Police in Paris have arrested a man who targeted passersby, killing 1 and injuring 2, official says
PARIS (AP) — French police arrested a man who targeted passersby in Paris on Saturday night, killing a German tourist with a knife and injuring two others, France’s interior minister said.
Police subdued the man, a 25-year-old French citizen who had spent four years in prison for planning a violent offense. After his arrest, he expressed anguish about Muslims dying, notably in Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories, and claimed that France was an accomplice, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. The attacker apparently cried “Allahu Akbar” (God is great), Darmanin added.
“This person was ready to kill others,” Darmanin told reporters.
The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office confirmed it has opened an investigation.
The attacker went after a German couple with a knife, killing the man and used a hammer to injure two others.
The attacker, who was not identified by name, left prison after four years in 2020 and was under surveillance and undergoing psychiatric treatment, the minister said, painting a brief portrait of the assailant, who was born in Neuilly-Sur-Seine, a Paris suburb. He was most recently living with his parents in the Essonne region, south of Paris.
The fatal attack occurred in the 15th district of the French capital with the assailant using a knife to kill the German tourist, who was not identified. He then crossed the Seine river to the Right Bank and used a hammer to attack the injured. Details about the victims were not immediately known.
The attacker was stopped by police who twice fired a taser at him in the stomach, the minister said, praising the officers for their quick response and reiterating that “there would doubtless have been other dead.”
France has been under a heightened terror alert since the fatal stabbing in October of a teacher in the northern city of Arras by a former student originally from the Ingushetia region in Russia’s Caucasus Mountains and suspected of Islamic radicalization. That fatal attack came three years after another teacher was killed outside Paris, beheaded by a radicalized Chechen later killed by police.
The Saturday attack raised the fear level in the French capital, still marked by the 2015 attacks of cafes and a music hall by Islamist radicals that killed 130 people.
“We will cede nothing in the face of terrorism. Never,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on X, formerly Twitter, sending her condolences to the victims and their families.
With inputs from agencies | (Edited by : Shasi Kumar)
7.6 magnitude earthquake strikes off the southern Philippines and tsunami warnings are issued
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 struck Saturday off the southern Philippine coast, prompting many villagers to flee their homes in panic around midnight after Philippine authorities issued a tsunami warning.
The quake struck at 10:37 p.m. at a depth of 32 kilometers (20 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There were no immediate reports of major damage or casualties.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially said that based on the magnitude and location, it expected tsunami waves to hit the southern Philippines and parts of Indonesia, Palau and Malaysia. But the center later dropped its tsunami warning.
In Japan, authorities evacuation orders were issued in various parts of Okinawa Prefecture, including for the entire coastal area, affecting thousands of people.
Teresito Bacolcol, the head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, told The Associated Press his agency advised residents along the coast of southern Surigao del Sur and Davao Oriental provinces to immediately evacuate to higher ground or move farther inland.
Owners of boats in harbors, estuaries or shallow coastal waters off the two provinces should secure their boats and move away from the waterfront, the quake agency said in its tsunami warning. Boats already at sea should stay offshore in deep waters until further advised, it said.
Based on the quake’s magnitude, Bacolcol said a 1-meter (3.2-foot) tsunami may hit but the wave could be higher in enclosed coves, bays and straits.
Villagers were fleeing their homes to safety around midnight in Hinatuan town and outlying areas in Surigao del Sur province, according to authorities and the government’s disaster-response agency, which said that it could not immediately provide specific details.
More than three hours after the quake hit, Bacolcol said there was no report of a tsunami hitting the coast from his agency’s field offices but added authorities would continue monitoring.
Rescuers inspect a damaged market in the quake-hit town of Padada, Davao Del Sur province, Philippines on Dec. 15, 2019. Photo : Cerilo Ebrano,/EPA-EFE
The Philippines, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the ocean. The archipelago is also lashed by about 20 typhoons and storms each year.
