
Bonding over mutual interests? Study says it's 'similarity-effect'Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce says the climate protesters who formed a flotilla in Newcastle Harbour in an attempt to disrupt ships at the world’s largest coal port won’t accept the “financial consequences” of their worldview. Joyce made the remarks in a politics panel interview on Seven’s Sunrise, where he was joined by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek who defended her climate record against the protester’s criticisms. Climate protesters in kayaks attempt to block access to Newcastle coal port. Credit: Getty Images Plibersek said she has approved ten times more renewable energy projects than coal projects. “I’m the first environment minister to stop a coal mine, because of the impact it could have had on water going on to the Great Barrier Reef,” she said. “What I would say about the protests is, of course, in Australia you have a right to peacefully and safely express your view. But if you’re breaking the law, if you’re endangering others, if you’re diverting police resources, then I think you need to face the consequences of that.” Joyce was more scathing in his assessment of the protests. “What these people are doing is going out in the harbour and saying ‘I want Australia to be poor’,” Joyce said. “They never suggest what pensions they want to remove or what schools they don’t want built. They don’t go out with that on their placard, they just go out and say ‘I want Australia to be poor because I have a selfish desire that I can inflict on you my worldview without accepting the consequences financially of what that means’.” Labor will harden its demands on the Greens to pass more than a dozen bills through parliament in the next four days in the belief that voters will blame the smaller party at the next election for blocking the government’s agenda. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is seeking to have the draft laws passed without a single deal with the Greens after months of argument over housing, the environment, university fees, school funding and other reforms. The approach reflects a crucial calculation that the Greens have lost ground in recent state and local government elections and are at risk of losing federal seats because voters think the party has moved too far to the left on economic policy and the Middle East. But in two significant retreats, Labor shelved a bill on Sunday that sought to crackdown on misinformation and did not put forward a long-awaited ban on gambling advertising after earlier saying it would unveil the package before the end of the year. Read more about the bills before the parliament in the final sitting week of the year here. In the wee hours Sunday at the United Nations climate talks, countries from around the world reached an agreement on how rich countries can cough up the funds to support poor countries in the face of climate change. It’s a far-from-perfect arrangement, with many parties still deeply unsatisfied but some hopeful that the deal will be a step in the right direction. An attendee reacts during a closing plenary session at the COP29 UN Climate Summit. Credit: AP Here’s how they got there: What was the finance deal agreed at climate talks? Rich countries have agreed to pool together at least $300 billion a year by 2035. It’s not near the full amount of $1.3 trillion that developing countries were asking for, and that experts said was needed. But delegations more optimistic about the agreement said this deal is headed in the right direction, with hopes that more money flows in the future. What will the money be spent on? The deal decided in Baku replaces a previous agreement from 15 years ago that charged rich nations $100 billion a year to help the developing world with climate finance. The new number has similar aims: it will go toward the developing world’s long laundry list of to-dos to prepare for a warming world and keep it from getting hotter. That includes paying for the transition to clean energy and away from fossil fuels. Countries need funds to build up the infrastructure needed to deploy technologies like wind and solar power on a large scale. Why was it so hard to get a deal? Election results around the world that herald a change in climate leadership, a few key players with motive to stall the talks and a disorganized host country all led to a final crunch that left few happy with a flawed compromise. Developing nations also faced some difficulties agreeing in the final hours. Meanwhile, activists ramped up the pressure: many urged negotiators to stay strong and asserted that no deal would be better than a bad deal. But ultimately the desire for a deal won out. AP Good morning and welcome to the national news blog from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. My name is Josefine Ganko, I’ll be with you on the blog for the first half of the day. It’s Monday, November 25. Here’s what’s making headlines this morning.
