Points of Progress: Argentina works to combat anti-Semitism, and more

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(Thomson Reuters Foundation)5. Staff

Places where the world saw progress, for the June 29, 2020 Monitor Weekly. The United States is the second-largest apple producer in the world after China. Firms such as ECOnsult are using local materials and innovative designs, including heat-reflecting roofs and insulating air layers, to bring comfort to businesses and government buildings across the country. ArgentinaArgentina has adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism. Of those, just 15 make up 90% of   U.S. The group of companies, which includes Gas Networks Ireland, Sodexo, and Tesco, promised to reduce direct greenhouse gases by 2030. In the latest move to address its history of Nazi refuge and anti-Semitic violence, its foreign ministry announced on June 7 that it would use the universal definition “to contribute to the fight of the Argentine Republic against anti-Semitism in all its forms.” More than two dozen countries have adopted the IHRA’s definition, and Argentina’s foreign minister called on public and private institutions to do the same. It’s not the first time the species has been close to extinction – in the 1980s the population declined to a single female. A roundup of positive stories to inspire you. E.J. One worker in Egypt’s Western Desert said his team’s upgraded ECOnsult buildings are cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter by 9 to 12 degrees. The average emissions intensity reduction among participants jumped from 36% to 41% last year, according to a new study. The recent discovery is a huge boost to one of the world’s rarest owls, with an estimated population of 45 to 50. “Our aim for the pledge is to provide leadership, set a collective ambition and drive practical action.” (The Irish Times)4. Argentina’s ambassador to Israel, Sergio Daniel Urribarri, who in 2011 became the first governor to require comprehensive Holocaust education for all schools in his province, said the new definition will also help to continue developing Holocaust remembrance as an official Argentine policy. Recent efforts to save the owl include building nest boxes and reducing predators. AustraliaFor the first time in a decade, Australia’s morepork owl population on Norfolk Island has grown, thanks to the survival of two fledglings. North America once boasted 17,000 unique apple varieties, but only around 5,000 are confirmed to exist today. Green buildings can also help reduce carbon emissions by lessening the need for electrical-power cooling. Their unusually high yield this fall nearly doubled the duo’s total to 23 rediscovered apple types. Points of Progress: Argentina works to combat anti-Semitism, and more

Why We Wrote This

This is more than feel-good news – it’s where the world is making concrete progress. (BBC) However, the owls had not bred successfully since 2011. Loading… This year, the pledge expanded to include some indirect emission sources, such as water consumption and business travel. United States  
A team of apple detectives has discovered 10 apple varieties thought to be extinct. Recent discoveries include the ancient Sary Sinap, which originated in Turkey, and the Streaked Pippin, which could date back to 1744 in New York. IrelandMore than 50 Irish companies are following through on a 2015 pledge to halve their carbon footprints. apple production. Brandt and David Benscoter are the fruit sleuths behind The Lost Apple Project, a nonprofit that searches abandoned farms and orchards in the Pacific Northwest for long-forgotten apple trees. More choices for consumers is important, say agriculturists, to give domestic apples a competitive edge against imported fruits and to encourage genetic diversity. “Ireland has a huge challenge ahead to transition to a low carbon economy but also embrace the opportunities a net-zero world will offer,” said Tomás Sercovich, chief executive of Business in the Community Ireland, one of the pledge’s coordinating partners. They aim to rescue both the apples and the history of the pioneer families that brought the trees out West. Park manager Melinda Wilson said that discovering the chicks was one of the most special moments of her career. (JNS, The Jerusalem Post)3. Rare varieties can be rescued via tree cuttings. Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff/File

Apples cling to a tree at Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury, Massachusetts. June 19, 2020

By Lindsey McGinnis
Staff Writer
@BylineLindsey

1. Conservationists on the remote island brought in mates from a subspecies in New Zealand, creating a hybrid line of morepork owls. EgyptIn Egypt, where summer temperatures can reach 120 degrees F, architects have figured out how to cool the interior of buildings without using traditional air conditioning. (The Associated Press, Smithsonian Magazine)2.
The pioneering CubeSat satellite completed its initial task – to simply stay focused on an object for a long period of time – in 2018, and continued gathering useful data for two years before ground crews lost contact with it. (Inverse, Popular Mechanics) Outer SpaceA spacecraft the size of a casserole dish has broken the record for smallest satellite to detect a planet outside the solar system, proving that modest machines can make meaningful contributions to astronomy. JPL-Caltech/NASA

Engineers prepare Asteria for launch in April 2017. The roughly 4-by-8-by-12-inch miniature space telescope was deployed from the International Space Station in November 2017. Asteria was part of NASA’s CubeSat program, meant to test the capabilities of tiny satellites made from privately manufactured, interlocking parts. Asteria’s success is good news for the CubeSat initiative, which aims to provide low-cost technology options to researchers and students around the world. It spotted the raging hot “super earth” dubbed 55 Cancri e by catching dips in light as the planet passed by its host star. But this wasn’t part of Asteria’s original mission.
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Trading border accusations, can India and China make peace?

