Daily View 2×2: 20 December 2009 – Copenhagen climate deal meets qualified UN welcome

It’s Sunday. It’s 7am. It’s time for a singing Christmas dog, but first the news.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here’s are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

• Snow highlights the selfishness in people: Nich Starling gives it both barrels: “Season of goodwill? You must be kidding. The season of selfishness more like!” [Link now defunct]
• A post from the future: Ryan Cullen unveils a very useful little plugin for WordPress bloggers.

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

Copenhagen climate deal meets qualified UN welcome

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed a US-backed climate deal in Copenhagen as an “essential beginning”.

But he said the accord, reached with key nations including China and Brazil, must be made legally binding next year.

After intense wrangling, delegates passed a motion simply taking note of the deal, without formally adopting it.

The pact did not win unanimous support, amid outrage from some developing nations who said it lacked specific targets for reducing carbon emissions. [BBC]

Afghan Cabinet Nominations Show Few Signs of Change U.S. Wants

President Hamid Karzai opted for continuity over change in the list of cabinet nominees he presented to Parliament on Saturday, retaining some leaders supported by the West but also several viewed as incompetent and two accused of involvement in the fraud that tainted the recent presidential election.

The naming of the cabinet nominees was the first major test of whether Mr. Karzai would make the type of bold changes President Obama was hoping for when he decided to commit an additional 30,000 troops to fight a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan. [New York Times]

Sunday Bonus

Want, want, want, want, want. What do I want? One of these of course: