The future of coal

Viewed from Europe it looks like burning coal to produce electricity is going the way of the steam engine. But as Siân Bradley writes in our cover story, the decline of coal in the West is matched by a rise in use in parts of Asia.

The World Today
1 minute READ

Coal-exporting countries and those with coal technology to sell are avidly seeking new markets despite the case for renewable sources of energy being uncontestable.

Our interview is with the American journalist Steve Coll who has spent years forensically picking apart the causes of the United States’ misadventure in Afghanistan. He points an angry finger at Barack Obama who lost faith in a military strategy that was never going to work, but did not dare to repudiate it.

Like it or not, the techniques of facial recognition are going to strengthen police forces all over the world – and police states too. We look at the contrasting policies of China and the US – the former investing huge sums in what it sees as the guarantee of Communist Party rule, while Washington is conflicted: it wants to nurture US leadership in a technology which is alien to the American ideal of liberty.

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