Tausi Insider

Plants, insects and other animals are vanishing at an alarming rate. Seventy per cent of global biodiversity has been lost in the past 50 years. HAIDAR HAMDANI/AFP/Getty Images Emmanuel Nyirinkindi is vice president of cross-cutting solutions at the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group. Growing up in Uganda, I was always fond of the sounds of grey-crowned cranes, our national bird. Hearing their sounds grow fainter as their very existence is threatened saddens me. Some wetlands where the cranes go to breed are being contaminated by pesticides or drained for farmland. What I’ve noticed is not unique. Now I call Washington home, and it’s startling to think that almost three billion birds have disappeared in North America in the past half century, from forests, from grasslands, even from backyards. The natural world is growing quieter, as species silently disappear one by one. It is not only birds on the decline. Plants, insects and other animals are vani...

An Italia Trasporto plane at Fiumicino airport, in Rome, on March 1, 2022. REMO CASILLI/Reuters A bid from German carrier Lufthansa for ITA Airways could come early next week, three sources familiar with the matter said on Friday, in a crucial step to speeding up the full privatization of Italy’s state-owned company. The privatization of ITA, which officially replaced loss-making Alitalia in 2021, has proved a headache for the Italian government which in December passed a decree to initially sell a minority stake in order to facilitate a full divestment. On Jan. 18 potential bidders will not be allowed to access ITA’s financial data any more, two of the sources said, adding Lufthansa was the only credible potential bidder. A government official said a Lufthansa bid could land even before Jan. 18, signalling the new right-wing administration of Giorgia Meloni was confident of finalizing the deal. Lufthansa declined to comment. The government decree allowed bidders to buy stakes throug...