Most of flights cancelled or delayed at Munich airport in Germany following severe snowstorm
BERLIN (DPA/CNBC/AP) -Severe disruptions hit Munich and neighboring regions after a winter storm unleashed heavy snowfall, causing chaos at Munich airport. German DPA news agency reported that 760 flights were scheduled for Saturday (December 2) but were cancelled.
Munich airport was completely shut on Saturday, initially aiming for a noon reopening, but later the shutdown was extended until 6 am on Sunday (December 3). As much as 12-15 inches of snow was expected in places, “a large portion of that within a period of 12 hours overnight into Saturday,” DPA said.
The snowstorm’s impact wasn’t confined to Germany, affecting airports in Zurich, leading to flight delays and cancellations. Germany’s national railway too halted trains to and from Munich’s central station, urging passengers to reconsider or reroute their journeys. Stranded travelers faced an overnight stay on trains due to the suspension, AP reported.
⚠️⚠️Kein Flugverkehr bis morgen, 03.12. 6 Uhr ⚠️⚠️ Aufgrund der anhaltenden starken Schneefälle wird bis voraussichtlich morgen, 03.12. 6 Uhr kein Flugverkehr stattfinden. pic.twitter.com/HRxWLlqY3p
The snowstorm triggered hazard alerts from authorities in Austria and Switzerland that grappled with their own set of challenges. Authorities in western Austria, raised avalanche warnings to the second-highest level.
The region received a substantial 20 inches of snow overnight, heightening concerns about the potential threat of avalanches. This alert underscores the need for heightened vigilance and precautionary measures in response to the changing weather patterns.
Meanwhile, officials said that the weather has caused accidents and incidents across the region. Police in Lower Bavaria, the region northwest of Munich, said they responded to 350 incidents related to snow and ice between Friday night and early Saturday.
Officials for Germany’s Bundesliga also announced that a soccer match between Bayern Munich and Union Berlin, originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon in Munich, was canceled.
A train is parked at the central station after heavy snow fall in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Dec.2,2023. Photo : Matthias Schrader/AP
Police in Lower Bavaria, the region northwest of Munich, said they responded to 350 incidents related to snow and ice between Friday night and early Saturday, some of which led to minor to moderate injuries.
In Austria and Switzerland, the new snowfall led officials to raise the alarm about the danger of avalanches. The provinces of Tyrol and Vorarlberg in western Austria raised their avalanche warnings to the second-highest level after the region received up to 50 centimeters (20 inches) of snow overnight.
The Austrian railway company OeBB said Saturday afternoon that various stretches of its routes across the country were closed due to the storm.
In the Czech Republic, the major highway and some other roads were blocked for hours, trains and public transportation faced delays and cancellations, and over 15,000 households were without power.
Snow covered trains are parked at the central station after heavy snow fall in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Dec.2,2023. Photo : Matthias Schrader/AP
The key D1 highway that links the capital Prague with the second largest city of Brno was in a standstill for hours after an accident that caused a 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) long line of trucks. Traffic jams also hit other parts of the highway as well the D5 that links Prague with Germany.
A number of high-speed and regional trains had to stop in the southern part of the country as cross-border trains from neighboring Austria and Germany didn’t operate, and some roads were expected to remain closed for the day.
With inputs from agencies | (Edited by : Shasi Kumar. Peter Dzionsko)
COP28: Top world leaders talk of climate crisis at UN summit. They say they must act on fossil fuels, war
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dozens of world leaders said they know the planet’s dangerously overheating and they are trying to keep it from getting worse. The next step is to turn their soaring rhetoric voiced at the beginning of the United Nations climate conference into action.
In the first of two days of the two-week summit, presidents, prime ministers and royals from nations rich and poor trotted up to the microphone Friday to lay out commitments to reduce how much their countries spew heat-trapping gases and asked their colleagues to do better.
Critics, advocacy groups and even some leaders themselves said that the words of promise must be followed by deals hammered out by diplomats in the coming days.
The conference, called COP28, is a who’s who of about 150 of Earth’s top decision-makers — except the two most powerful men: Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping of the United States and China. The leaders of the two most carbon-polluting nations were glaringly absent.
