A men works in the recycling of plastic bags at CoopFuturo, a sorting collective which receives rubbish from the local government collection service and then sells the material to specialized recycling companies, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil AFP/CARL DE SOUZA Standing among sacks of used supermarket shopping bags, soft drink bottles and detergent containers, Evelin Marcele is scornful of Brazil's efforts to recycle plastic waste. "Almost nothing," said the 40-year-old director of CoopFuturo, a sorting center for recyclable material in Rio de Janeiro, where plastic makes up 60 per cent of the roughly 120 tonnes of garbage delivered to the facility every month. Brazil is the fourth biggest producer of plastic rubbish in the world, beaten only by the United States, China and India, according to a recent report published by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). But the Latin American country recycles just 1.28 per cent of the 11.4 million tonnes it generates every year, which the WWF said was … [Read more...] about Plastic polluter: Brazil recycles “almost nothing”
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French police hunt suspect after Lyon bomb “attack”
Police in France were on Saturday (May 25) hunting a suspect following a blast in a pedestrian street in the heart of the city of Lyon that wounded more than a dozen people just two days ahead of the country's hotly contested European Parliament elections. Emergency workers stretcher a woman to a waiting ambulance after a suspected package bomb blast along a pedestrian street in the heart of Lyon, southeast France, the local prosecutors' office said on May 24, 2019. (Photo: AFP/Philippe Desmazes) President Emmanuel Macron called the explosion that happened Friday, apparently from a package packed with shrapnel, an "attack" and sent his interior minister, Christophe Castaner, to Lyon. Police issued an appeal for witnesses on Twitter as they sought the suspect, a man believed to be in his early 30s on a mountain bicycle caught on security cameras in the area immediately before the explosion. An image of the man, wearing light-coloured shorts and a longsleeved dark top, was … [Read more...] about French police hunt suspect after Lyon bomb “attack”
ECB debates switching course before change of helmsman
More like the Fed or business as usual? ECB watchers can't wait to see how the wind is blowing AFP/DANIEL ROLAND But beyond the horse-trading over the right person for the presidency, some policymakers and observers are debating whether the Frankfurt institution needs new priorities after 20 years in operation. "Good luck stepping into the shoes" of 71-year-old Mario Draghi after he leaves in October, a European source speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP. The Italian has shepherded the eurozone through eight years of crisis with sometimes dramatic steps, as well as seeing off frequent political challenges to the central bank's independence. He has extended the bank's "toolbox" of options for supporting the economy with trillion-euro stimulus programmes and negative interest rates. And with "forward guidance" about future policy, the ECB now communicates more clearly and forcefully with markets about how it will pursue its price stability target. One widely tipped candidate … [Read more...] about ECB debates switching course before change of helmsman
Regulators ponder: When can Boeing”s 737 MAX fly again?
Boeing employees in March 2019 build a 737 MAX in Washington State. (AFP/Jason Redmond) Daniel Elwell, acting head of the US Federal Aviation Administration, threw cold water on hopes of a speedy resolution, after revealing late on Wednesday that Boeing had held off submitting a proposed software fix for review after his agency raised additional questions. Investigators have focused on the MAX's anti-stall Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System in inquiries into the crashes in Ethiopia in March and Indonesia in October which left 346 people dead. Boeing last week said the MCAS update was ready for the certification process, and US airlines were hoping the planes could be back in the skies in time for part of the summer travel season. But Elwell on Thursday said the process could take one month, two months or longer. "It is all determined by what we find in our analysis of the application," he said on CNBC. Once Boeing has submitted all documentation, the FAA will conduct a … [Read more...] about Regulators ponder: When can Boeing”s 737 MAX fly again?
Ukraine”s Zelensky says first days of presidency “a shock”
Ukraine's new President Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian with no previous political experience, on Thursday (May 23) said his first days in office have been "a bit of a shock". Newly-elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a book fair in Kiev tells AFP that his new job "has been a bit of a shock, there's a lot of work". (AFP/Sergei SUPINSKY) "There's a lot of work," the 41-year-old told AFP on the sidelines of an international book fair in the capital Kiev. Zelensky, who won a landslide victory last month, reiterated his pledge to move out of the presidential offices in a hulking Soviet-era building in centre city. "I do not like the atmosphere, the building," said Ukraine's sixth president since independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union. "So we'll think what to do about it," he added, noting that such a move would present difficulties. The father-of-two spoke to AFP as he was buying books for his children. Zelensky beat incumbent Petro Poroshenko in last … [Read more...] about Ukraine”s Zelensky says first days of presidency “a shock”