Donald Trump doesn't know the difference between climate and weather - CNN Politics

Donald Trump doesn't know the difference between climate and weather

Chris Cillizza

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

Updated 0223 GMT (1023 HKT) December 29, 2017

Trump: East Coast could use global warming

Haley: Trump believes the climate is changing

india react trump withdrawl ravi agrawal_

India standing by Paris climate deal

Late night mocks Trump's decision

California governor: Trump's decision is crazy

Zakaria: US resigned as leader of free world

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 29: People gather near the U.S. Capitol for the People's Climate Movement before marching to the White House to protest President Donald

Thousands protest Trump's climate policies

Trump Admin guts Obama-era climate regulations

Trump: East Coast could use global warming

new york times climate change draft report

Draft study warns of severe climate change

Pruitt (still) won't say what Trump believes

Staff mum on if Trump believes climate change

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump walk together during the G7 Summit in Taormina, Italy on Saturday, May 27, 2017. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

Trump has said often climate change isn't real

al gore trump paris agreement climate crisis town hall sot_

Gore: Trump surprised me on Paris Agreement

panelists spar over climate deal

Panel erupts: Stop using fake stats

President Trump withdraws US from Paris accord

Haley: Trump believes the climate is changing

india react trump withdrawl ravi agrawal

India standing by Paris climate deal

Late night mocks Trump's decision

Macron to US: Make our planet great again

CA GOV Jerry Brown ISO CNNI

California governor: Trump's decision is crazy

Zakaria: US resigned as leader of free world

Thousands protest Trump's climate policies

Trump Admin guts Obama-era climate regulations

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 21: U.S. President Donald Trump leaves the White House to visit troops at Walter Reed Bethesda Naval Medical Center December 21, 2017 in Washington, DC. Trump said he was visiting the injured military service members to wish them a merry Christmas. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Trump: East Coast could use global warming

new york times climate change draft report

Draft study warns of severe climate change

Pruitt (still) won't say what Trump believes

Staff mum on if Trump believes climate change

Trump has said often climate change isn't real

al gore trump paris agreement climate crisis town hall

Gore: Trump surprised me on Paris Agreement

panelists spar over climate deal

Panel erupts: Stop using fake stats

President Trump withdraws US from Paris accord

(CNN)At 8 p.m. Thursday, after a third straight day of golf at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, and the temperature was 72 degrees, President Donald Trump tweeted this:

"In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year's Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!"

The "logic" at work here is simple: How can climate change, aka global warming, be real if it is so cold outside?

Trump tweets that 'cold' East Coast 'could use a little bit of' global warming

It's the same sort of "logic" that led Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe (R) to bring a snowball onto the Senate floor in late February 2015 as a supposed counterweight to claims of global warming. Toting his snowball in one hand, Inhofe, who was the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee at the time, said:

"In case we have forgotten, because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record, I asked the chair, do you know what this is? It's a snowball just from outside here. So it's very, very cold out. Very unseasonable."

Yes, that really happened.

What Trump (and Inhofe) don't seem to understand -- or choose to ignore -- is that "weather" and "climate" are not the same thing.

Here's a brief primer on the difference between the two, via NASA: "Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time, and climate is how the atmosphere 'behaves' over relatively long periods of time."

That it is cold on any given day -- or week! or month! -- is not indicative of much of anything about the climate and whether it is warming or not. If the "weather = climate" logic held, a series of sweltering summer days could reasonably be concluded as incontrovertible evidence that the planet is getting warmer.

Which, of course, it is. This past October was the second warmest October on record -- and those records date back to the 1880s. The first 10 months of 2017 were, according to NASA, the second warmest 10 months ever -- second only to -- wait for it -- 2016. This year is likely to be among the three warmest years in almost 140 years of record-keeping, according to the Weather Channel. Of the eight warmest years ever, all have come since 1998, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (The eight warmest years, in order: 2016, 2015, 2014, 2010, 2013, 2005, 2009 and 1998.)

You get the idea. All available evidence -- and there are 137 years of it! -- makes very, very, abundantly clear that the climate is changing. There's also this bit of fact: 97% of climate scientists who have published papers on climate change believe not only that the globe is warming but also that the warming is very likely due to human activity.

Trump is free to tweet whatever he likes. And he will continue to do so. But to use cold weather as some sort of rebuttal of broader climatological warming is not even close to accurate, factual or funny.

