PARIS (AP) — With just three weeks before the first round of France's presidential election, far-right candidate Marine Le Pen is working to galvanize voters with the anti-Islam rhetoric that is one of her trademarks.
(1 of 5) Far-right candidate for the presidential election Marine Le Pen waves at supporters after she delivers a speech during a meeting in Bordeaux, southwestern France, Sunday, April 2, 2017. Polls suggest that Le Pen and independent centrist Emmanuel Macron are the two top contenders in the election. The top two vote-getters on April 23 will compete in a presidential runoff on May 7.
Le Pen addressed thousands of supporters on Sunday in the southwest French city of Bordeaux, where she vowed to "uncompromisingly fight Islamist fundamentalism which seeks to impose its oppressive rules in our country."
She also criticized the headscarves that some Muslim women wear, saying "girls in France should be able to dress as they wish" and "shouldn't be forced to bury themselves under clothes of another age."
Polls suggest Le Pen is one of the top contenders in the election's first round on April 23, but would lose in the May 7 runoff.
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Thousands of people marched in Hungary's capital on Sunday to protest planned legal changes that are seen as targeting a Budapest university founded by billionaire Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros.
(1 of 2) Participants walk during the rally, organized by the Freedom for Education movement, called CEU Now, Who's Next – Protest For The Free Education , in downtown Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 2, 2017. (Zoltan Balogh/MTI via AP)
Many Hungarian and international scholars and institutions have expressed support for Central European University. The school, founded by Soros in 1991, enrolls over 1,400 students from 108 countries.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban considers Soros an ideological foe whose "open society" ideal contrasts with his own efforts to turn Hungary into an "illiberal state." Sunday's march started at Budapest's Corvinus University.
Corvinus professor Daniel Deak says the proposed changes to Hungary's higher education law could force CEU to close and was "a shot coming from the Hungarian government against all Hungarian universities.
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbs voted Sunday in a presidential election that was a test of their leader's authoritarian rule amid growing Russian influence in the Balkan region. Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, a former ultranationalist now a declared pro-European Union politician, is slated to win the presidency by a high margin against 10 opposition candidates, including a parody candidate who is mocking the country's political establishment.
(1 of 13) Sasa Jankovic, center, a Serbian presidential candidate, casts his ballot for the presidential elections at a polling station in Belgrade, Serbia, Sunday, April 2, 2017. Voters in Serbia are casting ballots in a presidential election seen as a test of public support for populist Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and his autocratic rule.
Vucic's political clout could face a blow, however, if he does not sweep his opponents in the first round of voting. Vucic needs to win by more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff election on April 16 that would put him in a much trickier position against a single opposition candidate.
Vucic's main challengers include human-rights lawyer and former Ombudsman Sasa Jankovic; former Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic; and Vucic's former mentor, Vojislav Seselj, a nationalist who has been tried for war crimes.
The opposition has accused Vucic of muzzling the media and intimidating voters ahead of the election. Vucic denies the allegations, saying only he can bring stability to a region scarred by the wars of the 1990s, which Vucic supported at the time.
The state electoral commission said the turnout was about 46 percent two hours before the polls were to close, some two percentage points less than during the last presidential vote in 2012. Opposition candidates were expected to benefit from a higher turnout.
Independent election observers reported sporadic irregularities such as bribes being offered to voters and people casting ballots without proper identity documents. But the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability in Serbia said those were isolated cases that don't threaten the integrity of the election results.
"I really hope that with these elections, Serbia will carry on toward its further stability with full support of its government," Vucic said as he cast his ballot. "I don't know if I'll win, but I truly hope that those who want to destabilize Serbia will not succeed."
Jankovic, an independent candidate with no party affiliation, said Sunday he's happy with his campaign, which has galvanized the pro-democratic movement in Serbia that has been upset with the country's persistent corruption and growing autocracy.
