High level representatives from America, Russia, China and the Koreas were among the participants at a series of meetings held by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Singapore over the weekend. Considered together, they represented a suitable summit for this age of uncertainty.
What, for instance, after these discussions is the status of the prospective nuclear deal with North Korea? US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was all grins when he shook hands with the North's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on Saturday and their brief exchange was cordial, according to the State Department.
Mr Pompeo said to Mr Ri: “We should talk again soon” and the latter agreed there were "many productive conversations to be had”. Donald Trump’s letter responding to Kim Jong-un’s missive was also passed on. All appeared to be positive.
After Mr Pompeo left, however, Mr Ri took the occasion to lambast the US for behaving in an “alarming” and hostile manner and not appreciating gestures of goodwill on the part of his country, such as implementing a moratorium on nuclear testing and missile launches.
Even if Mr Ri's scolding was meant more for domestic political consumption, there is the small matter of the report submitted to the UN Security Council last Friday, which claims that North Korea has done no such thing – the tests and launches are continuing and the regime is evading fuel sanctions in a variety of ingenious ways.
On the same day, Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah warned that trade wars were a “real threat” that was becoming “more complex”.
Simultaneously, there was hopeful talk about swiftly concluding talks for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which would bring together the 10 Asean nations with China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand to create the world’s largest economic bloc, with the potential to cover half the global GDP.
Trade wars and new free trading agreements are not mutually exclusive, of course, but the forces of protectionism and liberalisation they represent are.
The spectre of Russia as an irresponsible actor on the international stage was raised again when Mr Pompeo accused the country of violating sanctions by issuing permits for North Korean guest workers and allowing joint ventures.
But only days before, a French political scientist warned that far from being united and strong, Vladimir Putin’s Russia was a “creaking ship” suffering a brain and talent drain while others point to its GDP, which is now smaller than that of Italy, as the true representation of its diminished status.
Confusion reigns. The direction of travel is unclear, the truth is contested and clarity is rare, just as it is missing in a European Union deeply divided about the values its members do or should share and in a UK whose leaders appear delusional about what kind of Brexit they can secure and the consequences of a no-deal departure from the union.
Wise leadership has rarely been more badly needed but few possess the standing or the ideas to suggest a way of navigating while the tectonic plates shift. Insistence on the old rules-based order will not do as it was formulated during a period of western hegemony. Those who were excluded from its making rightly chafe at its strictures.
Where to turn to? Bear with me when I bring up the speech given by Mr Trump at the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh in May last year. Ignore, if you wish, that he delivered it. If it helps, remember that the doctrine of "principled realism" that it partly outlined was almost certainly more the work of HR McMaster and Gary Cohn, then the National Security Adviser and chief economic adviser respectively and both men of standing and sanity. Forget, too, that the Trump administration's actions might not always have conformed to the sentiments expressed.
Concentrate instead on the words: “Our partnerships will advance security through stability, not through radical disruption. We will make decisions based on real-world outcomes – not inflexible ideology. We will be guided by the lessons of experience, not the confines of rigid thinking. And, wherever possible, we will seek gradual reforms – not sudden intervention. We must seek partners, not perfection."
___________
Read more:
Trump's speech at the Arab Islamic Summit in full
___________
Less intervention. Pragmatism. Discarding strategies that have not worked. Compromise. And crucially, no imposition of values. He went on: "We are not here to lecture – we are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be or how to worship."
Those are sentences that ought to be welcome not just in Beijing, Moscow, New Delhi and Pyongyang but throughout the developing world as well as in those parts of the West where minds are not still clouded by fading dreams of liberal universalism or neo-conservatism.
They ought to be adopted, discussed and considered to see how they could be built upon to try to clear away the shrouds of uncertainty that hang over meetings such as the ones in Singapore over the last few days.
Could they bring an easy solution to the question of North Korea’s nuclear capability, to disputes on trade that could worsen the lives of millions or to suspicions about the rise of new powers? Not immediately, no.
But they could certainly help by increasing trust and placing it on a new foundation of common principle. It is appropriate given the context that they are also a good fit for the Asean tradition of “agreeing to disagree without being disagreeable”.
Does all that sound too small a philosophy? If it lacks the lofty grandeur of a Kennedy or an Obama in full flight, I think its humility, respect for local cultures and histories and stark acknowledgment of practical realities has a powerful force and principle of its own.
And in a bewildering world, in which what once may have appeared to be satire turns out to be the real news, it could provide more certainty, less conflict and a more risk-free transition to a new world order. And that, for sure, would be no “small” thing.
Sholto Byrnes is a senior fellow at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia
Company%C2%A0profile
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Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
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CHELSEA SQUAD
Arrizabalaga, Bettinelli, Rudiger, Christensen, Silva, Chalobah, Sarr, Azpilicueta, James, Kenedy, Alonso, Jorginho, Kante, Kovacic, Saul, Barkley, Ziyech, Pulisic, Mount, Hudson-Odoi, Werner, Havertz, Lukaku.
Champions League Last 16
Red Bull Salzburg (AUT) v Bayern Munich (GER)
Sporting Lisbon (POR) v Manchester City (ENG)
Benfica (POR) v Ajax (NED)
Chelsea (ENG) v Lille (FRA)
Atletico Madrid (ESP) v Manchester United (ENG)
Villarreal (ESP) v Juventus (ITA)
Inter Milan (ITA) v Liverpool (ENG)
Paris Saint-Germain v Real Madrid (ESP)
Imperial%20Island%3A%20A%20History%20of%20Empire%20in%20Modern%20Britain
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Stamp%20duty%20timeline
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Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
Sustainable Development Goals
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its effects
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development
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
'Midnights'
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Zayed Sustainability Prize
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Gender equality in the workplace still 200 years away
It will take centuries to achieve gender parity in workplaces around the globe, according to a December report from the World Economic Forum.
The WEF study said there had been some improvements in wage equality in 2018 compared to 2017, when the global gender gap widened for the first time in a decade.
But it warned that these were offset by declining representation of women in politics, coupled with greater inequality in their access to health and education.
At current rates, the global gender gap across a range of areas will not close for another 108 years, while it is expected to take 202 years to close the workplace gap, WEF found.
The Geneva-based organisation's annual report tracked disparities between the sexes in 149 countries across four areas: education, health, economic opportunity and political empowerment.
After years of advances in education, health and political representation, women registered setbacks in all three areas this year, WEF said.
Only in the area of economic opportunity did the gender gap narrow somewhat, although there is not much to celebrate, with the global wage gap narrowing to nearly 51 per cent.
And the number of women in leadership roles has risen to 34 per cent globally, WEF said.
At the same time, the report showed there are now proportionately fewer women than men participating in the workforce, suggesting that automation is having a disproportionate impact on jobs traditionally performed by women.
And women are significantly under-represented in growing areas of employment that require science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills, WEF said.
* Agence France Presse