Australia's Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, fined $250 for not wearing a lifejacket in Sydney Harbour - Telegraph

Australia's Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, fined $250 for not wearing a lifejacket in Sydney Harbour

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was driving the boat near his home in Sydney Harbour

Mike Wright

29 DECEMBER 2017 • 9:26AM

Australia’s Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has been fined $250 (£145) after he was photographed driving a dingy while not wearing a lifejacket.

Mr Turnbull issued an apology on Facebook after The Australian newspaper published the photos of him in a motorised inflatable raft near his home in Sydney Harbour.

The Liberal politician, who owns a waterside mansion in the affluent neighbourhood of Point Piper, in east Syndey, said the rules around maritime safety were "very technical" but that he had "learned" his lesson.

Following the publication of the photos, Mr Turnbull said he called the local maritime authorities, who confirmed he was in breach of the rules.

The NSW Roads and Maritime authority has since confirmed that the Prime Minister will be issued with the fine.

In his Facebook apology, Mr Turnbull said he was only moving the dingy a short distance and was close to the shore when the photograph was taken.

@australian

PM sunk for not wearing lifevest https://trib.al/yDUPmCv

8:29 PM - Dec 28, 2017

PM sunk for not wearing lifevest

Malcolm Turnbull is being investigated by water safety authorities and could face a $250 fine for failing to wear a lifejacket while driving a motorboat near his Point Piper home.

theaustralian.com.au

He said: “Water safety is all important especially at this time of year and as I discovered today we all need to be very alert to rules about wearing life jackets. Yesterday I was moving an inflatable dinghy from a jetty into the beach - only about 20 metres and always very close to the shore.

“I wasn’t wearing a life jacket, but as NSW Maritime explained to me today when I called them, because I was in the dinghy alone, even for that very short distance the NSW regulations required me to wear one.

“The rules can often seem very technical, but they are there to keep us safe and we should all comply with them. So lesson learned; I will make sure I always wear a life jacket in my dinghy regardless of how close I am to the shore, just as I always do on my kayak.”

North Korea: South seizes ship amid row over illegal oil transfer - BBC News

North Korea: South seizes ship amid row over illegal oil transfer

The Lighthouse Winmore, chartered by Taiwanese company Billions Bunker Group Corp., is seen at sea off South Korea"s Yeosu port on December 29, 2017.

The Lighthouse Winmore filled up with oil to take to Taiwan but never went there, it is alleged

South Korea has revealed it seized a Hong-Kong registered ship last month suspected of supplying oil to the North in breach of international sanctions.

Officials said the Lighthouse Winmore had secretly transferred 600 tons of refined oil to a North Korean ship.

The revelations came as China denied claims by President Trump that it had allowed oil shipments to the North.

A UN Security Council resolution bans ship-to ship transfers of any goods destined for Pyongyang.

On Thursday the US president tweeted he was "very disappointed" with China, which he said had been "caught red-handed". He was responding to a South Korean report that suggested Chinese ships had been spotted selling oil to North Korean ships at sea in recent weeks.

The Chinese government swiftly rejected the president's claim, saying it was "not consistent with the facts".

"China has never allowed Chinese enterprises nor individuals to violate UN Security Council resolutions imposed on the DPRK," foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has refused to bow to international pressure

The Lighthouse Winmore entered Yeosu port in South Korea on 11 October to load up with refined oil and left bound for Taiwan, Yonhap news agency reported.

But instead of going to Taiwan it transferred the oil to a North Korean ship and three other vessels in international waters, South Korean officials were quoted as saying.

The Lighthouse Winmore remains in South Korea, the authorities told the BBC Korean service.

President's Trump latest broadside against China came after South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported that Chinese tankers had been secretly transferring oil at sea to North Korean vessels.

Skip Twitter post by @realDonaldTrump

@realDonaldTrump

Caught RED HANDED - very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea. There will never be a friendly solution to the North Korea problem if this continues to happen!

3:24 AM - Dec 29, 2017

Quoting South Korean government officials, it said the illegal ship-to-ship transfers had been filmed by US spy satellites about 30 times since October.

Can the world live with a nuclear North Korea?

Sanctions won't stop us, warns N Korea

China, North Korea's main trading partner, has repeatedly said it fully enforces all UN resolutions against Pyongyang.

