
BAKU – In the wee hours Sunday at the United Nations climate talks, countries from around the world reached an agreement on how rich countries can cough up the funds to support poor countries in the face of climate change. It's a far-from-perfect arrangement, with many parties still deeply unsatisfied but some hopeful that the deal will be a step in the right direction. Recommended Videos World Resources Institute president and CEO Ani Dasgupta called it “an important down payment toward a safer, more equitable future,” but added that the poorest and most vulnerable nations are “rightfully disappointed that wealthier countries didn’t put more money on the table when billions of people’s lives are at stake.” The summit was supposed to end on Friday evening but negotiations spiraled on through early Sunday. With countries on opposite ends of a massive chasm, tensions ran high as delegations tried to close the gap in expectations. Here's how they got there: What was the finance deal agreed at climate talks? Rich countries have agreed to pool together at least $300 billion a year by 2035. It’s not near the full amount of $1.3 trillion that developing countries were asking for, and that experts said was needed. But delegations more optimistic about the agreement said this deal is headed in the right direction, with hopes that more money flows in the future. The text included a call for all parties to work together using “all public and private sources” to get closer to the $1.3 trillion per year goal by 2035. That means also pushing for international mega-banks, funded by taxpayer dollars, to help foot the bill. And it means, hopefully, that companies and private investors will follow suit on channeling cash toward climate action. The agreement is also a critical step toward helping countries on the receiving end create more ambitious targets to limit or cut emissions of heat-trapping gases that are due early next year. It’s part of the plan to keep cutting pollution with new targets every five years, which the world agreed to at the U.N. talks in Paris in 2015. The Paris agreement set the system of regular ratcheting up climate fighting ambition as away to keep warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. The world is already at 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) and carbon emissions keep rising. What will the money be spent on? The deal decided in Baku replaces a previous agreement from 15 years ago that charged rich nations $100 billion a year to help the developing world with climate finance. The new number has similar aims: it will go toward the developing world's long laundry list of to-dos to prepare for a warming world and keep it from getting hotter. That includes paying for the transition to clean energy and away from fossil fuels. Countries need funds to build up the infrastructure needed to deploy technologies like wind and solar power on a large scale. Communities hard-hit by extreme weather also want money to adapt and prepare for events like floods, typhoons and fires. Funds could go toward improving farming practices to make them more resilient to weather extremes, to building houses differently with storms in mind, to helping people move from the hardest-hit areas and to help leaders improve emergency plans and aid in the wake of disasters. The Philippines, for example, has been hammered by six major storms in less than a month , bringing to millions of people howling wind, massive storm surges and catastrophic damage to residences, infrastructure and farmland. “Family farmers need to be financed," said Esther Penunia of the Asian Farmers Association. She described how many have already had to deal with millions of dollars of storm damage, some of which includes trees that won't again bear fruit for months or years, or animals that die, wiping out a main source of income. “If you think of a rice farmer who depends on his or her one hectare farm, rice land, ducks, chickens, vegetables, and it was inundated, there was nothing to harvest,” she said. Why was it so hard to get a deal? Election results around the world that herald a change in climate leadership, a few key players with motive to stall the talks and a disorganized host country all led to a final crunch that left few happy with a flawed compromise. The ending of COP29 is "reflective of the harder geopolitical terrain the world finds itself in,” said Li Shuo of the Asia Society. He cited Trump's recent victory in the US — with his promises to pull the country out of the Paris Agreement — as one reason why the relationship between China and the EU will be more consequential for global climate politics moving forward. Developing nations also faced some difficulties agreeing in the final hours, with one Latin American delegation member saying that their group didn't feel properly consulted when small island states had last-minute meetings to try to break through to a deal. Negotiators from across the developing world took different tacks on the deal until they finally agreed to compromise. Meanwhile, activists ramped up the pressure: many urged negotiators to stay strong and asserted that no deal would be better than a bad deal. But ultimately the desire for a deal won out. Some also pointed to the host country as a reason for the struggle. Mohamed Adow, director of climate and energy think tank Power Shift Africa, said Friday that “this COP presidency is one of the worst in recent memory,” calling it “one of the most poorly led and chaotic COP meetings ever.” The presidency said in a statement, “Every hour of the day, we have pulled people together. Every inch of the way, we have pushed for the highest common denominator. We have faced geopolitical headwinds and made every effort to be an honest broker for all sides.” Shuo retains hope that the opportunities offered by a green economy “make inaction self-defeating” for countries around the world, regardless of their stance on the decision. But it remains to be seen whether the UN talks can deliver more ambition next year. In the meantime, “this COP process needs to recover from Baku,” Shuo said. ___ Associated Press reporters Seth Borenstein and Sibi Arasu contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org .
