World this week
Marathon international climate talks ended with negotiators postponing until next year a key decision on how to regulate global carbon markets. After two weeks of negotiations in Madrid on tackling global warming, delegates from almost 200 nations passed declarations calling for greater ambition in cutting planet-heating greenhouse gases and in helping poor countries that are suffering the effects of climate change.
But despite holding the longest climate talks ever in 25 nearly annual editions they left one of the thorniest issues for the next summit in Glasgow, in a year's time. Carbon markets put a price on emission of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, and allows countries or companies to trade emissions permits that can be steadily reduced - encouraging the uptake of low-emission technologies.
China's government says it will postpone planned punitive tariffs on U.S.-made automobiles and other goods following an interim trade deal with Washington. The announcement came after Washington agreed to postpone a planned tariff hike on $160 billion of Chinese goods and to cut in half penalties that already were imposed.
"China hopes to work with the United States on the basis of equality and mutual respect to properly address each other's core concerns and promote the stable development of Chinese-U.S. economic and trade relations," said a Cabinet statement. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said that under the agreement, China committed to buy $40 billion of American farm products over the next two years. He said China also promised to end its long-standing practice of pressuring companies to hand over their technology as a condition of market access.
Thousands of university students flooded the streets of India's capital, while a southern state government led a march and demonstrators held a silent protest in the northeast against a new law giving citizenship to non-Muslims who entered India illegally to flee religious persecution in neighboring countries.
The protests in New Delhi followed a night of violent clashes between police and demonstrators at Jamia Millia Islamia University. People who student organizers said were not students set three buses on fire and police stormed the university library, firing tear gas at students crouched under desks. Members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party said opposition parties were using the students as pawns.
Boeing Co. said that it will temporarily stop producing its grounded 737 Max jet starting in January as it struggles to get approval from regulators to put the plane back in the air. The Chicago-based company said production would halt at its plant with 12,000 employees in Renton, Washington, near Seattle. But it said it didn't expect to lay off any workers "at this time."
The move amounts to an acknowledgement that it will take much longer than Boeing expected to win approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and other global regulators to fly the planes again.
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