"In Serbia, a new, honest political movement has been created, and it's the reason why we should be optimistic," Jankovic said after he voted. The prime minister since 2014, Vucic is expected to use his win to appoint a figurehead successor and transform the presidency from a ceremonial office into a more muscular role — and rule unchallenged like Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has endorsed him.
Contrary to his claims that he wants to lead Serbia into the EU, Vucic has been pushing for deeper ties with longtime ally Russia. Right before the vote, Vucic even visited Putin, who reportedly promised his signature on the delivery of fighter planes, battle tanks and armored vehicles to Serbia. The move triggered fears of an arms race in the western Balkans, which Russia considers its sphere of influence.
One of the biggest surprises of the election campaign has been Luka Maksimovic, a media student who is running as a parody politician, decked out in a white suit, oversized jewelry and a man-bun. As a satirical candidate, Maksimovic has mocked corruption in Serbian politics by promising to steal if he is elected. His supporters are mostly young voters alienated by Serbia's decades-long crisis and economic decline.
Maksimovic' s widely viewed videos on social media networks portray him doing push-ups, sucking a raw egg and riding a white horse surrounded by mock bodyguards. "Let the best candidate win! And definitely, I'm the best," Maksimovic said after he voted.
Associated Press writers Amer Cohadzic, Ivana Bzganovic and Jovana Gec contributed.
Coal India Secretary Susheel Kumar is optimistic that the move will help the country reduce its emission intensity and dependence on petroleum and gas imports
The state-owned Coal India is readying an action plan to tap coal bed methane and gasification to keep a lid on emission and cut down India’s dependence of imported petro products, a top official said. “Coal India (CIL) is making an action plan. Under the plan, the PSU will have to come out with projects on coal bed methane, gasification (underground and surface), coal to liquid and polychemical,” Coal India Secretary Susheel Kumar told PTI.
Underground coal gasification (UCG) is extraction of energy from coal and lignite resources that are otherwise deemed uneconomical through conventional mining methods. The plan of action, Kumar said, will be monitored by the coal ministry.
“We want that at least the pilot should come. Let’s hope that it happens sooner than later because a new vista will open for us,” the secretary said.
He is optimistic that the move will help the country reduce its emission intensity and dependence on petroleum and gas imports.
CIL consultancy arm CMPDI recently sought applications from global firms on providing consultancy on formulating bid documents with regard to development of UCG projects.
The secretary had earlier said the domestic coal gas can be used as a feedstock for producing urea and other chemicals that can help limit the country’s import bill by USD 10 billion in five years and cut carbon emission.
Kumar hoped that India’s dependence on petroleum and natural gas can be reduced or done away with if the country manages to extract gas from coal.
MARIA ELENA, Chile On the solar farms of the Atacama Desert, the workers dress like astronauts. They wear bodysuits and wraparound sunglasses, with thick canvas headscarves to shield them from the radiation.
The sun is so intense and the air so dry that seemingly nothing survives. Across vast, rocky wastes blanched of color, there are no cactuses or other visible signs of life. It’s Mars, with better cellphone reception.
It is also the world’s best place to produce solar energy, with the most potent sun power on the planet.
So powerful, in fact, that something extraordinary happened last year when the Chilean government invited utility companies to bid on public contracts. Solar producers dominated the auction, offering to supply electricity at about half the cost of coal-fired plants.
It wasn’t because of a government subsidy for alternative energy. In Chile and a growing list of nations, the price of solar energy has fallen so much that it is increasingly beating out conventional sources of power. Industry experts and government regulators hail this moment as a turning point in the history of human electricity-making.
“This is the beginning of a trend that will only accelerate,” said Chilean Energy Minister Andrés Rebolledo. “We’re talking about an infinite fuel source.”
“We’ve been thinking for so long that we’re poor in energy resources, but we’re really rich.” Rodrigo Mancilla, Chilean energy official
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President Trump ordered U.S. regulators this week to reverse Obama-era policies aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, and he has promised to “bring back” the U.S. coal industry. But construction of coal-fired power plants dropped 62 percent over the past year worldwide, according to a survey by the Sierra Club and other activist groups. In China last year, the number of new permits for coal-fired plants fell by 85 percent.