In a fire-and-brimstone kickoff of the parade of VIPs, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, fresh from melting glaciers in Antarctica and Nepal, said “Earth’s vital signs are failing” and told leaders, “you can prevent planetary crash and burn.”
He referred to inequality and conflicts, mentioning the return of fighting between Israel and Hamas on Friday.
“Climate chaos is fanning the flames of injustice,” Guterres said. “Global heating is busting budgets, ballooning food prices, upending energy markets, and feeding a cost-of-living crisis. Climate action can flip the switch.”
Jordan’s King Abdullah said it was impossible to separate climate change from the war in Gaza.
“Climate threats magnify the devastation of war,’’ the king said. “Let’s be inclusive of the most vulnerable Palestinians severely impacted by the war.”
Still, Kenya President William Ruto said, “climate change stands out by far as the defining issue of our era.” He joined many leaders who repeated the major goals of conference organizers to triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency.
Those goals aren’t controversial, but what to do about fossil fuels is.
Guterres, a long-time critic of oil, gas and coal use that is causing climate change, fired his strongest shots yet against the industry, which includes COP28 host country United Arab Emirates, saying, “we cannot save a burning planet with a firehose of fossil fuels.”
In a direct challenge to fossil fuel-aligned nations, the U.N. chief said the only way to limit warming to the goal set in 2015 in Paris — 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) since the start of the industrial era — requires eliminating oil, coal and gas use. “Not reduce, not abate. Phase out,” he said.
Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah,left,and King Charless 3,centre, and Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani attend a group photo at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday,Dec.1,2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Photo : Peter Dejong/AP
The conference president on Friday issued a document calling for a “phase-down” of fossil fuels, which experts say is less than a phase-out. But 106 nations in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and in the Pacific signed a statement calling for a full exit. It’s up to the more than 190 countries in the talks to come up with an agreement everyone can be happy with, said conference Director General Majid Al Suwaidi.
That exposed the traditional fault lines between rich, industrialized countries and much of the developing world — and between pledges and political action.
“Although we’ve made great progress together, the world is just not moving fast enough,” said British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. He said “major emitters” must speed up delivery of their promises, “and we must address the disconnect between lofty rhetoric on stages like this and the reality of people’s lives around the world,” he added.
Sunak has approved new North Sea oil drilling and pushed further into the future a planned ban in Britain on sales of new gas and diesel cars. He says he’s still committed to the U.K.’s goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but is taking a “pragmatic” approach that does not unfairly hit taxpayers — ahead of a possible election next year.
Many developing-world leaders pledged to do more to advance solar power and other renewable energies, while calling for technology transfer, help in building resilience against climate disasters and sharing of “best practices” — as Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema put it — from “the North” to help continents like Africa benefit too.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, home to most of the Amazon rainforest, said “the planet is tired of climate agreements that were not fulfilled” and said he’s had enough of “eloquent and empty speeches.”
Lula called for climate justice for poorer nations that didn’t cause the problem and railed against $2 trillion spent on weapons last year when the money should be spent on fighting hunger and climate change. He said Brazil will stop Amazon deforestation by 2030.
Many leaders, including France’s Emmanuel Macron and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, took aim at coal. The Japanese leader pledged ending new construction at home of unabated coal-fired power plants, in a clearer show of determination than in the past toward achieving net-zero.
While Japan has faced criticism for not setting a timeline for eliminating coal power plants, the country has achieved 20% emissions reduction and is on target to lower that to 46% by 2030.
Kishida said Japan will issue the world’s first government transition bond with international certification. Japanese officials say the country aims to fund 20 trillion yen ($135 billion) over the next 10 years to promote private sector investment worth 150 trillion yen ($1 trillion).
Xi and Biden are sitting out this COP, just weeks after announcing a bilateral agreement to help cut down on methane emissions. Their deputies, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and China’s First Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang, are attending instead.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed that the South Asian nation, which is the world’s most populous country and third biggest carbon-polluting nation, host the climate talks in 2028.
