Over a barrel

Follow Us Get the newsletter For the global environmental movement, it was a landmark day. A court in the Netherlands ordered Royal Dutch Shell yesterday to slash emissions harder and faster than planned; investors in Exxon Mobil won two board seats and promised to push the energy giant to diversify beyond oil and fight climate change; Chevron shareholders backed a proposal to force the company to cut pollution by its customers. Once limited to waving placards outside annual corporate meetings, the climate movement has gone mainstream, Kevin Crowley writes. Some of the world's largest institutional investors are now on board. But it's a race against time. Last year tied with 2016 as the hottest on record, and accelerating man-made warming is causing rising sea levels, melting ice, and extreme weather events, Laura Millan Lombrana writes. However much the world welcomed U.S. President Joe Biden's decision to rejoin the Paris Agreement, the fact is that overall national commitments to cut greenhouse-gas emissions fall short of what's needed to fulfill it. Key unresolved issues, such as creating an international carbon market to put a price on emissions, remain. And environmentalists are still facing setbacks: One of Australia's top coal producers just won a court battle against a nun and Greta Thunberg-inspired teenagers over a mine expansion. Biden's Justice Department is also defending the approval by his predecessor, Donald Trump, of a massive Conoco project in Alaska in federal court. That said, there's no longer much doubt that public and institutional pressure is fueling momentum for policy change. The question is whether it translates into action fast enough to stem the damage to the planet. — Karl Maier A protest banner from the environmental organization MilieuDefensie against Royal Dutch Shell in The Hague yesterday. Photographer: Peter Boer/Bloomberg Click here to follow Bloomberg Politics on Facebook and tell us how we're doing or what we're missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net. Global Headlines Gloves off | The era of U.S. engagement with China is over, and a period of intense competition is beginning, the White House's top official for Asia said. The shift in U.S. policy comes as President Xi Jinping tightens his grip on the world's second-largest economy and the two countries square off in disputes ranging from Beijing's claims over the South China Sea and human rights in the Xinjiang region to the future of Taiwan and Hong Kong. Biden called for U.S. intelligence services to redouble efforts to find the source of Covid-19, giving new life to claims that the virus escaped a Chinese lab and reopening a rift with Beijing. In and out | U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged to grant $100 million in aid for Palestinians during his whirlwind visit to Israel, the West Bank, Egypt and Jordan. But, as Nick Wadhams writes, with U.S. foreign-policy interests focused on reviving the Iran nuclear accord and on strategic competition with China, there's little appetite in Washington for putting greater efforts into trying to resolve the underlying source of the Israel-Gaza tensions. Competence question | Boris Johnson is battling a major attack on his authority after his former chief adviser declared the U.K. prime minister unfit for his job. During almost seven hours of testimony to lawmakers, Dominic Cummings catalogued the government's "disastrous" pandemic failures and what he said were Johnson's leadership blunders. "Tens of thousands of people died who didn't need to die," he said. Seychelles became internet-famous as the most vaccinated nation on Earth, yet to the surprise of virologists the infection count has been ticking up. The tiny nation has become a test case for two of the world's most widely used vaccines.  Graft scandal | Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing an uncomfortable truth: His governing party is now dependent on a marginal coalition ally to maintain its dominance. Moreover, a slew of corruption allegations from a fugitive mafia boss could further dent his flagging popularity, Onur Ant reports, as people in Erdogan's own party back opposition demands for a probe into influence-peddling accusations. Women at work | Keeping women at home is a luxury the world's largest exporter of crude can no longer afford. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's economic overhaul of Saudi Arabia, designed to prepare the kingdom for a post-oil future amid sputtering growth, means families are increasingly dependent on women working, Vivian Nereim explains. What to Watch U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He held a "candid" first conversation today as the two sides try to resolve some of their differences on trade. European Union chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel hold their first summit with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga by videoconference today. Mali's interim president resigned a day after his deputy seized power in the West African nation's second coup in less than a year. Hong Kong's legislature approved sweeping changes to the city's electoral system ordered by the Chinese leadership, dramatically curtailing the ability of dissenting voices to participate in government. France unveiled new restrictions for arrivals from the U.K. from May 31 to fend off the coronavirus variant first identified in India. And finally ... The promise of greater safety and economic opportunity, not warmer words from Biden, is what drives Central American migrants to make arduous journeys to the U.S. border, Mario Parker, Maria Eloisa Capurro and Jordan Fabian report. Republican lawmakers accuse the president of fomenting a record influx of migrants with a more sympathetic tone than Trump. Yet in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, crime, privation, natural disasters and human smuggling rings are doing far more to fuel the surge. A migrant is apprehended after entering the U.S. in La Joya, Texas on May 16. 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