Last week, Beijing supported a US-drafted UN resolution that included measures to slash the North's petrol imports by up to 90%.

The tough new sanctions were a fresh attempt to curb Pyongyang's controversial ballistic missile tests.

Media captionNorth Korea said in November its latest missile was capable of reaching Washington DC

In another development on Thursday, the UN Security Council denied international port access to four more North Korean ships suspected of carrying banned goods, AFP news agency reported. It would bring the total number of ships blocked by the UN to eight.

North Korea is already subject to a raft of sanctions from the US, the UN and the EU.

The latest UN measures came in response to Pyongyang's 28 November firing of a ballistic missile, which the US said was its highest yet.

In a typically bellicose response, North Korea described the new sanctions as an "act of war".

Mr Trump has previously threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea if it launches a nuclear attack. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has described the US president as "mentally deranged".

After Trump criticism, China says no illicit oil sales to N.Korea - Reuters

DECEMBER 29, 2017 / 4:53 PM / UPDATED 10 MINUTES AGO

After Trump criticism, China says no illicit oil sales to N.Korea

Philip Wen, David Brunnstrom

BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China on Friday denied reports it has been illicitly selling oil products to North Korea, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was not happy that China had allowed oil to reach the isolated nation.

Trump said on Twitter the previous day that China had been “caught” allowing oil into North Korea and that would prevent “a friendly solution” to the crisis over North Korea’s nuclear program.

“I have been soft on China because the only thing more important to me than trade is war,” Trump said in a separate interview with The New York Times.

South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper this week quoted South Korean government sources as saying that U.S. spy satellites had detected Chinese ships transferring oil to North Korean vessels about 30 times since October.

U.S. officials have not confirmed details of this report.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters she had noted recent media reports including suggestions a Chinese vessel was suspected of transporting oil to a North Korean vessel on Oct. 19.

“The Chinese side has conducted immediate investigation. In reality, the ship in question has, since August, not docked at a Chinese port and there is no record of it entering or leaving a Chinese port,” Hua said.

She said she was not aware if the vessel had docked at the port in other countries but the relevant media reports “did not accord with facts”.

“China has always implemented U.N. Security Council resolutions pertaining to North Korea in their entirety and fulfils its international obligations. We never allow Chinese companies and citizens to violate the resolutions,” Hua said.

“If, through investigation, it’s confirmed there are violations of the U.N. Security Council resolutions, China will deal with them seriously in accordance with laws and regulations.”

In the New York Times interview, Trump explicitly tied his administration’s trade policy with China to its perceived cooperation in resolving the North Korea nuclear crisis.

“When I campaigned, I was very tough on China in terms of trade. They made — last year, we had a trade deficit with China of $350 billion, minimum. That doesn’t include the theft of intellectual property, O.K., which is another $300 billion,” Trump said, according to a transcript of the interview.

“If they’re helping me with North Korea, I can look at trade a little bit differently, at least for a period of time. And that’s what I’ve been doing. But when oil is going in, I‘m not happy about that.”

An official of the U.S. State Department said the U.S. government was aware of vessels engaged in such activity involving refined petroleum and coal.

“We have evidence that some of the vessels engaged in these activities are owned by companies in several countries, including China,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The United States says the full cooperation of China, North Korea’s neighbor and main trading partner, is vital to the success of efforts to rein in North Korea, while warning that all options are on the table, including military ones, in dealing with it.

China has repeatedly said it is fully enforcing all resolutions against North Korea, despite suspicion in Washington, Seoul and Tokyo that loopholes still exist.

‘EVADING SANCTIONS’

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House to visit Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, U.S., December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Jim Bourg

South Korea said on Friday it had seized a Hong Kong-flagged ship suspected of transferring oil to North Korea in defiance of the sanctions.

A senior South Korean foreign ministry official said the ship, the Lighthouse Winmore, was seized when it arrived at a South Korean port in late November.

“It’s unclear how much oil the ship had transferred to North Korea for how long and on how many occasions, but it clearly showed North Korea is engaged in evading the sanctions,” the official told Reuters.

South Korea’s customs service concluded that the Lighthouse Winmore had loaded about 14,000 tons of Japanese refined petroleum products in South Korea on Oct. 11, reportedly bound for Taiwan, the official said.