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Oral Resin Market Outlook and Future Projections for 2030Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, on Sunday, went head-to-head with a former governor of Rivers State, and his estranged benefactor, Dr. Peter Odili, saying he brought Odili back to life, after his retirement into oblivion. Wike, the immediate past governor of the state, warned that as an elder statesman, Odili should not be a trader and sycophant all the time. He said he had shown immense respect to Odili all along, including refusing to invite former President Olusegun Obasanjo to commission projects in the state when he was governor, just to avoid embarrassing Odili. A statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said Wike dropped the firestorm on Sunday, at a Special Thanksgiving Service organised by Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Martin Amaewhule, at the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Oro-Igwe/Eliogbolo Archdeaconry Church of the Holy Spirit, Eliozu Parish, Port Harcourt. The no-holds-barred riposte on Odili was in response to the latter’s praises for Governor Siminalayi Fubara for stopping Wike from converting Rivers State to his private fiefdom. The FCT minister said it was unfortunate for Odili, who was supposed to be seen as an elder statesman and called a father, to reduce himself to a sycophant and trader. He stated, “Must you be a trader all the time? As governor for eight years, what else are you looking for? You know, I didn’t want to say anything. But somebody called me last night, and told me what someone said in the social media. “I said until I read it myself. This morning, I read in the newspapers what our former governor, Sir Dr Peter Odili, said. What did he say? He said the present governor has been able to stop one man who wanted to convert Rivers State to his personal estate. “Between him and myself, who has turned Rivers State to his personal estate? His wife is a Chairman of Governing Council, his daughter is a commissioner, his other daughter is a judge and he is the general overseer. “Who has now turned Rivers State to his private estate? I am sure if care is not taken, if there is a chance, he can even arrange a marriage for the governor. “It was his nephew, his late senior brother’s son, that was recommended for commissioner. He took the slot and gave it to his own daughter. Someone who didn’t remember to stand for the son of his late elder brother, is that an elder statesman?” The FCT minister said it was painful that Odili, out of political sycophancy, forgot all that he had said in the past. He stated that when he was governor, the same Odili had praised him to high heaven, and said all past governors in Rivers State combined did not do better than him (Wike). According to Wike, “In 2007 after he left office, he couldn’t come near power in the state because Amaechi was the governor then. He was gone! “Like somebody said that God will use someone to lift up someone. When I came in as governor in 2015, I won’t use the word resurrected, but I brought him back to life. “All of us know about PAMO University. But for us, there wouldn’t have been anything called PAMO University. Rivers State was sponsoring 100 students per session and for every semester, each of the students was paying nothing less than N5 million. Then, Rivers people were attacking me up and down. “I personally called Julius Berger to build a mansion for him to live. He was calling everyone to the house then, telling them, ‘come and see what Wike has done for me. Wike has shown me love.’ He was taking them round the house. “Now, because you have organised a Christmas Carol for the governor, I didn’t say you should not do your Christmas Carol. But why reduce yourself to such a laughing stock? People will still see it on television how he was telling the whole world then how God used me to bring him back to life politically. “Why not do your Christmas Carol, collect what you can collect and leave me alone? The governor that all of us made has not spent one year in office and the same Odili was already saying that the governor has beaten the records of all the past governors of Rivers State. “When I was there, he said I had surpassed the records of all the past governors, including himself. What can he even show that he did in his eight years as governor? But a governor has not spent one year, you are saying he has done more than all the past governors. “You spent eight years as governor and someone who hasn’t spent one year has surpassed your records, what manner of elder talks like that? Is that what an elder statesman should be known for? “When I was governor, my pictures were everywhere in his house. Sitting room, bedroom, kitchen, even in the toilet, my picture was everywhere. But today, all the pictures have been removed.” Wike asked what could be learned from such a sycophantic elder statesman. “What can I learn from this kind of elder? What kind of advice can one get from him? This moment you are saying something; the next moment you are saying something else,” he stated. “You see, if your children begin to ask you, is this not the same man you were praising before? What would you tell them?” The minister also weighed in on the River State governorship issue, saying, “When I was plotting who will be governor after me, was he (Odili) there? “Then, he was complaining about this governor, saying that he couldn’t stand before the public to talk. But today, he is organising Christmas Carol for the same governor he was against then. “He has forgotten all that he said in the past. I named this after you, I named that after your wife. What have I not done? You said we should not be part of the government, we have left. “We are managing, you have taken assembly money, they are not dying of hunger and they will not die of hunger. We are okay. I’m focusing on my job in Abuja and all these sycophancy won’t take him to the level I have attained. “This is a man who wanted to run for president then, he didn’t have the balls, he chickened out. Simply because Obasanjo said no, he will not contest, he ran away. Because of him, I never invited Obasanjo to Rivers State to commission projects. I felt it will humiliate him.” Olawale Ajimotokan Follow us on:
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