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With President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the United States, international climate diplomacy is at a crossroads — similarly to when in 2017, during Trump’s first term, the United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement on combating climate change. The former leader’s reelection does not bode well for the future of climate action, given his hostility to these efforts and desire to put his “America first” doctrine above planet-friendly initiatives and investments. Trump, a climate change skeptic, has called global warming “a big hoax.” He has even mocked those alarmed by the fact that the “ocean will rise” — his words to describe sea level rise — by saying, “who the hell cares?” Source link

Bill Belichick sat on the 295-foot (90-meter) yacht belonging to Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, hoping (and quite sure) that this was the man who was going to give him another shot. Belichick had split from Robert Kraft and the New England Patriots four days earlier, but he took no time to decompress. He wanted another job and made his pitch to Blank. The initial surprise was that Blank’s Falcons were the only NFL team interested in Belichick last January. Then the real shocker came: Blank went in a different direction. The Falcons didn’t want Belichick, a future Hall of Fame coach, either. There was a holdup that was tough for Blank and company to get past. Belichick wanted to lead the football operations department the way he did for so many years in New England, one of the perks of building a dynasty and becoming the most decorated NFL coach of all time, thanks to the six Lombardi Trophies that now reside in Foxborough, Massachusetts. But after watching the Patriots crater after Tom Brady departed for Tampa Bay and led the Buccaneers to a title, NFL teams seemed hesitant to give Belichick the omnipotent football power that he sought. That leads us to Wednesday and the latest shocking news surrounding Belichick. The NFL lifer is headed to college at age 72, set to take over at the University of North Carolina, a football program long overshadowed by the school’s own basketball team. On the surface, the move is perplexing. Belichick has been in the NFL for 49 years. He needs 15 wins to surpass Don Shula’s wins record of 347. Now, nearing the end of his illustrious career, he’s going to tackle college football? And deal with the transfer portal? Name, image and likeness deals? Boosters? All those off-the-field aspects of the job that drove his buddy Nick Saban out of the sport? Sure, there are interesting facets of the story that range from the heartwarming (Steve Belichick, Bill’s father, coached at UNC from 1953 to 1955) to the practical (college football is functioning increasingly like a professional sport). But do you want to know why Belichick is really headed back to college? Control. After the way things ended in New England — with a roster that was falling apart, an outdated front office and an undermanned coaching staff — NFL teams were reluctant to fully hand over the keys to Belichick. Some franchises would have been interested this winter in hiring him to coach while keeping him separate from the decision-makers in the front office. But it didn’t seem likely that any were going to let him run the team the way he did in New England. But who does get that power? College football coaches. At North Carolina, Belichick will get to pick his whole staff. He will get to decide on the players. He will have control over the schedule. He will have a say over how the facilities are shaped. He will get to control everything from offseason workouts to the game plan on Saturdays. That’s part of being a college coach these days: power over every aspect of the football program. Amid the increasing demands on NCAA head coaches and the relentless schedule they face, some have fled those jobs for what appear to be demotions. Former Boston College coach Jeff Hafley left to become the defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers. Former UCLA coach Chip Kelly gave up that post to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State. But those all-encompassing aspects of the job are actually perks for Belichick, who is football-mad and obsessed with details and processes. The question now is whether it will all work. Yes, the college game has changed because of revenue sharing, the transfer portal and NIL combining for something resembling free agency. But Belichick has never had to woo boosters, deal with recruits (and their parents) or negotiate the Wild West of NIL. Yes, Belichick will now have the power he sought. But while he had only one man to report to with the Patriots — Kraft — he is now thrown into the middle of a reported tussle between the board of trustees and the athletic department, not to mention the chancellor and a group of boosters who may feel like they occasionally deserve the ear of the coach. There’s also the issue of relating to younger players. Belichick was never known for his ability to connect with people. He often walked past Patriots players without so much as a hello. Compliments from him are rare. Will that work with a Gen Z locker room? Then there’s the issue of roster construction and the unavoidable truth that his management of the Patriots led to a disastrous 4-13 season that prompted his divorce from the team he coached for 24 years. In reflecting on what went wrong, Kraft said this year that he regretted not having more “checks and balances” on Belichick. That’s not to say this can’t work. No one knows the NFL better than Belichick. As he suggested on “The Pat McAfee Show,” maybe he can turn UNC into a pipeline to the league, thus attracting better players and yielding wins along the way. Despite how bad his last Patriots teams were, ol’ Bill can still put together a great defensive game plan. Maybe such a high-profile hire will rejuvenate the program the way Deion Sanders did for Colorado. Maybe Belichick’s defensive mastery will befuddle the Atlantic Coast Conference coaches who don’t know what they’re up against. Maybe he will combat concerns about his longevity in Chapel Hill by building a program that prepares players for the pros better than anywhere else. But for now, as the shock wears off and the idea of Belichick pacing the sidelines at Wake Forest and Syracuse begins to crystallize, the reason this happened is clear. In college, Belichick will get a level of power and control he couldn’t have again in the NFL. This article

TAIPEI – Beijing has unveiled a new tactic on Taiwan, the democratic island it claims as its own, officials and experts say: large-scale drills with no fanfare to normalize a heightened military presence and let the U.S. know that China can act whenever it wants. For four days this week, Taiwan went on alert in response to what it said was China’s largest massing of naval forces in three decades around Taiwan and in the East and South China Seas. China’s military said nothing until Friday when it quoted ancient Chinese tactician Sun Tzu’s “Art of War,” a favourite of the communist republic’s founder Mao Zedong. Source link