New York (CNN) — Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, who blocked the newspaper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris and plans to overhaul its editorial board, says he will implement an artificial intelligence-powered “bias meter” on the paper’s news articles to provide readers with “both sides” of a story. Soon-Shiong, the biotech billionaire who acquired the Times in 2018, told CNN political commentator Scott Jennings — who will join the Times’ editorial board — that he’s been “quietly building” an AI meter “behind the scenes.” The meter, slated to be released in January, is powered by the same augmented intelligence technology that he’s been building since 2010 for health care purposes, Soon-Shiong said. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.Healthcare: Main trends for 2025 revealedThe first-degree assault and kidnapping charges against South Carolina forward Ashlyn Watkins were dismissed last Friday. Public court records for Richland County, S.C., showed the pair of charges were listed as "Dismissed Not Indicted," and indicated that Watkins completed pre-trial intervention available to first-time offenders. Watkins, 21, was arrested Aug. 31 and charged with first-degree assault and kidnapping following an incident at a student housing and retail center. The arrest triggered an automatic team suspension under athletic department policy. Dawn Staley, head coach of the defending national champion Gamecocks, said in September that the program was "not going to move (to reinstate Watkins) until the situation changes." Watkins was scheduled for a court appearance Oct. 25 but it was delayed. Per her arrest warrant, the Columbia, S.C., native allegedly picked up an individual and carried her without her consent, then "grabbed the victim's head and forced her to walk down the hall, thus controlling her movement while preventing her from leaving." This came after Watkins allegedly assaulted the individual by "forcefully grabbing her face, pulling her by her arms, and pushing her." The individual was later treated for non-life-threatening injuries after allegedly escaping and pulling a fire alarm. Watkins' lawyer told WLTX in September that his client neither assaulted nor kidnapped anyone. Watkins, a 6-foot-3 junior, averaged 9.2 points and 7.4 rebounds in 38 games last season for the undefeated Gamecocks. --Field Level Media
NoneBy MICHELLE L. PRICE and ROB GILLIES NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s recent dinner with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his visit to Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral were not just exercises in policy and diplomacy. They were also prime trolling opportunities for Trump. Related Articles National Politics | Trump names Andrew Ferguson as head of Federal Trade Commission to replace Lina Khan National Politics | Biden says he was ‘stupid’ not to put his name on pandemic relief checks like Trump did National Politics | Biden issues veto threat on bill expanding federal judiciary as partisan split emerges National Politics | Trump lawyers and aide hit with 10 additional felony charges in Wisconsin over 2020 fake electors National Politics | After withdrawing as attorney general nominee, Matt Gaetz lands a talk show on OANN television Throughout his first term in the White House and during his campaign to return, Trump has spun out countless provocative, antagonizing and mocking statements. There were his belittling nicknames for political opponents, his impressions of other political figures and the plentiful memes he shared on social media. Now that’s he’s preparing to return to the Oval Office, Trump is back at it, and his trolling is attracting more attention — and eyerolls. On Sunday, Trump turned a photo of himself seated near a smiling first lady Jill Biden at the Notre Dame ceremony into a social media promo for his new perfume and cologne line, with the tag line, “A fragrance your enemies can’t resist!” The first lady’s office declined to comment. When Trudeau hastily flew to Florida to meet with Trump last month over the president-elect’s threat to impose a 25% tax on all Canadian products entering the U.S., the Republican tossed out the idea that Canada become the 51st U.S. state. The Canadians passed off the comment as a joke, but Trump has continued to play up the dig, including in a post Tuesday morning on his social media network referring to the prime minister as “Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada.” After decades as an entertainer and tabloid fixture, Trump has a flair for the provocative that is aimed at attracting attention and, in his most recent incarnation as a politician, mobilizing fans. He has long relished poking at his opponents, both to demean and minimize them and to delight supporters who share his irreverent comments and posts widely online and cheer for them in person. Trump, to the joy of his fans, first publicly needled Canada on his social media network a week ago when he posted an AI-generated image that showed him standing on a mountain with a Canadian flag next to him and the caption “Oh Canada!” After his latest post, Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Tuesday: “It sounds like we’re living in a episode of South Park.” Trudeau said earlier this week that when it comes to Trump, “his approach will often be to challenge people, to destabilize a negotiating partner, to offer uncertainty