British author Roald Dahl told the story of Pravdinsk in northern Russia, where the ground was frozen so hard it was impossible to bury a corpse in winter. “So, do you know what they do? They simply sharpen his legs and knock him into the ground with a sledgehammer.” But with record heat striking Siberia, this macabre technique will not be needed.
Places in the far north-east hit 21.5°C overnight – shattering records by more than 10°C. The current extreme weather is not just confined to Russia. The UAE had its hottest day yet recorded in May, as Sweihan near Al Ain sweltered at 51.6°C. The country’s summers are now 10 days longer than they used to be.
Parts of Britain have declared a drought after the driest and sunniest spring since records began in 1836. Yet this follows the wettest 18 months in national history. Switzerland had a different problem, after the collapse of a melting glacier destroyed the village of Blatten on Wednesday.
So, what is going on?
In 2015, countries signing the Paris Agreement on climate change agreed to limit global warning to “well below” 2°C by the end of the century, and to target not exceeding 1.5°C. In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change thought 1.5°C would not be reached until 2040. Now, it is set to be broken in two years.
The battleground is now the 2°C target. Now, that is likely to be overtaken around 2045, on the basis of the average over several years. Indeed, we could experience a year above 2°C as soon as 2029. Likely overall warming by end-century will be 2.5°C, a level that would have been thought disastrous a decade ago. Blatten is not the first place to be wiped out by unchecked climate change, and it will not be the last.
The risk is growing of dramatic and irreversible climatic shifts: an Arctic free of ice in the summer before 2030, the dieback of the Amazon rainforest, a loss of 90 per cent of coral reefs by 2050. Atlantic oceanic circulation could collapse, bringing severe flooding to the US east coast and, paradoxically, freezing temperatures to Europe.
It is no surprise that global warming continues to increase while emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are at record levels.
There is some positive news from China, which might reach a peak in carbon dioxide emissions this year. It is adopting renewable and nuclear power, and switching from oil-fuelled to electric vehicles on a massive scale. As the world’s biggest polluter, it leads the overall trend. But backsliding in the US could undo some of this progress. Right-wing parties in Europe have seized on climate policies as a populist line of attack.
In any case, just reducing emissions is not enough – they need to fall to net-zero, where any remaining carbon dioxide releases are counterbalanced by soaking up the gas from the atmosphere – before warming will stop.
Some other factors are playing a part in recent rapid heating. Sulphur dioxide released into the atmosphere was unintentionally helping limit global warming by reflecting some of the sun’s rays. Over the past decade, China has tackled air pollution and switched its district heating systems from sulphurous coal to natural gas. The international shipping industry has also banned the use of high-sulphur fuel oil without scrubbers.
These moves are good for human health and for reducing acid rain, but they have an unfortunate side effect. If India now cleans up its terrible coal pollution, that could push warming even faster.
Sulphur dioxide apart, we are on a far better climate path than a decade or two ago. But this is a choice between the catastrophic and the terrible.
Environmentalists remain stuck on policies that have achieved great success – cheap, mass-scale solar and wind power, batteries and electric vehicles – but not fast enough, and that cannot be the whole answer in the limited time remaining to us.
Many appear secretly delighted when policies and technologies that don’t fit the narrow renewables-only ideology run into technical or commercial problems. These include pricing and trading carbon dioxide emissions, capturing carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, removing carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere, using hydrogen, or expanding nuclear power.
They call for more “political will” or “ambition”. This ignores that overbold targets have not been met, and that making them even bolder will not overcome the problem that a big new green factory or critical mineral mine or intercontinental power line takes a decade to build.
Bad-faith mongers, now joined by AI chatbot Grok, are trying to chip away at support for climate policies. But there are genuine concerns about the cost and reliability of energy, in a world where political and trade fences are being built ever-higher.
The “pragmatists”, meanwhile, seem to have resigned themselves to living with 2.5°C or more warming, and that many seaside cities, mountain villages, coral reefs, rainforests and ice-caps will disappear. The costs of this dystopian future, and the risks of something truly cataclysmic, greatly exceed the expense of working harder to stop it.
But at least they have thought about the problem, and made a conscious decision, unlike many politicians, business leaders, media commentators and voters, who simply ignore it.
