For more than 15 years, Tenzin Dhonden has stood between the Dalai Lama and multitudes of US philanthropists, celebrities, scholars and officials eager for even an instant in the revered Buddhist leader’s presence. In his red and saffron robes and gleaming bald pate, the smiling Tibetan monk, widely known as Lama Tenzin, has introduced himself as the Dalai Lama’s “personal emissary for peace”.

Yet the monk has now been suspended as secretary and trustee of the Dalai Lama Trust, a charitable organization chaired by the Dalai Lama, pending an investigation into allegations from a prominent Seattle-based technology entrepreneur who claims that, between 2005 and 2008, the monk abused his role to extract unjustified payments from him. The Dalai Lama is said to have expressed “deep disappointment and concern” over complaints about his gatekeeper, which include the allegation he demanded payments in return for ensuring the spiritual leader appear at a major event in Washington state.(theguardian)…[+]

Coastal cities around the world could be devastated by 1.3m of sea level rise this century unless coal-generated electricity is virtually eliminated by 2050, according to a new paper that combines the latest understanding of Antarctica’s contribution to sea level rise and the latest emissions projection scenarios.

It confirms again that significant sea level rise is inevitable and requires rapid adaptation. But, on a more positive note, the work reveals the majority of that rise – driven by newly recognised processes on Antarctica – could be avoided if the world fulfils its commitment made in Paris to keep global warming to “well below 2C”.

In 2016, Robert DeConto from the University of Massachusetts Amherst revealed that Antarctica could contribute to massive sea level rise much earlier than thought, suggesting ice sheet collapse would occur sooner and identifying a new process where huge ice cliffs would disintegrate. But that paper only examined the impact of Antarctica on sea level rise, ignoring other contributions, and didn’t examine the details of what measures society needed to take to avoid those impacts.

The new paper by Alexander Nauels from the University of Melbourne and colleagues uses simplified physical models that allowed them to explore all known contributions to sea level rise, and pair them with the new generation of emissions scenarios which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will use in the next set of reports.(theguardian)…[+]

It was a balmy 32 degrees when the US ambassador to New Zealand, Scott Brown, touched down in Apia, the capital of the South Pacific island nation of Samoa.

Brown had flown in with his wife, Gail Huff, in July for a party to celebrate 50 years of the peace corps in the country. It was his inaugural visit to Samoa – of which he is also the official US representative – and one he was looking forward to.

The party was intended as the climax of the ambassador’s trip, a night for celebration. People were in high spirits. They were offered beer, wine, champagne and local hors d’oeuvres, including slices of taro topped with palusami, spring rolls and chicken skewers. But something went wrong that night. As one attendee describes it, something was “off”, and the party is now at the centre of a US state department investigation over the ambassador’s conduct towards two women.On Wednesday, Brown admitted he was being investigated by officials who had flown to Wellington, New Zealand, to interview him.Brown said he wanted to address “innuendo and rumour” and claimed he had been admonished for praising the appearance of several attendees of the party. He also said he had remarked that the waiting staff were good enough to earn hundreds of dollars in the US.(theguardian)…[+]

Opposition supporters in Kenya have fought running battles with police as voters headed to the polls in a contentious election rerun that has polarised the country. Raila Odinga, the opposition leader, has called for a boycott and in stark contrast to the first election, which the supreme court annulled last month, many polling stations in opposition strongholds received only a trickle of voters.

In areas loyal to Uhuru Kenyatta, the incumbent who won the original election, voting was brisk, though turnout appeared to be lower than for the previous election. One man was shot dead and three others injured during protests in Odinga’s western stronghold of Kisumu, a nurse at the main government hospital said. In Nairobi’s Kibera slum, tangled wire and charred streets marked the spots where sporadic outbreaks of violence took place overnight. Police fired teargas and live rounds into the air as crowds of youthful opposition supporters threw rocks and tried to storm a polling station at a primary school in the centre of the slum. Two people were injured with suspected bullet wounds.(theguardian)…[+]