More worldwide generating capacity is now being added from clean sources than coal and natural gas combined, according to a December report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which closely tracks investment in renewables.
An investor in Chile wanting to build a hydroelectric dam or coal-fired plant potentially faces years of costly political battles and fierce resistance from nearby communities. In contrast, a solar company can lay out acres of automated sun-tracking panels across an isolated stretch of desert and have them firing quiet, clean electricity in less than a year, with no worries about fluctuating fuel prices or droughts. The sunlight is free and shows up for work on time, every morning.
Long dependent on energy imports, Chilean officials now envision their country turning into a “solar Saudi Arabia.” Chile’s solar energy production has increased sixfold since 2014, and last year it was the top-scoring clean-energy producer in the Americas, and second in the world to China, according to the Bloomberg rankings. (China is the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases but also the leading investor in renewable energy.)
Driving the global shift to cheap sun power is a dramatic decline in the cost of the photovoltaic (PV) panels that can be used to create giant desert solar farms or rooftop home installations. China produces more than two-thirds of the world’s PV panels, and their price has fallen more than 80 percent since 2008.
“This is the beginning of a trend that will only accelerate. We’re talking about an infinite fuel source.”
ANDRÉS REBOLLEDO, Chilean energy minister
If the trend does indeed symbolize a turning point, that doesn’t mean every country is on board with the global green-energy conversion.
Trump’s executive order this week rolled back restrictions on the coal industry and struck down a slew of other measures intended to limit carbon emissions, including requirements that federal officials take climate change into account when making regulatory decisions.
Electricity production is the largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and more than two-thirds is generated from fossil-fuel sources, according to the most recent data from the Environmental Protection Agency. The United States last year pledged with other members of the Group of 7 nations to phase out subsidies for oil, gas and coal by 2025.
But meeting such goals remains politically contentious in the United States, with an existing network of conventional power plants and jobs that depend on them. Nations like Chile can take a different path.
Chile is adding solar plants because they fulfill the country’s goal of 60 percent clean energy by the year 2035. But mostly it is adding them because no other energy source can compete with the awesome sun power of the Atacama Desert.
Local workers clean insulators at the Cerro Dominador solar plant's booster substation. The substation raises the voltage to the 220 kv needed to connect to the grid.
Like plugging into the sun
Unlike many of South America’s other major countries, Chile has virtually no oil or gas deposits. With a heavy dependence on imported fuel, Chileans have been paying some of the highest electricity rates in the region, but prices are falling as renewable sources come online.
The Atacama is well-suited to solar energy production for the same reasons astronomers put high-powered telescopes in northern Chile for the clearest possible Earth-based views of the cosmos.
In nations such as Japan and Germany, which are some of the world leaders in solar energy production, the sun’s rays are partly diffused by water molecules floating in the air, even on days when it isn’t cloudy.
But in the super-dry Atacama, where it virtually never rains, the photons beam straight down. Put a solar panel beneath them and it’s like plugging into the sun.
At the Finis Terrae solar plant near the tiny town of Maria Elena, more than 500,000 PV panels blanket the desert. The 160-megawatt plant was the largest solar installation in Latin America when it went online last summer, capable of powering nearly 200,000 homes. Since then, another Chilean plant has surpassed it.
Outside the plant’s operations center, a worker-safety chart rated the day’s ultraviolet radiation levels on a scale of one to 10. “Eleven,” it read. “Extreme.”
“Compared with the Arabian, Sahara and Australian deserts, the Atacama Desert has the highest levels of direct normal irradiation, the key component of the sun’s rays for energy production,” said Salvatore Bernabei, the head of renewable energies for Latin America at Enel, an Italian multinational that owns the plant.