The Indian leader also announced that his country will spearhead the green credits program, which will likely allow individuals and corporations to purchase credits on a dedicated website yet to be setup to offset their emissions.
Many of the leaders represent countries hard hit by floods, storms, drought and heat waves worsened by climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas. Those include the islands nations of Palau and the Maldives as well as leaders of Pakistan and Libya, which have been devastated by recent floods that killed thousands.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks at the opening ceremony at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday,Dec.1,2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Photo : Rafiq Maqbool/AP
Host country United Arab Emirates continued to spend money to show its green credentials, including establishing a $30 billion investment program for climate-friendly technology. The UAE, which also pledged $100 million in a climate damage compensation fund Thursday, added pledges of $300 million in other climate spending on Friday.
___
Associated Press journalists David Keyton in Dubai, UAE; Sibi Arasu in Bengaluru, India; Jill Lawless in London and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Police charge director of Miss Nicaragua pageant with running ‘beauty queen coup’ plot
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Nicaraguan police said Friday they want to arrest the director of the Miss Nicaragua pageant, accusing her of intentionally rigging contests so that anti-government beauty queens would win the pageants as part of a plot to overthrow the government.
The charges against pageant director Karen Celebertti would not be out of place in a vintage James Bond movie with a repressive, closed off government, coup-plotting claims, foreign agents and beauty queens.
It all started Nov. 18, when Miss Nicaragua, Nicaragua’s Sheynnis Palacios won the Miss Universe competition. The government of President Daniel Ortega briefly thought it had scored a rare public relations victory, calling her win a moment of “legitimate joy and pride.”
The protests were violently repressed, and human rights officials say 355 people were killed by government forces. Ortega claimed the protests were an attempted coup with foreign backing, aiming for his overthrow. His opponents said Nicaraguans were protesting his increasingly repressive rule and seemingly endless urge to hold on to power.
A statement by the National Police claimed Celebertti “participated actively, on the internet and in the streets in the terrorist actions of a failed coup,” an apparent reference to the 2018 protests.
Celebertti apparently slipped through the hands of police after she was reportedly denied permission to enter the country a few days ago. But some local media reported that her son and husband had been taken into custody.
Celebertti, her husband and son face charges of “treason to the motherland.” They have not spoken publicly about the charges against them.
Celebertti “remained in contact with the traitors, and offered to employ the franchises, platforms and spaces supposedly used to promote ‘innocent’ beauty pageants, in a conspiracy orchestrated to convert the contests into traps and political ambushes financed by foreign agents,” according to the statement.
It didn’t help that many ordinary Nicaraguans — who are largely forbidden to protest or carry the national flag in marches — took advantage of the Miss Universe win as a rare opportunity to celebrate in the streets.
Their use of the blue-and-white national flag, as opposed to Ortega’s red-and-black Sandinista banner, further angered the government, who claimed the plotters “would take to the streets again in December, in a repeat of history’s worst chapter of vileness.”
Just five days after Palacio’s win, Vice President and First Lady Rosario Murillo was lashing out at opposition social media sites (many run from exile) that celebrated Palacios’ win as a victory for the opposition.
FILE – Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, lead a rally in Managua, Nicaragua, Sept. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga, File)
“In these days of a new victory, we are seeing the evil, terrorist commentators making a clumsy and insulting attempt to turn what should be a beautiful and well-deserved moment of pride into destructive coup-mongering,” Murillo said.
Ortega’s government seized and closed the Jesuit University of Central America in Nicaragua, which was a hub for 2018 protests against the Ortega regime, along with at least 26 other Nicaraguan universities.
The government has also outlawed or closed more than 3,000 civic groups and non-governmental organizations, arrested and expelled opponents, stripped them of their citizenship and confiscated their assets. Thousands have fled into exile.
Palacios, who became the first Nicaraguan to win Miss Universe, has not commented on the situation.
During the contest, Palacios, 23, said she wants to work to promote mental health after suffering debilitating bouts of anxiety herself. She also said she wants to work to close the salary gap between the genders.
