International Polity - Current Affairs for September, 2016

Well known socialist Jeremy Corbyn has been re-elected the head of the British Labour Party, defeating a challenge to his year old leadership of a divided opposition party

• Corbyn won almost 62 percent of the greater than 500,000 votes cast by supporters and Labour members
• Corbyn was elected last year to lead Labour which governed between 1997 and 2010 but lost two successive general elections
• Corbyn won among the full members, the registered supporters and the union affiliates.
• His 61.8 percent share of the votes or 313, 209 votes was massive improvement on the tally of the previous year
• Ciritics are saying that this is an indication of the amount of weakening of the Parliamentary Labour Party that the only fight left left is the election of the shadow cabinet my MPs.
• Labour leader Corbyn has said that the party will decide shadow cabinet elections in time, but there should be a role of membership in choosing the shadow team too
• Challenger Owen Smith and former shadow foreign secretary Hillary Ben called for the party to come together

President Obama on 5th September 2016 visited the SE Asian nation of Laos closing a dark chapter in the shared history of the two nations.

• He is one of several world leaders coming to this nation of close to 7 million people
• Its one party communist state tightly controls public expression but is also hosting the annual meeting of ASEAN nations
• Bolstering economic ties in Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar is part of the US strategy to counter China’s growing dominance in the region

Pakistan’s cabinet has approved a long term defence agreement with China.

• Approval was given after Nawaz Sharif chaired a meeting in Lahore in July
• Cabinet considered the summary on initiating negotiations into the draft agreement for the pact to enhance security and defence cooperation in diversified fields.
• During 2011 as well, China and Pakistan were nearing a deal till Beijing feared the impact on Washington and New Delhi
• The Pakistani PM at that time was Yousaf Raza Gilani

This gives a big boost to efforts to bring the accord into effect by the close of the year.

• United States was also expected to announce it was formally joining the Paris Agreement in Advance of the G-20 summit.
• Tensions rose between Beijing and Washington over cyberhacking, South China sea and planned deployment of the US anti missile system in China’s neighbour, South Korea.
• But combating climate change is one area where both large economies agree
• Together, the US and China produce 38 percent of the man made CO₂ emissions of the world
• To build momentum for the deal to counter this, a 2030 deadline was set for emissions to stop rising
• China ratified this Paris Agreement, negotiated by representatives of 195 nations in Paris in 2015
• Agreement goes into force when joined by close to 55 nations that produce 55 percent of global emissions
• Before China’s announcement, 23 countries had ratified or otherwise joined the agreement representing just 1 percent of global emissions according to the World Resources Institute.
• Agreement’s long term goal is to keep global warming below 2 degree C (3.6 degree F)
• Temperatures have risen by 1 degree C (1.8 degrees F) since the industrial revolution. Aspirational goal of limiting the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees or 2.7 degrees F has not even been reached.
• Under the Paris Agreement, countries are required to set national targets for reducing GHG emissions
• First cycle begins in 2020- only developed countries are expected to lower emissions in absolute terms
• Developing nations are encouraged to do so as their capabilities evolve over time

Brazil’s Senate impeached President Dilma Rousseff in what is the biggest scandal that polarised Latin America’s biggest country amid massive corruption scandal and brutal economic crisis.

• Senators voted 61-20 o convict the first female president of the nation to use money from state banks for illegal bankroll public spending.
• Rousseff’s opponens hailed her removal
• Michel Temer who ran Brazil since her May suspension, has been appointed the President through to 2018
• The first televised address to the nation by Temer worked to battle fiscal crisis and record unemployment- Brazil’s unemployment rate is over 11 percent
• The country has slid into its deepest recession in decades and the Petrobras scandal has tarnished the coalition led by Rousseff.
• Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador withdrew their ambassadors following the impeachment.
• In an unprecedented move however, the senate 42-36 allowed Rousseff to retain the right to hold public office a break with Brazilian laws which hold that a dismissed president cannot hold a government job for 8 years