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Friday that holding hearings of a parliamentary political ethics panel in a way that is open to the media is “one method” of allaying public suspicions about a slush funds scandal involving his ruling Liberal Democratic Party. “So long as there are doubts and concerns, making (hearings) public is one method of dispelling them,” Ishiba said, referring to how LDP members embroiled in the scandal should face the panel in the Upper House. The prime minister made the remark on the first day of full-fledged deliberations over the government’s fiscal 2024 supplementary budget bill in the Upper House Budget Committee. Of the 27 scandal-hit Upper House lawmakers willing to face ethics panel hearings, 23 have sought for the sessions to be held behind closed doors. “We can urge (the lawmakers to open up the sessions), but it cannot be forced,” Ishiba said. “It’s ultimately a personal decision.” Ishiba expressed reluctance over a proposal by opposition parties to ban corporate and group donations, saying, “I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it violates (Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees the freedom of expression), but the relationship must be discussed.” At a meeting Tuesday of the budget committee in the Lower House, Ishiba had said that the proposed ban could violate Article 21. Source link

PARIS – French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday named Francois Bayrou his third prime minister of 2024, tasking the veteran centrist with steering the country out of its second major political crisis in the last six months. The priority for Bayrou, a close Macron ally, will be passing a special law to roll over the 2024 budget, with a nastier battle over the 2025 legislation looming early next year. Parliamentary pushback over the 2025 bill led to the downfall of former Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government. Bayrou, 73, is expected to put forward his list of ministers in the coming days, but will likely face the same existential difficulties as Barnier in steering legislation through a hung parliament comprising three warring blocs. His proximity to the deeply unpopular Macron will also prove a vulnerability. Source link

The central government on Friday updated its guidelines for disaster shelter operations, with the update calling for ensuring there is one toilet for every 20 people, among other measures. The update follows the massive earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture on Jan. 1, 2024. In shelters set up after the disaster, people had difficulty using toilets and sleeping. As for toilets, the guidelines call for setting up one unit for every 50 people initially and one unit for every 20 people later. The guidelines also suggest one bathing unit for every 50 people. Living space of at least 3.5 square meters per person is recommended to accommodate a cardboard bed and other items. The guidelines emphasize the need for hot meals for disaster victims. “We will work to ensure the same level of shelter conditions wherever a disaster occurs,” Manabu Sakai, minister of state for disaster management, said at a news conference. Source link

Japan’s plans to develop a next-generation fighter jet alongside Britain and Italy have taken a significant step forward, with the top companies involved formally agreeing Friday to establish a joint venture by the middle of next year that will be in charge of delivering the aircraft. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, the new business — comprising Britain’s BAE Systems, Italy’s Leonardo and the Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co. (JAIEC), a joint venture launched in July between Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and the Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies — will be responsible for the industrial side of the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP). “The new joint venture will be accountable for the design, development and delivery of the next-generation combat aircraft and will remain the design authority for GCAP for the life of the product, which is expected to go out beyond 2070,” the companies said in a joint statement. Source link

The governing coalition on Friday proposed that the minimum annual taxable income be raised from the current ¥1.03 million to ¥1.23 million starting next year. The tax chiefs of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, Komeito, made the proposal at a meeting with their counterpart from the opposition Democratic Party for the People. The three tax chiefs plan to meet again as early as Tuesday after the DPP, which seeks to raise the threshold to ¥1.78 million, opposed the proposal. The secretaries-general of the three parties on Wednesday agreed to aim to raise the threshold to ¥1.78 million. An increase in the threshold to ¥1.78 million is expected to lead to a decline of ¥7 trillion to ¥8 trillion in national and local tax revenue combined, causing concern for local government officials. The ruling camp aims to adopt its annual tax reform package as early as Dec. 20. Source link

Shizuoka – The Shizuoka Prefectural Government on Friday unveiled the outline of a draft ordinance calling for collecting ¥4,000 per person from those climbing Mount Fuji from the prefecture, starting next summer. The proposal for an entry fee for Japan’s highest mountain, presented to the prefectural assembly’s culture and tourism committee, is designed to ease congestion at the site and prevent dangerous attempts to scale the peak. The prefectural government aims to submit the draft ordinance to the assembly’s session from February next year, after making adjustments with neighboring Yamanashi Prefecture, from where people can also go up the 3,776-meter mountain. According to the draft ordinance, the proposed fee will be collected at the mountain’s fifth stations of the Fujinomiya, Gotemba and Subashiri trails on the Shizuoka side. The proceeds will go toward implementing related regulations and safety measures. The draft ordinance bars climbing from the three Shizuoka routes between 2 p.m. and 3 a.m. the following day for those who will not stay at mountain huts overnight. It also asks people to learn mountaineering rules and manners beforehand. The Shizuoka government will scrap the existing voluntary “conservation cooperation” fee of ¥1,000 per person. It will not set a limit on the number of climbers. This summer, the Yamanashi Prefectural Government started regulating entry to Mount Fuji, introducing an entry fee of ¥2,000 per head and a daily limit of 4,000 climbers. The Shizuoka government, which introduced a voluntary registration system for Mount Fuji climbers during this year’s climbing season, had been considering collecting an entry fee of ¥3,000 to ¥5,000. Source link

BEIJING – As Donald Trump steps up his tariff threats against China, Beijing is moving to beat the U.S. president-elect to the punch with its own restrictions and get Washington to the negotiating table ahead of a full-blown trade war, analysts say. Armed with the lessons of the last trade war during Trump’s first term, China is seeking to amass bargaining chips to kick off talks with a new U.S. administration on contentious aspects of bilateral ties, including trade and investment, and science and technology. It is also concerned about the harmful effects of additional tariffs on its already-fragile economy. This week, China launched a probe into U.S. chip giant Nvidia over what it claimed were suspected antitrust violations, which follows its ban on U.S.-bound exports of rare minerals. Source link