May 8.

“People voted, so at the end of the day, if you go back on this referendum, why would you abide by any other referendum?” Natasha, a human resource professional, told AFP. AFP

LOS ANGELES—California stands poised to fill the US leadership vacuum in the battle against climate change, analysts say, as the state’s governor Jerry Brown headed to China on Friday for a high-profile visit largely centered on environmental issues.

No sooner had President Donald Trump made his announcement on Thursday to pull out of the landmark Paris climate deal, that Brown fired off a statement decrying the decision and vowing to push ahead with ambitious climate policies.

“Donald Trump has absolutely chosen the wrong course. He’s wrong on the facts... he’s wrong on the science,” said Brown before embarking on his weeklong China trip.

“California will resist this misguided and insane course of action,” added the 79-year-old politician who has long championed environmental causes. “Trump is AWOL but California is on the field, ready for battle.” AFP

MADURO PROMISES CONSTITUTION REFERENDUM CARACAS—Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has offered to hold a referendum on contested constitutional reforms in an apparent bid to calm critics in his own camp as he resists opposition efforts to remove him from office.

The surprise announcement late Thursday followed two months of deadly unrest during anti-government protests and signs of division in the socialist leader’s side.

On Friday, student protesters entered the headquarters of official television channel VTV, where they lobbed accusations against Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas.

The opposition says his constitutional reform plan is a bid to cling to power -- and key allies such as Attorney General Luisa Ortega have broken ranks with him, arguing it is undemocratic.

“In light of what is happening in this country, I would like to push back this Constituent Assembly, ask the National Electoral Council to advance regional elections and continue to press for dialogue,” Ortega told Union Radio. AFP

RARE ‘CORPSE’ FLOWERS BLOOM IN CHICAGO

CHICAGO—It is unusual enough to see one of nature’s biggest, rarest -- not to mention smelliest -- flowers bloom. But it is extraordinary to see two bloom at once.

That is why two seven-foot-tall corpse flowers at the Chicago Botanic Garden have attracted thousands of visitors this week, despite the smell of rotting flesh that the flowers emit to attract pollinating beetles and flies.

The rare flowers, officially called titan arum, are naturally occurring in just one place on Earth -- the Indonesian island of Sumatra. They are threatened by deforestation, and botanic gardens around the world are cultivating and preserving them.

It takes up to 10 years for one plant to flower, and then it does so for about one day.

“Having twin corpse flowers both bloom at the same time is very rare,” said Greg Mueller, chief scientist at the botanic garden.

The Chicago Botanic Garden checked with its counterparts around the world and found only a handful of times that such an event has happened, and it has never occurred in North America. AFP