Atlanta mayor: Biden pledged to help US mayors deal with COVID-19, other issues
November 24, 2020, 5:47 AM ET
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Hanoi residents flocked to the Vietnamese capital's air-conditioned shopping malls on Saturday to escape power cuts at home, as the grid struggled to cope with the high demand caused by soaring heat.
Vietnam is one of many countries across South and Southeast Asia experiencing record-high temperatures in recent weeks.
As the temperature rose to 36 degrees Celsius, Bui Manh Duc Tai and his napping girlfriend were among those at the Aeon shopping mall trying to escape the blistering heat.
"Our home was without power since this morning. We came here for some cool air," Tai told AFP.
In another corner, student Nguyen Minh Thu sat on the floor trying to finish an assignment on her laptop.
"I had to come here for power so I could study," the agriculture student said, adding the electricity at her home had been on and off all morning.
Scientists have warned that global warming is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events around the world, including heat waves.
Drought and a prolonged heatwave have put a lot of pressure on power supplies in the country's north, according to supplier Vietnam Electricity.
At another packed mall outside Hanoi, families with young children sought refuge in the air-conditioning.
"I have been here with my two young kids since lunch time. The kids can play, while I can go shopping. We will go back home after dinner. Hoping the power is back then," Do Thuy Dung said.
Average power consumption in Hanoi in May increased by more than 22.5 percent compared with April, Vietnam Electricity said.
State media also reported power cuts in recent days in Quang Ninh province -- home to the world heritage-listed Ha Long Bay.
Several restaurants in Ha Long city were out of food on Friday night because power outages meant people could not cook at home.
Power cuts also hit hotels on popular islands.
Authorities have also turned off streetlights in some major cities to save power.
© 2023 AFP
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The Republican Party is planning to hold its first US presidential primary debate on August 23, organizers said Friday, announcing that candidates will be made to sign a pledge agreeing to support the eventual nominee.
Former president Donald Trump, the runaway frontrunner in the early stages of the contest, has so far declined to commit to backing the eventual winner, saying in a radio interview in February that it would "depend on who the nominee was."
US media reported last month that Trump was reluctant in any case to share the limelight with lower-polling rivals and had discussed skipping one or both of the first two debates.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) said it will also require anyone hoping to make the debate stage to have garnered one percent of the vote in three approved polls and have 40,000 unique donors.
"The RNC is committed to putting on a fair, neutral, and transparent primary process and the qualifying criteria set forth will put our party and eventual nominee in the best position to take back the White House come November 2024," chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said.
Fox News will host the first showdown in Milwaukee while a second will take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
CNN reported in May that Trump had told allies he wanted to give the Reagan Library a wide berth, complaining that the board of trustees was headed by the chief executive officer of The Washington Post -- a paper he often criticizes.
Milwaukee -- population 580,000 -- is the largest city in Wisconsin, a swing state that Democrat Joe Biden won by just 20,000 votes in 2020. It is also set to host the 2024 Republican National Convention, where the party names its presidential election candidate.
The Republican field is made up of seven major candidates so far, with more set to announce next week.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis trails Trump by more than 30 points in the polling averages, while no other hopeful is posting double figures.
The RNC said it would stage an overflow debate on August 24 if enough candidates meet the criteria to require splitting the field over two nights.
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The head of the top weapons contractor in the United States said Thursday that he's happy with the debt ceiling agreement negotiated by the congressional Republicans and the Biden White House, a deal that proposes a military budget increase while imposing two years of caps on other discretionary federal spending—impacting funding for education, housing, and more.
James Taiclet, the CEO of Lockheed Martin, said at a conference that the bill now awaiting President Joe Biden's signature is "as good an outcome as our industry or our company could ask for at this point," noting that it calls for "3% growth for two years in defense where other areas of the budget are being reduced."
"I think we're in a real strong position at this point," said Taiclet, adding that "there's sufficient funding in the president's budget."
Biden's $886 billion military spending request for fiscal year 2024—a $28 billion increase over current levels—is the topline military budget number set by the debt ceiling legislation, though war hawks in both parties are already exploring ways to dump even more money into the Pentagon's overflowing coffers.
If finalized in the appropriations process, military outlays will account for close to 56% of the U.S. federal government's total discretionary spending in fiscal year 2024, Lindsay Koshgarian of the National Priorities Project noted Thursday.
"This represents a massive shift of resources away from domestic programs and toward the military: the already-gargantuan military budget will increase by $28 billion (3.3%), while domestic spending will take a cut of $63 billion (8.2%)," Koshgarian wrote. "Cuts to many domestic programs will need to go deeper, because domestic spending includes veterans' programs, which are protected from cuts in the current deal."
"The only reason there’s a budget deal at all right now is because House Republicans threatened to tank the economy by refusing to allow the U.S. to pay its bills unless they got cuts for programs they don't like," she added. "They succeeded, and as others have shown, the people to pay the price will be the poorest and most down on their luck. Worse, the current deal could set a new precedent for more of the same: unnecessary military increases while domestic programs are slashed."
Lockheed Martin, one of the contractors that has been price-gouging the Department of Defense for years, is poised to be one of the top beneficiaries of the larger Pentagon budget—much of which will likely wind up benefiting private companies.
As Responsible Statecraft's Eli Clifton reported Thursday, Lockheed "received 73 percent of its net sales from the U.S. government in 2022 and invested $13 million in lobbying the federal government."
"Their lobbyists heavily focus their efforts on the defense budget," Clifton added, citing OpenSecrets.
William Hartung, senior research fellow at Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said Friday that the newly passed debt limit deal "unnecessarily privileges the Pentagon over other essential programs."
"There's no reason to exclude the Pentagon from the budget freeze," he added. "Congress should push the current proposed military spending total of $886 billion back to FY2023 levels in the appropriations process that will play out over the course of this year."
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