There is a way forward, though not a comfortable one. First, accelerate the current progress on low-carbon energy, but be much more ruthless about hard choices, prioritisation, and keeping costs down. Second, advance the necessary but unpopular technologies – recognise that smashing capitalism or destroying the fossil fuel industry, however appealing to activists, has to come after saving a liveable climate.
Third, learn from the experience of cleaning up sulphur pollution. We have unintentionally made warming go faster. But, intelligent “geoengineering” with smaller amounts of sulphur or other particles can also cool the Earth, buying valuable years to cut carbon dioxide. Like the people of Pravdinsk, we need an ugly but effective solution to our climate problem.
Dr Amal Khalid Alias revealed a recent case of a woman with daughters, who specifically wanted a boy.
A semen analysis of the father showed abnormal sperm so the couple required IVF.
Out of 21 eggs collected, six were unused leaving 15 suitable for IVF.
A specific procedure was used, called intracytoplasmic sperm injection where a single sperm cell is inserted into the egg.
On day three of the process, 14 embryos were biopsied for gender selection.
The next day, a pre-implantation genetic report revealed four normal male embryos, three female and seven abnormal samples.
Day five of the treatment saw two male embryos transferred to the patient.
The woman recorded a positive pregnancy test two weeks later.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The five pillars of Islam
Closing the loophole on sugary drinks
As The National reported last year, non-fizzy sugared drinks were not covered when the original tax was introduced in 2017. Sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, 20 grams of sugar per 500ml bottle.
The non-fizzy drink AriZona Iced Tea contains 65 grams of sugar – about 16 teaspoons – per 680ml can. The average can costs about Dh6, which would rise to Dh9.
Drinks such as Starbucks Bottled Mocha Frappuccino contain 31g of sugar in 270ml, while Nescafe Mocha in a can contains 15.6g of sugar in a 240ml can.
Flavoured water, long-life fruit juice concentrates, pre-packaged sweetened coffee drinks fall under the ‘sweetened drink’ category
Not taxed:
Freshly squeezed fruit juices, ground coffee beans, tea leaves and pre-prepared flavoured milkshakes do not come under the ‘sweetened drink’ band.
Blonde
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AIDA%20RETURNS
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THE%20SPECS
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
'HIJRAH%3A%20IN%20THE%20FOOTSTEPS%20OF%20THE%20PROPHET'
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEdited%20by%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Idries%20Trevathan%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPages%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20240%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hirmer%20Publishers%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EAvailable%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Company profile
Name: Oulo.com
Founder: Kamal Nazha
Based: Dubai
Founded: 2020
Number of employees: 5
Sector: Technology
Funding: $450,000
THE SPECS
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 258hp at 5,000-6,500rpm
Torque: 400Nm from 1,550-4,400rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.4L/100km
Price, base: from D215,000 (Dh230,000 as tested)
On sale: now
Tonight's Chat on The National
Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster who has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
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What is a robo-adviser?
Robo-advisers use an online sign-up process to gauge an investor’s risk tolerance by feeding information such as their age, income, saving goals and investment history into an algorithm, which then assigns them an investment portfolio, ranging from more conservative to higher risk ones.
These portfolios are made up of exchange traded funds (ETFs) with exposure to indices such as US and global equities, fixed-income products like bonds, though exposure to real estate, commodity ETFs or gold is also possible.
Investing in ETFs allows robo-advisers to offer fees far lower than traditional investments, such as actively managed mutual funds bought through a bank or broker. Investors can buy ETFs directly via a brokerage, but with robo-advisers they benefit from investment portfolios matched to their risk tolerance as well as being user friendly.
Many robo-advisers charge what are called wrap fees, meaning there are no additional fees such as subscription or withdrawal fees, success fees or fees for rebalancing.
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion
The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.
Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".
The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.
He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.
"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.
As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
U19 WORLD CUP, WEST INDIES
UAE group fixtures (all in St Kitts)
Saturday 15 January: v Canada
Thursday 20 January: v England
Saturday 22 January: v Bangladesh
UAE squad
Alishan Sharafu (captain), Shival Bawa, Jash Giyanani, Sailles Jaishankar, Nilansh Keswani, Aayan Khan, Punya Mehra, Ali Naseer, Ronak Panoly, Dhruv Parashar, Vinayak Raghavan, Soorya Sathish, Aryansh Sharma, Adithya Shetty, Kai Smith
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
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