Latest news with #MarcoBottigelli
CNBC
15-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Asia-Pacific markets set to fall as investors assess U.S.-China trade developments
© Marco Bottigelli | Moment | Getty Images Asia-Pacific markets were set to fall Thursday, after mostly gaining in the previous session on easing U.S.-China trade tensions. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 was set to open lower, with the Chicago futures contract at 37,710 while its counterpart in Osaka last traded at 37,640 against the index's last close of 38,128.13. Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was set to open flat, with futures at 8,271, compared with the index's last close of 8,279.6. Futures for Hong Kong's Hang Seng index last traded at 23,554, lower than the index's last close of 23,640.65. U.S. stock futures slipped in overnight trading after the S&P 500 index rose for a third straight day. China and the U.S. hammered out a temporary suspension of their tit-for-tat tariff dispute earlier this week. Overnight, the S&P 500 rose modestly, extending a strong start to the week that pushed the benchmark into the green for the year. The broad market index inched up 0.10% to close at 5,892.58, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.72% and ended at 19,146.81. However, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 89.37 points, or 0.21%, to settle at 42,051.06. — CNBC's Brian Evans and Jesse Pound contributed to this report. The S&P 500 closed higher on Wednesday, with the benchmark notching its third straight positive session. The broad market index added 0.1% to finish the session at 5,892.58, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.72% to 19,146.81. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 89.37 points, or 0.21%, to close at 42,051.06. — Brian Evans
National Geographic
02-05-2025
- General
- National Geographic
Are the world's rivers dying? Robert Macfarlane looks for answers in his new book
Have we broken the natural contract between humans and rivers? The nature writer debates our relationship with the world's waterways that inspired his latest book, Is A River Alive? "We need new thinking: our rivers have become first undrinkable, then unswimmable, then untouchable. How did it come to this — and where do we go from here?", says Robert Macfarlane. Photograph by Getty Images; Marco Bottigelli This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). Can you explain the concept of a river as a living being? At the heart of the book is the idea that rivers have lives, deaths –– and even rights. It asks readers to imagine rivers in these terms, and to see what consequences flow from that re-imagining. The book is a journey into the history, futures, places and possibilities of this ancient, urgent idea. I know that the notion of a river as 'alive' is a searching, confronting one, especially to those of us raised in the traditions of rationalism. It strikes at the anthropocentric core of many of our assumptions. But if you find it hard to imagine a river as alive, try imagining a dead or dying river. We know what this looks like, what it feels like: fish floating belly-up, channels choked with sewage and garbage, a river disappearing in its own dry bed. Unfortunately, many rivers in the world are dying. In England and Wales, in fact, right now we haven't got a single river in 'good overall ecological health'. This is a failure of imagination as well as legislation. To think of a river as alive is to begin to open new ways of relating to rivers; new ways to imagine freshwater otherwise. And God knows we need such new thinking: our rivers have become first undrinkable, then unswimmable, then untouchable. How did it come to this –– and where do we go from here? What are the three rivers you visited for this book and why? I wanted to give the book the form of water –– of the water cycle, in fact. So, it begins and ends at the little chalk stream spring near my house, and in between it moves from the mountains to the sea, flowing downhill and gathering force, as a river does, before returning to its source. Over its course, the language itself becomes more and more liquid, as the book –– and I –– become 'rivered'. I made three substantial journeys/fieldwork trips in the course of writing the book (which has taken five years from beginning to publication). The first was to an Ecuadorian cloud forest named Los Cedros, the 'Forest of the Cedars', home to the headwaters of the Río Los Cedros, the 'River of the Cedars'. The second was to the wounded creeks, lagoons and estuaries of the watery city of Chennai in southeast India. And the third was to the wild interior of Nitassinan, the homeland of the Innu people (also known as Quebec), through which runs the Mutehekau Shipu (also known as the Magpie River), which I followed south for 100 miles from deep in the boreal forest to make sea-fall at the Gulf of St Lawrence, several hundred miles northeast of Montreal. Each of these rivers has become a focus for revolutionary thinking about what the philosopher Michel Serres called 'the natural contract'. Each is a place where rivers are understood in some fundamental way to be alive –– and in each place, too, the survival of rivers is under severe threat: in Ecuador from mining, in India from pollution and in Nitassinan from dams. Is a River Alive? is now published. Penguin, £25 "Rivers are our oldest singers, our oldest storytellers", says Robert Macfarlane. Photograph by William Waterworth Did a particular river inspire the idea for the book? Yes –– a tiny, fragile chalk stream, which rises as a clear-watered spring just a mile from