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Buckingham Palace announced last night that the Queen had decided not to travel to Glasgow for next Monday's climate summit dinner, but instead addressed the guests via recorded video. The Queen, 95, who hosted cop26's opening reception, was seen as a big selling point, with her cancellation of her trip to Northern Ireland last Wednesday and her first overnight stay in hospital in eight years, all of which have been interpreted as being well-nourished and ready to be in the best shape when she makes an appearance at the climate summit. Buckingham Palace said the decision was made with "sensible precautions" as recommended by doctors.
World trends
Germany's newly elected 736 bundesrats made their first appearance for the meeting yesterday. With an average age of 47, they are not only younger than the previous Bundestag, but also more feminine – a third of the MPs are women, including two transgender women who have entered the Bundestag for the first time. The source of the new MPs is also more diverse, with 83 of them having a history of immigration, including 3 African-Germans, and a black female lawyer from the Green Party who became the first black woman to enter the German Bundestag. The benches belonging to the government are empty, the triparty coalition government negotiations are still ongoing, and Merkel, who has decided the fate of the country for the past 16 years, has become a guest in the new house, receiving a welcome ceremony that is usually reserved for foreign guests.
Gazprom has reduced gas supplies to Moldova by about 35 percent in recent weeks, leading the country to declare an energy emergency. After the contract year expires at the end of last month, Gazprom requires that it no longer enjoy an average price of about $150 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas at the current price of the gas spot market. Under the October provisional contract, Moldova had to pay nearly $800 for 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas, and Gazprom also demanded that the country repay $700 million in old debt.
When Acting Deputy Prime Minister Baradal of the Afghan Interim Government met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Qatar, Baradal promised the Chinese side that it would increase its efforts to protect the rights and interests of women and children and would not deprive women of their right to education and work; it was hoped that China and the international community would increase their assistance to help the country overcome the humanitarian crisis and get on the right track of development. China expressed its desire to make Afghanistan a modern country. U.N. agencies estimate that 22.8 million Afghans will be mired in severe food shortages this winter.
Financial news
When the Chancellor of the Exchequer Sunak unveiled his budget today, he would declare that the UK economy has entered a "new era of optimism". The UK economy is expected to recover rapidly this year, growing by 7% for the full year, up from the 4% official forecast in March. The government plans to invest £30 billion from the proceeds of economic growth in public services. In addition, the UK also plans to restart the nuclear energy program with a new financing model.
Business field
ABP, a Dutch civil servant and teachers pension fund, one of the world's largest pension funds, announced that it would stop investing in fossil fuel producers. Most of its investments in oil, gas and coal will be sold by the first quarter of 2023. ABF holds stakes in about 80 companies in the fossil fuel sector, accounting for nearly 3 percent of its €528 billion total assets. AbF said it will invest in the power, automotive and aviation industries to drive these companies to be more sustainable.
Blue Origin, the space company of Amazon founder Bezos, hopes to build its own space station in the coming years. The station, which will be built with several partners, including Boeing, is scheduled to be put into space between 2025 and 2030. The new 830-cubic-meter space station, which can accommodate up to 10 people, serves both as a commercial space for research on topics such as weightlessness and as a meeting point for space visitors – where the large windows experience sunrises and sunsets 32 times a day.
Benefiting from the massive advertising in the retail, travel, media and entertainment industries, Google parent company Alphabet grew 40 percent in revenue in the third quarter to $65.1 billion, the highest quarterly revenue in 14 years; profits over the same period exceeded $21 billion, almost three times what was reported before the pandemic. The company's stock price has risen 57% this year.
Climate and environmental protection
The United Nations Environment Programme warns that if countries do not strengthen their climate commitments, the world will face a catastrophic temperature rise of at least 2.7 degrees Celsius. According to the commitments currently submitted by countries to the COP26 summit, emissions will only be reduced by 7.5% by 2030, well below the 55% reduction required to control global temperature rise within 1.5 degrees Celsius.
According to a study by the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, a think tank, about 500 large companies with an annual turnover of more than $1 billion have set "climate neutrality" targets and are longer almost every week, but the so-called neutral targets lack transparency and comparability, and companies focus on very small areas when recording emissions and implement minimal measures to claim to be climate neutral simply by purchasing certificates to offset the remaining emissions. The think tank calls for the need for "climate neutrality" to establish international uniform standards to avoid companies "greening" whitewashing.
Pandemic news
WHO's Emergency Committee, which meets every three months to discuss the outbreak, said the COVID-19 crisis was far from over and called for research into the next generation of vaccines and long-term action to control the coronavirus.
After just a few weeks of relaxation, restrictions such as requiring masks in public places and providing COVID-19 passes will return to Belgium this Friday as cases and hospitalizations increase.
Professor Pollard, an Oxford scholar involved in the development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, told the Science and Technology Committee of the House of Commons that the high rate of about 40,000 confirmed infections per day in the UK should not be attacked, saying it was due to the high testing rate. COVID-19 patients in UK hospitals have climbed to their highest level since March this year, up 11% from last week.
Experts from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Advisory Panel voted unanimously to support Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for young children ages 5 to 11, with only one expert abstaining in the vote. The FDA is expected to make a decision in the coming days.
Other messages
A joint U.S.-European police operation to combat darknet crime has arrested 150 suspects suspected of buying or selling contraband online, including 65 in the United States, 47 in Germany and 24 in the United Kingdom. The largest operation against the dark web to date, coordinated by Europol, resulted in the seizure of €26 million in cash and digital currency, 234 kilograms of drugs and 45 firearms.
The NASA telescope discovered the first possible planet outside the Milky Way, which is about the size of Saturn and is 28 million light-years from Earth, and has been named M51-1. The discovery was hailed as a breakthrough in the search for distant planets.
Princess Mako, the niece of Emperor Naruhito of Japan, who married her college boyfriend and commoner Komuro Kei yesterday, gave up her royal title, and she also declined a one-time subsidy paid by the state when she left the imperial family. They got engaged four years ago, negative media coverage of the man in the Japanese media led to the postponement of the wedding, the man left the United States to study, and Mako also suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They plan to move to New York after marriage. The twists and turns of their love affair are regarded by the British as the "Japanese version of Harry and Meghan" - how can Meghan be compared to Makoto? Forget about the royal family and wish them an ordinary American couple.
Thanks for listening. I am Shi Yan, a 21st Century Business Herald correspondent in the UK.
This is London, October 27th, and have fun.
Editorial Board: Yu Xiaona
Planner, Editor: Li Yanxia
Written and broadcast by: Shi Yan
Executive Producer: Xiang Xiufang
Producer: Shilin Zhu, Sijie Yuan
Design: Zheng Wenjing, Liao Yuanni
21st Century Business Herald Overseas Nancai Audio and Video Department co-produced
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