But on a since-deleted Facebook account under her name, Palacios posted photos of herself at a protest, writing she had initially been afraid of participating. “I didn’t know whether to go, I was afraid of what might happen.”
Some who attended the march that day recall seeing the tall, striking Palacios there.
COP28: UAE president announces $30 bln fund to bridge climate finance gap
DUBAI (Reuters) – United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whose country is hosting the COP28 climate summit, announced on Friday a $30 billion climate fund that aims to attract $250 billion of investment by the end of the decade.
Dubbed ALTÉRRA, the fund will allocate $25 billion to climate strategies and $5 billion to incentivise investment flows into the Global South, a statement by the COP28 Presidency said.
In collaboration with global asset managers BlackRock (BLK.N), Brookfield (BAM.TO) and TPG (TPG.O), ALTÉRRA has committed $6.5 billion to climate-dedicated funds for global investments, including the Global South, the statement said.
The fund aimed “to steer private markets towards climate investments and focus on transforming emerging markets and developing economies,” where it said higher perceived risks had deterred traditional investment.
BlackRock said in a statement ALTÉRRA would put $1 billion into its Climate Transition-Oriented Private Debt strategy, and had also committed $1 billion to invest in, or co-invest alongside, BlackRock’s infrastructure equity business.
BlackRock Chief Executive Larry Fink said the fund could be transformative.
“The opportunities in the under-served part of the world need much more attention,” Fink told reporters at the event.
Brookfield Asset Management said it was launching a new Catalytic Transition Fund, to focus exclusively on developing countries, with up to $1 billion of ALTÉRRA cash. ALTÉRRA has also committed to invest $2 billion into its second Brookfield Global Transition Fund.
ALTÉRRA was established by Lunate, a newly set up Abu Dhabi-based alternative investment manager with over $50 billion in assets.
Lunate is owned by its senior management and Chimera Investment LLC, which is part of a business empire overseen by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser and the president’s brother.
The UAE has drawn criticism for its plans to expand oil and gas production as the world struggles to contain the climate-damaging carbon emissions these fossil fuels produce.
Against that backdrop, the UAE has been keen to encourage finance and business more broadly to commit money to the climate fight and was expected to open its own chequebook throughout the two-week U.N. climate summit.
Reporting by William James; Writing by Nadine Awadalla and Hadeel Al Sayegh; Additional reporting by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes; Editing by Susan Fenton, Sharon Singleton, Miral Fahmy and Barbara Lewis
Ukraine blows up 2 railway connections between Russia and China
Kyiv’s saboteurs strike deep in enemy territory, with Russian media reporting that authorities are investigating it as a terror attack.
BY VERONIKA MELKOZEROVA
KYIV (POLITICO) – Ukraine’s security service blew up railway connections linking Russia to China, in a clandestine strike carried out deep into enemy territory, with pro-Kremlin media reporting that investigators have opened a criminal case into a “terrorist attack.”
The SBU set off several explosions inside the Severomuysky tunnel of the Baikal-Amur highway in Buryatia, located some 6,000 kilometers east of Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian official with direct knowledge of the operation told POLITICO.
“This is the only serious railway connection between the Russian Federation and China. And currently, this route, which Russia uses, including for military supplies, is paralyzed,” the official said.
Four explosive devices went off while a cargo train was moving inside the tunnel. “Now the (Russian) Federal Security Service is working on the spot, the railway workers are unsuccessfully trying to minimize the consequences of the SBU special operation,” the Ukrainian official added.
Later, another train was blown up in the same area on a bypass route, pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Baza reported.
Four carriages burned out, and two more were damaged by fire. According to preliminary data, aviation fuel on the second cargo train was spilled over an area of 150 square meters. The same senior Ukrainian official with direct knowledge of the matter said the SBU was also behind the second railroad incident.
The first cargo train exploded directly in the Severomuysky tunnel.
To continue transportation, the Russians began to use the detour route through the so-called Devil’s Bridge — a 35-meter high viaduct structure, which is part of the Trans-Siberian Railway. At that point, SBU saboteurs struck again.