and even sometimes a bit of chaos into the well established hallways of democracies and institutions and one of the most important things for us to do is not to freak out, not to panic.” Even Thanksgiving dinner isn’t a trolling-free zone for Trump’s adversaries. On Thanksgiving Day, Trump posted a movie clip from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” with President Joe Biden and other Democrats’ faces superimposed on the characters in a spoof of the turkey-carving scene. The video shows Trump appearing to explode out of the turkey in a swirl of purple sparks, with the former president stiffly dancing to one of his favorite songs, Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” In his most recent presidential campaign, Trump mocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, refusing to call his GOP primary opponent by his real name and instead dubbing him “Ron DeSanctimonious.” He added, for good measure, in a post on his Truth Social network: “I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious ‘Meatball’ Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will.” As he campaigned against Biden, Trump taunted him in online posts and with comments and impressions at his rallies, deriding the president over his intellect, his walk, his golf game and even his beach body. After Vice President Kamala Harris took over Biden’s spot as the Democratic nominee, Trump repeatedly suggested she never worked at McDonalds while in college. Trump, true to form, turned his mocking into a spectacle by appearing at a Pennsylvania McDonalds in October, when he manned the fries station and held an impromptu news conference from the restaurant drive-thru. Trump’s team thinks people should get a sense of humor. “President Trump is a master at messaging and he’s always relatable to the average person, whereas many media members take themselves too seriously and have no concept of anything else other than suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome,” said Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director. “President Trump will Make America Great Again and we are getting back to a sense of optimism after a tumultuous four years.” Though both the Biden and Harris campaigns created and shared memes and launched other stunts to respond to Trump’s taunts, so far America’s neighbors to the north are not taking the bait. “I don’t think we should necessarily look on Truth Social for public policy,” Miller said. Gerald Butts, a former top adviser to Trudeau and a close friend, said Trump brought up the 51st state line to Trudeau repeatedly during Trump’s first term in office. “Oh God,” Butts said Tuesday, “At least a half dozen times.” “This is who he is and what he does. He’s trying to destabilize everybody and make people anxious,” Butts said. “He’s trying to get people on the defensive and anxious and therefore willing to do things they wouldn’t otherwise entertain if they had their wits about them. I don’t know why anybody is surprised by it.” Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
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Suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO struggles, shouts while entering courthouse ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) — The suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO struggled with deputies and shouted while arriving for a court appearance in Pennsylvania a day after he was arrested at a McDonald’s and charged with murder. Luigi Nicholas Mangione emerged from a patrol car, spun toward reporters and shouted something partly unintelligible while deputies pushed him inside Tuesday. At the brief hearing, the defense lawyer informed the court that Mangione would not waive extradition to New York but instead wants a hearing on the issue. Mangione was denied bail. Brian Thompson, who led the United States’ largest medical insurance company, was killed last Wednesday as he walked alone to a Manhattan hotel for an investor conference. From wealth and success to murder suspect, the life of Luigi Mangione took a hard turn Luigi Nicholas Mangione was apparently living a charmed one: the grandson of a wealthy real estate developer, valedictorian of his elite Baltimore prep school and with degrees from one of the nation’s top private universities. Friends at an exclusive co-living space at the edge of touristy Waikiki in Hawaii where the 26-year-od Mangione once lived widely considered him a “great guy.” Pictures on his social media accounts show a fit, smiling, handsome young man on beaches and at parties. Now, investigators are working to piece together why Mangione diverged from a path of seeming success to make the violent and radical decision to gun down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in a brazen attack on a Manhattan street. Key details about the man accused of killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO The 26-year-old man charged in last week’s killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO in New York City has appeared in a Pennsylvania courtroom. Luigi Nicholas Mangione was arrested Monday after a worker at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, notified police that he resembled the suspect in last Wednesday's killing of Brian Thompson. While being led into court to be arraigned Tuesday, Mangione shouted something that was partly unintelligible but referred to an “insult to the intelligence of the American