1.

China and US pledge climate change commitment

China and the US say they are committed to working together and with other countries on tackling climate
change. It comes after several meetings between Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua and his US
counterpart John Kerry in Shanghai last week. They both agreed on further specific actions to reduce
emissions, a joint statement on Sunday confirmed. US President Joe Biden is holding a virtual climate
summit this week, which China says it is looking forward to.

The United States and China are committed to cooperating with each other and with other countries to
tackle the climate crisis, which must be addressed with the seriousness and urgency that it demands. It
added that both nations will continue to discuss "concrete actions in the 2020s to reduce emissions aimed
at keeping the Paris Agreement-aligned temperature limit within reach". Both nations also agreed to help
developing countries finance a switch to low-carbon energy.
 2. Momentum builds on vaccine rollout (Malaysia)

PETALING JAYA: With more vaccine doses expected to arrive by May, the country kicked off the second
phase of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme that started with the vaccination of 9,916 senior
citizens, the disabled and those with comorbidities. Programme coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin
said that Malaysia was scheduled to receive 1,038,960 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 500,000
doses of the Sinovac finished product in May. He said the total supply of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine received
in April would be 712,530 doses, while the country also had Sinovac vaccine from Pharmaniaga that would
be able to produce up to 2.6 million doses. Covid-19 pandemic has been the cause of many deaths in many
parts of Malaysia.
 3. Brazil's Amazon: Deforestation 'surges to 12-year high'

Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil has surged to its highest level since 2008, the country's
space agency (Inpe) reports. A total of 11,088 sq km (4,281 sq miles) of rainforest were destroyed from
August 2019 to July 2020. This is a 9.5% increase from the previous year.

The Amazon is a vital carbon store that slows down the pace of global warming. The billions of trees are
a vast store of carbon and, without them, the rise in global temperatures will accelerate. The Amazon is
home to about three million species of plants and animals, and one million indigenous people.
 4. Parliament: Hefty subsidies in education to help all level up

On average, every child entering Primary 1 in 2018 would have received over $130,000 in education
subsidies by the time he completes secondary school.

Those who go on to post-secondary education receive another $15,000 to $22,000 for every year they
remain in school, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat told the House yesterday, as he underlined how the
Government invests heavily in ensuring high-quality education is affordable and available to all.

A quality education is provided for all, and not just for top achievers or those who are better-off, he added.
Last year, the Government provided at least 60 per cent more in resources for primary school pupils with
a weaker foundation in literacy and numeracy, through learning support programmes in schools.
 5. Indigenous Iban community defends rainforests

Over the past half century, the rainforests of Borneo have been logged, strip-mined, burned, and
converted for monoculture plantations. The forests that local people primarily relied upon for sustenance
are now felled to feed commodities into the global market.

But the Dayak Iban of Sungai Utik community in Indonesian Borneo has managed to fend off loggers and
land invaders from their forest home.

Sungai Utik’s efforts to sustainably manage its community forest in the face of large-scale deforestation
and cultural loss across Borneo have won it accolades, including the United Nations Development
Programme’s (UNDP) Equator Prize last month.

But one community living in Indonesian Borneo near the border with the Malaysian state of Sarawak has
managed to fend off loggers and land invaders from their forest home. The Dayak Iban of Sungai Utik, a
hamlet of Batu Lintan village in Kapuas Hulu Regency, West Kalimantan, have preserved more than 6,000
hectares of old-growth rainforest in their 9,450-hectare customary forest by observing their traditional
customs that limit where they hunt, how many trees they harvest for personal use, how they use fire, and
where they grow crops. Sungai Utik’s efforts to sustainably manage its community forest in the face of
large-scale deforestation and cultural loss across Borneo have won it accolades, including the United
Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Equator Prize.