“When the train was passing over this 35-meter high bridge, the explosive devices embedded in it went off,” the same official added.
Ukraine’s security service has not publicly confirmed the attack. Russia has also so far not confirmed the sabotage.
“On the Itikit — Okusykan stretch in Buryatia, while driving through the tunnel, the locomotive crew of the cargo train noticed smoke from one of the diesel fuel tanks. The train was stopped, and two fire extinguishing trains were sent from nearby towns to help. The movement of trains was not interrupted, it was organized along a bypass section with a slight increase in travel time,” Russia’s state railroad company RZHD said in a statement on Thursday.
“Russian special services should get used to the fact that our people are everywhere. Even in distant Buryatia,” the Ukrainian official warned.
Tesla Cybertruck created a stir as soon it arrived
The wild-looking electric pick-up truck will be offered in three trim levels
Texas, USA (DT) – The launch of Tesla Cyber Truck has created a stir in the market, people are searching it on google.
Tesla is known for its electronic vehicles, Tesla has recently launched its truck named Cyber Truck which has become a topic of discussion in the market as soon as it arrives.
Tesla Cybertruck deliveries are finally starting! Today is the day. Just about 4 years after the initial unveiling event, the first buyers will get their electric Bladerunner, apocalypse-ready Tesla Cybertrucks.
Reportedly, the Tesla Cybertruck delivery event that Tesla is going to be livestreaming will include the delivery of 10 trucks. That matches quite closely with what Tesla did in the past with the Model S, Model X, Model 3, and Model Y. Additionally, there are rumors that deliveries will also occur today at service and delivery centers around the USA.
This Cybertruck is bullet proof, to prove this, Tesla co-founder Elon Musk has also shared a video on his twitter/X handle which we are sharing with you. In this video you can see how a gunman is spraying bullets on a truck but the truck is not getting harmed.
Musk said the Cybertruck’s hard steel body was bulletproof, and that its windows were “rock proof.” He said it could tow over 11,000 pounds, accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 2.6 seconds and features a “super-tough” composite bed that is six feet long and four feet wide. He added that the vehicle would “change the look of the roads” and that the “future finally looks like the future.”
let us know a little more about this truck, what are its features and what is its specialties.
As you see this truck its made with special metalic which even a bullet can not penetrate.
Let us know a little about its price and speed
During the latest event in Texas, Tesla announced final pricing for the Cybertruck. The entry-level, single-motor Rear-Wheel Drive model will arrive in 2025 and kicks off in the US at $49,890 (around $10,000 more than expected). It comes with an estimated 250-mile range and the 0-60mph time is 6.5 seconds.
Up next is the All-Wheel Drive costing $68,890. It features a dual-motor set up with 340 miles of range, 600bhp, a 4.1-second 0-62mph time and almost 15,000Nm in towing capacity. The All-Wheel Drive will be delivered from 2024.
Tesla Cybertruck at Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California. Photo : Kyle Field.
The range-topping Cyberbeast will also be available in 2024, priced at $96,390. Power is upped to 845bhp here but range decreases over the All-Wheel Drive to 320 miles. A 0-60mph time of 2.5 seconds is claimed by Tesla.
We first saw the Tesla Cybertruck in 2019 and since then the American EV maker has been teasing us through the lengthy development period of its electric truck. Now the teasing is over, because customers have just got their hands on the very first Cybertruck examples.
Tesla Cybertruck, Petersen Automotive Museum. Photo : Kyle Field
An event at the firm’s Giga Texas facility saw around a dozen Cybertrucks were handed over to customers – two years on from when Tesla initially said the truck would be delivered. The electric truck has made numerous headlines since its conspicuous original reveal, with various sightings of it testing on the roads in America, not to mention the mishap surrounding the broken ‘bulletproof glass’ on stage at the first presentation itself.
Top world leaders will speak at UN climate summit. Global warming, fossil fuels will be high in mind
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP/REUTERS) — Leaders from across the world are poised to address the U.N. climate conference on Friday, with many expected to speak about the hardship of climate impacts unfolding in their countries.
International climate talks turned to a power game on Friday as dozens of world leaders including the Saudi crown prince and India’s prime minister were to speak, but two of the world’s most powerful men — President Joe Biden of the U.S. and China’s President Xi Jinping — were glaringly absent.
Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, a top oil producer, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, whose biggest cities are regularly choked under poor air, were among more than 130 world leaders set to address the United Nations climate conference in Dubai over the next two days. The idea is to try to keep the planet from heating too much because of humankind’s actions.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was expected to provide an overarching perspective about the need to cut down on fossil fuel use and turn to renewable energies, among other things, to greatly reduce the churn of carbon emissions into the atmosphere that is trapping excess heat near Earth.
But the leaders of the two biggest carbon-polluting nations — responsible for more than 44% of the world’s emissions — won’t be there to get the in-person message.
President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Morocco’s Princess Lalla Hasna, European Council President Charles Michel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo pose for a family photo during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 1, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky
Xi and Biden are sitting out this COP, just weeks after announcing a bilateral agreement to help cut down on methane emissions. Their deputies, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and China’s First Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang, will be attending instead.
Left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, home to the most of the world’s biggest natural carbon-capture zone on land, the Amazon rainforest, is also set to attend. He was treated like a rock star a year earlier — after his ousting of conservative rival Jair Bolsonaro.
Many of the leaders speaking represent countries hard hit by floods, storms, drought and heat waves worsened by climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas. Those include the islands nations of Palau and the Maldives as well as leaders of Pakistan and Libya, which have been devastated by recent floods that killed thousands.
People walk through the venue at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Dec.1,2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Photo : Rafiq Maqbool/AP
Against the backdrop of tensions pitting his country against Hamas militants in Gaza, President Isaac Herzog of Israel — whose post is more ceremonial — will be rubbing elbows with some of the biggest power players in the Middle East.
On Thursday, just moments after the opening of the two-week COP28 climate conference in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, nations rallied together to formally create a “loss and damage” fund that will help compensate countries — especially developing ones — for the impacts of floods, droughts and heat waves.
___
Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
US Vice President Harris will attend COP28 climate conference in Dubai
BY CHRIS MEGERIAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will join the U.S. delegation to Dubai for the annual United Nations conference on climate change, the White House said Wednesday.
This weekend’s trip for COP28 appears to have been hastily arranged, since her staff recently said she had no plans to attend.
White House officials did not explain the change in plans, but the announcement comes after criticism of Joe Biden’s decision to skip the summit. He’s also no longer expected to make a promised trip to Africa before the end of the year.
The White House said Biden spoke Wednesday with President Mohamed bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates, which is hosting COP28. According to an official summary of the call, Biden said Harris will “showcase U.S. global leadership on climate at home and abroad” and will “help galvanize increased global ambition at this critical event.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, special envoy John Kerry, climate adviser Ali Zaidi and clean energy adviser John Podesta are going to Dubai as well. The summit is an opportunity for world leaders to assess their progress — or lack thereof — in the fight against global warming.
John Kerry, U.S.Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, rides in a cart ahead of the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Wednesday, Nov.29,2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Photo : Peter Dejong/AP
“The urgency of this challenge is clear, but so is our ambition,” Podesta told reporters Wednesday. He said Biden’s agenda was accelerating the spread of clean energy to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Harris’ participation in the two-week conference will be brief, and she’s scheduled to leave Washington on Friday and return Sunday. She’s expected to speak publicly Saturday.
Her trip will be closely watched for reasons other than climate change. She’s the highest-ranking U.S. leader to visit an Arab nation since the war between Israel and Hamas began almost two months ago.
A White House official said the vice president’s engagement with world leaders at the summit was likely to include conversation on the conflict between Israel and Hamas. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss tentative plans.
Biden had originally planned to visit Jordan as well as Israel in October, but the stop was scrapped amid controversy over an explosion at a hospital in the Gaza Strip.
Although the blast was initially blamed on Israel by Hamas authorities, further analysis — including by The Associated Press — indicated that a misfired Palestinian rocket was the cause.