my house, in a little spinney called Nine Wells Wood. I visit it several times a week and have done for more than 15 years: it's a place where a river is born. Spring sites are, I think, the most purely magical of landscape places: self-renewing miracles. This chalk stream is my timekeeper, my memory-keeper. But it's also desperately fragile: it's currently on life support (in the form of an augmentation pump) to keep it flowing, and it simply may not survive past 2050 if the current trajectories of climate change, pollution and abstraction continue uncheked. If rivers are alive, what might they be saying? Rivers are our oldest singers, our oldest storytellers. But we'll never 'speak river', because their language is incommensurable with ours. Rivers are, though, hugely powerful presences with which we can think and with which we can speak and tell stories. Early in Is A River Alive?, I openly name the rivers as my co-authors: I simply couldn't have written the book without them. I did much of my thinking of the book either on or by rivers, which could never have been done in a library or at home. Rivers shaped countless aspects of the book, from the geography of its overall shape (from spring to mountain summit to river mouth at the sea and back to the springs), which was based on the water cycle. This question reminds me of a beautiful story by an Indian river-rights activist called Shrishtee Bajpai, about a young Ladakhi girl living on the banks of the Indus who, when asked what rights her river has, said: 'The river has a right to sing!' It was at once a lyrical and an ecological observation: when the river is in good flow, it burbles over –– it sings. If it's low and dry and sluggish, it's silenced. We need our rivers to sing! Robert's favourite new nature travel books: Natural Connection, Joycelyn Longdon (Square Peg) The North Road, Rob Cowen (Hutchinson Heinemann) The Possibility of Tenderness, Jason Allen-Paisant (Penguin) Published in the May 2025 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK) To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only).
CNBC
29-04-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Asia-Pacific markets set to track Wall Street gains ahead of key regional data
Cityscape and Tokyo Tower at sunset, Tokyo, Japan. © Marco Bottigelli | Moment | Getty Images Asia-Pacific markets are set to climb Wednesday, tracking Wall Street gains while anticipating a slew of key economic data in the region. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 is set to open higher, with the futures contract in Chicago at 36,080 while its counterpart in Osaka last traded at 36,070, against the index's last close of 35,839.99. Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is set to rise, with futures standing at 8,025, up from the index's close of 8,070.6. The Bank of Japan kickstarts its policy meeting on Wednesday, and is widely expected to hold rates at 0.5% when the meeting concludes on Thursday. Investors will also be waiting on a slew of key economic data in the region. China will be reporting its PMI data for April while Japan is slated to release its industrial output and retail sales data for March. Australia is expected to report its inflation data for the first quarter of the year. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that tariff negotiations with India are "coming along great," and he believes the U.S. will strike a trade deal with the South Asian nation. Speaking at a White House press briefing, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the administration also held "substantial talks" with Japan over a possible trade deal, and that "the contours of a deal" with South Korea could be coming together. Stock futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were little changed Tuesday night after the blue-chip index posted its longest winning run since July. Futures tied to the 30-stock Dow fell 6 points, or 0.01%. S&P 500 futures slipped 0.2%, while Nasdaq 100 futures lost 0.4%. Overnight stateside, the three major averages closed higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose on Tuesday, hitting its highs of the day. The Dow climbed 300.03 points, or 0.75%, to close at 40,527.62. The S&P 500 gained 0.58%, ending at 5,560.83. Both indexes posted a sixth straight positive day, marking the longest win streak since July for the Dow and since November for the S&P 500. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.55%, settling at 17,461.32. — CNBC's Sean Conlon, Alex Harring and Erin Doherty contributed to this report. The three major averages rose on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 300.03 points, or 0.75%, to finish at 40,527.62. The S&P 500 gained 0.58% to close at 5,560.83, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.55% to end at 17,461.32. — Sean Conlon John Paulson, who made a killing during the great financial crisis, sees gold rising to almost $5,000 an ounce by 2028 amid trade tensions and central banks' buying, according to an interview with Reuters. Gold is widely viewed as a safe-haven asset and a hedge against rising global uncertainties. The bullion climbed in an unprecedented rally to notch a record high at $3,500.05 an ounce last week. "It's a well-informed prediction. I think that's a reasonable number," Paulson said. "As central banks and people look to put their money in a more stable source … I think gold will increase its position in the world." The famed investor is the largest shareholder in Idaho gold and antimony developer Perpetua Resources. He also bought a 40% stake in NovaGold's Donlin gold project in Alaska from Barrick. — Yun Li