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Shaky COVID response lays bare a decadeslong crisis in governmentBoth India and China have denied media reports that Indian soldiers were in Chinese custody.During Monday’s clash soldiers brawled with clubs, rocks, and their fists in the thin air at 14,000 feet above sea level, but no shots were fired, Indian officials have said. It will never be a friendly relationship.”China claims about 35,000 square miles of territory in India’s northeast, while India says China occupies 15,000 square miles of its territory in the Aksai Chin Plateau in the Himalayas, a contiguous part of the Ladakh region.India unilaterally declared Ladakh a federal territory while separating it from disputed Kashmir in August 2019. China has not said whether it suffered any casualties in what was the deadliest conflict between the sides in 45 years.Both countries said they were communicating through military and diplomatic channels and stressed the importance of their broader relationship. Bedi said.“It remains to be seen whether India will sit down at the negotiating table with China and say it will like to change these agreements to make them a little more aggressive or offensive in nature,” he said.India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to heads of various political parties on Thursday to develop a consensus on the situation. “China has a hangup against India and its civilization. For us to expect China will be a friendly neighbor …. Making peace will be no easy feat, say observers. Loading… Fravel said, China should want to drive a wedge between India and the United States to prevent any kind of counter-balance coalition.”The deaths and the clash on Monday night will probably very quickly and much more rapidly push India closer to the U.S., which I think is probably not what China wants,” he said.G. India was elected to the council this week. Security Council. After a deadly clash between Chinese and Indian troops that killed 20 Indian soldiers, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is meeting top opposition leaders to discuss diffusing tensions with China. The soldiers carry firearms but are not allowed to use them under a previous agreement in the border dispute.Indian security officials have said the fatalities were caused by severe injuries and exposure to subfreezing temperatures.The clash escalated a standoff that began in early May, when Indian officials said Chinese soldiers crossed the border in three places, erecting tents and guard posts and ignoring warnings to leave. That triggered shouting matches, stone-throwing, and fistfights between the opposing sides, much of it replayed on TV news programs and in social media.The action has taken place along a remote stretch of the 2,100-mile Line of Actual Control – the border established following a war between India and China in 1962 that resulted in an uneasy truce.The rules of engagement along the Line of Actual Control – which prohibit using live ammunition but also ban physical contact between soldiers – will have to be renegotiated, defense analyst Rahul Bedi said.“There is a lot of pressure on the Indian side, the emotions are high among the public,” Mr. India’s caseload has climbed to fourth-highest in the world.Emotions were on display in the southern city of Hyderabad, where thousands watched the funeral procession of Col. Trading border accusations, can India and China make peace? China was among the countries to condemn the move, raising it at forums including the U.N. Ashwini Bhatia/AP

Indians and exiled Tibetans protest against the Chinese government in Dharmsala, India, on June 19, 2020. On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was set to host the leaders of more than a dozen opposition parties.The main opposition Congress party said the country deserves to know the truth.“It deserves a leadership that is willing to do anything before allowing its land to be taken,” it said in a statement.The clash has fanned growing anti-Chinese sentiments in India, which were already high because of the coronavirus pandemic, which began in China late last year. India and China are communicating through diplomatic and military channels as they attempt to ease heightened tensions following a deadly border clash. Analysts say the two nations are unlikely to head to war, but easing tensions quickly will be difficult.China on Friday maintained its position that India is to blame for the clash.”The right and wrong is very clear and the responsibility lies entirely with the Indian side,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said. June 19, 2020

By Ashok Sharma and Emily Schmall
Associated Press

New Delhi
India’s prime minister is meeting top opposition leaders Friday as the government tries to lower tensions with China after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a clash in a Himalayan border region.India and China accuse each other of instigating the fight in the Galwan Valley, part of the disputed Ladakh region along the Himalayan frontier. Parthasarthy, a retired Indian diplomat, said that both China and Pakistan – India’s archrival – were aiming at low-cost containment of India. Santosh Babu, one of the casualties in Monday’s clash.An Indian business confederation called for a boycott of 500 Chinese goods, including toys and textiles, to express “strong criticism” of China’s action in Ladakh.Taylor Fravel, director of the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said China was trying to put pressure on India, and he didn’t think Beijing wanted a violent clash between their armies.From a strategic perspective, Mr.

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It’s free. This story was reported by The Associated Press.Editor’s note: As a public service, the Monitor has removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage.