Comment on The Spring readies to 'Paddle for Peace'

BAKU, Azerbaijan — Soaring rhetoric, urgent pleas and pledges of cooperation contrasted with a backdrop of seismic political changes, global wars and economic hardships as United Nations annual climate talks began Monday and got right to the hard part: money. In Baku, Azerbaijan, where the world’s first oil well was drilled and the smell of the fuel was noticeable outdoors, the two-week session, called COP29, got right to the major focus of striking a new deal on how many hundreds of billions — or even trillions — of dollars a year will flow from rich nations to poor to try to curb and adapt to climate change. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The money is to help the developing world transition their energy systems away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward clean energy, compensate for climate disasters mostly triggered by carbon pollution from rich nations and adapt to future extreme weather. “These numbers may sound big but they are nothing compared to the cost of inaction,” the new COP29 president, Mukhtar Babayev, said as he took over.

When we convened COP28 in Dubai last year, the Global Stocktake—the first report card on progress toward the Paris Agreement’s aims—showed the world was falling far short of achieving its climate goals. We knew we needed to find a practical pathway to keeping the 1.5°C warming target within reach. And in delivering what’s known as the UAE Consensus at the annual U.

TOKYO — Japan’s parliament reelected Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Monday after his governing coalition suffered the worst election loss in more than a decade, forcing the struggling leader to form his second Cabinet in just over a month since taking office. Ishiba’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner Komeito together lost their majority in the 465-seat Lower House, the more powerful of Japan’s two-house parliament, in the Oct.

President-elect Donald Trump says that Tom Homan, his former acting U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, will serve as “border czar” in his incoming administration. “I am pleased to announce that the Former ICE Director, and stalwart on Border Control, Tom Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration, in charge of our Nation’s Borders,” he wrote late Sunday on his Truth Social site. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Homan was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border and Trump’s pledge to launch the largest deportation operation in the country’s history. Read More: What Donald Trump’s Win Means For Immigration In addition to overseeing the southern and northern borders and “maritime, and aviation security,” Trump said Homan “will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin,” a central part of his agenda. He says he had “no doubt” Homan “will do a fantastic, and long awaited for, job.” Such a role does not require Senate confirmation. In an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Homan said the military would not be rounding up and arresting immigrants in the country illegally and that ICE would move to implement Trump’s plans in a “humane manner.” “It’s going to be a well-targeted, planned operation conducted by the men of ICE.

Donald Trump has said he wouldn’t be a dictator—“except for Day 1.” According to his own statements, he’s got a lot to do on that first day in the White House. His list includes starting up the mass deportation of migrants, rolling back Biden administration policies on education, reshaping the federal government by firing potentially thousands of federal employees he believes are secretly working against him, and pardoning people who were arrested for their role in the riot at the Capitol on Jan.

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Rivals of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday thwarted a plan by her Awami League party to hold a rally in Bangladesh’s capital, seen as a potential first effort to make a comeback on the streets since she fled the country in August amid a mass uprising. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Read More: How Bangladesh’s Ousted Leader Sheikh Hasina Could Stage an Unlikely Comeback The rally in Dhaka by Hasina’s party was to commemorate the death of a party activist on Nov.