But instead, it transferred as much as 600 tons to the North Korea-flagged Sam Jong 2 on Oct. 19 in international waters between China and the Korean peninsula, on the order of its charterer, Billions Bunker Group Corp., based in Taiwan, the ministry official said.

It was not immediately possible to find contact information for the company.

The Hong Kong government said it was “liaising with the Korean parties concerned to obtain further information about the incident, and will take appropriate actions as necessary”.

Employees at the office of Lighthouse Ship Management, the ship’s registered manager, in the Chinese port city of Guangzhou, declined to comment and said they had no knowledge of the situation.

China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman said she did not have any information about the matter.

Both ships were among 10 vessels that the United States had proposed that the U.N. Security Council should blacklist for transporting banned items from North Korea, documents seen by Reuters this month showed.

China and Russia subsequently asked for more time to consider the U.S. proposal.

Ship tracking data in Thomson Reuters Eikon shows that the Lighthouse Winmore has mainly been doing supply runs between China and Taiwan since August.

China says reports of Chinese ships selling oil to North Korea do not accord with facts

Prior to that, it was active between India and the United Arab Emirates. In October, when it allegedly transferred petroleum products to the North Korean ship, the Lighthouse Winmore had its tracking transponder switched off.

The Trump administration has led a drive to step up global sanctions on North Korea in response to its efforts to develop nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the United States.

The U.N. Security Council last week unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea for a recent intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test, seeking to further limit its access to refined petroleum products and crude oil.

The U.S.-drafted U.N. resolution seeks to ban nearly 90 percent of refined petroleum exports to North Korea by capping them at 500,000 barrels a year.

It also caps crude oil supplies to North Korea at 4 million barrels a year and commits the Security Council to further cuts if North Korea conducts another nuclear or intercontinental ballistic missile test.

In September, the Security Council put a cap of 2 million barrels a year on refined petroleum products exports to North Korea.

Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Josh Smith in Seoul, Venus Wu in Hong Kong and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel

Apple apologises for slowing down older iPhones with ageing batteries - Guardian

Apple apologises for slowing down older iPhones with ageing batteries

US admits it introduced feature, that affects the iPhone 6, 6S, 7 and SE, without users’ consent to cope with ageing batteries

Patrick Greenfield

@pgreenfielduk

email

Fri 29 Dec ‘17 18.15 AEDT First published on Fri 29 Dec ‘17 11.06 AEDT

Apple has apologised to customers for deliberately slowing the performance of older iPhone models without users’ consent.

The US tech company also announced a $50 (£37) reduction in the cost of iPhone battery replacements, down from $79 to $29, and an iOS (operating system) software update providing updates on iPhone battery health in early 2018.

The apology comes after Apple admitted to slowing down the iPhone 6, 6S, 7 and SE – when their batteries are either old, cold or have a low charge – to prevent abrupt shutdowns.

Apple said the problem was that ageing lithium batteries delivered power unevenly, which could cause iPhones to shut down unexpectedly – endangering the delicate circuits inside.

At least eight separate class-action lawsuits have been filed in the US in relation to the admission. Plaintiffs in California, Illinois and New York all argue that Apple did not have consent to slow their devices.

A statement on Apple’s website said: “We’ve been hearing feedback from our customers about the way we handle performance for iPhones with older batteries and how we have communicated that process. We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down.

“We apologize. There’s been a lot of misunderstanding about this issue, so we would like to clarify and let you know about some changes we’re making.

“First and foremost, we have never – and would never – do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades.

2017: the year smartphones went all-screen and came with baked-in AI

“Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that.”

The post goes on to detail the ageing process of batteries and ways to prevent unexpected iPhone shutdowns, before announcing a $50 price cut and the battery health software update.

Speed problems with older iPhones were recently highlighted by Reddit users, who found that when they replaced the batteries in their devices, they returned to normal performance.

Analysis of performance data by the benchmarking firm Primate Labs clearly showed the artificial inhibition of the iPhone’s performance, which prompted Apple’s admission.

The company said it intentionally slowed the performance of the older iPhones because, when their batteries wear to a certain level, they can no longer sustain the required current demanded by the phones’ processors.

When the processor demands more current than the battery can supply, the phone abruptly shuts down to protect its internal components, as was the case with the iPhone 6S – for which Apple was forced to replace batteries.