Obama gets glimpse of life as lame duck abroad — and likes what he sees ADVERTISING Obama gets glimpse of life as lame duck abroad — and likes what he sees YANGON, Myanmar — President Barack Obama is getting his
Obama gets glimpse of life as lame duck abroad — and likes what he sees
YANGON, Myanmar — President Barack Obama is getting his first glimpse of life as a lame-duck president traveling overseas. And so far, he has reason to like what he sees.
Obama arrived in Asia weakened by a cascade of crises that have put him on the defensive for much of this year, and politically damaged by Democrats’ thrashing in last week’s midterm elections. But during stops in China and Myanmar, there were few overt signs that Obama’s troubles at home had followed him abroad. Instead, Obama secured unexpected agreements with China on climate change, military cooperation and trade. And in Myanmar on Friday, Obama received a full-throated endorsement of his commitment to the country’s democratization from revered opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and was enthusiastically greeted by young people at a town hall in the bustling commercial capital of Yangon.
“You’re always popular in somebody else’s county,” the president told the cheering youth. “When you’re in your own country, everybody is complaining.”
House Republicans pass bill approving oil pipeline, turning focus to Senate
WASHINGTON — Congress inched closer Friday to a possible showdown with President Barack Obama over the Keystone XL oil pipeline as the Republican-controlled House approved the project. Supporters in the Democratic-run Senate predicted they will get the 60 votes needed to pass it next week.
The House vote was 252-161 in favor of the bill, which was sponsored by Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-La., in an effort to boost his chances to take a Louisiana Senate seat away from Democrat Mary Landrieu. The two are headed for a Dec. 6 runoff and have been touting their energy credentials in the oil and gas-producing state.
Should the Senate send the bill to Obama for his signature, he would face a decision that pits some of his environmental concerns about the pipeline, mainly its consequences for global warming, against potentially helping a fellow Democrat making a longshot bid to retain her Senate seat.
In shift, environmentalists welcome low oil prices; dirty stuff stays in the ground
NEW YORK — Deepwater drilling rigs are sitting idle. Fracking plans are being scaled back. Enormous new projects to squeeze oil out of the tar sands of Canada are being shelved.
Maybe low oil prices aren’t so bad for the environment after all.
The global price of oil has plummeted 31 percent in just five months, a steep and surprising drop after a four-year period of prices near or above $100 a barrel.
Not long ago a drop of that magnitude would have hit the environmental community like a gut-punch. The lower the price of fossil fuels, the argument went, the less incentive there would be to develop and use cleaner alternatives like batteries or advanced biofuels.
But at around $75 a barrel, the price is high enough to keep investments flowing into alternatives, while giving energy companies less reason to pursue expensive and risky oil fields that also pose the greatest threat to the environment.
G-20 opens in Australia, with plan to boost global economy by $2 trillion
BRISBANE, Australia — As G-20 summit host Brisbane sweltered through a blistering heat wave, world leaders on Saturday got down to the business of cementing plans to drag a sagging global economy out of the doldrums.
The leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies are under pressure to take definitive action at this year’s summit, rather than simply producing a set of vague, unmeasurable goals. The International Monetary Fund has warned about a “new mediocre” for the world’s economy, and the G-20 — which represents around 85 percent of the global economy — has vowed to focus on a plan to add $2 trillion to world GDP.
The summit will conclude on Sunday with the release of an official communique, a rundown of what the countries have achieved and want to achieve in the future. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has repeatedly stressed that the main focus of the gathering is to show progress on a previously-announced plan of lifting the global GDP by 2 percent above predicted levels over the next five years.
By wire sources
