Through an expanse of red, white and green Lebanese flags in downtown Beirut on a Saturday night, a young woman’s voice emerges from a megaphone, leading chants against sectarianism and corruption in a spontaneous rally. Such protests have become the norm across Lebanon in recent weeks as people take to the streets to demand an end to corruption and an overhaul of the current political system.

In Beirut, the woman shouted slogans against the ruling class to the playful tune of “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.” She then turned to social issues, denouncing sexism and the patriarchy before tackling a more controversial subject in Lebanon. “We want to topple homophobia; it must go,” she sang. The crowd echoed her enthusiastically.

In a country where homosexuality can be punished by up to a year in prison, and religious institutions that reject same-sex relations hold enormous power, the unconventional chant reflected the defiance of the uprising, and a surprising shift ..

(LIVERMORE, Calif.) — Caught in the crossfire of President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, U.S. vineyards are struggling to sell Syrah in Shanghai and Chardonnay in Shenzhen. They risk losing their foothold in one of the world’s fastest-growing wine markets.

The 16-month dispute between the world’s two biggest economies has nothing to do with wine. The Trump administration accuses China of stealing U.S. technology and forcing American companies to hand over trade secrets and has slapped tariffs on more than $360 billion worth of Chinese imports. China disputes the allegations.

When the Chinese hit back with retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, they put a bull’s eye on American wine.

Since June, China has been imposing 93% tariffs and taxes on American wine, up from 48% before the hostilities began, according to the Wine Institute, a trade group for 1,000 California wineries and related businesses. Unless the two countries reach a ceasefire — and they’re working on it — the levies..

Countries’ plans to tackle climate change fall far short of what’s necessary to prevent temperatures from rising to an unsafe level that governments have vowed to prevent, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA). The use of fossil fuels, in particular is continuing to expand globally, putting the world on a dangerous track for increased emissions.

At the heart of the IEA’s annual outlook is energy demand: a measure of how much energy we use to heat our homes, drive our cars and power our factories and, by extension, a measure of our emissions of climate-change causing pollutants. Global energy demand grew by 2.3% in 2018 last year, the largest since 2010, according to the report. And, under policies currently in place, the use of climate-change causing fossil fuels including coal, oil and natural gas will continue to expand in the coming years at a rate of 1.3% per year through 2040.

“The environmental implications of these patterns of energy use are star..