The radiation is so intense that no one is really sure how long standard-issue PV panels — which are designed to last 25 years — will be able to withstand it. One solar plant here had to replace most of its exposed cables after six months because the radiation fried their insulation.
Another problem solar companies are facing is the desert soil. In the afternoons, writhing dust devils zigzag across the desert floor, sprinkling particles onto the panels and reducing their output. Plant managers try to keep them clean using specially outfitted tractors with long wiper-arms, but there’s little water available.
Chilean energy officials say these challenges are relatively minor. The country derives about 6 percent of its energy from solar, but the potential of the Atacama is so great that Chile could generate all of its electricity with about 4 percent of the desert’s surface area, if there were a way to efficiently store and distribute that energy.
“We’ve been thinking for so long that we’re poor in energy resources, but we’re really rich,” said Rodrigo Mancilla, who leads a commission on solar power at Chile’s Ministry of Energy.
TOP: Ignacio Muñoz, who works in the risk-prevention department at the Cerro Dominador solar plant, checks the heliostat array surrounding the solar thermal tower. LEFT: A tractor is used to clean the photovoltaic panels at Finis Terrae solar park near Calama. Strong desert winds stir up dust that coats the panels, reducing their energy output. RIGHT: A worker observes installation work being performed at a substation at the Cerro Dominador solar plant.
Overcoming problems
Chile is by far the world’s largest copper producer, and in the dusty towns of the Atacama, tough-looking miners are now joined at the bars by solar workers in coveralls with logos promoting “Green Power.”
The region has a wildcatter feel to it. So many companies have raced to set up solar plants that they’ve essentially outpaced the electrical grid’s ability to absorb their electricity output. At times of peak radiation in recent months, they’ve had to give away sun power virtually free.
Chilean officials say the problem will be overcome this year when the country’s northern power grid will finally be linked to the larger central grid, which serves most of the country’s residential consumers. In theory, that will allow the system to draw more heavily on sun power during the day and save sources like hydropower and coal for the evenings, when the solar plants are useless.
Still, this remains the biggest knock on renewable energy sources: They cannot produce reliable, round-the-clock power.
Conventional plants using coal or other fuels can’t be turned on and off like a light switch. So they have to keep running during the day, when they’re far less competitive, and try to make up the difference at night.
A company looking to bridge this gap in Chile is building Latin America’s first solar thermal plant. You can see its solitary tower rising from the desert for miles around, like some sort of alien religious shrine. At nearly 700 feet, it is the second-tallest building in Chile.
Instead of PV panels, the solar thermal plant will have 10,000 giant, rotating mirrors set in concentric circles around the tower. They will concentrate the sun’s rays on a huge boiler at the top, filled with molten salts, that reaches more than 1,000 degrees and glows like the Eye of Sauron in “The Lord of the Rings.”
The superheated salts ooze downward to steam turbines at the base of the tower, retaining enough energy to generate electricity all night. It’s essentially a giant, rechargeable $1.4 billion battery.
The plant’s owner, Cerro Dominador, a subsidiary of U.S.-based EIG Global Energy Partners, says it will be completed in 2019. Larger solar thermal facilities based on the technology are in operation in California, and Chile has issued permits for others.
Ivan Araneda, the company’s top executive, said such solar thermal facilities can transform the industry.
“The attack on renewables is that they’re too expensive, but this is efficient, proven technology,” Araneda said. “On an even playing field, renewables can compete with anything.”
DONETSK, April 2. /TASS/. The Ukrainian military over the past 24 hours 35 times opened fire on territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR ), the operative command told the Donetsk news agency on Sunday.
"Over the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian Armed Forces 35 times violated the ceasefire," the source told the agency.
The Ukrainian military used mortars of 120 and 82mm calibers, weapons of infantry fighting vehicles, armored vehicles, grenade launchers and small arms
It was earlier reported on Sunday that units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces twice opened fire on the militia’s positions in the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR).