people.” During the hearing in Hollidaysburg, Mangione was denied bail and his attorney said Mangione would not waive extradition. DA suggests unusual idea for halting Trump’s hush money case while upholding his conviction NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors are trying to preserve President-elect Donald Trump’s hush money conviction as he returns to office, and they're suggesting various ways forward. One novel notion is based on how some courts handle criminal cases when defendants die. In court papers made public on Tuesday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office proposed an array of options for keeping the historic conviction on the books. The proposals included freezing the case until he’s out of office, or agreeing that any future sentence wouldn’t include jail time. Another idea: closing the case with a notation that acknowledges his conviction but says that he was never sentenced and that his appeal wasn’t resolved because of presidential immunity. There's no immediate response from Trump's lawyers. Middle East latest: Israel bombs hundreds of sites across Syria as army pushes into border zone Israel says it bombed more than 350 military sites in Syria during the previous 48 hours, targeting “most of the strategic weapons stockpiles” in the country. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the wave of strikes was necessary to keep the weapons from being used against Israel following the Syrian government’s stunning collapse. Israel also acknowledged its troops were pushing into a border buffer zone inside Syria, which was established after the 1973 Mideast war. However, Israel denied its forces were advancing Tuesday toward the Syrian capital of Damascus. Life in the capital was slowly returning to normal. People celebrated for a third day in a main square, and shops and banks reopened. Donald Trump is returning to the world stage. So is his trolling NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s recent dinner with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his visit to Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral were not just exercises in policy and diplomacy. For Trump, they were also prime trolling opportunities. Throughout his first term in the White House and his recent campaign to return there, the Republican has dished out provocative, antagonizing and mocking statements. Now that’s he’s preparing to return to the Oval Office, Trump is back at it, and his trolling is attracting more attention — and eyerolls. Report on attempts to kill Trump urges Secret Service to limit protection of foreign leaders WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional task force looking into the assassination attempts against Donald Trump during his presidential campaign is recommending changes to the Secret Service. These include protecting fewer foreign leaders during the height of the election season and considering moving the agency out of the Department of Homeland Security. The 180-page report was released Tuesday. It constitutes one of the most detailed looks so far into the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania and a second one in Florida two months later. South Korea's ex-defense minister is formally arrested over brief imposition of martial law SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's previous defense minister has been formally arrested over his alleged collusion with President Yoon Suk Yeol and others in imposing martial law last week. Kim Yong Hyun resigned last week and has been detained since Sunday. He is the first person arrested in the case. Prosecutors have up to 20 days to determine whether to indict him. A conviction on the charge of playing a key role in rebellion carries the maximum death sentence. Kim is accused of recommending martial law to Yoon and sending troops to the National Assembly to block lawmakers from voting on it. Homes burn as wind-driven wildfire prompts evacuations in Malibu, California MALIBU, Calif. (AP) — Thousands of Southern California residents are under evacuation orders and warnings as firefighters battle a wind-driven wildfire in Malibu. The flames burned near seaside mansions and Pepperdine University, where students sheltering at the school’s library on Monday night watched as the blaze intensified. Officials on Tuesday said a “minimal number” of homes burned, but the exact amount wasn’t immediately known. More than 8,100 homes and other structures are under threat, including more than 2,000 where residents have been ordered to evacuate. Pepperdine University on Tuesday morning said the worst of the fire has pushed past campus. It was not immediately known how the blaze started. More beans and less red meat: Nutrition experts weigh in on US dietary guidelines Americans should eat more beans, peas and lentils and cut back on red and processed meats and starchy vegetables. That's advice from a panel of nutrition experts charged with counseling the U.S. government about the next edition of the dietary guidelines. The panel did not weigh in on the growing role of ultraprocessed foods that have been linked to health problems or alcohol use. But they did say people should continue to limit added sugars, sodium and saturated fat in pursuit of a healthy diet. Tuesday’s recommendations now go to federal officials, who will draft the final guidance set for release next year.
She’s Not a Robot! Discover the Hot Pot Wonder in China.