"From the Luganskoye settlement from weapons of an infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) and from an anti-aircraft system they shelled the Kalinovka settlement, and they fired on Smeloye from the Krymskoye settlement from and IFV," Luganskinformcenter quoted the republic’s defense authority.
Members of the Contact Group on the settlement in eastern Ukraine have said more than ten times since the autumn of 2014 that an agreement had been reached on the cessation of hostilities in the region. However, the ceasefire was disrupted on numerous occasions, with the parties to the conflict accusing each other of violating the truce.
At a meeting on March 29, the parties once again agreed on a ceasefire in the Donbass region as of April 1. However, LPR says the Ukrainian units observed the ceasefire for only about an hour.
At the same time, on April 1, press-officer of the Lugansk unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Dmitry Chalyi, said since midnight the LPR’s forces were observing fully the ceasefire agreement.
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, April 1. /TASS/. Brunei values development of ties with Russia in spheres of defense, energy and trade, Sultan of Brunei Darussalam Hassanal Bolkiah said on Saturday in an exclusive interview with TASS.
Hassanal Bolkiah will celebrate the 50th anniversary from the time of being proclaimed as the Sultan of Brunei. The interview with TASS is a unique one because it has become the first one in fifty years of his personal interaction with global mass media representatives.
"I am pleased that Brunei Darussalam and Russia enjoy warm and friendly ties. We have had good cooperation and exchanges in the last twenty five years," the sultan said. "There have also been a lot of positive developments, such as the convening of consultation and high-level visits and increasing collaboration in defense and trade. Russia is an important partner to Brunei and we value the continuous efforts to strengthen and expand our ties in various spheres, such as energy, education and cultural exchanges. I am also happy that Brunei Darussalam and Russia have worked together in regional and international cooperation."
Relations with Vladimir Putin
"I very much value the personal relationship that I have developed with President Putin over the years," he said. "I had the pleasure of hosting him in Brunei Darussalam during the APEC leaders meeting in the year 2000. I have also visited President Putin in Russia on a number of occasions. My most recent visit was in 2016, when I attended ASEAN-Russia commemorative summit in the beautiful city of Sochi. As always, President Putin was very gracious in welcoming me and my delegation. I have worked properly with President Putin in identifying ways for our countries to increase mutually beneficial cooperation such as in defense, information technology and culture. I see all of these as positive steps in enhancing our bilateral relations."
The sultan said "I am grateful to Allah that over the past fifty years peace and stability has prevailed in Brunei. This has laid the foundation for our future and economic development. The achievements that I have been most proud of are the ones that have contributed to the improvement of the lives of Bruneian citizens."
"This includes safeguarding Brunei sovereignty and security for its economic development, expanding its domestic welfare projects and strengthening its foreign relations," he said. "We have also ensured that education is accessible to all Bruneian citizens to help them prepared for employment and success in a competitive and knowledge-based global economy. I am also pleased that education has led to more opportunities for women to work in the public and private sectors."
Domestic affairs
"It has always been responsibility of my government to ensure that Bruneian people are living well," he said. "The government of Brunei collects no income taxes and every Bruneian has access to free education and healthcare as well as all to old age pensions and decent housing. I am very grateful that Brunei Darussalam has been blessed with substantial energy resources and commodities, which allow us to be able to carry this out. At the same time, we have also emphasized on good governance and transparency to ensure equitable development and progress in the country."
"My best wishes to the people of Russia who have been good partners and supporters of Brunei Darussalam on Brunei-Darussalam’s development. I would also like to acknowledge our close personal relations with President Putin who has contributed towards the strengthening of the ties between our two countries," he concluded. "There is a lot of potential for bilateral relationship to be further enhanced. We very much value the Russian people’s friendship and we welcome you to visit Brunei."
Coal India Secretary Susheel Kumar is optimistic that the move will help the country reduce its emission intensity and dependence on petroleum and gas imports
